latest headlines in the week's top stories on our team british pharma giant astra zeneca and the makers of russians put a jab agreed to cooperate to find out if combining vaccines. effectiveness with visit a center that has already produced a russian shot. in the. scene is being fulfilled here in. this particular case is think. that. riots broke out in several u.s. cities between left wing groups and trump supporters and exposing a deepening rift over the election outcome. plus a goodbye russia gate hello china gate u.s. intelligence chiefs granted beijing the greatest threat to washington amid claims

of spy infiltration. and broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow recapping week's top stories with our weekly program this is r t international we start 1st though with news coming out of new york a gunman hasn't been shot after he opened fire at the end of a christmas carol concert of a church in manhattan according to new york police now he started shooting at police officers who then returned fire the gunman was taken to hospital and is now in critical condition there are no other casualties so far but police have called on people to avoid the area investigation is underway of course we will be keeping across the story and we'll bring you any further updates as we get them here in the newsroom. russian and british scientists have agreed to combine their vaccines in a bid to tackle the covert pandemic astra zeneca says it is ready to work with the

developers of russia's jab. today we announce a clinical trial program to assess safety and immunogenicity of combination of a's a d $1222.00 developed by astra zeneca and oxford university and sputnik v. developed by russian research institute it is hoped that by combining the drugs it could lead to a better immune response to the corona virus the clinical trials will be held in russia the job created by oxford university and astra zeneca has shown varying results depending on the dose with an average efficacy of 70 percent compared with putting these playing results of 90 percent. they have a problem that vaccines efficacy isn't high enough this should be improved we have 2 different adding new viruses they will take one of them and use it as a booster molecular and college professor lawrence young believes cross border

cooperation will be vital in tackling the health crisis. i think it's a fine stick opportunity to work together in developing a more effective vaccine and there's lots of evidence that when you mix and match different vaccine platforms you get stronger and longer lasting in your responses to our competition so this is fantastic news and i think it will. raise confidence both in terms of the astra zeneca vaccine and also the sputnik vaccine it demonstrates the the power of scientists working collaboratively we're all very keen scientists around the world to work together and work in collaboration and i think this will provide an excellent opportunity for the very best people working in the u.k. in the very best people working in russia to actually work together and i hope that one of the consequences of something like this is the longer term collaboration in other areas of science and medicine so i think it's a very very important important day for us actually it's very exciting. moscow has

become the 1st russian city to begin a mass coded inoculation program put mcvie shot is being made available free of charge front line workers including hospital and school staff will be 1st in line although for now it is not being given to anyone over the age of 60 russia's daily infection rate hasn't reached 28000 cases the numbers have been steadily rising since september earlier this week. visited a company that is ramping up production of the vaccine. we are the car companies if they feed us back in the way i am a different scene is being told here that if they hide this particular line for jay says $6000.00 but our sputnik the is a too short adenovirus based effects of exene the difference between sputnik v. and some other international coded 19 vaccines is this vaccine is a human based one not an animal so what's a vector it's an engineered virus lacking the gene for representation therefore

it's unable to infect or to does is serve as a vehicle for coronavirus proteins over 3 weeks a patient receives 2 different jobs to form antibodies and disease resistance before taking a coronavirus vaccination everyone is examined to make sure they're healthy that it takes another 15 minutes to store the vaccine sputnik these stored at minus 18 degrees c. and developer say that's an advantage compared to other countries vaccines requiring significantly lower temperatures for storage after the injection doctors monitor you for certain minutes before you're free to go. i think the vaccination is a great way to protect myself and most importantly my relatives my parents are already 65 blots also it's free. i was initially examined by a doctor he asked if i had any chronic diseases measured my blood pressure looked at my electronic medical record that i was allowed to undergo the procedure everything was fast i received that saying that i can be one of the 1st for the

vaccination i'm so glad and i trust the vaccine is not as good yes i had doubts but i've made my decision and i'm here today the vaccine is now being supplied to all corners of the country at the same time the military is receiving sputnik the 2 in russia the cove in $1000.00 job is voluntary and free of charge and even though some people still remain skeptical about the safety and efficiency of the vaccine most agree that large scale explanation is probably the only way now to put an end to the pandemic. you know i should of on of our own saying. 4 people have been stabbed in washington d.c. during clashes between pro and anti trump groups police moved in to separate the opposing crowds detaining at least 23 demonstrators in the process the stabbing victims are reportedly all in critical condition now while on the west coast in washington state one person was shot and injured as rival crowds faced off police deployed tear gas and stun grenades and say

a suspect has been detained conservative radio host dave perkins believes. this is coming in fringe groups. from supporters aren't violent they just don't show up in the streets with an intent to get in fights with people the preposition weapons the bricks the special radios for communication in backpacks that can't be blocked like cell phones can be blocked all those preparations for riots are made by and the trump people just show up and wave flags and wave signs and a lot of america violence you're talking about is between the fox and the proud boys and i've been a monitor of conservative politics in america for 35 years until this year i never heard of the problem is they are not a conservative group they're libertarians and they're not racists their founder and current leader is a man who is half black and half cuban and if anyone wants to research the problem as online it's easy to figure out they don't belong to the conservative movement

and they aren't really all that pro tromped they're just showing up because there is a left wing enemy that's throwing punches and they're in the mood to throw them back . paris was engulfed in renewed unrest on saturday over a controversial security bill 142 people were detained during clashes with police. riot officers used water cannons and tear gas as the situation spiraled out of control the anger stems from plans to criminalize the filming of police officers and publishing that footage online with quote ill intent the government later said

it would rewrite the clause but not the entire bill outrage has continued over other parts of the draft law as well including the boosting of surveillance powers . this week the u.s. set its sights firmly on china with intel chiefs identifying beijing as washington's biggest threat this comes after a member of the u.s. intelligence committee was targeted by suspected chinese spy. to have picks up the story for us. so trump's 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 moves through well this crist so far the evidence is one 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 whole nation to 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 hug a chinese national called thang fag in his early political career and this person quickly started raising suspicions within the intel community he got rid of her but has recently refused to answer whether he slept with her which probably means yes but before we burn mr swalwell at the stake that see you 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 mitch but can he now survive the fact that is wife secretary of transportation elaine chao 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 is the high. 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 for a certain people's republic of china is this guy aggie purdie chief security officer who are way the u.s. is ready for china on a number of issues and they want to hurt one way to hurt china the 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 the purdy was a member of the white house staff 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 threats 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 weenies getting hard to keep up legendary pink floyd co-founder roger waters didn't hold back this week while appearing on r t is going underground among his targets was the recent us election you can watch

the full interview on our website but here is a quick preview. if trump had been re-elected it would have been worse for everyone in the world but that doesn't make biden a good candidate biden is a dyed in the wool world monk grading servant of the oligarchy that rules the united states american will continue to be so for however long he remains president it's the united states is not to be trusted on anything do you think joe biden is going to move the american embassy back to tell of a are you kidding he's made it quite clear that he's the staunchest zionist friend of. of israel that could possibly be in office so i hope that he and kids start a happy sleeping in that caught that they're going to share for the next few years kiss our reality has to look either of them having any power under any circumstances because they clearly not clear thinkers they clearly don't believe in

human rights they clearly have no interest in the law they have no interest in the united nations they have no interest in the geneva conventions they have no interest in any of the things that in near to my heart and to your heart should and i'm completely impartial you have campaigned for upholding of un security council revolution resolutions all your life you don't expect biden to reverse the trump position on the golan heights the illegal declaration by the united states is going to oppose the un security council resolution making out that it was israeli now of course not i don't expect him to. reverse any of that nonsense i expect him to absolute they abide by the deal of the century obviously i'm pretty happy that skinny piece of dough to poke. her is no longer in the white house pretending

to form foreign policy for the middle east. as are 2 international and the weekly more news after a short break. human history has always seen continuous war opensource but in recent years it seems to have become more intense the platforming is no common practice and public scrutiny a permanent feature where do we all stand on the battlefield of belief. the world is driven by dreams shaped by phone person.

thinks. we dare to ask. welcome back to the weekly right here on our international now a british newspaper has claimed alexina volley was poisoned with no but chuck not once but twice before being airlifted from russia to germany the times cited unnamed intelligence sources as saying the would be assassins tried to finish off the top kremlin critic while he was in a coma but failed. german security sources have told their associates in the u.k.

that the attack has struck again as in the valley lay in an induced coma before being put on a medical flights to germany this was with a view to him being dead by the time he arrived in berlin one source said alexina vali fell severely ill during a domestic a flight back in august the pilot made an emergency landing in where the politician was put into an induced coma 2 days later he was flown to berlin where a military lab concluded he had been poisoned with a nova choke nerve agent western governments were quick to point the finger at the kremlin which has denied any involvement moscow has also repeatedly asked for access to the lab results but know to no avail avali is still in germany where he is recovering political commentator ike hammer believes there are more questions than answers about the new revelations. of this island so ridiculous it sounds somebody hear from somebody you get something from a friend so it's nothing and whenever you are asked for

a proof whenever you are asked for a libel information they say sorry we can't handle it over i that it is classified or it is it is not for you or whatever this is ridiculous when you make up stories nothing fits together is the russian secret service is not even able to poison somebody with a deadly poison on its own soil this doesn't fit together at all so this is a big lie story with no money and i think every child knows it by now i think they don't know how to get out of this story and they just did it themselves far into it . now into bragg's it sunday it was meant to be make or break for trade negotiations but the british prime minister and european commission chief have decided negotiations should talk some more. despite the fact that that lines have been missed over and over we both think that it is responsible at this point in

time to go the extra mile i'm afraid we're still very far apart on some key things but where there's life there's hope we're going to keep talking to see what we can do the u.k. certainly would be away from the talks so that people would expect us to to go the extra mile well the 2 sides still don't see eye to eye on 3 key areas the e u wants access to u.k. fishing waters post brags that something firmly opposed by britain's leave campaign negotiators have also still not agreed on a level playing field for future tariff free trade or on how disputes would be resolved if either side doesn't play by the rules. the u.k. officially left the e.u. back in january but remains in the single market and customs union during the transition period if a deal isn't reached by the end of this month britain will depart the block and revert to trading on world trade organization rules with the way it goes have been going so far many see that as the most likely outcome political commentator anthony

webber believes most people just want it to be over one way or the other. well you keep i'm sorry mikey curtis but i think in the general public you need carrots getting fried out because because we both see it's a lead the e.u. in 2016 so no i did a great many people would be strictly surprised that our us was not good so look i think we have to remember the our e.u. referendum in 2016 was well the question of leaving the e.u. it wasn't leaving the e.u. if we had to do so trying to set up a deal yes of course this causes it to try and achieve again my skating law against having a good working relationship with the e.u. what we did once we saw was messing around on the fronts confer. things to be sorted out lace of all i'm just me on top of the. rules not.

more americans have now died of covert than were lost fighting in world war 2 the death toll is approaching 300000 while the total number of cases exceeds 16000000 the pandemic may be the country's worst crisis in recent history but that has not stopped the rich from getting richer the net worth of american billionaires has soared by one trillion dollars since march this according to a new report. as tens of millions of americans suffer from the health and economic river just over these pandemic a few 100 billionaires at to their massive fortunes their pandemic profits are so immense that america's billionaires could pay for a major covert relieve bill and still not lose a dime of their provider its reaches the campaign group americans for tax fairness found that the extra wealth accumulated by billionaires would be enough to give $3000.00 to every single american that is roughly equal to the entire amount spent

by the federal government on health care in 200-1000 nearly 4 times more than the stimulus payments made earlier this year to 159000000 americans and the report included $651.00 billionaires here's some of them are the wealthiest jeff bezos is now worth over $180000000000.00 which is more than the g.d.p. of hungary elon musk's wealth grew almost 6 fold while during the pandemic while mark zuckerberg almost doubled his both musk and zuckerberg are worth more than $100000000000.00 now earlier my colleague unit o'neill debated with our guests the issue of profiting from the pandemic. always love these kinds of analyses is it the government has a day or 6 not going to drugs 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 will turn out to have a government policy that makes them richer this burst of new wealth is just as surely a product of government policy was unnecessary you know the unintended consequences of lock downs 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 that we left a lot of the private preparation for disease into the hands of private enterprise and markets and they fail as they have failed us so often in the past it's a pathetic say heads glory of a system spinning out of control so that it's unjust inequality keeps getting worse

the government's inability to get anything right they're going to do everything everything everything wrong in a crisis including decreasing employment crushing firms crushing the engine of employment. all those sorts of things never once even considering maybe factions should be lower i mean i agree from hiatus from certain regulations on that sort of thing 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 to pull the strings for both of. us federal trade commission is pushing to break up facebook accusing it of holding an illegal monopoly over the social media market it has filed a lawsuit backed by almost every state targeting facebook's acquisitions of the instagram and what's up platforms been swan host of boom bust on our t.v.

told us more facebook is really coming under fire now that it is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the state's attorneys general of $48.00 different states across the united states the allegation that's being made in this lawsuit essentially states that facebook has violated the law and violated competitive behavior during its acquisition in the early 201314 of instagram and whatsapp at the time that facebook acquired instagram it had about 30000000 users today it has over a 1000000000 users worldwide at the time that it acquired facebook said that instagram wasn't really a competitor but today instagram has become very much a competitor to facebook and fully integrated into the facebook system for advertising data collection of users and even cross promotion of post here's what some of those states attorneys general had to say about the lawsuit today we are sending a clear and strong message to facebook and every other company and any efforts to stifle competition. hurt small businesses reduced innovation and creativity will be

met with the full force of our offices the f.t.c. filed their own lawsuit against facebook today as well. and we look forward to collaborating with them in the litigation process the state's attorneys general are calling for an actual divestment of instagram and whatsapp what does that mean it means that if these states attorneys general when their lawsuit they would force facebook to actually sell off the assets of what's app and instagram a very big deal in the tech world. now a quick reminder of the news coming out of new york a gunman has been shot after he opened fire at the end of a christmas carol concert at a church in manhattan he started shooting at police officers who then returned fire the gunman was taken to a hospital and is now in critical condition in new york a council member who witnessed the event claimed the shooter appeared to have mental health issues and had been shooting aimlessly into the air police also said

that the suspect was carrying 2 firearms a rope and a tank of fuel an investigation is now under way. that does it for the weekly visit i'll be back next hour with another look stay with us this is our 2 international. just look.

at those congressional moments last damn fast for the last 70 and seeing and i'm interested today for the dutch pro who should. commission. branches to shoot on disk in the. asian community. legion mom was. going to go so sit on the open the mustang new mama is just back. and. join me every thursday on the alex i'm i'm sure and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you back.

blunt welcome to worlds apart my guest today likes to say that he takes intellectuals to come up with really stupid ideas ideas that are down spread across the sides like parasites draining the host organism and making him behave in strange and sometimes even south in danger in ways from identity politics to council culture to the now emerging call big bang teenage girl with gee how do seemingly normal compositions turn toxic well to discuss that i'm now joined by god

saad a professor in marketing at concordia university and author of the newly released book the parasitic mind how infectious ideas killing commonsense chris aside it's a great pleasure for me to talk to thank you very much for making the time thank you so much for having me cheers now i've mentioned some examples of what you call idea pathogens thoughts that seem to be well intentioned at least initially until you recognise that they pave the way to how what are some others so also modernism is probably the ground daddy of all idea just because it reports that there are no absolute truths we are completely shackled by subjectivity we are shackled by our personal biases and as you might imagine there is a kernel of truth to that idea but when taken to the extreme it becomes very antiscientific because scientists do wake up every day.