in the headlines today in moscow warns brussels is politicizing the fight against the pandemic as the kremlin hits back i controversial comments from the head of the can you pass to get out of russia have a back seat. we discussed the e.u. the ongoing criticism of what may be with russia's foreign ministry spokesman. talking aggressive for its specs into the well not without hides it making it too expensive for blackmailing with it. and a campaign to boycott facebook gains momentum in australia after the tech giant blocked news posts in the country something he has called an abuse of power but they show up for debate should facebook profit on someone else's work without

giving them some look biggest problem facebook is that they're utterly controlling the narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. welcome to the program and happy friday to you all this is our to international bring you a live news update this hour. russia has accused brussels of politicizing the battle against coronavirus chief ourself on the line with controversial comments questioning 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 funder lyon's comments come as the e.u.

commission seeks to restore confidence in the blocs own back scene distribution which has been marred by shortages saskia taylor joined my colleague nic aaron 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 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 district is today we're not where we want to be in combating the virus we were late in granting authorization we were too old to mystical mess production and maybe we also took for granted the doses it 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 last year in the czech republic showing an appetite for the russian facts 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 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 niggas 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 with 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 tiff it 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 scene success washers and 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 nurture and you would 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 it 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 that russian relations are going through a slightly bumpy potch moscow says it's for straight to buy 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 marks just the latest in a long line of critical remarks from brussels over sputnik be despite some states in the bloc forcing support for the shot as the e.u.'s own occupation programme its problems are to. discuss the issue with the russian foreign ministry spokesperson. that's not that it's 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 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 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. a g. 7 summit has just begun this year it's being held online under the presidency of the u.k. prime minister boris johnson said in the bishop's agenda encouraging leaders to share back scenes talks with developing countries though with conditions we cannot cross live to are to charlotte devinsky for more on the charlotte what do we know about what's been said so far. well this is a virtual meeting of the g 7 taking place on friday and it will include some new faces jewboy did turning up for the 1st time as us president and it comes as some leaders including boris johnson and president mark could have been talking about setting aside some covert 19 vaccinations and. sending them to poor countries that

this is likely to be an issue that will see those leaders heads today and it comes as more information is being emerging about how the virus is ravaging poor countries. millions of doses immediately or billions and billions of euros it's about much more rapidly allocating 4 to 5 percent of the doses we have it won't change our vaccination campaigns but each country should set aside a small number of the doses it house to transfer tens of millions of them the u.k. would be looking at a figure significantly greater than that the government would be a global force for good in fighting the pandemic and like some countries the u.k. would not use the promise of vaccine supplies to other countries as short term diplomatic leverage but it was difficult to say at this stage when the sharing would happen. well this of course comes after accusations or some western nations have been affording the vaccines for themselves despite the fact that

european commission president for delaying back in 2020 said that they would be assistance for poor countries there's also been criticism of rich nations and how they dealing with the vaccine from organizations such as the international red cross and the u.n. secretary general is also talked about this week saying that the distribution of the vaccine has been wildly even and why they say he went on to say that of the 75 percent of jobs already given that we're in only 10 countries. progress on vaccinations has been widely an event and finance just scam countries ever administered it 75 percent of all coveted 19 vaccines meanwhile more than $130.00 countries not received a single gold. and those affected by conflict and insecurity and particular risk of being left behind. ok so who is going to step up to the plate

to that call well let's start with president he's one of the ones who made that call now so far francis said yes we want to donate these vaccines but it hasn't says to which countries and it hasn't said when it's also said it has the agreement of anglo merkel to do this but again more details on that what about the u.k. boris johnson also has supported the calls for sending vaccines to poor countries but it seems only seems and only when all adults in the u.k. of vaccinated so what about the united states well a washington spokesman for the boy did it when the street took a similar attack to the u.k. yes but not now not until all americans are vaccines for the moment it's cash only essentially putting america 1st something that perhaps you would be expected to hear from the trumpet administration and of course there are problems as you've

been hearing with the rollout of the vaccine here in europe with many countries struggling to get the doses that they need because of problems with ordering and problems with deliveries and it seems that these calls now aren't so much potentially about helping poor countries but realizing there is a political situation at hand russia and china have both been supplying poor countries for months now with coheed fact scenes doing so successfully that has got some leaders in a bit of a twist over an issue of soft power and vaccine diplomacy. it's paving the way for a war of influence over vaccines and you can see china and russia strategy to a global health issue becomes a political one certainly we've seen attempts by other countries china and russia to use vaccines. as a means of making progress diplomatically you know the president is engaged with

a range of leaders around the world conveying how he wants to return the united states to have a central seat on the world stage and we're working to do that through a range of actions but we are we watch those actions with concern. so interesting the west in the nations when they want to supply vaccines that's good but russia and china who've already been doing it that's potentially bad it seems that the g 7 leaders are now gone to the idea that if they don't start producing vaccines and sharing them with those poor countries then what they might lose is their room influence. are to charlotte devinsky thank you for bringing us that report. a campaign to boycott facebook's gaining momentum in australia after the tech giant watched news post in the country over a proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content and governments criticize facebook's move. i would decide if i said this is

a strike you are going to business here you work according to our rules but the idea of shutting down the sort of sots i did yesterday as some sort of threat '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 way where those discussions go and 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 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 these accounts have been inadvertently impacted and are now being restored amnesty international weighed in on the issue saying facebook's willingness to control information that people rely on is extremely concerning the group rather the move

stood in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giants of court track record and handling hateful content and this information came of those back to australia and it's passed the country is considering similar legislation to make facebook pay news publishers and says it will not be intimidated my colleague 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. 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 i know 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 remember to dial up a a well a 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 we actually have to make the grown up decisions. still have as millions and the southern states of america are left without water or electricity and a deadly winter storm republican texans receive little sympathy on social media details on that story and more after this. is your media a reflection of reality. in

a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation or community. are you going the right way or are you the next. guy but. what is true what's his face. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the death. or inmate in the shallows. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then.

welcome back the organizer expensive unsafe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the country's quarantine hotels the facilities were open this week for people arriving from coronavirus hotspots under the new measures travelers returning from red lists of countries have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days it costs $1750.00 pounds per person that's about $2400.00 out of the additional $650.00 pounds for a 2nd adult. star she reports from outside one of the facilities. foreign travelers and brits returning home from $33.00 breathless 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 are confined to the 4 walls of a small hotel room they've also got to foot they have to build themselves because. they want to know what we've got

a big 2000 on it when you come back. you. want to try to come along a bit. there are going 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 change due to complications of the cave in 1000 pandemic and it's not just the financial burden that's weighing heavily other rivals tell me the current policy is no safer than isolating a home a plague take. home. the 5. believe me state i like. being a feature bringing it. all again. i have no one. else 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 due to. us we know almost in so it's when scotland introduced moments or seen it was chancel 'd just automatically once the 16th and that's. when the rest if. you know can already have them along if you were going to england or if you were really good men and women haski because. it's just so if you were it would be penalized for them oh you know you know we're not. we just. feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to

their families as. evermore anxiety it's all right and testing time. r t u k m. a huge winter storm sweeping the southern u.s. 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 leaving millions of texans without access to clean running water locals have also been forced to stand in lines for food as shoppers shops run low on supplies the texas governor's blamed the power grid operator for the massive outages saying it failed to prepare for the storm the operator however insists that significant progress has been made and restoring power meanwhile people online took the opportunity to mock republican texans caught up in the storm that's explains 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 recognized. if this isn't payback i don't know what he is hey 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 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 and 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 mop and artsy new york. that's when your global news update for this hour but don't forget you can always how to our website are to dot com for the details on all those stories and many more. 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 with the party leadership in trace this in your direction. so small seems wrong roles just don't call. me that is yet to shape out disdain to come out ahead and engage in it because the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. we're more politicized than ever we're more polarized than ever the 21st century

when speed is measured in megabytes per 2nd. him electronic mail electronic money electronic media infinite possibilities for exchanging information i mean me and. freedom of speech and social media censorship and double standards who should judge what can be said online. the internet audience snow totals almost 4500000000 almost all of them are active social network users but one wrong move from the pages deleted digital annihilation don't exist anymore. not who runs the show on the web how can anyone stand up to the tech giants if he from the heads of state faced the threat of being is there any limits to hold. the. reason you.

knew was that i was reasonable. think a visionary shevardnadze and now you were out for a chance to do. what you go for it may sound like far fetched. but any story ality of that i'm joined today by a glass more or philosopher future is current events that are in press. out her life extension foundation. next more philosopher feature is to current embassador and president or addison opera lafe extension foundation max

it's really great tell you with us today welcome thank you so good to be here all right so let's topic look what amazes me and about career preservation is that it looks more like putting death on hot rather than simply freezing that body can you explain how it works. yeah that's actually good so description the basic idea is i want to be analogy if you go back to 960 and you were walking around with some people or and suddenly the overt start reading not so beating back then we were said there's nothing we could do today because we jump on and do. the relation bursting some resuscitate them so what we said is almost dead but in 960 by today's standards then not so in our view when your body gives us an adult declares we need to read it that's not the same to be biology be that it really means that given today's technology is medical techniques we don't know what else to do for you so what we say to some of the rest of us we go.