join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest on the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. headlines this hour a breakthrough between the u.s. and russia as their leaders agree to extend the nuclear arms control treaty. also this hour britain accusing brussels of banksy nationalism as the e.u. looks to crack down on exports and around approves am still make russia vaccine in exclusive interview the country's foreign minister tells us white iran is supporting sputnik the. russian the russian rigs seem to have a very bad experience with another russian country but i do not want to name. the

french called opens a hearing against companies like monsanto and dow chemical who made or sold agent orange a highly toxic substance heavily used in the vietnam war we hear from the victim who brought the case. a new magine how it must be to lose your 1st child as a young mother this child was doing in advance managing the suffering it was only many many years later the rains aren't in the culprit who kills them a child who is not only this pleasing. fellow that welcome good afternoon you're watching r.t. international where it's just gone 2 o'clock in moscow presidents putin biden have agreed to extend the new strategic arms reduction treaty also known as new start a last minute deal which would have otherwise expired this week limits nuclear missile arsenals for the next 5 years which is staffed the agreement the leaders

then held their 1st phone call since joe biden's inauguration parties constants in the rushkoff as the. but the tense and rocky relationship between the 2 nations the fact that the 2 presidents have talked and read on a major arms control agreement in their 1st ever phone call well that's reassuring and the 5 year extension of the new start treaty is indeed a bride spot in other words pretty much failing talks on arms control and proliferation so the new strategic arms reduction treaty signed in 2010 now is the only thing that limits the 2 words old largest nuclear arsenals and is considered as a an insurance policy against a full blown arms race russia was the 1st to offer the extension of the treaty without conditions in early 2020 but the trumpet ministration while showed a lack of interest supposedly because they were seeking a new deal instead it will cover more weapons but anyway the current treaty was

expiring on february 5th which is a little bit a week from now and this was an apparent a last ditch attempt to save it and it succeeded so let's 1st have a listen to how the kremlin a welcome the news the president's expressed satisfaction on reaching an agreement on the extension of the strategic arms reduction treaty in the coming days all the necessary procedures will be completed to ensure the further functioning of this important international legal mechanism for the mutual limitation of nuclear missile well the readout of the phone conversation on the kremlin's web page described the conversation as a businesslike and frank and you know the overall emphasis was on mutual cooperation and normalizing the relationship between the 2 countries in for example it is said that the 2 leaders have discussed the possibility of joining forces in battling the pandemic but if you look at the white house web page and the way the same conversation is described there are you will see a different tone and

a single so let's have a listen president biden made clear that the united states will firmly in defense of its national into. wrists in response to actions by russia that harm us or our allies the 2 presidents agreed to maintain transparent and consistent communication going forward so it seems like for biden's administration it is really important to stress that the newly elected american president has confronted his russian counterpart on various issues and didn't just agreed to the extension almost as if you know stopping arms race from ask late in is not good enough and you know what the american media outlets immediately latched on to this and they saw a dramatic change of tone sort of look how donald trump spoke to vladimir putin and how joe biden just did. although it is worth mentioning that we didn't hear the actual conversation all we have are just the readouts and there is a lot of diplomatic language to it so the important thing is that there is

a glimpse of hope that russia and the united states won't fall into the new round of arms race but nevertheless it almost feels like there is a certain ritual that the american president has to follow in order to sell this that how. well when biden was asked to comment on the cool with putin he did give a surprisingly response. to this on the record. when i. thought of the conversation between the 2 presidents. very much the message as you could see from the u.s. and white house report of that phone call the emphasis was we're going to hold you know we're going to russia is not going to mess with us russia is going to be held accountable for all the evil deeds that they do. that's a message for the domestic population which honestly. you know he's feeding his

he's feeding meat to his dogs. and that is not a sign of a sophisticated foreign policy certainly the phone call this early in the stage of the game is a good sign you know biden. kivett around completely and suddenly say you know he wants to. develop friendlier relations with russia so he's going to be talking to best a cli. as though he's a tough guy with russia but i think realistically the goals that biden has domestically are going to require of winding down of the. military. confrontational attitude towards russia and china in the end. germany has for many demanded that the e.u. stops all exports of kavi thanks scenes that it manufactures and so britain is now accusing the bloc of vaccine nationalism as brussels clamps down on supplies our europe correspondent peter all of

a has more details. governments across europe are struggling to bring down the number of cases of covert 19 that's the spy putting in place lock downs and restrictions on people like those that we've seen in the netherlands that have resulted in own breast there and a spot is a ripping between the u.k. and the e u which is ended up with the u.k. vaccines minister accusing the european union of well vaccine diplomacy vaccine politics whatever you want to call it he's got a name for it vaccine nationalism is the wrong way to go we've got to make sure we protect our people and then actually you know put our you know leaning as far as we can to protect the rest of the world to deal with the shortfalls in the number of vaccine doses available the european union has said that it wants pharmaceutical companies to inform brussels whenever vaccines manufactured inside the european union are to be exported outside of the block well that really could end up

resulting in delays to vaccines arriving in the united kingdom that earlier on we heard from astra zeneca the past oxford based part based pharmaceutical company saying that they were going to cook the number of vaccines expected to be delivered to the european union and that did not go down well in europe invested billions to help develop the world's 1st covered 1000 vaccines and now the companies must deliver. they must honor their obligations make no bones about it the european commission and ursula fund the lion personally are under extreme scrutiny across the european union for the way that the vaccine program has been dealt with what we have is a situation whereby the vaccination program in the e.u. is being late silly slow if you compare it to countries like the united states and the united kingdom which is done particularly well it isn't looking too great the

way that vaccines are being rolled out across the block and there are a lot of people asking a lot of questions why that is the case it's unsure of course whether arguing between the e.u. and the u.k. is the way to solve that particular impasse ok let's get more details now on those riots in the netherlands over lockdown restrictions because there has been a 4th consecutive night of violence across the country with shops and the police targeted. it was. i. was was.

i. will be saying. to the government says a 9 pm curfew to stop the spread of appliances 1st torched the testing center and then burned vehicles as well as $3.00 of cocktails and stones water cannon and take gas was them fried to disperse the demonstrators more than 200 people have been detained since monday vandalism and also violating social distancing authorities branded the rights is unacceptable and called on citizens to help track down those who broke the rule. now iran is the latest country to approve russia's code faxing and also hopes to manufacture at the sputnik for the japanese an exclusive

interview iran's foreign minister told me why they chose it over western alternatives here's some of the interview which you can watch him full here on thursday. i think it was a public health problem with some political can considerations about the intentions of the united states and the lack of trust which is which is very clear we have a very bad experience with another western country that i do not want to name they sent to iran. blood that had. wired us. and so a lot of people needing blood transfusion we still need to investigate it further but that was certainly a major public health problem in iraq. the united states did not reduce its pressure. on iraq. it did not allow us to make financial transactions

they said it humanitarian purchases were exempt from their sanctions but financial transactions to do those humanitarian because you don't you can't do humanitarian purchases without paying money and the banks who are supposed to transfer that money should restrict it actually has already given us the advantage because. if we had we wanted to wait for the medicine even for the test kits for covert 19 we wouldn't be able to get is from abroad we produced all of it in iran even even masks reproduced it in in iran so sanctions have actually helped us stand on our own feet and be able to not i mean we want cooperation with the wood but we do not want to be dependent on it. we will get. russian the russian ric's vaccine we will get the chinese vaccine we are in close touch with all of them be real good in the end of a vaccine but our own iranian produced vaccines went

through the 1st cycle of human. clinical testing and we hope by june we will be able to use our own vaccine. a french course is open to herring into companies that manufacture yourselves agent orange she's an extremely toxic chemical that was used in the vietnam war and he still causing major health problems such as cancer we spoke to the french vietnamese victim who brought the case. imagine a good battle i mean imagine how you must be to lose your 1st child as a young mothers are that this child was journey in advance the mansion the suffering it was only many many years later that i learned it can't wait to have kids my child was not only that this plays into to go to the end together not this is just the beginning when turning 1000 pretrial sessions to get to disappearing everything was postponed. but she was in vietnam during the war and accuses the companies of causing severe harm to the victim and her children by making and

selling the chemicals to the united states when governmental organizations say that millions in vietnam still suffering from the effects of agent orange juice to warn you you might find the following footage disturbing.

the lawsuit was filed 7 years ago and accuses more than a dozen firms of not just causing health problems to her family but also damaging the environment when sons and dow chemical among the multinational corporations named the queues for defense is that they cannot be held responsible for how the pentagon use the chemical in conflict we've got reaction from french activists about the trial. if tram wins the case to create real hope because the 1st president bush be created a lawyer valerie cabanas also talked about it it will show the for actions that result in the fred to human life and to the environment if you will be held responsible. you may have postponed this process for the 6th time what are they waiting for they're waiting for tran to be dead than the process will be completed . if he's national still ahead for you this hour younger voters are leaving scotland's push at the moment for independence from britain we'll have

a look at the details in a couple of minutes. when almost seems wrong. just don't call. me. yet to shape out this day. and in detroit equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. the world is driven by dreamers shaped by one person with those great.

military thinks. we dare to ask. for. welcome back to young to vote but old enough to spy for the government the risk concern in britain over plans to allow children to be used as spies and in some cases to bright their role in order to reveal wrongdoing by their parents the government's covert intelligence bill is making its way through parliament but even the prime minister's own conservative party am pays a wary eye. everyone i've spoken to has been horrified by it when it's been

explained to them it needs to be extremely tightly controlled and those controls need to be greater the more the government's proposing once you start taking action like this to put spies in people's homes whatever the purpose this does have complications it is very important for government to recognize that this is not something that should be easily done in a democratic state will have passed the bill will allow 16 and 17 year olds to be recruited by $22.00 state agencies ranging from the police the military and intelligence services to tax authorities draft says that using youngsters would be rare and includes safeguards and supervision to protect the children we put the issue up for debate. the use of a child informant is a last resort sort of step where you've got serious criminality and know all the why available of breaking into it and we have to be realistic that there are some situations where lots of children are exploiting it or are harmed

a man may be an opportunity to break that ring of this only going to be able to be crystallised by the use of a child informant children if we see them being exploited all the government comes through joining me exploited or involved in any sort of dangerous activity going to that nice remove them from that situation as soon as possible we shouldn't keep them there just so that they can't buy it even gahan looks at the situation of the child informant and ignored the situation of all the children who may be being exploited or harmed by a ring of criminals who the child informant represents the only way and so what that means essentially sacrificing this child just so we can save others this is one child who's come to the attention of the authorities we know he's at risk i don't but now we keeping him there or encouraging him to stay there just so we can save other children no one's been sacrificed no one is going to be placed in

a position where they will contact any harm now of course the judgement calls and things sometimes go wrong but there is no intention of sending anybody child or adult into a situation where they will come to harm just to get information if they are deployed it will be cold be because the assessment is that it can be done safely where in kind sure teachers after we're done students don't as patients we have to want to know when neighbors immigration status criminality you know who went to benefit fraud all of these things you know what i generally ascension should be the government's duty has been put on the public anyway so i think that. strong and i was going too far. now disney's removing access to cartoon favorites fearing that they could be criticized as insensitive to modern audiences saskia taylor looks at how far the rush not to offend could go. i was today years old when disney took

a sledgehammer to my childhood memories having multi-day over for a few decades the family friendly entertainment giant has finally decided that peta pounds appropriating cultures like that going out of fashion dumbass friends are all racist and so were the aristocrats oh and if you want any of these films before you're 7 years old you will be too can we collectively see you disney for teaching us the wrong values when we were kids i mean without dumble maybe today i could have been a much better person the disney plus streaming platform is restricting access to the on the sevens to a number of films it says depict harmful stereotypes because if you thought dumb but was an ode to the town or love you clearly missed the bugs mocking segregation in the south. or. what. peter pan playing dress up should have sent the alarm to think about was

ringing. and shown goods unbelievable accuracy when playing the piano in the aristocats was a bit well racially insensitive. a point but if we're being sensible little one see a flying out of a singing cap and everything else is pretty much a blur also maybe education and not elimination is the way for would bunk in october disney was praised when it decided to put disclaimers before some of its more problematic films why rather than remove this content we want to acknowledge its harmful impact learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together while no more learning from history and disney apparently new policy segregation didn't exist if you don't. watch dumbo and donald

trump wasn't president if you edit out his cameo in home alone 2 it's all about the care and free one from one just think of the children like this disney producer to make your kids go screaming hats 1st into the wood chipper so childhood classics getting the full on can't focus treatment snow white not to mention the 7 dwarfs are probably that worried actually on 2nd thought that was the safe now it's going to rest discriminate against that. is just started talking at a virtual conference the world economic forum and we can listen it. source is a forum multiple times thank you for this opportunity to share more opinions with the experts who attend this were really a plane it's a platform thanks to the efforts by mr. schwab you know 1st of all ladies and gentleman to your excellences i watch you welcome you to. world economic forum with

them going to cost more than the new spike that. truly happy to see that at least for and. it's taking the players. although virtually. its offer is a platform for an honest. outlook. and forecasts what and 30 fills the gap in conversation. between policy leaders things we business chiefs and heads of state and i mean it is extremely important to do. it when we have to address so many issues and this forum that hit them this is. the 1st. jack 8 of the 21st. entry it will focus on some of the seismic limited

changes there are underway on the planet have been. drastic developments in politics and technology in the social life and the economy and all that actually he covered 1000 content you just mentioned has been a serious challenge to all humanity and media accelerates some of these structural changes but the preconditions for then were like down in the moment on the gurney dismal and. also. exists or bates it's been balanced it was that each existed 80 ft previously and there are risks were rather in the mood but he will get you negative developments and he said they could materialize in almost any area you could. definitely it's been an unprecedented event some of the experts that the bigger they were compare our current situation with the 930 years

more than any other what we can agree or disagree with much starts. in many political areas but. in the scale of these grants that definitely we can agree that he is but you might be lee in we can see that crave a small addles and mechanician of some of us like are in crisis in a global and there is a great differentiation in terms of a good income supply which it globally and really that significant traits and that is what leads to a drastic call the recycling in many countries but because the growth of popular. populism is between your right wing and left wing radicalism if you do shift around clashes between difficult different political hammer society we have little before flu. in many countries and that doesn't add to stability

a little nettled in international affairs and international institutions are being undermined today he and there are many more conflicts worldwide. of the international security architecture and ability of the order or gets degraded when it's the shmuck trouble mentioned in my phone conversation with mr biden yes that includes indeed the extension of the new start treaty is a move in the right area in the right direction with the who thought with searing the sting a spiraling of those conflicts and as we know the inability to address issues in a peaceful way resulted in the world war 2 in the 20th century with our very much of that such a hot conflict it will not be possible to the war that nearing our era but i would but again the situation is can develop in and not be predicted in an unmanageable

way you know we need to take actions to the verge of that otherwise. you want to see here i collapse in international affairs and actually i would have 3 and 4 with all of the news we could have all against all of them. but if you do we are seeing attempts to find external enemies and we saying it tends to undermine such traditional values like family basic freedoms like the you and me to write a voice in the previous c p it would be accurate trice isn't a value the social crisis has led to some if we get it dawdle demographic lesions in the humanity lose civilization here as if you would do that with your culture is very. large and responsibility at least 2 of such a scenario would likely loom

a good and i'm usually anti utopia we need to provide. in rights environment for proper development for the right partner forward. you know and i would like to focus on the key challenges that the international community's thanks in right now the 1st one is the social economic one the. difference that this ticket to theirs and indeed according to statistics. despite the. meltdown. 1000 and sat still and 8 of the military and 2020 a weapon in the past 40 years have been extremely successful the world economy over the globally but it's since 1980 g.d.p. by p.p. in. reeling if you take the real income it's a double. that and that's a positive indicator. a surge in

developing countries more than a 1000000000 people. went out of poverty and. yet lately. if you take an income level of fight at that point 5 years dollars per person if you know. according to the world bank estimates. in china that a number of people who are lower incomes went down you know from 1100000000 in 1990 to lower then 300000000 you know 93 cents if you look if you take russia with you know went down from 64000000 people in 1993 in 1992 about 5000000 currently we also believe in places laws it's even a step forward at even less than truth i mean the most important area you would you mind yet me if you. will quote we also need to.