before a little. flame was for me to describe it was reasonable way. in the stories that shaped the week moscow 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 about russia's covert back seat. also this hour australians launched a campaign to boycott facebook after it bans news posts in the country the tech giants made the move over a proposed law to make social networks pay for news content we put the issue up for debate should facebook profit from someone else's work without giving them some look big is probably facebook groups but they're utterly going to get married and i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. plus dozens dead and millions left without power and

water as authority struggled to cope with crippling winter storms in the south of the us. and to black lives matter activists have been arrested for attacking a conservative journalist who was covering the rally. i feel that being conservative media is now very physically threatening to journalists america is descending into something that you know i would never have imagined to be experiencing in my life. welcome to the weekly here on our to international where we bring you our top stories from the past week. russia accuse brussels of politicizing the battle against coronavirus starts after ursula funder line the 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 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 progressing 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 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 if this is an attractive step today we're not where we want to be in combating the virus we were later drawn to authorize ation we were too old to mystic about mess 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 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 up a tight for the russian fact seen as soon as russia became the 1st country globally to write $1000.00 facts and 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 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 uteri and 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 washers and 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 to mind is something that moscow raised recently books in oxford and he just we haven't had any reports about vaccine shortages and us domestic demand for this vaccine are still gathering momentum as for demand for the russian vaccine drooled it is indeed high it's so high that he suppresses 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 here clearly throwing up political punch was more important than logic perhaps not surprising we obviously know the e.u. russia 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 factors 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 this marks just the latest in a long line of critical remarks from brussels over sputnik be a suspect some states in the bloc works in support for the shot as the e.u. zone occupation program hits problems some of the european union's neighbors including montenegro and serbia have already started rolling out sputnik v art isn't on discuss the issue with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. that'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 aggressors 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'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. a campaign to boycott facebook was launched in australia this week after the tech giant blocked news posts in australia or a proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content something that canberra called an abuse of power artist simon wright give us his take. australia's government is fully coming to terms with the fact that facebook has told it where to go and there's nothing you can do about it might use what happened 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 it so this morning if you visit a nice 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 is a good one that they pay to produce the stuff but 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 it is go on through twitter or google instead. 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 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. 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. 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 a 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 had been inadvertently impacted and the 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 giant's poor track record and handling hateful content and dissing from asian canada's back to australia and this 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 if i know real credentials in journalism typing out something and make more money on those clicks so the question is for democracy is what is the threshold where people deserve to

have real information and should they have to pay for it should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some look you can understand facebook's desire not to give in and start paying for news stories like google did once the box opens there's $200.00 other countries surely saying we want some to facebook but you do to their shareholders right if we start saying all right facebook will have to pay to feature news articles and news links what's stopping other forms of content from doing the same this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize and actually a i think more equitable if i can use that word solution to this would be to start talking about ways to break up the monopoly that facebook does have on advertising and also on user data basically the biggest problem with facebook is that they're utterly controlling that narrative and they're completely shutting out news that

doesn't obey the narrative miss and this goes for almost. every issue down the line that's of the importance today let's remember back in around 2007 i happen to be one of those lucky ones who interviewed this guy who started facebook he was a nobody was still on my space my space everywhere and he said that he wanted to create an ecosystem similar to a a well at the time if we all 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 we actually have to make the grown up decisions. that late winter storm

sweeping across the southern united states have taken the lives of at least $58.00 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 that's led to rolling blackouts and extensive damage to homes this is this is it here no use. thank you. both very days platy. and that is the other imbra oh it's again you food to the to rid of a pandemic right here for birds right. meanwhile texas senator ted cruz has come under fire after he flew to the mexican resort city of kin koon 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 one owes you will your family anything nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you trying times like this sink or swim it's your choice the city and county along with power provide any of the service owes you nothing it's pretty bad that texans just can't we're told every other part of the country this wouldn't but been a huge issue in the late weeks in march for this action. so i see. 2 fold the bill 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 bear we were. all 3 days in texas struggled

to get power grids up and running some were blaming frozen wind turbines for the disaster others have or are laying the blame squarely on the local governments doorstep often 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' 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. in a key aspect of the democrats' push for go friendly 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 pain 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 live shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america if 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. r.t. new york. still had 2 black lives matter activists have been arrested after attacking a conservative journalist at a demonstration i'll give you the exclusive victim's reaction and the 2nd half of the program.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy on sunday shouldn't let it be an arms race is on all sides very dramatic development only mostly i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. welcome back to the weekly to black lines matter activists have reportedly been charged with harassment and attempted assault footage appears to show them

attacking a conservative journalist who was covering their rally. i didn't badly there was some sort of going on that these people who are eager to get rid of her progress are who are these reports these are pleasurable you're very truly she's a pushover you regarding the truth of her yeah that's right you're carrying it around like that as you can see with what had happened to me it is very trying times initially when i saw they were harassing other journalists there and videographers and i went to stand with them as well and they they wanted everybody to be turning off their cameras with our 1st amendment rights which is freedom to the press and also being a public space i kept my camera on and i said now this is public space and i'm reporting the news so my camera will stay on and that's when they started attacking initially or being media and then the 2nd time they came around to attack me when they identified which media i was i feel that being conservative media is is now

very physically threatening to journalists. was covering the rally when demonstrators identified her as a conservative reporter a journalist also claims nearby police ignored her calls for help at one point a protester even appears to rob a news interface. and now in order for true peace to occur you need to have people to have that civil discourse it's not it's not true peace when the other side is boyce's are shut off and so is it may give us a start of unity or peace but it's act the detriment of you know $75.00 plus 1000000 americans who had voted and do support donald trump at the expense of basically shutting their voices out so that is not true unity when you're 6 taking out your opponent it's not a fair fight america is descending into something that you know i would never have imagined 3 experiencing in my lifetime i don't condone the violence that happened at the capitol i condemn them along with other republican conservatives because

because terrorism and and and destruction and what is going on that has no place in america and i do feel that we are seeing more attacks and violence actually occurring from the left onto the right we see censorship that's going on and it's not even really being. occur. poorly organized expensive and unsafe this is how some travelers returning to the u.k. have described the government's quarantine hotels are to be a red star she reports from outside one of the facilities. foreign travelers and brits returning home from 33 reckless countries and now forced isolated 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 confined to the 4 walls of a small hotel room they've also got to foot they have to bills and selves to go you . know what we've got to be 2000 on the. order. i don't know i

don't know yet but this couple 100 of the lone 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 party's policy is less safer than isolating at home the basic take home to. the fire. i mean a state like. being a feature i think it. will again. 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 7 has gone one step further by enforcing hotel corridor 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 seem like mr consul just automatically wants the 16th and that's. what you would be left if. your community of the muslims if you were going to england or if you were willing to get men and women haski because. it's just if you want me. to marry you know you know we. just want you all feeling like captives thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families outing ever more anxiety it's already testing times. r.t. you k. london. 95 year old tennessee resident friedrich carl berger

has been deported from the us for working at a german concentration camp during the 2nd world war. biggers removal demonstrates the department of justice is on its law enforcement partners commitment to ensuring that the united states is not a safe haven for those who have participated in nazi crimes against humanity and over human rights abuses berger worked as a guard at a concentration camp near humber despite being prosecuted in the us germany dropped the case of a lack of evidence the u.s. judge's decision was partly based on the fact he still receives a wartime service pension or has said he was forced to work at the camp and as described the ruling as ridiculous the new and concentration camp was set up in 1938 and operated until 1945 more than 100000 prisoners were held there mainly from the u.s.s.r. and poland almost half of whom died. they cannot bring in live after his or off to

rector of the simon wiesenthal center in jerusalem you're very welcome to the program and germany dropped the case against berger a year ago citing a lack of evidence what's your take on that decision ok 1st of all you have to understand the changes that were made in german press that you should see about 12 years ago the germans decided that anyone who wants to death you know that means a concentration camp was yet rattus the mass murder in other words yes chambers yes millions could be prosecuted based on a service along the rates until then so then he is not to prove that that person who made a specific crime against this specifically and he does so motivated by racial hatred but. in the case of evander a new york. service so he bought ex

a death camp so he could be crass cute intercessory to murder he was convicted and less that case was successful the german star he started looking for anyone with serves in the 6 death care to 6 classic their camps in other words auschwitz because it's a summary but i doubt if you know but it was later spanned it to other chaps actually written off which was slanted yes chamber what was that considered one of the classic death camps and this is been the policy but to keep it he served. or remember that it was actually started to disappear. knowing. that description which is probably why the germans and not opening up the prosecution against him. now the us court states that he willingly guarded the prisoners that he says otherwise i would trust the basis for his deportation what do you think of their decision to do that. i think they do in the race think anyone who assisted

nazi germany says that the forces there right and persecuting people who are categorized as enemies are the writers deserve to be trying to shift as you're mentioning earlier one of the main decisions of the nuremberg trial was that filing criminal orders should already be considered a crime so that's applicable here yes this is bigger political celeste's 75 years that only implementable this case it's a political course the boy. and germany of course is still paying his pension for wartime service how is that possible 1st of all that's not that's that accurate he with he did get a pension sort through his service in the war germany as a special pension to people who were wounded during world war 2 in other words in germany you know 2 pensions there's an old age pension their pension for people who want it now but unfortunately the german authorities then to distinguish between

people who are for example innocent civilians who might it will get it back or some other action ok and people who are certain that they're right and private person surely innocent civilians all those people who will be ok to prove that they will want good firstly if i can get their pension thank you for clarifying that point for us but there are lots of reports of pensions being paid even for s.s. veterans it's not something that should be investigated but that this is the same thing it's the same these people who are s.s. veterans that you have to understand in 1988 the blue star passed a law that anyone would violate the laws of humanity will have that pension cancelled they do the reason or said one together with the german minister social welfare to identify those people but there was a lack of cooperation in some in some of the german provinces.