so join us of the. forum in the shallows. hundreds of millions of euros a controversial foreign consultants prism across government comes under heavy fire for its vaccine distribution campaign. microstates summary no turns to rush's covert shot of the e.u. approved vaccines have failed to arrive. and the declassified u.s. intelligence report claims that the saudi crown prince himself approved the murder of journalist. in 28 in what may become a game changer for u.s. saudi relations under president biden.

a.t.m. here are international the weekend good morning than live from moscow this saturday is kevin owen here for the next 30 minutes with the latest from our new stage q for you. french m.p.'s are demanding answers why foreign consultants including a firm with deep ties to president mccrone picking up huge contracts for a covert delivery campaign suffering delays and failure is a shell of who burned school reports 1st this morning. as the vaccine rollout in france gains ground questions being asked about the role of private companies and consulting firms involved they said to be playing a major role in the strategy which to many has been a major disaster several companies were hired by the french government between them they have signed contracts worth millions and millions of euros the lion's share went to american food and the kings see the lucrative contracts signed with mckinsey and not initially disclosed to the public was supposed to help ensure vaccine doses could be transported across france work you might think is perfectly

suited to france's loss network of civil servants so the fact that it's been contracted out to us firm is that many with a bitter taste in their mouths. in government as in our hospitals consulting firm serve policing public administration at astronomical cost why such contempt for civil servants what an admission of ineffective nisson helplessness and our whole state apparatus what is it for absolutely amazing what is mckinsey doing there we have a ministry of health a ministry of the interior and a ministry of defense that know how to manage crises if we know how to mobilize them this is decay of the state. mckinsey appears to be a particularly poisoned chalice the firm recently agreed to pay more than half a $1000000000.00 to settle lawsuits brought by u.s. states it was accused of fueling the opioid epidemic for its work boosting the

sales of oxycontin a painkiller not a squeaky clean reputation for a firm helping the vaccine roll out. it's a big scam yes for me it's a scam i don't have much to say personally but it's a scam and i'm not really surprised after all it's the government so it is bizarre it's not spoken about in the newspapers here you've spoken about it and we don't talk about it on television or in the newspapers the things that are said in our country it can mean nothing but in another country it's a scandal what can we do here in front of you know government toying consultancy firms. uncommon these days but what has surprised me is just how quickly this appears to be accelerating my calls government to sign some 575 contracts with consultancy firm since october 28th covering everything from

economic recovery to. public sector accounts of big business. for around 10 percent of their overall profits so how do people feel. especially since there was a call for tenders all of that was it for french firms to will not because i don't understand why would it be a group that would benefit from these funds that's the story you just told me something actually i trust the government listen listen. i think these are things to deserve to be thought about we do need a private company to think about how we do transportation we still have the french railways air france on getting business. i think we could use the more wisely more courage to do more for france 1st you don't for example he doesn't give enough to france we give the impression that micron is no longer the president he does nothing in french government has played down the role played by groups like

mckinsey probably what really got people angry here is just how close the consultancy firms like mckinsey are to president macro and with toys going back many years and with such sons lining the pockets of a private american consultancy firm at the same time when the economy here has been laid low by the pandemic many are now asking questions so much even ski r t s. a d classified u.s. intelligence reports directly implicated the saudi crown prince over the brutal murder of journalist from arkansas june 28th it was tipped to set the tone and for the by administration ties with a traditionally strategic partner however secretary of state under the blanket insists warm relations with the kingdom and weapons will carry on. i would say the relationship with with saudi arabia is an important one we have significant ongoing

interests we remain committed to the defense of the kingdom. but we also want to make sure and this is what the president said from the outset that the relationship better reflects our interests and our values and so what we've done by the actions that we've taken. is really not to rupture the relationship but to recalibrate well we now have made public the report from the u.s. intelligence office about the killing of jamal khashoggi the conclusion of this highly redacted report is that the killing was personally approved by the crown prince that he approved some kind of plan to kill or capture jamal khashoggi at the time of the. the crown prince probably and environments in which aides were afraid the failure to complete assigned tasks might result in him firing arresting them 1st suggests that the aides were unlikely to question mahmoud bin soman soldiers or

undertake sensitive actions without his consent now the report cites the control over decision making in the kingdom held by the crown prince as well as the fact that someone from his personal security detail was involved in the killing now there is no concrete evidence in the report it simply says that based on their assessment of the situation in these details it's highly likely that the assassination was approved and now it's important to note that this report was released after a phone call between joe biden the king of saudi arabia took place and now in the aftermath of the report we have 76 individuals who have been banned from traveling to the united states they have been blocked from getting visas by the u.s. state department because they were accused of being involved in this plot furthermore the us department of treasury has imposed sanctions on 17 individuals also believe. to be associated with the killing now the white house under joe biden

has certainly shifted its tone compared to how the trial of ministration dealt with the issue of saudi arabia this killing and other things take a listen to the president's intention as is the intention of this government is to . to recalibrate are engaged with saudi arabia and to have counterparts communicate with counterparts of course this is a crime as i said before shock the conscience i expects. we will be in a position. before long to speak to steps to promote accountability going forward for this horrific crime now at 1st the kingdom of saudi arabia denied involvement but later we had the crown prince coming forward and taking responsibility for the killing certainly interesting to see how the position of the different saudi officials have evolved over time.

now the killing of jamal khashoggi in the very brutal way in which it was carried out certainly shocked the world and many look at this and say this could be a point that is remembered by historians as a rather negative turning point in the relationship between the united states and it's a longtime ally the kingdom of saudi arabia. well that riyadh rejected the u.s. claims branding them inaccurate and unacceptable president biden's announce that he will outline quote significant changes to u.s. so relations on monday but offer an antiwar eye to nicholas davis told us in his view the kingdom will stay integral to american power in the middle east really

a lot of the headlines from their reporting around the world. noach primarily air is no replication snow punishment no sanctions for in selman and you know this this really seems to replicate in many cases in which americans are charged with war crimes saudi arabia sense billions tens of billions a year on on us weapons are as a proxy for the u.s. in that region are closely aligned with israel the us has the fostering closer relations between all the gulf shaped dems and yes rail to essentially. you know support the us empire and now part of the world.

some arena has become vaccinator with russia sputnik very covert vaccine after deliveries of e.u. approved alternatives failed to arrive microstate surrounded by italy isn't an e.u. member so was excluded from blocked deals with pharmaceutical giant overshot supplies it had negotiated getting a tiny part of each delivery for italy but i'm saying they're the face of delays the medical director of summer in a state hospital told us there were no doubts about russian vaccine quality. we chose the sputnik vaccine because there was an agreement between us and italy through the european union for the supply of madonna and pfizer vaccines that unfortunately are delayed at the moment therefore given the excellent diplomatic relations with russia we have chosen to get the sputnik the vaccine faster we saw some excellent reviews from renowned international medical journals like the land set or the spawn sanny in rome that have already tested the quality of this book seen well officials say the russian made doses can of. some 15 percent of its

population of $34000.00 radios labor minister told us they made the choice. the 1st recipients of the vaccine were employees or were a public hospital we are pleased because we were able to negotiate very quickly with the russian national welfare fund which supplies the vaccines would be started cision i'm positive assessments of the by the international medical community the government has carefully studied these views and has decided to purchase this particular vaccine we have excellent relations with the european union but despite that we're not in a position to draw conclusions about why the u. has so far not allowed the use of sputnik for our part we have complete confidence in the russian vaccine otherwise we would have chosen something else we can see that technical administrative and bureaucratic decisions taken with regard to the production and distribution of certain products significantly slow down the approval process in different countries and this makes us think it's necessary to

speed up these processes due to urgent circumstances in europe who simply did not have a vaccine and we had to make a decision. you're following on from what you heard meantime the european medicines agency is still failed to approve sputnik the although the job has been rolled out in hungary and other states we spoke to one top austrian virologist about how the scientific community is responding to russia's development. well this is i think that the lancet publication shows that sputnik the is a high quality vaccine we have promising data at 91 percent effectiveness which is high demonstrates this this is a vector based vaccine which means it is injected using a virus into our immune system to form immunity the difference between the other vector vaccine since sputnik v. is that it uses 2 different viral vectors and this is important as in some cases the immune system can create antibodies to the vector making the 2nd jab less

effective whilst the has 2 different safe viruses it makes the vaccine more effective. b.b.c. is pumping extra cash to produce far more homegrown cartoons from now on and the slash dependence on american hits like the simpsons the world has certain extremely ambitious target than of 90 percent that would be british in just the latest salvo of a very adult battle for children's minds show there is daschle reports. let's face it cartoons shaped all of our childhood the simpsons tom and jerry rug rats the looney tunes you name it with full respect far too many hours glued to the t.v. . am. actually doomed according to the director of the b.b.c.'s children's department too many cartoons washed here in britain all while not british but i think we can do

set our characters in the british setting or at least european when i'm talking now i'm saying what about roast beef instead of turkey we should be thinking about these things children grow up with these cultures why not infuse more of our culture to drive us to develop homegrown animation series aimed at young says a 7 to 12 but should children be told what to watch in favor of promoting british culture or should kids be left to be kids just kind of shift focus i don't think the british people lack identity because they don't have any call to speak like that and just running around london right they can step outside in a strange place and still chat that they need to be understand which coaching isn't have that reach it for a young age sometimes kids like to hear something that so many are told to them at school where it's time to see that if it really makes any difference it's good to keep it to them to see the cultures but i don't think it's very depends on what the country comes around they can watch it every couple of it's a pretty fair american experience obviously as broad as possible is going to be the

best answer to anything the b.b.c. is even toying with the idea of recreating british versions of the world's most popular cartoons imagine if we could have a version of the seams as for children and families in the u.k. it would be amazing. but is that even possible it's come up with new things i think i'm kind of the age of remakes deceived on a lot and i cannot. i quite like new stuff and there's new story to tell and i think we've been through enough this year to know there's new stories that could probably come up but i would say that yeah would be great to see that like medium come to the u.k. and be more like british and that type of humor i don't know if that would go abroad do you see it seems. pretty well maybe the b.b.c. is on to something here after all there's been huge successes like peppa pig in fact it was so popular that kids across the atlantic were hit with the pepper effect and began imitating british accents it's not the 1st time that foreign

cartoons have come under fire a few years ago critics lashed out at a russian cartoon musher in the bag accusing it of having a more sinister side and being wait for it a propaganda tool 7. what it really is something here the cartoons are really used to indoctrinate children's minds and promote interest early start the better i guess. phrase doing the rounds in the white house once again joe biden's revived critical race theory a concept which aims to highlight and address racism and inequality in u.s. institutions but former president donald trump has described that as racist and toxic propaganda banded indeed with an executive order which some communities agree with critical race theory is

a hateful divisive manipulative fraud hate groups with allies in politics the press and education past critical race theory off as anti racism and diversity equity and inclusion but critical race theory is exactly the opposite. well than $3000.00 hate crimes directed against asian americans have been reported since the covert pandemic hit laid the blame with the former us president who called covert 19 of course the china virus the president of the chinese american citizens and lines told us racial discrimination is endemic in society it is in now school is in colleges and universities it is in our jobs and nowadays that people are judged by their race and only by their race 3 carts to biden there were several discrimination lawsuits filed this is leading to a lot of

a lot of our society's getting destroyed publications taken no care with joy on. college admissions re sin on line presence wiped out people's jobs get terminated business relationships gets in that one or this because off race there's not just about blacks and whites we have like us asians you have latinos and then you have people born from the interracial marriages they were connected being in the excluded from this battle or from this movement. dozens of us democrats have signed a letter asking president joe biden to give up his sole authority for a new clear launches stonewall quarter explains why donald trump is nuts for the democrats that's just an undisputed fact but it seems like they feel he isn't the only head of state who's lost

a few of his marbles. you alone possess the authority to order the use of nuclear weapons this thing one person with this authority entails real risks past presidents threaten to attack other countries with nuclear weapons or exhibited behavior that caused other officials to express concern about the president's judgment nearly 30 democrats signed that letter which outlined 4 different ways to reduce presidential power over the nuclear button congressional oversight creating a special counsel consulting the speaker of the house why the need for all these new rules if the guy they say is bonkers isn't in the white house anymore the dems say they just don't want to repeat of the past 4 years but some republicans think the reason is a bit more senile i mean cynical sleepy joe wasn't just a political nickname it appears to be a governing strategy a growing number of democrats who are not concerned about giving joe biden the codes for the nuclear system it's not just republicans though back in election season one poll said most voters in

a number of pivotal swing states felt they had to choose between 2 old guys who were both mentally unfit for the presidency and judging by biden's campaign trail it was making things easy for him self. evident oh man i'm a creative go you know that you know thing no man has a right to raise a hand tool and. other than self defense and that's rarely ever occurs and so we have to just change the culture period and keep punching at it and punching out of . this los roaster valerie and i. mean we have put together i think the most. extensive and inclusive voter fraud. organization in the history of american politics so the democrats might be scared with that guy behind the nuclear button but it's not much different than having biden at the head of their expanding war agenda the very same democrats

for example are saying america's longest war in afghanistan should be even longer. to pull out within several months now is a very challenging and destabilizing efforts we've got to be able to assure the world and the american public that afghanistan will not be a source of planning plotting to project terrorist attacks around the globe there's the minimum i'm not sure we can do that without some presence there and there's this year's national defense authorization act which the democrats put forward to boost the military budget to a total of around $740000000000.00. today the house and a strong bipartisan message to the american people are service members and their national security are more important than politics they're clearly not trying to put forward some kind of pacifist agenda so why should biden be at the head of military operations but not have his finger on the nuclear button it could be because mutually assured destruction isn't fun for anyone but when the killing is going on far away anything goes. let me bring you up to speed this morning or this

weekend or the latest in the south caucasus where there's been trouble last couple of days where the armenian president and i was discuss the national unrest with parliamentary group leaders as you're about as another day of mass opposition protests calling on prime minister nicole pushing and to quit after his controversial sacking of the armed forces chief thousands rallied in the capital on friday marching from the parliament building to the presidential prime minister's residences and back again and groups of laid siege to parliament since thursday night setting up camps outside and pledging to hold round the clock demonstrations opposition leaders say they want nothing less than the resignation of the prime minister and his face. of his with those with the pressure from the public will rice and we will eventually make question you and resign we have an unprecedented situation in our country a government that has lost cannot continue to be the government they need to have the courage to think like statesman not like adventurous from the streets and to

resign. at the time of the 2800 protests people were in a good state and now everyone is depressed everyone is shocked we've lost the war we've lost thousands of people we've lost territories our prisoners haven't returned so far they're still searching for thousands of people who have gone missing in such a climate it's very hard to do something for a healthy society. the national crisis escalated after defied calls for military chiefs to resign and claimed they were. trying to arrange a coup the country's been on edge since november over a peace deal with azerbaijan over the disputed region a goal of color back the government had vowed victory in the war but armenians saw the agreement as a humiliating defeat and protesters reacted to the truce by storming the government building in europe in the past we discussed the latest with a 1000000 army officer and also vice president of the country's national assembly

and they are. the regime knew that for 30 years the military has been poorly managed in terms of equipment and maintenance this led to the army becoming weak it isn't the army used to be and pushing and came to power without a team experience the prime minister was an absolute 0 in military affairs as well as in economics and politics and this management disorganization noncompliance with the mobilization plan the destruction of command and control systems and the dismissal of military officers all this led to the fact that the general staff lost all patience and demanded the supreme commander his resignation as he was destroying the army this destruction resulted in the loss of 5000 soldiers and tens of thousands of wounded. to communion. it's post-war turbulence when the military makes political statements it can only be called a military coup in the military must carry out its immediate task of protecting the

borders of the republic politics is not a military matter our colleagues from other countries are emphasizing that this is unacceptable the prime minister has problems with a few military officials following the war and i must say the authorities and the prime minister are in control of the situation putting the blame on one person is wrong it's not fair and there are millions understand that and we all have our share of the blame for what's. a final couple of minutes to think about it seems one of these years ways these days for multinationals to look trendiest to make socially progressive changes to classic brands but as much loved toy mr potato head no less because the latest victim of the social justice craze growing numbers appear to be seeing through the marketing as a way to poke reports. if you somehow thought there weren't enough corporations using wolk ideology as a marketing strategy well know woke bandwagon is roll when roll and roll and we

have some new passengers 1st off we have hasbro who have announced a huge change so their famous potato head toit. mr potato head to you you backstab well actually it's not any more 2 genders family structure be gone with all of that says hasbro no more mr or mrs potato head no it's just potato head a proper 21st century toy woke and gender neutral now kids of all ages and genders can aspire to be a plastic potato but hasbro isn't actually changing anything about the toy it's just a name change and if you think that this is kind of a lazy and shameless p.r. stunt well you're not alone imagine thinking in the middle of a global pandemic what's really important is dropping the mr from mr potato head and making him gender neutral in case we upset

a few woke ece mrs potato head has also been killed off she will be replaced by a sexual can of pringles but hasbro isn't the only one jumping on the woke wagon oreo have joined into with a very lazy 3 word tweet trance people exist. seriously guys that's any more ingenious observations like i don't know grass is green water is wet sand is courson rough and gets everywhere if you're going to virtue signal to promote selling your cookies at least pretend like you actually made an effort because unsurprisingly most people saw a right through this shameless p.r. stunt sunning and brave to point out the obvious trance people exist as a marketing tool for cooper ations i finished the sentence for you look we get it there is no such thing as bad p.r. but this whole woe corporations thing is really getting old and quite frankly

annoying we get it your woke just go broke already. that's a wrap what we're talking about so for the small to find so much more but. for now reporting from moscow kevin i was starting off for me in the team of a great rest of the south and. since it other than. pay them is only. about the money. isn't a. clock. just the type to use a pen and. be in the next. moment on. a list you can feel good in though it. will. be good to get on with

the. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. seem. to. think. if. you want you to know we are really working well for a guy like.