breaking news coming up for you this hour british drugs giant astra zeneca has agreed to cooperate with the makers of russia. to study the effectiveness of using their respective coronavirus vaccines combination. of the news the international criminal court has dropped a probe into alleged war crimes by u.k. forces in iraq despite having quote reasonable basis to believe that the action taken place. good by russia gates and hello china gates with u.s. intelligence chiefs beijing the greatest threat to washington today. by scandal unfolds. others the u.s.

struggles with its economic consequences the nation's billionaires have increased their wealth by than a trillion dollars some big enough to have covered a major relief bill i guess get their teeth into the issues. it's a pathetic sea. of a system being out of control so let me just give the quality keeps getting. more draw for people some sort of refuge from using heavy handed government policies which never have to be so heavy and. they create value with this 1 pm here in the russian capital you're watching our internet. russian and british scientists are ready to combine forces on the development of a. astra zeneca has said in

a statement that it is ready to work with the developers of russia but. the program is expected to involve adults over 18. in years of age in this combined clinical trial astra zeneca said that exploring combinations of various covert vaccines is important to them as it might result in a better immune response a jab developed by astra zeneca and oxford university as show 90 percent efficacy in those who were given a half dose followed by a full one compared to only 62 percent in volunteers who received 2 full doses one month apart and while the efficiency of the russians are exporting v. has been estimated by the producers at 95 percent. meanwhile the argentinian president said that he would be 1st in line in this country to receive russia's kovi job. president fernandez has said that he plans to acquire enough doses to vaccinate 10000000 people in this country.

the international criminal court has dropped a probe into alleged war crimes by u.k. armed forces in iraq that despite the prosecutor having quote take reasonable basis to believe offenses took place the court explains its decision by pointing to the fact the u.k. had investigated the matter itself the investigations into more than 3000 cases resulted in no prosecutions and if you're trying to takes a closer look. and that story after 6 years of what was called a preliminary examination of allegations of war crimes by the u.k. motel in iraq the international criminal court says it's not going to proceed and so just before calling the british justice system one of the best in the world this is the way you case proud defense secretary reacts their statement today indicates our efforts to pursue justice were allegations have been founded i'm pleased that

work we have done and continues to do in improving the quality and assurances around investigations has been recognized by the international criminal court what i suggest though is reading beyond the 1st 2 lines of what the i.c.c. prosecutor ruled it will only take a few seconds to get to the part that says the office has previously found and today confirmed that there is a reasonable basis to believe members of the british armed forces are responsible for the following.

i'll continue reading out bits from pretty much every paragraph one after another civilian supervisory and military command famers contributed to the commission of crimes against detainees the initial response of the british army and theater at the time of the alleged offenses was inadequate not a single case being submitted for prosecution to date a result that has deprived the victims of justice i could keep going but it's already clear that these conclusions sound like they're from a different report not from one that leads to a major case being dropped or a senior cabinet member bragging about an amazing justice system need seems to me. it's almost incredible to think that of thousands of allegations not won over those townsend's has been regarded as justifying coming in from typical we need to push forward with demands for serious and proper investigations in what i believe is

a scandal and as the record stands you know the evidence is there is reasonable evidence in the words of the i.c.c. prosecutor there is reasonable evidence of all hugs to patrol cities carried out by members of the british armed services the british army will seize against iraqi detainees however if that's the way things are in the world of international criminal law london tick the boxes by launching domestic probes and the i.c.c. couldn't prove any shielding or deliberate covering up so the rest is out of the tribunals jurisdiction which only makes you wonder following up on the i.c.c. his own statement does it all mean the iraqi victor. will never get justice the u.k. government has repeatedly shown precious little interest in investigating and prosecuting atrocities committed abroad by british troops the prosecutor's decision to close a u.k. inquiry will doubtless fuel perceptions and ugly double standard in justice one

approach to powerful states and quite another for those with less clout the news from the i.c.c. comes as london pushes for a controversial overseas operations bill it's supposed to quote unquote protect british troops in overseas conflicts from fixations litigation and repeated investigations critics though say it would allow more offenders to escape the law the overseas operations bill will do nothing to address the issue of repeat investigations of u.k. armed forces personnel list will do is make arifin cases like the death of iraqi national even more difficult to prosecute the u.k. would also be violating numerous human rights treaties by not ensuring abuses are properly dealt with but even without the bill as we now know the international criminal court has pulled the brakes on probing the british military earlier when the court was going to look into potential abuses by the u.s. troops in war zones washington simply head back by sanctioning senior staff members

at the i.c.c. what if after that the tribunals didn't want to go too far with investigating uncle sam's number one ally in iraq well there's no way of knowing. u.s. politicians are calling for heads to roll after a member of the u.s. intelligence committee was targeted by suspected chinese spy comes as u.s. intelligence chiefs identify beijing as washington's number one of the sorry guys the of example. so trumps out and the russia gate thing is slamming shut behind him because there's a new scare story in town china you know it doesn't take long to dig up dirt in a town like washington q us democrat representative eric swalwell until now move well this crist so far the evidence is on contradicted that the president used taxpayer dollars to ask the ukrainians to help them choose an election this time

around it's his links to a suspected chinese spy who is in the stink not least because and this is awkward he sits on the house intelligence committee not the only shall be removed from the intel he should be removed from congress as well yes house minority leader kevin mccarthy there spotted an opportunity to claim his 1st victim so the background in a nutshell swalwell hod a chinese national called fang fag in his early political career and this person quickly started raising suspicions within the intel community he got rid of her but his recently refused to answer whether he slept with her which probably means yes but before we burn mr swalwell at the stake at sea we're out might have to join him once this chinese witch hunt really gains momentum you've got a feel for mitch mcconnell he survived the title most good image but can he now survive the fact that is wife secretary of transportation chouteau is from one of

china's most prominent political families that would be one hell of a honey trap and you and jean shall have served on the board of the holding company for china's teach to build in a state owned enterprise that makes chips for the chinese military. is also on the board at the bank of china and top lender to the ship builder remember also the former speaker of the house john boehner aka the original orange man is there's the whole. republicans actually give john boehner a harder time than they give me. which means orange really is the new black. these days the former speaker of the house just happens to be a lot b.s. for a certain people's republic of china is this guy aggie purdy chief security officer who are way the u.s. is really china on a number of issues and they want to hurt one way to hurt china very afraid of the

competition between china and the u.s. so they're focusing on hurting while way before getting professionally agri for you our way for a living and you purdy was a member of the white house start team that helped draft the u.s. national strategy to secure cyberspace this is just the tip of the iceberg therefore the head of u.s. intelligence has declared open season on beijing calling it threat number one if i could communicate one thing to the american people it is that the people's republic of china poses the greatest threat to america today and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since world war 2 what they might find is that there aren't many politicians left who don't have links to this new enemy because they used to be friends we is getting hard to keep up. more americans have now died of covert than last fighting in world war 2 the death

toll is now close 230-0000 of the total number of cases is over 50000000 pandemic maybe the country's worst crisis for decades but it hasn't stopped the rich from getting richer the net worth of american billionaires a sword by a trillion dollars since march according to a new report. as tens of millions of americans suffer from the health and economic ridges of these pandemic a few 100 billionaires add to their massive fortunes their pandemic profits are so immense that america's billionaires could pay for a major corporate relieve bill and still not lose a dime of their provider it's reaches the updraft of wealth to the billionaire class is disturbing at a time when millions face eviction destitution and loss billionaires are extracting wealth at a time when essential workers are pushed into the viral line of fire campaign group americans for tax fairness found that the extra wealth accumulated by billionaires during the pandemic would be enough to dish out $3000.00 to every single american

it's roughly equal to the entire amount spent by the federal government on health care last year nearly 4 times more than stimulus payments made earlier this year to 159000000 americans now the reporting clue did $651.00 billionaires and you take a look at some of the wealthiest jeff bezos is now worth more than $180000000000.00 that's more than the g.d.p. of iraq. musk's wealth through almost 6 fold during the pandemic mark zuckerberg almost doubles his wealth earth must insert a birth garra with more than $100000000000.00 now i guess debated profiting from a pandemic. this is capitalism on government life support and the side effect of that is to make those who own shares the overwhelming bulk being owned by the richest people even richer and while everybody else is in trouble in the way that they blame capitalism for destroying the poor and and creating great

inequality these government policies do exactly that have lockdowns crushing small medium businesses we have state homeowners which drove people into an unemployment largely virtual existence we don't wait a month for policy which drove a crisis in financial markets i always love these kinds of analyses is it the government has a day or 6 not going to the drops from the government there's nothing naive here the government isn't doing something then as a result the government is itself the result of the way this is science he works which puts enormous wealth and therefore political power in the hands of a very small number of people who turn out to have a government policy that makes them richer this burst of new wealth is just as purely a product of government policy was unnecessary you know the unintended consequences of lockouts and such and in this case they call them non-pharmaceutical interventions but there's also capacity limits on businesses are going to be almost

the opposite of what we're hoping for the draconian policies they've increased the gap. between the rich and poor that created new controversies of wealth is tremendous consolidation going on right now let me be clear here we could have been prepared for this virus the way other countries where we could have handled it better the way other countries have it's a pathetic sad story of a system spinning out of control so that it's unjust inequality keeps getting worse we have a monopoly in this country have had it for a century we have 2 parties we don't allow 2 businesses that dominate most of our industries but we allow these 2 parties to dominate our politics that's very convenient for the computer they. the class of corporate directors who donate the bulk of the money to both of them will pull the strings from both of the bodies and you can't really have a monopoly without government help because innovation never stops you have you would you need to have a monopoly as richard said is you need government controls you need artificial

controls like patents and like copyright and all that sort of thing health care is a perfect example of that's a business and it's a sector which is super regulated and it therefore you have entrenched interests there and for that reason we shouldn't be surprised that those costs are rising rising rising and you know to juju with no end in sight i mean i think that is. one of the one of those maybe maybe the picture perfect examples of what happens when government gets up to its neck in an industry to think of this as a government policy is strange the beneficiary here are corporations they are operate with 4 industries doctors hospitals device and drug makers and the insurers they've got us by the throat we have to pay those prices that they control yes peter's right they use the government to cement their monopoly as monopolists always had but the impetus the desire that need to control the market to squeeze more profits that's what drives the government to do what they do in support of

these interests trying to maximize the money they can squeeze out of our health care if you look at these lockdowns how many people i mean if you think of people locked in home people with nothing to do stores being closed what was keeping people alive what was keeping people fed was keeping people's minds saying right facebook google amazon netflix things like that those no service providers and as many of the businesses to me is but large corporations are offering people some some sort of refuge from these heavy handed government policies which never had to be so heavy hand. e.u. members of stress the need to develop a coordinated approach to vaccine certificates. a common new approach to vaccination certificates is likely to reinforce the public health response in member states and the trust of citizens in the vaccination effort electronic vaccination certificates would show whether a traveller had been immunized to get its current virus before crossing borders

system was a key part of discussions on how the blocks going to lift pandemic restrictions over the coming year really the world health organization of against any system we heard from is representative. we generally have price not to make it men don't treat it's much better people want to be vaccinated if you have a mandate or a system it's much difficult to much more difficult actually to ensure that everybody gets the accident because people become frightened and there's no reason to be frightened of something like this which is our lives. we are scientific and neutral cause organization that's just like any organization we do get criticised but we also have knows if there's been some politicize ation of the response and we do ask leave the quality but certainly we have been concerned and have been warning against taxing nationalism for a long time and again that's why entire low water scientists were working on

developing the vaccines we were working on saving up the facility the kovacs facility until you can with all the different countries to join that. we will see the changes we will see big improvements in 2021 if we don't keep doing what we must do if we all will play out part continue with the garbage health measures continue with the tracking and tracing finding every case bringing in the numbers down as we bring the numbers of infections down and as we increase the vaccination the virus will have no way to go and we will be. dividing picks and next gen to the bone. to go with his position traditionally goes to a civilian there are all concerns into those after the break.

one else shows something seems wrong why don't we all just don't call. me to call yet to shape out these days comes to advocate and in detroit because betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. which is a planet with 5 moods an atmosphere highly active geology and evidence for a move the border of the ocean and its interior it could. be of those 4 by all that

is just far beyond our wildest imagination. welcome back the president of argentina has given the thumbs up to russia's corona virus vaccine said that once the drug is approved by the country's medical regulator he'd be the very 1st person in the country to receive the sputnik the jump he had no doubts about its quality. and one of you who are here in argentina some raise doubts about the quality of russian science the russian gamma lay institute has several nobel prizes among its staff of scientists to clear everyone's doubts when sputnik v. is here in argentina i will be the 1st one to take that vaccine because i have no doubt about the quality of the vaccine and itself has been badly hit by the pandemic it has nearly one and a half 1000000 cases and

a total of more than $40000.00 deaths it remains the 2nd worst hit country in latin america after brazil they are time president confirmed the country had signed a deal with russia on sputnik the supplies high risk groups in the country will be 1st in line for the job the president says that they are buying enough doses to vaccinate 10000000 people. we will be able to count on the north doses divac snake 10000000 argentinians between january and february 1st a batch of 600000 doses to vaccinate 300000 people before the end of the year by january will have enough vaccines for 5000000 people and by february we'll have enough vaccines to reach the 10000000 people with. several major democrats have rejected joe biden's pick for the defense secretary post the president elect named the retired general lloyd austin as his nominee on wednesday but the top job at the pentagon traditionally goes to

a civilian and austin has only been retired for 4 years which is led to concerns he still too close to the army illiberal been explains. joe biden's pick for a pentagon chief is a man he's known for a long time they were friendly under the obama administration man who i've seen some of the more interesting parts of the world with. when i was there as president . so mine was whom i have worked closely for many years and i've seen perform to the higher standards under intense pressure biden's decision to pick a pentagon general came despite the democrats' pre-election pledge to use their words they were going to end the trumps distortion of civilian and military roles in decision making and reinstate national security policy making processes and competent civilian control many within biden's own party are now fuming they say putting and general in control of the pentagon violates the basic principle of civilian control over the military plus general austin served in the military far

too recently and at this point a congressional waiver is going to be needed just in another recently retired general to serve in a role designed for a civilian just falls off i opposed a waiver for general mattis and i will oppose a waiver for general austin i believe that a wave of the 7 year rule would contravene the basic principle that they should be civilian control over a nonpolitical minute tree i will not support the waiver but general austin says he considers himself to be a civilian but i come to this role this new role as a as a civilian leader. well it's military experience to be sure but also with a deep appreciation and reverence for the prevailing wisdom of civilian control of our military but his long record in the u.s. military tells a different story lloyd austin the 3rd actually had the job of being the top commander of u.s.

military forces in the middle east in 2015 he revealed that the united states had spent $500000000.00 to train forces in syria that would fight against the islamic state militants and after that they ended up with only a handful of competent fighters can you tell us what the total number of trained fighters remains it's a small number and. the ones that are in the fight is is is we're talking $44.00 or 5 so is that still the goal to have about $12000.00 of them there is that still the goal what's the expectation then for them at the pace we're gone we won't reach the the goal that we had initially established or so but even after leaving active duty general austin was not yet ready to say farewell to arms his civilian job landed him on the board of directors of raise the on a top military contracting corporation now raytheon has been in the spotlight

during the trumpet ministration because it is actually a top supplier of the military hardware to saudi arabia in their relentless and unending war against yemen in 2019 raytheon cut an $8000000000.00 deal with saudi arabia for munitions and military supplies in order to continue their relentless bombing campaign that has already claimed over 100000 lives retha manufactures the bomb components that are used in yemen he bears a direct responsibility he was making money as a board member of the company that is directly responsible for the death and destruction there civilian control. well it seems like some civilians that have a pretty big financial interest in prolonging these endless wars have been exercising some level of control and influence for a long time and general austin is their man he been a military. in the military for 4040 years he

he is good at taking orders and carrying out orders he has not exhibited that i've seen any or has a history of any strategic thinking that would allow him to provide for what's necessary or national security policy and i think that that would be a problem for a position that traditionally is supposed to be a civilian i think that he would tend to look more toward what the military folks are interested in rather than the overall policy as it pertains to national security and how it glen's him with other issues from a foreign policy perspective and what have you he definitely would not be a strong secretary defense if. we're not to a scrapped joint military exercises with beijing last year it was doing washington's bidding according to classified documents revealed by a canadian news network the trudeau government plan to invite chinese troops to

train in ontario just months after 2 canadians were arrested in china the chinese military contingent was expected to study canadian cold weather military tactics classified documents obtained by rebel new showed that a training event was eventually counseled at the request of the us that department . we recall for example that back in december department of national defense and canadian armed forces were keen to cancel the people's liberation army participation in the winter survival training following their request from the d.o.d. to do so that winter survival training will not take place this winter the security concerns originated primarily from the us we do not have a record of other 5 i countries expressing this concern 6 canada wiil documents also suggest the exercise was counsel directly by canadian armed forces bypassing to those liberal government we have asked global affairs canada to comment on the situation but earlier experts told us why canada's top officials might want to seek

better relations with china. relationship between canada and china is. reasonably good so this is my as world history real this exercise planned in 2090 my as world be an event well planned from a larger share of the g. point of view i'm not surprised at all for the pressure of us on canada in fact it's not just canada even the u.k. australia and new c. than they always say if pressure these countries are no longer acting like an independent countries with independent foreign policies from the actions of prince trudeau canada is clearly much more inclined to what's the pressure. from the united states i'm not surprised that they're that the united states is putting pressure on canada. regards to its relations with china and someone

decided that it was not in canada's interest and that is the more unusual part is how that the military if these reports are correct managed to supersede the prime minister that is perhaps the more interesting question to ask and of course i don't have any answers for that who does but this is it looks like a case of insubordination canada's long term success will rely more on china than it will perhaps on the united states. finally this hour a reminder of our breaking news story british pharmaceutical company astra zeneca has accepted an offer of cooperation from the developers of russia's sputnik vaccine the company said that exploring various combinations of curvy vaccines is important to see if a better immune response could be achieved the clinical trial program for this project is expected to involve adults aged 18 and over.