in the headlines this friday moscow has accused brussels of politicizing the fight against the pandemic as a kremlin heads back in comments from e.u. chief us live on the line and casting doubts over russia's book over its banks the . we discuss the e.u. is ongoing criticism of sputnik v with russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman. talking aggressive or put its facts into the world not without high to making it too expensive or blackmailing with it. and a campaign to boycott facebook gains momentum in australia that's off the tag joined block to news posts in the country something canberra has called and abuse their power we put the issue up for debate should facebook profit on someone else's

work without giving them some of what the biggest problem will be but they're probably in the form that narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. there we will welcome you watching r.t. international with me. our top story this hour russia has accused brussels of politicizing the fight against the corona virus pandemic as long as the e.u. chief live on the line made controversial comments in which he questioned moskos motives to help block with this vaccine rollout. we are perplexed to hear assessments by the head of the you exactly as it is either in an effort to politicize the issue in an insubstantial dated and indeed deplorable way or indicates an inadequate level of awareness of the top level official as long

alliance comments come as the e.u. commission seeks to restore confidence in the blocks i own vaccine rollouts which has been much slower than predicted. joins me in the studio to discuss the issue. well it's pretty clear from the statement that russia is dismayed by the lack of diplomacy but also the lack of humanity that the chief has recently shown again politics beats cooperation when it comes to the covert 19 vaccine for the e.u. it really has been a struggle a struggle to get production off the ground a struggle to get jobs and arms a struggle with the u.k. over who gets however many doses and the slowness in inoculating its 450000000 strong population has got people angry and frustrated this was in that view a political test russel's failed to the point that wonderland had to publicly apologize when did not the senate distracted today we're not where we want to be in

combating the virus we were late in granting authorization we were too old to mistake a mess production and maybe we also took for granted that the doses would actually arrive on time we must ask ourselves why and what lessons we can draw from it while one lesson that did come out was that the been so inefficient that individual member states have been forced to go out on the road looking for alternatives and then looking at russia hungry for example has registered for emergency use sputnik the we also heard in the czech republic showing an appetite for the russian frack scene so here we've got us out of wonderland buried by criticism humiliated by having to say sorry feeling the pressure what better way to divert attention from all the problems in your backyard than by fighting accusations at another country in fact let's remind ourselves of exactly what it was that she said over all arsonists. we still wonder why russia is offering theoretically millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently

progressing in vaccinating the own people this is also a question i think that should be answered but do along the lions concerns have any ground here i mean i understand this but think it is being read. in 29 countries already but what's the situation right here within russia well from the very get go as soon as russia became the 1st country in the wild to register 1000 francs and president putin said russians come fast they are our priority and this was something that was reiterated by the officials and brussels representatives of the russian authorities saying to fit community and business entities have repeatedly publicly stressed that vaccination of its own citizens constitutes an absolute priority for russia in its fight against kovi 19 in full compliance with the principles of democracy and human tarion law inoculation and russia's voluntary and to date all interested citizens are provided with the vaccine without delay and

free of charge without free accessibility is undeniably a seen success russia is in top 3 if you're a pen nations in terms of facts a nation's at last count 2200000 including many of our colleagues who described how smooth the process was you know they turned up they didn't have to book in advance they did the medical check they got fastow's on the 2nd dose then they went home and they were getting back to normal life at the same time we're seeing a very positive dynamic in terms of case numbers which a studly declining day on day. as in every single country not everyone is racing to go and get that job at least not quite yet and this discrepancy between internal and external demand is something that moscow raised recently. we haven't heard any reports about vaccine shortages and us domestic demand for this vaccine is still gathering momentum in moscow there's no deficits but we can see there's a huge demand as for demand for the russian vaccine abroad it is indeed high it's so high that he suppresses our production capacity that's why we are actively

working on quickly launching production of the russian vaccine in several foreign countries production in foreign countries will cover demand abroad while many factions inside the country will cover the domestic market so clearly that's the law. cool response to the lens quite hostile comments but here clearly throwing up political punch was more important than logic perhaps not surprising we obviously know that russian relations are going through a slightly bumpy potch moscow says it's for straighted by brussels consistently interfering and it's in tons and it looks like here we might be seeing the same story instead of trying to resolve its own issues the e.u. is trying to deflect attention and undermining a country who's trying to offer a helping hand well this is just the latest in a long line of critical remarks coming from the e.u. . that's despite some countries in the blog voicing support for the job as the e.u. continues to face supply shortages artes and some crystal ski discuss the issue

with the spokeswoman for the russian foreign ministry. that's not that it's an experience our vaccine developments were denied by the west they said lots of different things that it does not exist it's bad and nobody should use it it was necessary to invent something very fast in order not to destroy the created myth that russia is an aggressor how can aggressors offer its facts into the world not without hiding it making it too expensive or blackmailing with it this is what their gresson would do instead we offered it as a tool as a method maybe not as a panacea but one of the means of overcoming the crisis in some ways it can be compared to space of course the scale is different but when you read the guardian went on his flight and when he returned what did the soviet union do it denounced that outer space is for peaceful exploration that what they used to saw proposed to the world city new trend in the direction the same with the vaccine we're open to corporations we're ready to join production we're

a did study and share our experience some people from the west couldn't deal with it this is a blow and this is not envy this is a blow to the longstanding model of representing russia as an aggressor. and yet i see last countries in latin america continue to receive supplies of russian sputnik they as some western media outlets are paid to be drawing similarities between what they call the spread of the russian vaccine and the cold war a lot on last story later in the program. was protests continue in spain over the arrest of cattle long rapper pablo hersel who has been jailed for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism. the musician was arrested on choose day at the university of yedo way he and his supporters had barricaded themselves inside hundreds of public figures have spoken

out in support of the artist while on the stand to national described his detention as an excessive restriction on his freedom of expression protests in support of the 32 year old has been taking place across the country resulting in riots and clashes with police. back in 2018 public hersel was convicted by a spanish court have a tweet calling the former king a quote a mafia boss he also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and migrants has cell fell foul of legislation covering spaniards his right to freedom of expression dubbed the gallant little by critics a court ruled spanish law prohibited such expressions although opinion popular has cells lawyer gave us his view on the matter is that. in this country the term glorification of terrorism has been used very easily to persecute political dissidents it's one of the countries where many artists have been given prison

terms and it's not nice and here we have other political and social problems i mean the pandemic the economic recession is a very important matter as young people have no future the state is very powerful and there are many types of violence that it's using to protect itself this is systematic and daily violence against those who lost their homes who have no homes as they don't have an income people are unhappy with this violence. a campaign to boycott facebook is gaining momentum in australia that's off the tech giant blocks news posts on the platform in the country will straightly and government has criticised the move. are we decide of course this is a strike you're going to business here you work according to our rules but the idea of shutting down the sort of sorts i did yesterday as some sort of 3 well i know i was trying to react to that and i thought that was a. not

a good move on the part of this morning so we'll see way where those discussions go and we can find a pathway going forward yesterday's actions parfaits work were unnecessary they were heavy handed they've generated a very strong reaction here in a strike. in addition to news posts facebook also blocks a number of key australian government pages including health departments emergency services and trade unions the company later commented on the issues thing these accounts had been inadvertently impacted and would be restored honesty international weighed in on the issue saying facebook's willingness to control information people rely on is extremely concerning but groups that the move stood in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giant's poor track record in handling hateful content and this information well the spot erupted after australia proposed a law that would make tech joins pay for using news conference on the platform

early in my colleague in o'neill got the thoughts of our guests on the story. although i don't like facebook by any means i also don't blame them for trying to put a stop to what i think is a very bad policy that in the end well only end up hurting smaller independent and perhaps even dissident sources in favor of a larger more establishment media sources these news organizations are disappearing that's really what's at stake and they really don't have any choice because they're not generating the kind of revenues necessary to run these news this content of which facebook reliance on it we have seen a whole cloth disruption of paid you know professional journalists guys that spent 30 years cutting their teeth and there are a lot of jobs because who's going to pay him $80.00 grand plus benefits to write a story when you can get to me on his you know no unfair a fight no real credentials in journalism typing out something and make more money

on those clicks so the question is for democracy is what is the threshold where people deserve to have real information and should they have to pay for it should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some look you can understand facebook's desire not to give in and start paying for news stories like google did once the box opens there's $200.00 other countries surely saying we want some to facebook but you do to their shareholders right if we start saying all right facebook will have to pay to feature news articles and news links what's stopping other forms of content from doing the same this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize and actually a i think more equitable if i can use that word solution to this would be to start talking about ways to break up the monopoly that facebook does have on advertising and also on user data basically the biggest problem with facebook is that they're utterly controlling that narrative and they're completely shutting out news that

doesn't obey the narrative miss and this goes for almost. every issue down the line that's of the importance today let's remember back in around 2007 i happen to be one of those lucky ones who interviewed this guy who started facebook he was a nobody was still on my space my space everywhere and he said that he wanted to create an ecosystem similar to a a well at the time if we all remembered dial up ale well it closed circuit environment where all your dating your shopping your opinions and that basically people who weren't able to have real friends in life could have thousands of friends make believe friends and call them their friends and you would never have to leave that world and it would do everything for you well that dream has come true and now all of us are sitting in the middle of it going well wait a minute it's either all capitalism where anything goes and we can all charge for everything or it's part capitalism or it's something but we're at that time of growth now will we actually have to make the grown up decisions. when he organized

the expensive and unsafe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the country's quarantine hotels the facilities well i think this week that people arising from coronavirus hotspots and let me measures travelers returning from red listed countries have to quarantine and a hotel for 10 days it costs $1750.00 pounds per person that's about $2400.00 and an additional $650.00 pounds for a 2nd. the ad was reports from outside one of the hotels. foreign travelers and brits returning home from $33.00 reckless countries are now forced to isolate and government mandated hotels in the u.k. for 10 days it's all part of measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus variants but not only are rivals like elaine and wagner confined to the 4 walls of a small hotel room they've also got to foot they have to bills and selves to go you

. know what we've got to be $2000.00 when you come back. you know money we want to try to come along. right now there are going to be new rules how about for i don't know i don't know yet but this couple to loan many flights being canceled and departure dates change due to complications of the cave a 1000 pandemic and it's not just the financial burden that's weighing heavily other rivals tell me the current policy is less safer than isolating a home a plague take. home a. 5. believe me state i like. being a feature bringing it. all again.

i watch one. currently the government has almost 5000 rooms available across 16 airport hotels with another 58000 on standby but as has been throughout the entire pandemic scotland has gone one step further by enforcing hotel currently measures on any international arrivals regardless of which country they arrive from even in exceptional circumstances we were to. us we know almost in. its whence what we're not used managed or seen of late mr johnson 'd just automatically once the 16th and that's. when the rest if. you know can already have some of what you were going to england or if you were willing to get in the ring and ring husky because. it's just if you will be. a remote you know you know we're not. just.

feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families as. evermore and so it's it's all right in testing times charge at. u.k. london. still to come last millions in the southern states of america are left without a wall top or electricity amid a deadly winter storm republican texans will save a little simple feat on social media that story and more after the break. the post trauma era has begun or has it what role would the former president play within the republican party by all accounts trump intends to remain relevant if this is the case what is the future of the populist wing of the party in the lead

if indeed the g.o.p. is now the party of the working class in the party leadership in trey's this direction. join me every thursday on the alex i'm unsure when i'll be speaking to get us to the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. the global sell the markets approximately just under 2 trillion so certainly within a few months because it will be vaulting over silver it's on its way and my believe in 2021 to get half way or so against the market capitalization of gold that is it would be 4 trillion on its way to 10 trillion and then you know once it gets past gold there's only $10.00 left.

to. welcome back i was countries in latin america continue to receive supplies of russia as a sputnik they some western media outlets a paid speech will raise similarities between what they call the spread to off the russian vaccine and the cold war his own team's more advanced c.f. with will. sputnik v. was born into disbelief then ridicule and jokes how could russia have done what the richest and the most democratic nations of the world couldn't finally came acceptance britta but acceptance. and. in the. us. it was always politics it was never really about the vaccine if scrutiny came from

france for example could you even imagine it would have attracted least much ridicule and scorn of course it would fortunately science prevailed and sputnik is saving lives in latin america. we are happy with the signing of a very important contract for our country for our population for the believe in people because in this way believe it is among the countries among the many countries that today are making efforts to provide a way out to give the population certainty in the face of this pandemic lose interest in these on the money russia has extended to helping hand in solidarity to all of people country attacked by imperial powers implicated country a criminal case the people who mock than derided spruit nick b. they haven't changed their minds and that isn't what they do they still hate it they hate a vaccine just because it's russian but since they can no longer smear the vaccine

is unsafe now they're trying to syria into the collective consciousness that it is a weapon a russian weapon a vaccine cold war the joke is right jus political vaccine that's too good to be true. now you have to be a putin friend to place an order we will of course understand that it was and it is tabloid trash sellout pundits acting in special interest that angry that the united states which has eluded to do over the americas north and south assumed all that it isn't the us ride into latin america's rescue with a vaccine clutched in it's had and this is what we do in geopolitics you know the americans have the assistance with food to africa and it has labels of us say things like that's what we do this all the time and the vaccine is going to be

a new way of this geopolitics in terms of getting of a bigger influence in the sphere of what america it's a game of chess if someone is winning that means the other side is losing so they feel bad day meeting maybe the western european union or the americas you know united states is losing in latin america because the russians are gaining latin america which journalists seem to imply when running off to russia actually didn't see contrary to what their padley teach in us journalism schools latin americans aren't idiots and that perfectly capable of weighing their options so his flaws are and his sputnik floods is twice as expensive roughly and very difficult to transport and to store requiring deep freeze which is again expensive or is sputnik which can be kept at your regular kitchen fridge temperatures when we looked at the contracts we evaluated the ones with fines it did not comply with the legal

protocols we expected we reached out to the russians and president fernandez related directly with putin and this sped things up we've heard for months now promises and calls from western politicians and leaders to stop buying out and who are doing all the vaccines. so far that is be merely with poor nations or to put their faith in cuckoo vacs they were told w h o a mechanism to provide the developing world with enough jobs to inoculate 20 percent the population free of charge levy and colombia even got on the shortlist and guess what or the single dose as yet been delivered but you don't see politico raising a fuss about kovacs being too good to be true. a huge storm sweeping a through this something u.s. has killed at least 36 people and texas one of the hardest hit states millions of

people are still facing water and power shortages freezing temperatures have caused water pipes to burst leaving millions of texans without access to clean running water locals have also been forced to stand in lines for food as shops run low on supplies the texas governor has blamed the power grid operator for the massive outages saying it failed to prepare for the storm the operator has stated that significant progress has been made in restoring power meanwhile people online took the opportunity to mock republican texans caught up in the storm callup more pain reports at a time like this you would think that texans would be receiving lots of love and sympathy from their fellow americans but not this time some just don't seem to be able to forget that texas is red they say this is god's punishment for election denial i feel for the people suffering through this weather but god doesn't seem to

like ted cruz who john cornyn these 2 also never recognize to do a war if this isn't payback i don't know what he is a texas keep voting for officials who don't believe in climate change and supported privatization of the power grid maybe in 4 years you can vote for trump again he believes in the latter but not the former perfect. isn't it great how the red states are the 1st to denounce the federal government and also the 1st one to start whining and crying for help from the fats when things go bad lead them freeze i say let them freeze with wanting to split away with us now they're begging for help their red states warm them up so here we have americans saying that americans deserve to freeze because they are trump supporters and some find the whole thing up warry asli funny this is especially tough for texans because they're not equipped for snow they don't have snow shovels out there their best bet is to grab

the air 15 to shoot each before it lands while this seems to be a shocking revelation of american solidarity many texans don't seem too happy with ted cruz their senator who's enjoying his vacation in cancun and maybe they're also devastated to hear that they're on their own from their mayor no one owes you will your family anything nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you trying times like this sink or swim it's your choice the city and county along with power provide any of the service. nothing now that mayor has resigned that post has been deleted from social media but all of this has not made things easier for texans partisan mockery and mere celebration of the suffering of so many people in the lone star state seems to fly in the face of joe biden's claims that he's trying to reunify the country the nation is not divine do you go out there and take a look and talk to people you have fringes on both ends but it's not new is divided

as we make it out to be and we have to bring it together as americans don't seem horrified by what's happening in texas but rather see it as some kind of cathartic revenge for their political opponents it seems that biden's promise of reunifying the country is pretty far off caleb artsy new york that's the latest terror on r t international plenty more stories to be found on our website www dot com we'll be back with more in 30 minutes. in the 1920 s. and thirty's several 100 african-americans moved to the soviet union and many of their descendants still live in russia. or being at the coast because they know no rush but us throw up our stuff yes it. was one thing. back

home black american suffered from racism and a complete lack of prospects. is that columbus mugged the real. one by elsa store. so they decided to leave everything behind and start a new life in a country about which they knew almost nothing at all some of the rear troops who were through during the night be heard around great crowd. to move a few you're going to go for you and now almost a 100 years later the history is repeating itself my great grandfather george time went to russia. probable worst time to go anywhere why not me. why don't i come here.

hello and welcome to crossfire where all things are considered the bell the post trauma era has begun or has it what role will the former president play within the republican party by all accounts trump intends to remain relevant if this is the key. what is the future of the populist wing of the party and in courtly if indeed the g.o.p. is now the party of the working class will the party leadership embrace this new direction. to discuss the fate of the g.o.p. i'm joined by my guess and martin in washington he's pro.