the. 23rd of march and the headline international germany imposes yet another round of hush. huge scandal over political profiteering. hits the talk now with the health minister himself in the firing line. protesters hit the streets all across europe against painful new measures people tell us why they just can't take it anymore. we no longer know we. we are little lost is still a blur the thing is you call them districts life so much we are here in castle today because all of the measures that are being taken here in germany no longer serve the people. and the relations with the e.u.

as an organization top diplomat makes a stunning revelation in the wake of repeated snubs by brussels. until now journalists have a need to know the country to face what's happening in the united states the biden administrations stopping them from filming. us with refugees in. news headlines here on the international welcome to the program. german chancellor angela merkel has warned that the situation in the country is very serious and she announced a new round of nationwide restrictions till mid april that includes a ban on gatherings and the closure of shops effectively shutting down public

activity over. you know even we are in a situation which is very serious the number of cases is rising exponentially and intensive care beds a filling up again. that comes after a german research institute confirmed the country had entered a 3rd wave of infections last week saw the highest number of daily coronavirus cases in 2 months and a massive corruption scandal over face masks has now reached the very top with the health minister himself facing questions our europe correspondent has the latest. the federal government here in berlin has extended covert 19 restrictions across the whole country but that is amid a mosque crisis which is in snit a new face the german health minister a report over the weekend in the online version of news magazine claimed again spawned authorize the purchase of more than half a 1000000 masks from a company called bird bird as berlin boss mr spawn's husband himself down your food

and care the company insists mr frewen care had nothing to do with this transaction that no commission was paid and denies any wrongdoing whatsoever and 1st on to order media that the board of hooper birgitte media over the health ministry of justice systems mask procurement when the german government wants an urgent need for this the c.e.o. of the minister directing that kind of act and the minister of defense but that means that the border representative in berlin mr phone was not informed about the mask business neither by his company nor his husband who had been the direct contact person that contradicts common sense. i can only repeat that according to birthday mr spawn's husband was not informed or involved in the transaction at any time but earlier version of the article hard to aim the bird it was owned by the health ministers husband that was later corrected to reflect mr frewen his role as

an employee. but that hasn't stopped lawmakers from seeking clarification from the health minister this salami tactic with the bit by bit information from the ministry of health about the procurement of masks undermines the trust in the institutions of our democracy it has to stop we now need an end dependent transparency officer to shed light on what is going on the health minister himself is biased mr spawn's allies have dismissed the article as thin soup but opposition parties are circling and can smell blood the blood a publishing house owns papers like the dow also deals in masks half a 1000000 went to spawn's health ministry has been representative this spawns husband both like to attend buddha part is because somehow the villar has to be paid one does one actually have to do in the merkel kevin and to be dismissed of

course procurement have to be done quickly during the crisis but the wording of 4600000000 euro suave out a call for tenders is under considerable suspicion in view of the corruption scandals to a ruling coalition politicians of already fall into to personal business dealings in mosques for profit scandals but what started out as a probe into a pandemic profiteering now morphed into a wider investigation into what money german politicians have been making aside from their ministerial salaries the scandal has caused real damage to the ruling conservative union's reputation they suffered for huge historic losses in recent local elections with the green party taking up the slack in one of those areas and nationally when it comes to polling they were emerging as a real potential challenger in this september's bundestag elections in what's being called the super election year here in germany there couldn't be

a worse time to have the whiff of corruption surrounding you peter all over r.t. berlin. we discuss the situation in germany with a member of the ruling party which is embroiled in the mosque scandal he told us the country is more divided than ever and to make things worse people i thought really thought up with a contradictory locked on rules from the government germany has never been as polarized as this in the post-war history we have a gap between rich and rich and poor country and city young and old left and right nationalist and patriotic people are fed up or see a lockdown as i've just heard reports from from a different source from russia that pretty much life is back to normal it's it's tough it's one of the toughest countries in germany's some of the european countries too but germany politicians are basically toppling over each other to raise the bar to make it even more difficult for people plus the vaccination council germans if they used to one thing are used to an orderly state orderly

administrative procedures and we don't see any of this and we see contradictory. administered orders we see contradictory and failing state policies so germans are fed up but they don't or all of the requisite and appropriate conclusions in the right numbers that this government has failed. the germans are not the only ones in the e.u. increasingly frustrated with the handling of the pandemic our correspondent in paris or shall i do gauge the mood of other europeans as they to warn they'll no longer take economically damaging restrictions with the following images from the weekend reflecting the anger.

on the streets of europe these are all the scenes that have been playing out this country's what's again are announcing a fresh wave of restrictions as the 3rd wave hit rallies protesting against what they branded health dictatorships were held from austria to sweden serbia to switzerland from poland to france demonstrators say they simply have enough we don't know we are fed up we no longer know which food to stand on a little lost the soul of blur we have the impression of being muzzled we're not free. we no longer have a social life this restrictions are totally useless i just feel like come along we can go out like we want as long as we have our sophistication so should we change the restrictions may be coming in germany more than $20000.00 troops to the streets in the city of care so one must protest just to try to recent reversal will be

easing the destruction was a threat to freedom. here and we are here in castle today because all the measures that are being taken here in germany no longer serve the people but i consider corona virus to be a serious disease just like the flu which can also be very serious but to make a pandemic out of it as we are experiencing now with many restrictions on our basic rights i don't think that is justified. we want to cannons and pepper spray we used to disperse protest is the tactic was also used in the lytton's protests as was left went but they were made. undeterred across in the u.k. in the capital of london protesters to fight a current ban on public demonstrations they demanded the rules can change a cool echoed by more than 60 and he's they've written to the whom circuitries

saying for malloy sing people protesting was no to acceptable or if you believe it was no proof for you dozens were arrested as tempers for 8. please feel. free to go to the movies in must see a different term who was taken in deploying just health regulations the house to stop the streets for the underclass political party atmosphere shut down by officials as it descended into destruction. nothing justifies destroying collective efforts to contain the virus nothing justifies desecrating the side of the root of bind building collapse nothing

justifies attacking children's games and public facilities. while the e.u. is trying to tackle vaccine shortages it's admitted to making mistakes during the pandemic but have lessons been learned and i think decisions are still being made on the go ahead not very thought free. i think they're not doing a very good job at it even it's working but by luck not really by design i think that. in some extent is a lens and very sick of it but i think that. is the most important thing to ease as exit aries and new concerns he said to european little i think we have learned some and we took action. the thing is you can districts life so much easier citizens are once again feeling the pain of tightening restrictions but after more than a year of living by the rules it seems now that more and more people believe that

they are diff they do damned if they don't show that aussie paris however not every country is cracking down to use launched the covert at 19 and freedom index ranking of the states territories and countries from least to most restrictions and check it out on r.t. dot com the home for all your news and analysis you might be surprised by some of the places on the list. so russia's foreign minister has warned that relations with the e.u. as an institution are essentially dead speaking at a news conference with his chinese counterpart so they could laugh it off added that brussels has killed off all cooperation. so you look we don't have any relations with the european union as an organization the infrastructure of further relations was destroyed by unilateral decisions from brussels well it certainly isn't business as usual business as usual has been dead since 2014 foreign minister

sergey lavrov specified because that's when all these meetings annual consultations summits between senior our profile russian officials and european commissioners and leaders that is when they ended ever since then it's been a steep it wasn't a gradual it's been a steep decline but it is important to draw the distinction he said the relations between the european union as a as a huge bureaucratic machine soulless bureaucratic machine those are dead the relations between various european states and russia there are a lot of it in some cases very healthy but sergey lavrov did say there are there is hope because if the european union changes its outlook changes its approach decides that it wants to improve mend relations russia russia will be there but that has to happen as equals on equal footing to mutual benefit so russia isn't about to bend

over backwards to do something that europe wants especially not after not after everything that has happened in china shares much the same opinion. which you can impose immediate use issues against china and russia but they know it's the invented pretends it is an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of china russia a long gone result to uphold international justice remains undiminished. was in beijing making a statement as he was talking to his chinese counterpart let's talk for a minute then about russia chinese relations where is that going to becoming closer and closer and they're being driven closer and closer because look at the. european union's policy towards russia for the better half of a decade the united states to it was sanctioned everything that they feasibly could it was to try and contain russia to coerce it into doing into behaving in a way that europe wants suits european or american interest and hours of work

nothing's changed i mean they're the 1st to admit it that it hasn't worked so far but they believe it will work for some reason in the future and that is the approach they're increasingly taking towards china because we've heard multiple times in recent years that from european from american officials that it's china not russia that's the potential big threat of the future china's g.d.p. its economy its military spending its population all eclipse that of russia and lately the biggest scandal was that the european union has now put into effect sanctions against china for its treatment of the wee good people who are violating apparently their rights the chinese have protested this they have summoned the european ambassador told him in writing in word but nevertheless there is little or hope that europe will change its attitude in the immediate future and to say lavrov commenting on russian sino russian relations he says

there's a whole lot more chance an opportunity in the east than there is in the west. the european union destroyed all mechanisms to re have been trying to build over many years we have us partners individual european countries guided by their national interests and that objectively leads to the fact that our relations with china are developing faster than what is left of relations with european countries both countries of course insist on loosening getting rid of this sanctions regime that has blown up in europe in the united states over the last decade or so but they also. said that you're looking looking into the future when in the future some european commission drafts yet another report about potential threats in the future and says it's incredibly worried about russia and china growing very close politically militarily that it should look back to this moment to this moment when

it sanctioned both countries and drew them together. for us to head for you in your program want to see a u.s. judge warns practically the entire media now echoed democratic party narrative as a poll reveals trust and outlets is plummeting that story just a month or. so we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront a should let it be an arms race is often spearing dramatic to follow through the only thing i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

one else seemed wrong. why don't we just don't call. me. yet to shape out just to become educated and engage with equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. good to have you with us today for the program the u.s. is struggling with an unprecedented my current crisis on the southwestern border a record 5000 unaccompanied children alone are reportedly being held in border

patrol custody and investigative journalism group project veritas has released shocking images from my current facility in texas 3000 immigrants have been kept in polls and wrapped in space blankets 50 of the refugees are believed to have tested positive for covert in the last few days alone the managing editor of project vera just told us more. there is a major influx of illegal immigrants and that is according to the source might you 50 of them are coded. that sexual assaults you does it will stall take place daily our sources told us that there is many as 3000 migrants in this facility and donna texas at one time they're very cramped from the photographs you can see it's very spartan living there's not a lot of mats or beds or cots they are living in a difficult very tight spot it looks like a nightmare it looks like like something out of a fiction novel you can look back as far as comments from this administration

encouraging people to rush to the border encouraging people to climb any barriers just any way you can over it under it get in and we will take care of you a plain and simple people are coming over sick or not legal or not and they're being processed and it's being done in an awful matter now that we've covered the conditions here but it just seems like mass chaos and yes there is again other care and it seems airing out. the democratic party low america has also released images from the same city in texas migrants including youngsters have been held in overflow facilities and very cramped conditions hundreds of children have allegedly been stranded in patrol custody across the area for more than 10 days alternately breaking all guidelines border crossings from mexico face a 20 year high record presenting a difficult challenge for the biden administration however the by the ministration has played down the emergency. children presenting at our border who

are fleeing violence or flaying prosecution who are fleeing terrible situations is not a crisis well it does point we've got washington d.c. officials going back and forth about whether or not what's happening at the border is really a crisis we've got biden promising that he will visit the border meanwhile we've got the border officials and leaders of the democratic party in congress urging the administration to get back to reality take their share of the blame for the policies that seem to have mentioned this crisis and really get a grip on what is happening you have a breach on national security levels that have never before been seen in modern history it just blows my mind how disconnected from reality they are or maybe they do know maybe they just don't want to call a spade a spade you know because it's uncomfortable it's a slap in the face i think they're you know just want to let you know what's going

on we need to get a handle on this before against out of hand even within a week i was already calling the white house to say hey guys you've got to take a look at it when you create a system that incentivizes people to come across and they're released that immediately sends a message to central america that if you come across you can stay while there are big calls for the administration to get things under control and start responding to what many are calling a crisis it seems like the biden administration does not want there to be media access to what is happening on the border and the u.s. facilities that have been set up one journalist was quite outraged about the fact that he had to go to another country just to take photographs of what was happening here in the united states you had to stand on one side of the border i respectfully ask u.s. customs and border protection to stop blocking media access to their border operations i have photographed c.b.p. under bush

a bomb and trump but now 0. access is granted to media these long lens images taken from the mexican site until now u.s. faces journalists have needed to stand in another country to photograph what's happening in the united states how many will recall that while donald trump was president so to graps of children held in facilities detention facilities that were set up during the obama administration were widely circulated and there was mass discussion and outrage about you know what they referred to in the media as huge as in cages and there was widespread does that ing of the facilities your recall congresswoman alexandria because you know cortez had a well publicized visit to the detention facility and there was widespread coverage but the biden administration seems to be rather adamant that it is simply not appropriate to give the media access and to publicize what is going on at the u.s. borders i don't necessarily think that it's appropriate for

a journalist to be inside out of centers that are at that aren't are not permanent place places for children that children are not placed there permanently now white house spokesperson jen psaki says that the biden ministration is very committed to what she calls trans parent sick but it seems like when it comes to the situation at the border it's much better to divert people's eyes and change the subject and try to avoid bringing attention to something that is to resolve a situation that many are referring to as a crisis. this is the international a senior u.s. federal judge has accused practically of the country's entire media from t.v. to newspapers and radio of being puppets of the democratic party the public appears to agree with most now saying let's support political positions rather than inform . the increased power of the press is so dangerous today because with very close to one party control of these institutions the new york times and washington post

a virtually democratic party broadsheets nearly all television network and cable is a democratic party trumpet a democratic party trumpet i mean what an exaggeration it's not like they treated his inauguration as the 2nd coming of christ well they were just excited once i was actually in the white house they saw this throwing the tough questions at him. not to my corn crisis that me just not all that but they did go wild of those weird c.g.i. hands or maybe they were just expecting the other president and our president harrison i took a virtual tour of vaccination centers on a i will admit though that filled in with what great and tons of timing because remember that bombshell recording with donald trump pressuring elections investigated georgia to find him ballots he wouldn't have to move out of the white house while the recording revealed that the post misquoted trump's comments on the

cool based on information provided by a source did not tell the investigator to find the frauds or say she would be a national hero if she did so instead transferred to the investigators to scrutinize ballots as in she would find dishonesty there. you will notice that establishment media errors missions mistakes and outright lies always slanted one way against me and against republicans meanwhile stories that heard democrats or undermined their narratives are buried ignored or delayed until they can do the least harm media outlets should be regarded as political entities not journalistic enterprise yes but that's just an exception because when it came to trump the washington post was very sad and honest and objective and balanced and anyway trump at fox news on his side always share leading yes i have heard how some democrats want cable companies to drop fox news one american news network on newsmax but

maybe they shouldn't spread conspiracy theories no i'm not interested in what silberman said he should be borne in mind that the 1st step taken by any potential tarion or dictatorial regime has to gain control of communications particularly the delivery of news it is fair to conclude therefore that one party control of the press and media is a threat to a viable democracy well that's a huge saturation no one watches the news anymore anyway it's all about social media just that one twitter not a democrat party trump it to be seen silicon valley also has an enormous influence over the distribution of news and it simply filters news delivery in ways favorable to the democratic party and although upstart conservative networks have emerged in recent years their visibility has been decidedly tailed by social media he that by direct bans or content based censorship well that's not true what about paula what

do you mean apple amazon and google while i'm sure it was for a good reason and as the censoring content yes that was the one time that twitter brought that one link to the new york post article about hunter biden's business dealings but it's a little like it was a big story that could've i don't know sladen. lection and anyway there are other hard hitting stories to report on. some media pundits one that could trigger an assassination attempt so anyway it's a total mystery to me why faith in the us media is an all time low. well you know the pandemic mostly downs of the last 12 months or perhaps some bright and use theme parks in the u.s. state of california will be reopening next week after a year long shutdown there are plenty of do's and don'ts including some strict rules on how to behave on rollercoasters is it to me to poke. remember having fun

like a theme parks roller coasters. well apparently they're coming back but 8 maybe not quite as fun as you might remember that bella fornia has announced it will reopen its theme parks but on the condition that people will stay dead silence while sipping through the air on their favorite roller coasters so basically defeating the whole point of the ride if you're having trouble imagining just how depressing boring and sad a silent roller coaster ride could be while japan introduced a similar rule last summer and it was about as fun as you could expect. well much fun and keeping in line with the whole covert thing

a bunch of other measures were also introduced such as how many people can be on a ride seating patter the amount of households that can be on one train you get the idea so basically it's we're open but we might as well not be because all the measures we're going to introduce will make your time as joyless as possible what's the point of even opening it's not like you're going to be making any money off of this plus it's not very clear how exactly they're going to be enforcing the no screaming on the ride rule perhaps ejector seat while on the move. if there are several top stories here on international now a half past 2 in the afternoon here in the russian capital we are back soon with.