the slovak prime minister rejects calls to use. the country's vaccination campaign gets bogged down by politics. on the program u.k. medical workers write great stuff that the government offers them a pay rise of just one percent. turned into a nightmare we hear from a passenger who was tell you. but i break which resulted in the death. they refused to inform us that the cases that. they had tested positive there was no suspicion but indeed people they've refused to give us information.

from moscow to the world this is our to international from the team and myself you know me well hello and welcome to the program. the prime minister all of slovakia defended his decision to acquire russia's sputnik v coronavirus flexi he's faced a wave of criticism after the country received its 1st delivery of the chop earlier my colleagues former. went through the story. over the past year we've heard time and time again that unity is needed in the fight against the coronavirus when it comes to vaccines though it seems that our unity falls apart while political shenanigans begin his purchase of russia sputnik seem the latest of around 40 countries closely to do so has made very clear because the prime minister was forced to defend his decision to critics spoke out saying they want to refund the

sputnik vaccine will not go back to russia it will save lives in slovakia i would never give it up our country's a fundamental part of the european union but i cannot turn down a quality vaccine that will save our people because it's made in russia i'm not a murderer so why did the scenes all the sputnik feed flying out for most go to the east of on monday bring about such backlash well the russian vaccine has not been registered by the european union that the approval process is in fact just beginning but as prime minister much of it said he cannot in good conscience allow himself to stand by and wait for red tape to be cut while his citizens are dying so widespread then is this criticism is it a couple of voices or z. really facing some sort of you know substantial revote here while the purchase of those 2000000 jobs has really put the slovakian government in disarray so 2 of the

4 parties who make up the ruling coalition have spoken out one in fact has proposed a reshuffle of the entire cabinet the other said it might even leave the coalition meanwhile the foreign minister foreign affairs minister very diplomatically to clad sputnik the is not just a frank scene but quote a tool of hybrid war so it puts people a titian's who are supposed to put the welfare of best citizens of where else are here 5 mile thing in trying to send back a vaccine that could save thousands of lives for its part looking at will this play . cole infighting said ok we'll take the vaccines back and we won't even ask for the compensation as per the contract and this is something that the slovakian pm actually wrote about specifically how expose the hypocrisy of his critics they have been seeing hybrid war jew political russian weapons all kinds of nonsense that we should be ashamed off when the russians came and offered to take the vaccine back

with no repercussions everyone suddenly became quiet why couldn't the prime minister just a talk device scene that had been approved by the uighurs he decided to take this route and take sputnik fee and of course then we've seen. while it's no secret tool that the european union is failing in its toss of vaccinating its 450000000 strong population its production is slow its rollout is even slow it's been such a p.r. and health disaster that brussels was even forced to publicly apologize so frustration desperation pushing sutton even member states to look beyond the block for help and they're looking to russia so hungry has registered sputnik the slovakia to now. sound merino also after it's easy to prove vaccines delayed there are rumors that the czech republic an all star also next in line so pretty appetite is growing as is a lack of faith in brussels as food brussels and the e.u.

which is obviously all about being a single cohesive union where everything is centralized all these individual member states splintering off and breaking ranks is actually quite humiliating and in a sign that it doesn't even really have faith in its own ability to handle this crisis on friday a spokesperson said that countries can independently acquire jobs approved by the block or not whether they're from russia from china or wherever else so we're clearly seeing his shift within the e.u. member states starting to lose faith and confidence. entering from the union when it comes to facts scenes and this latest saga and stuff showing as we've seen from the very beginning that not even vaccines in the middle of a global pandemic are immune from being politicized and let's take you to south america the president of venezuela nicolas maduro and 1st lady sylvia flores been inoculated with their 1st dose of. the inaugural 100000 shots arrived in the

country last month and were given to the most vulnerable sectors and health personal pictures of the presidential couple receiving the russian jobber broadcast of state television. a kick in the teeth the british medical association has called the government's proposed one percent pay rise for health care workers unions say it undermines the value of those who quote kept the country in line during the cold food crisis well despite the u.k.'s national health service receiving an extra $500000000.00 pounds per year onto the deal it would still like to result in the real term pay cut 1st off as inflation in the u.k. could hit 1.5 percent this year it comes despite the government's repeated promises of rewarding frontline stuff. our n.h.s. is the b. team heart of this country it is important that we support our really just want to

see our fantastic frontline workers paid properly we absolutely want to. reward n.h.s. staff for what they've done i will be making sure that we fight to have that fair reward i mean i guess the government would have to prioritize and i think nurses and the n.h.s. in general is something that we should prioritize at this moment and i do think they should probably receive more than one percent but it's a symbolic ratio one percent you know what's that's not going to have any impact on them it just feels like a very it's like a very weak offer from the government it's not right you know there's always companies that made so much money off the back of the number of those who've been in the middle of it haven't done so well and i gess is critically underfunded. you know the government can afford lots of other things you look at all the contracts they've been given to their friends leaving british nurses union has set up a fund to prepare for possible strikes over the deal the labor party leader secure

starmer also dismissed the proposal saying quote covert heroes deserve better support but the british health secretary has defended the offer calling it affordable giving codewords devastating impact on economies we've got the opinions of a u.k. think tank and a nurse on the issue. but not least because one can say as nor accurate as consider nothing that nazis have done and in each case what else in general for that country jet in the course of the pandemic we've already had 10 years of my stay to tea and ask loys nor me not that i think you can imagine any. demoralized the tango and the 2nd floor speech from government as we had at least a small amount of all that i asked our government to include for it is apt to be quite a bit contest but it you might actually szell. we are and the appreciation for his and unfortunately that was have missed opportunity for the government i think it's

fairly understandable that public servants who are doing a really difficult job or a really difficult time would feel that they ought to be rewarded more fair in the u.k. is a wealthy nation if we devalued our resources fairly i think they'd be a lot more you know they'd be ample scope for low paid workers and critical work as such the system gets a. more substantial pay rise it's not hard to find examples of how better more cold but. government administration or a fairer taxation system could find the money to give the nurses who've been literally saving lives keeping the country running through this period of more generous offer. u.s. capitol police have requested that more than 2000 national guard troops remain in washington d.c. for another 2 months where tensions remain high after the january riots police

authorities and the media seem intent on finding threats when the evidence doesn't always lead there through a plot been explained. it is no exaggeration to say that there was serious panic in the lead up to march 4th a new threat against the u.s. capitol a possible militia plot to storm the capitol as early as tomorrow we are watching this threat stream the information social media other sources with respect to this particular day march 4th federal law enforcement is on full alert after warnings from intelligence officials that another attack on the u.s. capitol could be a minute preparations were serious hundreds of national guard patrolling the area capitol police released a statement on wednesday warning possible plot to breach the capitol by an unidentified militia group a local businesses have warned tenants about possible protests you might have gotten the impression watching me to your reports that u.s.

officials were bracing for the purge as citizens rushed to get home before commencement. we advise you to get off the streets as quickly as possible it'll soon be a war there. so what happened when the fateful day finally arrived nothing what does it take to put the u.s. government on edge apparently just some lame internet rumors it all started with q. and a on conspiracy theorists on the internet they said that the inauguration of joe biden was a big false flag and that the pentagon was planning to install donald trump on march 4th the original inauguration date in u.s. history well obviously that did not happen now the main conspiracy theory of cuban on is the idea that a group of satanic blood drinking pedophiles have seized control of the u.s. government and media apparatus and that donald trump and his allies are waging a heroic covert war against them behind the scenes some of blame donald trump for

not denouncing the militia groups and cuban on conspiracy theorists who rally behind him you know the president has a responsibility to tell him to stay down this road. is credible it's real human on conspiracy theories and delusions aside joe biden won the election he has been inaugurated so why is the country still on edge and blaming the former president there were no violent actions or big protests on march 4th but law enforcement was on high alert the whole thing was taken very very seriously and the department continues to work with all of them. and is based on the intelligence that we have the department has taken immediate steps to enhance our security posture and stuffing for a number of days to include much of the force the u.s. house of representatives even canceled their meeting later nancy pelosi insisted that the meeting was not canceled just moved to an earlier time if in fact there's

any trouble makers around and it made sense. i don't think anybody should take any encouragement that because some troublemakers might show up and that we changed the whole schedule now we just moved in a few hours there's now a call to extend the national guard presence around the u.s. capitol just in case internet liberals have decided that a secret nazi conspiracy has taken over the republican party their proof the shape of the stage at sea-tac apocalyptic scenarios are now starting to become a regular aspect of american political discourse and i actually have a lot of conservative friends and a lot of populous conservative friends and a lot of trump supporters. and none of the had talked about this until the mainstream media brought it up rumors only cause panic if the rumors are given air by the right you know media i just think it's a justification to not put this in ministries in the position where they have to

actually face the failures that they've had through almost only a month the math and being in office people were talking about a $2000.00 check that's what they would. no i want to know where their checks are that i want to hear about that where the money or where the health care you know what's going on in our economy right now you know those are the things we don't see anyone once again holding biden accountable in the same way that we expected to be out accountable i promise you nobody going to the capitol to being the day the mainstream media's been claiming this blood drinking satanic pedophiles secret cryptic nazi symbols false flag inaugurations all of this would make a great hollywood movie or a netflix mini series but in the real world america seems to have some pretty big problems like crumbling infrastructure unpopular wars and cultural polarization however our political discourse seems to be stuck in fantasyland caleb artsy new

york. international still ahead another round of covert restrictions are set to be lifted in the russian capital today w.h.o. is safe the situation across the country is steadily improving and bring you that story after this short break. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. so there are 3 big events and more than a few 3 which could not be predicted because they were ridiculous. because it

was world war one because nobody really can see what would happen if you deploy. the cauldron machine guns because this was always done against the warriors for the . bribes and. for. the serious french politician would ever ever accepted the. leader of the country. pleated was incomparable in the collapse of the soviet union because again you know soledad it was. even. disorganized themselves. to look in french authorities are investigating man slaughter allegations against italy's costa cruises after 3 people died following

a covert i pick on one of their ships last year now those are broad they claimed they were told about suspected infections and were encouraged by the crew to use the ship's facilities. he spoke to one of the passengers. sequoias yes the cruise was a chance to go with my son who was 5 years old to see a magical world and discover the magic of the caribbean instead it was a nightmare i wondered how i would get out of this hell because if i didn't i was going to die stephanie dubois was one of thousands of holiday makers aboard the cost a magical last year when the covert pandemic hit for her and her then 5 year old son it was supposed to be a dream voyage instead passengers found themselves trapped or bored with little information all what was happening as the virus spread through the ship. they refused to inform us that there were cases of covert aboard the ship that they had tested positive there was no suspicion but indeed there were ill people they

refused to give us information and we got it from the media when we were near the coast and could get a signal they concealed it from us and they didn't let us protect ourselves they didn't protect us either health wise they didn't treat us very well and not at all humanely but also the void had to put in place barrier measures which could have protected us and did you ask koester what measures they were putting in place to ensure that your health was the priority. attention increased very quickly we were in a state of tension and anguish which i just can't describe finally after a few days this virus spread strongly we asked them to cut the air conditioning and they refused we demanded that they open all the restaurants and all those outside so that people could escape the crews as soon as possible to avoid gatherings they refused to put in place all these measures the cruise ship was refused permission for passengers to disembark at several ports including only island of lotsa nique

now these images show the situation off to the islands authority told passengers that they had to stay confined to their cabins tensions were high and violence erupted. was was was. was was. was was a year later and french investigators approving allegations including mom saw to aggravated to seat and in danger in the lives of others against italy's costa cruises over her model could be going team cases aboard that ship 3 passengers don't lead from the virus the company denies the accusations saying that it and the crew acted on the scant information that was available about the forests the toyman

considering that at that time the situation was a valving rapidly and the ship's medical team acted on the basis of the vailable scientific information and full compliance with the instructions of the health authorities and in constant coordination with them but the lawyer who represents almost knowing 100 passengers in the complaint filed in france told r.t. that that's not the case that there was no more hand sanitizer it was replaced by water very clearly or it was either totally empty or didn't exist no security or health measures there were 3 restaurants on board the shuttle 2 there was only one open and there were 2300 passengers who came for lunch breakfast and dinner one after the other without health measures and he claims that the company was fully aware before setting sail that there were troubled waters ahead even outright lying to holiday makers he said that they had questioned whether there would be a tally in passengers on board as at that time italy had become the latest hub for

the virus costa he says assured them there would be no talons on board he said me with they knew a week in advance that the cruise could not last so yes it's true it was a strain. situation near the start or just a little in advance of the pandemic hence the concern of the french passengers to know if there were any italian passengers at this time it was a european country hit hard by covert and they wrote we have the emails and letters from costa which say no there will be no italian passengers yes they lied and they should have cancelled this cruise because they knew what could happen the passengers who have brought these complaints now have to wait to see if it will be taken for stephanie it's already been a long and tough journey but she's determined that costa cruises should be held responsible so that even ski auti legal. the

world health organization has said pandemic situation in russia is improving and following a steady decrease in cases in the capital the mayor of moscow has announced the further easing of restrictions in the city when we're not here is ramon costa. boarding on a monday the mandatory stay at home rule for those over 65 years old and people with chronic illnesses will be scratched now the city's mayor said that the latest easily restrictions is attributed to the fact that they call that 19 states estates in russia have drastically improved now just in moscow alone the number of those people infected as dwindled 5 times compared to the figures back at the end of the year. 20 however despite the ease of restrictions moscow authorities are warning people in risk groups to be vigilant and to stay at home as much as possible because because there was you know the daily number of people hospitalized

with severe cases varies between 70800 a day and of course this shows that risks still exist we still recommend that people refrain from traveling where possible but no these groups come travel they should do to a vaccination center to get a job and feel safe moscow has almost for its earned business as usual back in february despite the fact that so many limitations have been lifted people are still required to keep social distance and of course masks and other protective gear is mandatory russian vaccination efforts have also been in full swing since december of last year and that reports suggest that at least $5000000.00 people have already been inoculated now considering russian population off 150000000 people 5000000 is not such a high number however those numbers are continuing to accelerate and authorities are hoping that it will grow very soon the russian government hopes that if the

nations go according to plan then by august of this once it's once you one people will receive collective immunity and the restrictions will be eased a lower the country. gets so the world up to this hour in the. south america or police of the spurs protesters in the chilean capital demanding the resignation of president sebastian. demonstrators in santiago through project police who responded with a water cannon tear gas 63 people were arrested. and more arrests show you this time in greece where demonstrators rallied in solidarity with shield far left terrorists demetrius who from tina's he's been on a hunger strike for almost 2 months after being relocated to a different prison has reportedly separate kidney failure mr to contain this was given a life sentences plus 25 years in prison in 2003 for his participation in

a total of 11 murders explosions robberies against banks and businesses. and israel is easing some of its pandemic restrictions but only for those with a soon named. nation certificate around $500.00 people who could prove they were covert free attended an open air pop concert in tel aviv on friday there's hope in israel controversial vaccination passports will be a step towards the further reopening of the country's cultural scene. this weekend we are opening open air concerts we open the museums sunday we are reopening the restaurants in some of the schools so this really marks the end of this period with most of the israeli population vaccinated we hope that it is behind this or at least the virus as we know it is behind us it's really amazing amazing to hear him tell of beeves after a while you really so disparate to you we are coming to him. because

of really feel again. armenia's opposition is keeping up pressure in attempts to force the country's prime minister to step down a 10th consecutive day of protests is happening in the capital you're of it falls a public face off between prime minister nicole. and the military artie's constantine rushkoff is there. well the people of iran have taken to the streets again to protest against the prime minister he called question on and they see the peace deal that he signed with the service john as a humiliating defeat and the opposition have been staging rallies like this one for over a week now demanding the incumbent prime minister to step down now those protests have been largely peaceful but anyway as you can see the police brassens here is quite significant earlier today there was another rally staged by the barrens in

front of the armenians the ministry of bands and battles there i joined calls from the top military command for the risk nation of nichole pasha now. we're here to support our friends our top leaders who are now literally face and unconstitutional repression so we just want to mention that officers are shoulder to shoulder with their commanders no matter their own active duty or veterans. or. calls for the resignation of the prime minister and moreover i consider. the army is not a joke we are talking about the chief of staff of this country who is empowered with certain rights and responsibilities and you can't simply be removed all of a sudden just because someone woke up in a bad mood like what happened to his deputy yeah. i'm not a government but i don't know what's in their minds especially that of the prime minister he's crazy but we're here to back our friends and we will now all stems from the

last year said a 6 week bloody war with which ended in a humiliating defeat as lot of people here say and armenia had to cede large swaths of its territory to you as areas and of course that's when he called based increasing calls for his resignation and that is something that sparked protests. large protests in the country but he refused to stand down and instead he found himself in this standoff with the top military command with the opposition and with people on the streets one way out of this crisis is a snap elections and that's been a subject of intense negotiations political debates in the past couple of days part of the opposition is willing to take this deal but you know other others and especially those on the streets on the bands because they want them to step down

1st and run for the office anymore any. you can strike a deal with a traitor has only one way. there is no room for elections with them they can only be held if he's out with an attempt by the government to throw responsibility for a political defeat on the shoulders of the military he's an acceptable and even those who are absent from the streets today they understand that there is no future with the current government so all of the old school white can situation it's unclear how other countries go into overcome this impasse in the ongoing political turmoil. lots of the stories are shaping up on this the 1st day of march with all your latest updates in 30.

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