the u.s. department of health admits to pressuring brazil against using the sputnik vaccine over fears of russian influence in the region. major states suspend the use of you can of the u.k.'s astra zeneca shot over a blood clot fears creating yet another headache for the blocks vaccination program . britain labels russia its number one threat and vows to deter and defend against the supposed the dangers emanating from moscow. and europe grapples with a 3rd coronavirus wave with many countries plunging back into the lockdowns to tackle surging infection rates.

for new all the most important news from around the world this is r t international donald quarter here with you in the studio welcome. u.s. department of health has admitted it used diplomatic ties to pressure brazil into not approving russia sputnik the vaccine washington says it's over fears that increasing that russian influence could threaten national security my colleagues and your farmer and where i'd go as do you have talked through developments 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 a touchy 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 the book 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 suits of the situation is catastrophic it is desperate and there 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 beat itself. 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 difference is of course the. back then they couldn't show you what it is that russia disinform anyone with in this case he you go we have clear

evidence their own admission that they had denied people a chance to get vaccinated with the vailable 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 but than 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 us officials away could not that's dangerous for america and you know lover of 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 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. concerns of the safety of the astra zeneca covert vaccine have prompted a major players to temporarily stop using the n.t. covert shot it comes after reports of blood clots and even a death among those who received the an occupation in denmark the european

medicines agency says an investigation is ongoing with the initial findings expected on thursday as peter all of our reports 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. the decision is a purely precautionary measure astra zeneca is used as a vaccine by millions of people in many countries around the world with very aware of the significance of this decision and have not taken 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 e.u. allows it the question on. the cases that have been flagged that are outside the

normal average frequent 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 will 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 may 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 these 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're justified or unjustified but they make this whole vaccination campaign so bureaucratic. 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 are. always have to be very careful and that's why 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 e.u.'s vaccination program has moved to the glade seal 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 is seen at 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 already had the virus like i'm pat and i have antibodies so why would i need a vaccine the lesson you want to do is put this under the rug so 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 what the new factors are and then we go let's take a step back is are we on the right track and then we negotiate. u.k. has branded russia its number one threat london has vowed to deter and defend against a wider array of apparent dangers emerging from the country but russia's ambassador to the u.k. hit back claiming london is simply trying to justify plans to shower money on the british military used to sort of need your humor to boom abuse if you look at the you case 2015 strategy you can find the same aggressive rhetoric to. it's russia alongside calls for cop aeration on global issues but this year the version reads only about russia's threat status and doesn't say a word about dialogue between the 2 countries if you ask why well in my view the

u.k. government is going to spend immense sums of money to modernize its military despite also trying to overcome the financial hardships triggered by the cold the crisis and to justify these british authorities are seeking for a solid excuse so the menace of russia is speak as an excuse for why you think that britain would have its hands full of dealing with covert 19 the countries still in lockdown the economy has taken a huge hit as doctors are furious off to a tiny one percent pay rise and it's 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

are 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 in the a round 110 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 want says that it's responsible for chemical weapons attacks on u.k. soil and that the kremlin generally pursues a very aggressive for. 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 bad narrative fails to deliver any novelty because after all we've seen how presenting russia as the bad guy has been rampant in the u.k. of the past few years this range 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. or destructive russian behavior irresponsible activity dissin from ation russia must desist through this entire show in the u.k. russia poses but immediate an urgent trip trying national security for its part moscow 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 were used these were nothing but unfounded accusations well apart from the perhaps expected russian

element to this report there were a few out that no these 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 at 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 forces within the u.k. who are also 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 pun demick so those are just a few of the key takeaways from this fresh report which might leave some asking the question with it being the u.k. 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 more than just declaring russia the u.k.'s main threat to london also laid out plans to increase its nuclear weapons arsenal we discussed the issue with political analyst chris bambery and kate hudson from the campaign for nuclear disarmament both of them are concerned what impact the move could have on efforts to deescalate the global arms riis. it's interesting that he's chosen to

make this increasing nuclear arsenal at the same time as president biden and putin have recently signed up again favorite new the new start treaty which is a by the actual nuclear weapons reduction treaty so it's not johnson is going against the flow we've had 30 years of gradual to solve meant that spic is down across the world russia or the us still continuing with that constructive development and boris johnson set me saying right so the 40 percent increase in britain's nuclear weapons i mean people have a right to say why he can or thought of what the leader of the opposition says but he's asking the right question what is the point of this to announce that you're going to spend billions so you chris you know nuclear weapons nuclear warheads at a time when we're having our talk of a stereotype measures here of your pal nazis who are dealing with the cooler though and derek i'm not the one percent pay rise this is just madness major question

should be asked about domestically about what this is happening here given that we're always told there's no money because of the academic impact of the pandemic and secondly why do you want to go back into that alliance the united states was led as it's our rock which made the sense afghanistan and totally wired up and we position ourselves as if we're the same to launch a new you quote war. still to come it's return of the lockdowns sweeping restrictions are back in play across parts of europe as countries ramp up their defenses against a 3rd wave of the coronavirus all the details after this short break. when almost choked seemed wrong why don't we all just don't hold. any new clothes

yet to shape out these days to come after. engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. the world is driven by a dream shaped by one person of those. who dares thinks. we dare to ask.

them back to the program of a 3rd wave of the coronavirus sweeping across europe governments have again been ramping up restrictions dubinsky has been looking at how the continent is shaping up in the latest battle against cope it. 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 lockdowns and curfews would be sufficient in that we would point we starting to return to normal instead of 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 beaches 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 in the wish very intense become mainstream accounting for more than 60 percent of all cases as infection rates or 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 ill of france 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 interest complexity of the situation as 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. 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. $300.00 over the vaccine program is also the only in the far cools a growing from block states for the bolting which a previous doc seems the a.m.a. to speed things up krista we would all be very happy if you would change you working i was in the european medical agency and the coming months to 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and not approved new vaccines in 3 months but in 3 weeks earned there is no

surprise europeans feel lost and eager to vent their anger despite all of the restrictions. the 3rd wave of the covert crisis and more lock down isn't what everyone was expecting after 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 out see paris. what it could be blocked in russia within the month the nation's communications watchdog has announced the social network will no longer be available to users if it continues refusing to delete thousands of posts with illegal content artie's nicky aaron 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 note now we're talking about the sort of content that relates to suicide to south 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 found against twitter in january this year that was also relating to the spread of child pornography upon the twitter platform now those followed 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 u.s. has kept its place as the world's top weapons exporter its market share alone is worth around the same as the next 4 nations combined and that's according to a report by the stockholm international peace research institute over the past 5

years the us has accounted for more than a 3rd of the world's exports almost twice that of russia which comes in 2nd around half of all arms exported went to the middle east with saudi arabia core accounting for about a quarter while the volume of exports hasn't increased over all the u. the us is a share of the market has definitely grown we discussed the findings with a senior researcher at the institute that published the report. so what the u.s. . and many other countries also use whip and export splice as a tool for foreign policy and actually grow as imported 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 there are actually complex 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 the major supplier you can. now hear some news just in 7 people have reportedly been killed and multiple people injured after a shooting took place to spas and a massage parlor in the u.s. city of atlanta officials say the manhunt for the armed suspect is still ongoing and it is not yet known whether the shootings are connected we will bring you more details on the story of course as soon as we get them now to follow that story closely you can also check out our website our t. dot com and i'll be back with more news in just about half an hour so stay tuned.

interest rates have created the divide and it and really the grounds for a new civil war i think because those who are allowed to get those 0 percent interest rates are i get them through political favoritism not through merrick those who are being subjected to high interest rates and being cut out of the asset market it is also a political ploy by those in power to get more for themselves and to destroy the fabric of the economy and that's heading into serious trouble. we're told the deal jase capitol right investigation is one of the largest in american history the f.b.i. has made it clear it will not leave one stone unturned to prosecute what it calls domestic terrorists all of us want answers surrounding this event but is this also a purging of trump loyalists.

this is to bust the one business show you can't afford a bit more in washington coming up with a global vaccine rollout well underway the process has seen some speed bumps straight ahead we dive into the latest and later we bring in a pail to break down how markets are faring of the federal open market committee meets to discuss the state of the u.s. economy back show today so let's dive right in. we lead the program with the latest regarding astra zeneca in oxford universities embattled cope with 19 vaccine after a handful of e.u. member states suspended use of the drug due to issues related to blood clots the

executive director of the european medicines agency says it is investigating the link between the vaccine and these health issues but of course we know that many people many thousands of people it's about a block on your the in the e.u. for many different reasons so what we call our expert committee to do is to stop this whether there might be a cold the relationship between the box the nations these events so while the investigation is ongoing we are currently we are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the job that the cat box in preventing poke at 19 with its associated prisk of hospitalized patients that outweigh the risk of these side effects and these comments from the blocks drug regulator come as officials from belgium and the united kingdom have said they will continue use of the backseat but if we look very carefully the evidence is all regulated the n.h.l. is very clear that action so i think people should take. a regulator has been

pretty clear there's no case to suspend the rollout on the continent and the w.h.o. the world over when i say she's also been clear so this is actually sacred we should take it is saving lives actually currently the data that we have just not allow us to say that there would be an additional risk to asher's and i have x. in the field of those to see both your lives and dollars of it has been used massive was around 5500000 doses in the european union and nearly 10000000 in the united states and in this massive data signals could let us think that we are over the expected value and normal level of thrombosis most of them in a general population. meanwhile a spokesperson for russian president vladimir putin has taken issue with the united states putting pressure on brazil to not use russia sputnik the vaccine in january the u.s. department of health and human services said in its annual report that its office of global affairs had made efforts to counter attempts by countries including

russia to bolster their influence.