i. mean it with a prison sentence for. child trafficking. allegations. against. disturbing.

curfew to. name. the country. many. people. today welcome to moscow to our. own neil our top story. really seen. in madrid following.

chouse the people in the spanish capital across the lonely are demanding his release is facing a 9 month sentence over insults towards the spanish at royal family and also glorifying terrorist groups in those tweets lyrics such you're seeing there are a lot of barricades being put up but the protesters seemingly moving them to get into that space well excuse me that is barcelona we are looking at right now. with the fire and also the scenes coming up now just to let you know about this rapper we're speaking about the musician he was arrested in his home time some 150 kilometers west of the capital and capital with protests erupting in cities across the region around 2000 people rallied in barcelona alone where they were met with a strong police presence demonstrators hell banners reading pablo 32 year old cell was taken to prison earlier this week after barak caving himself in the capital on

universally alongside his supporters in order to avoid arrest police in full riot gear entered the university removing the barak aides from where he had locked himself away the backdrop to all this is last weekend's historic showing of pro independence parties in elections moving above a 50 percent presence in parliament for the 1st time back in 28 dean by the way was convicted by a spanish court for glorifying terrorism and insulting state institutions he had been given until last friday night to turn himself in and begin serving his sentence so just to reiterate what you're watching here is the capital barcelona fires being lit in the streets more and more people throughout the day had been coming police had been. closing the streets trying to keep the protesters in one area but as we were just seeing those barricades being moved by the protesters just

after 9 in the evening right now in barcelona now we spoke to a member of the cattle national assembly who says that suppressing freedom of speech is inexcusable and there's a need for change in society. spanish over many is. fundamental rights activists have their right to free speech and create 3 creation. is they call themselves the most progressive government and in the history of for spain also for their case all fatah has been problem because is a clear sign that this is not true or not this is one of the reasons why we only need and that's not because we want to build a new a new contract with a more open and free lowell's we want to know more system no

system which accept. the. creation like the one i sell or others like. so of course we need this this change so we are fighting for this for a more free. 3. ok let's move the program on a legit unsavory business practices of some of the world's biggest chocolate producers are being placed in the spotlight international rights advocates are filing a lawsuit claiming that snuff giants including at nestlé mars cargill use children as young as 11 to make their products into trenchard's been looking into the not so sweet story behind your favorite tree. one chocolate cannot get more dark i'm not talking about the percentage of milk but rather how much child labor is used in

production human rights activists are suing a number of food giants on the u.s. market including the likes of mars the reason claims of knowingly benefiting from selling cheap cocoa harvested by child slaves these companies are working together through the world cocoa federation these companies are profiting handsomely from the very cheap cocoa that they get from using child slaves children who were kidnapped from mali and brought to go to war and floors to work. they came to duvall are between the ages of 11 and 14 in each of them ended up working for several years before they managed to escape so the activist are sounding the alarm over ivory coast a fact to think of the country exports more cocoa than anyone else on the planet now providing about 2 thirds of the world's supply which makes it very likely that the regular chocolate bar you eat tastes of illegal child labor while you're

chilling just picture what slavery is like here's what the activists heard from kids who escaped after years of misery ease of was told he would be fed and paid his wages at the end of the season he cleared brush with a machete apply pesticides and herbicides without any safety instructions or protective gear he slept on the plantation alone and a ragged top he was exposed to in 6 in snakes he was given very little food and was often hungry at the end of the year he was not paid repeated stories of disastrous safety food work and living conditions all to end up being fooled with pay. whose main tara and his suv baguio co was about 6 to 7 hours to the small isolated village of sour duca they were not given any food and they were only able to drink water down to the river they did everything on the plantation without any

protective gear but have visible scars from machete accidents an american government study found the number of children harvesting cocoa in west africa has gone up year on year and is now about $1600000.00 war then 95 per cent are engaged in hazardous work companies in the big chocolate business admit there's an issue with child labor and pretty much all claim they're doing their best to tackle it but in their defense they're trying to tell the critics how hard it is to monitor such a massive industry some businesses have built schools in africa many have come up with programs to avoid child abuse the activists however claim the programs could actually be used as schemes to create a positive image but hide the scale of slavery horrors good arrests and they roll out these fake programs that sound good on paper the cocoa action plan the nestle

cocoa plan and it's all just a lie what they're actually doing is continuing to change nothing except they create a small model program that monitors a tiny fraction of their supply chain so they can convince some consumers at least that they're making progress according to the lawsuit only 30 percent of the plantations are subject to scrutiny the rest are the so-called free zones where there's claim to be 0 monitoring so even if the food giants efforts are indeed and at the right thing the reality of the cocoa business is darker than the darkest chocolate bar you've ever tasted. taking us through. this is a message we sent to those chocolate manufacturers nestle mars and cargo there yet to respond to a request for comment on the allegations. a court in the

hague has ruled that the dutch government's controversial covert curfew is illegal it said that authorities had misused emergency powers the curfew will however remain in place until the government's appeal on friday our europe correspondent peter all of us been following developments. well this 9 pm curfew that's been in place in the netherlands to try and stop the spread of covert 1000 being one of the most controversial measures that's been put in across the european continent on tuesday a court in the hague said it was illegal the curfew is a far reaching violation of the right to freedom of movement and previously and indirectly limits among other things the right to freedom of assembly and demonstration the curfew is based on a law for emergency situations where there's no time for debate with parliament there was no such pressing need in this case no such pressing need seems to be one of the key phrases in the ruling it relates directly to the fact that the number of covert cases in the netherlands has been declining steadily since mid december we

did see demonstrations against this curfew demonstrations that turned violent clashes between protesters and police bordering on full blown riot in cities like amsterdam and rotterdam earlier this year but despite the court ruling on tuesday that curfew remains in place the reason for that is markedly to the dutch prime minister and his government they applied for an emergency injunction against the court ruling to allow the the curfew to remain in place so it could be debated further that injunction was granted mark routers says the curfew is necessary to get covert numbers down and keep them down. because middle of the curfew is a means not a girl i can't emphasize that often enough the aim is to bring the virus under control so we can regain all our freedoms the reason the curfew was introduced and it's not changed. on mr hooter's government are working on ways to put in place

a new laws that would essentially allow the curfew to be rendered legal what we are seeing though when it comes to people on the streets in the netherlands is there's a fairly mixed opinion right now to whether this curfew. to be got rid of or whether it needs to stay. like a few makes absolutely no sense what they've done now they try to keep those students in that if those students go somewhere before 9 pm and only go out again in the morning that's fine too the curfew was no use they have to ground those planes so that people can't travel because as long as people continue to travel they will continue to travel or i notice that people who don't have much to do with it have less trouble with karana i've had khurana myself so i know how bad it can be my mother died of it recently we also noticed that there are fewer flu symptoms if you're cold complaints also because people have less contact and stick to the

rules in a better manner i think the responsibility should lie with every individual i mean i didn't like the curfew myself but i didn't think they had to protest against it either it doesn't bother me personally because i'm not coming out of work after 9 pm anyway but i mean it matters for people like my brother who come back from work at a 9 well this is all very messy legally it may well have huge repercussions for the more than 50000 people who've already being handed fines for breaching the curfew by the police we are expecting more to come all 'd this it's up for debate on friday in the netherlands we'll see whether that curfew remains whether it goes or whether it comes back in some different type of for a sociologist we spoke to believes the standoff between the government and the court as a result of deeper issues. i think it is a serious political crisis but it's a political crisis that started many months ago when the government was forced to

resign after the so-called benefits scandal when the cure a few measures were announced back in january some of the wall street riots we have seen in the netherlands for many years that was not tribes exactly for but you're a few aside it's there were riots against the government for many many decades he's dismantling. much of the health care infrastructure super kountry and now the meds and see the pandemic the government basically doesn't have an effective enough health care system to go. with the situation and even the only been able to fix an 8 fast enough the population so all to gives or. i think that the court is echoing lot of disappointment of many people with the government and this doesn't have to do only with the care of 3

very. welcoming but because followed policies the hard impact on large parts of the population negative impact. is really he's refusing to get a coronavirus job may soon find their names on a government watch list it's what the country's prime minister has suggested raising concerns over possible previously violations and discrimination israel has a world leading vaccination program but a recent loss of momentum has worried prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the state is now considering rolling out a series of measures to boost optic among the population they include launching a campaign against this information introducing new legislation and giving immunity passports to be inoculated. well. the reasons to go get vaccinated is that we are now launching the green passport 1st being vaccinated will be able to go enjoy the stats of the cinema sports events flights abroad restaurants and more.

of talk of the new measures sparked protests outside the p.m.'s residence in jerusalem with hundreds demanding netanyahu is resignation accusing him of mishandling the pandemic and also of corruption the proposal to share the names of vaccinated people with authorities has raised concerns over privacy violations are also the scrim a nation what is really sparing. the government should. convince the people about not liking force them to do that this matter you have to be very vigilant for the. privacy of citizens but over public health all measures should be taken of course you can't force someone to be vaccinated but you can. for beat him to enter to enter into closed places close areas where he can infect

other people it's ok to do it to protect the safety and health of the people who are violating one right to protect those people. israeli authorities are using the cards as well as the stick to encourage people to get vaccinated here's a food truck outside a vaccine center in tel aviv it's been giving out free pastries to make the experience of getting in on it more palatable. 17 minutes past 11 pm here in moscow we're back in 1000 with more of the day's news. seemed wrong wrong just don't. let me. get to shape out to stay active. and engaged equals

a trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. the world is driven by a dream shaped by one person if there is. no dares thinks. we dare to ask.

and let's start the program in the u.s. state of texas where close to 3000000 ha souls remain without electricity the power outages in the lone star state seen production grind to a halt in some high tech plots you know ordinary texans they're left to their own devices at temperatures in their homes drop severely we've seen roof caving in in some houses under the weight of the still quite incredible scenes in texas. this is it i know you. played with some texans left without power overnight reportedly pup tents inside their homes in a bid to keep warm the blizzard force flights canceled dollars and of motorists

were stuck in traffic jams on state highways as well in recent days temperatures have dropped to minus 18 degrees celsius that is the coldest seen there in more than 30 years on sunday president biden declared a state of emergency in texas the snowstorm has also intensified the debate over a new bill energy as many wind turbines froze to a halt solar panels were covered with ice. a wide ranging new poll has shown that support for a 3rd major american political party has reached an all time high according to the study around 2 thirds of americans now support the idea that's the most since the question 1st started being us by the gallup polling group 18 years ago within the big parties themselves 46 percent of democrats say a 3rd way is needed down from 52 percent in september but

a record high of republicans favor the creation of another party supporters however a still urging him to unite the ranks and i said mr president this maggot movement needs to continue we need to unite the party trunk plus is the way back in 2022 is he well i discuss the current state of u.s. political parties with a number of guests. i think that in the republican party you have 2 factions you have a conservative pro-life faction and then you have the establishment side yes doubtless from inside has really not been favorable to conservatives who see what's going on right now legislatively in america tantamount to basically having a you know party you basically have 2 progressive parties that are for big government they're for reckless spending in growing the size of government and all of these things that conservatives and libertarians have traditionally been against

so i think the president's trumps basically has xplosion if you want to call it that from the mainstream g.o.p. use the system is rigged against libertarians and green party and others the democratic and republican party do collude they do share the same philosophy they're both part of the same warfare welfare state they scare the same view toward our the real problem is that government that politics has playing too big of a role in the lives of americans has become our national sport the democrats often the green new deal that's a green party policy. universal health care those are green party policies tree college tuition those are green public policies but they get co-opted by the democrats but the democrats really can't implement those policies because of their allegiance to their donors and that's the problem with both parties that whether or not a 3rd party is actually good for their cause is debatable because generally 3rd parties are seeing mostly as a spoiler in america building

a movement of people who are non partisan who are beyond partisan what transpires and the best way to break up some of the monopoly that's held and shared by the republicans and democrats who are completely completely corrupt state parties governor governor races even here locally city council mayor races so we're going to start from the bottom up we also have some lobbying. we have to do it i know 3rd parties don't want to do that but there is legislation that needs to be changed to make you make u.s. elections more clear for everybody and give voters voters more choices at their brother well. let's return to our top story now on the unrest across spain live pictures right now you're seeing behind me from barcelona and really scenes really breaking there also in madrid other cities and catalonia valencia in spain too that all follows the jailing of cattle on rapper

a public cell on choose they people are demanding his immediate release let's in fact go live now if we come to barcelona local journalist evelyn chin sky who is following the situation on the ground for evelyn to tell us more hi yes so you already said you are starting to like the already. yesterday going out to the streets of barcelona and they want. to be released he basically was criticizing the spanish crown and he's in his songs in his rap as sorry. yes now out now on the comrades or in. my own heart. it's ok you can keep talking everly no we can hear you we just can't see only a sign and you. hear like the streets are on fire and there are lots of teenagers

protesting and mostly young people and not just in barcelona but also in others in catalonia especially a lay down where. basically we're. keeping in their. basic barricaded himself and now he said that she just wanted the truth to come out and he's very happy happy about it and you can you cannot i'm sorry but they are just like the streets on fire and the plastic of the you know just the main square in there in barcelona and the police are getting quite angry because it's like the 1st process since many months in the barcelona because of. course yeah there's been a sizeable presence we're seeing there of police in spain right now and more than 6 people are in to load onto the streets in

a group because as you say of covert restrictions there seems to be a lot of people a lot of people last night as well evelyn does this look like continuing for quite some time. yes so yesterday there was a woman who was injured you were there he's only 19 years old and she got basically like a bullet bomb in hair in her face and now it seems like there are those are even. bigger than yesterday and they might continue for the next couple they. know that over the past number of days the catalan elections were held pro independence parties getting as a story. do you get the sense from talking to people that there is a resurgence for independence and dollars perhaps behind some of what's happening here. yes especially since it's so much famous for think and requiring their independence so i think it's also kind of like an excuse to go out

again on the street and demand back. there in the sand and. they just love going out in the streets they love. seeing bullets and my and this. might have just been an excuse because like i said before it's been months since the cuts along where protesting and just a word what we're seeing though is barcelona but also protests in madrid. across spain. yes so like sorry so it's some just it's not just that's a long out but it's actually among a host spain like you said. and others other big. thank you actually also tired of all the restrictions. so they are using you know different excuses such as the iris of pablo basically also they want to you know

have a normal life again go back to work and go to restaurants and and and they are just hired and and everything is thanks very much for giving us a sense of what's happening there in barcelona tonight stay safe evelyn kaczynski life from the catalan capital local journalists there it will be keeping a close eye on proceedings there right through the evening and we're all set to cross to some more great programs though in moments here nor to stay close to find out what is showing where you are today. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to guest in the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm peter lee well as the covert vaccine is being rolled out it is absolutely necessary to take stock of the economic devastation left in the pandemics wake what is the fate of the working middle class will income inequality continue to greece how will government intervention change the economy and finally does the phrase the new normal mean anything.

to discuss these issues and more i'm joined by my guest on this hogan and great american he is a senior research fellow at the american institute for economic research in los angeles we have piety and he has a corporate strategic planning and independent economic analysts and in bangkok we process steve keen he is a crowdfunding professor of economics on paper as well as a distinguished research fellow of the institute for years strategy resilience and security of university college london all right gentlemen crossed up rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i was appreciated ok let's go to los angeles 1st you know there's a lot of people that talked over the months about him and l. recovery v. recovery dubey oh and none of it's really panned out maybe we don't have enough data and as i said in my introduction they're still rolling out the vaccine and we'll see what the the outcome will be but in your mind in looking at this this saga that we've all gone through what i can.