i. 47 years the united kingdom marks a historic day cutting ties with the e.u. was brics it officially comes into effect the road ahead for britain is still on. the u.s. democrats are not getting the witnesses to stand up in the donald trump trial that means a final vote on the president's time in the oval office is expected next week. and france pledges to send its naval forces across the mediterranean to cyprus as a maritime dispute breaks out between nato allies over gas exploration.

live from moscow thanks so much for joining us here on r.t. international well program. that was taken more than 3 years and divided people up and down the nation but after almost half a century the u.k. is finally bid farewell to the european union 11 pm g.m.t. on friday the result of the biggest democratic referendum in british history was finally enacted parts of the u.k. were certainly happy voters turned out in force to celebrate city is in london's parliament square one more enjoying the festivities north of the border in scotland which of course voted to remain visuals were. covering the historic event as it happened here are some of the highlights. i. think.

we're all still here only you know yeah it's like millennium bug nothing's happened yeah to begin with you how did not take all the. course from the saudi who has the trait of being in the thick of things that is a pro breaks it party but what is the atmosphere like now. just as you've joined me it's not surprising least 50000 people just broke out into a rendition of god save the queen that i. just know. she is sadly being good at singing was a bit of a shitload also the focus of. your piece you will see up the 11 transition period and they're off but it will have to really be shot so it's pretty different here just what exactly. we live in style but for many here at least the future represents one of opportunity but of course in other parts of the country.

that will be much less sort of a tree not admitted i hear. the full power of the rani you've been campaigning this for this for your whole life i mean how do you feel very pleased very pleased i have to say i mean you know we're not allowed to be triumphalist and i don't want to be triumphalist but i am pleased you know finally from my point of view we've got to the end of 3 and a half years with them frankly we've got a functioning palma that's actually delivered the result and we've actually got a prime minister who's actually delivered a play which norman is a former lib dem minister how do you feel bearing in mind the lib dems one of the revoke article 50 well i did not should be without particular policy of the site but i feel very worried for the country i mean find somebody on this politician there are so you and she's absolutely straightforward in her views and she you know what i believe is the best thing for britain i think happen to believe the opposite why what's the problem what we want to miss that we're. we're in

a world of power blocks for those u.s. . china russia the e.u. and britain are very small fish and very big on full of sharks the whole economy has integrated absolutely you and we end up leaving a single market and having it and having trade barriers that would your mental damage to car history among those forest johnson addressed the nation a preacher called it video message and he claimed we are at the start of a new era this is not an end but a beginning the e.u. has evolved over 50 years in a direction that no longer suits this country and that is a judgment you the people who are now confirmed at the polls not once but twice well over on the continent the e.u. has been saying its good byes be for the trade deal talks begin in our europe correspondent peter all of a joins us with all the latest bring us up to date with what's been going on be on the channel yes it hasn't been marked with the types of celebration we've seen in london all the type of commiseration we see in other parts of the u.k. as well as in the british capital as well but we have seen is the british flag

being taken down in brussels from the e.u. institutions from the the commission presidency the parliament and the council building as well we've also seen the european flag being taken down from british offices in brussels as well we also saw emi piece from the brig's it party well being piped out all brussels as they were leaving heading back to london we've also heard some reaction from the european institutions the high representative for foreign affairs your state boil who's basically the e.u. foreign minister to say that the u.k. will remain a very close partner of the e.u. both on a regional and global scale that's really emphasizing what we heard from the e.u. commission president early on friday where she said that she hoped for.

close and productive relationship breaks it between the u.k. in the e.u. but said that any deal that the u.k. got couldn't be as good as membership almost half a century of the united kingdom's membership in the european union is over we want to have the best possible relationship with the united kingdom but it will never be as good as membership well one of the key areas the negotiations going to move onto as they look towards this trade deal is going to be the u.k.'s future relationship with ireland in particular that british border on the island of ireland well leo varadkar the irish to show did have something to say about this about briggs it about the u.k. leaving the e.u. on friday he said that he wished the united kingdom well on its journey alone but did say that there was always a seat back at the table if it didn't work out for them we do hope it works out for

them but if it does not there will always be a seat for the united kingdom at the european table as the united kingdom leaves the european union we enter now into this transition period of course all of those lovely trade talks that are set to start on the 3rd of march so it's not done with yet with bracks that day finally upon us the one question on everyone's lips is what happens next well it's the transition period until the end of the year where everything essentially stays the same for you and me it's business as usual for the e.u. and u.k. trade negotiators it's game on or they have to get a trade deal signed off by december 31st ideally 6 months before to give businesses time to prepare the alternative well will crash out of the e.u. without a trade deal something business is on both sides really want to avoid so we better crack on with the trade talks as soon as possible now boris johnson has said. he

wants to get started right now but that's a bit of an issue for the e.u. the e.u. isn't just one save it's $27.00 countries needing to agree a negotiating position and that won't be signed off until the end of next month so march will be the earliest we can actually get started but what might the agreement look like well the easiest for would be what's called an alignment deal our trade rules already mirror the e.u. so let's keep it essentially the same and just agree on which areas to diverged that's the a use preferred option for the negotiations. michel of set the level playing field is of utmost importance if social rights are inventive of an environmental or a rights state aid or others or the advantage of that kind of deal is that it means the u.k. can access the e.u. single market and of course that means we get a deal and easily before the end of the year however that's not the way the u.k.

government wants to go but we been very clear now for actually many months and of course in our recent election as well as we leave the e.u. we will not be in the single market we will not be in the customs union and we will not be rude takers so let's try again boris johnson says he wants a free trade deal full comprehensive covering everything but how comprehensive could it be the one between the e.u. and canada took 7 years to finalize. i know done this negotiation will be difficult and demanding. for one reason. we'll be extremely short. 11 months or so. and if he's right we'd crash out without a deal so let's try again johnson said he wants a deal based on 0 tariffs and 0 quotas no barriers that all sounds easy

except some are worried that letting the u.k. in without guaranteeing it won't play by e.u. rules would mean it becomes a very attractive no regulation no business tax zone with watered down workers' rights econd to singapore poaching business from the block the key issue here is around level playing field issues there is no way the e.u. will ever sign up to a trade deal that allows tariff free quota free and frictionless access to u.k. goods coming into the e.u. if there isn't a level playing field in terms of how they're produced because that would be unfair competition. well is there another way well then it gets tricky we're into sector by sector deals and some of those deals we've got a strong hand like fishing rights in others like financial services no deal could be the end of the city's dominance as banks and firms need to frankfurt to ensure they can still operate in europe. but it all has to happen quickly as well because

the clock is ticking and if the sign deals arms down in time you guessed it we crash out i hope that's made everything a little clearer i have a feeling the last time i saw you let's get this out of the way that you are indeed intending to stand for the breaks apart in the election is this a big change constitutionally for it's a huge change constitutionally because now we've become a fully independent sovereign state bar disentangling ourselves from the european union will be a long and time consuming problem because when the european union issued regulations they had director think it and instead of just letting them be regulations in order to describes how much we were ruled by the commercial we enact those regulations of abating as acts of parliament.

not invited states where the democrats have been dealt a blow in their push to impeach president donald trump close by at the center of publicans on friday defeated an attempt to allow the new witnesses i'd evidence the stand of the trial the yeas are 49 the nays are 51. the motion is not agreed to. yes trump was impeached by the democrat controlled house of representatives in december on charges of abuse of power of obstruction of congress and his trial in the senate which has a republican majority got underway on january 21st friday evenings vote paves the way for a final decision on whether to acquit or convict expected next wednesday vote for change we spoke to the total director for the reaction times dot com who believes

trump is now essentially in the clear. as of wednesday they're going to have the up and down vote he's going to be acquitted you know where america is going to move on from this and i think the american people deserve that the democrats ultimately they had their crack at the apples in the house and they called i believe it was upwards of about 17 witnesses they had smoking gun evidence something that would have risen to the level of you know what the burden of proof that it would have taken to prove high crimes and misdemeanors then they would have had a shot of removing the president book you know quite frankly you know it's their impressions of what the phone call was you know yes adam schiff kind of you know my means what he thought you know the content of the phone call was their only intention is to try to regain power. over to claim that the level of content discontent with politics is at its highest level in 25 years the report by the u.k. center for the future of democracy says americans are among the least satisfied. in

explains. we're used to hearing that the usa is a cradle of democracy and in case you might forget they remind you at every opportunity trumps impeachment is no exception this is not a banana republic. is the democratic republic. of the united states of america a moment when our democracy was gravely threatened embattled democracy being invaded by this by the by russia democrats accuse donald trump of using his political position for personal gain and thus corrupting the entire system trump shoots back that the democrats are manipulating the constitution in order to go after him by proceeding with your invalid impeachment you are violating your oath of office your breaking your allegiance to the constitution and you are declaring open war on american democracy interestingly new data has been published by the u.k.'s cambridge university showing that among americans there's been

a dramatic decline in people's confidence in democracy we decided to talk to new yorkers and see why they might be losing faith in the founding fathers i feel most people are in misinformed more than anything and they need to understand that we don't live in a true democracy where you know specifically every vote counts directly we know it's a representative democracy writes people vote for things and then other things happen for other people when you know people get more votes and then they lose that's not it's not really democracy is it i do believe that within the system we need to do a better job of including everyone into the conversation and i also think that the current state of affairs is what makes people just really turned off. to supporting democracy as a whole you know the institutions which were set out with. i think right frame book are not being used or the loopholes are being exploited democracy sexy being taken out of the hands of the people it's in the hands of private cloud big money and corporations but it's not just americans according to the poll that was conducted

around the world. has been a decline in democratic values in countries like france and the u.k. people just don't feel they've got a voice anymore it seems that you have you just going to do the right thing anyway they have their own agenda to people on trusting politicians there's a lot of groups and minorities not being made and you know democracy should be to serve everybody and particularly those who are disadvantaged if it's not. a disadvantage then i don't think the democracy. parliaments in the walls especially the a you know you are not listening to the people one thing. i think people need to have. information more education to realise my democracy think that people should fight for. the people. but this points to a bigger question what those democracy actually mean now in theory it's supposed to

be the rule of the people but it seems like around the world in many different countries many feel like the people's will is not being acted and they are not happy about it. artsy new york. we discussed the story with investigative journalist david lindorff he thinks that politicians are losing touch with what both is really want. i wouldn't say they're dissatisfied with democracy they're dissatisfied with the way our democracy is working these days it has really lost its connection to the people all the money in the 'd political system incredible amounts of money billions of dollars to run for president are coming from corporations and rich people and the average person. is cut out of the picture i think at least in the us. fortunately people are not saying we don't like democracy they're saying we want to moxie that works so it's not people are saying oh we need a dictator the vast majority of americans being brought up on the notion that

people are supposed to run their own government want to have a government there. works for them but they're not able to get it. still to come this hour altie facebook loses out of more than haul $5000000000.00 in a pretty bottle in the united states but the details for you just off of this break . don't look the plastic is a problem it's in the food supply in the oceans we keep plastic and obviously plastic in the human body is going to kill you so life expectancy is down and banning plastic is not going to change the equation one iota right because it's just too far gone so should we care or just consider that humans had a great ride why we did then shuffle off our mortal coil and that he owes.

the world is driven by a dream shaped by. the day or thinks. we dared to ask. the program of growing controversy of a facial recognition technology has hit facebook in the pocket off the rafale the legal battle over how it tags and scans photos on its platform a case filed in the u.s. they do it in the oil has resulted in a payout of more than hoffa $1000000000.00. here illinois enacted

a statute not to innovation but to protect individuals privacy as technology advances corporations must be mindful of the privacy of their customers and more importantly comply with the law or the social network giant will have to pay $550000000.00 to a group of account hours of argot the facial recognition tool violated state privacy laws facebook went as far as the u.s. supreme court to get the case thrown out but as the klein world why the technology is being met with a growing concern. we

discussed why facial recognition is such a sensitive issue with privacy activist and tech expert bill me as well as former u.k. police officer peter kirk of. you can't reset your face or your d.n.a. or your fingerprints in the same way you can reset a password when it's lost and therefore if for some reason there was a data breach and the data was lost or in some way it is used or responsibility then there is no comeback and that person's identity has been lost forever and there as an enormous caution needs to be sake and not only only responsible use in the secure husbandry of this trend of data but we also need to start improving the effectiveness of the fake the recognition so it's actually more accurate and effective it's concerned me for some time how the likes of facebook and other social media platforms are using facial recognition is purely being used

to further the interests of the social media platforms which at the end of the day combine to make you money if you are in a photograph with someone who is on facebook you may or may not wish to have your name associated with that photograph your profile associated with that photograph. enough trust in your friends not to tag you into it but when they're software that takes in automatically a. different kettle of fish and so of i think people really should worry more about what's normal reinforcement to doing with this rover the more a foursome of doing with the. frogs to send warships to support greece and cyprus after a while between nato allies over gas exploration in the region turkey stepped up its really activity in waters around the area it controls in cyprus already shot at doing skis got more now on why paris could be concerned. as tensions between greece

site person turkey heat up france's president corn has decided to do the right thing and just swooping in to save the day he's dispatched war for gets to the eastern mediterranean as the age old regional rivals clash once more left french supports greece and cyprus when it comes to the sovereignty of their maritime zones and along with our european partners condemns turkey's intrusions and provocations what might appear as some 19th century style of a conflict at sea is really largely about energy reserves as you can see the divided island of cyprus has off shore gas fields with billions of euros no surprise then that the self-proclaimed turkish republic of more than cyprus issues its own licenses to explore those gas rich areas to turkish companies while the republic of cyprus gives theirs to companies including the french giant toto which

has several licenses france wants to protect its crown company its crown jewel its total its total is kind of a state within the state and if turkey intervenes put some of its contracts are. france wants to protect its company and or wants to. protect its sovereignty and it's not just a rift over cyprus it's the whole region where you see these past few days we have seen turkish warships deliver syrian mercenaries to libyan soil and this is a serious and explicit infringement of what was agreed upon in berlin and i must reiterate the prerequisite for any political solution in libya is the cancellation of this document it's clear to see much course not exactly thrilled with that agreement which sees turkey. having agreed a new maritime border with the un backed government in libya this deal took says

granted economic rights to explore even more of the mediterranean gas reserves and more importantly what how any other major gas project in the area like for example it is really cyclist greece pipeline that's currently under construction it could supply of around 10 percent of the natural gas. it is no longer legally possible to conduct exploration and drilling activity or to run pipelines in the region between the turkish libyan coast without the approval of countries in 2020 we are licensing these areas and starting the search and drilling move quickly than ever these coasts reserves are highly contentious as they thought to be getting changes in offering europe a new supply that could lessen its dependence on russian gas whoever has control

over the sea here has control over the supplies it's a huge gas program it's a huge gas reserve reserve or it wasn't involved and still and nobody called on this. and this is this is a recall this is military in pipeline and turkey is part of the east military and and the what they call a lot of them and turkey again wants to be part of this regional power and they want to show that they're one of the strongest country in this region they face a lot of opposition because. russia and the united arab emirates are against that turkey intervening in libya so they try and they try to counter turkey in this part of the world. donald trump again come under fire on major news network c n n that's after the president's latest briefing on a coronavirus task force an opinion piece published on the channel's web site has

called out the new team for lack of diversity. coronavirus taskforce another example of the ministrations lack of diversity. who are these experts they're largely the same sorts of white men and a couple of women on the sidelines who dominated the trump and going to stray should from the very beginning.

of. those board of directors. as long as c.n.n. wants to play quite a game why does the network have a grand total of one minority anchor across all the weekday shows and not one hispanic columnist news network. the coronavirus we try to have a task force but it wasn't diverse enough for c.n.n. . this is a scientific issue and you need the best people to. organize you know a defense against against the spread of the virus everywhere and you know it's to inject diversity and identity politics into this thing is just just

a silly thing to do it's science. and science has nothing to do with diversity and racism you know there's a problem in the us of identity politics and that keeps everybody frogmen to cross their various identities rather than uniting them and dealing with the real economic and political problems of the country. it's the marxist that you see look at the buying of single use plastics in the cause a report for you gave you is how the coronavirus has affected global markets in boom bust.

max kaiser this is the kaiser report you know the oceans are full of micro plastics . environments full of micro plastics during the course of the year you're going to go and buy ingest half a cup of plastic or more and it's growing every year where we will soon be giving birth to plastic babies. but who's to say that's not necessarily an improvement stacie well max indeed people should google that because we do an enormous amount of plastic every year and it's because michael plastics are in everything our water supply even up in the alps and tops of mountains it's all there and it's in our rain it's in our water it's all over the place so everybody's trying to do good right they're trying to say well we're going to ban single use plastic so.