lockdown begins coming up in the show a warning for me to the we go to buzz going to hear from the health director of a clinic on the frontline of the global pandemic and this johnson a recent i got an agent nation finance ministers' rejects a universal basic income instead opting for arguably impossible loans shouted johnson and john mcdonald's financial advisor on his new book on basic income and not making the same mistakes next time there is a global pandemic bust why is it always communist cuba that comes to the rescue when there's a medical emergency even when the countries in distress like britain and italy are allied to the usa responsible for decades of terrorism and sanctions against the caribbean island well as a ball coming up in today's going underground the 1st let's go straight to bagram and italy just me guys guide to dr sylvia binyamin the the health director of the san francesco clinic who is on the front line of the fight back against corona virus sylvia thanks so much for coming on spain seems to be turning into italy by next week who knows new york and london maybe like

a bug would you advise of us 1st of all to do to minimize the impact of growing a virus they see in us that it would seem bad again how it out there what the actually at the end because for all the people entering they all say well we've decided that they'd best and i think he quit meant to tourists that in stack that it's raining or that you was of the equipment and that fluff and i actually did write it was that i didn't know that you didn't go insane that community in this situation needs to be to difficult because many genetic speak and that so that people are that whole mess and they need. to seek for a cat and that device for doctors so what we had doing in my office because sometimes we had again i think a kind of from saturday's of a doctor as wedding day full on for all other people that that he told not so it's sort of nice that i'm saying. omniscient ok well we have

a phone service although it's been quite controversial trying to get through to it we're also putting thousands of beds 4000 beds in a conference center in the east london here but what advice would you give given that you just talked about protective equipment should doctors and nurses and cleaners should they wear dustbin bags what should they do here because we have a shortage of protection equipment in this country for a front line national health service yet they did they shut that to us at protective equipment i use they use any a show what. you need to do it out and i live they use of them so they use them exactly as the days that i commanded and we read. with we're getting reports of the doctors and nurses are reusing the protective equipment because there just isn't enough here in britain we add all that in much what a day about their masks and we chat important to back to that these vitals it's the

same says natale s. trading to the hair back there also and maybe mainly to discourage facies and the contact so if there is an impact and foot to wash and you don't have a can become a factor of designed us and that door i gin in then vitamin you should look at counties to stop the spread of divided they get to read a lot else in my domain as measures to keep that oil day places clean and and that try to avoid the on that do you think it's a problem for britain that you for instance tested a patient i understand in february and of course you subsequently tested positive for cove it 19 do you think it's a problem that we still haven't got testing kits here in britain and similarly in the united states that they have not been testing at a big level for corona virus. so i accessed this this 1st identified

a case in my office without undead 26 the fact that any. i was protected and we did the quick mental needed to do that that i might fast develop them from the 3rd of those come out if you had that that the body it accepted but is that this can be negative they may have been put in for kate i watched the game the thought that this is why didn't you tell me they decided to test all the people we'd see in the back of this ng is that really. out do you use that that is out of the test for a because. they tested it fast depends on the situation he's like a photography of that moment. so this situation can change you know for kate alice and maybe if they would be bad a different kind of death that i that he detests which to add to that is that i can

wage these might be he has. well there are reports of some new halley tests and of course over here you can get privately tested i'm going to ask you anecdotally not scientifically you tested of course positive but i'm sure you know of people that have died of the virus is there any correlation is it obviously people with underlying illnesses they're more susceptible to dying from covert 19 and we've seen any other correlations why is it we're getting reports of younger people now dying of coronavirus you my experience or what i am most sad thing when i say what is that they might judge us that we have that you may ask because i have between esthetically people or so are both 85 even 1000 or so and because we have a no single friend that lead people is this is going to say because there are people even we deny that it is easy it's quite like 4550 s so again they develop

a serious illness that add that people we do many diseases say and they don't develop serious illnesses so. i'm not experiencing correlation between their they use these as u.s. border. your genetic condition and they 11 of these that you developed because it's good enough right dr sylvia being me thank you thank you very much thank you. well if you believe the u.s. department of labor there's nothing anecdotal about the greatest rise in unemployment in u.s. history and here in new liberal britain initiatives like a universal basic income to save millions from the effects of coronavirus being shot down. on banks goldman sachs banker and current u.k. chancellor is he so nak joining me is the man that could have been advising the government on implementation of u b i have jeremy corbyn had 1 december general election his new book is battling a giant basic income now guy thanks so much for coming on you know before i even

get to the book what's your reaction to this unprecedented jobs figure how can your liberal economies cope with unemployment rises like 3280000 in the united states and who knows what it's going to be in britain. well i think we're reaching the bubble quite near the parole experiment of the past 3 decades when we're confronted by a unique combination of circumstances try to get where just a small downturn will lead to a cascading situation of homelessness people on unable to pay off that and a lack of demand full basic goods and services and in that respect the job or attention scheme won't succeed it is chronically inefficient it is going to be administered at least chaotic and it's highly regressive maybe the government already realizes it because it's trumpeting the fact that hundreds of thousands of

people maybe millions by the time the repeats of this program is shown are claiming universal credit the phone lines are open and things are going really well for universal credit you call it immoral in your new book 8 battling 8 giants basic income there yet because huge numbers of people love qualify for the universal credit card and the only way they can operate you know there's a credit is in effect abandoning universal credit a basic income will be far more transparent far more easy to operate and far more easy to understand ordinary people and their well huge numbers of people who fall through the cracks into total destitution the more people in diprivan asia the longer this current that doris will go on and the worse the consequences of the recession and depression that we're going to face then why is it that boris johnson and donald trump new liberal leaders are saying they're going to put up their arms

around us there is no pro carry out anymore the word that you so often used before although some people have been alleging that johnson has been slow to act because people were trying to force his hand with the universal being basic income something he really did not want to do. well i think the kerry sujan gretton as in other countries and i think the the theme of my book the 8 giants. involved millions of people in britain the inequality is going to be increased not decreased in this crisis the insecurity which is the 2nd giant in the book is going to become even stronger and even deeper the debt that i mentioned earlier is going to get worse the stress for the book is already enormous and is going to be intensified enormously by this this piracy as it all unfolds the sense of for

clarity the sense of being supplicants not having rights this is something that was already in demick in the system and is going to be intense by and that is why we need a transparent universal income through all that everybody would get and that list they would have basic security and they will not be understand as built into the system which is what unfortunately the chance has introduced it's arguably being influenced and amplified by the only gawker in the media in this country but tory the tory architect of universal credit bedroom taxes to child policies ian duncan smith here says it is a disincentive to work it is an affordable and got to think of it if as you're saying these policies are going to exacerbate the problems of the precariat we have the army now to infill nor in order. listen to his statements and i think that crazy if there's anything there that is stronger as

a disincentive to work it is this scheme that they just introduced you will only get it if your per load and if you are green not to do any work that's a crazy it's just assessed up with a basic income you overcome. the poverty trap that end duncan smith has admitted exists so to me a basic thing that is actually an incentive to work and the evidence i show in the book shows very clearly from around the world that while people have basic security they work lol not less and they are more productive when they work not less so in the fact it's complete middle class pockets on his part that he thinks that people would stop work he receives huge subsidies from the got money and sell to his family i don't notice that ottis him doing work well people are going to read the book and watch our previous interviews where you give more detail arguably only

universal basic income and given that you would have been advising a labor government if you call been had one do you think now your idea will die if the favorites are to replace corgan can start is to lead the labor party i think they will introduce it i was very impressed by the large number of m.p.'s from across the political spectrum and members of the house of lords signing a letter last week in favor of basic income i think we should be introducing pilots immediately in certain areas to roll it out and show how it would work i feel that this is a loan like where there is governments in various countries are going to move in this direction the inevitability of something like a basic income is going to dawn on even the most. indoctrinated dogmatic opponents professor guy can executive and very much after the break how does

communist cuba offer a guaranteed universal income and lead the global fight against coronavirus in asian nations with its doctors and medical treatments or some of them have about your going underground. i can't show you my face but i'm going to tell you my story in 1993 this man was sentenced to death. they could charge kenny with capital murder even though he didn't have the gun didn't pull the trigger didn't intend to kill anybody imagine living in your bathroom for the week with the center for 23 years.

confined within 4 gray walls he'd find so using hot turn on to help him to leave dance room. welcome back in the 1st half we heard about what more needs to be done by neo liberal western countries to tackle coronavirus but what if the solution lies in a tiny communist country dozens of videos posted on social media last week showed cuban doctors arriving in nature countries like italy where the pandemic had hit the hardest to help slow the virus so why is a country seen by many in nature nations as a failed state proving so proficiency when it comes to medical internationalism and humanitarian aid joining me via skype from glasgow is dr helen the f.a. whose new book we are cuba how revolutionary people have survived in

a post soviet world explores how the island's revolutionary people have survived despite decades of u.s. sanctions and tara thank you so much ellen for coming on the show said 62 years ago this month the usa began the military blockade of cuba why if someone reads your book would you not be surprised to see cuban doctors arriving in italy or british passengers on a cruise ship showing abana we love i love cuba after reading your book. well exactly and the medical internationalism that we see today that's being celebrated in terms of people's contribution to the coding 19 pandemic has actually been a key feature of cuban foreign policy for 60 years of the revolution initially it was mostly medics who were accompanying soldiers who were out as this thing with national liberation struggles all around africa and other regions really in since

the late 1990 s. the shift of human internationalism has gone from military to medical and we saw that 1st with. the after hurrican was in central america and the cuban sent medics and when they got there they found that they just then there was an infrastructure in place to be able to assist people in the way that was needed and that is when fidel castro had the initiative at the 'd end of the 1990 s. to set up a latin american school of medicine and initially for populations from central america which had been and then stated by natural disasters to come and train so that they wouldn't just be dependent on cuban medics but to help them to establish the stayner pull and health care that was universal and free at the point of delivery and and since then we've seen the numbers of human medical professionals overseas are growing and growing in venezuela most people will have her out of the

oil for doctors program which source someplace he files and and cuban medical professionals who are working in venezuela in 2014 we have the deadly outbreak of the e.u. bono virus in west africa and the cubans already had teams in several of the countries that are affected and they bolster those teams with specialists who could help them to combat the deadly. elaborate ok but in this country all we hear about is british soldiers actually helping a bowler in africa and there's been very little about even pictures on mainstream media here about cuba helping in a time of coronavirus let alone the fact that you mention the revolution they don't really mention that nato countries of course supported the fascist dictatorship that castro overthrew we're told in britain or the time and certainly in the united states people are told the cuba is

a repressive dictatorship far worse than any. offering far less fear of life outcomes than you'd get in any british or american in a city the issue is that cuba actually presents a threat to the dominant political and economic system around the world the fact that a small caribbean island nation which was subjected to hundreds of years of colonialism and imperialism and and thinks the revolution has effectively been subject to a very punitive and stringent blockade by the united states which includes in the restrictions and healthcare equipment educational treatment food and medicine the fact that a country like that can and actually lead to the welt in medical internationalism have more doctors working overseas and the world health organization has put out some inspired technology industry and that you know offer hope at this precise

moment of the of the pandemic but also you know that offering solutions to diabetic foot also affects you know nearly half a 1000000000 people well why they're offering solutions for a lung cancer they have been lung cancer vaccine and immunotherapy which is currently being trialled actually in new york so you know there's always an attack . i don't sort of sally the reputation of cuba because what pops is a threat to the system is if people start to examine cuba too closely and say well how is that possible how can this small island despite being a green fighting mightiest economic and political power on the planet how can it have resisted but not only resisted because i think the argument that i'm making in my book is that hubris best form of resistance has actually been to develop an alternative model of development and that is

a socialist system and you know for years when you started human history 'd and all policy it's you could read the english language text and they would tell you that the the cuban revolution was only 35 in france to solve your hate because it was a satellite in soviet union but by the time my book was published the cuban revolution has existed independently and for longer out since the soviet bloc collapsed and before so there's a story to be told do you think the pictures if you see them on independent media and on social media of the cuban doctors will finally put that to bed that it was somehow cuban communism only survived because of the u.s.s.r. i mean tell me about interferon b. which are presumably americans won't be able to have access to as a possible therapeutic for coronavirus because of the sanctions what does interfere and me. well interferon b. is ringback an antiviral drug which the which is being developed by various

pharmaceuticals companies around the world that cubans have their version of interferon after today and that i am starting to work with interferons to move in 45 days they have their own distinctive cuban interface interferon product now this was very fortunate because within a few weeks of that they had a very very real an outbreak of and then the fever it was a form of thank you that had never been seen in the americans before and the cuban suspected the cia the state department of 90 but a recent investigation has using bioinformatics hands in the cubans claim shown that the cia was involved in the instruction of this and the fever now the cubans used the interferon in the 1st ever mass public health campaign therapy advent combat the only fever and they were successful in that and they produced this product interferon and to be in 1906 it has different solutions and

stabilizers to the products produced in other countries therefore it is a distinctly human product to have to think britain boris johnson better than donald trump of the united states should be asking to work with cuba on this i should say the british cover did thank the cuban government for. a loan in the caribbean accepting a ship or work of it per $1000.00 cases were but britain has so far not condemned obviously the blockade joining this pandemic. no i mean the the british government like most governments in the out in fact all governments in the wild x. usually except 2 which is the united states and israel does actually vote against the us blockade of cuba in the general assembly in the amul where cuba condemns the blockade and so the question is should should they be are asking for access to this interferon which the chinese national health commission and up to

this antiviral are trying to come back kind of 19 and has found it to be very effective it's now according to documents i've seen at the top of them it's for treatment and if this treatment has been solicited now from cuba by at least 15 countries we're hearing but you know i've been contacted by people in the united states and in hospitals in here all they are also pretty desperate to get hold of this and you know they face the fact that they have the u.s. brocade which will deny them access yes and if there is evidence that interferon alpha to be is you know assisting patients and stopping them get and stopping the slowing down the death rate reducing the deficit and the british government should absolutely be talking to cuber about how they can access this about the point is cuba is characterized as being a dictatorship to have no democracy whatsoever and yet your book appears to be saying it's a country where there's constant debate constant critiques constant changes of

government policy through consultations and referendum. well look there are different in understanding some both human rights and democracy and so the united nations recognizes 2 sets of human rights and one set of economic social and cultural rights the other set a civil liberties and political right now essentially plan socialist economic system where human welfare is prioritized social economic and cultural rights have to be prioritized and of in the united states it's about the civil liberties and political rights which essentially means freedom to set up your own business it's part of a people freedom oath and speech but only if you have access you know all the freedoms that actually are mediated by your access to purchase them so in cuba the most fundamental right and the right to life and to have the right to life you need to have access free universally so all of those things that we need to move food

health care education but they have a concept the concept of living which is much higher on the other question of democracy you know if you take the preferred political expression all of the mostly in france comes to these countries which is the multi-party system usually pro-capitalist parties and if you take that as meaning democracy you look for that in cuba you find it's missing and therefore you can conclude that humor is not democratic but they have a different system of representation so i can give you an example the current process of for forms is taking place under the label of the guidelines for the economic and social policy and these wild produce these are actual guidelines on changes they want to see happening they were produced and distributed to every single cuban into bait about this document there when needed 9000000 people participating and those comments were registered and they were centralized and they were analyzed categorized and 68 percent of that document was subsequently change

as a result. of public opinion well if cuba is also better suited to cope with a pandemic the editor of the peer reviewed lancet said social justice was key in in responding to the pandemic and collective action is going to be more useful than thatcherite blairite individualism what about now the threat of capitalism emerging on the island well you know then cuba's room for maneuver has been restrained and restrained and particularly since the trumpet ministration. they have introduced these reforms which i referred to which do create spaces for the market they have created many and self employed people many on small businesses and and all of these things are an economic necessity why they only cannot make necessity because like any country in the wealth let alone a country going to develops or centuries as i said cuba needs capital it cannot get

the capital it needs for investments in infrastructure and productivity and for improvements in people's lives can't get by externally and frou. cuba is not a member of the i.m.f. the world bank or any of these other international financial institutions the problem is that the trump administration has revised all of the openings of the 'd blockade because of course about and never going to procreate in fact he his progress was very limited but they're trying to ministration has now taken over some place possibly more aggressive than any president since the cuban the beginning of the cuban revolution he's in that in something called true free of the hands balancing act on the helms person act was piece of u.s. legislation which defies the u.s. blockade in law but title 3 was never implemented because it has such drastic

implications not just became a vote for any country in the world wants to trade with cuba and in. it what it implies is that any u.s. business or individual who own property that was nationalized during the revolution where our or not the fact is that they were offered compensation which they turned down and if any fair party then invest with all or all has any kind of business with the that property now they can be sued in a us court so totally illegal in international terms it's actually a territorial application of the us role don't tell an epic thank you. that's it for the show will be back on wednesday iran's islamic republic day is the u.s. sanctioned country that reported a saloon a buyer's death every 10 minutes now received support from cuba until then for all the news not covered by the mainstream media join the on the ground by following us on you tube twitter facebook instagram and sometimes.

i'm going to fulfill the repeated promises apologise to the people and promise to be you know we've all bots to. be ready for a whole. lot. of money. now you want to 1st crack that. no. longer. wall being cut.

welcome to our viewers from around the world live from central london this is a law to u.k. . the prime minister's top advisor goes into self isolation with coronaviruses government experts say britain's lockdown could last 6 months. and a chance workers say they're forced to hide away protective equipment image shortages as it's claimed the government records for pandemic 3 years ago but failed to meet the results of which will be to adopt a very shortly. britain is on course for a recession worse than the 2008 credit crunch as analysts predict a major downturn i'll be speaking to a financial expert. welcome

to u.k. the government has warned that coronaviruses lockdown measures could last for 6 months as the prime minister's chief advisor self isolates with symptoms of the disease says worries grow of a shortages of n.h.s. resources despite authorities rehearsing for a very similar scenario 4 years ago audie case he joins me now with the old latest so isa the virus continues though to hit at the heart of the british government. yes we've seen over the weekend the death toll in the u.k. rising now to over 100-1228 but we are of course expecting that number to rise even further because we're yet to get the updates for the last 24 hours now in terms of the number of cases those are also rising and they include well maybe not tested

positive but certainly soft isolating is the prime minister's main adviser dominic cummings now we saw those images of mr cummings running away from the 10 downing street last week after it became clear that the prime minister himself had tested positive for coated 19 well now mr cummins himself is also a self isolating and we understand that he will be doing that for the next week or so so we also saw last week of course the health secretary testing positive as well as so many senior figures right at the top of government also being impacted by this as for the prime minister while he was in his quarantine bunker at number 10 downing street where he took the opportunity to update the country and everybody who's been complying with our instructions to you to stay at home and we've already seen massive falls in railway usage i think down about 95 percent plus you should

doubt about cindy 5 percent people really trying to work from home if they possibly can and that's what we want stay at home protect the n.h.s. saved lives. now we are also just getting the latest figures you saw over the weekend that the total was $1228.00 that's now gone up by a $159.00 over the last 24 hours so those numbers continue to rise we know that the prime minister has previously advised social distancing well now that's a rule because the government and the police are trying to force that but it would appear as we've seen over the weekend not everybody is a hearing to the police and darby breaking up a party at a home where there were 25 other children in attendance who were having some type of karaoke night so the message from the government and from their advisers is for people to take this seriously the deputy health advisor took to the country to

address them over the weekend and to tell everyone that we could be under these types of restrictive measures for up to 6 months the issue of the 3 weeks is for us to review where we are and see if we've had an impact jointly on the slope of that curve but i think to make it clear to the public if we are successful we will have squashed the top of that which is brilliant but we must not then suddenly revert to our normal way of living that would be quite dangerous if we start with an all of our efforts would be wasted and we could potentially see a 2nd peak so over time probably over the next 6 months we will have a 3 week review we will see where we going we need to keep that later on and then gradually we will be able to hopefully just some of the social distancing measures and grant julie get us all back to normal. how is the n.h.s. coping with all of this. well the national health service they are preparing for

the peak of this crisis but there have been many concerns amongst frontline staff about the lack of p.p.a. protective personal protective equipment the right type of masks and gloves and so on we've seen plenty of concerns around that but there are also been revelations that the government were prepared or were preparing for this type of pandemic situation up to 4 years ago now we have a look at some of what came out of that so-called exercise cygnus that was a pandemic model set up by imperial college london it assessed the n.h.s. is capability 7 weeks into a pandemic the model was based around the best deadly response 3 virus similar to code 1000 that comes from asia it found that 7 weeks into this theoretical pandemic the n.h.s. would be short of that type of protective equipment ventilators critical care beds

so on in general and a chest capacity as well because of course another issue with all of this is with the n.h.s. stretched quite covert 19 people who need treatment for a variety of other issues also finding that operations are being pushed back or there simply isn't the capacity to deal with that now the department of care of health and social care that these types of modeling analyses and these types of scenarios are all normal things that government do from time to time as the public would expect we regularly test our pandemic plans and the learnings from previous exercises have helped allow us to rapidly response to cope at 19 we are delivering a science led action plan to contain it delay the research and mitigate the outbreak and have acted swiftly to contain and slow the spread of the virus significantly to save lives and support our n.h.s. . so

a lot of aunts is there still to be oncet by the government as to how much they knew a pandemic like this would impact and what kind of preparations they did or didn't take. thank you very much indeed for all of that's well with those doomsday warnings not being heeded some n.h.s. frontline staff say they're forced to hide their personal protective equipment. on going shortages reports say that health workers are grabbing what they can from hospital storage units including face masks and protective glasses is said that many are worried that there simply aren't enough to go around and that some workers are even calling in sick out of fear the government said it is working to get additional personal protective equipment to front line staff or for more on this i'm now joined by physician dr parag single parag thank you very much indeed for joining us live here on r.t. u.k. and here what have you seen in terms of shortages. do all the issue is

supply. but work seems to be happening is that there's a lot you really it's not being mean to really build to the campaigns. and it's not a big girls are different shows are interpreting the. and i mean problems in these very lanes are that they're fundamentally plots and music and contradictory and so chose to be honest have to say you do what we're really from these very lanes and making. a really big to this but some trysts have yet to do that and still begging behind and not having the right protective clothing it must be terrifying for stuff on the front line physically and mentally it is causing a lot of friends 80 fear amongst friends lane star and that's why we believe that all the suspected patients in the hospital ship for in the category of confirmed are positive cases and these cases all these cases your property reaches as

a bare minimum serious muscovites that. because any patient who's coughing should fall in the end to get a result and this is recognised by. agents and of course because they know stuff we can't blame stuff for trying to stop pollen kept coming i mean they should be put in a position no no we can't be in the start because after all the question is yes there is all respect off is less compared to procedures but nevertheless risk and is this risk worth taking now serious not because we do not know how this disease is going to offend different individuals oh it is going to manifest and it is a deadly disease and we have seen already we have lost lives of those 3 soldiers lives and it is to be risky to portray him as a risk just because there is no productivity went so you there is one of those adrian fear among the very same spot talking about anxiety and fear what you make

of the doomsday planning report is it fair to say that the government just didn't take it seriously. you don't interfere so if the government should have been better prepared and if not you know 4 years ago at least the warning signs are there from generally our lives and it would have been better prepared so you. that's for the union as a doctor as a professional etiquette can you have a properly prepared for a pandemic of the sort i mean you have experience yourself of these exercises and i don't have experience myself but it is it is a very difficult situation and i think anybody can be ever be properly prepared for these. images and one has to call everybody has to come to get their 'd hands so i have the go 'd home mental also aren't. very of the same time i think what we the campaign is asking is let us visit your friends if they're very bitter because of this because you'd be a lot better if people deal with going to look after the stuff well that probably

had people like my next thought is not just about protective kit it's about weather and it sets off 5 know whether they're healthy or not that this testing began last weekend is what you make of that over june or what happened here in the b.b. has been asking people to letter to the chief scientific adviser. asking for every star for the main star to be test not only the front line star but also their immediate family members to stablish if the start members are negative they can help they're already stretched and if they also do an appropriate isolation arrangements and give me a number only for themselves but also their family members but isn't it more important to get the antibody test going rather than knowing whether you've got the illness or not the best thing is to know whether you've had it meaning go back. absolutely and what the test is going to be the game changer and we need that as soon as possible when it big game changer do you think that there is indication

that if you had this dreadful virus then actually you will be immune and you won't get it again. you're likely to be immune there's never any t. there obvious cases of experience and still i would expect people to take appropriate precautions thank you you are. well for protection. your final thoughts then doctor. the n.h.s. under huge strain at the moment what do you make of the fact that this could be ongoing for another 6 months what about the pressures now facing the n.h.s. in particular way you want. well and so pleasant pressures are not huge in the moment but it is not oh we have it didn't seem to be and that is going to come late this week or in couple of minutes do you think and build a great hit do you think you'll be able to cope with it where you will well the good thing is i think these are is unprecedented situation everybody is pulling together that's very mean star the leaders everybody working together to the races

and that is area that you're still has the strength in. there and it's got to bracks and gulf thank you very much indeed for joining us live here naughty you can thank you. the russian president has called on the head of other regions to follow the capital's lead and instigate tough measures to tackle the coronavirus for more on this we go now to our correspondent in moscow donald quarter so don't tell us what is the president been saying. well russia still managing to keep its number of coronavirus cases lower than what we're seeing in the u.s. and europe but the russian president has actually is trying to make sure that both ordinary people and officials continue to take this crisis seriously he's asking officials across the country to actually follow the lead of moscow and strictly carry out the government measures to come that were put forward to combat the coronavirus. moving to the nice to the few

we need to make clear to everyone to especially those in the high risk category and their relatives of those who are over 65 will be safer staying until they need to be told straight if you want to keep your health and your life and stay home use we are thinking of you can we please you think about yourselves would build in the us what the bomb. would normally allies now the kind of measures we're talking about in the russian capital here stop basically just short of a full locked out and it's basically people are now required to have special permission to leave their house for anything other than to buy food to take out the trash or to walk their dog and also call for the creation of additional reserves of medical supplies to be used in this time of crisis and it seems like a good decision at a time when the situation is more or less still mild now it's also important that citizens understand the severity of the situation especially the elderly the

russian president recently asked them to stay at home and to think that that's that's going to be the main way that they're going to stay healthy and be able to defend their lives in this time of crisis and for a while here in russia that was a recommendation but measures are gradually becoming stricter here as the number of coronavirus cases continues to gradually rise so perhaps russia will be able to maintain its control over the situation that and other places like the u.s. and europe has absolutely spawn out of control the local tonight in moscow thank you very much indeed for that update. still to come on the t.k. this is. going to strain the u.k. is heading towards a recession in full worse in 2008 i'll be talking to an economics expert shortly.

micrographs friends aren't slights against you know whites or men for example there's their slights against women or nonwhites so it's always you know the idea is that statements that directed toward a privileged group are interpreted differently than a statement directed toward an oppressed group and so that's kind of the whole framework and it's a it's a political framework that's used the result is of course focusing at least on certain kinds of minor slights and saying well rather than a northern northern we need to call attention to them but it's not all slight so it's a very political in this country. the

british economy is heading for a massive contraction and on the brink of its 1st recession since the financial crisis back in 2008 that's according to forecasts from the center for economics and business research the group predicts the economy would shrink slightly in the 1st quarter of this year by about half a percent however with the global downturn caused by the pandemic the 2nd quarter will see the economy contract by a never seen before 15 percent and that's almost 30 percent more than that experienced in the final quarter of 2008 when the reality of the banking crisis

became clear the recession and unemployment fears come as the department for work and pensions say nearly half a 1000000 people applied for universal credit in the last 2 weeks around 1300000 british workers lost their jobs of the result of the 2008 recession with banking manufacturing and retail sectors hardest hit where the current crisis is shut down all but key sectors of the economy with everything from hospitality to education now on hold but the chancellor has promised over hundreds of billions to shield both employees and self employed unable to work during the pandemic. but will the chance of the need to do more to save the british economy thoughts of this summit are joined by financial expert dr richard wellings richard hello to you. so a recession worse than the financial crisis back in 2008 do you agree with that. totally plausible so basically the private sector accounts for around 60 percent of the economy and huge chunks of the 2 shut down so we may well be in for the worst

recession the deepest recession since the early one $920.00 s. in the aftermath of world war one could even be worse than that some obviously would be unique in its sharpness happening so much in one quarter but economies do recover from the deep. of recessions this one could we see a very quick recovery if this virus is actually controlled this is a very big if and i think part of the problem is we may see some long term changes in economic behavior and some sectors will probably bounce back very quickly but other sectors mine not do so and that's going to cause the various adjustment problems or some sectors get into trouble and that will have knock on effects for example on the banking system as there is that there are big questions here and obviously there's another question in terms of the public finances because going ahead going to look very very shaky indeed and that will undermine confidence in investment so we'll see big changes in acceptable economics then. well i mean it

does the danger i think the eventual have to go back to sound off in august because obviously this could have happened at a worse time in many ways because we've had a really bad time since the financial crisis massive amounts of public that massive amounts of private debt there were already a very dangerous level so i'm pretty worried about this going forward and talk about debt then can the government really though prepare for a pandemic like this some of this was unavoidable wasn't it. does right but i think well they can do is they can try and reassure the markets in the medium term by for example says you know it's a series of spending cuts into 34 years time and hopefully the crisis will be over i think that would be one way of reassuring investors and reassure the markets because they can't as a go on to spend the money and printing money forever we are seeing the chancellor do something to mitigate the impact or indeed that the new governor of the bank of england you know the problem is you know there's no such thing as a free lunch and eventually someone's going to have to pay for it and the question

is who's going to be for it if you look at a financial crisis then obviously it was to a large extent ordinary saves on tax as it were forced to by a lot of the crazy capitalists in the banking sector so is there a danger here and once again there's a moral hazard because we're saying that a crisis that some extent you know these crises happen repeatedly every few years the chance to see the chancellor has hinted that change in the insurance is in effect for the self-employed but does quite a nice if so where with that particular whole estate and they have their riches self employed people are going to get baldauf but they are going to face a big tax hike and in the near future which of course is once again going to undermine confidence and investment we do see some aspects of the economy actually benefiting from recessions that are all the some positive aspects to be had out of this elements of the economy thriving perhaps that's right and you may see a shift for example some of the companies that are going big gains or home delivery

which is only 16 as a a much safer way to get you know what your old groceries at the moment so it could be a big shift over that over there then you see the downside is that spending would have been spent on other companies which are going to struggle so there is going to be this this quite a big adjustment it's going to be very painful for certain sectors and of course we're talking about the british economy here but every economy is going to be hit isn't it and that of course has an impact on the british kind of the 2 that's right so you know i mean we're looking at 7 better news out of china but of course chinese exports are going to be crucified because the west is in lockdown so its main export markets aren't going to be buying as much for example consumer goods because the shops are shut and people can't buy them so you know the ramifications of this are enormous and obviously. they're not true resources. explores in current theories some of them very anxious to. talk to richard wellings thank you very much great to talk to you today here on r.t. k. thank you tom. a temporary mortuary is being built at birmingham airport in

preparation for an expected rise in deaths due to the virus it will initially have room for $1500.00 bodies but the intention is to make space for up to $12000.00 the site is expected to accommodate deaths across the entire west midlands as more regional more trees close the city's chief coroner says that communication with the families of victims will be at the heart of the process. we understand that it is a very difficult time for everyone and we will do all that we can to make sure bereaved families understand what is happening to their loved ones and to release them for a funeral as soon as we can. british for fighters will assist the public turn the lock down and all ready to recover bodies if the crisis worsens as part of joint national approach the emergency services will deploy firefighters to drive ambulances deliver essential items to the vulnerable and elderly and collect bodies in the event of mass casualties during the help break

the agreement between the fire brigades union and fire and rescue employers is set to last for 2 months but can be amended depending on demand we face a public health crisis some paralleled in our lifetimes the coronavirus outbreak is now a humanitarian emergency and firefighters rightly want to help their communities many fear the loss of life in this outbreak could be overwhelming and firefighters who often handle terrible situations and incidents are ready to step in to assist with body retrieval. well to discuss this in more detail i'll be joined in the next up by a form of function that's old news for the sun i'll be back with more then in just about hoffa now from the.

bottom around the no. man no. another let. alone. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world the politics sports business i'm show business i'll see that.

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one of them with your house on them in. a low and welcome the cross for all things are considered i'm peter lavelle the atlantic alliance the bedrock of the post world war 2 global security order is slowly but surely unraveling more and more often washington and brussels diverged on important foreign policy issues today europe has a choice to defend its interests or fade into oblivion.

crosstalk in the atlantic alliance i'm joined by my guest mark allman in oxford he's the director of the crisis research institute in london we have jonathan steele he's an international affairs commentator also in london we have a real because he is founder of a k. consulting and a foreign affairs analyst all right gentlemen cross-like rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate mark let me go to you 1st here and let me just read you 2 quotes here from number one foreign minister lavrov in munich say. quote change course speed for it's too late and we have the new head of the european union's foreign policy arm he says he also says europe must develop quote appetite for power in the trump era they're both hinting at the same thing in different directions here what does that tell you better change course before it's too late what's that mean to you. i think certainly the tensions between russia and

the west in general are really probably tensions in russia in the united states and we can see that actually inside the european union and the european members of nato there are quite sharp divisions between the east european states who live with historical enmity and resentments against both russia imperial russia and the soviet union and then the west european states including germany france and so on for whom a russian threat doesn't really exist anymore but who are paying a price through sanctions and economic losses for the grand a strategy of the united states to keep russia in its box and so there is a tension about where you're going to go because if this situation of a new cold war between russia and america continues is your really benefiting from that you know if it isn't which europeans are going to make and yeah i mean just to decide to move in a slightly different direction marc makes a very good point i mean that the tensions are prior between the united states and russia and europe as usual finds itself in the middle with

a mixture as marx pointed out here but that is not a proper way forward that is that that is paralysis and as i said in my interrupted introduction they have to start defending their interests or they're really going to become irrelevant because we have the rise of china the closer relationship between moscow and beijing where is europe in all of this go ahead jonathan. well i think i'm glad you mentioned china because i think that was one of the me main factors at the munich security conference i mean trying to develop i mean the people in washington trying to develop a new cold war this time with china as the enemy as well as russia and it was important the chinese foreign minister came and really responded in reacted quite severely against what the united states had been say i mean europe does not want to get involved in a russian intissar in an american crusade against china europe must stand free from that and that's why.