friday morning's headlines from our. moscow china is b.b.c. world news accusing the t.v. channel of false reporting about weaker muslims just a week after british regulators revoked the top chinese networks license. elsewhere to tell you about french media are outraged at the paris opera has vowed to diversify performances after complaints from black dances are fueling heated debate on the claims dangers of importing american values. i think there's a kind of laziness of the intellectual process where they say well we're going to copy and paste and they come and they tell us how wrong we are. those world health organization experts return from their probe into the origins of coded in china

a member of the team tells us about western claims that beijing maybe hid facts from investigators. i see no reason for the chinese side to hide anything. good morning from russia kevin owen here with the headlines for you this friday as you say say i'm just here in moscow the day is going good so far so 1st then britain's foreign minister has lashed out at china's band of b.b.c. world news round to get an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom beijing's move comes just a week after british regulators took a leading chinese network off the air as he's a rally reports. that announcement by chinese authorities that said b.b.c. wall it need not be allowed to continue their service within chinese territory

coming in the way they killed for reporting on how china has held a corona virus pandemic in the country saying that they dispute how the b.b.c. of cover the issue and that they simply do not tolerate fake news and it follows in the wake of the huge case for causing the regulator taking away the license for c t n the chinese broadcaster and saying that they take not my sins away because the channel when the editorial line up dictated by the chinese government we are unable to approve the application to transfer the license to the china global television network corporation because it's ultimately controlled by the chinese communist party which is not permitted under u.k. broadcasting law we provide a c g t n with numerous opportunities to come into compliance but it has not done so we now consider it appropriate to withdraw the license for c g t n to broadcast in the u.k.

now the chinese decision to ban b.b.c. well may not have many messages consequences it is a channel that is a great being watched the route to china over in chinese hosts it's a channel that's mainly draw cause for watched by visitors in hotels but it just goes to show that even in the wake of donald trump leaving the white house in the hopes that many have the west in general and china may begin to rebuild their relationship with this type of tit for tat action when it comes to the opposing sides media outlets certainly doesn't build confidence for the future you know we discussed the situation with our guest political analyst chris bambery and u.k. based politics lecturer a doctor pac-man was. sure i'm sure the c.t.a. has got weeks to change its governments but the b.b.c. foreign service is run funded by the foreign office that's well known british secret a very aggressive policy over how and why various other things in why the united

states the traditional british rule in that situation we're talking about so so powers that used the media i know these to influence events in other countries to change the bridge to that yes it was this of course this is an escalation but once the british guy actually did c.t.'s this response was sure sure to follow its neighbors to fold we'll talk about more of the popular c.e.o. when we see every government control of the media control of the media is rife not just in china but you know taking i think from the kind of more strategic point of who are engaging in the hope it will information will on on the british side be trying to pick on the chinese side on the and on the chinese side. of things that affect me was annoyed but also pick on hong kong and in other going to the british representation of china in general after china signed these europe china investment deal last year the relationship between china and google has significance and

improved but because the press it. was the fall of the euro and the u.k. has to find a way to work with to buy than a miscreation and it's all china would naturally you see in the you will be u.s. side of the u.s. from i know on. france is stepping up its attack on what it calls american values with growing numbers of lawmakers and intellectuals claiming the u.s. imposed ideas on race gender and post-colonialism no pose a threat to their society so a french journalist told us what she thinks is the heart of the issue. i think there's a kind of laziness of the intellectual process where they say well we're going to copy and paste and they cam and they tell us how wrong we are amid some apparent american values that's been adopted by from mass protests against police brutality that erupted across the country last year following the killing of george floyd the

rise of the b.l.m. movement in the u.s. to another example is hashtag me to that campaign aimed at raising awareness about sexual abuse and inspired by us feminists and as the recent piece by the new york times highlights many in france are now turning against these ideas barely slamming the so-called woke leftism french president himself contributing to the debate last year by stressing the need to tackle foreign interference well wrap it all up shallow doob and ski this morning. french intellectuals and politicians are said to be up in arms over the cancelled culture ideology seeping over from the united states and spoiling well the french way of life even the french education minister weighed in the reason battle to each against an intellectual matrix from american universities black lives marked me to our examples of movements that flew over the atlantic and spread their wings here now that's led to debates over race gender

france's crackdown on islam is still going on is asians and demands for the country to fess up to its colonial past they come and they tell us that we all racist. phobic about our universal values on nothing. and quite frankly i mean this is a combination of incredulity and. annoyance i wouldn't say anger because we don't think it's run of the europe has existed for a long time. i think we can live without american crystal theory for a few few years and it seems the french of really had enough of council culture so when the director of the paris opera issues it diktats saying that he wanted to diversify staff and black face the editor in chief of one of france's biggest daily papers and took issue making works of art disappear because the cancel

culture which has been a national sport for america and aims to wipe off the map culture and creators symbolizing the domination of the white male and the oppression of minorities some say this problem it's much deeper it's a threat to its political identity is a threat to the republic and to french democracy and to the functioning of the state it's not a matter of cultural identity i do think that there is. a big threat to civilized life and obviously freedom of speech and so on by these kinds of movements while imposing ideas on race inequality feels for many a little bit rich coming from the u.s. considering the state to race relations in america right now it doesn't look like there are solutions work so well so i'm not sure we need them really but the other thing is that there's this whole speech discussion about how colonialist it is to

impose a different culture on the unsuspecting populations and the french are saying well you are imposing something that may or may not work for your country but it's not working for france i mean oh after all isn't the whole point of freedom of speech also having some respect for the point of view of others what is objectionable in this room is the idea that instead of having a discussion or a debate or even an argument about it that there should be this should somehow be canceled and so we are dealing sorry to say this it sounds rather rude but we are dealing with the difference between intelligence and stupidity it's just stupid to talk like that of course we can all disagree about napoleon or any other historical figure but that's what makes this civilization that is what civilization is there's a claim that this fight back comes from a small frightened republic that's in decline but isn't it just possible that

perhaps france a country with a long proud tradition of intellectual debate the country where the enlightenment movement was birthed is perhaps still ahead of the curve well at least compared to america and for now it appears that the left culture just isn't cutting the must it in france so let's even ski r.t. paris. well the paris opera diversity scandal just turned about their ruptured when black performers complained about almost exclusively white costs and the use of blackface in performances the organizations artistic director agrees. we're not here promoting a climate of censorship or dictatorial actions in the leadership the whole point of this initiative is we want to put on opera and ballet by 21st century artists for 21st century audiences pledged to hire more people of color as part of a 66 page report by the theater and exiled in

a few just heard from there was also quoted by le monde newspaper warning that some performances probably would disappear from the repertoire altogether of deemed insensitive but the plan to spark condemnation from traditional commentators and french media and from nationalist politician marine le pen they were accused the opera of anti racism gone mad she said we put it up for debate. this year is really political correctness gone mad because they actually do have 5 bloc ballet dancers in there so i really don't know what the people who are calling for change here are worried about we have some talented people here who are forced to leave france to express that the one where this is a huge problem and what alex underneath is saying now is he's take he's taking the problem to the roof that's mean that in the recruitment he's changing the way a for a critic meant cripple and it's a very new thing in france because we know that this is a very elitist well what you should do in every case is pick the best person for

the job the most talented the most skilled person for the roles the parasol they have their ballet school and they've changed their admissions procedure to let people in from ethnic minorities and black people to come in and as they come in through the system they're actually going up into the opera so this is already happening and hopefully the people that come through will be selected because they are talented and skilled we need of course the best then said to be in but before that we need to open the door the thing is to did the door close for the and the minority this is the right reality is to have the most the wanted people in this new joint so for example what he's doing black men so for example to have the dress who much with their coat off that sit lotsa because a lot of young dancer west pushed away just because they didn't fit to do to do white tour we can say we need to adapt the density of the people who own and was wondering about that the whole debate here is that they're actually talking about

reducing the repertoire and changing the kind of performances they put on because some people have chosen to be offended about things that have been there's been no problem with for decades or centuries the region of the classic is the right this is the origin but we have to say that france and england and u.k. and germany and do you. it's today in 2021 it's not the same friends. or friends of the u.k. and the population in europe is different to i wouldn't agree at all i don't think that we need to change performances in the way that they've been written this is a conservative opera house conservative company it is there to put on classical performances they shouldn't be changed just because a few people this year decide they should be changed in a certain way what will happen in 20 years time 50 years time someone else might come along and say oh well we need to change them again and again and again look they should stick to the classical way it should have been done the way that

they've always been done that's what audiences want and that's what they should be sticking to. a disney stars fall a victim to a so-called council culture after being sacked social media posts have failed to toe a pro-democrat anti trouble line this ask a tale reports many who demanded a firing or court sending dead sickly provocative messages to barely disney's finally realizing that night's no fairy tale it couldn't stick to douse a lot of nights and cause a pump yes no no it hat take out political and its fans which is off i'm canceling my disney plus subscription right now they want to cancel us i will cancel them i don't normally post but if you find there's khurrana for have freedom of speech i promise i will cancel my disney plus subscription cancel culture is going to far. cancels disney plus if you were ever tricked into giving them money

in the 1st place why is disney now facing backlash not a bunch of happy smiling kids saying i'm going to let it go oh well a film company it owns of crumbled under the pressure of whoa laureus i'm fired you know corrado that's the star of the disney plus so the mountain noria. notices her child apparently because of her apart and unacceptable social media posts which include being skeptical of mustering thinking that trumps impeachment is well out a bit of a hoax refusing to put her pronouns in her twitter handle the most recently comparing the prosecution of republicans in today's america with out over food jews in nazi germany which was one of the dockets pages and human history obviously whoa

it was not a hit because i mean you want to go that route one calling people fascists and nazis but if you voted for trump you voted for the person who claimed supported you voted for the person who nazis supported by the jews. and we are raised to say nothing. is happening here as the republican party has a personalized power like we haven't seen it's a cut deal it's a series or it's a fear her and it's also entirely inappropriate bad genocides to cover a political tensions right on the same we've seen it in bosnia we've seen it in rwanda where radio was telling people that you know hutus were telling the radio listeners that you were cockroaches and you see them in these videos also did you know miss this memo about fonts healing and unity and something. supporters to

count i don't think we need a tree here is a terrorist the way we do actual terrorist i think we need to consider all all all right possibilities i'm not against sending these people to get mouth on a democratically elected former presidents from speaking out their own impeachment trial hearings about how free speech fost among burnt out for those jobs do you see approves of the constitution so processing anyways so young disney on the rocks the people who are up against council culture want to cancel disney and aren't canceled gina who believes that she had other michael peeps all being counseled by society it's all very. mehta of the probably should have stuck to the fairy tales. it's the world health organization scientists a secluded a visit to the chinese city of who to probe the origins of covert 19 virus was to work in december 29th 2 you know after

a 4 week investigation the show released its of nischelle findings divonne complains that the disease originated in a lab we spoke to the globe shooting team member about what they found. how successful was our mission i believe that we have fulfilled our program this was only the 1st part of our investigation and we didn't expect to determine the origin of the pandemic already w.h.o. team and chinese specialists work together as scientists it was something like a huge conference where we shared opinions and information analyzed scientific literature that already exists discussed hypotheses and assessed possibilities i see no reason for the chinese side to hide anything they probably didn't do that because in the scientific world it is very difficult to conceal something information could be hidden from the public but it is more difficult if it's people

who really understand the issue. there are 2 hypotheses about how the virus appeared the 1st is that the virus may have been induced the suspicions have already been refuted says we're not even considering this the 2nd is that a natural virus came from the last time we were at the institute of uralla g. observing the work with viruses and concluded that everything meets safety standards and leakage could not have occurred this lab is far enough from the market if there was a leak we'd see signs of it there for such a leak is practically impossible we looked at hypotheses in the probability category it is likely that the virus came from space so it's impossible. we know from past epidemics for example sars covert and mares cove that bats are

the source of the epidemic moreover they contain genetic cells close to the ones that caused the pandemic but we also know that the transmission of the virus did not occur directly from the bat the previous time sars was transferred from a civet cat mers from a camel so there must be some other intermediate animal it is the most likely have potus it's based on our knowledge. well meantime more of the out for from it portuguese health officials are recommending to extend locked. the countries covert infection rate has slowed but the country still registering a high daily death toll while nurse told us about the current situation. but i mean what is the situation is still very difficult we have more patients hospitalized in intensive care than the total number of beds we had prepared to make it is a huge difference from the 1st wave we were less prepared for the 1st wave we

didn't have the supplies available fortunately at the time we anticipated it would get worse so we did not have the same type of pressure on our health services during this way we have the supplies we have the knowledge but we were completely overwhelmed by the number of cases reaching us and we lack human resources. since the start of the pandemic the countries recorded almost 780000 coronavirus cases and nearly 50000 deaths health workers say this still struggling to cope with the number of covert actions in intensive care. me america my biggest personal concern is feeling that we were not able to do everything our health workers are very competent but they are immensely tired i see it in my colleagues colleagues who are tired and need holidays breaks and calmer shifts what motivates me right now is knowing that we are making a difference and to be able to achieve positive things in this moment to know that

it is possible these nurses these doctors these assistance and these technicians have a very important mission to fulfill and they are fulfilling it and all together we can overcome this adversity. the japanese government said millions of covert vaccine doses meantime are likely to go to waste because of a lack of specialized syringes we talked about this kind of story a couple days ago to elsewhere the health minister explained the problem with the pfizer. the syringe is used in japan can only draw 5 doses we will ease all the syringe is we have that control 60 he says but it will of course not be enough as more shots are administered the government is requesting medical equipment manufacturers step up production of the special searches japan has fought fires a shot to not kill 872000000 people but they require these special syringes we're talking about without which it will only be able to cover around $60000000.00. spoke to lawrence young a professor of molecular on color gee who thinks the syringe problem should have

been anticipated. in a way this isn't a surprise but it's a terrible thing if it's going to end up in wasting doses of that precious vaccine those calls some problem here in japan and it's also causing problems in europe we know there are going to be shoes about the supply of syringes and need of the other aspects of the scenes that we're going to need to to roll out the vaccine across the world as are coming out earlier the same problem is being reported in many countries not just ended in japan do you think the manufacturer should have anticipated this problem or is this something that just came about i think you should have doubts about it in a way it's not unlike the problem we all had at the beginning of the pandemic weed p p e with personal protective equipment there were not enough face masks gloves suitable suitable plastics for cover for covering covering yourself and i think this isn't an issue that came up because we just weren't expecting that the pandemic and p.p.

now in terms of manufacture on the world has increased enormously in an enormously i guess we should have predicted. now to be across everything i was unable meantime the marriage to roessler has threatened to ban unvaccinated muslim residents from attending mosques and call comes amid growing concerns over a low vaccination rate in some parts of the city paula slee has got the latest on her. it's not unusual for it the 1st of its kind which was made has this kind of fun texan it it was whoever does not get vaccinated won't be able to return to a normal routine if arab presidents don't want to be vaccinated they won't be vaccinated but they won't be allowed to enter hotels they want to turn to remarks they won't be allowed to enter schools officials fear a spike in infections during next month's ramadan commemoration when muslims gather in large numbers but are such measures illegal well that remains

a question local arabs are certainly against it. mosque is not the only place to pray i can pray at home i do not want to take the vaccine i am not afraid of corona i am afraid of the vaccine no one can stop me from praying at home. which there are people who are afraid of the vaccine i don't want to take this vaccine and well i don't know what if someone wants to go abroad they have to take a vaccine but to pray why does the mayor care and i have not heard that anyone went to prayer and got karuna. if i cannot work without a vaccination they should close all the places half of the people are out they will get paid they should pay us the man doesn't care about people. here in east jerusalem the coated vaccination rates are the lowest in the country only 13 percent of people have reportedly received the 1st inoculation out of the required 2 and that's despite the fact that israel has the fastest vaccine of all out in the

world but things are starting to slow down and now only hof of the estimated $200000.00 vaccinations that are planned each day are being administered this is prompted some politicians to voice some pretty radical ideas of making vaccinations mandatory only i mean if the government says i must get vaccinated then i will because i have no choice. if someone who hasn't been vaccinated is not allowed to go to the old city to pray or to the market or to do certain other things i think that's ok. i mean i know you don't care but you're here today i received the vaccine certificate i cannot go abroad or to the mosque without this certificate this is what the government is doing for our people in our places triple pay for it and we get it for free that's the difference and now the issue that troubles the country is ultra-orthodox communities and their opposition to covert $19.00 of

restriction is just over this week we saw pictures like these. i. told the docs communities of being among the hardest hit by co on a virus in israel that their opposition to lockdown measures has only increased with intensity and looking at the reaction of our communities to possible restrictions they are growing fears of possible tape elance as the country continues its rollout program i think occupations have to be vaccinated. that looks to me it's very important in order to prevent the use of the media and because it's. it's going to be are so with us very very so

in the end ali they i think it is not an easy. question to answer because again i don't want human beings to be discriminated i'm against their end but i would say that it's very hard and i know that suck if they don't want of these acts in some people who are not sex and they think because of consequences. and i think there authorities. there are people. for we go some new shoes coming in we're hearing at least one person reportedly been injured after a massive explosions told from a supermarket in southern russia it literally happened in the last hour or so the cause of the blast yet to be established but an initial thoughts that it's probably a gas leak that could be nasty local authorities say some people may still be stuck under the debris the emergency services or see the course with we've got our guys there as well as soon as we get more information back from our sources we'll let

you know exactly what's happened there had to get some pictures but later as well but that's thirst snapshot of what we're talking about the many a varied story so far check out our team or any of our social media from our reporting from moscow kevin 0 in on the team signing off the next program soon your part of the world after this break. the reason for doing this study and the reason it's. both controversial and still important is that it demonstrates the power of social situations and playing roles they can lead healthy good ordinary people to do really bad day. 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 then.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm keenly bill how do you define the word reality something like this the state of things as they actually exist as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them to say the least this is a philosophical definition let's throw in politics now is there one political reality channon should one be enforced when this in the end produce a ministry of truth.