from. germany spain suspend you. over a blood clot here. it comes as the european union. with member countries venting their fury over huge disparities in the way shops are being shared on. european countries. production deals with companies in italy spain. is conditional on the. conflict has changed its people. the future may hold.

30 minutes of news and views start out in. spain germany france and italy in the past 24 hours suspended the use of the corona virus vaccine developed by. blood clot concerts charlotte took me through the story earlier. well spain has now become the latest country in the e.u. to say it is suspending the use of the astra zeneca vaccine decision came hot only heels of decisions made by france germany and italy on monday all saying they were holding the rollout of this particular vaccine now we know that the world health

organization is to hold a meeting to discuss the issues on tuesday and we've also heard that the european medicals agency this is the body which approves vaccines here in europe and had approved the astra zeneca vaccine is to hold an extraordinary meeting on thursday to discuss the issues now when france announced that it was suspending that vaccine that announcement was made by president marconi whose previously raised questions about the efficacy of the vaccine for older persons this is what he had to say. the decision which was also taken in accordance with our european policy is to suspend vaccinations with astra zeneca as a precaution hoping to resume it quickly if the opinion of the a.m.a. allows it so we are suspending its use from tomorrow afternoon. well they came fast in the footsteps of decisions that had already been taken by island the netherlands

denmark so what's the problem well originally this issue of a safety was raised off a day in denmark but since then there have also been questions raised over whether or not astra zeneca makes the people who have the job have blood clotting issues in germany they say that this is a professional political decision and not comes after 7 individuals are said to have that issue in the country now the world health organization has said astra zeneca is safe the european medical's agency has also said it stands by it and says that the effects outweigh the benefits all. this particular vaccine and of course those who created astra zeneca are also standing by it a careful review all available safe to data of more than 17000000 people vaccinated in the u.k. with covered 19 vaccine astra zeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of

palmer and believes in deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia in any defined age group gender batch or in any particular country well this is of course a huge blow to astra zeneca but it's also a huge blow to the european union's vaccine vaccine go lot that has already been my problems and disquiet is being painfully slow is also being new tit for tat between astra zeneca and the e.u. over the fact that the company could supply the contract in demands from the e.u. as promised the d. may which is only approved for vaccines b. use watching q just presented in the e.u. is also coming under fire for not approving vaccines quicker and the rollout does it is painfully slow we're talking about 10 percent of adults across the european union that have received one job. charlotte was alluding to there the u.

has admitted to feelers in its vaccine program with the vice president ford's commission saying the block is struggling but for a 5 member states it's worse than they've written a letter venting their anger at what they call huge disparities in the way vaccines are being shared are raising doubts about whether the union is serving in their best interests or to or has more. trapped in a no moment do promise is unreality have so epically failed to map top of the european bloc that they've been left with no option but to apologize it is true that mistakes were made when ordering the vaccines in brussels as well as in the member states the main issue has been delivery to laze of the astra zeneca job the initial deal of 18000000 doses was slashed to just 31000000 with the recent warning promising another months long hold up all this leaves the e.u. as target of 70 percent of adults vaccinated by late summer looking like

a pipe dream but it's not just getting vaccines off the production line that's the problem no it seems the problem is far closer to home because despite all its pledges to defeat covert 1000 with coordinated responses and united fronts some feel the e.u. is not living up to its core values as a tight knit family it's the recluse that point to so-called bazaars where additional agreements between member states and pharmaceutical companies remain what kind of bizarre well the austrian chancellor is convinced that not everyone is being transparent and that certain member states are doing separate deals with pharmaceutical companies on the sly he's also annoyed that some countries like germany are picking up fact seen so far unclaimed by others and he's not the only 15 e.u. countries that's almost a 5th of the entire blog have the same complaint accusing brussels of not fairly

dividing up the facts in pie if the system were to carry on it would continue creating an exacerbation huge disparities among member states by the summer whereby some will be able to reach herd immunity in a few weeks while others would like far behind nothing says e.u. solidarity like feeding yourself whilst your brothers and sisters go hungry a coup. into this uneven system multo would get more fight scenes the bald area which has a population almost 14 times launched an equation even cuts in coast scratching their heads and feeling like they've been cheated cheated out of the shot they say is all only sought to return to normal life so we can leave behind the worrying unemployment and so that people don't feel pushed to the brink and onto the streets .

but it's not just knocked down fatigue it's a you fatigue apparently now sizable chunks of the blocks population feel that families image has taken a big hit over the past year proving the best failed vaccine rolled out greed to stop piling on public infighting during one of the vote it might be time for brussels to rethink its strategy on revive the good old idea of a one on one for role more european countries have expressed an interest in using russia's sputnik vivax in according to the russian front behind the jump companies from italy spain france and germany agreed to launch production if the vaccine is authorized by blocks medicines agency my colleagues. spoke about the developments earlier. since the start of the pandemic the company that producing this

vaccine the russian direct investment fund has been very open about its plans to cooperate with partners all across the world including those in europe but what we saw was a lot of pushback and hesitation from europe towards the idea of using a russian produced vaccine it was criticized over having a lack of data it was even called a russian propaganda tool and that was even after the scientific journal the lancet published a study showing it was over 90 percent of the active so what we're seeing ringback now is quite a remarkable change of tack with the company revealing its broken deals with companies in germany italy france and spain let's take a listen to what the c.e.o. of the company had to say currently there are additional talks underway on boosting production in the e.u. this will allow sputnik the to be supplied to the european single markets once approval is granted but the european medicines agency we are now actively working

with the e m a is part of the rolling review procedure in addition we and our partners are ready to start supplying those e.u. countries that independently authorized sputnik v. so we should emphasize again then here is the approval by the blocs medicines agency although not everybody seems to be ready to wait for that well that's right you're hungry and slovakia have already bought the russian shot with slovakia receiving its 1st shipments of the vaccine on monday it will no doubt come as a massive relief for the country hungry meanwhile has already started vaccinations over in france we have the mayor of nice who's a pill to the author a tease to greenlight the procurement of the for his citizens and the bavarian prime minister has also made similar appeals to the e.u. to starts considering opening itself to the possibility of using alternative vaccines be it the russian or the chinese now the e.u. has really struggled throughout this entire time there's been production glitches

and. that's delayed the inoculation program has been highly criticized for that so as the e.u. is faced with this colossal job of inoculating 450000000 people this really comes as a positive sign i mean it's quite a turnaround if they give the go ahead to the russian vaccine that could speed up the fight against the pandemic it's also where a diplomatic win between russia and europe as well a 3rd wave of covert cases has forced italy into a new lock down with some of the country's hospitals overrun with patients schools restaurants shops museums will know all be closed in the highest risk areas the measures have been rushed through remain in place at least until easter weekend that is the beginning of april they'll touch in every region of the country to some degree as well many in italy are preparing for a rough ride. i hope the lock down his own learn to easter who hold it is not for the next 2 months because really here to do all we're asking us how can we

do iraq's most if we can't leave home without them i mean unfortunately we will start to suffer a lot again and this is really the last straw if we don't return to normalcy after easter we will not make it. was that if we are forced to limit our freedom i think it is necessary at the moment and of course we will continue on this path as long as it is necessary at least until we are all vaccinated of course there are many difficulties especially for those who are unemployed. we heard from a sociologist in italy who believes the government has repeated the same mistakes throughout the pandemic. indonesia is dealing with the quiet in the amassing way and the local the nation on how we are beyond them in several weeks back and then you will not die we will learn wingard the dynamic economy which is already so much suffering on the brink of disaster the current government is doing the same

mistakes that the previous gone and you were one of them one you know we don't both see in change and the lockdown will probably really who feel entirely in a dire situation that the nation is really going very slowly in the belief that we've gotten that call the organisation on that and people are confident they people are confident that the angel wings are clear now and. it's been 10 years since the i pray of war in syria on rates of thousands of people being killed in the conflict and millions of civilians displaced the country's economy has been ruined and according to the un half of syria's children don't know a life without.

no. well you can really see here what the war has done to syria it's the western city of homs we're looking at it witnessed some of the fiercest battles and enjoyed a 3 year siege government forces recaptured it in 24 with the city currently undergoing reconstructions. young syrians have paid a heavy price almost half of those aged between $18.24 surveyed by the red cross have lost someone in the conflict with many suffering injuries in the war themselves to 3 fled their homes almost half lost their income and most of the young syrian surveyed are still struggling to have their basic needs met such as having food to eat here some 1st hand accounts from people who were forced to leave their homes. i was in the 9th grade when the problem started everything was relatively normal until the 26th of november 27th the next day things escalated in

our village and the schools were closed start was the last day i opened the book and down that these 10 years have been psychologically draining everything was destroyed and we had to rebuild on top of rubble i've experienced many bad things you can't raise your emotions the physical damage was nothing compared to the emotional wounds last 10 years have passed since the crisis 4 in syria and 6 here we're now entering the 11th year it is heartbreaking but we managed to adapt. to discuss what a future for the war torn country might look like we can cross live to dust that is executive director of the long haul and shoot for peace prosperity brian becker from the antiwar answer coalition and amar walk up director of gnosis a british think tank that focuses on crisis in the middle east gentle you're all very welcome we've spoken many times about syria done the you're so very glad we're

here on what is a grim milestone the 10 year anniversary of fighting breaking ict done on the very point the fighting it's much less than it was but the u.n. still describes the situation as a tender box can you see peace anytime soon there. ok danny we've just got an issue with your saw and what we'll try and fix that just in a moment we'll we'll get back to all not the same point to you brian do you see the peace anytime in the near future well syria still war we know that the u.s. government just bomb syria 2 weeks ago u.s. troops continue to occupy a vast swath of syria people don't actually most people don't know that the u.s. is quote safeguarding the oil fields in the northeast part of syria from isis even though isis has been defeated noted. by the combined forces of the syrian arab army

and their support from russia and iran and hezbollah fighters but you know the fighting has been reduced because the forces backed by turkey by saudi arabia and most importantly by the united states have been largely defeated except they are now taking over the province in the north west part of the country and again american troops are in syria and in the bombing continues this syrian people need to be allowed to live this is by no human rights catastrophe a huge tragedy foreign forces who are there illegally especially the united states need to leave. danny i think we've got a connection to syria as you know it's in the headlines often enough when it comes to war news but but what up by those people in need do you think there's a nuff attention to their problems is there a need for more aid indeed a more concerted focus from foreign countries well that's part of the equation

let's not forget that these sanctions against the syrian people that have been in place for language in the past 10 years remain in place so it's not even necessarily ate it's just ease the same passions so they can actually begin rebuilding their country and rebuilding their lives in fact the opposite happens happening we saw the u.k. just put additional sanctions even on president assad's why are you caved one way or the problem is they are simply not letting up on this idea that more sanctions and more sanctions will get the desired result which is the overthrow of syrian president assad all these sanctions do is to hurt innocent people and prevent the country from recovering amar what counts what could the solution be in a country where there are a 5 different foreign militaries present with competing interests. well basically the only solution that the can really be viable is for foreign

powers who are trying to push the syrian people to overthrow their government the government that provided them with protection basically for the past 10 years the way they see it. you know and are suffering. you know that the it's really haven't discover there nobody can feed their children anymore. the only way forward is for those countries to ease the sun shines in order to get the pressure off the people stressed and that's when they would be able to you know think about reaching to the other syrians and try to welcome them back try to rebuild their country the syrian government is not going to fall and you know the people feel over there i go there regularly people over there feel that they are being punished for taking a certain side and in this war and this is so it's not going to lead anywhere and as i mentioned earlier one of your guests you know they cannot they are now not allowed to get their own wheat their own water their own oil they have

to import everything now which is really stacking up the bill and this is not going to help i took down the the new u.s. secretary of state recently said no more regime change unless it's in its national interest do you think it will pursue just that in syria or he was intimately involved in the regime change operation against syria 10 years ago and he continues to have the mentality of the us imperialistic mentality that somehow we have a right to change government operation was cooked up like every clinton in the state department as an as a weapon as ation of diplomacy the idea of the arab spring was to produce a lot of compliant government governments in the middle east to do what the us told them well it's been a complete disaster millions of lives. ruined because of it the same people who were involved in the birth of that horrible horrible mistake are now back in power

with a vengeance are we supposed to believe that the leopard exchanges spots no i don't believe it her 2nd brian should the u.s. be made accountable for the for the chaos i suppose it's the mocker see seeking a protest turned or helped turn syria into the other guests were saying being pummeled with sanctions clearly appears to be hurting the people more than the government as well yes i mean the united states has been on a regime change course against the syrian government it's targeted it just as it did with iraq and with libya you know i was i was in iraq right before the night the march 2003 invasion and i was among the people and they had 13 years of not being able to get food or medicine and they were being bombed every day similar to what the u.s. has done in syria and they said to me at one point why why are you doing this why are you doing this meaning why is the u.s. government doing this and i said it's because the u.s. government doesn't like your government and several of the people said well we

don't necessarily like our government either but the u.s. is using collective punishment depriving people of food and medicine in order to carry out a foreign policy objective at the nuremberg trials those are characterized as work rhymes and crimes against humanity so yes the u.s. must be held to account this is not simply a tragedy it's not god given this was imposed on the syrian people by u.s. government policy and its principal allies in the region a more host there being any point in what's been a long 10 years that bashar assad could have reached a compromise and ended the conflict. well it's not up to him really is it we need to understand that there is a certain constituency that gives him legitimacy and it's just a group of people who point 0 in march 2011 decided that the

uprising or the mobilization in the street as you know as a continuation of the arab spring wave was not in their interest now they took refuge in the government they formed a line of defense and president bashar assad basically whether people believe it or not has to take their opinion into consideration now say for example he now goes publicly and say ok we're going to extend the hand to those you know who killed your children now that needs a lot of verification a qualification they need to understand on what terms are we now accepting what we could have accepted or are you president assad accepting what you could have accepted in 2011 and you know spared us all this chaos so it's not a foregone no those people have an opinion and they are now being pressured and the more beleaguered they become you know the more hard it would be for them to provide or to allow their government to provide a compromise what they see now is

a one way ticket to restoring syria syria's you know integrity in terms of territorial integrity story and then from there once they're relaxing a little bit probably they can think about providing you know some incentives for others to come and join in a political process but not before that it's not going to be very easy at all ok done you know it's perhaps worth doing at this stage maybe laying. strategically the importance of syria to all the competing nations that are fighting within it why is there so many there wanting a say. well you can't get it there. arabia in its current in the region you can't ignore israel and its goals in the region the main goal the prize goal is the overthrow of the iranian government and syria is just one of those one of those countries in the way in the same way the iraq with one of the countries in the way you have this resistance to us has really had germany in the region and one by one

these little cells of resistance have been plucked off and destroyed syria to the surprise of the us who cooked this up somehow managed to survive and it survived by creating alliances of course with the russians or rekindling alliances with the russians and the iranians so it is a very strategically important. region for us and as a policy point for the us we really have 0 interest in being involved there's nothing in it for us the best policy of course would be complete disengagement and a return home brian i think it's worth again just returning to the humanitarian crisis what can what should be done to ease it. as daniel said 1st 1st thing must be to lift the economic sanctions sanctions are not an alternative to war they are a war they are an insidious form of war where the poor are the most vulnerable the youngest and the oldest in society those most vulnerable to not having medicine or lack food are being punished so number one the u.s.

and the the international community so to speak must live sanctions number 2 and this should happen simultaneously all u.s. military forces that are in syria illegally not at the invitation of the government and not with the sanction or support of the security council they must leave the united states government does not have the right to every gate to itself the right to determine the future and destiny of syria or any other people a moral one what should be done on an international level to i suppose prevent such catastrophes happening in the future what's being learned from such a disastrous decade. well 1st of all there is an urgent need to stop the current dk and the collapse of the syrian economy otherwise we're talking about lost generations with you know so many complications far ahead it's not about securing reconstruction we need to stop the deterioration and all we can see

happening is that back in november for our countries egypt jordan saudi arabia and the u.a.e. met with each other and they discussed the issues syria we think that this has been done in sort of collaboration with syria an exchange of ideas how to solve this how can we move forward what would you accept what we would accept and so on now we think that this is because there was some initiative that to be is being prepared for the new administration for the upcoming administration that is now in place by the ministry we've seen over the past few days foreign minister of russia survey lover of visiting the arab states now u.a.e. saudi arabia and interesting deal qatar and with there he met with his turkish counterpart as well and we believe what is happening now is that there is talk about bringing syria back to its arab fort with its arab neighborhood and those who

would object like qatar back by turkey are being now discussed with to see what sort of objections they might have so we can see movement that is taking place and we think that the united states isn't very far away from what this is you know what is happening probably if they haven't gone if they haven't given a green light probably they've given amber like you know bring up bring us an initiative and we'll have a serious look at it ok so let's just end on a positive note here and think you know internationally speaking something is happening something is being cooked and hopefully it's going in the right direction what's been a very interesting the. thank you very much a country in crisis and continues to be to thank you very much for giving your thoughts dunya mccallum's executive director of the ron paul institute brian becker the answer coalition is national coordinator. rector of gnosis a british think tank that focuses on crises in the middle east thank you

this is r.t. international see you again and 30. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm showbusiness i'll see you.

hello and welcome to crossfire where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle using the media the biking ministration has made it clear it may launch cyber attacks on russia this is a colossal mistake we tell you why and who exactly is running the u.s. government is by really in charge. to discuss these issues and more i'm joined by my guest when he's on in the house though he is a professor at the university of southeastern europe weight as well as author of the new book great power politics in the 4th industrial revolution and in budapest we crossed in georgia 70 well he is a podcast or i think which can be found on you tube and rumple are a gentlemen crossed up rules in effect that music can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it well.