this hour's headlines story russia becomes the 1st country to approve. trade unions raise the alarm companies to bring in controversial. contracts for employees. we think given that so many people who are. not people should be. patient. u.s. president joe biden declares a major disaster in texas the state struggles to recover from unprecedented.

around the clock across the world this is r.t. from the team myself you know me and hello and welcome to the program. russian. trick of vaccines to tackle the coronavirus kovi fak is the new to be approved it was created by moscow's macof scientific center the job developers say it will also offer protection against new coronavirus variants my colleagues. talk through the news earlier. well called me back is the 3rd vaccine to be registered for distribution here in russia making the country the 1st to reach that benchmark it was developed by moscow to mock of center for immuno biological research and it can be stored between 2 to 8 degrees celsius that makes the vaccine easier to store

than others like the pfizer variant for example that needs to be stored at a colder temperature to prevent spoilage now called me that is also currently at the end of phase 2 testing and russia's prime minister is understandably looking to roll it out to the public soon. i want to start with some very good news a 3rd vaccine has been budgeted today was developed by the trauma corps research center the 1st 120000 doses will already be available to the public by the middle of march today russia is the only country that already has 3 vaccines for the corona virus. actually it was developed in the field the new shot uses dead corona virus which was originally taken from a patient at the common market hospital in moscow region one of the 1st hospitals that actually treated kovan patients here in russia the shock of such as general director said his team looked at around $400.00 different samples of the virus a common arca until they found the one suitable for cultivation for a vaccine as for the clinical trials stage 3 is set to begin in march while those

that have already been conducted or quite successful we haven't had any reports of any serious reactions to the new vaccine but. the preliminary results are very encouraging after the 2nd phase will see how the vaccine affects the immune system we found that 8587 percent of people develop onset bodies by day 28. and it's also important to note just how much experience the true mark of center has in vaccine production in the past it's created a whole line of vaccines for polio yellow fever tick borne diseases and rabies to name just a few and even exports tens of millions of doses of these vaccines to over $100.00 countries around the world that's an exchange for funding that goes into more research projects like involving vaccinations russia's vaccination campaign has been going on for awhile now how's it going over 2000000 people have already gotten the shot so far i mean that's not too many considering russia's population of nearly 150000000 people but the tempo is definitely picking up russia's prime

minister says that 4000 new vaccination points have opened around the country and over 10000000 new doses are currently in production and the good thing is that almost half of those numbers of vaccinated people are actually people over 60 years old we're talking about one of the high risk demographics back is russia's 3rd vaccine sputnik v an epi vaca rhona are already available in russia so now the goal is just mainly to get the public on board with the idea of getting this shot in the 1st place we will ever more european nations are in talks to receive sputnik the supplies italian business leaders told us the process could also improve moscow times. yes little i believe we can improve the russia e.u. relationship in terms of the battery rollout the supply of alternative taps is limited and it's fallen short of meeting both european and global demand it's no secret that italy germany and france have already turned to the russian government but they have to buy the russian vaccine i'm sure vaccines should not be held

hostage to jail politics. to be rude give to russia gave to the world well she could have used it as political leverage but it did not in fact we see that russia has great opportunities for inoculation for foreigners living in russia as well i personally go to not and feel grateful we see that russia is open to the distribution of its vaccine abroad not only is open to its export just like pfizer and astra zeneca but it also provides the opportunity to manufacture sputnik via abroad it's not new concept of cooperation with other nations in terms of economy and health care i think you can subsequently lead to the improvement of relations between russia the e.u. and the world. u.k. companies are considering a much criticized no job no job policy would make vaccination mandatory for employees in response trade unions are threatening legal action and i bust the government to intervene. we think the primary house the key compete will say things

and i say trade unions you know encouraging people to get back to what priority for workers to get back to the same time we think given this so many people who have even a job people should be victimized for having had that we think you know we want to put things in place we can't see that situation is just like. solve the problem of we need to make sure it's part of a range of thought that danny's you know we look in each workplace about how best we can implement things well some british firms have already warned they won't hire staff who refuse to have the job and other companies want existing employees to have vaccine passports the government dubbed such moves discriminatory but senior

ministers have previously said the final decision is quote up to business as well let's take a quick look on our other news wall here how the vaccination process is 20 developing in the u.k. more than 16000000 doses of been delivered nation wide but there's been a lower uptake among people from ethnic minority groups including those in the workforce from deprived areas in dalton again told us why some still have questions . i think most trade you not to be a very skeptical and i think this is what fuels people skepticism about you know whether they should get that or not so we think if it's possible to convince people of all the safety measures that need to be take well that we've got some of the stock the best way to convince people about the vaccine being safe is if you is it in the hands of the national group who made it seem public ownership only democratic control of audrey trade you know to be working class people that you

know that would reassure people rather than be in the hands. of the government. or lester attention on the program to the southern us where deadly storms have killed at least 47 people in the worst affected state texas millions are struggling to access clean water logged thousands of households have been left without power president biden has the 3rd a major disaster in the area a locking phones for those affected during the stream freeze energy usage has so work done power bills for many texans have skyrocketed some residents have racked up electricity costs of up to $10000.00 artie's killed and explains how the disaster has laid bare once more infrastructure problems in the country. in texas a snow storm and extreme weather conditions are leading to an avalanche of problems

in addition to the power going out the water pipes froze and then cracked open leaving millions without access to running water. not out here don't. hold those who still have water now being told it is not safe to drink or shower with this is starting to sound like 3rd world conditions it can't be happening in the usa right well actually it can u.s. infrastructure has been in decay for quite some time we've got some older houses some older apartment complexes that were built using p.v.c. 2030 years ago that is kind of a cold slap in the face if you want to call it that this is happening normally. you would go out to a place like this it's not a busted pipeline and they would get the water building run the fans you know to try and dry the place out but again in this case because they have so many calls

they're not able to do that this did not start in texas in 2014 you had the flint water crisis when the city in michigan switched from the detroit water system to getting its water supply from the flint river but lead in the aging pipes soon leaked into the water supply causing serious problems for locals it took 5 years for the complaints to be listened to and the locals problems to be addressed in explicable. and inexcusable families weren't notified things weren't shut down. that should happen anywhere president obama took a sip of flints filtered tap water assuring the people there that he cares i've got your back several months ago on the campaign trail we heard joe biden promise that nothing like the flint water crisis would ever happen again we're going to create local jobs to rebuild roads to modernize river structures sure he could turn on the faucet and clean water comes out and when that happened in flint will never happen

again anywhere in america now biden's only been in office for a few weeks however plenty of presidents in recent u.s. history have been promising to fix up the country's infrastructure only to preside over it getting worse i want to be 1st when it comes to infrastructure around the world because businesses are going to come where there is good infrastructure to move businesses to people move services highways bridges tunnels airports schools hospitals we're going to rebuild our infrastructure texas is suffering today flint suffered back in 2014 and many can recall how in 2012 manhattan's power station exploded during hurricane sandy causing all kinds of blackouts officials are scrambling to manage the situation in texas biden has declared a state of emergency but the underlying question is when will the promises be kept open r.t. new york. let's welcome live on to the program texas resident take us

out to a moss who's been hit with an 11 fellows and dollar elektra's bill amid the snowstorms a pretty extraordinary figure during a time when you need the absolute most why did you receive such a high bill. i wasn't that bad because i am with a company called grady who is a wholesale retailer for electricity and you know how say oh it's great when there is a stable market and it's a stable market because texas of course has their own you know ok they have their own system and so they were prepared for this they had no stop protections in there and said yeah i am pretty much paid $9.00 a kilowatt electricity but i was very conservative with my electricity so i have no idea exactly why this bill is so much that only going up what's your normal bill

usually. around this time is about 40 or 50 dollars well that's quite a rise isn't it can you afford the 11000 dollars will you pay it i absolutely cannot afford it i'm not exactly sure you know who can maybe i don't care probably. you know the stadium in course the high rises now are lit wow other people don't have electricity i'm pretty sure they can afford it but i i cannot believe on approach and i really am stuck and working and middle class families and i'm not sure if this is going to take a lot of people financially and you know other people in a similar situation to cuba. absolutely since i've come out with my story and been very vocal and i've gotten so many in boxes so much support from other people that i was still experiencing this and it's gotten to the point where some people have totally turned up their power because they can't of course i met cannot base just

can't afford it and you should not have to make a decision about whether or not to it's a basic it's a basic necessity for living basic utilities should not cost down especially in this weather we're just looking at pictures while you're speaking to us how else have the storms affected you where you are. we had. which we are taking care of and we also do not have water or. and we actually big a power outage but it was record prior pretty quickly. have you gotten much government help. government hard i've actually got to let them get it and the government help is clearly the other side of the spectrum for the people that did not have power and i'm just trying to bring to light this sad the fact that we will cherish the people that did have power which has $300.00 times more our the market

rate so that they can make a profit and so no i don't qualify for i don't qualify for any type of utility help so at this point if it comes down to that i have to do a go so you feel as if really you're in that group that's being forgotten the but not the most extreme hit but when you look at the bills that you're going to have to pay that's a sizable amount of people who are going to be in a lot of trouble. absolutely absolutely but i'm pretty sure about a 1000 of people that are in the same situation you know that i am but problems with price gouging shouldn't be allowed during this time when a pandemic. and of course this is a natural disaster for texas because they don't have the infrastructure and they're not ready and prepared for this type of thing but again why should the working class where the middle class have to pay for that. point of infrastructure does it

kill or does it raise alarm bells about perhaps wider infrastructure issues in the u.s. when something like this up ns. well you know. the problem then becomes to be deregulated because the government needs to step in there is no way this should be monopolized so that they can charge whatever it is that they want to everyone as far as the employer structure and preparing comment i've read because now am i willing to let it so after what i've read but had time they've known but they chose not to invest in it and so this is what happens is the perfect storm that you know has to spectrum and i'm not sure people are going to do actually when i read about your story 1st a kid i thought i had made a mistake i saw an extra 0 at the end of the bill but it's what you're talking

about $11000.00 just to finish up what should be done including by the government local federal in the aftermath of all of these storms what's happening in the southern us do you think. i had my. other car needs to be dismantled and i really think that we need to have it does not need to be privatized this goes along with kind of the u.s.p.s. situation everybody's mad at us yesterday want to privatized but when you privatized this is what happened you get to charge whatever it is that they want without any penalty well i really hope your issues do get results soon the situation at large there in texas as well with the weather thanks for coming on the program and sharing all your views with us today scott amos texas resident call help in that situation thank you so much for having me and allowing you to i share sure. so on the way our teams are nashville you can't go anywhere these days

without a must to me have all gone years of progress against plastic waste pretty incredible figures on this coming up a 90 seconds to stay with the program. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see that. is your media a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe.

isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being led. by. what is true. is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. for a mate in the shallowness. a moscow court house rejected an appeal by russian opposition figure alexina valmy against his sentence for parole violations earlier this month the kremlin critic was sentenced to a little under 3 years in jail reporting from outside the court or senior correspondent broadcasting. while the the judge did reject their legs he devised

these appeal to have the have the sentenced dismissed it did shorten the length if he sentence from 2 years and 8 months to 2 years and 6 months but elective on these defense made 2 major arguments one of them was that. after his alleged poisoning alexina volley. was recovering he was at a hospital he couldn't possibly have contacted these parole offices. made his whereabouts noon and the the judge neither the judge nor the prosecutors brought this argument they pointed out that over the past several years he has more than 50 parole violations any one of which was enough to land him with a very real jail time just to recap let's involved in his brother were given 3 sentences for their role in embezzling a company in russia out of millions of rubles hundreds and thousands of dollars.

he's brother was given. a jail sentence 3 and a half years alexina on that was given a suspended sentence followed by years of parole 6 years and all of parole and as we found out he had violated the terms of his parole more than 50 times and in this case. the judge and the prosecutor said look after you had been released from hospital in germany. traveling across the country giving interviews taking part in sports and duty once in months did you contact the authorities your parole officer to make your whereabouts note the other argument that election of ollie's defense used was that the european court of human rights had cooled his sentence this is jailed. has cooled phased immediate release how. russian law the russian constitution says that russian law domestic law and obligations trump international

law and obligations just as they do in the united states or even in china for example so the court does. circumstances under no circumstances obligated to release an election of on that this was have the 1st of 2 court appearances by him today before he's said to serve out his jail sentence the 2nd appearance 2nd called session being about a libel case brought against the legs in a volley over his insults and allegations accusations against the world war 2 veteran him calling the veteran a sellout for example that caused a lot of resident amongst russians but even there alexina on the was defiant refusing to apologize to the u.k. and those in london have been missing going down to their local touring locked on

maybe an look one for a bar manager has given a whole new meaning to the phrase or part basically started with me and i got to live it awful point and i thought i really want to make what hospitality is about people's dogs i don't want to receive a flat warm clingfilm pipe so i pull out like a fresh pipe to them so i came up with the idea pop to do basically a wife on appears and you're like what is this in europe in the park and you get your real top and type skeel with beautiful bear on top. george and his business partner thin obtain the necessary licenses and refitted that pub on wheels now delivers pints of beer glasses of percent and cocktails to those in lockdown or through social media remaining instagram and just my friends were missing the person we thought we needed something like this to come into. strictly a delivery scheme and not take away the business requires customers to prepay for

alcohol and the minimum order is 20 pounds the scheme is a growing success here in south east london but are you willing to pay 6 pounds for a pint at home. i substituted finally if you think about the amount of money that we've saved through not commuting in through not being at work tomorrow morning i would have spent daily just buying lunch from tesco on the takeaway do to be able to save that up and spend it on something i really enjoy like having a noise plan with my mates makes a difference the industry has been hard hit during the pandemic of the $40000.00 pubs are currently closed across the u.k. while 60 percent say they won't be able to reopen if the government seeks to outdoor service only later in the year and for many this might be the closest to a pub they might get for a while it's a bit like the pub why would you go buy a steak for $24.00 when you get one for 3 pound from aldi the idea is is that we bring a culture to this sense of war we bring everyone down from their bedrooms into the

kitchen to have a pint together so like a family going out to the pub the pipe is well it just tastes so delicious but it's on top as well with the prime minister announcing his roadmap to reopening on monday there might be clarity on when pubs themselves will be back in business but to put some worried that the whole culture and community might be gone for good this venture seems to prove that the public spirit is still hits the spots she has wanted andrew's arse u.k. love the. look turn but those london prices who know the marks use of disposable face masks made from plastic is being blamed for a significantly worsening the litter problem we all thought it just might dismayed environmentalists fear the pandemic may have reversed all the gains made in recent years in the fight against plastic waste the scale of the waste is staggering in the u.k. for instance more than $100000000.00 masks are discarded each week and off to cover

a football pitch hundreds of times over forms a significant part of the u.k.'s plastic litter which totals $1500.00 tonnes a mob the breakdown of such plastic ticks centuries while the global consumption of masks is just as alarming a recent study estimates 6000000000 are being produced daily to satisfy current demand environmentalist allison ogden utah and sees the overreliance on masks poses many risks. e.b. in general is very much a concern for us but masks in particular because of the elasticated. and also because the threat to public health that they represent as well as the fact that they are single use plastic items so they're not going to do anything in the natural world other them present a hazard take over 400 years to break down into micro plastics so masks are a particular concern for us and they're everywhere yet some hospitals are still complaining that the supply of masks are not meeting demand by global production of

face coverings increasing a jaw dropping 34229000 also not in use and again believes the short term benefit of mass will lead to long term problems i do think that we were making some real inroads into getting everyone to think about their consumption of single use plastic i think most people were trying to make an effort to reduce that consumption and then the pandemic came in gave us all something bigger to worry about and people really are are just desperately trying to protect themselves their families and their communities which we completely understand but unfortunately the short term solution of plastic p.-p. has really caused a much longer term problem we need a new strategy because this is going to be part of our lives for quite some time we need to think again and we need to re visit our concerns about plastic and look at reusable masks and make sure whatever happens we don't litter our p.p.

. to what's being labeled no modern day david and goliath battle a small village in northern france is resisting tech billionaire iran must plans to install one tenor there for his high speed satellite internet project starlike. she's electromagnets in feel like shit they were giving up a lot of questions for his artistic work which are already very offensive as. to whether our main preoccupation is tell us the health of our children i've always wanted to live in nature in the countryside so they'd be as far away from networks and everything as possible.

of course i don't want i want to fuse this project because there was a lack of information about its impact on human health but also animal house meant since we're in a very rural area with many farmers around us. i'm not sure we can use all different all bring any and all big developments your way again at the top of the hour live from moscow this is art international. if there's anything to fish in the last 40 years it was the fact that we had this transformational president with really grand aspirations that were broadly supported by the american people in the most populous present in this

country's recent history were matched by the appointments that were made in the administration but i think maybe with his background in business he might have underestimated the importance of personality but having worked in the white house in the executive branch of government so much rests on personnel . this is the one business show you care for them with a branch of or in washington coming up u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen is pitching the biden ministrations major stimulus measures.