very real a. struggle on r.t. . as u.s. congress members debated unprecedented 2nd impeachment of donald trump exhausted national guard troops to take to the capitol building in the wake of last week's storm and by trump support of. britain footage from a german come a tory empire like the extent of a resurgent pandemic in europe has been led is accused of stockpiling vaccines at the expense of other e.u. member states also this hour. you'll put your feet down in the restaurant takeaway service for only a few of the full benefit. for a leader in the. u.k.

police crackdown on lockdown violators but of course on camera apparently breaking the very rules they're supposed to be importing. a very warm welcome you're watching r t international with me if you airing. well right now representatives in the u.s. congress are debating whether to impeach president trump again this time for inciting his supporters to storm the capitol last week. he must go he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all know it's not just about impeachment anymore it's about canceling as i've said canceling the president and lay in this regard to the rule of law by the tyrant president the house's action today will only extend the division longer than necessary i can't think of anything that would unify this country more if there was a big bipartisan vote in favor of urban peace mint with just days left in office

for us president donald trump it appears he is now facing his 2nd impeachment the charge is inciting insurrection that is the charge being leveled in the article of impeachment drawn up and being voted on as we speak by the u.s. house of representatives and this is what donald trump has to say in response to his accusers on the impeachment it's really a continuation of the greatest which is here politics is the big human i think it's good seeing tremendous danger to our country and it was instrumental sangar emotions are running high in the aftermath of what happened just a week ago on capitol hill and trump supporters stormed into the halls of the u.s. congress and damaged property there were deaths it was quite an incident folks are referring to it is the capitol hill riots and in light of that we have at this point even some republicans that favor removing donald trump the impeachment this

is what we heard from liz cheney a republican representative of wyoming there has never been agreed to be trailed by a president of the united states of his office and his oath to the constitution i will vote to impeach the president 15000 national guard troops have been deployed to washington d.c. they have been sleeping in the halls of congress on the stone floors and they will remain in washington d.c. until the ratification and inauguration of joe biden on january 20th and it. this point it looks like donald trump could very well be facing his 2nd impeachment trial very soon the goal of democrats with impeaching trump just just days before he's set to leave office anyway is to make sure he can never run for office again drama trump is the 3rd president in u.s. history to be impeached andrew johnson was impeached bill clinton was impeached and

donald trump has already been impeached once over his phone call with ukrainian leaders alinsky and this would be his 2nd impeachment proceedings so all eyes on capitol hill we've got the military we've got the whole country watching it's quite a tense moment as as it appears that the final moments of donald trump's leadership in the united states may be upon us with the whole country watching to see if he goes out via impeachment certainly nothing new in the rage against trump for democrats but now they've got former trumpet ministration officials to back them up . we want to avoid the risk of criminalizing political differences but that understanding has nothing to do with what happened at the capital it's impossible to characterize trump's incitement of the riot as having anything to do with a legitimate exercise of his executive power just the opposite so how exactly does this take place procedurally what is the process by which a 2nd impeachment will go down. for democrats this is about removing donald trump

from politics for life with a conviction in the us senate they are hoping to move very quickly and seize the moment where so much is in their favor so what exactly is the legal basis of the democrats impeachment article. it gets a little bit shaky is donald trump legally accountable for what his supporters did on capitol hill are the words he used to allegedly incite them the kind of thing you can get prosecuted for back in 1948 the national board of the communist party was sent to prison for excerpts they had published from the writings of karl marx and lot of your latin however the u.s. supreme court changed their mind in 1957 in the famous yates vs the united states ruling doubtlessly dictators have to stamp out causes and beliefs which they deem subversive to their evil regimes but governmental suppression of causes and beliefs seems to me to be the very antithesis of what our constitution stands for in 1969 the us supreme court ruled that

a leader of the ku klux klan had the right to advocate what he called acts of revenge and against members of congress on television in 1982 the us supreme court ruled that the end he was not responsible for acts of violence and vandalism that were carried out by people who got fired up by speeches at their rally so if the window of freedom of speech is this wide open even regarding speech that leads to violence how can donald trump be legally held accountable. well for what some of his supporters did on capitol hill emotions are running high right now many americans are so upset by what they saw on capitol hill that legal details might get lost it's a volatile situation as we head toward donald trump's 2nd impeachment tale of mopp and artsy new york as lawmakers attempts to remove trump from the white house tech giants have already over but who raised the presidents online presence here to

present joins the likes of amazon facebook and twitter and suspending donald trump media pages as well as purging thousands of his fellow is claiming they could incite violence if i was last week storming of the capitol building in washington d.c. which some leading politicians and mainstream media have branded as domestic terrorism as the social media giants continue to crackdown on the president i spoke to legal internet on politics that experts about whether the platforms are indeed too powerful. they just won an election they're going to see how far they can push this this is a stress test to see how far the law will go how long how much people will tolerate and are going to go as far as they can because drunk with power of they know which way the wind is blowing donald trump is no longer going to be in the white house almost all of these companies face antitrust suits that are going to be decided by the by department of justice and so now there is going to be less of a priority to maybe make these arguments internally that donald trump and his

account should be protected but these are self interested actors eighty's over the years that they are now controlling pretty much the entire communications system over the wall but it will be a mater of telling the full census she pulled the move on to other parts of the body companies like twitter facebook anonymous and can do this to their own president but they do it anywhere in the well to any government they don't like. oh certainly so. they that the largest problems within these companies is that there really is no actual basis for which they are operating there is no bible there is no constitution there is no their terms of service are often edited and malleable and even then subject vague enough to be subject to the whims of internal discussions within the company this it means that we have to rewrite the 1st amendment in this country because this is

a quote private company that 99 percent of all the people on the planet use our laws are outdated and unless that is changed nothing will change at least in this country now the question who should be more the rating perhaps the saudis this should be a form of duration but it needs to be transparent so the state of affairs at the moment they don't know who makes those were the rationed do you think the creative intended to end like this with a massive bans and censorship. of course absolutely look there was so much involvement in not only private equity but in government sponsored this was never intended to be good those dean going to giants and being exposed for all they actually are this is a mission statement to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers now people used to believe this does anyone

believe that anymore i don't think so the question that i have is are we now bifurcating the internet are we going to totally solve select from the point of adolescence or before or to be handed down by our parents to our children that we now only go on social networks and only interact with people and they're only hosted on servers that either are liberal or conservative or possibly even more extreme versions of that that to me is a dystopian vision that i think is something that is closer today than i've ever known it my laptop. the u.s. secretary of state's last big foreign diplomatic trip passed fallen flat the plug is being polled on my pompei his visit to europe apparently because officials there are refusing to meet with him his are france correspondent charlotte events. well the trump era is coming to a close not only with the social media blackout for dog trouble things such as you

tube and twitter but also it seems the cold shoulder for many of those in this cabinet take mike promptly is the u.s. secretary of state who is due to be in europe on wednesday for some high level meetings including with the general secretary of nato he said in a tweet just a few hours ago that he was really looking forward to those meetings essentially his sworn song for his counterparts in europe but at the very last minute the plug 8 was pulled on the trip more you will the u.s. state department says the player who was a man who didn't recognize the victory of void in the u.s. election last year is now the man who wants to make sure that there is a smooth transition we are fully committed to the completion of a smooth and orderly transition process to before last over the next 8 days as a result were canceling all planned travel this week including the secretary's trip to europe it's a very different take in the e.u. with apparently pompei you being pursued. and the european commission saying that

officials didn't want to meet him they didn't elaborate on that but we've also heard from diplomatic sources there was a sense of embarrassment around the idea of being in europe given that although he had condemned the violence of those crowds who stormed the capitol building in washington last week he hadn't said whether president from had being a poor factor in however the luxemburg foreign minister he said the trumpet egg them on the trumpets a criminal a political pyromaniac who should be sent to the. he's a person who was elected democratically but who isn't interested in democracy in the slightest and it also seems that there were other reasons to save face and to cancel those meetings because had meetings gone ahead with the fishes in the it was a local and that would have had to be addressed and this is the compensation with the jewish families whose artifacts were stolen during the holocaust in the 2nd

world war a dispute between washington and luxembourg now for a very long time and give you that some have suggested that those who stormed the capitol building in washington last week were neo nazi sympathizers this could have put in a bit of a pickle it seems to trumpet ministration will come to an end in a blaze of glory but in a proof of some very lax way. from a british diplomats dr william alanson told me he thinks declining such meetings shows a failure of diplomacy. it is very rare that meeting in the camp that short notice but it does show that currently relations or buyout between the european union as a whole and the united states policymaking a little trumpet ministries in normal diplomatic practice meetings should never be cancelled what has happened is a failure at any rate in diplomacy my suspect in this case more than u.s. diplomacy because they will know what's to come he wasn't invited at the last

minute it was a i'm sorry to say blatant showmanship. showed themselves he stuck his neck out i don't like think that it cut off his head. it's cruel to say the. u.s. president elect joe biden has chosen he wants to run the federal international aid agency u.s. aid and it's another era name samantha power previously served on the national security council and was barack obama's u.n. envoy revealing his choice spines and explained why he wants power on his team. it's one of our country's most respected voices on humanitarian issues and i have seen both her passion and her principles firsthand there could be no one no one more qualified those are samantha or during her previous high profile government jobs power has faced a raft of ethical questions from critics she pushed for military intervention in

libya on humanitarian grounds during the civil war that early a decade ago she was also a strong supporter of the u.s. involvement in syria and yemen both of which have the comes to a devastating humanitarian plight or now is she sure she's the one to lead washington's mission to hail the world. but the united states has a chance to partner with and support people who are on the frontlines in battling coven who are trying to build climate resilience who are standing up for the rule of law standing up against inequality and trying to create more just societies humanitarian support democracy assistance economic development those are not nice to have in our foreign policy tool box they are critical. for the pentagon analyst michael maloof predicts the agency is in line for a major upgrade as a foreign policy tool for biden where her position is actually accorded to biden is

going to be elevated to the national security council level so that. gives an added importance as to how foreign aid will be used and humanitarian assistance will be used as a guiding light or a coming foreign policy under biden it also shows that we might even go ahead and so far and weaponize that given. samantha powers previous experience and right and recommendations to then vice president biden and to obama the president libya was it was one of those outcomes yemen was a letter so if we if we need humanitarian assistance or. and couple with that would be human rights advocacy and insistence upon that in any assistance that we gives. does that mean that we're going to go ahead and shoot it into people's heads again so this is a her elevation like this raises some important questions as to just to what extent

foreign policy or foreign assistance will be used as a foreign policy weapon as opposed to give an absolute assistance in the future. time to most stories coming up after the break.

backscatter one more of my guide to financial survival this. is a device used by professional value x. to earn money. that's right these are drugs are simply not accountable and we're just getting more and more to the. totally destabilize the global economy you need to protect yourself and get informed as we. welcome back europe is suffering a new. cases with france germany and spain registering some of the highest daily

rates and sausage emerging from one of germany's was defected regions is highlighting just how bad the situation has become some 300 bodies are piling up in a queue for christmas story and socks today a coffin stocked one on top of the other often simply labeled with words like cozied and infectious risk but i comes as the european union struggles to maintain unity over covert vaccine purchases brussels is a member states to keep to the blocks centralized distribution scheme but not all seem to be keeping to the agreement since artie's piece all of a report. the european union's water for all and all for one vaccine plan is called the against the problem of members self interest when it comes to obtaining the jobs germany has snapped up an extra $13000000.00 doses of the pfizer vaccines being criticized by its partners for doing so it is selfish behavior to buy medicine by yourself disrespecting common decisions is another example of the

german policy of respecting their own interests above the interests of other e.u. countries berlin insists it is playing by the rules and that those extra doses would be sent out until the vaccine is being dispatched across the rest of the european union germany says the real problem lies with problems when it comes to production it's not correct to see the germany secure vaccines at the expense of other countries. would see it good we have ordered enough vaccines the question is how can they be produced how fast they can be produced and if we would have ordered more it would not have been possible to produce it quicker the shortage is due to the lack of production capacity it isn't just germany that's being accused of looking out for itself cyprus says courting israel for vaccine delivery saying that the european union isn't forthcoming with a new doses to provide

a mass switch to roll out the initial indications were very encouraging but at some point there was a setback in its effectiveness 2 companies came up with the vaccine 1st phase a buy into can be done but the number of vaccines is not enough for rapid mass vaccination e.u. commission president has live on the line is telling member states to cut it out into it heya to the plan that they all agreed on we have all agreed legally binding that there will be no parallel negotiations no parallel contracts so the framework we are all working. in is a framework of 27 together we are negotiating together we are procuring and together we are bringing forward this vaccination process brussels is calling on member states to come clean about any side deals they may have going on the president has asked commissioner this to send a letter to all health ministers asking them to provide us with all the necessary

transparency on the way in which they are complying with the provisions of our vaccine strategy in terms of contacts or lack of contacts rather with. those pharmaceutical companies that we have been or are negotiating with the commission on doing themselves any favors demanding transparency from member states when it comes to vaccine procurement when they are being all that clear on who will get what when the 27 agree that brussels would negotiate on their behalf the accusation is that that is being undermined by member states looking out for number one as we see the e.u. were very slow compared to other countries both in their regulation approvals both in their vaccination campaigns and. again no surprise that there

is unset disaffection we we indeed have an across the across the whole front we have a very poor performance by the european union here but the central administration of the european union all they managed was to secure so we $100000000.00 doses for a population of $450.00 so taking into account that you need 2 doses per person this was one 3rd of the population for which the vaccine was secured because of some budget constraints. it is officially said so no wonder the population is not very happy with the performance in brussels. police in the u.k. are increasingly finding people who break lock down restrictions leaving home without a reasonable excuse could mean a 200 pounds fine rising to 6400 pounds for repeat offenders but as shoddy as would start he found out enforcement is very inconsistent and officers are sometimes

forced to back down and have even appeared to have broken the rules themselves despite the u.k. being in a full scale national lockdown kovac 1 6 1000 cases a soaring and death rates are constantly hitting records the public has been ordered to stay at home once again but it seems not everyone is sticking to the rules and with rule breakers rule makers have given the police more power to clamp down on the law if you do not play your part ourself with police officers who are out there risking their own lives every day to keep us safe they will force the regulations and i will back them to do so to protect our n.h.s. and to save lives and england and wales police of issued 8000 penalties since november but leading by example isn't exactly the strong point you know where you sit down in a restroom very coy service only on through the floor referred. to what you're doing right now. some officers are not as eager to abide by the rules as they are

to enforce them to women who drive 8 kilometers to meet up for a walk in darbyshire found themselves surrounded by police their offense carrying coffee that made to the picnic so they were $4.20 pounds each in fact they were strictly following the rules as police later admitted receiving the fines and giving a half hearted apology looking to martin do you know who. it's from operational marker and if it's not take out coffee is spreading. it snowballs trip shipley's of starts and throws with $200.00 pounds fines there have been 2 reports of snow balls being thrown last night between 11 and 11 30 pm this is obviously not a justifiable reason to be out of your house this behavior is likely to result in a 200 pounds fixed penalty notice for breaking the locked on rules the treat to since been deleted after dozens of angry complaints but still the message is stay

at home we're going to keep the rules on the course with you we have to tighten we will but we have in place now is the most. single digits. observation observance of the group although the prime minister himself a spot it's like telling a loving kilometers away from downing street so is it a case of one rule for me and another for you shouting at the. london. russians co that vaccine has not been officially registered in venezuela with the 1st of sputnik the doses expected to arrive within weeks meanwhile russia's own vaccination inoculation program is about to be significantly ramped up president putin has announced that mass vaccinations should start next week. this is definitely a milestone for this country because from this point it's not only about doctors or teachers or other jobs that forced the staff to be in touch with the loads of

people face to face now the goal is to make sure that the russian vaccine is available to all citizens of this country to make sure that the coronavirus pandemic in russia is dealt a final blow and it is looking promising because of the data that we received after the 3rd stage of the trials back in december that pointed to 96 percent efficacy of this put jab the question is though whether the infrastructure is ready and whether there are enough doses and we've just heard from me seeing a russian government minister who was reporting to vladimir putin that production is on the rise in the plan is to rapidly increase the number of vaccination centers so it's on the way it's coming and i can tell you that so far in this country more than a 1000000 people have already been vaccinated but everyone really needs to be cautious

with their optimism because while the numbers for new cases daily are looking quite good in this country this isn't the case in quite a few countries around the world plus there's the issue of new strains being discovered and i can tell you that last sunday a patient with a new strain has been identified in russia as well and this explains the cautious in the warning that came from the russian president to. someone else used i know that we have this new community under strain and scientists are working on that which it's use in practice shows that the russian vaccine is the best in the because we should understand its effectiveness against the new strains for that we need full scale research and i urge you to monitor just to make sure everything is fine. however though despite the things that i've been telling you about earlier we can. remember that only a few months ago russia's split think the jab drew a significant amount of criticism before the 3rd stage of the trials some were

saying that mainly in the west that it was too early to approve the vaccine others accused russia of using the vaccine as a political or a p.r. tool but now all of this is beginning to vanish sputnik these success is becoming apparent for everyone and we know that only a few days ago the correspondent of new york times in moscow got the job as well we saw a piece and bloomberg and which the conclusion was that basically there are no reasons to be dubious about the russian vaccine and besides the stairs of course the international cooperation which points to trust mr putin has just announced that the production of putting begins in turkey that's after a phone call with his colleague top aired on we already know that this put the job has already been delivered to as far as argentina and more and more countries are certifying the use of it so again all of this is

a sign of trust but what's very important for citizens of this country like i said earlier that next week the job will be available for everyone and this country to. win back with more at the top of the hour. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.