blissful before a little. flame was for me to describe was a reasonable way. in the stories that shaped the week moscow warns that brussels is politicizing the fight against the pandemic as that from one pits back controversial comments from the head of the european union casting doubt on the russia's cove in fact. we discussed the e.u.'s ongoing criticism stephen agreed with russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman. talking aggressive vaccines to the well not without making it too expensive blackmailing with it. also this hour nationwide protests in spain over the jailing of a camel and a rapper for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism showed no signs of using after 5 days. and australians launch a campaign to boycott facebook after it bans the news in the country the tech giant

made the move over a proposed law to make social networks compete for news content and put the issue up for debate. should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some upgrade is a problem with facebook is that they're utterly controlling that narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetized. this is the weekly here on our team for national welcome to round up of the top stories from the week just gone russia accused brussels of politicizing the battle against coronavirus chief line 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 you exactly 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 we still wonder why russia is offering theoretically millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently progress in vaccinating the own people the russians 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 the struggle to get jobs and arms a struggle with the u.k. of a 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 did not the senate this fact is that today we're not where we want to be in come betting the virus we were late in granting authorization we were too old to mystic about mess production and maybe we also took for granted that the doses would actually arrive on time we must ask ourselves why and what lessons we can draw from it while one lesson that did come out was that the 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 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 francs in 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 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 covert 19 in full compliance with the principles of democracy and human tarion law inoculation and russia's voluntary and to date all interested citizens are provided with the vaccine without delay and free of charge without free accessibility is undeniably a seen success russia is in top 3 if you're a pen nations in terms of facts nations at last count 2200000 including many of our colleagues who described how smooth the process was and this discrepancy between internal and external demand is something that moscow raised recently books in which he just 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 of 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 kill the

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 hit pretty throwing up political punch was more important than logic perhaps not surprising we obviously know the e.u. russian relations are going through a slightly bumpy potch moscow says it's the straighted by brussels consistently interfering and it's an ton and it looks like a we might be seeing at 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 and a long line of critical remarks from brussels over sputnik the us want some states in the bloc forcing support for the shot as it is on an occupation programme hits problems some of the european union's neighbors including montenegro and serbia have already started rolling out sputnik 3 r.t. is uncrossed discuss the issue with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman and

others 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 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 are open to corporations we are ready to join production we have raided 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 the. 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 catalan rapper for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism. as you just saw catalonia has turned into a bedrock of heavy clashes as pablo has cell was arrested in his hometown of data

on tuesday a number of shops in the catalan capital barcelona also damaged and looted during the demonstrations local journalists have in the questions has been reporting on the events for us throughout the week. going out to the streets of barcelona they want. to be released a lot of teenagers a protest think mostly young people and not just in barcelona but also in other sneakiness in catalonia especially a lay down where. in the end he's university he basically barricaded himself and now he said that she 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 you know just the main square in there in barcelona and the police are getting quite angry because it's like the 1st process since many months in the barcelona

because of it of course there was a woman who was injured she's only 19 years old and she got basically like a bullet phone in hair in her face. famous for protesting and demand back. there in the iris of well 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 law as basically also a protest they want who you know have a normal life again go back to work back in 28. was convicted by a spanish court over tweets calling former king juan carlos the 1st in a mafia boss he also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and migrants. of legislation covering spaniards rights to freedom of expression dubbed the gag law by critics the court ruled that spanish law prohibited such expressions

of opinion but a member of the catalan national assembly told us suppressing free speech is inexcusable. sponged over many years it creating the fundamental rights artists have their right to free speech and free free creation through government is they call themselves the most progressive government in the history of for spain on so for them the case of capital has been wrong because is a clear sign that this is not true or not this is one of the reasons why we won the independence not because we want to build. a new country with a more open and free loaders we want to know more over the system no system which accept. the killed your 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. i campaign to boycott facebook was launched in australia this week that's after the tech giant blocked news posts in australia over a proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content something that canberra has called an abuse of power are to simon right 60 per. 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 my news will happen social media giant facebook has followed through on a separate restricting people in australia from viewing news content or desire streaming you know it's better someone with an australian accent explained that this morning if you visit a nice science 100 straley me aside by the social media platform you'll find there

are no posts you can view washington news articles. wiener 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 is 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 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 why i believe that the future this product. this

whole news blackout thing i'm absolutely i mean who cares honestly if you've got a computer it is go on through twitter or google instead. or auntie dot com slash news 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 bigger they know their governments have little to no power over these companies anymore australia's treasury gets today's events to confirm for all the strains 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 so foreign government and you will pay the media for its content. again 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 one australian he'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 those accounts have been inadvertently impacted and see international weighed in saying facebook's willingness to control information that people rely on is extremely concerning the group at the move stood in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giants poor track record and handling hateful content and this information. gathered us back to australia and its spats the country is considering similar legislation to make facebook pay news publishers and says it will not be intimidated my colleague you know neal got their thoughts of our guests on the

story. although i don't like facebook by any means i also don't blame them for trying to put a stop to what i think is a very bad policy that in the end well only end up hurting smaller independent and perhaps even dissident sources in favor of a larger more establishment media sources these news organizations are disappearing that's really what's at stake and they really don't have any choice because they're not generating the kind of revenues necessary to run these news this content of which facebook reliance on it we have seen a whole cloth disruption of paid you know professional journalists guys that spent 30 years cutting their teeth and there are a lot of jobs because who's going to pay him $80.00 grand plus benefits to write a story when you can get to me on his you know no unfair of by no real credentials in journalism typing out something and make more money on those clicks so the question is for democracy is what is the threshold where people deserve to

have real information and should they have to pay for it should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some look you can understand facebook's desire not to give in and start paying for news stories like google did once the box opens there's $200.00 other countries surely saying we want some to facebook 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 is 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 that time if we all remembered dial up ale well it closed circuit environment where all your dating your shopping your opinions and but 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. in the u.k.

new cornton measures introduced this week might make some people think twice before heading there the u.k. has blocked entry for travelers from 33 read a list of countries apart from british and irish nationals who will now have to fork out $1750.00 pounds on $2400.00 to quarantine for at least 10 days and a specially designated hotel upon arrival passengers are escorted through the airports then taken by bus to their accommodations u.k. government has brought in tough penalties for anyone who flouts 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 the saying it'll help protect the country from new strains and yet poorly organized expensive and unsafe that's how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the quarantine hotels are to shoddy edwards reports from outside one

of the facilities. foreign travelers and brits returning home from $33.00 redness 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 involved confined to the 4 walls of a small hotel room they've also got a thought they have to build and selves because. they want to know what we've got to be 2000 on about our i don't know i don't know yet but this couple has not 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 party policy is no safer than isolating at home. i mean i like. being in the future.

i think 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. almost in so it's when scotland. managed all. 'd automatically once the 16th and that's. what you would be if. your community as you were if you were going to england or if you were willing to

get men and women housekeeper. well. it's just if you wait. a minute you know you know we. just you know feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families i think ever more anxiety it's already testing time. with dusty oxy k. . 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 hit 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 as led to rolling blackouts and extensive damage to homes this is this is ready. to. go the way it is floating.

and look at it feel and grow oh gee again used to go to regular pay and be right here for the birds were toxics senator ted cruz has come under fire after he flew to the mexican resort city of ken kuhn during the disaster he described the decision as a mistake when he returned the next day but that didn't avert the twitter storm that followed and he's not the only official in hot water a local mayor was forced to step down after his harsh response to pleas for help from residents. no when i was you will 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 his or any other service owes you nothing it's pretty bad that you know it's texans you just can't

hear or hold every other part of the country this would have been a huge issue in the late weeks in march for this election. so i see. people to hold the rope over 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 we're. all thirty's in texas struggled to keep power grids up and running some were blaming frozen wind turbines for the disasters others however are laying the blame squarely on the local government's doorstep are often takes up the story. without electricity texas residents are resorting to some rather desperate measures in the hopes of staying with the war they're 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' energy last year have frozen to a standstill every source of power 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 they pushed climate friendly policies a bit too hard and branding the outcome catastrophic shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america in the last few days have proven anything it's 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 r.t. new york. lastly we turn to some other stories make. headlines around the world starting in the u.s. state of colorado this terrifying sight as what passengers saw out their windows after the engine on a united airlines flight to hawaii failed the cause of the problem is unknown a boeing triple 7 it made an emergency landing back at denver airport and no injuries were reported however parts of the engine fell out of the sky damaging the

roofs of houses and temporarily blocking some roads. hundreds of restaurant owners have rallied in the city of the long and northern italy to protest against the closure of their businesses following the tightening of crown of virus restrictions officials have said the measures are necessary to limit the spread of new virus strains. and a cinema in brazil has given people the chance to watch a film with a furry friend owners could bring their own dogs while people looking for a companion could take one of these shelter animals up for adoption and then 10 animals found homes as a result of the event. that's been our breakdown of the week's biggest headline news for all the details on those stories and up to the minute reports head to our website r.t. dot com. now look forward to talking to you all that technology should work for people. a robot

must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the 1st law your identification we should be very careful about official intelligence and the point obesity is too great to trust our government here. on the theory chopping with artificial intelligence will summon the demon. a robot must protect its own existence was. said this is really the beginning of the changing of the guard and now we're now handing the baton off to china as the number one economy in the 21st century the numbers are there the statistics are there the relationships in your. you are there

the relationship with the russia and iran is. there you know they're and their relationship all over africa is also there. welcome to worlds apart do cultural ones can fast if you was to be easy to play cards seriously and yet even to. defeat at the 2nd failed impeachment he continues to be the joker in american politics lincoln smartly is likely to determine the future of the republican then the democratic party's bulls and rugby ukridge by

these untruly player so what's on the cards for the next few years in american politics well to discuss that i'm now joined by michael johnson a co-founder of the tea party movement and a former speechwriter for president george h.w. bush mr jones it's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time and pleasure to be with you. i give you a card player by any chance. but really what they play. bridge and you know the joy of the games. i don't know if you are aware by these was the american the north american ag game of your current that is responsible for introducing the joker into the modern deck of cards. just in the same way as i think donald trump introduced this new style of politics worldwide and now that he's out of office do you think his game is over.