bad lines in r.t. documents emerge revealing that big u.s. drug maker ran a campaign to suppress negative stories about its widely prescribed opioid painkiller also to come the u.s. stresses its commitment to nato is the french president slams the alliance is brain dead we asked parisians what they think. we're going to salute nato is obsolete because europe no longer truly has an organized enemy units territory i think europe needs to start having its own weapons but it's political and economic to protect itself under british university cancer talk by a feminist speaker after students accused of transphobia we get her side of the story. i don't believe i'm transcribing i don't believe i said anything trying to

transfer a big i mean so you know universities are learning places there are places you discussed in seoul disagrees with me then i want to find out why and we can learn from each other but. hello there she's gone midday here in moscow you're watching r.t. international nearly obtained documents reveal of the u.s. drugmaker perjury pharma huge the leading media outlets to downplay the risks of its widely prescribed opioid painkiller the drug has been blamed for america's deadliest opioid epidemic revelations were made by the investigative media outlets pro publica misleading articles in question were written by analysts from funded think tanks and they cited funded studies with more his caliber. purdue pharma the corporation that created oxy cotton is generally blamed for the

crisis due to their efforts to reorient the medical community and change the narrative regarding the dangers of addiction let's go over a specific example of how they went about doing this in 2004 the new york times ran an article containing this wildly misleading statement regarding the danger of addiction contrary to media portrayals the typical oxycontin addict does not start out as a pain patient who fell and wittingly into a drug habit. the author of that article is sally said tell a fellow at the american enterprise institute specializing in medical issues coincidentally the american enterprise institute received $50000.00 a year from purdue pharma since 2003 plus an additional 800000 dollars for special events according to documents received by pro publica but it gets better what study did said tell site in order to defend a funder of her institute the national household survey on drug abuse found that

among non-medical oxycontin users 98 percent has also used other addictive pain relievers for non medical purposes and more than a 4th had used herring well what they don't mention is that that study was actually carried out by employees and consultants of purdue pharma now sally's to tell says she has no idea that her institute was funded by purdue the new york times and the american enterprise institute have denied any wrongdoing but sallies to tell didn't just defend the profits of purdue in the new york times she also did it elsewhere she was quite a media star when it came to propane killer opining. oxycontin does not cause addiction it's abusers are already addicts. the real public health damage here comes from the peach campaign conducted by zealous prosecutors and public interest advocates to demonize the drug itself this is tragic because oxycontin has been a godsend for millions of patients. only

a minority of people who are prescribe opiates for pain become addicted to them and those who do become addicted and who die from painkillers over doozies 10 to obtain these medications from sources other than their own physicians but media spin was just one step for do also funded other organizations to push its agenda of more prescriptions for pain killers the american academy of pain medicine and the american pain society promoted this. for example studies indicate that it didn't over development of addiction we know people it's used for the relief of pain is low furthermore experience has shown the known addicts can benefit from the carefully supervised judicious use of opioids for the treatment of pain for do it lives these donations were made but it defends its position per view has been contacted over the years by policy experts at a variety of think tanks who are seeking additional context on industry issues for their work our engagement has always been appropriate and aimed at providing

a science based perspective that the company felt was often overlooked in the larger policy conversation over 400000 americans have lost their lives to opioids since the year 2000 and many more lives have been ruined by diction kaleb up and r.t. new york post who has made billions of dollars selling oxycontin and is now settling thousands of legal cases the lawsuits claim that the company aggressively pushed the drug while failing to be upfront about the risks of addiction and overdose while on average under 30 americans to die every day from overdosing on opioids and nearly 80 percent of heroin users started out on painkillers diction dr and m.k. thinks that the influence of companies on think tanks is dentures. let's typical for produce pharma to try to influence the way that doctors prescribe opioids by going into organizations that they know can influence the way that doctors think

about how to treat pain so in this instance influencing important think tank which produces articles about whether or not oxy cotton is safe and effective is a very clever and very standard way that produce pharma tries to influence opioid prescribing in the united states giving money to these think tanks in a clear effort to influence them seems very dangerous indeed. the u.s. secretary of state might pump 0 has stressed america's commitment to nato at a meeting the alliance is secretary-general in brussels. before the meetings in december as well and i know we'll have a successful tiger together to where we set the conditions so we can have a successful leader summit continue to drive this incredibly important nato mission . but his words there are in stark contrast to those of the french president

emanuel macron he recently criticized the airlines because he's done off picks up the story. nato heavyweights are converging upon brussels and it's all smiles and pats on the back and a very very v.a.p. guest all the way from the united states the secretary of state might bump aoe himself but behind this facade of handshakes and mutual joy hides a nasty in the block's fabric and that is between the believers in the alliance and heretics who dare question the relevance of the block and this whole aggravation it stems from right here from france when president emmanuel mccrone dared to assume dare to say that the bloke is experiencing and i quote brain death while we are currently experiencing is the brain death of nato nato only works if the guarantor of last resort functions as and now since early november when that happened this

jab is still hurting with the nato for instance secretary general young stoltenberg has felt the urge on tuesday to comment on those words and essentially he said that europe is defenseless without nato e.u. cannot defend europe well my friends words didn't sit well with other members of the block to for instance the us ambassador to nato she said that she strongly disagreed with them and she called the alliance essential i don't think europe would be se without a transatlantic bond that we have the german foreign minister also talked about this and he said that nato had been europe's military insurance for the past 70 years and one polish member of the european parliament well he managed to find the only present russian trail behind micron's words in fact he stopped very short of calling the french president a russian puppet i think is very sensitive to russian pressure in any case in

france this is a long tradition and this is only the latest in a holes. loyalty troubles faced by nato lately for instance even the locomotive pulling it forward the united states has had its problems with the block donald trump for instance has criticized europe for being unwilling to pay a fair and due amounts for all the benefits europe is well apparently enjoying from its partnership with nato the most are also ensure that nato members meet their financial obligations which spending 90 percent of their job with the piggy bank that they like to take get assessed paying your bills united states. it helps them there in europe helps them a lot more that it helps us that doesn't work folks well i asked parisians where they stand when it comes to the relationship between europe and nato does europe

need nato yeah i think so yeah before build up of defense. we have to speak up with the russian and to try to bring the europe a bloc efficient between the u.s. and china and russia. nato is obsolete because europe no longer truly has an organized enemy on its territory. i think europe needs to start having its own weapons both political and economic to protect itself europe cannot defend itself without me being alone we don't advance well with help we can move faster and stronger evidently the chasm between opinions on whether or not nato needs europe and vice versa is as wide here in paris as it is within the bloc itself a mortgage donna reporting from paris. but we talked about this with the director of the crisis research institute mark almond he told us that there are a number of disagreements threatening integrity. there are certain tensions between

paris and berlin between paris and washington french so that they need to assert themselves and your views for such as a separate pillar of nato and not be too dependent on the americans but other countries like for instance germany that's often seen as a copartner axis with france running the e.u. is rather worried about this all of this brings out that there are deep divergence of interest was a deep chasm division within your about how you judge the major part to its east and so all of these things come together to make a very messy birthday party for a major coming up in 2 weeks' time. an embarrassing incident during a t.v. interview with the us democrat lawmaker has gone viral hand in its own bizarre way it has highlighted the divisions in u.s. politics to explaining more his. more so than other washington is thick with intrigue and contriver see the public hearings in the latest trump

impeachment saga into their 2nd week and everyone wants to know how has he done it will this be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back the president used taxpayer dollars to ask the ukrainians to help them choose an election that can't be right guys i think we've got the wrong sound bite in the. what. really. ok no apparently that is right. what gate is on everyone's lips democratic representative eric was weighing in on the ongoing impeachment hearings when he dropped. dropped an explosive bomb on m s n b c do you think though that while one world human stuff happens move on and 2 the president of the united states of america could possibly be impeached potentially just the thought in the country's history but no the scandal over that quick moment

is refusing really. to blow over and mainstream media is leading the charge trying to get to the bottom of it i'm really sorry about the but i have to ask if this was you or someone in the studio it was not me and i didn't hear it when i was speaking you look like you heard it and are stifling a lot i guess i did not hear it even politicians have jumped on to the bandwagon keen to show off the shop wit cutely when i 1st. cruz made a rookie error and forgot that he too had been involved in the story that also rippled far and wide to show you senator and thank you for keeping it clean you know without tracing out more so let's see what all the conspiracy theories on the

table are the program on which i happened hardball tried to cover up its tracks and said it was just the presenter scraping his mug across the table to which swalwell took a leaf out of trump's book and breathed a sigh of relief but let's test that one out neal over to you. not sure so maybe another one the cameraman was to blame they were ways think they're safe just because they're in the shot but guys is that even possible you know. neither of the theories held up to scrutiny though view was smelt a rat pluto was demoted as a planet which eric swallow is now secure among the gas giants. is not a candidate that you can stand behind the cover of is own worries worse than a crime so while iran faces protests bolivia it faces

a coup trump faces possible impeachment in the u.k. faces and not the string of practice that delays the media follows it's very funny excellent nose for stories let's see when this one runs out of gas ok thoughts at this is ridiculous i mean are you know you can talk about this seriously and. there are still to come for this iraq group pink floyd's front man has spoken to r.t. about his dismay about what is happening to the whistleblower judy in the sun to have this view yourself right.

the markets are making. interesting the money that is being force fed and see the. markets like draining the liver of a duck farm it has to come from somewhere a lot less let's dig into the us a little bit more.

welcome back now the issue of free speech on campus is making headlines again u.k.'s oxford brookes university counts to talk by a feminist artist after she was accused of discriminating against transgender people. rachel is a trans exclusionary radical feminist who frequently shows transphobia discourse on her social media we firmly believe that inviting such speakers infringes upon academic freedom brooks i don't believe i'm trying to fight back i don't believe i said anything trans trans firebreak. i mean we're having a discussion based on no facts and you know that's quite worrying and we should be dealing with facts i mean you'd be interested to see what their definition of trans phobic is and why they're calling me transphobia. and then we can start the discussion from there they're always going to talk about my work is fabulous i talk

about the problems women have building big installations i'm especially because i do a lot with technology so i talk about women in stem and stuff like that i mean it was just purely talking about women in art i mean the thing is with the l.g.b. plus. it's a very very divided organization you know there's a lot of tension between sort of women in trans people and gay people i mean it's very very divided and i think that's why one organization at the l.g.b. alliance has been set up to actually you know just so people who have the same issues around same sex attraction can meet together where. you know the trans people seem to have an issue with concerns over academic freedom have been growing in recent years both and u.k. and abroad critics arguing that non-conformist voices are being stifled research by the policy exchange think tank suggest for instance that over half of britain students do not consistently support free speech on campus again says the university should encourage critical encourage critical thought and constructive

dialogue. honestly that was ridiculous i mean i'm talking about art and i'm talking about the way i make alts there's no infringements on academic freedom at all i do the honestly i really interesting to see who the complainants are you know and i would suspect there's probably a few disenfranchised men who have problem with women talking about women making awful feminist issues having to you know universities are learning places there are places you discuss if someone disagrees with me then i want to find out more and we can learn from each other i mean what would be really interesting is the people who he put this tweet out why are they hiding behind a sort of fake name why don't they come forward we can have an open discussion you know because they could teach reason. maybe i could teach is about open discussion . israel's political deadlock looks set to continue after the leader of the blue and white party benny gantz failed to form a new government the winner of the september elections inform the country's president of his failure and returned his mandate hours before the midnight

deadline israel has been trapped in the current political deadlock since the 1st general election in april the country's likely to face an unprecedented 3rd election in a year we asked political analyst for barack how he sees the situation unfolding. what's happening is it sounds easy ok if we don't have a government we're going for new elections no one in the country was in the elections the people are really fed up i mean all of our polling numbers are showing that people are really fed up with politicians or with the government so those in knesset have to know that there's a big risk to them that they may be voted out of the government because if they have to face new elections again it's possible that other parties will run and the people will punish those same members of knesset the leaders of the parties that for 2 elections couldn't form a government or 2 months ago the blue and white party beatty's rival cooed which is headed by the incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu and you can see from the results here none of the 2 favorites gained enough seats for

a parliamentary majority it meant that dance was tasked with forming a coalition government however a number of sticking points did seem to get in the way namely gantz refuses to cooperate with netanyahu claiming that he's been in office for too long and this wanting corruption while the prime minister himself has also said that he has no intention of siding with his rival and edition the kingmaker. and rejects both of them and insists on a radical overhaul of the entire system. believe could could actually form together with blood white if they were done that and you know if they would replace that and you know if they would find someone else that could happen in the next $21.00 days it's going to be interesting because there's 2 significant things are going to take place 1st is whether litany i was indicted lead attorney general may decide to indict him and 12 or 3 cases right away lives are crimes of bribery so that in you know is reported to have committed while he's been prime minister and 2nd the clock

is ticking on those 21 days and those members of knesset are going to do everything possible to avoid another election. from man a favorite band pink floyd roger waters has spoken out angrily about what's happening to your sounds in an interview with r.t. it comes amid fears that whistle blows extradition to the u.s. is now more likely after sweden dropped a 2010 rape case against him america accuses him of conspiring to hack government computers if convicted he may face up to 175 years in jail he's currently in belmarsh prison in the u.k. is extradition hearing is set to take place in february which waters told us that the stanch is a political prisoner there's no process of little big forward at the moment somebody somebody banco belmarsh for 23 hours out of every 24 being slowly murdered by the state because he told uncomfortable truths about

war crimes committed to. the american. it's curie purely political this is a political prisoner he's been hung out to dry as a warning to others others who might decide that they might be journalists that they might fulfill that function as journalists by informing the public and the electorate of what goes on secretly in their name so this business objects tradition has nothing to do with the legal process he's being railroaded in it's disgusting to find the truth these days is a shrink really difficult in any sane universe he would be lauded as a hero of the people for getting at the truth and then publishing it and he's not killing him. or to watch as they're speaking to us a bit earlier so that's how things are looking so far today we're back again in just a behalf. so

what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race in this on off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. as a tense situation in venezuela is still all over the news the problem in venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented but that socialism has been faithfully implement from the inside venezuela things no different we're going to

announce sanctions against petroleum's to venezuela associate the famous would have a son of a moment goes. down person that political data to see on the path to the madness of the moment the focus of the whose story isn't new nixon told in henry kissinger to tell him that he would not be tolerated in latin america an alternative economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to make the chilean economy scream so wants to make the economy of venezuela screed. you know world of big partisan lot and conspiracies it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that make the stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need

to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. are a. little while going to all of the parties the last 3 decades the european union has been with a large meant as a way of killing at least 2 birds with one stone helping its eastern neighbors to democratize while also keeping them firmly in his your political and diplomatic

orbit why the big fail to be the batter one to discuss that i'm now joined by ocean publication associate professor at the faculty of political science at the university of belgrade professor provisions good to talk to you thank you very much for your time thank you for having me on the show now you wrote a lot about the need for a new approach to enlargement and europeanization at least in the western balkans long before it became such a trendy and emotional topic do you think there is something wrong with the model per se or do you think it's the peculiarities of the western balkans that make it difficult to implement well i think definitely it's a peculiarity of western balkans these countries are somewhat friends than the. central europe or eastern european countries such as appalling hungry czech republic slovakia but i think when we speak about the model itself which was basically a conditionality model and which analogy means you didn't did they say give you

that right so that is taken care of so it's a basically a choice approach or you will do this if i offer you something if you don't believe there won't be any war for you and that's how it's been working for. 20 years now it was that is successful in the countries from central europe which were all over the i spy ring naturally to be members of the opinion doesn't really work here that well this is the 1st thing the 2nd thing is it's not applied. consistently here so i would say the major problem with european is asia and the e.u. enlargement process in the western balkans is the application of the model and we. want to build on both sides european officials don't apply as they did in the ninety's for example but also the western balkans leaders tried to escape when they ever day and the kind of

a rule that would make them follow the line now 1st of all let's agree on the terms you mentioned here a piano zation what is it specifically what values what features make up the war of the european athens in whose image they are there is have to be remade well it's it's been set up all of the in the beginning of the ninety's and it's still like that night in $93.00 copenhagen create tyria establish are all over law functioning market economy and democracy and within democracy protection of minority rights the problem is that in the western balkans. after 2000 and especially. over the past the 78 or 10 years we hear of decline very visible decline in all of these crew so the market is not functioning efficiently according to. competitive grittier you know we ship them across to decline very visible to

market the decline. we have here not always but we have problems with protection of minorities. in some in some places or at least some kind of problem with between majority minority but the major problem is that all of law we simply not only serbia but everywhere in the western balkans have a judiciary and public prosecutors which are under the heavy influence of politicians now i know that you specifically identify state capture that is the misuse of state funds for private and political benefit as the main obstacle to your europeanization but some would say that this kind of france seeking and self-serving behavior could be found within the ear itself in countries like cyprus or italy do you think you're of the old to europe has itself lived up to the standards of the europeanization that it tries to hold out.