shall i say. a powerful explosion destroys a building in central madrid killing several people local media are speculating that it was caused by a gas leak. and other news donald trump steps out of the white house for the last time as the u.s. president on a massive security operation unfolds in washington d.c. but they are not duration of the successor joe biden. i guess there's a pretty good chance what they're doing so they close. pretty much the downtown area market check point there's no concrete blocks everywhere never seen the security it like this here or anywhere in america. also this hour shopping centers

through ports and even an opera house these are just some of the places where moscow residents are being vaccinated as the nationwide campaign is expanded. and germany extends its lockdown 3000000 february despite pushback from the public after a spike in corona virus cases. evening and welcome to the program this is our senior national coming to you straight from the russian capital bringing you your live news update and we start this hour with breaking news from spain a powerful explosion has destroyed most of the residential building in central madrid killing at several people according to police a many more are injured but the exact numbers are not known at this point local media are saying the blast was caused by a gas leak but that has not yet been confirmed by any officials the catholic

archdiocese of madrid has said it owns the building which reportedly contains a care home for the elderly and it's next to the a part of the toledo metro station now what we're seeing on social media is a lot of videos being posted where you can see smoke coming out. out of the building as you're seeing right now on the screen as well this likely happened right after the explosion and then there's debris going all the way down the street quite far away people on social media requires reporting having heard an extremely loud explosion which is what most people just continue to repeat again we do not have any confirmation but there are local sources saying that it might have been a gas leak involved here at the beginning it wasn't clear who owned this building but as we mentioned the catholic archdiocese says that they did own it and it pulled out there was a nursing home. we can actually show you live pictures right now from the area as you can see there are still emergency services everywhere we know that 9 fire crews

and 11 ambulances have been sent to the area in order to help anyone who might have been injured in the explosion itself you can see the amount of police presence as well covering the whole of the street now this is downtown in central madrid where this explosion has taken place madrid's emergency services say that rescue teams and firefighters and police are all working together in that central area of the spanish capital trying to lock down the area and figure out exactly what happened videos and images shared on social media showed the power of smoke coming off the top of that building and all of the debris that had gone down the street right now what we're showing you are a lot of pictures from madrid showing you the street where all that debris can be seen on the street as well now there's at least 4 floors about building that have been completely destroyed and it looks like the rest of the building is in a pretty precarious position at this point we can see that emergency services are

using ladders and whatnot to try and get up higher there have been reports on social media whether or not this is true is not confirmed but that there might be a volunteer that has not yet been found inside the building so of course the search is ongoing for the. person rescue workers are also evacuating elderly people from a nearby nursing home that was at least if not right next door than on the same street as that but it doesn't seem that there were any injuries in that nursing home but of course we're going to be following along with that as well this blast happened at around 3 pm local time is what we're hearing and the building in question it's located near a school a church and a nursing home so it's not clear how many people might have been in the area at the time of the exact explosion though given the fact that we're not hearing too much about injuries it's possible that that building might not have been filled with people at that time.

once again just to remind you this is our breaking news here on our 2 international at about 3 pm local time in madrid a very loud explosion was heard in the center of this city at this point police have confirmed that there were several deaths and we're going to be following that throughout the evening to figure out exactly what happened in madrid. and other news in just a few hours' time joe biden will become the 46th president of the united states every inauguration is a momentous event for america this time around the ceremony will look markedly different with no large crowds no parades and thousands of national guard troops called in to maintain security meanwhile rallies are planned both by democratic and republican supporters nationwide in violation of anti pandemic rules and that's led to fears that a day of suppose that celebration could have disastrous consequences are modest and

has a story. the good news is it will be a sunny inauguration for the 1st time and many many years it's about it for good news washington is on red alert had locked out no huge crowds no fanfare they've even divided the city into color coded zones like baghdad residents could move around in green zones but red zones are restricted and guarded by 25000 troops and their garden not against an enemy not against terrorists but against their room population. all of this of course following what they call the insurrection at capitol hill on

january 6th since then the secret service the f.b.i. the national god intelligence seemingly anyone with a badge has been moved to prevent trump supporters from trying it again and everyone's a suspect even the troops stationed in washington being screened for right wing sympathies by the f.b.i. this is like something out of north korea we're continually going through the process and taking 2nd 3rd looks at every one of the individuals assigned to the suppression we need to be conscious of it and we need to put all of the mechanisms in place to thoroughly vet these men and women who would support any operations like this. and. distrust and fear are in the air hagon like like a poisonous me step 3 way and doesn't matter which way you voted people are statistically warrant this isn't the country they've lived in their entire lives i

guess it's pretty. tense but they do it so they close a lot of people downtown areas to the barricades to check points that no concrete blocks everywhere so you really can't get anywhere near the national or constitutions i mean you know it's really sad. it's lived in washington for 20 more than 20 years i've been to a lot of inaugurations and i've never seen security like this here or anywhere in america and it isn't just washington d.c. it's it's all over the country neris good cause one in 3 voters still believe that biden wasn't legitimately elected one in 3 hold this radical view and you were out so k. that's bad but in america where the most guns per capita in the world at really really bad right now there's too much going on in our country when all the election is not one but the trumpet ministration if you're scared of

a long gun our country was born on long guns the revolutionary war was won and fought with longer we have a country that's getting more deeply polarized because we have 2 political parties that are playing each other for each other's problems and issues the politicians of the parties something needs to be done these these congo law in the country needs to heal right you can't very well run a country with this kind of divide brother against brother neighbor against neighbor and if you listen to democrat press statements at's what they've been trying to do think the events of the past few weeks have proved out just how damaged the soul of america has been and how. important is to restore it that work starts on wednesday the thing with press statements and i can tell you this from experience as they are who always truthful and in this case it isn't they're preaching peace but what they're doing is something else entirely turning the

74000000 people who voted for trump and to lampas to be shunned and costs that there has to be consequences but history shows it is not react not forcing accountability only and all the. people in those movements i don't know if there is such a job as a political exorcist but they need to do something to fix the republican party to get this demon out there are republican members of congress i know who clearly have lost their minds who just will not accept reality when it comes to the facts about donald trump if you voted for trump you voted for the person who the klan supported you voted for the person who nazis support you voted for the person who the all right supports that's the crowd that you are in a new ones trying to be the better person here trump is skipping the integration

and flying those into florida not so much as the good luck to biden too offended themselves good riddance they say what next merica hasn't been this divided since the civil war but nice to think that little be better off for the inauguration. but why would it no one seems to be in any rush to make the 1st move passions run high in america today and i think every precaution has to be taken to ensure that a repeat of january 6th doesn't occur. on inauguration day or trying to disrupt the you know your ration of joe biden but the the imagery of 25 a nation governed. by a government that does not recognize legitimate by that number that you know that percentage of the americans. you know this is it's going to be a very difficult 4 years for the united states i don't know if we're ever going to be able to recover from this the partisan political divide is so deep and so wide

joe biden is not the politician to bridge it he is one of the reasons why this divide exists so is donald trump and there's there's now joe biden will speak of unity he will speak of healing but the fact of the matter is he has now the trust of a significant percentage of the american people and there will be no healing there will be no unity. we cannot bring in our u.s. correspondent caleb mop and pail tell us more about the build up indeed well reports showed that joe biden the president elect was in church this morning it's important to note joe biden will be only the 2nd roman catholic president in american history all other u.s. presidents have been protestants and now he has arrived at the u.s. capitol and we also know that donald trump has left the white house this is what we've heard from trump. the things that we've done have been just incredible and i

couldn't have done i'm done it without you so just. take the. we love you we will be back in some form. now it's certainly an odd day in washington d.c. not a normal inauguration we've got the u.s. national guard very widely deployed very very heavy security and due to the pandemic rather than having a big crowd gathered for the inauguration as is normally done instead there is a big barrier of american flags now the situation in the capitol where there's so much military deployed and not a big crowd and a lot of confusion and nervous tension kind of reflective of the overall situation in the country 4 out of 5 americans now say that the country is quote falling apart 4 out of 5 americans meanwhile a similar proportion of those say that they are still quote proud to be an american

this is what we heard from americans we talked to on the eve of joe biden's inauguration i think there are real divisions and i think that comes around. and i asked the caste system now. i mean there's there's a kind of political divides that are often sort of manufactured i think that to want to things that happen at the capitol and yet i mean it's really easy to feel like they're going to be scolded for i would say that really kind of could spawn their past a lot of heat and speed this country. in the part. you know that and then there's serious serious things that the president here 400000 individuals americans dying from for corona virus you have millions of people unemployed you have business is falling for bankruptcy you can't play issues between the current president and the president coming it's not a very. it's a easy switch over i think

a kind of what the current. president biden is doing as far as trying to impeach steele trying to tell the president is kind of childish. so the american public will be watching and waiting for today's events to transpire there will be no crowd assembled to watch the events happen in person rather they will be staying home to watch the inauguration crowds will not be assembling the whole country remains nervous economic data is quite negative at the moment many are hoping the biden ministration can turn things around but skepticism and the divides and wounds from the election have not gone away are to scale a mop and saying across the developments in d.c. for us thank you meanwhile a poll has revealed that 32 percent of europeans think the u.s. can't be trusted and over 60 percent of respondents see america's political system as broken we asked people in france germany and the u.k.

for their thoughts. the relationship is not good because of trump but whether it will improve its 5056. it will be difficult to unify because trump has a lot of radical supporters the us and e.u. seem to be taking a confrontational approach to each other at the moment i hope that biden will be more friendly towards the e.u. because under trump there was a lot of distance between that see just music or just i don't know but i have confidence in this president and you lot of american people who love trial he was the man for the job they thought they were happy with what they saw what happened when we see what he has done and what he's doing with him to ourselves that he really must be stopped that's all trying to stop quite large international nations i think you're going to see the repercussions about i think other nations because so it's going to get better but it's not going to happen or not i know that. you from. but i think vested interests in the traditional friendship trade

relationships will be. returned back to our breaking news coming from the spanish capital a powerful explosion has destroyed most of the residential building in central madrid killing at least 2 people according to the city mayor 6 others are said to be injured and local media are saying the blast was caused by a gas leak but that's not been confirmed by officials the building is owned by the catholic church and local media are saying it's a religious complex providing training for priests and food for the homeless it's near a busy metro station and also if school which was empty at the time due to the crowd of ours police are saying the entire area has been evacuated and we'll be keeping you updated as more information on that comes in. russia is in a race against time to get its population vaccinated against kobe 19 and here in moscow the authorities are getting creative with new hubs being set up in some

surprising locations are these constant reports russia's mass vaccination is picking up steam here in moscow vaccinations are being set up across the city in addition to regular hospitals and this one for example is inside an opera house which is quite symbolic because this is a historic building right in the heart of russia's capital and it used to be a hospital during the 2nd world war besides the fact that this is an opera house that comes for the benefits well 1st of all the entourage of of this beautiful building and then while you're waiting in line to get inoculated you could listen to a relaxing opera music 1st few hours here at this vaccination posts is reserved for employees of moscow theaters let's have a listen to their take on the vaccination and the pandemic in general which at the limit global conversed of all is dangerous for me as a vocalist because the disease would severely affects my singing voice because it has an impact on the loans and the vocal operates itself with which incident in

august i was very sick so i decided that it's important to overcome it somehow because my contracts have brought a full and through here in the theatre you have to constantly be on form 2 weeks after leaving the hospital i sank the battle parata but it was very difficult for me. the pandemic was difficult it is not yet clear how difficult because we do not know all the consequences we believe in a bright future but it is not yet clear thank god we work in russia because everything is much more complicated abroad. well there are people who are reluctant to go to regular hospitals for vaccination because they might be where we have taken up infections it was dearest might be unfounded but mobile inoculation points like this one give these people psychological comfort and plus the pro says is really simple all you need to do is to show up it is done 1st come 1st served basis

vaccination in russia is being done completely free of charge and there are a few options there are 2 approved and registered vaccines that are available in the country 1st one sputnik v. and then there was another one at the corona and then there is a 3rd one that is common up and already showing promising results in clinical trials and top of that russia is conducting clinical trials on a one dose spot nick live version of its major coronavirus vaccines russia's health care officials are setting their sights on achieving a herd immunity before autumn and that means that at least 60 percent of the adult population or $40000000.00 of russians must be vaccinated in the next 7 months this is school wide a task even production wise but according to denise monteiro who's russia's minister of industry in trade the plan of how to pull this off is there in the solution as of today almost 6500000 doses of the 2 components of sputnik the have been produced we were expected to produce not less than 7000000 doses in january

and 11 1000000 in february and 15 1000000 doses a plan from the edge. and of course the vaccination points like this one are go into play a role besides theatres and cinemas themselves one population to get successful the vaccinated as much as anyone else because there have been hard times with a pandemic they're losing profits by the day due to restricted seating the more jobs are taken the sooner life can get back to normal. germany is extending and toughening its covered lockdown due to soaring and faction rates chancellor merkel's announcement comes amid rising public hostility towards the restrictions. tonight all of our efforts to stop the spread of the virus faces a serious threat i would like to emphasize that we decided on measures that were limited until january 31st are now extended until february 14th that of course is a huge step and we understand what dam eans for citizens and others or private

gatherings will be limited to one person from a household over than your own kindergartens and schools all closed right the way through until the 14th of february and we've also heard a call for whoever can to work from home where that's possible masks will continue to have to be worn on public transport in shops and in places where you going to be in prolonged close contact inside with another person the new mutations of the covert 19 virus seem to of been very high up on the list of things causing concern to politicians in here in germany we hear the angle of merkel talk about this in the press conference we also heard the health minister yen spawn saying that these mutations of covert 19 will cause 'd for serious worry

these and would do it soon for this mutation is 1st and foremost more transmissible than others more transmission means more seriously ill people that's why limited contact and continuing to bring down infection numbers is so important. when it comes to increasing the severity of those measures that are being taken to prevent the spread of covert 19 there are signs that there's not much stomach for it here in the country at the moment only 28 percent of those polled in germany said they wanted to see tougher restrictions put upon them that's down 21 percent on the previous poll while politicians are really in any kind of agreement when it comes to what's the best way to move forward for germany if they're only vaccinated people in a restaurant or cinema they can no longer in danger each other as long as it's not clear whether a vaccinated person can transmit the virus they can be no exceptions i would consider

a curfew after 8 pm to be justified i reject nationwide curfews on principle and also took time out to talk about vaccines saying that she will be speaking to brussels on thursday about the use one for all and all for one vaccine program it's something that has come in for a bit of criticism here in germany due to how slow it's taken to roll that out just over one percent of the population here in germany that received both jobs of a covert 1000 vaccine that are needed. in italy a number of restaurants have refused to close their doors in protest over coronavirus rules the country is currently under tough restrictions requiring restaurants and cafes to close by 6 pm on business owner said she believes the infection risk posed by restaurants is being exaggerated. border the i'm not afraid that we might spread called it because we respect all the regulations distance in

masks disinfectants everything that is required of us i don't understand why in hotels and buy highways places that offer the same services as us seated lunches and dinners they say that the virus does not spread but here it does someone has to explain that to us i'm not an expert i'm not the one who has to say the measures that must be taken i hope that after a year they would be able to solve the problem at least partly but things are getting worse if we can fix it they should at least not make us fail. the process kicked off on social media earlier this month under the hash tag open but despite strong support online the number of restaurant owners taking part in the protest itself was reportedly low those that did flout the rules harbor were issued with fines by police italy was the epicenter of the crime of our spend in europe with the country introducing new restrictions only last week as

a crisis itself or a 3rd way if very much as i believe the curbs have pushed her sector to the brink. of the state support if we can call it that didn't even cover the basics deals rents and so on we haven't had any real how i could find on friday 400 euros which i have already paid but it was then reduced to 280 i will stay open until they give me explain chanson solutions i've had the same experience as most italians i don't know how our sector will survive we had very little work and earnings are gone we at the end after a year of this we don't have enough money to cover our expenses. a reminder of our breaking news coming out of spain a powerful explosion has destroyed most of a building in central madrid killing at least 2 people and injuring 6 others the city mayor said the blast appears to have been caused by a gas leak the building is owned by the catholic church and served as

a religious complex providing training for priests and food for the homeless it's near eye care home for the elderly which reportedly suffered some damage and there's also a school nearby which was empty at the time of the blast police are saying the entire area has been evacuated. that's a breakdown of today's top headlines for now if you're looking for more you can always had to our website. thanks for tuning in this hour.

someone who was disillusioned. search is going to be named chris in the film you may. know. him and those who just can't stand forever up with it because i didn't feel that oh . antarctica is a very international community. meeting yesterday with only

a few things. you just gotta keep going to keep it as the studies that you do indeed. as the position of the world to use to look at the business for their nuclear cooperation in antarctica is everything refuse to believe that we live in front of t.v. with the above 30. 5 and heaven with affected all day but i decided not to take physics life with my god didn't tell you that. the world is driven by a dream shaped by. the

day or thinks. we dare to ask. hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle social media platforms today function as the public square they were key to almost everything we do when society the same platforms can ban you would be platform you essentially disappear you.