in the battle for ukraine. now on bbc news, unspun world withjohn simpson. hello, and thanks forjoining me. we re at the bbc s headquarters in london, broadcasting house. and here s the statue of the bbc s patron saint, george orwell, complete with cigarette. he used to work here. beside him is his famous quote. if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. well, i hope we can persuade you to hear this edition of unspun world, anyway. has germany s influence in the world shrunk? germany has been very slow, very reluctant to react when it comes to sanctions against russia. what effect will the shooting of the palestinian journalist shireen abu aqla have on the politics of israel? this has been an extremely violent period. certainly, these are extremely testing times for israel s leaders. and will president biden s lifting of some controls over cuba actually help the people of the island? i think the desire to leave is mor
to their emotions. and so what we ve seen is a kind of dehumanisation of ukrainians, and what that s done over the last eight years is to condition russians to see ukrainians as, kind of, not quite subhuman, but definitely inferior, and out to get russia. the kremlin has described ukraine as a kind of anti russia. they re saying this state only exists to be a sort of a way for the west to get back at russia. so, i mean, it really is kind of quite i98a ish, isn t it? with, you know, big brother on the screen, the morning hate, and all that kind of stuff. and it is having an effect on people. these state tv shows, they re. .. on a visual level, they re incredibly entertaining. there s lots of flashing lights, there s all sorts of cameras swooping around the studio, giving different angles, almost to the point where it becomes quite distracting to watch.