in the headlines this friday moscow accuses brussels of politicizing the fight against the pandemic as the kremlin heads back a controversial comments from the e.u. chief the lion casting doubts over russia's kovacs e. we discussed the e.u. zone growing criticism of the with russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman. how congressional for its specs into the world is not without high to making it too expensive blackmailing with it. and a campaign to boycott facebook games were momentum in australia that's not of the tech giant blocks news posts in the country something congress called an abuse of power we put the issue for debate. should facebook profit on someone else's work

without giving them some of what they do is brought up with facebook groups but they're utterly controlling that narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. a very warm welcome to you know watching r.t. international with me in the key era and our top story in this hour russia has accused brussels of politicizing the fight against the coronavirus pandemic off the e.u. chief us along the line made controversial comments in which she questioned moskos motives to help the block with this vaccine rollout. we are perplexed to hear assessments by the head of the huge zacchaeus 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 lines comments come as the commission thinks to restore confidence in the block's own vaccines all out which is being logged by shortages. taylor 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 struggle with the u.k. of the 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 detectives today we're not where we want to be in

combating the virus we were late in granting authorization we were too old to mystic about mass 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 v we also heard in the czech republic showing an appetite for the russian facts seen so here we've got us out of one delay and 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 of 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 lines concerns have any ground here i mean i understand this but think this has been 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 world to register a covert 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 scene success rushes in top 3 if you're a pen nations in terms of facts nations at last count $2200000.00 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 is steadily 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 to mind is something that moscow raised recently to announce it if you do it we haven't had 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 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. response to vonda lends quite hostile comments but here clearly throwing up political punch was more important than logic perhaps not surprising we obviously know that you russian relations are going through a slightly bumpy potch moscow says it's for straighted by brussels consistently interfering in its internal affairs 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. but this is just the latest in a long line of critical remarks coming from the european union have a split big z. despite some countries in the blog voicing support for the job is that he used

campaign struggles to get off the ground artie's on time chris discussed the issue with the spokeswoman for the russian foreign ministry. it'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 'd aggressors offer its facts into the world not without hiding it making it too expensive or blackmailing with it this is what they aggressively 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 it out of spaces for peaceful exploration that what they used to saw proposed to the world sit in the new trend in the direction the same with the vaccine we're

open to corporations we're ready to join production we're ready to 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 it as contrary to latin america continue to receive supplies of russia's sputnik vade some western media outlets appear to be drawing similarities between what they call the spread of the russian vaccine and the cold war more on the story later in the program. launched protests continue in spain over the arrest of catalan rapper pablo hersel who has been jailed for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism. the musician was arrested on tuesday at the university of the a.d.l.

where he and his supporters said barricaded themselves inside hundreds of public figures have spoken out in support of the artist while honesty international described his detention as next 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 28 house ella was convicted by a spanish cordova tweets calling the former king a quote mafia boss he also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and migrants herself fell foul of legislation covering spaniards his right to freedom of expression dubbed the gaggle by critics a court ruled spanish law prohibited such expressions although opinion probably was sells lawyer gives us his view on the matter. is that based. 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 amid 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. i campaign to boycott facebook is gaining momentum in australia that's off the tech giant blocks news posts in the country and response to a proposed law to make social networks pay publishes for news content the australian government has criticised the move. 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 'd 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 a way where those discussions go on we can find a pathway going forward yesterday's actions by phase work were unnecessary they were heavy handed they've generated a very strong reaction here in a strike. in addition to these 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 issue saying these accounts had been inadvertently impacted and on now being restored amnesty international what way did on the issue saying facebook's willingness to control information people rely on is extremely concerning the group says the move stood in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giants poor track record in handling

hateful content and this information. has also voiced support for australia and its spats with facebook the country is considering similar legislation and has said it would not be intimidated by the tech giant earlier you know neo con the thoughts of all 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. 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 grand plus benefits to write

a story when you can get to me on his you know no unfair if by 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 it 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 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 we actually have to make the grown up decisions. poorly organized expensive and safe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the country's quarantine hotels the facilities were opened this week the people arriving from coronavirus hans spots well under the new measures travelers returning from red listed countries have to quarantine in 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 adult shaadi adams dosti 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 a foot they have 2 bills and selves we've got you. know we've got a big 2000 on it when you come back rajiv. you. want to try to come along a bit. there are going to be a new rule how about for i don't know i don't know yet but this couple 100 a loan many thought it's been cancelled and a party dates change due to complications of the cave of 1000 pandemic and it's not just the financial burden that's weighing heavily in other rivals tell me the party policy was safer than isolating a home a plague take. home. the fire.

i mean a state like. being a feature bringing it. all again. 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 7 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. almost in so it's when scotland and joost managed or seen mr consul automatically once the 16th and that's. when the rest if.

you know can already have some along what you were going to england or if you were willing to get in the ring and ring haski because. it's just if you were it would be penalized for a moment you know you know we thought. we just. feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families as. evermore anxiety it's all right in testing times charge a great stash to our team u.k. london. still to come this hour as millions in the southern states of america are left without water or electricity amid a deadly winter storm the public and texans receive little sympathy on social media without my story and more after the break.

the global sell of markets approximately just under 2 trillion so certainly within a few months because it will be evolving over silver it's on its way in 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 show seemed wrong. but old rules just don't hold. any old belief yet to shape out just to become educated and engaged in equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. thank you we. thank you.

get. it's welcome back as countries in latin america continue to receive supplies of russia's wii from western media outlets are paid to be drawing similarities between what they call the spread of the russian vaccine and the cold war his artie's more advanced years with more. 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 bitter but acceptance. and is the facade.

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 he is among the countries among the many countries that today are making efforts to provide a way out and 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 allah people in the country attacked by imperial powers implicated country criminally kate the people who mock than derided spruit nick b.

they haven't changed their minds 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 to 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 interests that angry that the united states which has eluded a do over the americas north and south assuming 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 indeed and geopolitics you

know the americans have the assistance with food to africa and it has labels of us say things like that so 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 they 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 has been merely with poor nations or to put their faith in coup vacs they were told w.h.o. mechanism to provide the developing world with enough jobs to inoculate 20 percent of the population free of charge a levy in colombia even got on the shortlist and guess what or the single dose has yet been delivered but you don't see politico raising a fuss about kovacs being too good to be true.

a huge storm sweeping through the southern us 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 bust 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 felt to prepare for the storm the operator stated this significant significant progress has been made in restoring power well meanwhile people online took the opportunity to mock republican texans caught up in the storm kind of warping 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 recognized a jew 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's 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 the best bet is to grab the air 15 to shoot each snowflake 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 providers or 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 to you go out there and take a look and talk to people you have fringes on both but it's not nearly as 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 r.t. new york. many thanks for joining us our naughty and to national day of the get you can find plenty at most stories on our website dot com well that's all from me for today but jacqueline vega will be with you in 30 minutes with all the latest. birds do you.

know what the. machine side of the beach or. the lower street view or restroom. when you go to the movie way of go to. it. still has the soul of the. chief to. join me every thursday on the alex i'm i'm sure that i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. max geysers financial survival guide. housing bubble.

oh you mean there's a downside to artificially low mortgage rates don't get carried away that's cause report. this is boom bust the one business show you can't afford to miss in washington coming up the reddit fueled game stop stock saga is taking center stage in washington as the key players testify in front of congress want to bring you up to speed on what happened on capitol hill plus a facebook is restricting the sharing of news stories on the social media site in australia we'll tell you why and later saudi arabia is planning to ramp up oil output but how will the move affect prices in these turbulent times will welcome.