breaking news this russia's foreign minister warning moscow is ready to end ties with the e.u. if it slaps fresh sanctions on key sectors of the country's economy we'll tell you more also coming up from the headlines the member of the world health organization covert expert team just back from the virus at the center in china tells us if but for not cause the disease it came to humans through other animals 1st he thinks will rival what that's about. i'm french outrage growing over american values being forced on the country as the renowned paris opera vows to diversify performances after complaints from black we hear from a french journalist on the rising scandal. 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. a lot of this is out international very good morning for me kevin 0 in on a very good morning from russia this morning breaking news about relationships between russia and europe the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov has said that moscow is ready to break up with the if it imposes new sanctions that harm key sectors of the country's economy. we don't go there to. see will so use or are we heading for severed ties with the e.u. we're just saying they were ready to do this if we see once again like we've seen numerous times before that brussels imposes sanctions that host risks to our economy specifically to the most sensitive sectors once again we don't want to

distance ourselves from the international community but we need to be ready for this if you want peace prepare to war. strong words that it goes down of a correspondence across and this morning strong words from sergei lavrov of course the last thing russia wants to do is split up with anyone in the world wants relations to be good with everybody but there's a real sense of frustration here this really comes to the head of lay between russia and its neighbor what's been going on than well absolutely kevin and keep in mind the circle of of he is a veteran of diplomacy but here he puts it in the simplest possible terms and basically the message here is that russia while it is as you say russia wants to keep great relations with everybody but it won't be bullied into well anything into making any decisions that it feels uncomfortable with so it comes just after we after the e.u. 04 in the policy chief joseph burrell he came to moscow and the visit was rather remarkable about point and i was just but it was just business as usual it was it

came by just as expected some closing statements from both from both sergey lavrov and joe's a barrel but when he came back to the e.u. when he returned his visit to moscow he didn't sit well with other european diplomats and he was absolutely in a part for not being as aggressive as they wanted him to be with sergei lavrov just have a listen to this. riza deep disappointment and growing mistrust between debian union and russia i also wanted to test to do russian authorities are interested in a serious attempt to reverse did did did you really a show of our relations and seize the opportunity to have a more constructive dialogue. the answer has been korea you know the visit of high representative bored out to you merely 8 and

a friend the european union missa borrell and the on the other hand made a fool of himself last week in moscow. so you can they minced no words and neither did journalists you can see you can find a headline saying that lavrov bested burrell that. humiliated burrell and so on everything and so on and so forth so essentially again he was battered for not being as aggressive for not being overly aggressive for just well being a diplomat really and basically this all stems back goes back to the situation with the russian opposition figure alexina vali who basically the code swapped. a suspended sentence for a real one for him and the e.u. putting it simply russia sees it as an internal affair and says basically don't mess don't mess in our internal affairs the e.u. says that this case is politicized and that the volley is being persecuted over his

criticism of lattimer putin and the kremlin and the russian government in general and there was a strong call for sanctions against russia over the situation with with me and well basically there's a very loud choir of people in the e.u. and be diplomats who called for that but that choir was interrupted by an irish member of parliament and she basically she gave her peace of mind saying that well whatever russia does this still will be sanctions and that volleys just being used as a pretext by the e.u. to just slap more sanctions on russia what don't hear it from me take it from her. by must be as anybody else to stand up for anybody's rights including not sound nice but let's be honest i'm sure he's officious immigrant racist and maybe 4 percent of the support and we wouldn't be discussing him oh if you've been arrested anywhere else other than in russia well there you have it in essentially quoting to

sergey lavrov well she is somewhat right because that. he commented on her on her words but just his message is it kind of echoes this idea that whatever again whatever russia does the e.u. will be looking for reasons to add added konami pressure over political goals and. so on so again a message of independence that russia won't be intimidated into anything from the russian foreign minister so that's what it is it's not a call to sever ties as we see it it's just saying that we are ready to do that if we if we are backed into a corner near total destruction thank you very much he gives put in one context for as he goes down of. ok next a member of the world health organization team just from who hands told r.t. if but are indeed behind corona virus then it spread to humans through other

animals 1st science is flooded dead coughers been probing the origins of the pandemic in that chinese city. we know from past epidemics for example sars cove and maersk of 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 participated in our knowledge. while the virus was 1st detected in the december 29th teen the team's initial findings debug claims that the disease originated in that lab there but the u.s. think beijing is hiding facts from the expert. science needs to lead us out of this

pandemic and in preventing the next one geo political battling has already made that path harder it's time to trust in the global systems we set up after world war 2 and give them a chance china gave them very controlled and limited access and got a report that was inconclusive and supports narrative. dead cover again told us by the transparency of their probe. 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 lab we were at the institute of virology 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. a disney star has fallen victim to so-called council culture of to being sacked for social media posts that fail to pro-democrat trump line but reports many who demanded firing were actually caught themselves having identically provocative messages to. disney's finally realizing that life is no fairy tale it couldn't stick to downs and knights and castles and pumpkins no no it happed take out political and its fans are switching 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 fire ms qur'an over her freedom of speech i promise i will cancel mine does an employer subscription cancel culture is going too far. cancels disney plus

if you were ever tricked into giving them money in the 1st place why instance we now face a backlash not a bunch of happy smiling kids singing i'm going to let it go oh well a film company it owns of crumbled under the pressure of whoa laureus a 5 g. to corrado that's the start of the disney plus so the mountain noria. know this is no place for a child apparently because of her apartment 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 the 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 around 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 ready is to say nothing. is happening here is the republican party as 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 to combat genocides to current political tensions right on the same we've seen it in bosnia we've seen it in rwanda where radio was telling people do you know who jews are telling the radio listeners that you are cockroaches and you see them in these videos also did you know miss this memo about but he's lying and unity and something. supporters

accounts i don't think we need a tree here is a vague 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 him out and that on a democratically elected former presidents from speaking out their own impeachment trial hearings about how free speech and fast a man burnt out for those jobs to see the proofs of the constitution so passing anyway so young disney on the rocks the people who are against council culture want to cancel disney for daring to cancel jena who believe that she had other michael peeps are being canceled by society it's all very. matter of the probably should have stuck to fairy tales. from sister pick up a taco what it calls american values with growing numbers of lawmakers and intellectuals claiming us imposed ideas on race gender and post-colonialism no pose

a threat to their society when french journalist told us what she thinks is at 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 come and they tell us how wrong we are or some french think blame the u.s. for mass protests across france against police brutality similar to the black movement in america america's me to campaign on awareness about sexual abuse is also good traction with french feminists and york times story was how more and more french people are rising up against what they condemn as woke leftism than even president tomorrow mccrone has expressed concern over the import of social science theories from across the atlantic charlotte have been skewed picks up the story. 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 racists we phobic about our universal values on nothing. quite frankly i mean this is a combination of incredulity and. noise i wouldn't even 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 christian who will theory for a few few years more and it seems the french should 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 echoes 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 of race relations in america right now it doesn't look like their solutions work so well so i'm not sure we need them really but the other thing is that there's this whole speech and 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 after all isn't the whole point of freedom of speech also having some respect for the point of view of others what is actionable in this. is the idea that instead of having a discussion or a debate or even an argument about it that there should be should somehow become sold 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. the paris opera diversity scandal just heard about erupted when black performers complained about almost exclusively white costs and the use of blackface in performances when is asians 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 the pledge to hire more people of color as part of a 66 page report them by the theater and alexander need a few just heard from was also quoted by le monde newspaper warning that some performances will disappear from the repertoire completely if deemed insensitive but the plans of condemnation 2 from traditional commentators in french media and from nationalist politician marine le pen who cues 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 black 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 of for a christmas 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 dancer 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 he's

a law then so for example to have the dress who much would the court of 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 origin but we have to say that france and england and u.k. and germany and do you. as today in 2021 it's not the same friends as the rah rah in front 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 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 down the way that they've always been done that's what audiences want and that's what they should be sticking to. what headed into a break now but if you could stick around when we come back amongst the stories we're talking about hostility between britain and china it spiralling off to beijing now has banned b.b.c. world news the reaction. oh to find the earth a reality something like this the state of things as they actually do exist as

opposed to when i feel estate or notional i feel that to say the least this is a philosophical definition let's throw in politics is there one political reality can and should one be enforced with this in the end use a ministry of truth. one else seemed wrong why don't we all just don't all. get to stamp out just the attitude and engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

again so as mentioned before the break the tensions growing between the u.k. and china at the moment after beijing banned b.b.c. world news accusing the channel of false reporting on weekend muslims britain's foreign minister heavily criticizing the move running it and then acceptable could tailing of media freedom. joiners decision to ban b.b.c. world news in mainland china is an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom china has some of the most severe restrictions on media and internet freedoms across the globe and this latest that will only damage china's reputation in the eyes of the world their dispute heaps further pressure on a relationship already deeply damaged by the situation of the former u.k. colony of hong kong following the riots that escalated there last year 2 weeks ago paging stop recognizing british national overseas passport holders in the territory

these are early reports on the rising troubles. such practices seriously violate professional journalistic ethics are totally inconsistent with the facts and deviate from an objective balanced and impartial reporting position is full expose the b.b.c.'s malicious intent to confuse the public and smear their week or region through rumors that announcement by chinese authorities that b.b.c. want need not be allowed to continue their service within chinese territory coming in the wake of our reporting on how china has held a corona virus pandemic in the country saying that they dispute how the b.b.c. of covered the issue and that they simply do not tolerate fake news and it follows in the wake of the u.k.'s forecasting regulator taking away the license for c.t.s. and the chinese broadcaster and saying that they've taken up my sins away because

the channel when the editorial line 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.d.n. with numerous opportunities to come into compliance but it has not done so we now can. it's 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 message consequences that is the channel that isn't great being watched around china over in chinese hosts it's a channel that's mainly brought cost or watched by this is 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. they say i leave it we discuss the situation i guess political analyst chris bambery and u.k. based politics like short talk to pot wall. sure i'm sure the c.t.a. has goalie to change its governments but the b.b.c. foreign service is run funded by authorities that's well known british secret a very aggressive policy over how and why various other things in wind in the united states the traditional british will in that situation we're talking about soft power so powers that use the media i know these to influence events in other countries to change british to that yes it was this of course this is an escalation but once the british got actually in c.t.f. this response was sure sure to follow its neighbors of all it did with all of the

other poker c.e.o. we've seen over government control of the media control of the media is rife not just in china but you know taking i think from a kind of more strategic point of group. in the hope it will or information will on the 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 all 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 and last night the british which we do china has significance that import but because the president. of the europe and the u.k. has to find a way to work with to buy than a miscreation and salt china would naturally you see in the u k will be u.s. side of the u.s. from i know on. will finally get pictures to show you the news we often

say things like dramatic but look at these pictures this is dramatic a massive explosion leveling a supermarket in southern russia early morning blamed on a gas leak wow good news out of despite the dramatic blast amazingly no reports of anyone seriously. or killed it was a report of somebody injured not seriously recovered fingers crossed for the hope nothing else comes out of this that happened early morning and let it have cats the capitol of the republican the caucuses now that's the explosion let's look at the pictures of 2 words this is about 2000 kilometers south of moscow look at that nothing left. that explosion happened early morning in a supermarket we think it was a jeweler shop there as well but luckily because of the time of day no one there because you wouldn't of stood much of a chance in that as a say a gas explosion this morning we wanted to bring you those pictures but it could have been so much worse this is our 2 international thing so watching have a good day.

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