san marino becomes the latest european country to start vaccinating its citizens with russia. after supply delays of the e.u. approved jobs the labor minister explained why they look to moscow for help. being an independent state even within the territory of the european union we have the right to make independent decisions. french government faces flak over its covert inoculation program. hundreds of millions of euros were handed to controversial foreign consultants. visions deepen and armenia as the president rejects the prime minister's controversial order to sack the armed forces chief as crowds continue to demand the pm quit. drawing up plans to get children watching more british

culture in their cartoons the b.b.c. outlines ambitious targets to reverse the dominance of american animation. 247 headline news this is the international from moscow welcomes your weekend update 1st european micro states has begun vaccinating its population with russia's sputnik job after deliveries of alternative from the e.u. failed to arrive the country which lies totally within it is not an e.u. member so was excluded from the blocks deals with pharmaceutical giant however it did negotiate getting a tiny part of each delivery to italy but there have been delays to those the submarine oh state hospital medical director says there have been no concerns about using the russian vaccine. we chose the sputnik vaccine because there is an agreement between us and italy through the european union for the supply of

modernity 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 vaccine summary nobody gives the russian back seen all around 15 percent of its population the labor minister has been explaining why they turn to moscow for help. being an independent state even within the territory of italy and the european union we have the right to make independent decisions and have excellent relations both with e.u. members and countries outside e.u. borders at the moment europe showing an increased interest in the sputnik vaccine and we've reached out instead of staying only inside the e.u. markets we acted in the interests of our own citizens and i'm sure that over time

more states will draw conclusions and make similar decisions for a part we have complete confidence in the russian vaccine we can see that technical administrative and bureaucratic this is taken with regard to the production and distribution of certain products significantly slow down the approval process in different countries so we think these processes should be accelerated due to the critical circumstances in the e.u. we simply did not have a vaccine and we had to make a choice sam merinos move comes as e.u. states also step up talks to get this putting into the austrian chancellor spoke with president putin about arranging supplies as soon as the european medicines agency approved the vaccine we spoke with an austrian for all of just about how the scientific community is approaching use of the russian jet. no. i think that the lancet publication shows that sputnik the is a high quality vaccine we are promising data that 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 would make the 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. the has 2 different viruses it makes the vaccine more effective. france has suffered its worst week in the pandemic since november reporting more than 25000 new cases on friday and m.p.'s want to know why foreign consultants with ties to president obama pockets and huge contracts for a vaccine rollout plagued by delays and failures to show do better secure reports. 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 sewing contracts worth millions and millions of euros the lion's share went to american finicking z. the lucrative contracts signed with mckinsey and not initially disclosed to the public was supposed to help ensure vaccine duces could be transported across france working more i think is perfectly suited to process last 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 an effectiveness and helplessness and our whole state apparatus what is it for absolutely amazing what is mackenzie 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 no 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 the french firms to will not because i don't understand why would it be a group that would benefit from things that's a bad 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. 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 front we give the impression that micron is no longer the president he does nothing french government has played down the role played by groups like mckinsey consultancy firms have been used for several years by multiple governments when the elaborate and implement big projects require all logistical support and advice from what really got people angry is just how close the consultancy firms like mckinsey are to president matt brown with toys going back many years and with such sums 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. the armenian president has rejected a controversial order to sack the armed forces chief however the embattled prime minister has raised the order making the head of state either side it within 3 days or challenge in the constitutional court it comes amid ongoing opposition rallies in the capital calling for the pm to quit constantly rushkoff has been following the protests in europe. the fact that the president of armenia hasn't signed the order to dismiss army's top commander is deemed as a small victory for the opposition in the ongoing standoff between the prime minister and he called pasha now and the top military command that news was greeted with they allowed a round of applause from the crowd and you know let's hear from the people on the streets who we asked what they think of passion on. today in accordance with the armenian constitution prime minister passion yama and his government a not legitimate there are lots of constitutional acts he violated and therefore

violated the legitimacy of his rule the only power that has remained untainted so far relation to law has the president and the fact that our president is making his moves in accordance with the constitution gives us a chance to solve major problems this is a step forward that will lead to victory because our president is a very serious person they've scrutinized the case decided there is a reason not to sign the document and to send it back to the prime minister now people understand they've been lied to we will stand until the end right next to our at the moment protesters are marching around the town and as you can see there are starting to come back to this area around the national parliament some of the people are going to camp here they're going to stay here overnight similar demonstrations are happening in other cities and so it seems like the. protest against the prime minister party known is widening now that this is definitely not over and the opposition has vowed that they are going to pile on ever more pressure

on the call question and demanding him to step down because when the. pressure from the public will rice and we will eventually make a question yon 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 statesmen enough like adventurous from this. heat and to resign somebody did you do at the time of the 28000 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 what we were doing in a healthy society let me remind you that the latest round of power struggle in armenia has started after a top army generals accuse nicole question out of being incompetent and called for

his resignation he then accuse the army generals and the opposition of an attempted coup and things began to spiral out of control all in all it's currently a dire situation in the country are meeting in military and political elites as well as thousands of people on the streets are revealing whose side they are on in anticipation of a fierce battle for power journalist and global affairs specialist mohsin some of those believe the media needs to do a lot of soul searching to figure out the direction it wants to head. the the losing the war the air in the air almost it was obviously in many circumstances you would expect the political leadership to resign i mean at the beginning it will take for example the chain with to resign after the british were defeated novick in norway so you can imagine that the room somebody has to take the blame at least i'm going to be the old force is this going to have to be the political leadership of the presidency under normal circumstances would accept the per the prime minister's

recommendation to sack the generals. of the season although not as the not suggests that within the political class as it were his is authority has been diminished until an eagle demonstrates on the streets who are not happy with what's going on and the results of the war. in a row whatever changes take place there's going to have to be a big soul searching it all mean here about the general direction of the country. of the general population but i should imagine the outcome is likely to be any building 'd built. here biden ordered his 1st major military act as u.s. president this week with a strike on a radium backed militia groups in syria his administration defended the move saying it was both legal and the proportionate military response. the strike was authorized in response to recent attacks against american and coalition personnel

in iraq and i think to president biden's order he made clear that the united states will act to protect american and coalition personnel and our security interests in the region a number of senior democrats in congress condemned biden's move they claim the strikes were made without the authorization of lawmakers and therefore a breach of the constitution but the president did win the support of some opposition republicans biden said the strike sent a clear warning to iran that washington's going to be tough in protecting its own interests but iran claimed the wiping out what it called anti terror forces would only now encourage more violence in the region former u.n. weapons inspector scott ritter believes biden has no interest in diplomacy that. it's an illegal act i mean his administration did not cite any current congressional authorization for use of military force instead relying on the inherent powers of article 2 of the constitution. but when you take a look at the the intelligence to break it down he bombed

a foreign country syria that had nothing to do with an attack on american forces in iraq there will be no consequence because congress doesn't want to get involved in the difficult you know decisions of you know the or in or surrounding the use of force because it requires them to ask very tough questions about policies that are indefensible what are we doing in iraq what are we doing in syria when joe biden says america's back he's talking about america's back asserting its global authority through the use of military force this is not about diplomacy i mean joe biden didn't attempt any meaningful diplomacy to resolve this issue we went straight to the guns. this is out say on the way that's all folks for america's cultural dominance as the b.b.c. draws up plans to win over young brits with no home grown cottons get the full picture after this.

the vibrations are in the air the hedge funds are leaving the people are panicking they sense that the seismic bond reversal is the 40 year bull market in the us treasury bonds is on the edge of collapse this is the biggest thing that have been in markets in a century. when almost seemed wrong. but old rules just don't call. me. yet to shape out the attic. and engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart when she's to look for common ground.

welcome back when it comes to cartoons the b.b.c. wants children in the u.k. to plump for home grown creations rob of an american import broadcast as outlined ambitious plans to reverse the dominance of shows like the simpsons shaadi edwards dashti notables. 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. and watch janet culturally operation. set. up by the. actually to

do according to the director of the b.b.c.'s children's department too many cartoons watched here in britain are well 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 the 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 culture to speak like that in just reading about london but they can step outside they've been exposed chat that they need to be understand which coach a resident have that reach it from a young age sometimes kids like to hear something that so many have told them at

school which times it isn't but if it really makes any difference it's just good to keep the children to the cultures but i don't think this series depends on the country comes around they're going to watch it because of its critics are american friendly 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 how it's come up with new things i think i'm kind of the age of remakes deceived on a lot and apart not so i quite like new stuff and best new stories to tell our. i think we've been through enough this year to neighbors news stories that can 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 if you can't change 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 all the 1st time the foreign cartoons have come under fire a few years ago critics lashed out at a russian cartoon musher in the birth accusing of having a more sinister side being wait for it a propaganda tool. kind. what did we miss something here the cartoons are really used to indoctrinate children's minds and promote interests 30 to start the better i guess. family doctor has reportedly denied treatment to a german m.p. because of her political views that's according to the politician herself is a member of the nationalist anti immigrant alternative for germany party she's been talking about her shock when the doctor said he was taking a moral stand. you know they had. due to

a chronic illness had to visit my family doctor who i had been seen for the past 2 years the conversation went relatively well and then my doctor told me that he would like to terminate the health care contract i was horrified and asked him why he replied that he had learned from the media that i was a member of the a.v. party and that i had been elected to the bundestag from the electoral district so for moral reasons he could no longer continue my treatment then i asked if i phase in now what would you do he replied that then he would have to help me has a medical emergency case and then i said that if he was alone in the room he could just close the door and you're in there sussed ation press only every 10 seconds the doctors clinics not yet responded to our request for comment however the insurance company involved in the case says it expects patients to get the best possible treatment regardless of their beliefs their students far from the only case of alleged discrimination against a of team members in 2019 and

a half the pay was beaten unconscious on the street where later the party leaders car was taught a study found alternative for germany suffers the most attacks of any national party both physical and verbal the m.p. who was refused treatment claims the media's been ignoring her case. i think. it's you know i represent the position of the air of d. and i do not adhere to right wing radical views in the f.d.a. i feel a liberal conservative needs so there was no reason to attack me personally or to deny further medical attention i consider this to be absolutely average 3 and cannot understand it my case was covered by the media unfortunately not local but only alternative media were covering the story i actually sent a statement to the police with my lawyer who filled a complaint with the physicians chambre and i sent a copy to aoki budden rutenberg because this doctor works on the contract with that insurance company according to their rules such actions are prohibited since he's providing services under

a health insurance policy so i decided to fight it and my fight continues. dozens of us democrats have signed a letter asking president biden to give up his sole authority for nuclear launches for more court has been examining 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 when they shoot 3 self-evident. i know i'm a creative go you know this 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 the punching out of punching out of . this most roaster valerie and i'm just. 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 if it's we're going 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 the military budget to a total of around 740000000000 dollars today the house and the strong bipartisan message to the american people are service members and the 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 ok that's your news for now thanks for watching and call him brave the coming out assassin ted is going to be here to keep you posted on the stories we're tracking this weekend here at r.t. international. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. theory dramatic development only. i don't see how. very. time you sit down and talk.

or more polarized than ever the 21st century when speed is measured in megabytes per 2nd. electronic mail electronic money electronic media infinite possibilities for exchanging information. freedom of speech and social media censorship and double standards who should judge what can be said online. the internet audience almost 4500000000 for most all of the active social network users but one wrong move from the pages deleted digital. guy who runs the show on the web how can anyone stand up to the. heads of state

face the threat of being. any live. i mention are tenser going underground for a special lockdown edition a week when the united states became the 1st country to suppose half a 1000000 coronavirus related deaths the highest total in the world but another epidemic is also raging that the continuing opioid crisis joining me now from

bringing tina new jersey is an international leading voice on mental health and addiction patrick kennedy the nephew of the late u.s. president john f. kennedy thanks so much for coming on going underground 1st of all the figures $81.00 found was and in 12 months to june what has happened in the united states about the opioid crisis because it's out of the headlines now well we we had an epidemic going into this pandemic and of course the pandemic has has moved off the front pages because of the urgency to address coronavirus but right underneath coronaviruses is all of the facts of isolation economic hardship because people are losing their jobs the stress of so many aspects of this and that's just adding fuel to the fire that was already under way before we even had the 1st coronavirus case we were almost set

a point where we were going to begin to focus our attention entirely on this mental health addiction crisis and then of course now we've taken our eyes off of it because there's something more pressing. but there's no doubt it's not going away it's just being masked by this this corona virus on top so much room visits up 30 percent i mean the statistics are mind boggling let alone the impact of lockdowns on. and mental health of course can buy tackle this crisis is a given that we know his absolute opposite to universal health care. you know it's a matter of national security and every business in america now is is really panicking about what's going to happen in the aftermath of the covert crisis on their employees so it's front and center as an economic issue which really chain .