with the 2nd acquittal. of inciting the rioting. of the week no social media unless absolutely necessary to keep point. with the heads of russia's media. remember the world health organization just back from the coronavirus epicenter in china humans probably didn't catch the bars directly from bats but from other animals. that live from moscow this is r.t. international we're taking you through some of the biggest stories we've covered

here over the past 7 days and also the weekend's developments as well that's why we're going to start off the days of angry debate the former u.s. president donald trump has been acquitted by the senate in his 2nd impeachment trial however his successor joe biden said even though he still thinks he's guilty well the final vote did not lead to a conviction the substance of the charge is not in dispute 43 senators voted against impeachment with 574 that was 10 short of the 2 thirds majority needed to convict trump of inciting last month's riots at the capitol building with more details he is opened. well it takes 2 thirds of the u.s. senate to convict a president in impeachment proceedings so now that donald trump has been acquitted they failed to get the motes necessary to convict him we've actually heard this statement from the former us president about the proceedings here's what he said it is a sad commentary in our times that one political party in america is given

a free pass to denigrate the rule of law defame law enforcement cheer mobs excuse rioters and transform justice into a tool of political vengeance and persecute blacklist cancel and suppress all people and viewpoints with whom or which they disagree is certainly been a colorful few days during the impeachment proceedings a lot of very emotional and heated words were exchanged many looked on it kind of the shocking theatrical that took place from both sides as the debate went on here's some of what we've seen over the past few days during the proceedings on capitol hill this cannot be the future of america as one senator said they could have killed all of us with this trial you will open up new and bigger wounds across the nation he didn't just tell them to fight like hell. he told them how where and when the majority in the house of representatives does not want to face donald trump as our political rival in the future donald trump surrendered his role as

commander in chief and became the insider in chief $75000000.00 americans voted for donald trump and throughout the proceedings donald trump's attorneys made the point that the results of this trial are ultimately going to be the further do usually of the country the country is going to be much more polarized with trump supporters feeling that the establishment is out to get them and not allowing their voice to be heard here is some of the points we heard from trump's attorney they tell us that we have to have this impeachment trial such as it is to bring about unity but they don't want unity and they know this so-called trial will tear the country in half leaving tens of millions of americans feeling left out of the nation's agenda. as dictated by one political party that now holds the power in the white house and in our national legislature this trial will tear this country apart perhaps like we've only seen once before in our history now many republicans are

saying that this was essentially a show trial this wasn't so much about actually convicting donald trump actually taking office action against donald trump to prevent him from running for office but more about the democrats trying to run donald trump's name through the mud and trying to put on a show of the fact that they are now in power they do have the majority in the senate and the house and they do control the white house and this was the democrats on making clear that they're in charge now and many are looking on at this and saying this is only going to inflame donald trump supporters only going to reinforce the notion that trump was fighting for them against the status quo and so the divisions in the united states remain thoroughly intact donald trump is acquitted he will be allowed to run for office once again he is banned from social media that's pretty clear he's not on twitter now the statement he gave did not announce a new presidential run but there was an interesting line towards the end about

trump having a vision for the future of the united states not exactly clear what that means but it appears that we haven't heard the last from donald trump and the trial evidence started on tuesday with a video montage of the riot sound of trump spanking and pro-democrat pundits were quick to voice their shock at seeing the footage. was. remarkable video by the house managers powerful an expletive laced video timeline disturbing and compelling video staggered like the rest of us by the presentation of the house managers with that video it stopped everyone in their tracks there was silence in the chamber and response trumps defense team also presented a series of videos showing democratic officials calling for his impeachment the clip stayed back to the former president's 1st year in office designed to show that they were trying to force him out long before and if the current accusations become reaction hold the trial from legal and media analyst lionel and also from attorney

nick so wark who's also a former chairman of the u.s. military and party national committee. the evidence showed you would never know this from the particular evidence that was presented by the democrats but that these folks many of them were already bare completely adorned some of them in almost a quantify military apparel was it ties ready for arrests and helmets already anticipating what they were going to do prior to donald trump saying anything this is a political exercise this is political theater this is not subject to any court reviewing what happens this isn't an animal it's own this impeachment trial the only reason this is being done is to prevent donald trump from running again and why is that because many people suspect that internal polling indicate that the democrats realize that he might be stronger again if he were to run in 2024 the very

problem that we have of the division in the country is that not only were those senators jurors witnesses they were also victims of the insurrection on january 6th and still voted not to convict at least. 43 of them voted not to convict and i think that's the irony of this trial it does explain that or highlight the division in the country that is a testament to the fact that this is a mix of both a legal and a political process and there is no trial in which jurors could be helping one side or the other with their arguments during breaks what impeachment is it's a normal part of the process because it is that makes process which is why the 6th amendment doesn't apply to the trials because there is no opportunity to lose your liberty. but even putin has said that russia will not ban foreign social media but

added that he would active western tech giants who are guilty of hostile actions the russian president also believes the country should aim to have its own alternatives in place the remarks came as he laid out national policy at a meeting with the heads of russian made here earlier this week he goes out of has more on what was said. it was like a very high profile top to a media conference with editors in chief after all but the issue of social media and the social media restrictions well it's hot in russia so of lattimer putin touched upon that an essentially he said that well the kremlin is not looking to ban anything just for the sake of banning it because it would make any sense but he's made a point that if foreign social media institutes were to sort of engage in information warfare promotes information hostile to the to russia's national interests then well most will have no other choice but to somehow restrict their actions and also made another disclaimer saying that. a reason for that and it will only be

done in case only if russia develops its own alternative. we will not shut down anything until we have our own social media and when we have our own what we do will be. based on the specific situation when our partners see that there is an alternative that they don't enjoy a monopoly in the market they will behave differently i have no desire to change anything manually but if hostile actions are carried out i do not exclude it hostile actions against our country are unacceptable so when it comes to these hostile actions that the russian president is talking about this subject didn't come out of thin air because i'm really know that russia has seen some very large scale demonstrations or pro opposition demonstrations well speaking of scale like tens of thousands of people showed up the russian government did not sanction and

did not do any of those rallies so the russian government from the russian government's standpoint those protests were illegal but those protests will coordinated and kind of promoted and p.r. marketed for and social media so this is this is what it is what it is all about right now obviously on the subject of these protests that were branded as in support of the election of a prominent kremlin critic but from vladimir putin's standpoint they weren't really motivated by the person old support he enjoys as a person as a wannabe politician but rather by a general frustration of the russian public due to well the decreasing living conditions and they stem from the nomic hardships that russia is facing due to the pandemic because russia has been affected by covert 19 like literally any other country in the world and. throughout russia's modern history for example during the

1st world war our opponents have always relied on people who are very ambitious and hungry for power and it's the same right now in the situation with it is happening at the very moment when in all countries of the world including in russia people are tired and irritated. so essentially according to the russian president the west exploiting the hungry for power people like in the valley to undermine russia and to bring russia down because at the end of the day other nations they have their interests their interests at hand as a priority and only russia wants a strong and diplomatically and politically and geo politically independent russia and kind of elaborating on that the russian president has said that well the stronger the more independent russia becomes the more pressure its partners will rather rivals will exert. as soon as the situation in the country

began to stabilize and as we were getting up on our feet that was it became team policy immediately began why don't you understand that why don't you see that's how it was banks in little by little step by step more and more and the stronger we got the stronger this containment policy was so this kind of falls on top of what russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov said earlier this week in a more harsh in a more blatant you know terms when he had said that if if the west if europe if the e.u. world to look to cripple russia's economy through sanctions and world to cripple russia that this is what putin is saying here then the russia would have to look into the possibility of cutting ties with the e.u. altogether and there are plenty of examples other than sanctions as to how this how this plays out how europe is world just ridiculing all russia's will successes like

we look at this but it could be vaccine it was written ridiculed from the get go we didn't get any benefit of the doubt at all that the beginning i think completely critics completely brushed aside all the stories or the positive experiences of those who pioneered and got the job even before the phase tree of phase 3 excuse me of trials was completed and they kept ridiculing the russians putting the vaccine up until the very last moment when it just became undeniable that sputnik up there among the top 3 of the most effective vaccines in the world. a member of the world health organization told r.t. that if the corona virus originated in a bat it was likely transmitted to humans by rather animals scientists believe it was part of a table that's been investigating the source of the pandemic in china. 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 mers from a camel so there must be some other intermediate animal it is the most likely have partisan based on our knowledge. of the disease was 1st detected in the city of december 29th and the w.h.o. initial findings debug claims that it originated in the laboratory however the united states believes that beijing is not telling the whole story. 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 talk to doug of just how much access his team had they were had he says he found the 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. yes. 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 so we're not even considering this the 2nd is that a natural virus came from the laptop 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. this weekend's new movies to see black actors propelled into the spotlight playing characters traditionally thought of as white roles we're going to debate if it's

a cynical diversion while real progress in 2021 after the break. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race. theory dramatic development only. exists i don't see it. will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. this is a speculative attack that elon musk is making on the bed right so he's already going to the s.e.c. is already going to. show them to be. captured now he's going to war with spit and

say look i buy back my own stock ok it's ok. cheap money going to buy it like michael sailors do and now 500 other c.e.o.'s in the s. and p. 500 like you know it that's a darn good idea. hello again the new big budget movie adaptation of the 3 musketeers will have a new leading black character in it according to the french studio producing it the musketeer name hannibal is loosely based on a real african prints of the original story by alexander dumas they set in the 17th century and doesn't include any characters of african descent or the stories reimagining comes at a time when many companies are being slammed for cynically trying to prove their

woke diversity credentials. the same kind of criticism to be leveled at the 1st pictures of british black actress jodie turner smith playing the historical figure queen anne boleyn the actress has been cast as the 2nd wife of henry the 8th of england in a new t.v. mini series the creators say that it set to challenge conventions about the doomed queen's life but some people have found the casting choice questionable the drama challenges all the conventions of who we think and believe in was and shines a feminist light on her story we're absolutely thrilled to have the magnetic jedi turner smith on board to the capsule it and determination to been equal among men and to pave a path for her daughter. black people shouldn't portray white people it's historically white stories and vice versa we have our own stories it's not empowering it's silly so instead of making stories drawn through and intriguing

live select historical figures across the world human to reproduce is just going to keep casting black actors to play when people and color diversity in progress only a matter of time before martin luther king is splayed by dominic west. are discussing it with us next is political analyst reese everson and political blogger anthony bryan logan both welcome back to r.t. . 2021 this is still a thing reese i mean diversity in theater reimagining is as old as theater itself isn't it why should this still be a problem do you think what we're doing is we're looking through a new lens we're realizing that historically that women of color particularly black women and men have been shut out of roles that were whether they were you know characterizing a person of color or not they've been shut out of those roles i have and so what we're doing is maria magine in ways to open those doors and open it up to people of all colors including black women why shouldn't a black woman

a queen and so you do suspect that you that if the say this was a mexican studio with mexican actors or australian studio with australian actors a norwegian studio with scandinavian actors nobody would be batting an eyelid right now with a. i mean nobody really cares i think at the end of the day it just makes sense to have the actors portraying a people in a more realistic way we're talking about amber lynn the queen of england i mean this is not a black woman it would be the exact same thing if you hate chris pray the guy who plays captain america for train type who it would make any sense at all i would be like ok come on let's get more really the representation of that particular person in their real person in history let's make it a little bit more accurate shall we race would it be better for the studios to be mine in what must be a rich same of genuine stories from black history you know that sounds good in a vacuum however if we look at this from a historical lens will remember things like movies likely appassionata and how they

were told with elizabeth taylor as cleopatra who was very much a person of african descent and stories like jesus who is played by mel gibson also a person of african descent and so what we find is that historically everyone's been ok with her even the the tower of white supremacy has been ok with the stories being told by white curators however it seems like there's some fragility issues happening will we it's him to tell the stories with actors based on their qualifications in their ability in you know their skill set versus just looking at the color of their skin and after all isn't what we all in isn't this what we all x. where we said dr martin luther king was celebrated for wanting to celebrate people basically judge people based on the content of their character that's exactly what we're doing now hollywood has issues and today you disagree. oh yeah definitely i made up in about cleopatra i mean i'm not necessarily just want to go around the

world but a clear path to was more greek a north africa and i mean africa is not just one place you get different parts of africa you're talking about north africa people like gadhafi who was alive recently he does not look like you and me and the egyptians that are there today where there are very long time ago they did not look like you and me so cleopatra was more accurate of the mediterranean and i kind of stuff at that particular time than this woman who was clearly of african descent or caribbean descent whatever it is trying to portray the queen of england and if you had any of the characters that didn't quite match their sort of reference i'm against those as well ok let's put all the stuff in the past and go for in a future if you want to have more black folks on television have a story that fits them either an original story or and historically accurate story i think that makes more sense reach to some of these costing choices come across as a little bit cynical to you even just slightly. well here's the thing we know for

a fact that hollywood is much more white overall than it is black so although there are a merging filmmakers like tyler perry who who have created you know lanes where he can tell black stories overall there are white filmmakers creating stories that tell oftentimes stories about white characters especially in history so what does that mean that black women can only play roles of queens when it's a story about africa we wince when that comes out well then that's severely limiting to black actresses and what did we say again we said just 30 days ago for dr martin luther king day that we want to judge people based on the content of their character and so it's disingenuous for us to turn around less than 30 days later and say oh no we can't have a black woman playing the queen of england because she wouldn't have been a queen in england because that's historically inaccurate and i don't know are we going to be and one dr martin luther i don't hear anything handsome i want to say that kind of a character argument i don't get their part because you're talking about

historically accurate you're talking about the queen of england and you got black woman in there makes no sense i would say the exact science and art is not a portal and that an african king ok if you get here is who gets here i'll replace oh no like i said again chris pray or some other kind of white house to a guy be like ok come one is really going to bow at a place in africa is a black cartoon a black comic book let's put characters in air that are more accurate and if you want to have more black folks and how they would have more original currency and put in a black person in a white movie would have a go and i don't know how to mix in the anthony weiner why should it matter of just thinking in terms of productions of shakespeare which have been reimagined with diverse costs all with the all male and all about and nobody seems to say that that's any less of a shakespearean production just because of the costing it's being seen as a refreshing reimagining of that production. i mean it's a spear i mean that's kind of like a more of

a fictional type of thing but even me i'm not a fan of it and they go in and. out way i'm not offended that whole thing they've got going on and i think that's kind of the same type of thing rather than having an original story rather than have in new phrase black characters you want to rehash old white story and then put black faces in it i think is kind of condescending create new stories better stories with black you visit it recycling about tyler perry he has his own network his own studio where white hollywood comes to him and breaks his space gives him money ok that's how we get to do it rather than in trying to rehash old movies they have white characters have been put in black faces on it and it doesn't fail in any way uncomfortable race when you think that it just feels like that's take these underrepresented actors from of people of color from black communities and let's just put them into these existing white stories well not because you're situ for everyone's heiler harry there are probably a 1000 other filmmakers that are white and so what you get are stories that are

told from the lens of the white male typically are white female and why should you just leave thousands of black actors out of work because there aren't any stories being told where there aren't enough storytellers that are black there aren't enough charlie there's only literally one tyler perry in the country and it and so what he did and he got trackers out and won more guys that are out there doing things that the best man out in the audience movies coming from black people that are portraying black stories i don't see that it makes any sense to say ok rabbit in does create in our own thing and do in our own way if you want to take those same white of filmmakers in the same white movies in a certain person in there and they always say that's better and representation is make any sense to me personally. do you don't think that when it comes to historical representation though the generations of movie goes have been brought up on those films which will be regarded as classics and mustn't be interfered with in

any way and we look back at them and you see these images of ancient roman of ancient greece and the embarrassingly white which just isn't true either is it so it's about time that that was redressed isn't it anthony oh it will roll me agrees i mean i'm talking about subsaharan africa roma greece is not the look guys look like me that's just a fact that you can say could be more racially ambiguous and that's why i mean if you're going to put lupita jago and her sisters in there in greece as in they're right the same way it would be right if you had a bunch of black. swedish people in there either but there's a pay as we can look at the past and say ok some of the movies are right that's going for into the future let's now live in a paris let's just create better movies let's create it's not as bad as do a rabbit into an old world that pays and some of the movies won't all be right this is kind of silly and rich just going to bring it pass it's about correcting the wrong black people who have been systematically disenfranchised from participating

in hollywood and not allowed to be in films across the board that's what we're attempting to correct in south sudan reimagine a world where a person who's black in plate any character pris the simply a queen and to see what that does for a young african-american girl to see a black woman play a queen that's what we're looking at this is file are there no everything queens are there no african queens that you could play rabbit or no white queen. no both i guess the audience will decide when these movies finally come out resurfacing nancy brian logan good to see you again thanks for joining us on r.t. international. thank you and that's it for this edition of the weekly thanks for checking in with r.t. international on calling brian having an expedition and just a half an hour from that theater. the world is driven by a dreamer shaped about one percent of those but. no

dairy thinks. we dare to ask. knowing flowed from that and the idea of who didn't blog little but i'll blog good . luck and i don't.