in the stories this saves the week in moscow warns that brussels is politicizing the fight against the pound as the kremlin hits back at controversial comments like the head of the european union costing doubts over russia's top of its vaccine. and we discuss the e.u. is ongoing criticism of us but makes the world of russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman. how can aggressive open specs into the world not without hiding it making it too expensive blackmailing with it. also has nationwide protests in spain over the jailing of a consular laundering the crown on glorifying terrorism so no sign of easing off the 5 days. fraley and soldier campaigns of boycott facebook after it bans

news posts in the country the tech giant made the move over a proposed north to make social networks a place in news called said we put the issue of the debates. should profit from someone else's work without giving them some of what they do probably based programs but they're utterly thanks for wanting to marry i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. a warm welcome you know watching the weekly here on r.t. international can do a roundup of the stories the shapes the week along with all the latest world headlines it's great to have you with us. now russia accused brussels of politicizing the battle against coronavirus this week as of the e.u. chief ursula dandelion made controversial comments questioning moscow's motives and

offering to help the block with its vaccine rollout. we are perplexed to hear assessments by the head of the zak you 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 diplomacy 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. the fact is that today we're not where we want to be income betting the virus we were late in granting authorization we were too optimistic about mass production and maybe we also took for granted that the doses audit 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 a register for margins you sputnik v. we also heard austria in the czech republic showing up a type for the russian fraxinus as soon as russia became the 1st country globally to write that $1000.00 vaccine president putin 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

scientific community. 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 rushes in 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 in the us we haven't had any reports about vaccine shortages and us domestic demand for this vaccine is still gathering momentum as for demand for the russian vaccine abroad it is indeed highly it's so high that he suppresses our production capacity and that's

why we are actively working on quickly launching production of the russian vaccine in several foreign countries production in foreign countries will cover demand abroad while manufacturing inside the country will cover the domestic market so clearly that's the logical response to vonta lens quite hostile comments but hc pretty 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 and it looks like hey 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. the round marks just the latest in a long line of critical remarks from brussels over sputnik feel that despite some states in the blog voicing support for the shot as the e.u. is only inoculation program hits problems some of the european union's neighbors

including montenegro and serbia have already started rolling out sputnik the artes and trying to solve ski discuss the issue with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman that it's not that it's an experience our vaccine developments were denied by the west they said lots of different things that it does not exist it's bad and nobody should use it it was necessary to invent something very fast in order not to destroy the created myth that russia is an aggressor how can 'd the aggressor offer its facts into the world not without hiding it making it too expensive or blackmailing with it this is what they're 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 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. establishing a seeker. demonstrations 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 cancer lung wrapper for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism. right. right. catalonia has turned

into a bedrock of heavy clashes as topple over cell was arrested in his hometown of down choose day a number of shops in the catalan capital 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 barcelona and they want. to be released a lot of teenagers a protest think and mostly young people and not just in barcelona but also in others in catalonia especially a lay down where. in the end we continue basically barricaded himself and now he said that she just wanted the truth to come out and 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 the barcelona because of. course there was a woman who was injured there only 19 years old and she got basic like a bullet spawn in hair in her face. famous for protesting and demands a back. there in the rest of. might have just been and that he was actually also tired of all the restrictions. so they are using you know different excuses such as the iris of. basically also they want who you know our have a normal life again and go back to work. back in 2018 pavlova cell was convicted by a spanish court have a tweets calling for mcqueen juan carlos the 1st a mafia boss he also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and

migrants has cell phones foul of legislation covering spaniards his rights to freedom of expression and dubs the gag 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 sick or dying the fundamental rights are this their right to free speech and create 3 creation through government and. they call themselves the most progressive government in the history of the spain on saw for them the case of capital has been brought up because it is a clear sign that is not true not as one of the reasons why we only need it and it's not because we want to build a new a new on 3 with a more open and free loss we want no more open system no

system which accept. the killed. creation like the one i sell or others like. so of course we need this this change so we are fighting for this for a more free. 3. campaign to boycott facebook was launched in australia this week after the tech giant blogs news posts in australia as a proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content something that cumber a cold and abuse of power r.t.s. that simon writes digs deeper. 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 view washington news articles. we know it 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 the 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 in a 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 what i believe but 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. australian 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 a not for time 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 or 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 it's facebook this is what has happened. no mystifies book or i am it 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 time to meet facebook is on another social media platform. or murdoch just can't deal with google that will see his media outlets get paid for their content that's one australian who's really cool and the market brainwashing going you know what there is always. bigger and. 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 had been inadvertently impacted on the c international weighed in saying facebook's willingness to control information that people rely on is extremely concerning the group added the move stood in stark contrast to what it calls the

tech giants poor track record in handling hateful content and this information and canada has backed australia in its spot 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 the narrative and they're completely shutting out news that doesn't obey the narrative mis 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 eco system similar to a a well at the time if we all remembered dial up a oh well it closed circuit environment where all your dating your shopping your opinions and basically people who weren't able to have real friends in life could have thousands of friends make believe friends and call them their friends and you would never have to leave that world and it would do everything for you well that

dream has come true and now all of us are sitting in the middle of it going well wait a minute it's either all capitalism where anything goes and we can all charge for everything or it's part capitalism or it's something but we're at that time of growth now we actually have to make the grown up decisions. still to come millions of americans are left without electricity and heat sawzall thoreson the struggle to cope with a deadly winter storm sweeping the southern states of america last story on long after the break.

max times are. looking forward. this is what happens to pensions in britain you don't want to. watch guys report.

welcome back over to the u.k. where new quarantine measures introduced this week why make travelers think twice before heading there and you want a rising from a red listed country including u.k. nationals will now have to fork out $1700.00 pounds which is around $2400.00 to quarantine for 10 days in a specially designated hotel upon arrival passengers are escorted through the airports and taken by bus to their accommodation 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 the government defended their position saying it will help protect the country from the new strain or poorly organized expensive and on safe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the quarantine hotels artie's shoddy at woodstock 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 thought they have to build themselves because. they want to know what we're going to be a 2000 on about our i don't know i don't know yet but this couple what alone many flights being canceled and departure dates change due to complications of the cave at 19 pandemic and it's not just the financial burden that's weighing heavily other rivals tell me the current in policy is no safer than isolating a home. buyer.

i mean i like. being in the street. again. i don't want any. currently the government has almost 5000 rooms available across 16 airport hotels with another 58000 on standby but as has been throughout the entire pandemic scotland 7 has gone one step further by enforcing hotel currently measures on any international arrivals regardless of which country they arrive from even in exceptional circumstances we were to. us we know all this in so it's when scotland. managed. 'd automatically once the 16th and that's. what you would be if. your can already have. if you were going to england or if you were willing to.

eat. it's just if you will you know it's a remote you know you know we all just we're all feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families are to have a more anxiety it's already testing times charge at rates dusty r.t. k. london. deadly winter storm sweeping across the southern united states have taken the lives of 58 people and left millions of americans without electricity heat and clean water for days one of the worst has states texas has seen a record seasonal freeze with temperatures dropping as low as minus 18 degrees celsius for the 1st time in over 30 years it's led to rolling blackouts and extensive damage to homes so this is a very narrow way. to

. go where is this flow to. look at this bill and breaux oh gee i gave you 2 total regular person being here for the birds and. they were 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 that didn't avert the twitter storm there followed and he's not the only official in hot water a local mayor was forced to step down after his response to pleas for help from residents. no one owes 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 provide is all any other service owes

you nothing it's pretty bad that you know us texans you just can't be here for old every other part of the country this would have been a human issue in the late weeks in march for this action time i suppose i see. 2 folders on the open water you got all the blankets out would 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. well authorities in texas struggled to keep power grids up and running some were blaming frozen wind turbines full 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're firing up the grill on 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 go friendly policies a key plank of our bill 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 super. power but at home it's a lacking power quite literally all of this critics are symptoms of america in decline. archie new york. has a quick look at some other stories making headlines around the world now starting in the u.s. state of colorado now this terrifying sight is what passengers saw out of their windows after the engine on a united airlines flight to hawaii failed the cause of the problem is unknown the

boeing triple 7 made an emergency landing back at denver airport also no injuries were reported however parts of the engine fell out of the sky damaging the roofs of have houses and temporarily blocking some roads below. hundreds of restaurant owners have rallied in the city of bologna in northern italy to protest against the closure of their businesses following the tightening of coronavirus restrictions officials of that the measures are necessary to limit the spread of new virus strains. and some were still has given people the chance to watch a film with a furry friend pet owners could bring their own dogs people looking for a companion could take one of the shelter animals up for adoption more than 10 found homes as a result of the events. thanks for joining us here on r.t. international we're back in 30 minutes with more.

well the pandemic no certainly no borders and islam to nationalities. has emerged we caught up with the we don't look back seeing the whole world needs to be. judged. commentary classes. we can do better we should be. everyone is contributing way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges created with the response has been masked so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we're in it together.