the russian foreign minister warns that moscow is ready to end times 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 this if you want peace perpetual war. in member of the world health organization just back from the coronavirus epicenter in china tells us that humans probably did not catch the virus directly from bats but from other animals instead . and outrage in france grows over american values supposedly being forced on the country as the renowned paris opera to diversify performances after complaints from black dancers we get reaction. i think does

a kind of release into the intellectual process while they say well we're going to copy and paste. and they tell us how wrong we. are broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our international thomas certainly glad you're with us right now the russian foreign minister has warned that moscow is ready to break ties with the e.u. if it imposes new sanctions that harm key sectors of the economy. use who 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 the brussels imposes sanctions that pose restore economy specifically to the most sensitive 6 years 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 as well it is a pretty straightforward message especially coming from a veteran diplomat which. 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 and 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 legs 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 jobs 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 or goodness knows where you're. sure to 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 could turn this novell 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 1st and secondly not on the unilateral basis for this

little ritual 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 should visit prussia at all but when he came back from that visit just all hell broke loose they 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 direction people who are real and the on the other hand made a fool of himself last week you must go wake up call that finally prompted to your member states and yourself to to adopt a more realistic and principled russian foreign policy and to move toward sanctions finally among. inclusion of human rights under sanctions list and to suspension

of stream to choose contrary to european and she 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 i must be as anybody else to stand up for anybody's rights including not found nice but let's be honest about this and he's not finished this i'm seeing the current racist and made before proceeding. after support and we wouldn't be discussing him oh if he'd 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. 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 political analyst gilbert doctorow believes that a tit for tat strategy could lead it to enormous economic damage on both sides. the question here which occurred to me gently. to gesticulate in. russia's economic existence is they did as the west are turning off axis. to iran but i could see the drastic extreme we all for action economics she is taken by russia when he was given the war.

so you actions that have long been destroyed among the national russia haters the west and western your. all the destruction of or energy security within the air is getting used to frustrate. the nordstrom to project which was always given me the reminder to me as to its origin or it and so on it was risky because the russians could turn off the taps and pass hope won't be shipped out here can cause enormous to both sides but it can lead us. to be. a member of the world health organization team just back from china has told r.t. that it probably was not bats that passed corona virus to humans he says that even if the disease originated in bats it was likely transferred to humans through other

animals scientists vladamir dead gulf has been investigating the source of the pandemic in the chinese city of. we know from past epidemics for example sars covert and mares cause 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 merce from a camel so there must be some other intermediate animal it is the most likely have partisan spaced on our knowledge. the virus was 1st detected in the city in december 2019 the team says its initial findings debunk claims that the disease originated in a laboratory however the u.s.

thinks that 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. we asked. about how much access is the team had in what he says beijing was 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 uralla ji 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. french intellectuals are stepping up their attack on the what they call american values they claim fashionable leftist ideas imported from the us have no place in france and say they pose a threat to france society although these warnings are not particularly new for the country and have been raised before by the president and other officials. certain social science theories entirely imported from the united states with their problems which i respect and which exist but which is just added to. there is a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from american university. some national thinkers blame the u.s. for france's mass protests against police brutality similar to america's black

lives matter movement america's need to campaign on awareness about sexual abuse has also gained traction with french feminists and she shows brewski explains the transatlantic and the. french intellectuals and politicians are said to be in 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 block lives marked me to our examples of movements that flew over the atlantic and spread their wings here now that's led to debate sort of a race gender preferences crackdown on islam is still going on as 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. quite frankly i mean this is a combination of incredulity and noise noise i wouldn't say anger because we don't think it's rather that europe has existed for a long time. i think we can live without american chris cruel 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 stuff and black face the editor in chief of one of france's biggest daily papers the moment took issue making works of ours disappear because the cancel culture which has been a national sport for america and aims to wipe off the map now. sure 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 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 colonialists 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 room is the idea that instead of having a discussion or a debate or even an argument about it that should be should somehow be counselled 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 us a 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 a country where the in light implement movement. was 1st name is perhaps still ahead of the curve well at least compared to america and for now it appears that

the whoops left culture just isn't cutting the mustard in france so what do you. see paris. facebook's privacy policies are in question once again the platform has disclosed it cooperated with us law enforcement sharing private data of those who took part in the riot on capitol hill on january 6th we were monitoring this out in real time and made appropriate referrals to law enforcement this includes helping them identify people who posted photos of themselves from the scene even after the attack was over we're continuing to share more information with law enforcement in response to valid legal requests as they continue their investigation number one snitch in america big brother is facebook surreal farce. the storming of the capitol building last month has so far resulted in charges against

a reported $221.00 people if found guilty they could face up to 20 years in prison democratic officials have dubbed the offender's domestic terrorists the f.b.i.'s task of identifying offenders was aided by more than $200000.00 photos and videos mostly from social media and it has not all gone without consequences for facebook the tech giant has lost more than $30000000000.00 of market value as investors have been spooked by the platform's coziness with the feds the f.b.i. has revealed it is getting users' personal messages from the platform in order to trace suspected capital rioters analyst and commentator earl rasmussen thinks innocent people could have been caught up in the sweep. a lot of people don't realize i mean a lot of your peers on your data is why don't the other thing is that. facebook changes your policy and what you may have been acceptable. 6

months ago may not today and and they may come back and go oh you did this and that's against our policy so we're voting for most people i would say hundreds of thousands of people really did nothing illegal whatsoever there you had if you had some absolutely but but the majority of people in fact some people that are being turned in and turned over investigator were not in the capitol they were perhaps on the capitol grounds but that's a completely equally well until recently completely legal and open and public space that there was really no violation of any type of war whatsoever but we kind of twisted that and interpret it differently and facebook seems to be and i would gather other social media platforms are turning over extensive amount of information and probably you've probably got a lot of business probably review of a lot of c.c.t.v. drone footage is or other types of video information is probably being looked at as

well. right another key day for weiqi leaks co-founder julian assange and his long fight for freedom the united states has filed an appeal against a british court's decision not to extradite him that is despite a petition being sent to the u.s. department of justice calling on president biden to drop the case against songe it was signed by many prominent groups including amnesty international and the american civil liberties union. the indictment of mr assange threatens press freedom because much of the conduct described in the indictment is conduct that gen the sing gay chain routinely and that they must engage in in order to do the work the public needs them to do in our view such a precedent in this case could effectively criminalize common genetic practices. in a shocking ruling a british judge blocked a songes extradition to the united states because of concerns about his mental

health but while the move was good news for him he was denied bail a few days later press freedom groups were also left dismayed because the judge largely supported america's case against songe now the u.s. has indicted him on 17 counts of spying and one of the conspiracy to hack a government computer he would face up to 175 years in prison if convicted he is known to the world in part for exposing what some have characterized as u.s. war crimes former cia analyst and whistleblower john kiriakou believes convicting a song would pose a threat to journalism. you know this is not unusual actually even in my own case amnesty international and the american civil liberties union asked the obama administration to drop the case on me and they would even discuss it they don't want to look weak and at the same time they really don't have respect for the wishes of these human rights groups and civil liberties groups i agree that the

justice department does not think this is about press freedom i think it is about press freedom but the justice department refuses to acknowledge that julian assange is a journalist were a publisher but i think the real disappointment here and the real danger here is the fact that mainstream journalists in the mainstream media especially organizations like the new york times the washington post the wall street journal have not come out in support of julian assigns that's where the danger is because of julian assange is convicted then any reporter in america doing his or her job is in danger of being charged with espionage for publishing information that is embarrassing to the u.s. government. the paris opera is suffering a diversity scandal after black performers complained about almost. entirely white casts and also the use of blackface in performances the organization's 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 is part of a 66 page report by the theatre the artistic director was also quoted by the le monde newspaper warning that some performances could disappear from the repertoire if they are deemed insensitive but the plans how sparked a condemnation from traditional commentators in french media and from nationalist politician marine le pen here is some of the reaction we've been hearing. 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 it we have some talented people here who are forced to leave france to go 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 'd close for the and the minority this is the right reality is to have the most the wanted people in this new joy to for example what he's doing he's

a low black man 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. 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 down the way that they've always been done that's what audiences want and that's what they should be sticking to. portugal could stay in covert lockdown until easter if the health officials get their way the country's infection rate has slowed but it is still registering a daily death toll one nurse that we heard from says the system was coping better until this latest spike in cases. 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 country has recorded almost 780000 coronavirus cases and nearly 15000 deaths health workers say they are still struggling to cope with the number of patients in intensive care. but 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 assistants and these technicians have a very important mission to fulfill and they are fulfilling it and all together we can overcome this adversity. the world health organization is still recommending the astra zeneca coated vaccine despite trials showing a limited protection against new mutations of the virus south africa which has registered a particularly virulent new strain of the disease has suspended its role out of the shot over the issue a national study found in the u.k. based pharma giants job had only a 22 percent efficacy against the new variant and it has raised questions over whether the vaccine should also be distributed in other countries south africa has already switched to the pfizer and johnson and johnson shots the head of south africa's advisor committee on covert vaccine broke down the country's priorities in

tracking the virus. the progress of course meantime we do need to protect our health care workers and we need to protect it with a vaccine which we know does have a track record previn trial record of preventing serious disease with the new variant so that's already doing and we just screen the use of issues into one of the important things of course you want to look at is does. still prevail in series from fiction hospitalisation level in fiction where the new variant because it really don't have data on i think is really unfortunate this particular variant has got a mutation and a very critical part of ours the for the for the ones you just need to for the virus to establish in fiction as a particular attention at a particular position which is of course because the virus is not the trick and now it's at a selective advantage for its just the effect of previous addiction and the vaccine

. by the dozen for me this hour i will be back with your headlines in let's say 31 minutes stay with us this is our international. how do you define the word reality something like this the state of things as they actually do exist as opposed to an idealist state or notional idea to say the least this is a philosophical definition listed only in politics is there one political reality can and should one be enforced with this in the end use a ministry of truth. was just. one month.

to settle. for believe because. my father. called. all sorts of things. is all. they will always. give it to says will of god and build it. who are both going to be. in somewhat. of a time when me and winter i'm. going 5 10 o'clock 5 when you want to eat that.