for. crying for justice. taken off china's flagship english and huge channel is banned in the u.k. over concerns about its ownership. become the. drugs regulated evaluation of russia. that is europe continues to be plagued by cobie facts and we speak to the head of an italian energy. in november my whole family received sputnik the jobs back in november and now we have a high level of antibodies we know that bush has great scientific traditions so we have no doubts about taking the russian job. to come u.k. food banks are inundated with pleas for help us a growing poverty crisis sees the most vulnerable having to choose between 2 things

we hear the story of one man he says you could have died. sometime we reply normally somebody who gets along been found dead in our home for several days potentially back could have happened to me and they would have checked up home. hello good evening just gone 6 in moscow you're watching r t international china's flagship news channel has been taken off in the u.k. and has had its license revoked by the media regulator ofcom over concerns that the company was ultimately controlled by the chinese communist party with more details is shadi edward stashed. well city t.n. has found itself in deep trouble and its future is incredibly unclear as china's state owned broadcaster has had its license revoked by the british regulator the

media watchdog of commodore follows an investigation by the founder of the license used by china global television network had been wrongfully held and therefore doesn't meet the legal requirements here in britain now essentially the company that owns the u.k. license for c t n which is start china media ltd doesn't have day to day control over the channel essentially it doesn't oversee any of the output of the channel again that is totally against the rules now released a statement shortly after the move and said that the company that owns the license didn't have this editorial responsibility we are unable to approve the application to transfer the license to the china global television network corporation because it's alternately controlled by the chinese communist party which is not permitted under u.k. broadcasting law we provide a c.d.n. with numerous opportunities to come into compliance but this is not done so we now consider it appropriate to withdraw the license for c.d.t and to broadcast in the

u.k. so while this all may read as a technicality the regulator does explain that any company needs to have that editorial control and it cannot be controlled by a political body the revocation though isn't necessarily political in essence but it does read it as such in the technicalities but looking deeper into all of what this means c.d.t. and is a division from china central television which is controlled by the chinese communist party obviously that is a political body and obviously that is why the company and the channel is now therefore disqualified by off and it's not as simple as sipek transferring the license on to a suitable body because again of found the crucial information was missing from the initial application so therefore that wasn't an option on the table for either of them though did accept that the start. china media ltd was found to be the distributor but not the producer and that none of studio key stakeholders all senior editorial personnel were found to be employed by the company either there

hasn't yet been a comment from c.g.i. nor has there been a comment from c.c.t.v. either so as a result the broadcaster will essentially likely face separate sanctions on this matter there is interesting timing in all of this many people would look to the international relations between the united kingdom and china you only have to look at last year to see the numerous mip mishaps from wall way to the hong kong protests and uprisings there so the move is likely to meet with some sort of retaliation and will certainly stoke the tensions between the 2 countries and superpowers once again but just finally there's also a key question here about the freedom of press in the united kingdom as well and what could happen to other media outlets. ok let's bring in benjamin cherry now he's a professor at the paris school of business new joins us this evening and you're very welcome thanks for coming on benjamin what's your reaction to what's happened today. when did the in the u.k.

protesting laws stated that the broadcaster licensees must have control over the license so this is including at utah real oversight over the programs or so license holders cannot be controlled by political parties. so the u.k. what later concluded that the china star china media ltd the license holder for the c.g. service did not have a responsibility for security ends up which is of course under the control of the communist party china i think it's a classic double standard and selective prosecution service funded by licensing is very set by the british government no one would believe that there is 0 proof or influence on what's being broadcast on the b.b.c. in fact there are also many broadcasters in the u.k. with very strong inference from us and it is and they were not prosecuted. what it

said and the reason it's denied or revoked the license it seems to be an easy problem to resolve doesn't it i mean i am saying strange to me that this company's been broadcasting in the u.k. for a long period of time with this problem and only now has it risen. well what has been complying as you said by the u.k. has been there for a long time the hidden message is i think loud and clear c.g.i. is becoming so in through and show that the britons are afraid of it the audience to go to the city in one city and website to feel for yourself how professional the programs they're. in the house and was able to review the other style side of the story is not trying to show. so in terms of the viewership then of c g t n do you think this will be greatly affected by what's happened today or do a lot of people watch the cheap c g t n on the internet well you know.

since some truth you only surface many years to come it is very important to hear different voices this is the essence of free speech the u.k. audience is a highly sophisticated one so and no paper cannot be used to cope with i think the audience could go and find the information online to judge for themselves it will have very limited influence i think in the moment because the u.k. regulars just have this mindset of oh push and point for mission now people could go they could pull information online with no having necessary have it my sense in the u.k. . are more sort of response would you expect from china over this. i think is beyond just a proc causing license is a foreign affair is shoes and usually it is cost customary to have somebody television on the china side ok benjamin let me leave it there but when you get to talk to us this afternoon i was benjamin chair he's from the paris school of

business thanks for coming on. in other news a devastating 3rd coronavirus wave lead to almost 5000 deaths in portugal last month and with its health care system feeling the strain germany has now flown in a plane with military medics and hospital equipment to help the aircraft transported around 20 doctors and nurses along with ventilators and hospital beds that is portuguese hospitals remain overwhelmed by the pandemic german medical staff who spend 3 weeks treating critically ill patients in the country's capital lisbon before being joined by another team or with europe's mass vaccination program still plagued by job shortages italy is now urging the use of drugs regulated to fast track evaluation of russia's sputnik the vaccine. we must not be afraid of the origins of vaccines what's important for us is the transition to the european medicines agency we have urged the e.u.

to scientifically evaluate the russian vaccine and those from other countries the situation in the country has been exacerbated by madonna saying it would deliver fewer doses than expected in february and the italian government has already said it would take legal action against both pfizer and astra zeneca over cope with 19 vaccine delays earlier one of the world's most prominent medical journals the lancet did publish a study which said that sputnik v. was around 90 percent effective and was also safe for the elderly with no serious side effects we heard from the president of an italian n.g.o.s which is urging the you to approve the russian jet. ever know they know in november my whole family received sputnik the jobs back in november and now we have a high level of antibodies my family and i trust science science has no borders we know that russia has great scientific traditions so we had no doubts about taking the russian job as of today many european countries including germany france italy

would like to receive the russian vaccine numerous requests have already been sent these days it is particularly clear as we see pfizer has to seneca and other companies delaying vaccine supplies and fortunately the virus has no limits as well so these countries have been forced to opt for the russian vaccine whether they want it or not in italy for example despite an unfolding governmental crisis news about sputnik the covers the front pages of virtually all the italian newspapers giorgio paul who the chairman of the italian medicines agency which grants permission for the use of vaccines in italy praised sputnik v in one of his latest interviews. or. the e.u. has been determined to participate in the handling of the pandemic the block has demonstrated it however unfortunately this political will has not been successfully put into practice furthermore there is an issue of vaccines they turned out to be

a very expensive trading commodity to give rise to huge competition germany signed a bilateral contract with pfizer for 300000000 doses it certainly did not go down well with other e.u. countries the deals which the e.u. made with various suppliers are still being kept secret we still don't know their terms and why there are delays in the last few days supplies hit the gas though apparently they are trying to overcome these delays related to the deadline which have partly been caused by a virus so in confusion. chinese city if we were a world health organization team is continuing its investigation into the origins of the cave in 1000 pandemic a russian member of the mission dead corpses that beijing is providing a high level of cooperation and that some of the speculation surrounding the virus icing be dispelled both there was a recent article by chinese scientists about the presence of live virus in imported

frozen food but this food was produced after the pandemic begun so it only shows that people who touch the packaging had already been infected with the virus this could be considered to be one of the ways the virus is transmitted in general but it's not an indication of how the virus came to china only a working theory well the team have visited key sites to move hand including a seafood market where the 1st ever cases of coded 1000 were clustered they have also checked the roof and institute of the according to some theories and a leak there could have caused the outbreak i mean that cough again says that the 2 weeks of research hasn't been enough to find definitive answers. because you know yourself i wouldn't say that we're any closer to understanding the origin of the virus we're not likely to determine the origin in 2 weeks especially is a whole year has passed already as you may have noticed nevertheless we have made some conclusions and it will help us undertake further work to identify the causes

. i mean my life when the u.k. the government there has been accused of neglecting vulnerable groups by not giving them the state benefits they need joining the pandemic welfare benefits for many disabled people in the u.k. have not been increased in line with those on other types of welfare david allen is just one of over 2000000 disabled people left out of pocket he says he felt abandoned after multiple sclerosis left him bedridden sometimes we hear a really bad news story and somebody who lives alone has been found dead in a home for several days. potentially that could have happened to me and nobody would have checked up on even if i did have a carer who would cut we could coming and how we would be allowed to unless it was formally recognized as social care as a result of the mc of the lockdown but really we've had to rely of giving off

shopping delivered to us my shopping will normally comes to between $25.35 pounds per week if you're shopping mordor is less than 40 pounds you get whacked with a somehow delivery charge it's not going to certain pounds i've not budgeted and bear in mind of another increase in my income i have to find it from someone so i have to give something else up in order to get my family to live and the reality is for decades people living with long term conditions the only link racism benefits social to have not kept pace with the rise in the cost of living. and that was even before the pandemic his friends and has been compounded even more now we have a 2 tier system so 100 people who get the universal credit have been given the additional support but those of us with

a legacy benefits have been given nothing. well the majority of disabled people in the u.k. do say that they have spent more than usual on shopping and utility bills during the pandemic 8070 percent of gone without essentials and almost half falling behind on their financial commitments they were told to stay is that he's even sat in the dark to save electricity and believes that some of the most vulnerable groups have been left badly affected by the pandemic i've left feeling abandoned and forgotten about. and it seems quite convenient for the government to forget people like us and what i find really hard to understand is the mixed messages that we get from government that have been statements about it cheaper to look after people with long term conditions in their own home rather than putting them into care but we don't get in support to the small we actually need to remain around homes there

are those people that really struggle has been documented people have taken their own lives as a result of this too many people have been left behind and there's too many people really really struggling to make him a hard decision nor do you have the how are the lights on do i have a mayor who don't have the heating on the country believe we're somewhere around the 5th 6 richest country in the world it's outrageous i'm sorry i think our government should be ashamed of themselves. ok well let's turn to the situation in france now because crowds have gathered in paris this is a nationwide strike against government economic policies protesters demanding changes to a stimulus plan which they say will impact wages on. he said one of the protesters just describe what's going on where you are at the

moment. from the protests in paris almost a protest as you can hear there very noisy behind me it's when you get a sense of what's going on these are the workers in the. duke of omnium angry they are about the situation here violence not just a little bit away from. around 3 to 4000 to come out in france in paris indeed this is one of around 70 or 80 protests of the taking place across the country many people are not happy continuously about issues over wage over working conditions in france but particularly there is this new context also of issues surrounding the health situation here in france with many of the unions who've called for today's protests saying that they're unhappy about the fact that they don't think enough is being done to prevent a situation like it was above 05 didn't have enough medical equipment didn't have

enough mosques when the start of the pandemic hits now they demanding that the government does something in feature to ensure that things like that see products medical products are made here and fronts in the future and the france doesn't have to rely on other nations now this is a nationwide strike and this is one of many protests that we've seen in the last few weeks people fed up with the conditions the sun she conditions in france they still feel that we may go down into a good lock down that's no inevitable according to the government but many people just say. they are suffering and they call and take anymore we've spoken to restaurant in recent weeks restricted to students we spoken to teachers say that they are feeling impacted by what's going on we also spoke to health workers who say that just not enough is being done to help them cope with the situation they're saying that you know they badly underpaid so this is sort of what seems to be like

a multitude of issues coming together not swine the c.d.c. one of france's biggest unions and all the unions have come today to cool for this nation why did they have strikes here is a huge police presence here in paris but for the moment things have been very as you can see there it does seem like people want to make a noise and the point is to make the government heard once again that there is not enough help now the government would say there's a solidarity fund that people who impost cafes restaurants and other. businesses have been able to access that fund but they were supposed to distract the restaurant to start to open up in defiance of the current health regulations that was due to happen this week but many of them decided not to do that they have opened up they doing it in secret and that's because the government us threatened that any restaurant that was cool would not be able to access the solidarity fund for one month and if the 2nd time they would be denied access that solitary fund at

school as you can see a large 7 gathering here in paris this is one of many protests around the country is it takes part in a nation with strikes. thank you show the show that brings you there reporting live from the center of paris one of the protests taking place across france today. the world's richest man and founder of amazon jeff bezos says he is stepping down as to dedicate more time to charity work among other things but his departure also comes amid accusations that he ignored the price of his own work during the pandemic of his take is to be true. everyone likes convenience but in this weird time where the pandemic the stores are all closed and nothing is as convenient as amazon we all use it but let's face it it's becoming harder and harder so you know are the teensy fact that they're really a giant soulless monopoly and who better to represent that monopoly and everything

that is wrong with having too much money and power then amazon c.e.o. jeff bezos well apparently he has seen the error of his ways and decided to change basis is officially stepping down as amazon c.e.o. so focuses attention on nobler causes like philanthropy spaceflight journalism and given his track record these ventures are bound to be a huge success i mean the guy is full of life and optimism a firm a work meaningful and fun i get to work with the smartest most talented most ingenious teammates when times have been good you've been humble when times have been tough you've been strong and supportive and we've made each of the left. it is a joy to work on this team and look how happy amazon workers are.

arabs are made up for to paul's promises with his birds that be have a release for him did he tell you that's it's true that much you trust the virus is not enough to give you. a relief or it is about protections as well pete was it provided thanks for yeah ok maybe not all amazon workers but c'mon it's understandable why a basis is stepping down i mean just imagine how tired he must be from all these workers strikes protests congressional grillings and throughout the years there's been a lot of very ungrateful amazon workers give us p p stop treating us like robots give us bathroom breaks shut up and work right either way basis should be stepping away from all this negativity it's bad for business and morale and i'm sure his

dedication to philanthropy another virtuous ventures will produce a much better monopoly next time. so as we heard then jeff bezos also says he wants to focus on his aerospace company blue origin the u.s. space program used to be strictly in the hands of the government but it's now basically between between him and musk runs space x. space x. has hopes that his prototype will one day take people to mars and they recently did crash into a ball of flames during a test flight in texas. flipped the vehicle vertical then transition to one engine trouble and. that was the 2nd time in his many attempts at the rockets failed to touchdown r.t.

america's rick sanchez and john hardy discuss the space race between the 2 tech giants. i think this is where we have to start because i read a lot about this yesterday after we watched this crowd and what is in a lot of mosques beef with the u.s. government 1st of all i love that graphic i mean i could watch it all day and it was about me. and by the way the space launch commentator said we need to work on that landing afterwards and anyway on the side so to answer your question basically just kind of you know boil it all down space x. has asked the f.c.c. the federal communications commission to allow the company space x. to basically lower the orbit of its star link satellite so space x. has been sending we've reported about all these satellites into orbit as part of its newly broadband you know world internet broadband service it's called the starling constellation so space x. wants to live interfere with our satellites as products as part of project kiper

and the $3000.00 plus satellites that amazon is going to send in orbit you also yesterday the f.c.c. the u.s. government is keeping us from getting to mars he said yeah he also tweeted so when amazon raised this objection he said he fired off a tweet he said this does not serve the public to hamstring starling today for an amazon satellite system that is that best several years away from operation so it's a battle of the billionaires over their claim to space basically a right to orbit and meanwhile we're looking at pictures like this i understand. he's got to get a rocket up in space with 2 astronauts by the end of this year so it's not only you know that must battling and you know over you know control of orbit for their satellites but also it's a space race to send not only astronauts as part of the public private partnership

that space x. is involved in with nasa but sending civilians can you. magine that i would like to go up well you know i'm going to say yes but they've already said keep in mind they have already sent the dragon rocket remember with the 2 astronauts the nasa astronaut last year that we reported about so they're already working in that partnership the origin you know bay's osis blue origin really wants to develop a partnership and work with nasa as well as part of this again public private cooperation you know in the space race so this is i mean you could say in a little i guess it's kind of foreshadowing of the space race to come between billionaires battling a jostling for position in orbit. and russia's you know union of journalists is calling on the thorax. the arrest and imprisonment of russian journalists a smidgen of he's been jailed for $25.00 days for calls to join rallies in support of the opposition figure. reporting makes his if you prefer. surrogate

spirit of is the editor in chief of an outlet that is considered to be a prominent opposition website on the russian media spectrum and this ban is going to remain under arrest for almost a month for calls to joint unsanctioned rallies and moscow i can remind you that protests in support of kremlin critic alike saying a volley occurred during 2 weekends at the end of january the biggest protests happened in moscow and st petersburg. but they were illegal because the opposition never got the permission to organize them and the russian authorities had warned against calls for such rallies and mainly attempts to ann or gys the communities of miners mostly on social network and i can tell you that last

month the level of such use involvement 'd in these kind of calls skyrocketed if you opened 'd. take to keep swiping and pretty much all you see were posts about protests about politics this is something we had never seen before so this was the reason why the russian government took a very serious stance and decided that there will be no excuse for those who break the law and incite illegal rallies the court is calling surrogate a smear and of a repeat offender although mr smear nobs lawyers are saying that the reason for his prosecution was merely are we tweet of a post with a joke about this man but actually in that photo there was a different guy and someone compared him to the front man of

a russian rock band. indeed as you can see the 2 men are bold but the court didn't accept that point they were saying that in that tweet you could actually see the date and time of the illegal prose protest that's why they carried on but like you mentioned the union of russian journalists is calling on the authorities to look into this case again after some dozens of russian media outlets expressed support for mr smear and all these quotes decision sparked a strong reaction from journalists the union of journalists of prussia sent an appeal to the competent authorities of the russian federation requesting to check the legality and validity of bringing to justice well i can tell you that this isn't the only case when legal action against individuals for things like

tweets is causing public debate in russia this is becoming a very serious issue in this country the kremlin decided not to comment on mr smear noffs particular case because they're saying it's not up to them to decide it's up for the court and the law enforcement agencies to deal with that although mr putin's press secretary said that in no way the russian government is trying to somehow heintz the or silence those who are trying to criticize the russian government again the spokesperson of the kremlin is pointing out that the reason for such action was the number of provocations during these protests and just the scale of calls for on sanction dead.