>> you is taking astrazeneca to -- the e.u. is taking astrazeneca to court. and while, vaccine passports could see a return of u.s. tourists to paris. an official tribute paid to the victim of a terror attack in paris. the killer was shot dead after refusing to drop his knife.

the terror investigation is underway. emmanuel macron speaks to vladimir putin and says he is greatly concerned about the health of alexi navalny. a legal crackdown is launched while healing wishes in a prison hospital. thank you for joining us. the eu is announcing it is taking legal action against astrazeneca. this is the latest in a bitter exchange between the two over delays of doses already bought and paid for. >> a long-running dispute escalated as the eu conrmed on monday that it has legal action against astrazeneca for breach of contract over the failure to deliver coronavirus vaccines. >> we want to do -- wanted to ensure the speed of delivery

that was promised on the basis of the contract. >> the fight between the eu and astrazeneca has been simmering since january, that is when the firm revealed it would miss its european delivery targets by a wide margin, adding another stumbling lock to a vaccination drive already in disarray. the two parties into a deal for 200 million doses of the oxford developed vaccine along with an option for 100 million more in the first quarter of 2021. only about 30 million doses were delivered, far below the target of 80 million. the latest lawsuit sees brussels accusing astrazeneca of failing to have a reliable plan to renew its obligations and giving preferential treatment to the u.k.. the pharmaceutical giant says its contract with the eu only requires it to make best efforts to make deliveries on time. >> astrazeneca has the complied withhe advanced purchase

agreement and will strongly defend itself in court. we welcome this opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible. >> the reputation for the astrazeneca vaccine has suffered in europe after extremely rare cases of blood clots led the eu to suspend its use. brussels says it is not planning any further orders of the astrazeneca vaccine. >> europe could be open once again this summer to vaccinated u.s. tourists. this raises the question of vaccine passports that have been opposed here. there is of course, a large block of opinion in favor and government including government -- president macron. 38 million people visited paris pre-covid and most of those people were from the united

states. >> the good news on the horizon for europe's tousm industry. fully vaccinated americans should be able to visit the block in the coming months. >> the americas as far as i can see use european medicine agency approved vaccine, this will enable free movement and the travel to the european union. they will accept unconditionally all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by ema. >> the block drug regulator has approved the three vaccines being used in the u.s., pfizer, moderna and johnson & johnson. they cited the successful vaccine rollout in the u.s. as one of the main reasons behind the eu policy shift. no timetable has been given but many european countries are hoping the new rules could be in place by summer. eu borders have been closed to

american tourists since last march due to the high coronavirus caseloads seen in the u.s. over the last year. their absence has been keenly felt in countries such as italy, spain and greece which welcomes millions of american visitors every year and depends on tourism for jobs and income. reese already moved earlier this month to ease restrictions on u.s. visitors. the country plans on formally opening up to tourists mid may. other member states are experimenting with digital health passes as they begin to reopen, such passes showing proof of a negative test, vaccination or recent infection are also being considered at the eu level to harmonize travel throughout the block. >> white house sources says there will redistribute 60 million sources of the astrazeneca vaccine when they become available.

we await more clarification on that. let's get some more analysis of the situation. we are joined by a professor at the university of amsterdam. can i ask you about the issue of vaccine passports? some people are for it and clearly everyone has their own opinion based on their own interest. where do you stand on such a pocy? >> thank you vy much for having me with you tonight. my own perspective is that it is too soon if anything. the process and rolling the certificates, the condition is very careful in not calling them passports but certificates. it has been too hasty because we don't have the significant nation coverage to make the certificates workable but also because they are being rolled

out without sufficient oversight. if only on thearious data protection. >> i think you and i can see through this. we know exactly what we are dealing with. we are calling it what it is. 38 million tourists coming to paris in the last year before covid. there is a need to get things going again, to re-boost the economy and kickstart things, that can't happen without some sort of vaccine passport. >> the question is why is this being done so hastily? you identified one of the reasons. it has been the countries that have been hardest hit at the loss of tourism, those were the strongest tourist economies, not only countries in the south of

europe and mediterranean europe but also a country like austria that has been the loudest and the strongest proponent of these vaine certificates. that is understandable. the question is what will the certificates actually do? one of the concerns -- i am a political geographer. i can speak about the government access to these passports. they may be safer themselves but nobody can tell us that they are fully safer others. i think the big risk with making people move in a situation -- that remains a risk. what sort of choices are being made regarding whose safety and interests are being prioritized

right now. >> it sounds like state-sponsored complacency. >> i don't know if it is complacency, that is really interesting. i think it is the opposite. the reason they do that -- since everybody else was going about this anyway, since you were already noting this, a number of states have not -- also, individual regions, this is the case in point, the new vaccine past that has just been announced was already preceded by regional passes. we are dealing with this cacophony of regulation that the commission is attempting in some way to govern. in part, it is that. it is trying to reclaim control but also to rebuild trust. to rebuild trust by sending a

message teuropean citizens saying that can do something to ensure your safety. ensure safe travel. i think this has to be put into the context of broader pandemic governance but also communication mishaps with the whole astrazeneca communication mishaps. this is also a way of building trust. >> thank you, it is a pleasure speaking to you and your analysis is incredibly interesting, thank you so much. next, back to school in france, the government is heating the advice of scientists and handing out self test kit. france following in the footsteps of germany. students are expected to do two

tests per week while at school. >> she is only seven years old but sarah handles the cotton swab almost like a pro. in germany, self testing is mandatory in school since the easter break ended. twice a week, under supervision by the teacher. >> it is like we are in chemistry class. it is cool and it does not even hurt. >> this school alone does 1300 tests weekly, it has found three children with covid. >> the children have no symptoms. without the test, we would have never known. the vast majority of teachers are not vaccinated and we don't want to endp in emergency wards, we want to work and have the kids back in school. >> not everyone is happy. in the school, one in 10 students has not returned.

30,000 berliners have signed a petition asking to stop the mandatory tests. the city paris association is fighting for them to be done at home. >> criticism is coming from parents, teachers in certain school administrations who say they cannot manage. they say it is too much of a constraint and waste station time. >> germany -- germany introduced self testing into schools. according to the university of vienna, only 20% of positive cases are detected in young schoolchildren and 25% in the older ones. >> yes, it helps slow the sprea of the virus and allows us to prevent anxplosion in the number of cases but our studies show it is notnough to keep scols open in the long-term. in the medium-term, there is a need to do another type of testing. >> in berlin, more than 800

school kids tested positive for covid last week. schools had to close completely again if the city incidence rate gets higher than 165 cases, 400,000 inhabitants. >> change coming to u.s. policing. they are announcing systematic abuse by louisville, kentucky. just it after launching investigation, the u.s. attorney general said the examination will focus on a patent of reasonable use of force. both of these investigations are uniquely bound. we are watching for development. russia's crackdown on the gelled

position later, alexi navalny continues. they ordered the closure of the field offices. this is pending a court ruling on whether the anticorruption foundation should be designated as an extremist group. emmanuel macron is telling been report and that he is really concerned about electing a bony's health. claire has the rest. >> in these green plastic bags, boxes full of case documents, the outline decisions taken by the moscow prosecutor's office to instruct sbk. this is pension of the groups activities in its field offices across russia -- i moved denounced as lawless. >> we believe the organization we represented not break any russian laws.

this is to provide financial as well as moral support. >> and ape luminary hearing, prosecutors asked a court to organize protests, using banks and publishing online, according to sbk lawyers. this pending a ruling on whether to ban the groups as extremist for allegedly destabilizing the country. they are just the latest steps in moscow sweeping crackdown on navalny, a fierce critic of president vladimir putin. the opposition leader was jailed in february shortly after returning home from germany where he had spent months recovering from nerve agent poisoning. now, berlin is supporting him once again. >> they are using anti-terror laws against political opponents and that is in no way in line with the rule of law.

>> navalny launched his foundation 10 years ago, it routinely polices events -- investigations, often in the form of youtube videos. despite the new restrictions, they say that it will continue investigative work. >> we will continue to watch for all development. for more news, stay with us. you're watching france 24. clocks welcome to all of you. -- >> hello and welcome to all of you. you're watching tech 24. let me tell you about an animal that is famous for its alien

like abilities. octos such a mysteriousakes the invertebrate, analyzing sleeping patterns and social abilities. we try to set up vices to increase the safety of motorcyclists with removable connected light and the smart, inflatable vest. the octopus is an extraordinary creature and not only because of its eight limbs, blueblood and think squirting, its neuro-system and decentralized brain are dazzling scientists. the netflix documentary, my octopus teacher has been a huge hit, highlighting the social abilities of the invertebrate. let's turn to our tech editor, peter o'brien. some scientists are saying that if you want to think about what alien intelligence should look like, you should look to the

octopus. why is his brain so different and so dazzling? >> it has 500 million neurons, not just in his head but a crossed a total body. it has it in its tentacles as well. that is an insane number of neurons that the dog has. there is something called the neural ring. this allows them to essentially act independently and think independently of his head. if it cuts off one of the tentacles, it would continue foraging for food, independent of the head. sometimes the whole octopus needs to work together as a unit to feed or mate and in that case, the head is more than happy to work alongside the tentacles. >> another sad fact is that it dies after mating. to learn more about how this animal behaves, let's welcome the researcher here. hello and welcome.

>> you say you are focusing on finding out whether the octopus has some kind of consciousness. what is leading scientists to believthat the octopus has some sort of a consciousness more than any other animal? >> it is a human concern. there is some evidence of primary consciousness in animals becauset is basic process like in true language. let me remind you that they differ from your cousins snails and oysters because of sophisticated learning memory and as well as a complex brain. such evidence suggests the positivity of conscious states and octopuses and other sampler pods. they have spatial cognition,

they can make discriminations between otr objects. th are able to use tools in the wild. you probably know the coconut up -- octopus. they have capabilities very similar. >> another animal that is equally intelligent is the cuttlefish. your team has been looking at their episodic like memory. what does that mean and what have they discovered? >> this is the memory of the what and where confidence tha occurs. this is autobiographical memory. in other animals, it is referred to this way because of the lack of evidence that goes with episodic clection in humans. it showed that fish are @@le to associate different ay with several visual cues.

this was the first evidence of such a memory in mollusks and we are trying to investigate it and octopuses. >> all the studies that are conducted worldwide have led the eu to include them in the bill regarding the use of lab animals. does that mean they are officially recognized as being able to feel emotions? >> that is right. cephalopods are the only ones to be considered as sentient animals such as vertebrates. this is the ability to be aware of one's surroundings or have subjective experiences. we have projects based on cuttlefish and we propose an

ambiguous choice between two shrimps of the same size. we have not finished the analysis of this experiment but it seems that it takes longer to make the choice when it is ambiguous. there may be a link between decisionaking and emotions and this could be a step toward sentience and cuttlefish. being able to highlight emotions may obviously help respect their well-being. >> thank you very much indeed for that. >> thank you. >> we often talk about the octopus but we don't talk about the family it belongs to, these tentacled beings. >> the octopus is well-known for its ability to learn, play and socialize.

it has been seen playing with fish and mimicking their behavior. it can open all sorts of jars and pots and things but there is also the squid and the cuttlefish, they all belong to the same group. they have big tentacles that can squirt ink and change color. squids change color when they want to send messages to each other. they can also hunt in packs and the cuttlefish is very smart because it recently passed something called the marshmallow test. this was first tried on children. if you put a marshmallow in front of the child, you see if it will wait for two marshmallows in the future or take the one as it is. cuttlefish have been shown to be or patient than children because they are happy to wait for a nice and fresh living shrimp. >> i know about the marshmallow challenge because i tried it with my three-year-old son and he failed miserably. scientists in brazil have found

that the octopus can experience to alternating sleep states, similar to humans. it may even dream. this helps scientists figure out why dreaming in general is so important and why the function has been reserved throughout evolution. some theories are stated helps with memory growth and learning. let's dive into the subject with welcome, you're the author of this report and a phd student at the brain institute at the federal university of rio grande de norte. >> hello. > what was your experiment all about and what was it that you discovered about the octopus? >> we were trying to discover that octopus had more than one sleep state. we discovered that it has a quite inactive sep state. the animals shows their eye

pupils contract during sleep. during the active sleep, they dynamically change their skin color and texture. what makes it more interesting is that the reactive sleep -- this occurs after a long, quiet sleep. >> thank you very much for speaking to us today on tech 24. >> thank you. thank you for the opportunity. >> peter, before we close this chapter, do you want -- you want to talk about a very unusual creature. >> yes. this is the nautilus. this one has a shell and has been around for half a billion years. it seemingly has a much simpler brain than the others. it has been dismissed as just a floating fossil but it is

actually -- it has actually been proven to have an impressive memory. for me, this is a reminder that while many animals may only be -- that does not make them any less worthy of our appreciation. >> don't judge on appearances. thank you, peter. we are going to move onto test 24. >> in this week's test 24, we will look at a set of devices to increase your safety on the road and especially on motorcycles. i can see that peter is all geared up. >> this is a smart brake light. you can clip it onto the bag or the back of your helmet or the back of your bike and it can sense when you break and decelerate. it will light up when you do so and you can even use this device

to connect to your handlebars and make it work as an indicator. if you get tipped off your bike, it will sense that you're no longer moving and it will connect the app to tell a family member or a friend to alert them. >> we have a second device, this is iride. >> if it's on your motorcycle helmet. this is a little bit smarter because it is wireless. this does mean you can use voice command to access your maps and your contacts but it has a bit of a weaker battery life. this is a reflective jacket. it has this canister of compressed air. if it notices you go for a tumble, it will activate as an airbag bag on the floor. keeping you nice and safe. it is expensive. it is over 700 euros.

>> all of these devices are made to keep us safer. that brings us to the end of this week's edition of tech 24. we will see you soon.

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04/26/ 04/26/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is