president bush for working hard to have them unified because a lot of europe didn t even want east and west germany unified. yes. i was in berlin the year before the wall came down and the year after the wall came down, and there was a lot of trepidation, particularly in france but some in britain too about the idea of germany reunifying. it all comes after the second world war. there was an advantage. if you thought you wanted to contain germany and german aggression and german militarism having it split in two was they. when it reunified, it becomes this hegemony and people were nervous that they would once again become a militaristic country. they didn t want germany involved when the rest of the
two-part plan not only to ease the pain that families are feeling right now but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty and to lay a new foundation for true and lasting american energy independence. paraph pa parenthetically, just imagine if europe didn t have to rely on russian oil, if they were energy independent. it would change things so much. the problem we re facing with gas prices has two roots. first, the pandemic. when covid struck, demand for oil plummeted, so production slowed down worldwide. because of the strength and the speed of our recovery, demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. that s why the cost of gas began to rise last year. the second root is vladimir putin. the start of this year, gas was about $3.30 a gallon. today, it s about averaging
two-part plan, not only to ease the pain that families are feeling right now but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty and lay a new foundation for true and lasting american energy independence. parenthetically, just imagine if europe didn t have to count on russian oil. russian oil. if they were energy independent. it would change the face of the nation so much. first, the pandemic. when covid struck the demand for oil plummeted, so production slowed down worldwide. because of the strength and the speed of our recovery, demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. that s why the cost of gas began to rise last year. the second route is vladimir putin. at the start of the year gas was $3.30 a gallon. today it s averaging $4.20.
seeing doing good around the world, likes to carry that popular message, to be so shun build the united states at the moment, europe takes that on the chin. i think when president biden talks about those alliances, the nato chapter five commitment, it is ringing hollow. there is no way of getting around that. we are in a different place. you know, this separation, xhonl nal ti in some areas, but this separation i think is something we re witnessing and perhaps europe didn t expect it as much under a president biden. i was speaking to a european diplomat yesterday who noted in the midst of all this that, yes, every nation operates in its national interest but perhaps the u.s. does so with a little more confidence and agency and we re seeing that play out. we should note, however, kylie atwood at the state department, a very sharp contrast here in that under president trump, there was genuine concern of him pulling out, pulling the u.s.
they have been fighting isis since isis first emerged in afghanistan. they are formally enemies, as we said. marc, we know that these flights to get people out are coming to an end. borisjohnson, for his part, has said he will do everything he can to keep trying to get people out of the country but we know that there have been queues of people trying to get across the land borders into pakistan. how does the international community then help people to get to safety if these flights have stopped? and bearing in mind of course greece was telling the eu not to take too many afghans in. well, it is a huge problem because, as we have seen in syria, europe didn t- get its act together to share all the refugees and the asylum seekers and at the moment - with the pandemic still| going on there is really still anti immigration i feeling all over europe