being. live is to. go to the. polls for middle east but i was a reasonable way. in the stories that shaped the week moscow warns that brussels is politicizing the fight against the pandemic and the kremlin hits back at controversial comments from the head of the european union casting doubt over russia's puppet vaccine. australians launch a campaign to boycott facebook after it bans music posts in the country the tech giant made the move over to make social networks pay for news content but the issue up for debate should facebook profit on someone else's work without giving them some look bigger problems facebook is that they're utterly controlling the narrative i think this whole social media i guess ecosystem has really gone out of control in terms of how it is monetizing. also this hour dozens dead and millions

left without power and water as authority struggled to cope with crippling winter storms in these towns in the west. and to black lives matter activists have reportedly been arrested for attacking a conservative journalist who was covering the rally. i feel that being conservative media is is now very visibly threatening to journalists america is descending into something that you know i would never have imagined truly experiencing in my lifetime. this is the week we hear on our 2 international welcome to our roundup of the top stories from the week just. brussels of politicizing the battle against coronavirus after chief ourself on the line the controversial comments question 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 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 progressing 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 19 vaccine 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 notice the senate this fact is that today we're not where we want to be in combating the virus we were late in granting authorization we were too old to mystic about mass production and maybe we also took for granted that the doses it 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 last year in the czech republic showing an appetite for the russian fraxinus as soon as russia became the 1st country globally to write that $1000.00 vaccine president 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 kovi 19th 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 pen masons in terms 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 to mind is something that moscow raised recently to 2 minutes you 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 drooled it is indeed high it's so high that he suppresses our production capacity and 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. russia 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 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 the us despite some states in the bloc voicing support for the shot as that use on an occupation program hits problems some of the european union's neighbors including montenegro and serbia have already started rolling out sputnik 3 arteries and on cross off to

discuss 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 is 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 the aggressor offer its facts into the world not without hiding it making it too expensive 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 rigid 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. yet i seek a greece. campaign to boycott facebook was launched in australia this week after the attack john walk news post in the country 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 gives us his take. australia's government is really coming to terms of 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 script restricting people in australia from viewing news content to or desire streaming you know it's better someone with an australian accent explained that this morning if you visit a news sciex under straley me aside 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 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. astray 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 happening 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 streams is the mark. of these. 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 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 cornered the market in the 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 had been inadvertently impacted amnesty international weighed in saying facebook's willingness to control information that people rely on is extremely concerning the group at the move start in stark contrast to what it calls the tech giants poor track record and handling it for content and disappear mation canada's back to australia in the 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 desks 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'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. deadly winter storm sweeping across the southern united states have taken the lies 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 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 you know you get.

very they split it. and that is the other imbra. gave you 2 to 2 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 canned coon during that this ouster 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 know 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 is all any of

the service owes you nothing it's pretty bad that you know it's texans you just can't we're told every other part of the country this would have been a huge issue any we've seen march for this action. so i see. 2 fold the bill over you got all the blankets out we try to all sleep together to keep us warm and then today when we got up there was no water we have no real update of when it's going to come on our phones bear we were all thought he's in texas struggled to get power grids up and running some were blaming frozen wind turbines for the disaster others however are lang the blame squarely on the local government's doorstep healed up and picks up the story. without electricity texas residents are resorting to some rather desperate measures in the hopes of staying warm they are firing up the grill and the generators and some of the even tried to use their cars to heat their homes resulting in several deaths and over 300 cases of carbon

monoxide poisoning people are dying from carbon monoxide poisoning we have had so many calls in so many incidents that we can't even track them all the major oil refineries of the state has shut down due to freezing weather that bright new future of green energy isn't working out so well in the present the wind turbines that accounted for almost a quarter of texas is energy last year have frozen to a standstill every source of power that the state of texas has has been compromised whether it be renewable power such as wind or solar but also as i mentioned today. access to coal generated power access to gas generator power also have been compromised alternative energy sources have been a key aspect of the democrats' push for ecofriendly policies a key plank of our build back better recovery plan is building a modern resilient climate infrastructure and clean energy future that will create

millions of good paid union jobs critics are blaming joe biden and the democrats saying 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 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 are seeing new york. still had 2 black lives matter as. davis had been arrested after attacking a conservative journalist at a demonstration of the victim's reaction in the 2nd half of the program.

the world is driven by dreamers shaped by one person with those words. dares thinks. we dare to ask. and.

welcome back to the weekly to black lives matter activists have reportedly been charged with harassment and attempted assault but it appears to show them attacking a conservative journalists who was covering the rally. bugs i go to bed early there is such a thing going on that these people are eager to get right with her progress are a good girl easy accords was a pleasure bar your bed truly she's a pushover you regarding the truth of her that's right. because it 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 had 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. was covering the rally when demonstrators identified her as a conservative reporter a journalist also claims nearby police ignored the calls for help one point a protester even appears to rob a used diaper in her face. 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 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. occurring. 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.

going out to the streets of barcelona and they want. to be released a lot 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 basic things 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 he also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and langar and a cell fell foul of legislation covering spaniards right 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. spanish over many. 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 for spain and so for them the case of capital has been wrong because it is a clear sign that this is not true or not this is one of the reasons why we want the independence not because we want to build a new a new contract with a more open and free loaders we want to know more 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. in the u.k. a new quarantine measures introduced this week might make people think twice before heading there and we're now requires travelers from 33 red list of countries to fork out 1750 pounds $2400.00 to quarantine for 10 days and specially designated hotels are tough penalties for anyone who flouts the rules fines of up to $10000.00 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 shoddy edwards daschle reports from outside one of the hotels. 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 it are our order i don't know i don't know yet but this couple what a loan 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 policy is no safer than isolating a home. buyer. i mean i like. being in the future i think. i want 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 currently measures on any international arrivals regardless of which country they arrive from even in exceptional circumstances we were to. us we know almost in. its went. all. automatically once the 16th and that's. what you would be if. you can already have. what you were going to england or if you were willing to. no. it's just if you will be penalized for a moment you know you know we owe it just like you know feeling like captives

thousands of arrivals have to wait before getting home to their families adding ever more anxiety it's already testing times sajad dashti r.t. k l m. that's been our breakdown of the week's biggest headline is for all the details on those stories and up to the met reports at our website r.t. dot com. oh 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 show your identification we should be very careful about official intelligence at that point obesity is too great trust every one of them shia. would like to take on various jobs and with artificial intelligence will summon the demons.

must protect its own existence was an excuse for. this. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race is on all fronts very dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. all. are.

welcome to all the parties don't trouble ones going fast that he was to be easy to play cards seriously and yes even to. defeat the 2nd failed impeachment he continues to be the joker in. politics blinking smartly is likely to determine the future of the republican then the democratic party's bulls and rugby ukridge by these untrue and clear so what's on the cars 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 pleasure to be with you now can i give you a card player by any chance. but really what do you play.