drugmaker purdue pharma faces renewed scrutiny after leaked documents reveal the extent of its efforts to suppress negative stories about its widely prescribed opiate pain killer. plus a new report by amnesty international accuses thai johns google and facebook of violating human rights by employing surveillance based business models. and beijing vows countermeasures after the u.s. congress passes a bill that he can go to. a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at our teacher in moscow

thanks for joining us this hour. we start in the u.s. where leaked documents reveal the extensive lobbying by drug maker purdue pharma to market it's widely prescribed painkillers and downplayed the risks the drug has been blamed as a major factor in america's opioid epidemic relations were made by the investigative media outlet pro publica they include allegations that purdue hired sympathetic experts to appear at leading media outlets produce funded think tanks are also accused of writing misleading articles won't make it if coverage was often challenge by medical analysts with alleged ties to the drug maker it's 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 stand 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 people had to use 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 rich 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 addiction. r.t. new york purdue has made billions of dollars selling oxycontin and is now selling

thousands of legal cases lawsuits claim the company aggressively push the drug while failing to be upfront about the risks and 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 he thinks the influence of companies on think tanks is dangerous. that's typical for produce pharma to try to influence the way that doctors prescribe opioids by going into organizations that they know. or can influence the way that doctors think about how to treat pain so in this instance influencing important think tank our 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 africa to influence them a seems very dangerous indeed. google and facebook business models threaten human rights by being based on surveillance that's according to a new amnesty international report the group alleges the tech giants violate privacy and freedom of expression live now to medina kosova for more honesty international released a report outlining how facebook and google abuse human rights and that it's increasing dominance over the new global public square controlling the main channels the company's surveillance based business model forces people to make a fenced in bargain whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse their report accuses google and facebook

of violating the 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. and also accuses facebook of hidden manipulation for political ad 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 and this is report has only confirmed what has long been known as both tag giants have been caught red handed countless times the world's eyes were opened to the risk these stack platforms posed back in 2018 by the facebook and let the data scandal data

from 87000000 people's profiles who are harvested and used to my current target and manipulate people for political campaigning purposes and it looks like we're still haven't learned all the lessons last week a report on the wall street journal revealed that google partnered with healthcare provider assumption 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 i'm there reports as there is but it will take a radical overhaul of the way big tax operates at kohls for the launch of data protection laws to make this assemble more humane but is there a place in real life for an internet that has human rights at its core. a noisy incident during a t.v. interview with a us democratic lawmaker has gone viral and its own bizarre way has highlighted the divisions in u.s. politics or saw scotto or. more so than at the washington is thick with intrigue contriver see 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 with 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 you'd 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 in 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 didn't did not hear it even politicians have jumped on to the bandwagon keen to show off the shop where it usually. 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 with outraising 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. neither of the theories held up to scrutiny though viewers 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 and the u.k. faces and not the string of practice 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 and. high profile media outlets have been forced to backtrack on the reporting about child imprisonment u.s. migrant camp some of the trump administration reporting was based on a u.n. experts claim that 100000 migrant kids were being held at u.s. border facilities. often in violation of international law outlets including the associated press the new york times and reuters picked up on the story before the un issued a clarification stating the figures were late to 2015 when president barack obama was still in office according to the latest u.s. government data at the try to react but rather than correct the story a lot of the new information some dropped it altogether if peace withdrawal 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 to you has detention in to solve the known 15 will do leave the story job with more calmness for a spectator usa things such decisions are driven by media bias. it was determined that that report was actually 2015. and they had sort of history to retract 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 really propagandist. earlier r.t. america host rick sanchez asked larry king to comment on the current state of the us media think things outlets have long been entrenched along democratic and republican lines. what we have today in media. 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 always was certainly you get the new was if you if you click around you're going to get the news if you only tune to m s n b c or fox you don't get the news you get a viewpoint on the news and fox that's a good point fox might have kept next and then. still the comment rock group pink floyd's frontman has spoken to r.t. about his dismay at what's happening to whistleblower julian sun's story and more after the break. but politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or

rejected. so when you want to be president which. was something i wanted. to go right to the press this is like a book for 3 of them will be good. i'm interested always in the lives of. this city. i have concern about new technologies and i think society should and i 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 in the world with some point 5000000000 people at a series of over ancient technologies that are not necessarily suitable for tomorrow. and.

welcome back here as congress has passed a bill in support of hong kong protesters president trump is expected to sign it into law despite delicate trade talks with china the move has angered by raising. you know she's doing with. home kong just part of china and hong kong affairs are china's internal affairs go with the united states should you need you to stop interfering or it will be healed by negative you can choose who wishes to join you will have to take strong counter measures to defend its national sovereignty child development introduce should do when they joined the bill called the hong kong human rights and democracy act will allow sanctions to be imposed on those officials who suppress human rights in the city will also require an annual assessment of hong kong's autonomy under the current chinese one country 2 systems the city has its own government as and is in charge of its own economic affairs if

any issues are flagged up hong kong special trade status with the u.s. would be revoked now with the territory having been racked with protests for months it's already led to some economic consequences a number of companies have started to quit hong kong with the city losing its crown as the most lucrative luxury swiss watches some companies have relocated to singapore amid the social unrest the financial hub has been plagued by violent protests for months demonstrators are demanding the protection of democratic rights and official investigations into police brutality i political analyst just a chuang believes trump doesn't really have a choice but to sign it although the president may have an ace up his sleeve. he will probably sign it is expected to do so because the unanimous vote

you need both houses of the u.s. congress very much represent the mood of the united states the whole of the united states society and i don't say are. you don't know this from administration your wrist and can't deny saying. you believe the united states so wrong the express he still be a lot of power in the side of being on one action what actually measures to be taken at a later day so it still gives him a lot of room to maneuver. the front man of rock band pink floyd roger waters has spoken out angrily about what's happening to julian a son comes amid fears that whistleblowers extradition to the u.s. is now more likely after sweden dropped a 2010 rape case against him options and accused as a songe of conspiring to hack government computers if convicted he may face up to

175 years in jail he is currently in belmarsh prison in the u.k. and saunders extradition hearing is set to take place and february of next year waters told us a songe as a political prisoner. there's no process of will big followed at the moment somebody somebody banged up in belmarsh for 23 hours out of every $24.00 being slowly murdered by the state because he told uncomfortable truths about war crimes committed by the united states of america. it 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 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. violent clashes have broken out in the haitian capital as hundreds of protesters demonstrated against the visit of the u.s. ambassador to the united nations reports say at least 2 people have been injured. police use live ammunition rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds protesters were attempting to disrupt talks between the u.s. envoy and haiti's president the country has been crippled by protests since september demanding the president steps down over

a corruption scandal. musk's aspiration to make the internet available across the globe has caused a backlash in scientific circles and period researchers say that the latest project by the space x. c.e.o. could pose a threat to astronomy space accent 60 satellites into orbit earlier this month it was the 2nd launch within the starling project with tens of thousands more planned just after the batch blasted off astronomers sounded the alarm complaining that must satellites heavily affected the work of highly sensitive instruments wow i'm in shock the huge amount of strong satellites crossed our skies tonight at . our dark energy camera exposure was heavily affected by 19 of them the train is turning satellites lasted for over 5 minutes rather depressing this is not cool last month to astronomers were hoping to observe stars in a pair of nearby galaxies with

a telescope in chile instead they were greeted to the site of mine team passing satellites in space x.'s starlink mega constellation whoa this is really not cool for ground based astronomy i guess we'll have to get used to a lot so for additional data processing to remove such a light trails must dismiss the concerns as exaggerated he also suggested that more telescopes need to be put into orbit cosmologist lawrence krauss says that they starling satellites will in fact create problems. these these satellites from what i understand are thomas thomas lee controlled and could change their orbit so it's not as if you can always predict where they're going to be and i suspect we're going to see if we have that many new objects in space i would be surprised if we didn't see collisions and other other concerns the number of new satellites that projects not there is a significant greater factor than all the satellites in history at this point these objects as are now designed to appear reflect for

a long periods and i think therefore this is a qualitatively different system the other thing is that with small groups of satellites like you're really arrayed in systems you can design your own astronomical observations to avoid the times when those might be touting overhead but with 42000 of them it's a very different thing to it may be impossible to find a time when you're not being when your observations are not being impacted and that's the reason i think they are hearing the outcry right now. that's a roll this out for now but i'll be back of a top down at the latest thanks for tuning in. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. only. i don't see how. you sit down and

talk. there's 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 fully implemented for inside venezuela things are different we're going to announce sanctions against. venezuela so it's you. have a son of the moment who thinks. that. the people of the moment the focus of the who story makes him henry kissinger to tell him not be tolerated in latin america. terms of economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to

make. economy scream so once an economy of venezuela screed. is you'll be a reflection of reality. in the world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation in the community. are you going the right way or are you being led. by. what is true what's his face. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. or a maybe in the shallowness. a

. little while going to all the part of the last 3 decades the european union has seen its 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 career failed should be the batter want to discuss that i'm now joined by ocean publication associate professor at the pockets of political science at the university of belgrade professor always 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. 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 different than central europe the or eastern european countries such as spall i'm hungry for 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 to it's a basic or optional choice approach or you will do this if i offer you something if you don't lose 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. firings naturally to be members of european union doesn't really require 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 west and balkans is the application of the model and we see sports ability 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 feature is make up the core 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 so it's 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 the climb very visible decline in all of this critique so the market is not functioning efficiently according to. the competitive gritty of you know we have a democratic decline very visible democracy decline. we have not always but we have problems with protection of minorities. in some places or at least some kind of problem with between my job.