in the day's headlines moscow accuses brussels of politicizing the fight against the pandemic as the problem hits back at controversial comments from e.u. chief are slope on the line casting doubt over russia's covered back seat. we discussed the e.u.'s ongoing criticism of switching to meet with russia's foreign ministry spokesman. talking aggressive expects into the world is not without its highs of the making it too expensive like meeting with it. and a campaign to boycott facebook gains momentum in australia after the attack china blocked his posts in the country something canberra has called an abuse of power but the issue of the debate. should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some of what the biggest problem with facebook is that they're utterly controlling that narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem is

really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. it watching art international coming to you live from the russian capital this and every hour welcome to the program. russia has accused brussels of politicizing the fight against the coronavirus after chief. made controversial comments and which she questioned moscow's motives to help the block with its vaccine rollout we are perplexed to hear assessments by the head of the u. executive as it is either 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 or slough on alliance comments come as the e.u. commission seeks to restore confidence in the blocks on vaccine rollout which has been marred by shortages. taylor joined my colleague mccarran in the studio with

the details. 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 the 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 and don't know the senate distractive today we're not where we want to be in combating the virus we were later granting authorization we were too old to mystic about 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 v we also heard in the czech republic showing an appetite for the russian frack scene 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 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 lines concerns have any

ground here i mean i understand this but think the 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 world 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 covert 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 nations 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 are 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 mond is something that moscow raised recently to nurture and yet we haven't had any reports about vaccine shortages anywhere domestic demand for this vaccine are still gathering momentum in moscow there's no deficits but we can see there's a huge demand for demand for the russian vaccine 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 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. who responds to vaughan to len's quite hostile comments but hit pretty throwing up political punch was more important than logic perhaps not surprising we obviously know the russian relations are going through a slightly bumpy potch moscow says it's for straighted by brussels consistently interfering and it's an ton and it looks like a 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 this is just the latest in a long line of critical remarks coming from the european union over sputnik v. that's despite some countries in the bloc voicing support for the job as the campaign struggles to get off the ground or to 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 is 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 aggressor 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 that outer space is for peaceful exploration that what they used to saw proposed to the world city new trend in the direction of 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. but 70

countries as countries as far away as latin america continue to receive supplies of russia's sputnik 3 some western media outlets appear to be drawing similarities between what they call the spread of the russian shop and cold war sphere of influence story later in the program. large protests continue in spain over the arrest of catalan rapper publisher cell has been jailed for slamming the crown and glorifying terrorism. musician a was arrested on tuesday at the university of nato where he and his supporters had barricaded themselves inside hundreds of public figures have spoken out in support of the artists while amnesty international 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 218 public hazel was convicted by a spanish court over tweets calling the former king a quote mafia boss that fell foul of legislation we're covering spaniards rights to freedom of expression dubbed the gag law by critics a court ruled spanish law prohibited such expressions of opinion public herself laura 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 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 in 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 after the tech giant blocked news posts in the country in response to a proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content estonian government has criticised the move. but i would just side 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 sots di di di di as some sort of 3 'd i was trying to react to that and i thought that was a. not a good move on their part of this morning so we'll see way where those discussions go and we can find a pathway going forward yesterday's actions by phase one who are on this is siri i would heavy handed they've generated a very strong reaction here in a strike. in addition to news posts facebook also blocked

a number of key australian government pages including health departments emergency services and trade unions the company later commented on the issue saying those accounts had been inadvertently impacted and are now being restored amnesty international weighed in on the issue saying facebook's willingness to control information people rely on is extremely concerning the group said the move stood in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giants of courtroom record and handling hateful content and this information canada has also voiced support for australia and its spat with facebook the country is considering similar legislation and has said it would not be intimidated by the tech giant earlier you know neil 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 of 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 of what 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 remember 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 will we actually have to make the grown up decisions. poorly organized expensive and unsafe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the country's quarantine hotels the facilities were opened this week for people arriving from coronavirus hotspots and of the new measures travelers returning from red listed countries have to quarantine in

a hotel for at least 10 days it cost $1750.00 pounds per person that's about $2400.00 and additional $650.00 pounds for a 2nd adult are to shoddy and when she 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 a big 2000 on it when you come back. you. want to try to come along to be. there i don't want to be a new rule how about i don't know i don't know yet but this couple and that alone

many flights being canceled and departure dates tang's 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. the 5. believe me state election. being a feature of the bringing it. all again. i want 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 consul 'd just automatically wants the 16th and that's. when the rest if. your community of the muslims you are going to england or if you are willing to get in the ring and ring haski because. it's just so if you will be penalized for a murder you know you know we're not. just. feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families as. ever more anxiety it's all right in testing times sharjah edwards dusting altering london. still ahead as millions in the southern states of america are left without water or

electricity amid a deadly winter storm republican texans receive little sympathy on social media story and more after this. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics all this list i'm sure i'll see you that.

welcome back as countries in latin america continue to receive supplies of russia's sputnik 3 some western media outlets appear to be drawing similarities between what they call the spread of the russian vaccine and the cold war here's our staff 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 britta but acceptance. 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 me 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 bluesy and then these on the money russia has extended to helping hand in solidarity to our 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 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 interests they're angry that the united states which has alluded 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 its hand 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 big 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 that the ones with pfizer 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 koufax they were told w.h.o. mechanism to provide the developing world with enough jobs to inoculate 20 percent the population free of charge but levy and columbia even go to 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 winter storm sweeping through the southern united states has killed at least 36 people in 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 millions of texans without access to clean running water have also been forced to stand in lines for food shops run low on supplies texas governor has blamed the power grid operator for the massive outages saying it failed to prepare for the storm the operator though has stated that significant progress has been

made and restoring power meanwhile people online took the opportunity to mock republican texans caught up in the storm kilmartin 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 will join courneya 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 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 during 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 to you go out there and take a look and talk to people you have fringes on both 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 mop and artsy new york. that's been our rundown of the day's top stories for this hour thanks for tuning in for you maybe.

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 fourthly if indeed the g.o.p. is now the party of the working class or the party leadership in phrase this new direction. folks next up on dennis miller plus one we'll talk to judd nelson now obviously you know judge from st elmo's the breakfast club my school called friend go with the young kevin costner too and now he's got

a film coming out on lifetime that were it sounds about the heaviest film that i've ever heard as i read the coverage i was based loosely i think you'd have to base it loosely on a real life horror story we'll talk to judge nelson about his new film coming up on the lifetime network right after that dennis miller plus one. hey folks welcome to dennis miller plus one when did i ever think when did i ever think i'd interviewed john bender need to wear a tie on the show what what his long strange trip it's been. like for a judge judge nelson best known for a lot of things i guess it was 1st on my radar and i think that might be the 1st cost or 2 event that i go it's you get you get in with watch it felt pretty groovy

film i think kevin reynolds might have directed that and he and their customers think friends for a fun time but it just trust me it's a cool sort of a roadie put your beats major done deal meets big joe pretty cool fell and then the breakfast club say no most fire hit out of the ballpark new jack city also earned a golden globe nomination for his role in the mini series billionaire boys club which is cool and judd's latest film and jesus reading about folks i know let him pick up bar i get press reading the one sheet out of life that are all in the basement for marrying on february 27th judge nelson how are you. i'm doing very well thank you for having me. listen i want to intermingle and talk a lot and we've had met just a couple sides of had laughs but i'm going to almost keep the project.