u. s. e. today saying that it was too focused on its own concerns and not on the so called aggression, a russia against ukraine. not particularly interested. it seemed apparently from his point of view for those discussions to take place within that form, despite what we heard from the chair earlier on thursday, he said, european security depends on russia and the united states. and he said that that dialogue has to continue to play a role. and he also talked about the need for agreement on key issues. key issues that have been discussed throughout the week in a number of formats. a he went on to talk about, i'm what he said was nato's position. nato has as turned round this week and said it stiff position is always one of a defensive organization. it's not a threatening organization. it's not a threat to russia. he saw that very differently saying that actually it was not the case in nato's expansion, particularly as expansion into former soviet european countries since 1997 has been in fact someth

u. s. at the beginning of this week then to nato countries, and again today at the o, c e meetings. and their stands is, is basically the stance that they publish back in december. they're demanding written guarantees from nato and the u. s. that nato will not expand eastward, and also certain guarantees on the stationing of miss styles near russia's borders . that's something that they also don't want. and essentially, listening to the russians this week is almost like listening, listening to a broken record. and i think the troops, the russian troops that are on the ukrainian border, according to western officials, those are, of course, additional leverage. russia has made it clear that those aren't going anywhere for now. today, the deputy foreign minister here in russia was even saying that putin was consulting with military experts on what to do if the situation with ukraine escalades essentially implying that there could be some kind of provocation from the ukrainian side that could bring this military situation to escalate so i think the russians are definitely leaving that mi

u. s. as germany is highly dependent of the russian gas. and we are getting mixed messages in, as you know, the e. u emphasized today the priority of diplomatic efforts. but nato says it's bolstering it's deterrence in eastern europe. so how does all of that fit together? that's right soon. the, well, at this point nobody really knows what russian or russian president vladimir putin plans to do, or maybe he already has decided to invade ukraine, secretary of state and in the blink and said yesterday in an interview with abc that united states is taking this step by step and is evaluating the situation every day new. so with the latest developments they mainly want to show that they would be ready to react to a possible invasion our washington bureau chief in his pole with the ladies there. thank you so much. we can get a round up of some other stories. now. germany's chancellor, olaf schwartz will visit washington in february. it will be his 1st trip to the u. s. capital since taking over from england. michael since taking office shawls has traveled to paris and brussels. a date for the washington visit has not yet

e, the u. s. and the e u countries and even perhaps ukraine do. if the key question today despite was gone and geneva is still and should be still, will russia invade ukraine? mean, let's talk about more financial sanctions that relies on, in effect, trying to cripple the russian economy or take a dent it out to the russian economy using the swift system on this channel. we were having a conversation yesterday, not you and i, but on this channel, we had a conversation yesterday where one of our contributors was saying, look, going off to the swift system is all well and good. but the russians operate a similar system that's worth 20 percent of the swift system anyway, so they are insulated, they are safe behind their own financial system. so going off to them with sanctions would achieve virtually 0. and if you offset that against the reality of mr. put in the kremlin, by the time he might leave the kremlin in 2036, he will have be that been president or prime minister for 37 years. you can sanction literally all financially mr. puts in all you want. he's not going any pla

today. michael, let me start with you. so hours before nicaragua present, daniel ortega was inaugurated the u. s. and e u, imposed sanctions on members of his government who was targeted and how were they targeted? well that the, this has been a continuation of a policy of targeting officials of the government for, for human rights violations. as your set up report indicated that there are political prisoners and in nicaragua, substantial number for all the opposition candidates for november. elections are in jail and this is a highly repressive autocratic regime and so those. ready who have been responsible for those human rights violation senior officials and the government i have been sanction. so that is the policy to try to apply pressure by the united states and by the european european union against these officials. obviously there is a very, very serious human rights crisis in their garage where the likes of which latin america hasn't seen for many, many years. and so that has been the response. whether that changes the situation at all on the ground remains to be seen. but certainly there is,

today. and also criticism of the o. s. c e, which he said had essentially been taken over with the u. s. and need to really pushing their concerns that majority ideas over i. he also had some concerns about some of the infrastructure within the o. s. c, e. so i some criticism of that format, or which the chair of the recei it said earlier on thursday was a neutral space for discussion, where these issues could be addressed. these issues of security and the tensions particularly over eastern europe could be addressed. he talked about as the issues at the moment and raised concern that what is happening in eastern europe at the moment could escalate at any moment. it seems that the risk of war in the oversee area is now greater than ever before. in the last 30 years. for several weeks, we have been faced with the prospect of a major military escalation in eastern europe where the current polish chair of the o a c e. o. so said the issues at the moment really come from a very different interpretation over the regulations and of security in europe. i believe that all restore options are in t

e u single block market and the u. s. c. a well, thanks for having you still and happy new year to you and everyone. today. this is truly a historic trade agreement that is coming into effect and will have enormous ramifications for not just the people that are covered by it, but people around the world. one reason for this is, as you just mentioned, is that this is the largest marginalise. so the u. s. m. c a u. s. mexico canada trade area. ready is, was the largest are set, there's a little bit bigger, but here's the really important point. u. s. m. c, a covers less than 10 percent of the world's population are so covers about one 3rd . and many of these are still looking to achieve a more modern lifestyle that we might see in places like new york, like the g, like london, etc. so this is gonna create tremendous new opportunities for consumers to have greater choice, less expensive goods. it's also going to be an enormous economic driver for businesses in the area as well. because this agreement is not just big. but it also covers the key aspects of a self contained economic region. and that there are co