you know if you're going to exploit for a trial here in los angeles there we're going to come out of. this is going undercover as 6 workers and customers to fight the. news the russian foreign minister warns that moscow is ready to end ties with the european union if it imposes new sanctions on key sectors of the economy. we don't want to distance ourselves from the international community but we need to be ready for that if you want peace prepare to war. remember the world health organization just back from the coronavirus epicenter in china tells us humans probably didn't catch the virus directly from bats but from other animals instead. an outbreak in france grows over american values supposedly being forced on the country. to diversify performances after complaints from black dancers we get reaction. 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. national global stories and international reaction 24 seventh's. news update is our 1st for you the russian foreign minister has warned that moscow is ready to break ties with the new if it imposes new sanctions that key sectors of the economy. or you will still wish to go to you are just saying that we're ready to do this if we see once again like lucy numerous times before that brussels imposes sanctions that pose restore economy specifically to the most sensitive six's 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 for war. while it is

a pretty straightforward message especially coming from a veteran diplomat which of certainly is but here the russian foreign minister he's rather showing his hand he's explaining what will happen if the e.u. decides to follow through with the plan to impose new sanctions and if these sanctions are crippling to any of the key sectors of russia's economy world this is what will happen but again moscow has already confirmed that it will not initiate the process and will only react to what the e.u. will do this frustration it stems from from his meeting with the use foreign policy chief joseph burrell even moscow some about a week ago sergei lavrov clarified moscow's and reiterated moscow's position that the these swap at the swapping of the suspended sentence for a real one for lex in a valley it's an internal matter but at the same time jos a burrell called on russia to release the kremlin critic and world saying that this

case is politically motivated is politically charged and according to. the e.u. diplomats in including jos are borel they are being strong armed into a tough into an unreasonably tough position on russia and essentially they are stripped the ability and the opportunity to do their job of diplomacy on going yourself for your whole can or should he travel to us knowing the complicated situation many were against his visit and publicly declared that he shouldn't come to russia until we quote fix our behavior not only e.u. foreign policy chief burrell but also his. predisposes do not have the capacity to negotiate the whole you point of view was focused on the idea that we turned miss novelle me into a political prisoner but there are russian state laws and they need to be respected as for human rights i reminded mr burrell that we've long shown readiness to hold a constructive dialogue based firstly on facts and secondly not on the unilateral

basis for this little show and from the very get go joseph burrell was put in a very tough conditions by his e.u. counterparts because there were critics who were saying that he shouldn't visit prussia at all but when he came back from that visit just all hell broke loose they did the diplomats in the e.u. parliament they didn't mince any words moscow to be used the visit of high representative bordello to you merely aid and offend the european union your ill executed visit you know not only ashamed to european citizens you also helps putin and harms dressin people miscible real and the on the other hand made a fool of himself last week you must go wake up call that finally prompted you member states and yourself to to adopt a more realistic and principled russian foreign policy and to move toward sanctions finally among others inclusion of human rights where late just under sanctions least and to suspension of north stream to choose country to european and issues

security police but this quiet car plowed quiet of condemnation it was interrupted by and i wish member of the european parliament who pointed out that as she sees it the the only reason that election of only gets so much attention is because he was jailed in russia and that the e.u. is using him simply as a political pretext to slap more sanctions on moscow imus happy as anybody else to stand up for anybody's rights including no found nice but let's be honest if that was that he's officious immigrant racist and maybe for. sense of the support and we wouldn't be discussing him oh if you've been arrested anywhere else other than in russia so made the following point as well he said that russia is already independent of him militarily so russia does not rely on anybody or russia is in arms expects it's exporting arms and basically saying that russia should do the

same thing but with its economy that if anybody decides to impose more sanctions and cripple some crucial economic sphere of russia then you should just wave goodbye and say well if you're closing this door we won't we won't be standing there knocking a political analyst go but doctorow believes a tit for tat strategy could lead to enormous economic damage for both sides. if the with question here we go to gently into to gesticulate in james you russia's economic existence as they did as the west did it turning off access to the script to iran where i could see the drastic extreme way or for action in the economic sphere taken by russia in the morning it was given more war . more on certain actions that have long been distrust among the national watching

the midwest and the west in your specific issue all the destruction of or energy security within the has been used to frustrate. the nordstrom to project which was always given me the reminded him yet still it's worth. it and it was risky because the russians could turn off the taps and care spoke once chat here can cause will remember to both sides now you can read this very closely to your. member of the world health organization that's just back from china has told r.t. that it probably wasn't passed on the coronavirus to humans he says that even if the disease originated in bats it was likely transferred to humans via other animals scientists but even that covers being investigating the source of the

pandemic in the chinese city of who. we know from past epidemics for example sars cove 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 is based on our knowledge of the virus was 1st detected in the city in december 29th teen the team's initial findings debunk claims that the disease originated in a laboratory however the united states thinks the beijing is hiding facts from the experts. 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 where else but he made a cover about how much access his team had they were and he says beijing had been transparent. 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 allergy 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's likely that the virus came from space so it's impossible.

thanks to grieving daughter who earlier this week on r.t. accused new york governor of hiding the true number of covert related nursing home deaths as had her suspicions confirmed a leaked conversation has revealed top aide allegedly admitting to withholding the correct statistics on coronavirus linked deaths. basically we're froze because then we were in the position where we were unsure if what we were going to give to the department of justice was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation of this discrepancy 1st came to light 2 weeks ago when a report from the new york attorney general cues the coma web ministration of undercounting covert related deaths in nursing homes by around 50 percent it was followed by the state health department making public nearly 4000 previously unreported deaths of care home residents who died either at hospital or in another facility the revelations sparked outrage across the board you're only sorry that

you all got caught because of your decisions thousands of people died who did not have to die were not offended were furious with extremely good reason for over 6 months day after day in briefing after briefing governor cuomo stood before new yorkers and lied about his directive that contributed to the deaths of thousands of seniors under cuomo has proven himself unworthy of our trust and unfit for public office governor cuomo the secretary to the governor and his senior team must be prosecuted to mediately this bombshell admission of a cover up and the remarks by the secretary to the governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power a senior quote visor issued an explanation censuring the previous u.s. administration for a politically motivated effort to blame democratic states for the high number of deaths adding that they would now take the matter further let's catch up again with

vivian say as we heard from our monday she's the founder of voices for seniors which was set up after losing her mother to covert he was also a new york resident welcome back to r.t. international the league of having a conversation and you're more the mark i'm quite a revelation this leaked conversation how do you feel about it. we have mixed feelings part of it is elation because we were been dictated that we knew that they were hiding from me and a part of me the sadness because you know in the scope of loss has been overwhelming. the administration in new york says they'll be taking it further is that enough for you one of the reaction will you take now that this has come to light when the same we're going to move forward we're still don't know what that means if that means that governor cuomo will resign if that means that the health commissioner howard safir with will resign then we're going to get somewhere but if

they're going to play political football with our seniors and with this information then we're still not hopeful that they'll be held accountable so who can you go to who could you turn to to make sure that this remains. focused on the health issue rod of the political football. well our local legislators should be holding the fire the reality is that we needed an independent investigation with subpoena power to be able to get to the communications that were happening before the election in the you know the sad part is that they used our seniors and everything that they it was going on with the death that death toll to their political advantage they were covering up for in order to get to remain in power and in that's that's a travesty that they did that not only to seniors but to the to their loved ones when we've been calling for a monster for answers and accountability and all we been met with insults and with stonewalling so we're happy that this is starting to come out and we just believe

this is the tip of the iceberg can you expound on now for us what's it been like the treatment that you've received since you 1st raised this flag. well governor cuomo says communications director has called us a death cold governor cuomo his press conferences has said who cares where the seniors died we care we continue to say that we care where they died we care where they died and we care how they died so we unfortunately had to band together in a group that my sister and i have taught voices for seniors because the seniors did not have a voice so we have unfortunately had to in our grief we haven't even been able to most of us bury our loved ones in some cases we're still grieving and we had no choice but to put those things to the side in order to seek justice so this is the beginning unfortunately it's taken a little longer but some people don't see justice ever so this is just

a positive sign that we're starting starting to see some traction and we just hope that this is just the beginning of more to come so that we can feel that we have closure and that our seniors are safe here seniors dying today we don't want to lose sight that they're seniors dying today in the facilities many of them have not seen loved ones in a year and it's unfortunate that we know that we're getting numbers and that this information is coming out but we also need to realize that there are seniors dying today because they've been isolated from their loved ones and this is only an opportunity to be able to seek reform and and and just answer so that this never happens again in the future but that we don't lose sight that it's happening still today. and in terms of. the help you might get now that there is a change of the white house a maybe a more sympathetic out so to towards tackling the coronavirus pandemic in the united states goes at a federal level rather than at a state level does that help you in any way in getting some redress from the new

york governor's office. the new administration i'm calling upon president biden to open up that the o.j. investigation into everything that happened not just in new york but across our country in the nursing homes because they basically had we're trying to shut down the best a geisha in the federal investigation into our nursing homes and i am asking not just on my behalf but on the behalf of orses for seniors and every family impacted that the bite in a ministration will reopen this this investigation so that we can get accountability and closure. that has been something of a mayor culpa from people in and around the new york governor's office you could argue that maybe that's because things have been blown wide open with revelations like this phone conversation does not help you in any way now that it's all out in the open does that add some some some gunpowder to what you need to do. we hope so but my question is what if we didn't have the video or the audio rather if we

didn't have that already or release or or more leaks we would we would still be where we are just struggling and fighting so i'm grateful that it came out that gives us exactly what you said the gunpowder to be able to say this needs to be addressed our seniors are important they deserve justice and to be treated with integrity and and hopefully the families will rise up everywhere to say our seniors deserve better. mixed feelings on the progress as you say for now though i appreciate you joining us again on to international events as from voices from seniors you don't want to comment think you're going to be seated. this is all to see from moscow on the way to paris opera it's promising a radical rethink of its approach to diversity but not everybody is ready to see the classics go to 21st century reboot we'll discuss that after the break.

how to find the earth a reality something like this the state of things as they actually exist as opposed to an idealist state or notional i feel that to say the least this is a philosophical definition. is there one political reality can and should one be enforced with this in the end reduce a ministry of truth. seems wrong. just don't call. me. yet to stamp out these days to come out ahead and engage with equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

welcome back french intellectuals are stepping up their attack on what they call american values which they claim fashionable leftists ideas were being imported from the us but have no place in today's front they also say to threat to french society these are particularly new warnings though in the country they've been raised before by the president and also other officials. certain social science theories entirely imported from the united states with the problems which i respect and which exist but which is just added to. the reason battle to each against an intellectual matrix from american universities or some national thinkers blame the

us for france's mass protests against police brutality similar to america's black lives matter movement america's me to campaign on awareness about sexual abuse is also gain traction with french feminists solitude penske explains the transatlantic headache. 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 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 black lives mocked me too are 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 to raise 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 there's a combination of incredulity and annoying noise i wouldn't say anger because we don't think it's run of that 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. i 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 the 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 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 become sold and so we are dealing i'm 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 whoop left culture just isn't cutting the must it in france so let's even ski artsy paris. in time the paris opera is suffering a diversity scandal after black performers complained about almost entirely white costs and also 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 the pledge to hire more people of color as part of a $66.00 page report by the theatre the artistic director is also quoted by the lamond newspaper warning that some performances could disappear from the repertoire if they're deemed to be insensitive but the plants have sparked condemnation from traditional commentators in the french media and also from the nationalist

politician marine le pen here's some of the reaction we've been hearing. 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 it we have some talented people here who are false to live friends express that the one where this is a huge problem and what alex underneath is saying now is he's take the 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 of the paris opera they have that 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 today 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 black man so for example to have the dress who much with the corner 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 or what i 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 they know there's been no problem with for decades or centuries the region of the classic is the right out of bali 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 frons right 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 that look 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. join the debate she herself look us up on facebook and twitter and share your thoughts that you do use for now from moscow i'm calling brian joining me again in just over half an out top to sophie and.

join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. knowing through the woods that i have no idea who did the evil but i'll blog good that. i knew about it in a can matter a canard while nice and a bad national climate that bush cannot deny. us book deals on miles on them a little hazy. a night on my public affairs. and the national

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