♪ anchor: the world pays tribute to the late prince philip. the husband of queen elizabeth the second passed away at the age of 99 after more than seven decades of service to the british monarchy. police brace for another night of violence in northern ireland after more than a week of riots. there are fears the unrest could shatter the fragile peace forged by the good friday agreement. and myanmar's ambassador to the u.n. pleads for targeted sanctions on the military, this as the crackdown on anti-coup

protesters continues. welcome back to the newsroom. our top story this hour -- tributes around the world pouring in for the late prince philip. he died at winter cancel -- windsor castle at 99. he was the longest serving royal consorts. in a statement, the queen has expressed her deep sorrow at his passing. they were married 73 years. known for his sharp wit and straight talk, prince philip oversaw a turbulent reign helping to modernize the monarchy as her the 21st century. he attended over 20,000 royal engagements at home and abroad. our lenten -- london corresponded has the reaction on his death. reporter: there is understandable sadness. the country is in mourning. it is not a complete surprise,

the duke of edinburgh was 99 years old and had had a number of the last few years, medical problems. he came out of hospital only two to three weeks ago. we were tre and we didn't even manage to see him walk to the car, he was hidden by umbrellas. the photos we did get of him in the car going back to windsor castle showed a very ailing, frail man. it is midday that the nation learned through a short comedic a from cooking ham palace -- short communiqué from buckingham palace. across the united kingdom, people are united in mourning. the prime minister boris johnson , outside of number 10 downing street, paid homage to the role

the duke of edinburgh has played in unifying the nation, i the monarch's -- by the monarch's side across the world. the labor leader saying the u.k. has lost and extorting the republic servant. nicola sturgeon saying his contribution to scotland will leave a profound mark on its people. in wales, saying the duke served the crown with selfless devotion and generosity of spirit. we have just learned that parliament in london will honor the duke on monday with the house of commons sitting at 14:30 local time for tributes following his death. a nation in morning, flags half-mast, as they are across the country. alas, he did not make his 100th birthday, but he was the

strength of a much beloved monarch, and a much beloved prince philip. anchor: police in northern ireland bracing for more clashes after more than a week of street violence. london and dublin have called for calm, that -- but some say they are angry over restrictions. dozens of officers have been injured in the worst unrest in years, threatening the fragile piece of the good friday agreement. reporter: the good friday court, a landmark peace deal signed in 1990 eight that helped northern ireland move past decades of sectarian violence known as the troubles. it set up a power-sharing arrangement allowing unionists and nationalists to coexist by lowering the status of the -- blurring the status ofhe region in the eu, a setting up

the legitimate political aspirations of both sides. but internet about brexit is threatening to undermine the histor pact. >> northern ireland relied on a careful balance between britain and ireland, nortrn ireland being both british and irish. in the eu, that was possible, notust in economic and lal rms, but lyrical and symbolic terms. that has been disrupted by brit. reporter: during the 2016 brexit vote, the majority of the unionists voted to leave while the majority of nationalists, those who would like to see a united ireland, voted to remain. the u.k. departure from the eu reintroduced the need for border checks on trade. to avoid a hard land border, a special protocol was put in place, shifting checks to the ports. that means northern ireland remains in the eu single market for goods, so products from

great britain undergo eu import procedures. despite promises from london that nothing would change, the new checks have been causing disruption to food deliveries and that has angered many unionists, who accuse london of the trail and say they are pushing them into a union with the republic of ireland. one group has already withdrawn support for the good friday agreement. at to that growing resentment over northern ireland authorities's decision not to prosecute party leaders for attending the funeral of an ira intelligence chief last year in a violation of covid restrictions. the frustration has spilled over into violence the likes of which have not been seen before the the good friday agreement, pitting loyalists against catholic nationalist. anchor: myanmar's envoy to the united nations has urged the security council to impose a

no-fly zone, arms embargo and targeted sanctions on the military. this comes as the generals refused to allow the u.n. special envoy for myanmar to visit the country. local media reported more deaths and security forces continued the crackdown on anti-coup protesters. reporter: as shots rang out, demonstrators respond with fireworks. they have erected barricades to slowly army's advance into a southern city. the crackdown has been harsh. several local sources say the security forces used rocket larger's -- launchers in their assaults and dozens of people work reportedly killed. the protests continue through the country. in this amateur video, soldiers opened fire on an unarmed civilian trying to escape. more than 600 people have been killed since the coup two months

ago, though the army has downplayed the crisis. >> our government and ministries are running well. in the health sector, the military doctors in military hospitals are taking part in providing health care services. we believe it will go back to full operation soon. reporter: the army's violent crackdown against its citizens continues to have international repercussions. after criticizing the military coup, myanmar's ambassador to the u.k. was locked out of his embassy by colleagues loyal to the regime, a move condemned by the british government. meanwhile, the u.n. special envoy for myanmar has arrived in thailand as efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the post coup crisis. however, the military has rejected the envoy's request for a visit. anchor: for more on this story, we can talk to a myanmar expert

at london's queen mary university. thank you for joining us. the international community is stepping up its diplomatic efforts, but is it too little too late at this point? >> it is not too late, but i needs to betrong action now from the international community. it is very clear the military that has taken power in myanmar is not prepared to negotiate. they are prepared to murder as many people in that country as they feel they need to to retain power. that is why we will need to see strong international action terrain them and -- to rein them in. we need an embargo and stricter economic sanctions on military connected businesses, and coordinated action from the united nations security council. if there are issues with questions of vetoes or anything of that sort, there needs to be

coordinated actions from those nations that prioritize democracy and freedom, and to support the democratic aspirations of the 50 million people within myanmar who are strongly opposed to being ruled by the military again. anchor: as the international community steps up its diplomatic efforts, myanmar and its genta is stepping up the crackdown on protesters, restricting internet access. do you think they are gaining the upper hand on the ground? >> i don't. the fact they need to use as much violence as they have used, 10 weeks after the coup, is an indication they are failing. the coup is far from a done deal. in the past, the military would have expected violence like this would have forced people to give in, that the people would have

gone back to work -- there is a very strong civil disobedience movement in myanmar, a general strike underway. the banking's second -- banking sector is on the brink of collapse. the people are making it clear they will not work for the military and the only way the country can function as a normal country is if the military goes back to the barracks and respects the democratic aspirations of the country's majority. this is a bad sign for the military. the more violence they need to use, the weaker it shows they are. anchor: just one question -- what do you think of the military? they are tightening their control over protesters. where is this heading? >> the military desires complete control. they lk popular legitimacy within myanmar and any legal legitimacy, but they desire

compte control over the country. it is not a military as you would understand and other countries. thiss mor like an organized crime ng that has taken over a country, and it is not ideological, it is about power, about controlling the economic wealth and natural resources of the country. they are desperate to hold onto that power, but the people are against them and the people are not prepared to give in this time he did the people will continue -- time. the people will continue to undertake a general strike and civil disobedience and make clear to the international community as well that myanmar will not function with the military in control. anchor: thank you very much for your take on that ongoing store in myanmar. it is time for business, we have catherine bennett joining us again. today, amazon workers at a factory in bessemer, alabama voted against forming a trade union.

this got a lot of media attention. it is a big blow to labor organizations in the u.s., isn't it? >> and that's particularly because it was such a clear victory for amazon. 1798 amazon workers voted no to a trade union, while 738 voted in favor. union organizers say however that the fight is not over. amazon may be breathing a sigh of relief, but organizers plan to launch an appeal now that the vote is over, based on accusations that amazon intimidated voters in the run-up to the vote and that prevented it from being a fair ballot. what happens now is the appeal will be sent to the national labor board them and they can study it and th have the power to orturn the result and grant victory to union organizers. the likelihood of that happening is difficult to gauge at this

stage, because we don't fully know the extent of the case organizers willring to the board, but we could see this turn into a long legal fight, even set in front of officials in washington. one thing is sure, the end of the vote does not necessarily mean the end of the story. anchor: staying in the u.s., president joe biden set out a 1.5 trillion dollar budget proposal friday. what are the main takeaways from that? >> what he set out is what we call a skinny budget. it doesn't include all of the tales a formal budget will include, that will be revealed later on. this is a wish list more than anything. it is a way of seeing the priorities of the administration. it skews quite dramatically away from the priorities of his predecessor. joe biden is keeping a lid on

military spending, for examp. there is marginal increase in spending for the pentagon, but his priorities lie elsewhere, particularly in health, environment and education. what he has set their sets the stage for months of haggling in congress. it shows how different his priorities are from the last administration. anchor: catherine bennett with business. that is it from us in the newsroom. ♪here is more next, stay tuned. >> hello and welcome to the france 24 interview. our guest is dr. anthony fauci, known around the world as america's doctor. you are the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases and chief medical advor to the white house. your time is extremely precious,

so thank you for being with us. >> gd to be with you, thank you. >> can you tell us what the last year has been like for you and how do you keep up with the pandemic's frantic pace? >> this has been a most unusual year in all of my experience. i have been the director of the national institute of allergy and inctious disses, and i have dealt over the last 37 years with hiv-aids, the flu, zeke a, ebola -- this is very unique. it has been a difficult year. we've had a lot of suffering, death, economic disruption. but also in the united states, it has been a year that has been frustrating because has been a lot of political divisiveness, which has made it difficult to respond in a completely adequate way drin only by public health

considerations. a lot of the issues of the outbreak have taken on a political connotation, like a reluctance to wear masks because of a political ideology, or reluctance to avoid congregant settings. it has been difficult. the science has been very good because we've been able to develop vaccines in record time, but we still are being challenged because even now, a ar and three months later, we are still having what looks like surging of cases in certain parts of the country, similar to what you are seeing in europe. >> you just talked about political connotation. it was recently set on fox news that he did not listen to you too much. how did you adapt to that and did it undermine your work? >> it was not easy, i would say. i tried and i continue after to

try the best to get the truth to the american people and the rest of the world. it is unfortunate that we h this political divisiveness in our country. i think it made it much more difficult to adequately respond to the outbreak when you have that kind of divisiveness in our country. >> when you were working for former president trump, you and your family had been harassed. do you still receive threats? >> itill do receive threats and that is because even now, even though the administration has changed, there are millions and millions and millions of people who are still very much in favor of trump. when anyone says something that disagrees with him, you wind up getting threats. for that reason, i still have to have federal agents protecting me. >> you are now working forhe biden administration. what has been the biggest difference? >> the biggest difference is it

is very clear that everything we do has a basis in science. science drives what we do. we make decisions aced on evidence and data, and we do things based on our knowledge of what the sciences. it is a very science oriented administration. we are allowed to speak freely feel is important for the we american public and the rest of the world to know. >> president biden announced a few days ago that all u.s. adults will have covid-19 vaccines available on april 19, how doou explain the aclerationf the vaccination campai in the u.s.? >> it is ask ple above by the fact that we have accelerated the production and implementation of vaccines considerably.

we have contractual relationships with moderna, pfizer and j&j, and we have been able to push on the production and implementation of it. the increase in our ability to implement this and the fact that we are now averaging vaccinating between three and 4 million people per day, which is considerably higher than@@ the e million we were doing before. administtion help accelerate the production of vaccines? >> they did it a number of ways. they evoked one of the laws we have that allow us to get companies to produce things at a higher rate to get som of the ingredients for the vaccines that we needed, as well as signing additional contracts to get them to be able to do more -- for example, about a month or

so ago, we were able to get moderna and pfizer to agree to make 100 million doses more than they originally promised. >> former president trump likes to remind people that he laid the groundwork for vaccinations. it seems that maternal started to work on the vaccine before operation work -- moderna started to work on the vaccine before operation warppeed, so does the admin attrition deserve credit? >> i think they deserve credit for operation warppeed, a t of stuff was done beforearp speed, but i think the foundation for operation warp speed was an important, positive thing. i think the former administration deserves a lot of credit for doing that. >> once we get the vaccine, how long are we protected for? >> we know from recent studies that came out literally a few days ago that the protection of the vaccine lasts at least six

months, but very likely considerably longer than that. we will continue to follow the progress of the people who have been vaccinated to determine exactl how long the protective effect lasts. we do kno from studies that it ist least six months, and likely considerably longer than that. >> given the success of the vaccination campaign, do you feel the u.s. will be out of this crisis anytime soon? >> i hope so. one of the things we a concerned about is there are these variants that have the capability of spreading more efficiently than the original virus. we have a variant in the united states that you also have an france, europe has it, the b.1 .1.7 that originated in the u.k. that is making it much more difficult to control the

outbreak because we know the virus spreads more efficiently from person-to-person, so it kind of a struggle between the vaccine and the virus. hopefully because we are vaccinating three to 4 million people per day, within a reasonable period of time, we will actually have this under control. >> let's talk about the rest of the world. the european union is lagging behind the u.s. in vaccinations. some have qualified the situation as a fiasco. what advice would you give to european policymakers? >> i think the european policymakers should try to get the contractual relationships. they already have a considerable relationship with astrazeneca. there has been some controversy with that product regarding the possibility or reality of there being adverse events like blood

clotting. i think the eurean medicines agency should clarify and make recommendations as to what they think should be done about that. what have heard, and i just ard this through the ns media, that they believe there is an adverse event risk but that the benefit of the vaccine is much greater than the risk. this is what they are saying. that being the case, i think they should base their policy on that. >> we just learned today that 71% of french people do not trust this vaccine, astrazeneca. what do you want to underline and tell these people? >> i think they should listen to the regulatory authorities. it is not for me to tell the french people what to do. i think the french authorities are very confident -- competent

to advise the french people of what to do. >> what would you tell to people who are still worried about getting the vaccine in the u.s. and the restf the world? >> we encourage people very strongly to get vaccinated because these vaccines are highly effective. we know that. so we encourage people both for their own safety, for the safety of tir family and ultimately for the safety of their community and their country, to get vaccinated. because the larger proportion of ople that get vaccinated, the more quickly you will get the epidemic and the pandemic under control. >> rich countries have been accused of monopolizing vaccine supplies. do you think the biden administration should lift the intellectual property on covid-19 vaccines to increase access to it? >> the biden administration has done some important things. one of the first things they

did, and they asked me to do that the day of his inauguration , i got on a telephone conference with the executive committee of the who and announced we are rejoining who, something the trump administration had pulled us out of that we were going to -- out of. that we were going to join cova x, an organization of companies and countries that would try and hopefully succeed in getting vaccines to lower and middle income countries. we made it clear when we get our people fully vaccinated, that if we have a surplus vaccine, we will make it available to those countries that need it. >> the slow vaccine rollout in it impact to the rest of thell

world? >> this is a global pandemic and it requires a global response. that is why it is very important to make sure the rest of the world has the opportunity to get vaccated. even if you suppress successfully the virus in the europe union, the u.k., the united states, as long as there is a lot of rus activity somewhere in the world, there is always the threat of a variants emerging and re-threatening those areas that felt they were actually protected. >> do you think more can be done to help the poorest countries and countries in crisis? >> yes, i think we need to make sure covax is successful in getting resources the same way united states has pledged or given $4 billion to covax. i think the wealthy countries of the world should contribute to

the lower and middle income countries. >> when you think a world will go back to normal? >> that is very difficult to project accurately. i think it will be a combination of countries continuing to abide by the public health measures to get this level of virus low, as well as the success of the vaccine program. >> what do you see yourself doing once we are done with the pandemic? >> myself? when this pandemic is over, we have a lot of other public we want to end the aids pandemic, something've been working on 40 years. there are number of other diseases, pandemic influenza. malaria. tuberculosis. there are a lot of things we need to do once we finish this and put this behind us. >> how do yo find the time and energy to do all of that? >> i just find it.

[laughs] that's it, that's what i do. >> thank you so much for being. with us. thank you for watching the interview. stay tuned for more neoóoóoóoóo■

04/021 04/09/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> given the blockade we are subjected to in the situation of the country, it would have been very difficult for us to get the results we are getting in to fight against the pandemic if we had not developed this industry more than 35 years ago in our country. amy: as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 tops 560,000 and brazil