tree has been influencing very deeply the medical and scientific establishment. so what's driving the obesity epidemic it's called. the headlines this hour the russian president calls that the power. during his wide ranging video address to this year's world economic forum also to come the vaccine supply rather deepens between britain and the u.s. threatens to get tougher the next ball while accusing drugs for. not keeping its end of the bargain. on store track to tell you the number of deaths recorded. in the u.k. who is supposed 100000. the british prime minister under pressure to explain the country's situation is bringing families demand a public inquiry into the government's failure.

also around approved plans to make axing the country's foreign minister exclusively tells our iran is supporting the. russian the russian vaccine we have a bad experience with another western country that i do not want to name. you watching r.t. international that the high flying meeting in the swiss alps for the world economic forum is very different this year has gone digital because of the pandemic and a little earlier the russian president gave a lengthy address covering a raft of topics video link. talks as 3 the key issues that were.

this is that to me putin's 1st speech appearance or that of all since 2009 when he was prime minister and perhaps you know it hints at how severe the situation in the world is and that is what vladimir putin devoted a significant portion of his speech to this crisis that the world is facing today the severity of this crisis it is an upheaval in technology cultural social as well as economic huge disparities in the world that is that is resulting in a systematic collapse and vladimir putin highlighted the now we're facing a challenge a problem that is unprecedented over the last hard hard century since the 930 s. if the 30 percent lived with an income level that's lower than $3.00 u.s.

dollars a day so that's the kind of misalignment that you can see in the world the cove in $1000.00 pandemic has only exacerbated those issues. the problems of been building up for many years now these evolution revolution in technology and social values in cultural norms in in the economy and led me a putin says that you know the last several decades they've seen an economic boom around the world but that boom has benefited primarily those who are who were already rich on top of all of that these these tech giants these corporations run by billionaires and accountable to few they have grown in power beyond all control. the digital giants now are playing an increasingly large role we often hear that in conversations particularly regarding the u.s. election campaign and it's not just simply the technology giants their economic giants in some areas they're defacto able to compete with states the problem again

is exacerbated by the pandemic. this course and these corporations as well as select nations can ban and bar people and untasty aids from from online you know from online discourse from the world economy at a whim and instead of working together as as a civilization people are all nations and leaders are increasingly looking to find scapegoats foreigners that they can blame and direct people's anger at usually in unresolved social and economic issues could force governments to find scapegoats so that they can then redirect the anger of their people we can see more pressure on those countries who disagree to being satellites we see legal sanctions restrictions in i.t. and telecoms this game without any rules could lead to new hotspots around the world the situation is such a lad with putin says the international law has lost its authority it is no longer

mandatory but more voluntary but the unit polar world or rather attempts to establish a uni polar world where a few select nations can dictate to everyone how to behave and want to do those attempts have failed the way forward that we're putting believes out of this crisis to lift the world out and to avoid a scenario the 2nd world war where you know what the $930.00 s. lead to is to work together and one of the areas where they can work together now immediately without delay is providing a vaccine access to the vaccine to poor relations which are much more restricted in their access to potentially lifesaving medication. the world needs to join efforts in distributing these vaccines and increasing their accessibility we see that mass vaccination today is available primarily to developed nations while hundreds of millions of people worldwide do not even have the slightest hope for this protection such inequality could pose

a common threat the gist of the public portion of flooding near putin's speech. was that the world is changing had the hectic peace the peace that few thought possible and all of these changes being exacerbated made all that much more challenging by the pandemic and now is the time to work together because alone and separate there is no resolving these differences resolving these problems that will only lead to clashes there's more to this discussion but unfortunately as is the tradition of divorce the 2nd part of this discussion is private what in his divorce address flatter me putin also welcome the extension of the new strategic arms reduction treaty also known as new start the president called it a correct step the last minute deal agreed by russia and the united states which would have otherwise expired next week does limit nuclear missile arsenals for the

next 5 years and just after the dream was sealed last night that amir putin and joe biden then held their 1st phone call since the u.s. presence inauguration worn that now from our correspondent constantine brushed off . 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 in the broad 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 worlds a largest nuclear arsenals and is considered as a an insurance policy against a full blown arms race russia was the 1st to offer or the extension of the treaty without conditions in early 2 $1020.00 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 they 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. 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 at how. well despite that when by most of us to comment on the cold with putin he did laugh it off with a quip to report is. probably better to. do it. gave us their thoughts on 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 cheer like give it a round completely and suddenly say you know he wants to. develop friendlier relations with russia so he's going to be talking to best occleve. 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 a. military. confrontation latitude towards russia and china in the end. the vaccine supply right between britain and the with escalating brussels claims that the british swedish drug company ash zeneca is prioritizing between k.

and plants restrictions on exports there is growing disparity between their vaccination programs with britain making headway while you nations alike and behind peter all of a small. there's been an absolute false over whether senior personnel from the vaccine manufacturer astra zeneca will or will not be meeting with those from the european union it now seems that after being on and off again more times than a light switch that meeting will go ahead the thing that they've got to discuss is what constitutes a contract as far as the e.u. commission is concerned they have a contract with astra zeneca to provide 400000000 doses of the covert 19 vaccine as far as astra zeneca concerned they say that's not so much a contract is that it's as it is an agreement to do the best they possibly can the e.u. says they should have access to doses of the vaccine produced it to facilities in the united kingdom not so say astra zeneca and the fact that the e.u.

is asking for that well that's upsetting those in the united kingdom but it will see restrictions on the on the vaccines all the other ingredients across people and i think that's a pretty common sensical i'm sure. we would be widely supported across to you as well i would do all international partners in fact to be collaborative and working closely together. and i think that i think protectionism is is not the right approach in the middle of a pandemic they have been talks about the e.u. threatening to stop exports of vaccines manufactured here inside the block well that of course would have an impact on the u.k. getting doses of the fines that by on take vaccine which is made in brussels that isn't going to happen that's the word coming out of brussels at the moment that plant didn't have the backing of the german health minister again spahn but as i say isn't going ahead according to the e.u. here in germany people are less than happy about what is going on decide the

newspaper here saying that it's the best advert for breaks that there ever could be in the main tabloid newspaper here built they're saying that. the line is playing down the idea of there being real unease over the ability to obtain vaccines but if you look at what angela merkel the german chancellor has to say there is clearly some concern over the speed or lack there of it which vaccines are being up to by the european commission put this isn't often this bit of our action leaves a lot to be desired process often become very bureaucratic and take a long time so we have to work on that what we are seeing is in many cases e.u. nations have the infrastructure in place in order to administer vaccines but don't have the vaccines to stick in people's arms in fact in spain madrid has said they're going to suspend the vaccination program for 2 weeks the reason they just don't have any to give me the british prime minister has been tackled in parliament

over his handling of the pandemic after the past the grim milestone of 100000 related deaths opposition leaders to kiss starmer called out what he said was boris johnson's slow slow slow response meantime grieving families are demanding a public inquiry into the government's actions but 1st who needs the this is a criminal. let's not sugarcoat it we are experiencing the worst humanitarian atrocity this island service. because. it's. through there is there no matter how much and. most of these lives couldn't be saved in a solemn address to the nation prime minister boris johnson offered his condolences as he knowledge u.k. becoming europe's 1st nation to suffer 100000 deaths the government is now pinning

its hopes and carrying out europe's fastest vaccination program jones revealed that 13 percent of adults have already been vaccinated. i'm sorry to have to tell you the number of death recorded from coded in the u.k. has surpassed 100000. and it's hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic but it's too late or is too little too late for the 100000 people and the millions of those who have lost people to this 100000 people is 800000 ballots again if we think of a family of 5 that's 5 lives that are changed forever millions of people have been let down by a simple lack of care in policy i mean that will not a prime minister that boasted about shaking hands with people we're talking about the titanic happening almost every day and yes the numbers are coming down but overall the number being 100000 this is not something that we should take on the

chin and accept as a population in the end of the day and of an accident neglect family and they did not lives 1st they put the economy 1st which ironically now as not own tatts the economy has also led to more deaths i don't understand how they could possibly sleep at night knowing that they're leaving things like borders and testing unchecked while we still talking about these things while we still discussing the fact that they keep having to discuss and discuss and discuss maybe it will bring this in maybe bring this in you know i'm going to it it's not a hard thing to do to understand that as an island we had a golden opportunity to close up borders look after ourselves. now randall's the latest country to approve russia's covert vaccine and author hopes to manufacture the sputnik jab in an exclusive interview iran's foreign minister told r.t. why they chose it over western alternatives well here's some of the interview which

you can watch in full here tomorrow. i think it was a public health problem with some political content 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. whiteness. and so a lot of people needing blood transfusion to be still need to investigate it further but that was certainly a major public health problem in you know. the united states did not reduce its pressure. on iraq. it did not allow us to make financial transactions they said that humanitarian purchases were exempt from those 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 to 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 coal with $1000.00 we would 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 world but we do not want to be dependent on it. we will get. russian the russian ric's vaccine we will get the chinese racks in rio or in close touch with all of them be real get the vaccine but our own iranian produced vaccines burned through the 1st cycle of human. clinical testing and we hope by june

we will be able to use our own. well separately the russian investment fund behind sputnik they has signed a deal with a malaysian pharmaceutical firm to supply more than 6000000 doses the 1st shipment is expected by the end of march and the russian ambassador to malaysia says that local production of the vaccine is also expected the chief operating officer of the company which signed the deal talked to us about the plans and the challenges ahead . there are some vaccines and obviously like i was there which is about minus 708080 degrees celsius which requires a lot more industry of you should and of course we want to make sure that even though this is not as low in terms of temperature we do want to ensure the be spending the vaccine is or is for is basically going to or will prefer supply chain system that will enable the products to basically be deliberate

to the patients to the subjects in as much integrity process as possible so we don't anticipate that there's going to be much of a problem and recruiting closely with them is your 1st ensure that success we are talking to. to undertake research and development and technology transfer local manufacturing as well as supplies to malaysia as well as to other countries so looking forward to undertake that particular program as we believe that it will be important in terms of the overall sustainability of could be 90 next you know sort of the next in programs that we look at. a french court has opened a hearing into companies that manufactured or sold agent orange it is an extremely toxic chemical that we see in the vietnam war and is still causing major health problems today such as cancer we spoke to the french many think tim who brought the case. it lies in

a good battle you can imagine how you must be to lose your 1st child as a young mother this child was german in advance magine the suffering it was only many many years later that i learned a culprit who killed my child was not me but this poisoned well go to the end together this is just a beginning we went turn 1000 pretrial sessions to get to does hearing everything was postponed or she was in vietnam during the war nikita's the companies of causing severe harm to her family by making and selling the chemical to the united states governmental organizations to say that millions in vietnam still suffering from the effects of agent orange

'd. the lawsuit was filed 7 years ago and accuses more than a dozen firms of not just causing health problems to family but also damaging the environment on sunday and chemical are among the multinational corporations that are named recuse firms defense is that they cannot be held responsible for how the pentagon use the chemical in the conflict we got reaction from french activists about the trial. and what if tran wins the case it will create real hope because the 1st person but we created a lawyer valerie combat missiles that talked about it it will show the directions

that result in a fred to human life and damage the environment if you will be held responsible. even have spawned this process for the 6th time what are they waiting for they're waiting for trent to be dead than the process will be completed. too young to vote but old enough to spy for the government this concern in britain at the moment over plans to allow children to be used as covert spies and in some cases to break the law 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 and pays do you have concerns 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 recognise that this is not something that should be

easily done in a democratic state well if 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 the draft says that using youngsters would be rare and does include 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 breaking into it and we have to be realistic that there are some situations where lots of children are exploited it or are harmed and then maybe 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 or 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 spy 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 into it and 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 price of a position where they will come to any harm now of course their 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 can't 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 attention should be the government's duty has been put on the public anyway so i think that. wrong and that i was going too far. we had here really disney is removing access to carting favorites fearing that they could be criticizes insensitive to modern audiences ask 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 don't but its friends

are all racist and so were the aristocrats oh and if you want any of these films before your 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 he 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 think about was ringing . on sean guns 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 foot 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 edited out his cameo in home alone 2 it's all about the kids see one someone just think of the children like this disney producer. kids

go screaming it's 1st into the wood chipper so childhood classics getting the full on can't slow culture treatment snow white not to mention the 7 dwarfs are probably that worried actually on 2nd thought that was a safe no one's going to rest discriminate against that. it's just going muchly 7 30 in the evening here in moscow good to have a company i will be back again in 30. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you there.