documents a merger of feeling that u.s. drugmaker purdue pharma ran a campaign to suppress negative stories about its widely prescribed opioid painkiller. plus a new report by amnesty international accuses tech giants google and facebook of violating human rights by employing surveillance based business models. and a british university canceled a talk by a feminist artist after students accuse her of transphobia forgot her side of the story. i don't believe i'm trying to fight because i don't believe i said anything trans trans fatty rick i mean you know universities are learning prices the places you discussed if someone disagrees with me then i want to find out more and we can learn from each other but.

you're watching r t international bring you your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program. obtained documents reveal that the u.s. drug maker from poor purdue pharma used leading media outlets to downplay the risks of its widely prescribed opioid painkiller the drug has been blamed for america's deadliest opiate epidemic relations were made by the investigative media outlet pro publica the misleading articles and questions were written by analysts from purdue funded think tanks and they cited do funded studies with more here. 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 unwittingly 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 heroin 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 dues is done 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 it's used for the relief of pain is low furthermore experience has shown a known addict can benefit from the carefully supervised judicious use of opioids for the treatment of pain for do it rich these donations were made but it defends its position purdue 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 addiction it would pop

and r. c. new york purdue has made billions of dollars selling oxycontin and is now struggling thousands of legal cases the lawsuits can claim the company aggressively push the drug all failing to be upfront about the risks of addiction and overdose on average $130.00 americans die each day from overdosing on opioids nearly 80 percent of heroin users abuse painkillers in the past addiction doctor and a lemke thinks the influence of companies on think tanks is dangerous. it's typical for producer farmer to try to influence the way that doctors prescribe opioids by going into organizations that they know can influence the way the 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 a seems very dangerous indeed. google and facebook business model threaten human rights by being based on surveillance that's according to a new amnesty international report the group alleges that the tech giants violate privacy and freedom of expression live to media the question now for more. and they say international release a report lining healthy is bulk and google abuse human rights the company's surveillance based business model forces people to make a fast in bargain whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse now their report accusers google and facebook of violating their right to privacy on an unprecedented scale as well as

freedom of expression. not only does it represent an intrusion into billions of people's private lives that can never be necessary or proportionate but the companies have conditioned access to their services on consenting to processing and sharing of their personal data for marketing and advertising directly countering the right to decide when and how our personal data can be shared with others. now it also accuses facebook of hidden manipulation for political ads targeting. the use of micro-targeting for political messaging can also limit people's freedom of expression by creating a curated worldview inhospitable to pluralistic political discourse mrs report has only confirmed what has long been known as both tech giants have been caught red handed come close times the world's eyes were opened to the risk of these tech platforms posed back in 2018 by their facebook account and the latika data scandal

data from 87000000 people's profit harvested and used to micro target 10 minute delay to people for political campaigning purposes and it looks like we're still haven't learned all the lessons last week a report in the wall street journal revealed that google partnered with healthcare provider ascension to secretly collect and store magical records on millions of patients across 21 states all after the company failed to convince customers to hand over their medical data voluntarily meanwhile facebook has vividly denied the latest allegations made by amnesty international a person's choice to use facebook services and the way we collect receiver use data all clearly disclosed and acknowledge by users cannot meaningfully be likened to the involuntary and often unlawful government surveillance so is there

a way for users to keep their data safe while the reports as there is but it will take out a radical over a whole of the way big tax operates at kohls for the launch of data protection laws to make the system more humane but is there a place in real live for an internet that has human rights at its core. and apparently embarrassing incident during a t.v. interview with a us democratic lawmaker has gone viral and in its own bizarre way it's highlighted the divisions in u.s. politics yourself cotillard with more. than at the washington is thick with intrigue and travesty the public hearings in the latest trump impeachment saga into their 2nd week and everyone wants to know 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 him 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. fought 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 to 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. i guess i did not hear it even politicians have jumped on to the bandwagon seem to show off the shop where it. usually when i didn't. 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 waiting 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. no i thought of the theories held up to scrutiny though view was smelt a rat pluto was demoted as a planet but terry swallow is now secure among the gas giants. is not a candidate that you can stand behind the cover of is own way is 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 pranks it delays the media follows it's very funny excellent nose for stories let's see when this one runs out of gas ok

this is ridiculous i mean are you know you can talk about this seriously on. your global news update continues after this short break. the markets are making new all time highs interesting the money that is forced into these. markets like taurine into the liver of a duck not far off form it has to come from somewhere i must dig into this little bit more. i have concern about new technologies and i think society should like and i try to help them get engaged in those concerns. but we also should have concerns about doing nothing doing nothing

is extraordinarily risky you know with some point 5000000000 people and a series of over ancient technology that are not necessarily suitable for tomorrow. welcome back the u.s. secretary of state has stressed america's commitment to nato i meeting with the alliance the secretary general looking forward to the meetings in december as well and i know we'll have a successful time together to where we set the conditions so we can have a successful leader summit continue to drive this incredibly important nato mission . his words are in stark contrast to those of french president emanuel mccrone who

recently criticized the alliance it has done of has more. 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 even cannot defend europe well mccraw those 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 the 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 of with

the russian and to try to bring the europe a bloc efficient between the u.s. and china and russia going to put it 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. the director of the crisis research institute mark allman told us there are a number of disagreements threatening nato. or certain tensions between paris and berlin between paris and washington french say that they need to assert themselves

and your needs 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 powers to its east as all of these things come together to make a very messy birthday party for nato coming up in 2 weeks' time. the issue of free speech on campus is making headlines again the u.k.'s oxford brookes university cancelled a talk by a feminist artist after she was accused of discriminating against transgender people. is a trans exclusionary radical feminist who frequently shares trans phobic discourse on her social media we firmly believe that inviting such speakers infringes upon academic freedom at oxford brookes i don't believe i'm transferring because i don't

believe i said anything trying to transfer a bit. i mean we're having a discussion based on facts and you know that's quite worrying and we should be dating with facts i mean you'd be interested to see what the definition of trans phobic is and why they're calling me trans firebrick. and then we can start the discussion from that the only i was going to talk about my work is feminist 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 office i mean the thing is with the 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. 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 come together which. you know the trans people

seem to have an issue with concerns over academic freedom have been growing in recent years both in the u.k. and abroad with critics arguing that non-conformist voices are being stifled research by the policy exchange think tanks and just for instance that over half of britain students do not consistently support free speech on campus aren't rachel again says universities should encourage critical thought and constructive dialogue . honestly that was ridiculous i mean i'm talking about all of them talking about the way i make oh it's there's no infringement on academic freedom at all i'd only be really interesting to see who the complainants are you know and i would suspect there's probably a few disenfranchised men who have fun with women talking about women making awful feminist issues having to you know universities learning prices the 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 treat out why are they hiding behind this sort of fake name why don't they come forward and we can have an open discussion you know because i could teach

resulting in maybe i could teach is about open discussion. several news outlets opted to scrub a story of mistreated children when it turned out that trumps administration was not in the wrong and you an expert had claimed that $100000.00 migrant kids were being held at u.s. border facilities often in violation of international law big media outlets like associated press the new york times and reuters ran with the claim but then issued a correction apparently the figure related to all of 2015 when barack obama was in charge according to the latest u.s. government data the turnover of migrant children held so far this year is $70000.00 outlets were quick to react but rather than correct the story in light of the new information some dropped out altogether. drew when the story the author of the report has clarified that the figures do not represent the number of children currently in migration related to his detention but the toll toll number of

children in migration related you has detention in to solve the 915 will delete the story columnist at spectator usa child work more things such decisions are driven by media bias. it was determined that that report was actually 2015. and the sort of history of retraction of their fine they simply took the story down so it seems that the press is exposing itself more and more particularly on this issue with the border as being stirred really propagandist. earlier r.t. america host rick sanchez asked larry king to comment on the current state of the us media saying things outlets have long been entrenched along democratic and republican lines. what we have today in media. and that's a good quote. is that we have one network devoted exclusively to the right one exclusively to the left one network just says it's in the center but c.n.n.

has drifted left so the way we get our news is r t but we get our news from c.b.s. a.b.c. n.b.c. at the appropriate half hour in the evening so are we were certainly you get the new was if you if you click around you're going to get the news if you only tune to em as n.b.c. or or fox you don't get the news you get a viewpoint on the news and fox that's a good point fox my ticket next and then. the front man of rock band pink floyd roger waters has spoken out angrily about what's happening to julian a songe it comes amid fears the whistleblowers 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 commit convicted may face up to 175 years in jail is currently in belmarsh prison in the u.k. and his extradition hearing as such to take place and february of next year roger

waters told us a songe is a political prisoner. there's no process of little big planet at the moment somebody somebody banged up in belmarsh for 23 ounce out of every 24 being slowly murdered by the state because he told uncomfortable truths about this for me to buy united states of america. it's purely 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 of beck's tradition has nothing to do with the legal process he's being railroaded in it's disgusting to find the truth these days is that extremely difficult in any sane

universe he would be lauded as a hero of the people getting at the truth and then publishing it and he's not killing him that certainly is right but for now i'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest thanks for tuning in. the 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 only implemented for inside venezuela things are different we're going to announce sanctions against a troll to venezuela socio. political moment to. get out

of that. battle so on the cookie of the moment the focus of the who story isn't new makes him cold in henry kissinger to tell him that not be tolerated in latin america. an alternative economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to make the economy scream so wants now making the economy of venezuela screed. what holds an inch to you something that. they put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president or injury. or somehow want to. have to go right to the press this is what before 3 of them or can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters and that. there should.

this is a story about what happens auster a stray bullet kills a young girl in the streets. what happens to her family and daughters in florida you know the mother daughter is buried in a cemetery it really messes with your head what happens to the community the public was screaming for a scapegoat the police needed a scapegoat so why not choose a 19 year old black kid with a criminal record who better to pin this on than him and what happens in court the be. shocked shocked as far as society we feel. we don't know children just brutal. end of this trial unfortunately due to the will still not know childress.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy loon from day shouldn't let it be an arms race often very dramatic developments 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. greetings and sal you take as we start today hawk watchers with more grim news out of bolivia massive protests have gripped the country in the wake of the military coup that ousted president evo morales back on november 10th and the interim bolivian government led by the new u.s. backed self declared president janine on yaz has caught serious scrutiny for not

only not acting like an interim government but also in its brutal response to the protesters this includes new reports that at least 5 people were killed outside a major fuel depot in bolivia that had been blockaded by supporters of morales the new york times reports that witnesses said the men died when a military unit guarding the son caught the gasoline plant opened fire on protesters would surrounded it for over a week in fact according to the times family members of at least 2 of the dead men said they were merely walking to work when they were shot by the soldiers of my friends there will be no justice for those killed by the bolivian military and security forces during these protests thanks to a decree signed last week by anya as that shields them from any criminal prosecution when working under the guise of maintaining public order in an effort to help restore stability to the country former president morales in an interview with the wall street journal offered up one salute.