the u.s. department of health admits to pressuring brazil. seen. russian influence in the region. of major e.u. states including germany france spain and italy suspend the use of britain. of course is. creating yet another headache for the. u.k. . it's number one danger. and defend against the full spectrum of threats emerging from. coming. your. way countries being. once again rising

infection. around the clock across the world this is your r.t. international from the team and myself you know me well hello and welcome to the program. the u.s. department of health at mit diplomatic pressure brazil into not approving russia coronavirus vaccine washington say's it's over fears that russian influence in the region could threaten u.s. security the revelation came. report my colleagues. have talked through development earlier this is the united states department of health health and human services that is boosting that it is managed to deny potentially hundreds

of millions of brazilians a vaccine. the office of global affairs used diplomatic relations in the americas region to mitigate efforts by states including cuba venezuela and russia who are working to increase their influence in the region to the detriment of u.s. safety and security examples include using the office of global affairs health atari office to persuade brazil to reject the russian copied 19 vaccine see brazilians vaccinating themselves with a russian vaccine apparently keeps u.s. officials awake at night this is they argue with threats to their safety and security are unclear how there's no reasoning no logic to it that is explained by them but let me put this in perspective for you brazil is a country that has been ravaged by covert so we all know the death certificate we hear every day from all over the world one in 5 deaths taking place right now all

over the world is in brazil from covert suso the situation is catastrophic it is desperate and here are these people who profess to care about people's health and well being arguing that denying brazilians or russian vaccine is beneficial is beneficial for both brazil and for the united states of america the degree of double standards here is also a start issue because the united states is wrong chad beaded self. as a crusader for vaccines and for vaccine back to nation efforts all around the world and they had previously accused russia of undermining global vaccination it is very clear that russia is up to its all tricks. and in doing so is potentially putting people at risk by spreading disinformation

about vaccines the different is of course the. back then they couldn't show you what it is that russia disinform anyone with in this case here here you go we have clear evidence their own admission that they had denied people the chance to get vaccinated with an available already in production vaccine especially in these times of global shortages this is story is particularly relating to the united states but even before this we saw a lot of western countries quite happy to dismiss the sputnik vaccine particularly in the early days we will remember the unprecedented smear campaign that they launched again against bootlick last year it was too quick russia couldn't possibly develop a vaccine before anyone else it was unsafe ever since then we've seen this effort to undermine sputnik to undermine any russian assistance to the anyone which is especially astounding given that when it was the united states when it was american

lives that needed to be saved back when the pandemic 1st began when they accepted the help from russia aid from russia jets carrying ventilators to new york that was fun that wasn't seen as a threat to national security but when it's brazilians choosing to get a job of sputnik that apparently keeps u.s. officials awake at night that's dangerous for america and you know lavrov predicted this last year he predicted that there would be vaccine was taking place in 2021 some western states are trying not only to politicize the humanitarian aspect of the fight against corona virus but also to take advantage of the pandemic to punish governments they don't like and we've all heard about backdoor deals to secure vaccines in europe in the americas this is the 1st time i think that we've heard about backdoor deals to deny people millions of people

a vaccine. well done show all who closely follows developments in latin america say's vaccine diplomacy is another front line where the u.s. can confront its perceived enemies this is deeply unsettling to use vaccines as little further. than look for russia this is part of this new called war against russia now it's articulating it so cruel a vaccine war there's already a diplomatic war and ideological war and an economic war on china on russia on any country that opposes u.s. unipolarity i think we have to analyze it within that this context that they want to keep resume in their part in their sphere of influence and now that we've been using vaccines to do that to the great detriment of the brazilian people. serious concerns over the safety of the astra zeneca vaccine have prompted major e.u. players to temporarily stop using the un to cope with job that includes spain

germany france italy comes after reports last week of blood clots the bella ping death among those who received the inoculation in denmark the european medical medicines agency say it is in the gaining is ongoing the 1st findings they are expected later this week on thursday and with more on this our europe correspondent peter oliver. health officials and senior politicians from across europe said that the astra zeneca vaccine is going to be suspended in the country this is while an investigation is carried out to determine whether there's any link between those who have the vaccine and the development of blood clots inside and what the decision is a purely precautionary measure astra zeneca is used as a vaccine by millions of people in many countries around the world we're very aware of the significance of this decision and have not taken it lightly. 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 allows it question on. the cases that have been flagged that our side the normal are very infrequent but if importance this is why spain has joined other countries that have decided to make this temporary and precautionary suspension for the next 2 weeks we will wait for the european medicines agency. these suspensions haven't just been happening in europe we've also seen them in central america in asia and in africa as well we'll be hoping to find out more information on where this investigation into any potential link is going on thursday there's going to be a meeting then between the world health organization and the european medicines agency it was the a.m.a. that 1st gave astra zeneca its vaccine the green light for use in europe and

they've been carrying out an investigation since last week when suggestions of a potential link between the the vaccine and blood clots 1st emerged astra zeneca themselves say that there's no evidence of an increased risk while the world health organization says that vaccination outweighs any potential risk that could be there but public perception of the vaccine is crucial to convincing people to well to take the vaccine in the 1st place we took the temperature of people here in germany and how they feel about the recent issues. and toys and he seems to be the right decision to pause it spurts maybe it's the 1st step to getting rid of astra zeneca completely it is disappointing i don't know what the reasons are if they are justified or unjustified but they make this whole vaccination campaign so bureaucratic. now without it is not that easy but when there is so much criticism

then it should be considered too when it's about new vaccines you always have to be very careful. surely when it comes to vaccines you should be very cautious and if there is a slightest suspicion then it has to be stopped the use vaccination program is moved at a glacial pace and being beset by problems the e.u. commission vice president even admitted that there had been failures when it came to europe's vaccine rollout which has seen it lag behind many other countries including the united kingdom and the united states you know we're starting to see. now patients have these tremendous reactions i mean sometimes people just get a little bit sick flu like symptoms now we're starting to see an aflac reaction like allergic reactions we see platelet problems and now we see even debts so maybe we need to take a step back and realize is this the right medication or back station for these 'd patients and we also need to ask the questions as physicians does every person need to be vaccinated and vaccines just create herd immunity there are

a lot of people who maybe are already had the virus like i'm pat and i have antibodies so why would i need a vaccine a lesson you want to do is put this under the rug saying everything is fine because clearly it's not fine and we need to look at the numbers and the 21 gets a vaccination there's always risk to that always a we need to look at are these numbers an acceptable risk or at least number of exceptionally high risk that we should look at this vaccine in medicine we always see with with the new factors are and then we get let's take a step back is are we on the right track and then we negotiate. the u.k. has branded russia as its number one danger london has vowed to deter and defend against the full spectrum of supposed threats emerging from the country saskia taylor reports. well you'd think that britain would have its hands full dealing with covert 19 the country's still in lockdown the economy has taken

a huge hit as doctors are furious off to a tiny one percent pay rise and its astra zeneca job is in the midst of a p.r. storm on top of all of that the e.u. has just taken legal action against the u.k. over alleged breck's that breach has in short the u.k. has got a lot on its plate but it's made room apparently for one more thing and what appears to be a post breck's it show of strength london has come out with a foreign policy report that sets out what role it will pay over the next decade which countries it wants to be friendly with which $1.00 it needs to be where we all of and it's a throwback to the cold war because russia has resumed its pace as public enemy number one russia is the most acute threats in the region and we will work with nato allies to ensure a united western response combining military intelligence and diplomatic efforts we will continue to support closer practical cooperation between nato and the e.u.

in pursuit of this goal india around $110.00 page report russia is painted as a hostile confrontational state on many an occasion london has alleged that russia frequently in ca's into ukase as space on waters that it's responsible for chemical weapons attacks on u.k. soil and that the kremlin generally pursues a very aggressive foreign policy something that moscow denies in short in london's eyes russia needs to be managed and contained now while the report claims to be something brand new the biggest overhaul of u.k. policy in decades the 1st one since it left the european bloc this russia has a narrative fails to deliver any novelty because all through we've seen how presenting russia as the bad guy has been rampant in the u.k. of the past few years. the stretch from russia is one that respects no borders it is seeking to sow discord in the west and undermine our institutions there is

scarcely a country that has not been affected in recent years by some kind of malign or disruptive russian behavior irresponsible activity kremlin backed disinform ation russia must desist through its attacks on the u.k. russia poses an immediate and urgent threat trying national security for its part moscow always said that was willing to engage in dialogue when hard evidence was provided but for as long as phrases such as highly likely almost certainly we use these were nothing but unfounded accusations well apart from the perhaps expected russian element to this report there were a few out that note worthy sections of the u.k. clearly showing an ambition to promote its idea of democracy abroad this will take the form of sanctions international activism and other tools to shape quote a more open international order how that will be received by those sovereign

countries that london is presumably going to promote democracy and i think we can probably all guess secondly perhaps more disconcertingly the limit of stockpiled nucular out warheads will be increased by more than 40 percent from 180 to 260 so quite a demonstrative show force here new threats new weapons this comes just in the back of the biggest defense increase in defense spending since the cold war 16 and a half 1000000000 pounds over the next 4 years so london really coming out all guns blazing here and there are certain voices within the u.k. who are all saying is this really the time to send this kind of message it speaks volumes of the tory government spending priorities that is intent on increasing its collection of weapons of mass destruction which will sit and gather dust unless the u.k. has plans to indiscriminately wipe out entire populations rather than address the serious challenges and inequalities in our society that have been further exposed by the pandemic. so those are just

a few of the takeaways from this fresh report which might leave some asking the question with that being the u.k. are you talking about being more active brought about a great to global presence and increased capability is it really russia that one needs to keep an eye on. let's stay with this story and speak to chris bambery political analyst speaking to us from london chris good to see you amid a global pandemic and the u.k. says' russia is threat number one where is this coming from it's an incredible statement i mean to announce that you are going to spend billions increasing your nuclear weapons nuclear warheads at a time when we have you know talk of a stereotype measures here and you know kind of all nazis who are dealing with the cooler though i'm very i'm not the one percent pay rise and we're counting on a country like yemen the worst humanitarian disaster in the world by by slashing

that budget and you know we're coming out of the stimulus spend these billions on war it's this agenda to me reading it today it's what's happening because bret's it is britain is rushing to get back into the arms of the united states and joining the united states proxy war cold war with russia and in this report with china we should attitude side densified has been a major threat and britain has just announced its mission big new aircraft carrier will be going to the civic it's a nose through that will be all the talks with japan and taiwan the 2 main rivals of china region this is just madness you know as was mentioned these you could war hence cannot be used to the west we are going to have the mutual destruction all humanity why would we want to go for a war with russia wessel and china and why so we could never win in alliance with the united states just pursued an aggressive agenda with a new president. biden committed to this by the by the way we already was one of

them strongly considered us an aggressive foreign policy like we've provided who's part of the next administration major question should be asked about domestically about what this is you know given that we're always told there's no money because of the. impact of the damage and secondly why do you want to go back into that alliance the united states which led as it's our rock which where there's an afghanistan and thirdly wired up we position ourselves as if we're saying to launch a new you quote war it's strange reading as well as mcchrystal the very fact of having a biggest enemy at all does that not smart of attempting to appear tough and in reality all it does is hurt diplomacy and push british and russian people further apart. i think you're absolutely correct in that but you know britain has to find a new role in the world and i think it is as i see it because it is only itself

where united states it's worried at the same time about what is going to nationalise worried that we could be isolated but this is b. go along with russia for some time no we know that the european union has been hesitant about introducing massive massive amounts of sanctions against russia the americans are not really satisfied with what they used done in this response as they see it to russia so i think in washington this will be music to their ear it's in moscow i just believe that we complete bewilderment what are these empty threats because they are effectively empty threats one of their actually just that by the way as well it is that these new quote warheads and new core submarines britons you could get to terrence local are stored in school and there's no other facility in england and wales which could boast of we have the scottish government which is a pause to nuclear weapons full stop but also of course the presence of nuclear weapons it's going to scotland isolate this is going to deepen the internal crisis

of the united kingdom and boris johnson is feeding into that chris can i just briefly touch upon one other issue china has been branded a main challenger is something of a dying grade and referee why do you think about it well i don't know is it don't great rhetoric i think what we're seeing here is. you know i see following in mind the united states and adopting the same sorts of rhetoric but i mean even in bars johnson's might you must understand that the knights it's added the united kingdom carol possibly stand up to china it has no military strategic reeses no to be in that area we gave our own call no one really understands what's going on here chris thanks as always for your time and your take respond republican well as live in london. the united states has kept its place as the world's top weapons exporter it has a market share roughly equal to the next largest arms selling nations that's

according to report by the stockholm international peace research institute now over the past 5 years the u.s. has accounted for over a 3rd of the world's arms exports almost twice russia which comes in 2nd around how 5 all arms exported went to the middle east with saudi arabia accounting for about a quarter while the volume of exports hasn't increased over all the u.s. share of the market has grown we discuss the findings with a senior researcher at the institute so what the u.s. . and many other countries also use weapon exports as a tool of foreign policy reach and scan actually grow as important as the middle east has grown very rapidly and is standing for a quarter of all total of all global. imports of. a volatile region there are lots of tensions to actually conflicts going on and poor equipment into it to make

it safer if you don't have to mechanisms to otherwise deal with potential. did negotiate solutions and if you are to major supplier you can. watch. twitter could be blocked in russia within the month the nation's communications watchdog has announced that the social network will no longer be available to users if it continues to refuse to delete posts with illegal content artie's nikky are and can tell us more. this doesn't come completely out of the blue because russia's communication regulators sent over 28000 requests for the removal of harmful content to twitter since 2017 and unfortunately many of these requests have gone a nord now we're talking about the sort of content that relates to suicide to self harm including hundreds of posts relating to child pornography and hundreds more

relating to drugs so it's the sort of content which would raise alarm bells within many countries and in some cases already has in the u.k. for example the recent investigation by the internet watch foundation found that twitter was it was responsible for a startling amount of child pornography content we're talking about one $1400.00 instance out of $2800.00 also in the us in the state of california a federal lawsuit was filed against twitter in january this year that was also relating to the spread of child pornography upon the twitter platform now does far twitter has failed to comment the s but a spin given a month by the russian regulator to comply and remove all of this content in the past a regulator has also warned that twitter could face a hefty fine if it doesn't comply with talking about one 5th of its annual revenue so as it stands the ball is very much in twitter's court. the 3rd

coronavirus wave sweeps through europe some governments are again taking the option of further tightening restrictions baltimore charlotte dubinsky looks at how the continent is shaping up for yet another about covert. european countries were hoping that by this spring it would be the beginning of the year and for the coronavirus crisis there was a promise that a year of lock downs and curfews would be sufficient in that we would be starting to return to normal instead a 3rd wave is rising as variants of the virus are once more forcing difficult decisions italy is taking a step back with most of the country returning to look down. on the basis of scientific evidence the government has today adopted restrictive measures that we have judged to be appropriate and proportionate in germany that's a question that's also on people's lips too from the data we currently have and

with the spread of the british mutation we would argue strongly for returning immediately to a lock down to avoid a strong 3rd wave here in front the english variant has become mainstream accounting for more than 60 percent of all cases as infection rates the prime minister has described the situation as being on a razor edge in paris intensive care unit so overwhelmed with patients having to be transferred elsewhere in the country in the founts is clearly on borrowed time as you know the english variant is now in the majority this variant is not only more contagious it is also more deadly our resuscitation capacities are such rated the head of the french national health agency who had repeatedly said that the curfew was working is now backtracking admitting it hasn't been enough to let us from week complexity the situation is complex stance and is

worsening in the paris region vaccines are seen as being the only hope but instead the rollout program has been more issues. whose the e.u. is still severely lacking behind the u.k. for example so much so that the germans have even admitted that they a movie is the e.u. $600.00 over the vaccine program is also the only in the farming line calls are growing from block states for the body which approves stock seems the may to speed things up crystal we would all be very happy if you would change your working i was in the european medical agency and the coming months to 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and not approve new vaccines in 3 months but in 3 weeks and there's no surprise europeans feel lost and eager to vent their anger despite all of the

restrictions. i. the 3rd wave of the covert crisis and more lock down isn't what everyone was expecting after a year that's already seen so many restrictions and losses and so much grief the idea that european countries could continuously now find themselves in the art 1 of lockdowns for some time to come is something that will certainly hit a nerve and test everyone's patience so let's even ski paris.

we spoke to laurel her play about the issue he is a contributor to le figaro magazine in france and say's the public will be the toughest judge of p. e. hughes response to the pandemic. the current crisis has exposed for big problems with the european union 1st the cuts on the public health budget those cuts implications they out the reasons why we need to have all these restrictions so that our health system do not crack during the crisis 2nd problem exposed by this crisis 80 percent of active ingredients for drugs is now produced in asia 3rd problem the vaccine strategy it's a total failure and at last i would say that the plan to relaunch the economy is. also a total failure because it's very small in the very short term. it would probably

be difficult to do to find a majority of citizens to leave the room but maybe in one year when the crisis will be over and when the. normal life we have come back then people will look. to the events they would do a proper assessment of what the e.u. brought us and the problem is that there's nothing good the e.u. brought us during that crisis. a canadian or to vista has been attacked in montreal while demonstrating against giving puberty blockers to children with gender identity issues chris ellison fill in the assaults on his phone it shows several people approaching him to mounting he leave the area of

a trans full of many times and swears to no he was left with a broken arm after one of the attackers repeatedly hit him with a traffic. code here's how he described to me the incident. what i do i just go out on the street i have conversations with people about the future to blocking drugs because the media refuse to report on what's going on out of nowhere from the road and i think from my left on the sidewalk about i don't know how many people 567 people one woman the referee men were just on me i only had about one second notice the signs off me that i wear the dime one times as children cannot consent to puberty blockers it seems to me like a 100 percent it's a premeditated attack they knew i was there and they came to get me well the issues surrounding his ministration of drugs that stopped the onset of puberty by blocking certain hormones the effects allegedly went off when the child stopped it.