as for the next 30 years the victims say they still live with the consequences to. the stories their shapes their we must go warns that brussels is politicizing the fight against the pandemic as the kremlin hits back at controversial comments from the head of the european union casting doubt over russia's covert baxi. just because they use ongoing criticism of sputnik they were russia's foreign ministry spokesman. talking aggressive but expects him to the world not without hiding it making it too expensive for blackmailing with it. facebook returns to the negotiating table with all story we're following a bitter standoff between the company and cumber a over its ban on news posts in the country we put the issue up for debate. should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some look biggest

problem facebook is where they're utterly conformed with merit and 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 you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international bringing you a roundup of the stories that shapes the week long with all the latest world headlines great to have you with us. first of all russia accuser brussels us to sizing the battle against corona virus ourselves the e.u. chief us live on the line made controversial comments questioning moskos motives in offering to help the block with this vaccine rollout. we are perplexed to hear assessments by the head of the 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 we still wonder why russia is offering theoretically millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently progress in vaccinating the own people thrushes dismayed by the lack of to promo see but also the lack of humanity that the chief has recently shown again politics beats cooperation when it comes to the covert 1000 francs seen for the e.u. it really has been a struggle a struggle to get production off the ground a struggle to get jobs and arms a struggle with the u.k. 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 this fact is that 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 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 ease 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 rights to from urgency you sputnik see we also heard last year in the czech republic showing an appetite for the russian fraxinus as soon as russia became the 1st country globally to write that $1000.00 vaccine president clinton came out and said russians come fast that is and always will be our priority and this was something that was reiterated by the representatives in brussels representatives of the russian authorities if a community. business entities have repeatedly publicly stressed that vaccination of its own citizens constitutes an absolute priority for russia in its fight

against kovi 19th in full compliance with the principles of democracy and human a tarion law inoculation in russia is 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 isn't top 3 if you're a pin a chanson tums of vaccinations at last count 2200000 including many of our colleagues who described how smooth the process was and this discrepancy between internal and external demand is something that moscow raised recently which amounts to it we haven't had any reports about vaccine shortages and us domestic demand for this vaccine is still gathering momentum us for demand for the russian vaccine of 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 of brought while manufacturing inside the country will cover the domestic market so

clearly that's the logical response to vonda lens quite hostile comments but hc 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 the straight ahead by brussels consistently interfering and it's in tons of fries 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 undermine your country he's trying to offer a helping hand the role marks just the latest in a long line of critical remarks from brussels over sputnik the us despite some states in the blog voicing support for the salters the e.u. zone inoculation program hits problems r.t. sounds of course all the ski discuss the issue with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. but 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

lose 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 their gresson would do instead we offered it as a tool as a method maybe not as a panacea but one of the means of overcoming the crisis in some ways it can be compared to space of course the scale is different but when you read the guardian went on his flight and when he returned what did the soviet union do it denounced that outer space is for peaceful exploration that what they used to saw proposed to the world city new trend in the direction of the same with the vaccine we're open to corporations and we are ready to join production we are 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

stepping out i seek a. demonstration that have swept through spain for a 5th consecutive day with thousands taking to the streets across the country to protest against the jailing of a catalan rapper for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism. i. except. i think. a case.

of learning has turned into a bedrock of heavy clashes as pablo hersel was arrested in his home town of on tuesday a handful of protesters build barricades said bins on fire and 3 projectiles at police a number of shops in the catalan capsule barcelona were also damaged and looted during the demonstrations local journalist evelyn a kaczynski has been reporting on the events throughout the week. going out on the streets of mar so long and they want. to be released he basically was criticizing the spanish crowd and in his songs in his rap there are lots of teenagers a protest think mostly young people and not just in barcelona but also in others in catalonia especially a laid out where. in the end we continue basically barricaded himself and now he said that he just wanted the truth to come out and

he's very happy happy about it they just looked like the streets on fire and the plus a couple is the main square in the in barcelona and so the police are getting quite angry because it's like the 1st process since many months in. in barcelona because of. course there was a woman who was injured. only 19 years old and she got basically like a bullet in her in her face. famous or something and demand back. there in the iris of. well might have just been. used because it's been months since cut the lungs were protesting actually among whole grain like you said. and others other big. banks because people are actually also tired of all the restrictions. so they are using

you know different uses such as the iris of pablo basically also they want to you know have a normal life again go back to work back in 2800 cell was convicted by a spanish court over tweets calling for making juan carlos the 1st of the mafia boss he also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and migrants the cells all solid legislation covering spaniards his right to freedom of expression and up to the gant law by critics the court ruled that spanish law prohibited such expressions of opinion a member of the catalan national assembly told us suppressing free speech is inexcusable. the spanish government is present creating the fundamental rights artists have their right to free speech and free free creation croom government is they call themselves the most progressive

government in the history for spain also for them the case of problem has been problem because it is a clear sign that this is not true or not this is one of the reasons why we want independence not because we want to build a new a new contrary with a more open and free laws we want to know more open system no system which accept. the killed your creation like the one on her cell or others like. so of course we need this this change so we are fighting for this for a more free. 3. now to australia wes a spoke has returned to the negotiation table with the government after facing

a boycott campaign that followed the tech giant's controversial decision to block news posts in australia i proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content simon owen explains. australia's government is really coming to terms with the fact that facebook has told it where to go and there's nothing you can do about it might as well happen social media giant facebook has followed through on a script restricting people in australia from viewing news content or desire streaming you know it's better to someone with an australian accent explain that so this morning if you visit a news science and astronomy side by the social media platform you'll find there are no posts you can't view washington news articles. winner is australia could just be there wasn't any news that day so the australian government wants facebook to pay for content which is shared on its platform but made by other media organizations those media organizations make the point and it's

a good one that they pay to produce the stuff big tech like facebook benefits for free facebook gave a completely b.s. response that making it pay for that stuff would be penalizing him for taking content that it didn't take or ask for. which is a bit like finding a bag of cash on the floor and then saying well officer i didn't ask for it or take it from the bank so i thought i'd keep it finished and carry on yeah so about that carry on on the other hand media companies do start their own pages and upload their own content of their own accord and as mark zuckerberg says every time his company is accused of ruining life on this planet it's a private company so that's why i believe that the future is private. this whole news blackout thing i'm absolutely i mean who cares honestly if you've got a computer just go on through twitter or google instead. or auntie dot com. news australia

ministers are angry because they say facebook is among other things restricting access to health information during a pandemic. to which i say don't get your health information from facebook what's wrong with you it's an advertiser not dr quinn medicine woman. australia's prime minister seems so close to grasping the reality of what's happened here scott morrison said that facebook. thinks they're bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them i promise that they don't think they're big and they know their governments have little to no power over these companies anymore australia's treasury gets today's events to confirm for all australians is the immense market power. of the media digital giants these digital giants loom very very large. in our economy. and on the digital landscape.

exactly so be nice to them look. let's say this might cover is the australian government. why and if facebook this is what has happened. now mystifies book oh i am a democratically elected sobering government and you will pay the media for its content. ok let's not get carried away here i mean it's only facebook and the only people that use facebook now is your mom and her friends but the bigger issue is what happens when big tech decides to get together and define governments i mean even the protest about this week facebook is on another social media platform was looking for a historical parallel here or might go to the opium wars back in the 19th century where britain got a hold of china addicted to opium basically so it could bribe the government well this time around more than governments are facing the fact that these social media giants are untouchable up in the cloud and they might be more important to the

voters than the government again the way of them. or murdoch just can't deal with google that will see his media outlets get paid for their content one australian he's really cool and the mark in the brainwashing going you know what there is always. bigger and. in addition to news posts facebook also blocks a number of key australian government pages including health departments emergency services and trade unions the company later commented on the issue saying these accounts have been added vertically impacted on the stands national weighed in saying facebook's willingness to control information that people rely on is extremely concerning the group added at the move stood in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giant's poor track record in handling hateful content and disinter nation and canada as a back to australia in it spat the country is considering similar legislation to

make facebook page 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 this content of which facebook reliance on it we have seen a whole cloth disruption of paid you know professional journalists guys that spent 30 years cutting their teeth and there are a lot of jobs because who's going to pay him $80.00 grand plus benefits to write a story when you can get to me on his you know no unfair

a fight no real credentials in journalism typing out something and make more money on those clicks so the question is for democracy is what is the threshold where people deserve to have real information and should they have to pay for it should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some look you can understand facebook's desire not to give in and start paying for news stories like google did once the box opens there's $200.00 other countries surely saying we want some to facebook but you do to their shareholders right if we start saying all right facebook will have to pay to feature news articles and news links what's stopping other forms of content from doing the same this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize and actually a i think more equitable if i can use that word solution to this would be to start talking about ways to break up the monopoly that facebook does have on advertising and also on user data basically the biggest problem with facebook is that they're

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

growth now will we actually have to make the grown up decisions. i mean one of the u.k. new currency measures introduced this week might make travelers think twice before heading there and they want to rising from a red list of country including u.k. nationals will now have to fork out $1750.00 pounds as of on $2400.00 to quarantine the tom days and especially designated hotel upon arrival as our school at it through the airport then taken by bus to that accommodation at the country's busiest time has expressed a deep concerns about the policy we have been working hard with the government to try to ensure the successful implementation of the poll is supreme monday but some significant gaps remain ministers must ensure the risk adequate resorts in the brute group grow to go some place for each step of the full and to end produce a strong hotel to avoid compromising the safety of passengers and those working at

the airport. the u.k. government has brought in tough penalties for anyone who flout the rules with fines of up 210000 pounds for those failing to quarantine and a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for people who lie about where they've come from so big changes the traveller's big challenges for those who man the frontiers to what extent a border for is going to be chicken to be sure people have been noticed we're hearing a lot of concern from people who are concerned about encountering someone who has been in the red list country and hasn't declared it could deface abuse are they expected to detain them poorly organized expensive and unsafe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the country's quarantine hotels artie's the shoddy at woodstock the reports from outside one of the facilities 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 are confined to the 4 walls of a small hotel room they've also got a foot they have to build themselves because you. know what we've got to be on the bar when you come back. you know. we want to try to come along a bit but right now there i don't want to be a new rule how about i don't know i don't know yet but this couple to loan money through it's been cancelled and departed dates changed 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 a. 5 year. old. believe

me state i like. being a feature bringing it. all again. i watch one. currently the government has almost 5000 rooms available across 16 airport hotels with another 58000 on standby but as has been throughout the entire pandemic scotland has gone one step further by enforcing hotel currently measures on any international arrivals regardless of which country they arrive from even in exceptional circumstances we were. on the scene in. it's when school were not used managed or seen mr consul 'd just automatically once the 16th and that's. when the rest

if. you know can already have some of them were if you were going to england or if you were living in the rain and rain haski because. it's just if you will be penalized for a remote you know you know we're not. just. feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families as. everywhere you go it's. hotels who has a travel consultancy. believes that quarantining in hotels is a risk policy and it is the world health organization said the other day that some of these variants are on the wane which means maybe they are now being managed more effectively but before we get the data we don't know for certain what i do think is that hotel current team is still very high risk is a policy it prevents people coming into the country who might have to come in and

they're put off from coming in so it doesn't help the economy recover secondly it's high risk because as we've seen in australia or new zealand there are some hotels where the us has been transmitted from one of the guests through to a security worker or catering work and work enough hotel is then taken it back and transmitted it within their own communities it would be much better for effective testing to be done at the borders on arrival and then anyone these positive is taken in school to their own home where they could quarantine in on their own in their own self isolate that and if that was inforced properly i think that would be far more effective than hotel quarantine a. deadly winter storm sweeping across the southern united states have taken the lives of 58 people and left millions of americans without electricity and clean water for days texas is say the record sees no freeze with temperatures dropping as

low as minus 80 degrees celsius for the 1st time in 30 years is led to rolling blackouts and the extensive damage to homes. this is this is a very. very this floaty. and look at it the other imbra oh it just gave you a regular pandemic right here for bird. meanwhile texas senator ted cruz has come under fire after he flew to the mexican resort city of cancun during the disaster he described the decision as a mistake when he returns the next day but didn't of that the twitter storm that that but that didn't of that the twist on the follows and he's not the only official in hot water a local mayor was forced to step down last at his response to pleas for help from

residents know when i was you or your family anything nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you joining trying times like this sink or swim it's your choice the city and county along with power providers or any other service owes you nothing it's pretty bad that you know us texans just came here for a whole other part of the country this would have been an issue in the lake we've seen mark for action. like she. told with all the water you got all the blankets out we try to all sleep together to keep us warm and then today when we got up there was no water we have no real update of when it's going to come on our phones barely work. all of our teams in texas struggled to keep power grids up and running some were blaming frozen wind turbines for the disaster others however are laying the blame squarely on the local government's doorstep caleb maupin takes up the story. without electricity texas residents are resorting

to some rather desperate measures in the hopes of staying warm they are firing up the grill and the generators and some of the even tried to use their cars to heat their homes resulting in several deaths and over 300 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning people are dying from carbon monoxide poisoning we have had so many calls in so many incidents that we can't even track them all the major oil refineries of the state has shut down due to freezing weather that bright new future of green energy isn't working out so well in the present the wind turbines that accounted for almost a quarter of texas is energy last year have frozen to a standstill every source of power that the state of texas has has been compromised whether it be renewable power such as wind or solar but also as i mentioned today. access to coal generated power access to gas generator power also have been

compromised alternative energy sources have been a key aspect of the democrats' push for ecofriendly policies a key plank of our build back better recovery plan is building a modern resilient climate infrastructure and clean energy future that will create millions of good paid union jobs critics are blaming joe biden and the democrats saying that they pushed climate friendly policies a bit too hard and branding the outcome catastrophic live shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america in the last few days if proven and the thing that we need oil and gas relying solely on renewable energy would be catastrophic many of these sources have proven to be unreliable the united states may be a global superpower but at home it's a lacking power quite literally all of this critics say are symptoms of america in decline caleb are seeing new york. for

a quick look at some other stories in. headlines around the world starting in the u.s. city of broomfield in colorado parts of a passenger jet engine have rained down on the area damaging the roofs of houses and temporarily blocking some roads a day bre had come from a united airlines plane that reported an engine failure shortly after taking off from denver and this is what it is on that plane saw during their flight because of the engine trouble is known the boeing triple 7 had been heading for hawaii but returned to make an emergency landing back at denver airport no injuries were reported. and in another us 3 people in new orleans have been killed in a gun store shooting near the city's airport that's according to local police the sheriff said the suspect opened fire in the shop killing 2 people the suspect was then said to have been engaged by others and shot dead local media reported the incident was.