in the stories that shape 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 russia's covered back seat. also this hour a strong launch a campaign to boycott facebook after unveils a news post in the country the tech giant 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 on someone else's work without giving them some look biggest problem facebook is that they're utterly controlling the narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really spun out of control in terms of how it is monetize. dozens and millions without power and water as authorities

struggle to cope with the winter storms in the south of the u.s. . and to black lives matter activists have been arrested for attacking a conservative journalist who was covering their 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 she experienced in my life. watching the weekly here on our to a recap of the biggest stories from the past 7 days thanks for joining us. russia accused brussels of politicizing the battle against coronavirus starts after you chief on the line the controversial comments questioning moscow's motives and offering to help the block with its vaccine roll out. 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 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 and didn't know the senate this 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 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 a register for margins you sputnik see we also heard last year in the czech republic showing up a tight for the russian frack scene as soon as russia became the 1st country globally to write that $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 if it 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 washers and top 3 if you're a pen nations in terms of fascinations 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 which 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 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 that you russian relations are going through a slightly bumpy potch moscow says it's the straighted by brussels consistently interfering and it's in tons of files 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 undermine your country he's trying to offer a helping hand. this marks just the latest in a long line of critical remarks from brussels over sputnik v. that's despite some states in the box voicing support for the shot as that use on an occupation program has problems some of the european union's neighbors including montenegro and serbia have already started rolling out sputnik v our tears and on course i discussed the issue with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman that

this is 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 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 it outer space is for peaceful exploration did 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 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 delia. agrees. a campaign to boycott facebook was launched in australia this week that's after the tech giant blocks news posts in australia over a proposed law to make social networks pay publishers for news content something that canberra called an abuse of power are to simon right gave us his take. australia's government is fully coming to terms with the founder of 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 script restricting people in australia from viewing news content to or desire streaming you know it's better someone with an australian accent explained it so this morning if you visit a nice science 100 me aside by the social media platform you'll find there are no

posts you can't 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 but 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 what i believe but the future is private. this

whole news blackout thing i'm absolutely i mean who cares almost leave you've got a computer it is go on through twitter or google instead. or anti doggone. 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 who in. 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. prime minister they don't think they're big or they know it governments have little to no power over these companies anymore. treasury gets today's events to confirm for all the strains

is the mark. of the media digital giants these digital giants very very large. you know economy. and on the digital landscape well 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 'd 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 he's really calling 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 that later commented on the issue saying those counts have been inadvertently impacted amnesty international weighed in saying facebook's willingness to control information that people rely on is extremely concerning the group added the move stored in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giants poor track record and handling hateful content and disapprobation calendars back to australia in the spat country is considering similar legislation to make facebook page news publishers and says it will not be intimidated my colleague 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 going to disappear and 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.

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 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 that time if we all remembered dial up you know 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. 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 on 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 it's led to rolling blackouts and extensive damage to homes this is this is it here you know you. get.

very these flaky. and that is the other imbra. again you to go to rig 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 canned coom during the disaster he described the decision as a mistake when he returned the next day but that didn't are 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 the search term so i see. 2 fold 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 work. author already is in texas struggled to get power grids up and running some are blaming frozen wind turbines for the disaster others however are langue the blame squarely on the local government's doorstep killam up and 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 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. he 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 caleb r.t. new york. still ahead to black lives matter activists have been arrested after attacking a conservative journalist at a demonstration we have the victim's reaction after the short break.

world is driven by a dream shaped by phone person. who dares thinks. we dare to ask. this is really the beginning of the changing of the guard you know 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 peer you are there the relationship with russia and iran is there you know there are and there

is a ship all over africa is also there. to block lies matter activists have reportedly been charged with harassment and attempted assault footage appears to show them attacking a conservative journalist who was covering the rally. i do badly there were some i could see that now these are the. future rather ordinary drug in our food courtesy accords the pleasure of god your very truly she's a pushover you regarding the truth of her that's right critical because that is 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 just because now very physically threatening to journalists. tara and 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 used diaper and thinks. 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 voices are shut off and so is it may give up assad 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 taking out your opponent it's not a fair fight america is descending into something that you know i would never have imagined surely experiencing in my lifetime i don't condone the violence that happened at the capitol and i can 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 being. occur. 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 cow and rapper for slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism. going out to the streets of barcelona and they want. to be released are lots of teenagers. and mostly young people and not just in barcelona but also in others in catalonia especially a lay down where. in the end when he's in your city he basically barricaded himself they just look like the streets on fire and so the police are getting quite angry

because it's like the 1st process since many months in the barcelona because of. course back in 2018 pablo hazel was convicted by a spanish court over tweets calling the former king a mafia boss also accuse police of torturing and killing demonstrators and migrants a cell fell foul of legislation covering spaniels rights to freedom of expression the gag law by critics a court ruled that spandex law prohibited such expressions of opinion but a member of the cattle and national assembly told us suppressing free speech is inexcusable. spending go over many years including the fundamental rights artists have their right to free speech and create 3 creation croom government is they call themselves the most progressive government in the history for spain and so for them the case of problem has been brought to them because it

is a clear sign that this is not true or not this is one of the reasons why we only need to end this not because we want to build. a new contract with a more open and free loaders we want more open system not a system which. 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. meanwhile in the u.k. a new quarantine measures introduced this week might make travelers think twice before heading there the u.k. now requires travelers from 33 red listed countries to fork out 1750 pounds 20 $400.00 to quarantine for 10 days and specially designated hotels are 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 are to shadi i would start reports from outside one of the spill b's. foreign travelers and brits returning home from $33.00 red list 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 themselves because. they want to know what we've got a big 2000 on a par our order i don't know how i don't know yet but this couple not alone many flights being canceled and departure dates change due to complications of the cave a 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 a state like. that. 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.

automatically once the 16th and that's. what you would be if. your community of you were if you were going to england or if you were willing to get men and women house in. well. it's just if you wait. a moment you know you know we owe it to you just like 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 times to address sashing oxy you k. . as a recap of just some of the stories that helped shape the world these last 7 days as always thanks for tuning in.

the thing is anything in the last 4 years it was the fact there we had this transformational president with really grand aspirations that were broadly supported by the american people in the most populous present in the country's recent history were matched by the appointments that were made in the

administration i think maybe with his background in business he might have underestimated the importance of personality but having worked in the white house in the executive branch of government so much rests on personnel . it's been decades since the fall of spain's fascist regime but old wounds still haven't tailed. into the. bowl. in the us at the source mean that i wish that i think. of newborn babies were torn from their mothers and given away and forced adoption but only. to this day mothers still search for grown children.