Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00"we are here because my wife uses an app to see
00:00:04where the best prices are and so we found it and that's why we're
00:00:07here. really? and tell me, do you think that this will
00:00:11affect the mid-terms voting? yes,
00:00:14absolutely will. not just in which sense? not just the price of gas, but the price of
00:00:18everything, just everything. everything has just you know
00:00:22exploded in our faces with um being able to
00:00:25cover basic, you know, gas and and basic
00:00:29food -" the prices i'm i'm shopping every you know basically
00:00:32every week um and it went from maybe
00:00:35150 120 to now double that
00:00:38we're paying like 324
00:00:41those lawsuits occur, given that more for just your basic necessities and that you know it comes
00:00:44from national level and they have taken so many of the
00:00:47resources um when it comes to education
00:00:52In any case, we will see when it comes to um you know like the the local
00:00:55municipalities um local help with you
00:00:58know uh
00:01:07It is clear that the main topic of these elections is the standard of living,
00:01:11how much fuel costs, how much food costs, what about
00:01:15housing, what about what the average American citizen
00:01:18can afford at all , and another
00:01:21interesting thing is that
00:01:23to obey since the beginning of those who usually do not participate in the election process have become politically
00:01:27active in these elections, not even a little. Lancaster
00:01:31N1.
00:01:34Mina will join us live from the USA later in the show
00:01:38and of course in the next few days
00:01:41she will follow what and how things will happen
00:01:44in the mid-term elections themselves. And what exactly do
00:01:47Americans choose in those famous so-called midterm elections and how will
00:01:51mid-term elections, as they are also
00:01:55called in English, actually look like in the report
00:01:58by our Victoria Kristić.
00:02:02About 210 million registered voters decided on the
00:02:06composition of the American Congress, all 435
00:02:09representatives of the House of Representatives and a third of the senators. Congress
00:02:13passes laws, decides on the federal budget, oversees the work
00:02:17of the president, and Republicans currently have control over it with only
00:02:20a few mandates in advantage. Congress is the American legislative
00:02:24body, it has two houses and what is interesting and what is actually
00:02:28part of that American... so-called checks and
00:02:31balances system, that is, a system in which there is
00:02:34control of all branches of government, that is the
00:02:37mechanism of mid-term elections in the middle of the mandate in order to
00:02:41prevent the influence of various party
00:02:44members from various houses on the current government.
00:02:48Trump is not on the ballot, but he is daily on various
00:02:51stages of pre-election rallies. He also visits states in
00:02:55which Republicans have so far won without major
00:02:58difficulties, and now they are threatened.
00:03:09so we're here because this is something exciting, we're not like huge
00:03:13huge trump people, but it's exciting, just the first time ever get to lay eyes on him, make
00:03:17sure that he's real, uh, shout, thank you real loud, shout that i love him,
00:03:21that we love him, as soon as i heard trump was here, yeah, you really
00:03:25wanted to, he's our little trump supporter, not the enthusiasm
00:03:28of Trump's supporters, shared by all voters, at the center
00:03:32of the campaign is a question that is felt in everyday life, how much does
00:03:35food, fuel, housing and health care cost. carges are going
00:03:39crazy, child care is crazy, housing is crazy, inflation is crazy, we have to
00:03:43show up and vote, because our vote is what actually changes what's going on in the
00:03:46world, in general like minimum wage, the way
00:03:50working hours are, the way people have to labor so hard and they're not,
00:03:54they're barely making ends meat, working paycheck to paycheck, i just feel like
00:03:58that's not the future that i want to be a part of,
00:04:09Voters thus choose between two different political visions:
00:04:13Democrats advocate a greater role of the state in financing social
00:04:17programs, environmental protection and a more liberal immigration
00:04:20policy. Republicans, led by Trump, emphasize
00:04:23lower taxes, the right to bear arms, and stricter
00:04:27border control and immigration. But in this campaign
00:04:39you think that their campaign might want to
00:04:42mention gas or groceries,
00:04:45but instead they just want to point to me and be like, he's muslim, but here's the deal, Donald,
00:04:49listen, I'll go through metal detector if you'll
00:04:53sit for a lie
00:04:53detector.
00:05:01simple,
00:05:04i got nothing to hide, you've got so much to
00:05:07hide, my first
00:05:10question, Epstein's name was heard at
00:05:14Trump's pre-election rally in Ohio. His speech was interrupted by a
00:05:18protester.
00:05:22So that guy, he's right out of the radical left
00:05:26playbook. It's right out of the radical, this guy, this
00:05:29guy was very non-descript, but I will
00:05:33say this, he mentioned Epstein, so I threw
00:05:36Jeffrey Epsin out of a club like 20 years
00:05:39ago.
00:05:50But the pre-election battle is not fought only with words. Billions of dollars
00:05:53are flowing into the campaign. By mid-October, 3.8 billion
00:05:57had been spent on political advertising.
00:06:00Among the biggest financial supporters
00:06:03of the Republicans is Elon Musk, who spent about
00:06:06366
00:06:09million dollars for their support. Despite large investments and Trump's
00:06:12intensive campaign, his popularity is low, but how much would
00:06:16a change in Congress affect the
00:06:18president? will the courts make him pay
00:06:21attention? maybe the supreme court is
00:06:25also republican, so one doesn't know whether
00:06:28trump will be forced to adhere to the normal standards that
00:06:32presidents have been forced
00:06:36the American Republic, he may well get away with
00:06:39being an authoritarian, we'll have to...
00:06:43see, this is an unprecedented point in
00:06:45American history. I don't think people across the world
00:06:49understand
00:06:50that.
00:06:53What is expected is that Republicans will lose control of the lower
00:06:57house, and that they could also lose control of the
00:07:00Senate, but that still doesn't mean that Trump will be
00:07:04greatly hindered now, it will be a little harder for him, but
00:07:08he could still continue to do
00:07:11everything he has been doing so far. Democrats need to win
00:07:14additional mandates to take over Congress, each of which
00:07:18could be crucial. The unusual move from the Vatican shows
00:07:22how closely these elections are followed and how important they are.
00:07:25Pope Leo voted by mail, becoming the first Pope to
00:07:29participate in American elections and, according to available
00:07:32data, probably the first to vote in elections in a secular
00:07:36democracy. Victoria Kristić,
00:07:38N1.
00:07:48We will, of course, continue to deal with the mid-term elections in the USA
00:07:51later, now we are returning to domestic topics, and
00:07:55specifically to the situation in Gospić, where the issue is not
00:07:58only related to waste disposal, but a new topic
00:08:01that has appeared on the local, but actually also
00:08:05national horizon is the question of the Lithium factory. We are now going
00:08:09to our Katarina Plantak who was following the
00:08:12press conference of the minister, the competent
00:08:15minister Marija Vučković, Katarina, what do they say at
00:08:19the ministry, what should we expect regarding the decision
00:08:22on the Lithium factory, the question is whether the
00:08:26building permit will perhaps be revoked, and what is
00:08:29happening, at what stage is waste disposal
00:08:31?
00:08:34That's right, Hrvoje, Minister Vučković held a press conference at 10 AM,
00:08:38amendments to the Environmental Protection Act were presented.
00:08:41She answered journalists' questions,
00:08:45of course, one of those questions was whether the building
00:08:48permit for the lithium factory would be revoked,
00:08:51as Jutarnji list unofficially learns, this could
00:08:55happen next week. We asked
00:08:58the minister if she knew anything about it. She said that
00:09:02her, her ministry is not responsible for that
00:09:05decision, that the Ministry of Environmental Protection withdrew the decision
00:09:09that an environmental impact study was not
00:09:13needed for the lithium factory and that now such a
00:09:17study is needed, and as for the building permit, that
00:09:21is the responsibility of those who issued it,
00:09:23meaning the Ministry of Physical Planning
00:09:26but also the city of Gospić. What will happen with that
00:09:30will be known next week, when, as announced,
00:09:34of course, the minister also commented on waste remediation
00:09:37in Gospić. As for buried
00:09:41waste, we all, everyone is asking
00:09:44when the negotiation procedure, i.e. public procurement, will be launched
00:09:48for the selection of a contractor for 33 tons
00:09:51of buried waste. Well, the minister confirmed today that it could happen
00:09:55already today or tomorrow at the latest. As for the
00:09:58scattered waste, 4,500 tons, where two public
00:10:02tenders failed and a negotiation procedure is currently
00:10:05underway, it ends tomorrow at 12 noon, then
00:10:09they will proceed to the selection of a contractor.
00:10:13The minister said that that waste, scattered
00:10:16waste, should leave Gospić by the end of this
00:10:20year, so we can watch the minister's
00:10:22statements about the lithium factory, but... about the course
00:10:25of remediation of the illegal waste dump in
00:10:28Gospić.
00:10:31We re-examined the procedure that was here before, and
00:10:35we determined that there was a wrong legal qualification
00:10:38of the intervention, we are aware that this
00:10:42happened at a time when the investment
00:10:44was already built, and that it
00:10:48has its additional challenges, but nevertheless, when a wrong
00:10:52legal qualification is found that can have an impact on... the environment, we are
00:10:55obliged to state and correct it.
00:11:00That was our task. This year, we therefore also issued
00:11:04a decision that it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive
00:11:07environmental impact assessment procedure. The most important thing for
00:11:11us is that there
00:11:13is no operation of a facility
00:11:17for which an environmental procedure was not carried out that should have been
00:11:20carried out, and the question
00:11:23of the building permit. "It is clear that a serious review of the
00:11:27building permit is underway, it is not within the competence of the Ministry
00:11:30of Environmental Protection and Green
00:11:32Transition.
00:11:40The citizens' initiative Gospić our home has been warning for months
00:11:43about all the irregularities related
00:11:46to this Lithium factory, and everything was
00:11:49commented on this latest event, the possibility that the
00:11:53building permit will be revoked, as they demand, and the representative
00:11:56of the initiative, Vijeko
00:11:57Bušić,
00:12:01actually, unfortunately, we are hearing some threats from the investor, actually,
00:12:04the investor is constantly repeating
00:12:07that the investor is addressing the city, meaning
00:12:11a small local community, although it is actually very
00:12:14clear from the entire chronology of the case how much
00:12:17responsibility and fault actually lies with
00:12:20the investor. The investor submitted the first request to
00:12:24the ministry in 2023
00:12:28and correctly named his plant then, meaning that
00:12:31it is a factory for lithium processing. When he then received
00:12:34the ministry's opinion that his project should go for
00:12:38an environmental impact study, he abandoned it. He resubmits
00:12:42the request in March
00:12:462024, incorrectly classifying
00:12:49it as a mineral smelting
00:12:52plant. He then asked the Ministry to
00:12:56correctly classify his project because it is a
00:12:59plant for smelting mineral
00:13:02substances. He withdraws his request and then submits a new
00:13:05request. His entire elaboration is
00:13:08full of errors. He actually
00:13:11completely incorrectly states the chemical formula with which
00:13:15he presents his project, that is, he only stated one formula, not two or
00:13:18three that will actually be used in that production process, precisely in order
00:13:22to most likely hide the nature of his
00:13:25process. Then, what is most important, in the streets,
00:13:29the impact on water, on karst terrain, on groundwater,
00:13:32he actually copies from the elaboration
00:13:36from the Zagreb - Sisak highway junction,
00:13:39the Žažina junction. So the investor is the one who,
00:13:43let's say, uses a name for the ministry
00:13:46and then says that it is about
00:13:49processing lithium soda first and then
00:13:53lithium salts. So all these names are not
00:13:56professional names in the chemical industry, precisely in order
00:14:00to actually, in a way, conceal the true nature of his process,
00:14:03so as not to reveal that it is actually a classical chemical
00:14:07industry, precisely according to our positive
00:14:10regulations, which are actually copied regulations from the European Union
00:14:14for the chemical industry, an environmental impact study is always
00:14:18mandatory. That the investor was aware of this
00:14:22needs to be returned to February 29, 2024,
00:14:25when the investor's representatives presented this project at the city council.
00:14:28The investor explicitly said: You don't have to
00:14:32worry about anything, for such a project, an environmental
00:14:36impact study is needed. If the study does not
00:14:39pass, there will be no project, and that is the risk that
00:14:42the investor takes. So, the investor here
00:14:46is threatening some lawsuits, but actually,
00:14:50all this time, let's say, he
00:14:53was dancing on the edge of legality. That is, it is clear how he
00:14:56concealed his true intentions precisely
00:14:59in order to avoid preparing an environmental impact study,
00:15:03and I think that actually the city and
00:15:06the ministry and the entire public should communicate very clearly
00:15:09about the investor or his
00:15:13authorized representative who prepared that elaboration for him, obviously in
00:15:16agreement with the investor, so that
00:15:20the question of responsibility must be returned to the
00:15:23investor. Among other things,
00:15:25of course, it is bad in all this that the ministry, that is, not
00:15:28the city, but the ministry, at one point issued
00:15:31an opinion that such a project cannot,
00:15:35does not have to go to an environmental impact study, that is, that it is acceptable
00:15:39for the environment, but as I say, here one should ask
00:15:42how much the investor
00:15:45actually contributed
00:15:46to this.
00:15:54We heard the Minister of Environmental Protection, but we also heard
00:15:57the representatives of the citizens' initiative about the Lithium Factory. Of course,
00:16:01the question arises as to what will happen if the
00:16:05building permit is revoked. The investor announces
00:16:08lawsuits, the mayor
00:16:11of the city of Gospić said that he does not know how the city
00:16:15budget will bear it if
00:16:19than 10 million euros have already been invested in the Lithium factory,
00:16:22and there are, of course, additional costs,
00:16:25interest and similar.
00:16:29what solution will be chosen and what
00:16:32solution has been found in this case. We will continue
00:16:36to follow this story.
00:16:39Katarina, as you said, in the coming days we will probably have
00:16:42more concrete information, we continue to follow what is happening in
00:16:45Gospić.
00:16:53And now we are shifting our focus to energy, specifically
00:16:57to the reserves and prices of liquefied natural
00:17:01gas, as well as potential,
00:17:03potential alternatives that are opening up to the state
00:17:07in an attempt to exploit and achieve a higher level
00:17:11of security regarding its own energy sources.
00:17:14We now welcome analyst Ivan Brodić via video link from
00:17:18the Netherlands. Mr. Brodić, good day to you and
00:17:27try to define a broader picture first. Here we are already in
00:17:31November, of course different
00:17:35contracts were signed long ago, of course
00:17:38gas quantities were defined long ago, but let's see now, so
00:17:42what is the state of the reservoirs and what are
00:17:44the prices. Well, the reservoirs, or
00:17:48rather, the natural gas reserves at the EU level this
00:17:52year are about 10 to 12% lower than last
00:17:56year, and last year it was somewhat below
00:18:00what the Council of Europe and the European
00:18:03Commission actually outlined as
00:18:06a common energy policy of the European Union, with
00:18:09the exception of Poland, which has almost 100% full
00:18:13storage and
00:18:16Croatia is doing quite well, but
00:18:19countries that have the largest cumulative storage such as
00:18:23Germany, the Netherlands, Austria have
00:18:26significantly underperformed in
00:18:30filling storage facilities, this is
00:18:33very likely because traders
00:18:36waited until the last moment to see if the
00:18:40situation that affects
00:18:43gas prices on international
00:18:46markets, and we are talking about some geopolitical tensions
00:18:50such as Ukraine and the Middle East, would calm down so that
00:18:53gas prices would also relax, but this has
00:18:57not happened to date,
00:18:59last week the price of gas broke through on the
00:19:03TTF on the Dutch reference exchange
00:19:06at 100 euros per megawatt hour, for
00:19:09illustration, in January it was something around
00:19:13something above 26 euros per megawatt hour,
00:19:17which actually shows us how strong
00:19:20the price pressure is at this
00:19:23moment at this moment.
00:19:25strong can we then assume
00:19:29whether this will have some concrete consequences
00:19:32for the rest of the season or should it be felt or will it
00:19:36only be felt sometime later with a delay,
00:19:40so to speak?
00:19:43well, there will very likely be some delay, but
00:19:47even now the beginning of the heating season
00:19:50has meant some, we have
00:19:54felt this gas price that was
00:19:57happening before that heating season actually with
00:20:00the conclusion of
00:20:02September, so we can say that we are in
00:20:06a certain price shock. The good thing is that
00:20:10the gas reserves
00:20:13in a certain way exist,
00:20:16although they are smaller than last year and less than
00:20:19this ceiling that European
00:20:22European European regulations have
00:20:25outlined, however they certainly
00:20:29exist and there will very likely be no crisis in
00:20:32supply or distribution. The price is currently
00:20:35such as it is, many states,
00:20:38especially households and smaller industries, are actually
00:20:42protecting those prices with some
00:20:44of their own
00:20:47interventions, but the price is
00:20:50significantly higher than it was before,
00:20:54we are following at this global level
00:20:58attempts at agreement between Donald Trump
00:21:02and Vladimir Putin, or rather first of all
00:21:05a kind of relaxation of the way
00:21:08the US treats Russia and Russian energy sources
00:21:11on global markets. In the foreground was
00:21:14oil, or rather diesel. Donald Trump
00:21:18wished, hoped,
00:21:20expected, at least that was the official narrative, that it would affect
00:21:24the price of energy sources on American markets, that
00:21:27inflation would slow down, that voters there would feel it,
00:21:31that their mood would improve before the
00:21:33mid-term elections. That didn't really happen, but
00:21:36now gas is being mentioned again,
00:21:40and Europe, Europe turning to Russian
00:21:43gas again. What else can be read, what
00:21:47information regarding that is circulating now
00:21:50in professional circles?
00:21:54Well, we are currently in the period of preparation for the trilateral
00:21:58meeting of Trump, Putin and Xi,
00:22:01which will mark some new, new geopolitical
00:22:05agreements first of all, then probably also
00:22:08energy ones, and probably some new agreements on
00:22:11nuclear, nuclear weapons.
00:22:14The fact that the situation with
00:22:18oil, i.e. derivatives
00:22:20in fuel in the USA, is quite
00:22:24dramatic, again prices
00:22:27are hitting records at gas stations, so
00:22:31it is very likely that this
00:22:34kind of rapprochement between Trump and Putin in
00:22:37an energy sense has not yielded any
00:22:41significant results so far, and I highly
00:22:44doubt that it will have any effect on
00:22:47the decision of voters
00:22:50in these mid-term elections.
00:22:54Whether the whole situation will continue
00:22:57to thaw, or rather
00:23:00relax, will depend on many things, and
00:23:03the trade relations between the US
00:23:07and Russia have
00:23:10somewhat relaxed the situation, but not
00:23:13significantly. We are still in
00:23:17a situation where there is a diesel
00:23:20crisis. Just a few days ago, large oil
00:23:24companies like Exxon
00:23:27announced that the diesel crisis in the US
00:23:31and the world is here to stay. This is
00:23:35primarily due to the fact that the costs of
00:23:38refining diesel itself
00:23:41have significantly increased, both logistically
00:23:44and energetically, because every refinery needs energy
00:23:47agents for processing,
00:23:50so this
00:23:53situation will certainly not move towards
00:23:57further relaxation if these geopolitical tensions
00:24:01like the Middle East are not resolved.
00:24:05Also, it seems that Venezuela has fallen into the background
00:24:08or not, but it seems that Venezuela and those big announcements
00:24:12that American oil companies would already make
00:24:16a good profit there, but the question is
00:24:20the state of the infrastructure there, the question is transport, the question
00:24:24is distribution and the necessary investments for that
00:24:27to actually happen. Are there any shortcuts,
00:24:30any closer, shorter paths that could
00:24:34also have some desired
00:24:37impact on prices and on the global
00:24:40market or not? Well,
00:24:43good, any infrastructure renewal takes time, it cannot happen
00:24:47overnight. The Chavez regime, which
00:24:50with its decisions significantly set back
00:24:54the infrastructure of hydrocarbon
00:24:57exploration, exploitation and transport from
00:25:00Venezuela, did not last long,
00:25:03so that
00:25:07reconstruction will probably not be short either.
00:25:10The only shortcut is significant investment in
00:25:13Venezuela, and the question is in which
00:25:16direction all that will go.
00:25:20Given that we are not talking about a significant
00:25:23regime change in Venezuela and it is quite
00:25:26certain that certain corrupt intentions
00:25:29remained there, we are also witnesses that the opposition leader
00:25:33warned about this a few days ago,
00:25:37so currently certain
00:25:40companies are returning there, Chevron has been present
00:25:43all along, Exxon is negotiating to
00:25:47return there, some other companies. So we will see in
00:25:50which direction it will go and how
00:25:54quickly. What is certain is that at this
00:25:57moment
00:25:59hydrocarbon reserves in Venezuela are
00:26:02in a close alliance with the administration
00:26:06of Donald Trump and the USA,
00:26:08which allows Donald Trump and his entire
00:26:11administration significantly more control
00:26:14over agreements on the production of
00:26:18hydrocarbons, or rather mainly oil
00:26:21that are taking place within the oil cartel within the oil cartel
00:26:25in such global circumstances,
00:26:28but here, in this framework related to gas that we mentioned
00:26:32a little while ago, uh, can
00:26:35Croatia turn to some new potential
00:26:39energy sources, some new way
00:26:42to uh and diversify sources, but
00:26:46also raise stability
00:26:49by one level when we talk about hydrocarbons, we
00:26:52had that attempt in the time of Minister Ivan
00:26:56Vrdoljak regarding
00:26:58the division of uh these interest
00:27:03areas for exploration in Pannonian, on
00:27:06the Adriatic, on the Dinarides, that didn't, it went
00:27:10halfway, however, today we are witnesses, and it was
00:27:14published a few weeks ago
00:27:16that Ina actually stopped
00:27:19the downward trend of domestic production, primarily
00:27:23of gas, so that could be an encouraging
00:27:26decision, but besides the national oil company,
00:27:29recently we also have a company that was founded by the agency for hydrocarbons
00:27:33and Anaf geoenergy development, which
00:27:36explores uh in Kazakhstan, and which has
00:27:39potential and
00:27:42uh to preserve the know-how uh for exploration
00:27:46in uh and in Croatia itself,
00:27:50uh in which direction that will go next, we will see,
00:27:53however, it is quite certain that there is significant potential
00:27:57to do something there, to increase
00:28:00the share of our own
00:28:03production in that oil
00:28:06and gas mix. What is important for this, what is
00:28:10essential to ensure, in which direction should Croatia go,
00:28:13what decisions must it make to truly
00:28:17preserve knowledge and utilize something it may
00:28:21have ahead of it? Well,
00:28:23good knowledge in research and exploitation is actually important
00:28:27in two, two energy sectors, or two sectors,
00:28:30and that is the exploration of uh oil and gas,
00:28:33uh, and the second is the question of geothermal
00:28:37energy sources, where there are, there are
00:28:40some intentions to establish uh a special
00:28:44company that would be founded by the Agency for Hydrocarbons and
00:28:47HEP, uh, which would significantly
00:28:51contribute to the preservation
00:28:54of, that is, knowledge in
00:28:58exploitation, but also
00:29:01to Croatian heating and more significant and
00:29:05cheaper production of electricity
00:29:08in Croatia itself, uh what is
00:29:12needed for that, well, actually it seems to me that the most
00:29:15needed thing is a much
00:29:19more active support
00:29:22from politics for such
00:29:25endeavors of these two
00:29:28institutions. How it will go, that's what
00:29:32"politics itself should answer -
00:29:36and just for the end, one more question, we all witnessed,
00:29:39of course, uh a few days ago, political, big
00:29:43political changes in Serbia. We know that
00:29:46for a long time, and still it is actually
00:29:50for the Croatian energy framework,
00:29:53energy system, primarily, of course, for Janaf, it is important
00:29:57what is happening with the oil industry of Serbia. Should we
00:30:00expect any needs there?".
00:30:02or instability following what happened in
00:30:06Serbia with the executive power, i.e.,
00:30:09the parliamentary power, or more or less things are moving
00:30:13by some inertia?
00:30:16Well, there are two levels here. The lower, lower level
00:30:20is the level at which Aleksandar Vučić's regime
00:30:23controlled part of the staff
00:30:26in the oil industry of Serbia. These were very
00:30:29likely some staff in... lower and
00:30:32middle management, and that was the probable
00:30:35arrangement with Gazprom, or rather with
00:30:39the Kremlin. In which direction it will go remains
00:30:42to be seen, given that it is actually about
00:30:46a medium level, and it seems to me that
00:30:50the new government will address
00:30:53that relatively late, maybe
00:30:56it will happen on this other level before that.