evil but just that it turns very competent but has goals that are not aligned with our goals. us regulators force astra zeneca to admit it's cope with job is nesa fact of them previously claimed and point to inconsistency in trials. joe biden says he expects to run for the white house in 2024 when pressed by reporters at his 1st formal media conference of his presidency while doubting if the republican party to run against. a special report we travel to one of the world's 1st places to scrap tough. officially free of restrictions it's russia's republic of chechnya.

hello live from moscow this is international my name is khan to bring good to have you with us few news this is what's happening u.s. medical regulators have forced astra zeneca to admit that its covert shot is less effective than it claimed that's after authorities revealed the firm may have included outdated information in vaccine trials as charlotte to bed now reports. well astra zeneca is hardly out of the headlines these days and now with its in them because its drug is said to be less effective than originally thought the data and safety monitoring board expressed concern that astra zeneca may have included outdated information from the trial which may have provided an incomplete of the efficacy date u.s. regulators questioned the it because see astra zeneca job forcing the company to publish additional data to show what happened in its trials as a result of that we now know that the astra zeneca jab is 3 percent less effective at dealing with symptomatic cases of covert 19 however it is still 100 percent

effective at dealing with severe cases including those that require hospitalization this is what astra zeneca has had to say the primary endpoint maxon efficacy at preventing symptomatic of its 19 was 76 percent occurring 15 days or more after receiving 2 doses given 4 weeks apart well astra zeneca has had a pretty bumpy ride in. after they were all humans about whether it was a feeling it's contracting delivering the required number 2 says he was also accused of the right thing to seize from the e.u. to go to the u.k. which has caused a huge storm between the u.k. and the e.u. then of course we had jobs of astra zeneca being suspended last week after a swathe of european countries to concerned that they were possible links to blood clots that led to the european medicines agency this is the d.m.a. having to really reveal all of the data and they came to completion again last week

that it believes that astra zeneca is a safe vaccine she says the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread throughout of kovi 19 continue to outweigh the risk of side effects the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots and those who receive it however the. may said it would now be adding warnings to the medicine to let people know that one of the possible side effects could be blood clotting a warning that's already in place in countries such as canada but despite those reassurances from the e m a there hasn't been fully convincing. european countries some european countries like france finland iceland have decided that they will start giving astra zeneca again in fact some of them already have however they will only give it to populations of old age groups and that's because when the evidence will move things they said in their press conference last week was that the cases that they had seen

of blood clotting that could possibly be linked to astra zeneca. in the younger age groups now trust in seneca has completely gone off the edge of a cliff across the european union a recent survey by hugo found that the majority of people just didn't think that this vaccine was safe so this new information about the fact that it's quite as effective as we previously would lead to believe may seem like a very small thing but it really could erode trust even. a microbiologist told us such data revisions could have confidence in the pharmaceutical giant and its job. fundamental tenet in science that you don't pick and choose which state to you christine but it appears that for some reason that's what's happened when we don't know why they found that it is always raises suspicions when people try to ignore the data gets not so good in favor of the data that is so we

should remember that it's only a 3 percent difference for mild moderate these and no difference at all for the most serious life threatening conditions not everybody ot relatively few people pick up on the fact that with different small they pick up on the fact there is a difference a good academic of a century being no use to cherry picking data so that's what people hear and it affects confidence it may put confidence in the company and i think it's highly likely that it will. call people to question the efficacy of the vaccine. thanks a schoolteacher in northern england has been suspended after showing pupils a cartoon of the prophet mohammed during a lesson protesters had gathered outside the school calling for the teacher to be sacked has. a religious studies teacher at a school in west yorkshire in the north of england has been suspended after showing

his pupils a picture of the prophet mohammed during a class now of course when it comes to the islamic religion and he depictions of the prophet mohammed is considered to be to boo and so to a backlash by a number of muslim parents of some children in that class the school took action and the head teacher gary kimball releasing a statement apologizing to the local community for any offense caused the school unequivocally apologizes for using a totally inappropriate resource in a recent lesson the member of staff has also given their most sincere apologies we have immediately withdrawn teaching on this part of the course. and we're reviewing how we go forward with the support of all the communities represented in our school . didn't deter least 100 protesters from turning up at the school when it was due to open in the morning now those protesters stood outside the

school they called for an investigation in to the teachers some of them calling for him to be sacked but they were also addressed by a local a mom who said that he was in contact with the school and dialogue with them and calling for an investigation to be carried out what happened here we are disgusted with has happened is totally unacceptable and we have made sure they are aware the teacher has been suspended they can't just sack him they need to do their due process we asked for an investigation and investigation to be independent we are going to work with the school to make sure things like these don't happen of course those protests by those parents peaceful but of course disruptive but in the past we have seen the issue of the cartoons of the prophet mohammed sparking wide debate particularly in the wake of the charlie hebdo attack and so incidents like these will only serve to continue to spark that debates whether one does have free speech

to draw pictures of anyone offensive as they may be or whether there is a line that can't be crossed when it comes to not offending people not just in terms of religion but also the wider sense of safe spaces and other issues to do with free speech that we've seen rising up not just in the u.k. but also across europe and the west. live now to get also a lawyer and legal editor of the online politics magazine spikes welcome back to. the teachers been suspended send even if no laws being broken per say this is going to be a difficult one isn't it there are bound to be contract cabot's this is an hour a teacher in a predominantly muslim class. well i think the 1st thing to point out is that this is an extremely worrying development and certainly not isolates we saw beastly in october 2020 the violent beheading of samuel patty in france for displaying

or allegedly displaying an image of the prophet mohammad later that year a teacher in rotterdam had to go into hiding for having a front cover of the magazine charlie hebdo that you mentioned there on the wall in the classroom he had to go into hiding on the violent threats from the islamists we're seeing that the european court of human rights has declared. criticizing islam and particularly displaying images of the prophet mohammed would not be within the permissible bounds of free expression and open debate i think what we're seeing is an extremely wiring capitulation on behalf of establishments in the west both schools governments and the international courts as well capitulated to the need not to offend islam and it's extremely worrying you know islam should be no different from the other religions. christianity judaism it's true in the

west we have a very robust spirit mocking criticism and especially open discussion the idea that we would live it our discussion or criticism of islam in a way which we don't limit our criticism or mocking about the religions i think i think is extremely worrying i would say all sorry that i don't think this is a problem. if affects most muslims in the united kingdom i think most muslims living in this country recognize that we are a democratic society that embraces freedom of expression and braces free speech and these schools really need to start standing up for those values they need to start saying that freedom of expression only really matters. when it is pushing up against what is offensive to some people. the history of free expression i'm afraid is the history of the only religion and i don't think the vast majority of muslims in this country have a big problem but i think we have

a problem but equally lukes the vast majority of non muslims know that showing caricature of the prophet muhammad is an offensive thing to do so given the examples you've just outlined there if anything this was a responsible and provocative well caricaturing jesus was irresponsible and provocative when they made the life of brian and we had a very similar to. the mandate and i think now we look back and recognize that the sentence or its nature of the church is a bad thing some reason we're not seeing we don't seem to be capable of doing the same thing with regards to islam or particularly islamists in contempt in the contemporary context you know this is a small portion of muslims in this country people who show up in protest over a cartoon show classroom and we should not capitulate to ask. to transmit values tolerance of free expression and freedom and if they're not doing that and i think

that's true. so if i was to see whether they could be taken out of anger right now but for now lou get a lawyer and legal editor a spike on life thanks for joining us. next u.s. president joe biden's held his 1st formal press conference since taking over at the white house he took a vaccination rollout foreign policy and also the migrant crisis that's unfolding in the u.s. southern border among other things what across it all for us was correspondent kind of open i get caleb at the press corps waiting than if there's maybe a press conference was it worth it. indeed there were a little while into the biden presidency he did not address a joint session of congress as incoming presidents generally do and we've waited until now to finally have an official press conference from the new president joe biden now he spoke to the press conference and there was a lot of topics that were discussed the migrant crisis issues with china etc one

particularly interesting moment came when he was pressed about why he had not formed a reelection committee and was he actually planning to run for reelection this is how that exchange went down between joe biden and the press speculating about whether or not he would actually run for reelection he'd get that you also just made some news by saying that you are going to run for reelection and i said that is my expectation so is that a yes that you are running for reelection. i don't know where you guys come from man i've never been able to travel i'm a great perspective for you have there variable planned for to have 3 and a half years ahead for certain and do you believe you'll be running against former president trump oh come on i don't even think about i don't have i have no idea. i have no idea who the republican party do you i know you have tension my question but i mean you know do you. interesting way to answer that question will the republican party still exist in 4 years quite an interesting quite interesting way

to answer that question now throughout the press conference there seem to be a very consistent theme of blaming the problems in the country and the dismal state of affairs on the previous president on donald trump whether it was the migrant issue whether it was the situation with china where there is the situation with that scenes that cetera there was a rather consistent blaming of the predecessor now when it came to the situation on the border biden was quite defensive insisting that the upsurge in migrants and migrant children crossing the border is not related to him personally or him taking office this is what he said people are coming because i'm a nice guy that's a reason why it's happening and truth of the matter is nothing has changed as many people came 28 percent increase in children of the border in my administration 31 percent in the last year of 2019 before the pandemic in the trumpet ministration and i started to deal with it back when i was united states senator for i mean

a vice president putting together a bipartisan plan of over $700000000.00 to do the root causes of why people are leaving what a trump do here limited is that funding he didn't use it he didn't do it and in addition to that what he did he did. so at this point we also heard the press press biden on whether or not he would grant media access to the facilities where migrant children are being detained now there's been concerns raised about the fact that under the trumpet ministration now there was access and we saw the pictures of the infamous pictures of kids in cages but it seems like the by the administration is much less willing to allow the media access to what is actually taking place in the facilities where migrant children are being did claim now biden said he would eventually be open to allowing some kind of transparency around that issue so this is the 1st official press conference of the biden administration certainly not

a bombastic or loud tone it was a very call event by him spoke very slowly out of the press asked a number of questions and he answered the number of issues were discussed and it seems like we finally have had a press conference from the biden administration but many wondering what exactly their plan is and how exactly they're going to move forward with what in the punch and judy show we have pain enjoying one of the better word of the past 4 years all right kind of open in new york thanks for watching across that for us ok let's go live now to george said he got it from the global policy institute a think tank on international affairs george welcome back to our take on everything so a couple of clips from that but president biden same to uncharacteristically by what same to couple of pretty obvious questions why do you think he kept them waiting so long for this. well i think that's standard operating procedure with most presidents they like to make

a big entrance which means that they like to keep everybody waiting on tenterhooks so that when the president finally appears it gets to be that much more exciting event however this was not an exciting event it took place in the middle of the day which is means it's about half past 1 in the afternoon that is eastern standard time which means that as far as people on the west coast were concerned this was actually in the middle of the morning. and that means there would be a very small audience now you would expect. 3 your 1st press conference and you haven't had one for 2 months would be prime time so the whole nation would be. watching but nonetheless biden make sure that it would be at a time when very few people would be watching and it was also relatively short it was just longer than one hour so you managed to wade through these questions but it

was definitely a nonevent in terms of all the things that are on his desk right now the pandemic record unemployment than burgeoning migrant crisis on the southern border what do you think the pope way press troops involved about what's happening in 2024 in the next election. i have no idea i was wondering of that myself it seemed a bizarre question particularly again. you have to have some sympathy for biden i mean the man is 78 years old and if you ask him what were you going to run in 4 years time when for your son you'll be 82 well you know how do you know what kind of a condition you're going to be in when you're 82 i mean if it was a silly question and you have to have some sympathy for. to be a little exasperated at that question is that what do you expect to be running

against the donald trump well how is he supposed alonzo that question i mean he the man is the titular leader of the democratic party i don't know how what difference does it make what he thinks is going on within the republican party so i mean would you chose the irresponsibility of the press i mean you've only got an hour there's a limited number of questions you can ask and you're wasting time with nonsense like this i suppose he did have a bit of a point didn't he regarding any future opponent in 2024 against the republican party that he's a party that's been hinged on one personality for quite some time a lot of soul searching there who knows what state the party is going to be in in 4 years time. though there that that's exactly right. the the future will probably come party it is very much up in the air i mean as things stand trump it. is a sure win but again if you have the worst i mean trump himself is 74 years old 4 years time he's 78 who knows what his health condition will be.

when he really be up for it so you know at this stage we just simply can't you know there's just no point in speculating about any of this so again you don't why ask why waste time and this time is very precious on such a nonsensical question and it was and then but it was also lost when you have carville harriss as your running mate what is supposed to say well maybe not maybe maybe not i'm still thinking about it larry it's a silly frivolous question. what about the crisis on the southern border his task his vice president campbell harris with taking that on it seems to be getting worse he's opening up military facilities something that was criticized and the crumby is now for a while a new administration can blame the previous group in charge how long do you think he's got before election have to start taking some responsibility for this. well i

says very serious problem because he really can go on blaming donald trump for this because even trump's critics like knowledge he did manage to bring the border situation under control he signed those 3rd country agreements with some central american countries that ensured that asylum seekers would seek asylum in those countries and they wouldn't come to the united states and then of course he signed the agreement with mexico that anyone seeking asylum. at the u.s. border would have to stay in mexico while they're waiting the adjudication of their asylum claim by unceremoniously ended all of this in the 1st few days of his administration and surprise surprise he's got a crisis on this that and the issue of the unaccompanied children well you know

here pretty much saying if you're an unaccompanied child you can come in well of course parents are going to be sending unaccompanied children into the united states because once they're here then you know they're here and then there that they can of course make an application for their parents to join them so again you know you brought all of this crisis on so we're here now to blameless on trump when trumpet actually brought this water drop is the height of absurdity a good story we're going to have some really from the global policy institute thanks for joining us if you. are around the world the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted severely difficult times it's also been uncharted territory every country has had to learn quickly how best to deal with this massive new health threat some have apparently fared much better than others in their efforts so now was we start to work out what lessons can be learned and

how to move forward we. a special report for you next from the russian republic of chechnya often criticized from abroad for its humanitarian record and strict regime has it found a way the through the pandemic that could be a template for others our correspondent to say 1st hand constantine. and yeah they tried to me a bit personally i condemn these methods but it seems they've proven to be quite effective. they took me to the police station a couple of times what for for being outside but seriously let's start over. when you think of chechnya your mind will kind of some negative associations test me it was one of the most frightening place in islamic extremism in chechnya to the horror of it i never witnessed the authoritarian leader of the russian republic of chechnya. has a bad reputation in the west and rights violations and

a crackdown on the eligibility community the like of democracy the list goes on yet at the same time during the pandemic people hear it suprising as it might sound are in many ways freer than people in moscow new york london paris you name it. island search now and that means i can legally without breaking any rules or regulations get rid of this you see chechnya has become one of the 1st regions in russia to lift a mandatory mask wearing make and in fact only one of the few places in the world without coronavirus restrictions because as the local authority claim they've conquered the virus how common is formidable change now i know it's a democratic year that's enjoying freedom of worship freedom of movement and that pretty basic right to live your life as you used to was it a chechen medical miracle or extremely oppressive measures taken by the local government. and rawson is the largest place of gathering in

the central moscow a new social distancing is required and masks are nowhere to be seen. more. to the. 10. 17. the vision to suppose which is still the number of new infections is going down with a lot of people good sense and it's all recovered from koz it is so good you are seeing this to come possible because we fold old ships so thanks to all the smoke we can stand together and pray this was. brought to me the region's capital you can walk into any cafe and travel back in time to the pre-code era it is still weird that i have to wear

a mask staff they don't wear masks at all so i think it looks strange after a year of that and that makes people around us seem to enjoy this newfound sense of freedom well though there is this one question we ask them that many appear reluctant to answer but i heard that they had a very tough like down here in chechnya. well yes mr modi you can leave your house that it was very strict so. yes but our child there were sick so i didn't get to know anyway so my they say all right now yes he's fine the girl was clearly uncomfortable talking about the lockdown later the same day i had another intriguing conversation with locals that's all it shows you how do you feel about the quarantine and the lock down and said truck it is and it took me to the police station a couple of times what for the for being outside. without wearing a mask and that we weren't allowed to go outside at all but. let's start over there

is something about the chechen lockdown that makes people here very cautious about talking there were reports of force used against those who didn't comply with anti coronavirus rules legibly several people were even beaten for sure wind up in public without a mask. in chechnya or they used the special methods to combat the spread of coronavirus i didn't include in my view to something like yeah you know the part of the north caucasus in general has seen anything like it seems to me now that the war in shali which is a smaller town in chechnya and it came into the spotlight after this video came out . around a dozen of people in police uniform patrolling the area holding white plastic pipes allegedly there was war local law enforcement and the pipes were meant as an intimidating tool for those who did not comply with quarantine at the local administration which is located inside this stunning skyscraper built in the town

of 10000 people we were told that the video is just another fake so we're going to put over into the water going to our law enforcement offices all was would was in the limits of the law. in a civil and. we couldn't find anyone who would confirm that people were beaten in chechnya for not complying with the quarantine many locals heard the rumor and literally everyone we met said they strictly followed all the rules introduced by the local government as deputy minister of health and medicine at a children's hospital that was turned into a center for example which they should because i was vaccinated they even allowed me into the red zone in. the hallways were quiet and spotless most of the units were empty and medical staff looked fresh and full of energy the facility didn't look like it had a particularly hard time during the night and demick the reason bragg's one of the lowest numbers of registered cases of daily news. factions of covert related deaths

i mean it really looks impressive which may janya it or if it's i'm going to slowly i don't trust the official numbers are hard to not only those provided by chechen officials. data from the north caucasus region in your mouth but we've seen a lot of it is assuring that the numbers on the revolt so imagine my surprise when not just an opposition journalist but also one of change now is top health officials told me to do not take this social datta at face value. he says to me to design 50 percent of our population have probably already had to wait so you're saying that over 50 percent have to already had it but according to the officials and i specifically checked that the number of registered cases is to 13000 and to make it clear. is the number of patients confirmed in many people's you know showing any symptoms. well that was quite a journey of people in change now their clients and their hospital and they're

always willing to help on the one hand but on the other they are cautious and they seem to always keep something for themselves especially when they talk with an outsider they always mindful of what they're saying to you i guess this is part of the cultural code chechen society which went through 2 bloody wars is a tough it is closed and close knit at the same time. and their experience of getting through this pandemic might be different from what people have in europe the united states the rest of russia by it's hard to tell that it didn't work out at the end of the day so this is it were a flight out of change now back to moscow and what that means well for one thing they did.