it has not been tried in the past 20 years. this mistake is my mistake and i regret deeply and apologize to all. german chancellor merkel. the looked out on the concedes it was a mistake. to be ruled by no president in. 3 weeks. and president of burden as the country sets new records for the year the government's response leaves people bewildered. and floor hate speech facebook is sued for repeatedly allowing online threats of journalists this information. is now facing crackdowns worldwide.

6 pm here in the russian capital you're watching on the international with me daniel hawkins welcome to the program. and german chancellor angela merkel has reverse to impose a 5 day looked out over the easter period that had been announced earlier in the week. for a massive wave of criticism protests just a day ago the chancellor's agenda was completely different. well there's a we are once again at the stage of exponential growth of coronavirus cases says day to fast of april as well as the set of april should be defined as calm days with extensive contact restrictions and a ban on gatherings from the fast to the 5th of april. the idea was

a mistake there were good reasons for it but it could not be implemented well enough in the short term this mistake is my mistake alone a mistake must be called a mistake and above all it must be corrected and if possible it has to happen in time at the same time of course i know that this whole matter trygaeus more uncertainty i regret that deeply and apologize to all citizens. that's quite a difference from the early hours of tuesday morning to you shortly before lunch on wednesday a colossal u. turn from angola merkel we have heard some people come out in support of what she's done mark is older the leader of the state of bavaria and one of those he's vying to replace angle of merkel as chancellor at least if you believe the rumors coming bundestag 'd elections in september he said he respected what the chancellor had done in fronting up to what she admitted herself was

a mistake then we've also heard from another one of those content is to be chancellor comb september arm in law should the head of the state of north rhine-westphalia who pointed out that all of the other leaders of the 16 states of germany were all present in that same meeting and that they all agreed to the same thing that i'm glimmer is now taking the rap for well they were all voices of support there's been some stinging criticism as well for this whole mess happening in the 1st place the logic of the planned individual measures is not revealed and these can no longer be discussed planes to majorca empty outdoor restaurants. germany how can that be justified m.p. case that last 15 hours during which the essential decisions are made between $1.00 and 3 o'clock at night run the risk that in the end not all the details are clarified and thus communication becomes more difficult especially on such sensitive issues we're already seeing what some would like to see as the fallout

from this huge u. turn from angle americal with those in opposition calling for a vote of confidence on her government. position as chancellor i call on the chancellor to ask the question of confidence in accordance with paragraph 98 of the rules of procedure of the german bundestag because she is not only admitted her own inability the lack of competence of her ministers out my and spam is obvious but because she has obviously lost the trust of part of her coalition factions ahead of what really crucial elections in september and a number of important local elections taking place beforehand we're seeing no wasting of time when it comes to jumping on this u. turn for political capital however no matter how you cut this it is not a good look for angle america or the german government we discuss the chancellor's announcement to with martin dulce our m.p.

from the left party in hamburg who says that eastern lockdown wouldn't have been effective if it had gone ahead. just got those all the voters wrong there because he includes sr and if you look at the idea of closing 1 everything just for 5 days it will never break the chain of infection i think there is different aspects i should draw back this think one us thing for sure is that there was another aspect really have. a lot of also on shops in the long view of the industry and don't. let see daily. of last year's thorley daily moves of politicians whatever it is what's the tragic then the population is in secure and i think the room or about this measures and then drawing back this is not very good to bring forward. a long term

strategy. across the border in france the health care system risks unprecedented shock within weeks if the government fails to deal with a new code surge that's the warning from the hospital federation chief. trying to make you prefer my actions have been taken given this delay hospitals are likely to be rocked by an unprecedented violent shock in 2 to 3 weeks. 3rd wave of infections kicked in last week there are now more than 26000 patients in hospitals across the country that's the highest figure this month and over 4000 and intensive care that sets a grim record for 2021 so sation of emergency doctors told us that the authorities response has been woeful. hospitals across france are struggling facing a shortage of beds in the i.c.u. there's an influx of patients their numbers are growing at an unprecedented pace

the problem results from the fact if the government hasn't provided any extra beds for a year already furthermore our country is falling behind in vaccinations more pharmaceutical companies have delayed their supply shipments are not elation rate is very low compared to other nations like morocco or serbia where health care efficiency is inferior. while many are stunned by the mixed messages coming from the french government about hostile looks sounds on official warnings of daw consequences when if there's a now letting head dresses and chocolate stops they open for what they describe as french morale so if you can ski this report. you'd think that by the time the 3rd lockdown was announced the parts of france that the government would be. permed at it this is what you can do this is what you can't do but it's been anything but the case do you think you understand there were strict now in place soon places

like paris. now it's. better but it's typical shows they've got some points too much numbers but the rules are not too well it's a little bit lax we can do a little like. they were clear enough they are good at differentiating these things faster realizing that they're fuzzy it is not really a lockdown. you can research issues but we can by this. mistake and i shouldn't go after 6 pm. after suffering now really i didn't thank you example and we don't understand the need. for example we're supposed to be in last down here we're walking in the chandeliers there are a lot of people even though it's tuesday normally during lockdown there should not be so many people yet it is there are a lot of people in the press and when the prime minister announced that 16 regions

would be heading back into a lockdown last week he said citizens would have to once again fill out punishing reforms to show that they were leaving home for essential reasons when the new forms were published they contained so many options as to why you could leave home they caused widespread confusion. say zhang cost tax how come here allow me to take a breath 10 kilometers away but force my dog to stay within one kilometer of his candle i come home from work certificate i pick up the kids from school certificate i buy a bread certificate it's a little after 7 pm certificate luckily i have no dog originally the 21 or so 1000000 people impacted by the new lockdown were told they could travel up to 10 kilometers from homes unfortunately they dogs could only go one kilometer

mulcted poked fun at and even the government had to admit that the form was complex and soon it was through the less you need into trouble more than 10 kilometers i don't want to go out after the curfew as yes that's the only place the next level of performance came as it emerged that most of the businesses that thought they would be closed as they were not essential like florist headdress and chocolate shops were told they could stay open we need some exceptions such as head dresses for french people we did it because there were professions like florist to make half the turnover during spring we did it for the chocolate is because it's easter . so is it really a lot. down light as it's been up here and do people in paris know what they can and can't do do you think you can eat lunch with your friends in the park yeah . i think it can be possible no they've said it's normal that they do not

recommend eating lunch with your friends right now i think we have the right to eat in a park with friends to go out after 7 pm under certain conditions i think yes superman would visiting friends at home i don't think that's possible after 7 pm we don't have the right with the curfew we don't have to write all joking aside a year of bouncing in and out of lockdowns is certainly brought everyone to the same feeling that of being generally fed up and you can't help but feel french government is in its own confusion about what we should and shouldn't be doing causing perhaps unnecessary public anxiety. r.t. powers. heading back to moscow where vladimir vaccinated the kremlin has confirmed president had to cope with 19 job but which one will remain a mystery officials are saying they won't specify the shots in order to highlight

that all 3 russian vaccines are both safe and effective over here in russia more than 6000000 i've had their 1st job since the inoculation campaign began over 4000000 have already had both doses as you can see it's paying off the infection rates fall and with the number of daily new cases now under 10000. spoke to the deputy prime minister about the vaccine program and how it differs from the rest of europe. if you say that vaccination is safe and we're monitoring it safety would it be easier for the government to make it more or less mandatory or if not forcing people strongly compelling them as in israel if you don't want to be vaccinated don't leave your house russia has extensive experience nationwide vaccination we have got used to it's voluntary nature i think trying to pressure force people to get the chip or stay at home because they haven't been inoculated that's wrong

because everyone is different we're now seeing a scandal unfolding around the astra zeneca vaccine while the w.h.o. says that it's too early to draw any conclusions and suspending it may be unnecessary what do you think what is your general attitude to this scandal. we are extremely careful when it comes to any data connected to side effects potentially provoked by this or that product why because we did not have the opportunity to fully check it using medical data in this case we can only speak about ourselves and here i can say that each country it's strictly monitoring all of the potential post vaccination side effects of the vaccination process should not be politicized because the process itself is aimed at one particular goal saving lives and protecting the population. shall we not politicizing this as a country. we are saying that the country created 3 product of its own we're

telling the whole world about them in the same way that everyone else is why wouldn't we it's our achievement we're proud of it at the end of the day it's an appraisal of russian science which some have been trying to diminish and say we are not capable of anything we are in the long run we do acknowledge that there could be a 3rd wave there may be a slight increase but why is it massive everywhere but moderate in russia well we see how the pity me a lot your situation is developing in europe and in russia one of the reasons for this development is that they were constantly unlocked and people stayed at home they did not go outside they are still in the sense of the virus so then they go out and catch it that's why they never develop collective immunity right essentially yes when do you think this will all end we are now working on the assumption that we will achieve 60 percent collective immunity by august it is clear that most likely there will be some seasonality everyone has been talking about that. so it could come back in october. yes but i really

hope people will get vaccinated because dealing with the consequences of the disease will be far more difficult than getting voluntarily inoculated. us secretary of state 3 blinken has warned burden of possible sanctions if an old stream to just pop round being built from russia to germany is completed the message was sent to his german counterparts high cost sort of face to face meeting touring a nato summit in brussels. i made it clear that firms and gauged in pipeline construction risk u.s. sanctions the parkland invites europe it exposes ukraine and central europe to russian money palatial and coercion it goes against europe's own stated energy security goals so what i said was that we will continue to monitor activity to complete and certify that pipeline and if that activity takes place we will make a determination on the applicability of sanctions. or despite u.s.

warnings nato faces a split in views over the gas projects and during today's summit in brussels the alliance is chief gannon stoltenberg admitted the she was top of the discussions that a common standpoint was yet to be reached russia's foreign ministry has questioned his motives on the issue of north stream 2 there are differences. there is no no reason to hide that because ours is out in the public. there are different to use among nato allies and then i think that nato is a platform where we also can address and discuss these issues and and doing are not going to disperse if exceptions but but the show north stream too has been raised over these 2 days nato doesn't have a common view on the stream to but why does the military organization have to take a common standpoint towards a business project between 2 independent states maybe their alliance has plans to

invest. costing just over $9000000000.00 euros the north room to project is already more than 95 percent complete it will allow russian gas the flow directly into germany under the baltic sea it could also be used to bypass existing pipelines which take gas through ukraine which could cost of valuable transit fees. well we go live now to thomas fassbender journalist and author for more on this thomas thanks for joining us today on the program great to have you with us the russian foreign ministry clearly picks up on this why is the western military alliance interested in stream to a business project an economic venture between 2 independent states well maybe the position of the russian government it is in fact also the official position of the german government nord stream to is purely a business project but it is unfortunately not the position of some of our major major allies the germans and germans major allies in particular the us and where

there is general in knowledge meant that pipelines gas oil pipelines are of political geo economic and relevance so that explains why the subject is being discussed in the middle to form an but as mr stoltenberg. there is no unique position on the on the pipeline or whatever platform you discussed it there doesn't seem to be a common view or knowledge stream to within the nato membership a nato member states or what do you think they're hoping to achieve by discussing an economic venture in a military format. well i'd say 1st of all the americans the u.s. politicians are so adamantly against the project they will use any available form it to bring it up but this concern is not limited to the u.s. the concern of course is in our neighboring country of poland in the baltic

countries in other places over to ukraine which is not not an ally of the west but just close political country i should say that there are several elements here and one is unfortunately a continuous one there is concern. among germany's neighbors are also in the us that whenever it comes to german russian rapprochement to any dealings between germany and ran russians where other european countries may feel themselves excluded this raises eyebrows and nato is a platform which also 'd serves the purpose to integrate germany in in the west and firmly in the western hemisphere and the political order of west and central europe and the pipeline. is unease. is of divisive force in that respect i do think nato is perhaps facing somewhat of an identity crisis regarding its

relevance in the model world and is trying to perhaps widen its remit here what would be some of them with this discussion of particular surely if we go back to the to the roots of nato it was created as a protective aligns against of capitalist market economy countries against an ideological and political and military enemy the communist bloc and the amount the soviet union in those far away days this this threat communist threat has gone 30 years ago. and since nato has been looking for a new identity and now there is growing concern especially in europe there that the nato identity may be turned on that nature may be turned into an instrument to ensure a u.s. domination of the eurasian marts according in accordance with the.

old doc trying that the us must not allow any competing. 'd 'd power ruling over a dummy needle with the eurasian continent we're coming up to the end of our time thomas just one brief question what's your take on the future of later how do you see the future at least in the medium to long term of the military alliance in the what i just said europe is in danger in danger of becoming something between a rock and a hard on the one hand we appreciate to the protection by the u.s. military and political ally on the other hand we do not want to get in between the in between the us chinese or u.s. russian rivalries and end up with a worse case as cannon fodder and and a better place that a lot of us fast by the journalist and author thanks so much for your time your

thought on r.t. good to have in the program thank you. global media watchdog reporters without borders has filed a massive lawsuit against facebook for allegedly letting hate speech flourish including false videos on the pandemic that have been watched millions of times is just one of the serious allegations now hitting the tech giant around the globe. reporters without borders lawsuit demonstrates that the california based company's undertakings to its consumers are largely mendacious and that it allows dissent from ation and hate speech to flourish on its network contrary to the claims made in its terms of service and through its ads facebook a mere pittance has grown to be too large for the company itself even its exacts when unaware of being filmed of course admitting the giant has to be tamed. to.

do it but until this happens it's up to individual countries to rein in the dominance of facebook and they do the u.k. has taken the social network to court for losing control of the data of british hughes's italy following the company over the lack of transparency in their privacy policies facebook was misleading users to register on its platform by not informing them immediately inadequately of the collection activity with commercial intent of the data provided by them astray or forced facebook into a commercial deal making it pay news corpus trulia for journalism from its local mastheads but only after an ill tempered fight in which facebook inadvertently shut down some of vital information services in australia. on the side of over and for cement in doing so some content was blocked inadvertently even in the united states

where facebook is widely viewed as a mass mind control tool in the hands of political establishment is taking steps to limit its reach for these books user profiles would allegedly reveal an individual's likes dislikes interests and habits over a significant amount of time without affording users a meaningful opportunity to control or. and the unauthorized exploration of their private life some say the big tech has replaced big oil as the global corporate power play up except it controls not only the money but also information streams and whether its concerns about snooping censorship or monopoly practices the raw signs that the global mood could be turning on the online giant but it won't go down without a fight fairly powerful groups like media organizations and governments coming up your facebook from very different angles now none of those entities are powerful

facebook is right now that of course might be one reason that these governments are a little worried about our release trying to reign it in we're already a very very scary territory all right and it's only going to keep going in the same direction that it has been go and governments or have been slow to rein this in governments and sort of try to do anything about it he said giants are stronger than governments they are the most powerful forces on the planet they're all talk of course of the planet as a mercy they control the conversation they control who gets the herd who doesn't get to be here and they control what you see they control what you buy they know everything about you they are showing us who's in charge. of all sort of what a shop take in hate speech a new documentary looks at the cyber bullying and its effects on all internet users check it out on doctor dot com. you know as a father who knows. 8 if your moment are getting back to your friends that the irish. blogger so it's all looks to me all of. the

theater i still looked over to it's in the which it actually means being no regrets the paper value after we purchased our pursuit recordkeeping got this to them that i'm a bit of a tim noble which ensures a law against my with if you could be moved to the misery of us. and then you know it is a bush. so there's to your proof. it is not a reason it's that she was out of reach of the duty. to veto a good bit of both of them know that without the knots but cent of it at the store and you buy yachts a stock or a c.p. kids and then use the new does that seem at the. door of. the course the communion the dots as you see it or in another just it's a big deal it's it's in the moves and since i'm stupid you know it's what i'm some

worst of the deal of the worst was that since there are lots of. the issue of reparations in the u.s. has split public opinion of the chicago suburb city of events than became the 1st to pay black residents who've been so we've suffered segregation and housing discrimination or thirty's of approved a $10000000.00 package setting aside $25000.00 for each eligible family the money is to be spent on the home repairs or is down payments on property the operations will be funded by income from annual cannabis taxes over the next decade. but on the wider issue of reparations a poll found just one in 5 agreed damages should be paid to the design of slaves and many also question how it is you bill ity for such programs is determined with race as astri and evidence of discrimination all being considered we put the issue up to debate with our guests. there's quite in the current jing development it's

quite new and heard of. it is a 1st step towards. repairing or implementing some sort of prison or to justice. for historical injustice that the black people have suffered from no it's not really anything because i mean the elephant in the room here is that this is not slavery reparations it's only kind of like a housing program disguised days reparations for slavery because there was never any slavery in evanston let alone chicago which is that dinner every where every say news let's face it whatever it's done whatever kind of financial reparations would never repair that historical injustice that those people have suffered from i mean this is just impossible money would not buy people's lives bad or repair that suffering it is mostly symbolic it was a point only did it was to be paid it should have been pay and slave holding places to former slaves from the former slave owner or from the state that's what it

should have been about what i think when i say it's a big it is a 1st step it is a 1st step but only and only if people keep pushing and the systemic racism is really challenge not only in cities or states but over the in the country such and actually i would go if we even beyond that it's actually a global issue what it is issues dokken to bow out don't really understand what we're saying i mean if there's ever sort of racism or some way of say some i mean if somebody a mean does that mean that the state has to come in and pay some money there's a me out a mad tax money after pay or some kind of corporation that wasn't even really involved with it i mean this is not really going to happen there will be issues of course this will be misused some will be some will use this as a token and say ok you've been paid and that's basically you have to shut up and then you should not ask for more but i think we have to be realistic it is not enough strew but it should be used as

a basis force for larger social movement that ask for much more at the national level. after years of trying can the united states finally withdraw from afghanistan crosstalk discusses the possibility up next. and often how to get you up to speed on the global headlines join us again that. the world is driven by dream shaped by.