fuses to approve a covert stimulus package negotiated for months by congress the president said the spending plans focused too much on foreign aid and wasteful provisions and doesn't provide and of support for america. congress found while the ability for foreign drudgeries lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the barricade be polled. also this hour the french government backs a bill to introduce so-called green passports bring up travel for people vaccinated against kobe and critics say the move would turn everyone else into 2nd class citizens. and israel is heading for a 4th election in 2 years after the coalition government failed to break

a deadlock on the new budget. a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at r t h q in moscow thanks for joining us this hour fellow trump wants congress to make changes to the much fought over it 900 $1000000000.00 kogut relief bill he called it a disgrace for not putting the american people's interests 1st and for including provisions not related to the pandemic us president wants individual payments increase from 600 to 2000 dollars. congress found plenty of money for far john trees lobbyists and special ijaz while sending the bare minimum to the american people who needed it wasn't their fault i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculous lelo $600.00 to $2000.00 or

$4000.00 for a couple house speaker nancy pelosi was quick to react blaming republicans for not providing information on what amount the president himself expected to be written down in the package she said democrats are ready to discuss the matter as soon as lawmakers gather again this week there are other things in the bill that trump is unhappy about since it combined the code relief package and the government spending plan in one document it featured a lot of proposals including military spending and foreign aid as well as some more obscure ones going president has threatened not to sign it if amendments are made to meet your public takes a closer look hollow lou it the warring sides in congress have finally set aside some of their differences and agreed to dish out $900000000000.00 in covert 19 relief for families and businesses but the $600.00 stimulus checks which are half of what people got back in april have left many underwhelmed one time payment of $600.00. is this

a joke and jobless no health insurance this isn't going to cut it congress listening some senators even took offense at people questioning their life saving bill polish will help. it's a trillion dollars for god's sakes what is that $1000000.00 and. there is no money fairy we don't have this money we don't have 5 percent of it sandra we had to borrow it is real help will it be enough i think it will be but we're just going to have to wait and see but the covert relief package didn't come alone the absence of the money fairy didn't stop congress from slapping on a $1.00 trillion dollar spending bill which combined with the covert bill made the overall document over 5 and a half 1000 pages long the behemoths took so long to upload to the internet that congressmen only received it on the day of the vote and it's kind of hard to believe they managed to read the whole thing before passing it. for congressional

leaders refused to put any legislation on the floor to be considered and scrutinized and amended now they release a $5593.00 page bill with no opportunity to read it let alone amend it no responsible legislators should vote for such a thing this is going to goes over 3 hours just to prove that it is. impossible to get one without the opportunity to read in between now and the time we will if you take a closer look at the bill you can see there's a lot more than covert relief in there military spending for example was more of a talking point than the pandemic and words like missile aircrafts and munition appeared far more times than anything related to health care masks weren't even mentioned once in the document foreign aid also proved to be a high priority billions of dollars are said to be poured into countries like ukraine israel and cambodia funds that could have been spent on domestic needs and

then there's a whole bunch of other issues that were deemed very crucial like ensuring the integrity and fairness of the election sorry horse racing how could that sport survive without money from the government also investing in general programs is something the u.s. just can't do without be it programs in pakistan or commissions on determining gender equality in statues and even the dialogue reincarnation gets mentioned in the bill because in case you forgot he can't get reincarnated without u.s. taxpayer dollars this jumbled mess of spending proposals caused even some senators to trash the bill. tonight i voted no against the suppose it covert relief bill because it sells out billions of dollars to foreign governments the sudan gypsum military and not more important than american citizens and now many are calling on trump to veto the bill don't trump you must veto of this farce relieve bill this isn't a stimulus package this is

a message for and. every american left and right should be calling for a veto on the stimulus deal which provides more funding to foreign governments and term merican arts centers than to their merican people covert relief might be badly needed but while 600 bucks why do some good for americans in a tough spot senators are obviously willing to put a lot more money behind their own agendas if you look where the expenditures went look we know what this is this is nothing but a con it's a ruse it's a chance to to provide special interest in special issues the money that normally wouldn't be able to be earmarked this is guaranteed to provide monies that would normally not be able to be available but now they are which is a christmas tree the idea is that you take something you slap on benefits and expenditures and bills but america needs something so we hold the american public

hostage in the meantime they get a pittance of what they would normally gotten before but maybe rather than giving all this money for covert relief why don't we just remove the lockdown wonder we remove the dish shackles because businesses are under these more draconian measures why don't you do that instead of just give money here's your 600 bucks maybe 1200 bucks now leave me alone be happy and shut up. u.s. lawmakers were given early access to cover vaccines and some were happy to accept but others say politicians should not be given priority over frontline medics. if enough of us take you will get back to. help is on the way.

it isn't appropriate for me it was already gotten a virus has immunity to get in front of elderly health care workers same goes for any young healthy person they should be among the last not. a very good. i'm so confident that they covered 1000 vaccine is safe and effective but i decided to take it myself it is disturbing to see members of the us to get that while most from time walk his algerie and announce his trips wait.

we need to distinguish 2 different things leaders or prime minister or president leading members of the senate the senate you know the public the little political figures and celebrities get the vaccine to show the public that it's safe and that it's necessary that's one thing it's another thing to say that in general politicians just simply be prioritised because they have political power being just . as these are 2 separate matters they can't be conflated any humane principle for who gets the vaccine 1st should be those who are most vulnerable and that especially is frontline workers essential workers the elderly and the infirm so it's true that probably some some politicians might be in for some politicians might be front line workers but they're not there's no reason why publishers politicians should be pushed to the top of the list simply because they're over 50 in french government has backed a bill that would impose movement restrictions on people who have not been

vaccinated or cannot prove their covert free access polling finds that the majority of french people are skeptical about the vaccine artist possibly or has more france is preparing to end its health emergency by april the 1st so says the french prime minister john kass takes he's presented a vote in the national assembly ended establishing a so-called their own health emergency management regime since look to it is vaccination and those opposed to it might just find themselves in trouble even if they just planning a trip around the city. the prime minister made on to the plan measures make the movement of people and their access to transport subject to presenting test results showing that the person is not infected is falling vaccination or remedial treatment to some politicians the may still believe i'm vaccinated people feeling as though they 2nd class citizens if this bill has really been tabled it must be fought but all elected officials and citizens committed to democracy and freedom in

the face of this senseless deviation it is up to us to bring the government back to a semblance of reason this is the bill establishing a long term health emergency management regime which has just been introduced by cast x read the following in this law the prime minister can make you a 2nd class citizen if you refuse the vaccine we must wake up it flies in the face of a promise made by president emanuel not quantity government they should get 6 their feet and covered vaccination which begins on sunday would be purely voluntary. i want to be clear i will not make the vaccination mandatory. but the idea of a stick to certain freedoms for vaccinated people has been mentioned several times in public debates since this presidential announcement for example a member of the union of democrats and independent party valerie 6 has proposed the

issuing of green pos folds to people who have been immunized with we could take the example of israel which grants each vaccinated person a green passport allowing them to go to places of culture and to restaurants and to get back to normal living the french inoculation program will target the most vulnerable members of society 1st such as the elderly and only oscar and medical examination and come since he has given it's a great start but it's what comes next that has people here worried policia see paris we spoke to a member of the french national rally who believes the government has taken a step too far. you know emanuel micron the prime minister the health minister of iran promised 1st there would be no compulsory vaccination and that they would leave the freedom to choose to the french in fact thanks in particular to marie le pen we see that the draw floor speaks of a measure completely veiled aimed at limiting subjecting the french people to

certain rules in their public lives thereby deciding for them whether they will be vaccinated or not i think that it is shameful in fact it is a restriction of freedom which moreover contradicts the constitution this is a manifestation of dictatorship it seems to me that the government does not understand that today the patience of the french has run out they agreed to strict discipline for many months they said yes to the introduction of quarantine said yes to the imposition of a curfew said yes to the imposition of sanitary rules they agreed to everything that was imposed on them the next day the government came up with nothing better than to further could tail their personal freedom this is called segregation if the government wants the french to get vaccinated they must restore an atmosphere of trust that's the voice of wisdom spain is ready to start vaccinating people with the fire by a vaccine after it was given the green light by

a regulators and the health ministry is saying that a record will be kept of anyone who turns down the jab it is considered important to record cases of rejection of the vaccination in the vaccination registry in order to understand the possible reasons for a large since indifferent population groups according to the latest polls just over 40 percent of spanish citizens are ready to be inoculated against covert 1916 percent said they want more proof that it's a fact i have an almost a 3rd will refuse to get the job together. you know where i want to bad i'm not going to get vaccinated i don't support it i don't want to be registered anywhere neither the government the city council or anyone else has to know what i do. i believe it violates our privacy and they should not interfere at the moment no i'm not going to vaccinate it doesn't seem right or wrong to me i think people should get vaccinated but without forcing anyone everyone should do as they choose or i'm

one of those who doesn't want to be vaccinated it seems wrong to me i don't want any government to have to tell me whether or not i must be vaccinated because it's my decision. still ahead israel's heading for yet another election after a budget dispute caused a split in the coalition government story and more after this break. is your media a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation whole community. are you going the right way or are you being.

direct. what is true what is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the death. or a made in the shallowness. a lot of questions what does it mean to be conservative it's coming from the conservative and the change with means to be conservative what about the issue in mind. for conservatives to please. welcome back israeli government house collapsed after months of parliamentary wrangling failed to secure a new budget the country is now heading for its 4th election in 2 years artist on

a quarter reports really seems like tuesday's budget roadblock was the last straw for israel's 7 month long ruling government coalition now benjamin netanyahu party and benny gantz is blue and white party are both blaming one another for the impasse and with these new elections scheduled for march i think we could possibly be seeing the end to 11 years of the premiership of benjamin netanyahu but netanyahu doesn't seem very worried and it's only. when i'm not afraid of elections we are prepared for that we will win the public and israel knows who's bringing in millions of vaccines for peace agreement who's blocking iran who is bringing security and who will restore the economy here with great impetus. well netanyahu is ratings are actually at an all time low but he's still projected to do better than dance in these new snap elections but he polls are actually saying these not projected to win a majority like in these previous instances i mean after all his political career

has been followed by a corruption case which he's denied any wrongdoing in and and also people aren't very happy in israel about the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic we've seen protests gripped the country for the past 6 months and they're not really showing any sign of letting out. israeli politics have been deadlocked for a long time now a lot of people are saying that another election isn't isn't going to fix the situation it's just going to lead to a 5th election down the road but i'm happy that we have a fulfilling action. because there is a world that through good we will never have an election again. we prayed that the

stage to shoot would take over i think now the situation is quitting cold and we don't have the money and the time for the elections on a house in which i mean i think that the election is completely unnecessary it will cost us more than 2000000000 new israeli shekels if not more and we are in the middle of coronavirus people can't make ends meet why spend 2000000000 new israeli shekels now what for. staying with israel ultra-orthodox protesters block several of derisive main roads after a student was arrested for avoiding the military draft. own now. as you see there clashes broke out between protesters and police and several police officers were reportedly injured the ultra orthodox community traditionally been exempt from military service. the russian government has

adopted an internet censorship bill that will allow moscow to block online resources if they're to be deemed to discriminate against russian media. as the details. with this village a station that has been approved by a majority of russian m.p.'s internet users in this country could soon wake up to a blog or slow down facebook twitter you tube etc other potential punishment for foreign internet companies could include fines from small ones of somewhat like $40.00 to equivalence of sums like tens of thousands of dollars so what could the russian foreign ministry and the prosecutor general's office punish the platforms for that is for discriminating russian media outlets by removing their content or falsely flying it as fake or misleading the

likes of you tube and facebook could also get in trouble with the russian authorities for refusing to remove content that is on lawful in this country i.e. extremist the russian media and communications watchdog will keep track of the violators but they may be excluded from the list if they choose to correct their mistakes and inform the russian authorities about it and now when the russian president vladimir putin was asked how to avoid this kind of discrimination of russian media outlets online his answer was that the best way to do it is to develop its all internet platforms. to push the main way to ensure independence in the information space is to develop platforms and technical capabilities yourself and that's what we're doing if russia depends on other countries platforms they can just press the button and see the game over and that's no good. so if you're wondering what's behind this

initiative by russian lawmakers well to explain that you can simply look back at some of the incidents that happened with r t materials online. being flagged as inappropriate misleading or fake or even being temporarily taken off the platforms so again this is an attempt by the russian authorities to protect the russian media community and the likes of us in these kind of situations. we're now joined live by independent journalist lucre of a do you think that this bill will result in major platforms like you tube and facebook being blocked in russia are those companies going to play by the rules. i don't know but obviously you tube and the others you mentioned i mean twitter and that the others are increasingly meddling with people's opinions it's

it's impossible it is unacceptable you know and governments like the western governments in france or germany and others at onst these muscles facebook and all those to do the the internal cooking themselves and sort of making disappear things that don't please the governments in place in the west of what they consider russian media as an orthodox as being wrong voice very often and it reflects also the fact that in in the west the mainstream media ever become increasingly politicized in a very wrong way so it is very important for the citizens here in western europe to still hear the voice of the russian media because you look different because the view is different from the mainstream media here in the west i take 2 examples one is. donald trump in the western media donald trump is an idiot is an

absolute idiot and that is nothing to keep in what he has done for years of course it is not reality the people in the west the journalists and west watch c.n.n. which hates the guts of the drum and bass also read the new york times and the washington post that is mainstream and it is anti trump to an incredible point so people don't like it the same for russia i mean russia is the fall of the vaccine it cannot be good it must be wrong and if you read the worse than media the mainstream once and watch t.v. your are at you know a lot sites that they will tell you that it's nearly impossible somehow that russia develops a vaccine i mean this is incredible but this is what we. we go through so therefore the 6 s. of these new media on the internet all these new magazines and dailies on the internet that reflect often populist use of course but it's very important for us

to to have the voice of our team and put nick. everywhere in western europe and you gain influence and your best your best effort to cement was the one that mr mccone gave to the russian media by sitting in front of lenny and putin in the gulf and see that sight that. you were the devil sort of that r t in them and us but nick were very wrong and very bad and special is the fake dudes that interested so many bieber that up mazuma paul doesn't like them so that must be ok at least or if not better than that so you know you have many people who watch that also people on the left or extreme left the political spectrum people i talk to not my views but who are not supporters of russia but they say it's interesting because it's the little stone in the shoe of as you might call sometimes office in some of the cases and it tells

a different view and it's good for them ocracy to have the views so well as our correspondent was reporting earlier r.t. has frequently been targeted by us online platforms including twitter and facebook certain reports have been labeled as misleading or anything else along those lines so that just political and is that the right approach since it's not being used across the board. it is very political and i'm a bit afraid for the quality of information and communication in the west if it's you know in my youth the new york times was the perfect example that's what you wanted to emulate not anymore i mean they've decided to put the when they speak about black people they put be with a capital letter when they speak about white people with a small w. they attacked russia as being you know the devil 'd down. to d. american elections all things which ah completely fake they produced

a fake news and then they judge the russian media come up. we've been speaking with independent journalist lucre of a thank you for your time and your comments. this month marks 10 years since a tragic incident sparked the arab spring a tunisian street vendor set himself on fire after police seized his property and his suicide cause a domino effect with regimes toppled across the middle east and north africa are fast forward to 2020 and they're still on rest in the region last year the sudanese ousted their longtime leader who had been in power for 3 decades and more recently tunisian authorities clamp down on an arab spring anniversary event only sparking more anger. plus a recent poll by you gov and the guardian suggests people in 8 arab countries feel their lives have not improved after the arab spring many of those felt there was significantly more inequality in societies after the events of 2010 we spoke to max

abrams a professor of public policy who believes the arab spring ultimately failed in its political goals on the what i would say that the arab spring was surprisingly successful in the sense that you had protesters toppling the authoritarian regime and yet the goal of the arab spring was to promote democracy and democratic reform. to the men a region middle eastern in north africa and on that score it has failed even in countries like tunisia we are a democracy was born. there is still widespread discontent among the citizenry in terms of the political outcome of the arab spring i think it must be judged as

a failure as our breakdown of the day's top headlines thanks for tuning in.

time after time say and welcome to going on the ground the team and i will be back with a brand new season starting on my birthday january 13th but until then we will be showing some of your favorite shows from this season.