headline stories this hour the european medicines agency urges countries to keep using the astra zeneca. insisting it is safe. but. also ahead in the program. we made mistakes true a stark admission of failure is in the handling of the covert crisis the french president the country imposes a 3rd. of this in the u.k. a poll revealed sworn in for n.h.s. workers are more likely to quit 2020 many citing exhaustion from. we

speak to british. side much. to help increase. the origin of. still a mystery a long awaited w.h.o. report from leaves many questions unanswered. 247 news live from the russian capital this is your r t thanks for sharing your time with us today our top story this hour. the european medicines agency has thrown its support behind the astra zeneca coalwood vaccine despite fears over severe blood clots the regulator is launching yet another

investigation into the issue but insists country should keep using the show on. according to the current scientific knowledge there is no evidence that would support restricting the use of both vaccine in any population 2 weeks back in any population 2 weeks ago on the 18th of march we gave an interim update of the assessment and we concluded after the time that the benefits of the astra zeneca vaccine in preventing codeine change with a. risk of hospitalized patients and their outweigh the risk of side effects and our position has not changed another i mentioned previously a causal link with the vaccine has not yet been progress but it is possible there are now if this is still ongoing well this astra zeneca saga continues doesn't it the latest being the head of the european medicines agency insisting there is no

evidence to suggest the best mode of action here would be to restrict the use of the astra zeneca vaccine and this is of course coming just days after germany decided to limit distribution of the job citing concerns over blood clots now worldwide there have been $62.00 cases of this rare blood clotting condition which has prompted a number of european countries to temporarily holt's use of the vaccine germany's medical regulator has recorded 31 cases of this rare blood clots condition although in people younger than the age of 63 all but 2 were women and 9 people have died and angela merkel has said this is data that the government has cancer can or comes through in the standing committee for vaccination published near the commendations in the future use of the estrogenic a vaccination i quote on the basis of the currently available all be limited evidence and with a view to the pandemic situation the standing committee for vaccination recommends the use of the ester seneca curve in $1000.00 vaccine and those over 60 it's

application for under sixty's is still possible a doctor's discretion and individual acceptance of the. well it's just another setback in the progress really the bloke's vaccine rollout has been heavily criticized for being sluggish and this is mainly due to their facts that they just don't have a sufficient supply of vaccines only 4 percent of the books population has been vaccinated so far and the world health organization has really criticized this and said you know the block really needs to get a move on vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic however the rollout of these vaccines is an acceptably slow we must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing reducing barriers to administering vaccines and using every single vial we have in stock now this is brussels also receives criticism from 5 is which is blames the e.u. stringent export controls for delaying covert vaccine efforts now pfizer the drug

maker which has a base in belgium supplies britain and 70 other countries around the world so we're seeing delays upon delays here so perhaps the perfect timing to introduce a helping hand in the form of an alternative vaccine but what if the vaccine is russian now the european medicines agency has been evaluating the for several weeks now but there are some countries that just aren't willing to wait any longer and have started ordering and some even started using the sputnik the vaccine hungary and slovakia are on board all stria being the latest european countries to alter the vaccine and a recent poll in germany as shows that over half the country want its government to also follow suit now so we'll remember the negative press surrounding sputnik the when the vaccine was 1st unveiled but now it seems that using sputnik the might be that the logical answer to all of these problems. well we also heard from martin

morton's a political from germany's left party he believes the vaccine in europe has been politicized the expense of people's health and ultimately their loans. we look at what is going on in the mall and i think we need every work seeing which is. possible to know to use and which is. secure so when we see that as true as in there as a lot of doubts it's so we should take the alternatives and i think. 'd shook us now to evaluate and then to will 'd accept that support we. all of a vehicle that scenes which are sure weren't safe to be used i think the population is very insecure at the moment i think demick there should be a lot more thoughts of nationalism and conference different problems in a shop be the politics internationally in favor of the people and of the health of

the people and if the governments are responsible. no you. which are there should be nationalists and here measures to 'd secure or else of people instead of to is to secure the profits of the industry the french president has admitted he made mistakes at every stage of the pandemic in a televised address to the nation among all necron also known as the 3rd nationwide lockdown as kobe had cases so we're intensive care beds fill up the country's death toll nears 100000 that didn't stumble opposition m.p.'s though responding by stating he was acting like a monarch the best for all or just in france mccrone said the situation left him no other choice. affected the thought that i know that every stage of this epidemic we might say to ourselves that we could have done better that we made

mistakes who listen is true we all need to make an additional efforts over the coming months this is what i ask of us collectively tonight. so the new lock don measures will be extended from 19 areas to all of mainland france from sutton it means a nationwide curfew beginning at 7 pm travel between regions and the french president schools will be closed for at least 3 weeks and announce the dish will policing to ensure no more than 6 people gather at once. well the measures introduced by the french leader come really as a u. turn to his previous decision not to lock down in january he was criticised at the time by scientists and hospital bosses. i say to the government do it now but do it now do it for a shorter time but do it to concede there we were right not to implement a lockdown in france at the end of january because we didn't have the explosion of cases that every model predicted france's president is without

a doubt an educated man emmanuel macro and through through the country's top institutions before making a mark in both the private or public sector he then repaying france's youngest ever president i mean it's a pretty impressive resume and people traded in selfless and learned he knew when to take advice it is important at this time by following the advice of scientists as we've just done to ensure the continuity of democratic life and our institutions but now it seems being top dog isn't quite enough not grown his throwing himself into an entirely new discipline the president has acquired real expertise in health issues it is not an inaccessible subject for an intelligent person like him considering the important time he has dedicated to it for several months not cause aids if he wouldn't be declared that he has become an epidemiologist despite not

having a scientific background in these claims over. seas on health issues have also rubbed experts so the wrong way. mr president of the republic and in the framework of the pandemic just like all heads of states he has become interested in epidemiological data yes to put his nose to the grindstone he's obliged to take notice of trends but that doesn't make him an epidemiologist of course for all those that talk about epidemiology and among them we can find heads of states like president mccrone who talks about epidemiology just like we talk about politics when we talk about sculpture or about music but they're not necessarily sculpture artists. musicians. in law fears of a nursing exit this in britain after a survey revealed that n.h.s. staff are not more likely to quit 3rd 'd jobs than in previous years exhaustion from the pandemic was cited as the overriding reason according to the poll one in

4 n.h.s. workers are more inclined to leave than during the previous 12 months almost 30 percent of them are nurses and midwifes 2 occupations facing major shortages and 70 percent said the payroll is a decisive factor while those working for free student nurses say they're struggling to make ends meet one of them gave us her reaction to the surveys findings it doesn't surprise me at all we've had. increased. the cost of living has gone up but wages have increased the east side much stress on the nurses that made wives everyone involved in that session and i think to be honest with the pandemic i think everyone has now had enough and they need help and i feel the government may to help and increase the way. to get a good environment for everyone well this is the help british health authorities have promised to provide the n.h.s. with an extra 29000000000 pounds but the nurse we just spoke to says that money

isn't making any difference when it comes to student medics. we get the 5000 pounds and some people get a 2000 pound grant dependent children or what feels like i mean tape but in reality is it's all in the i should and that the increase in childcare costs you know the increase in council tax increase and if you get into placement in my 1st year i think it's a defeat back twice. and that should say the nest states that were actually were tightness is at the rate bank they couldn't believe that they should i go into this position because i have a rabbi they are 2 children and that's why my with 5 require it one was quite a full time childcare and the other one it just started sco the funds come for you all to we've already signed up for the course of that for you potentially if she leaves the coals and it does add to the mental so that the sorry sorry. not the united states is still hoping to secure the extradition of julian

a son shoes in prison in the u.k. that's the spied a london court ruling in january but the wiki leaks founder should not be sensed its he'd be put in total isolation and would be at risk of suicide but america's state department insists that both countries are observing human rights law and their humbling of the case. and you. know national human rights standards mr sands was arrested in london in 2019 after spending 7 years holed up in the ecuadorian embassy he's wanted in the u.s. on 17 charges of espionage over the release of thousands of classified files a decade ago now that was the latest we remarks we heard on the son's case that came right after the release of the u.s. state department's 45th annual report on human rights practices worldwide the

documents singles i china run venezuela turkey and russia accusing them of violating civil liberties russia's foreign ministry hit back accusing washington of apocrypha saying we got reaction to this story from former cia officer ray mcgovern . what we have here now is a situation where julian is surprised of any rights the main the main reason being that if they get him and put him in prison for the rest of us life no one no one will try to expose us war crimes or the empire's war crimes there julian it was slander it was arrest it was torture and now god knows what you don't have to rely on me for that there is a u.n. report to for torture and you'll smell so i looked into it so i hope he is able to escape the ultimate penalty but it judging from people who have seen him most recently he has already been. ruined by by the

the treatment that he has been subjected to i do have hope that julian will will be able to persist and finally find a new life with his partner and his 2 little boys who pine away waiting for him to come home. meanwhile the u.k. sports minister is being lampooned on the line after he suggested people should avoid hugging to save lives people took issue with the way he described. odd behavior. despite the temptation pleas and risk. by actually hugging one and risk the spread of the disease d.c. somebody. and maybe call him out on that in

a respectful way. where can i report you because if you think you're promoting normal behavior you need to check out from the neck up what script are you reading from no sane individual would put this out there as normal. behaving in a slightly odd way strange choice of words to describe family members hugging one another. in other words if you see someone behaving like a human being and then call them out on it. can he call out his many callie's who have been found guilty of various actions ready

ready. still ahead in the program a cryptic tweet from the u.s. department in charge of the nuclear arsenal has caused quite a stir will be probing the story after the break. leg. length .

lens. leg. there's an individual community crime scene the student international community. many. years later in my mind. are you punishing the person who committed the crime. is the person being punished for something completely different person at the time $101.00 is a person's actions no longer. everyday basis. hello again no it is the beginning of april an april fools joke announcing a pulp festival in belgium has 'd ended in police charging on horseback and using

water cannon they were forced to move into the spurs a large crowd of would be revelers for breaking lockdown rules around 2000 people turned up for the fake event in the central park in brussels crowd started throwing bottles and other projectiles and police after being told to go home been for the made up concert was posted on facebook last month prosecutors have launched an investigation into who was behind it. for the us government there is no bigger responsibility than guarding the nuclear launch codes so to reassure americans that they're in safe hands strategic command has been keeping them updated twitter.

if it takes us strategic command of 30 minutes to recognize a missed tweet how long before they recognize we're under attack. i'm pretty sure your strategic command just launched all the nukes. ferlo well maybe it was a sick or not so secret message to a foreign nation leader which is who every type that was trying to. looks like their cat walked on their keyboard. if this is the level of security what other forms of wax. might be exhibited somewhere along the way we're becoming so lax we're losing our minds there's also this idea that all children are at home now

this is the time of covais don't you understand children are at home you know earlier misadventure it's bound to happen. when i read something i did something good it really happened do you mean to tell me that. yet there something like this was left open they. don't get it leaves in that i read that my dear home. a long awaited w.h.o. report on the origins of coburg 19 face sharp criticism worldwide some countries say the investigation was an expensive enough as many questions still remain unanswered w.h.o. director general himself called for further study after the report was published now we got a firsthand account of the w.h.o. mission to hand from a russian member of the team. which will cause our mission started off under phase one why was it called that it was clear from

the beginning nobody expected us to find answers to all the questions right away in fact it was prepared to rework aimed at analyzing the data we had accumulated and establishing hypotheses in general it's hard to predict how long this investigation will take and how it will end but it should be done that's for sure. since we've managed to find out that the virus supposedly emerged in the period between the middle of november and the beginning of december however we don't know the exact location of the outbreak in my view it was in china but it's not clear yet it's unlikely though that the outbreak occurred in a wet market most probably it was some market visitor who had already been infected and spread the virus this suggestion derives from the fact that there were quite a large number of patients who had nothing to do with the markets we don't know who the 1st patient was neither do we know the natural origin of covert 19 based on our common knowledge of various coronaviruses we suggest it's a but might have been

a source. yeah the issue is very much politicized everyone is trying to find someone to blame i've never considered the oblique hypothesis a theory there's so much talk about this in the media though but people don't really have an idea there is no scientific evidence or facts proving a leak as of today based on what we saw i can say that the suspect a laboratory is run properly by well trained staff there is total compliance with all the rules regarding work with viruses of this has a class or even the class above the laboratory is regularly audited and isn't a constant scrutiny of competence international organizations building from that we dare for can't say that a lab leak might have been the cause. we didn't feel any pressure coming from our chinese colleagues actually it wouldn't even be the case i can't think of how they could have put pressure on us we are in no way affiliated with china people from various countries were part of our team

who went to carry out this investigation on behalf of the w.h.o. and what would have been the point of pressurising us we hardly liaise with officials we were largely in touch with scientists russia is expanding the global rollout of the sputnik the vaccine the russian direct investment fund which is overseeing 'd production struck a deal to make 100000000 doses of the job in china. cooperation will help increase production capacities of sputnik v. in china to provide the necessary amounts and help partners in the country and globally to fight the pandemic china is one of the major production hopes for sputnik v. and we are ready for increasing the scope of partnership with local producers to meet the rising demand for the russian vaccine. those upcoming stops will be enough to vaccinate 15000000 people each person needs 2 doses the russian job has not yet been approved for use in china but assuming that happens the chinese manufacturer will distribute it domestically as well as abroad so far spending 3 has been

licensed and almost 60 countries china 1st specialist victor gao thinks moscow and beijing help plenty to gain from working to catherine vaccine. for china to help russia to produce the a vaccine and to introduce that to chinese consumers as well as markets outside of china would be a very china has one of the largest the manufacturing capacity is in vaccines so if we use the formula produced by the russian side or the production of a vaccine for the cli in china it will be a win week situation i do not see any reason why this vaccine should not be approved of by the charlies roll it's a real oranges and i hope the chinese people will have a choice if they want to use one or 2 or 3 chinese vaccines they will be able to do that if they prefer those who make maxy they were i would choice to be made by

themselves. another story getting a lot of interest today the interim is hitler balcony in vienna may soon be open to the public allowing visitors to tread in the furious footsteps it's been inaccessible to people since the 2nd world war needless to say the move by the hosts of austrian history has divided opinion the balcony was host to hitler's notorious speech on march 15th 1938 in which he announced the unlike say sion of austria into the 3rd reich it was met with cheers and jubilation by run 200000 austrians on helen plots the balcony how since become one of austria's most prominent symbols off it. not see past the director of the museum said that giving the public access would quote strengthen the country's collective historic memory but american israeli historian efraim zuroff thinks its doors should remain firmly

shut the fact that the austrian population came out in huge numbers to greet the fira is part of the problem it's an attempt to leave things behind and these are the kind of things that must be remembered and i have to say that in austria the situation has improved in recent years and there's more sensitivity to the issues of the holocaust so i think it's a very good reminder for the people in austria who quite frankly have had far more difficulty in facing their peers than the people in germany for example on the nuts he set up over 40000 ghettos and concentration camps for the jewish population during the 2nd world war around 2 thirds of all jewish people in europe were killed in the holocaust efraim zuroff again say stay significance of hitler speech in vienna should not be underestimated but the best of my knowledge i don't think the

administration were in the crowd simply and there are experts in history and perhaps they don't realize what an incredible impact hitler's appearance in vienna have and have that was another step on the way to war. that that ultimately led to the deaths of millions millions of innocent people besides the 6000000 jews murdered during the holocaust you had millions of other people who lost their lives many of them in the eastern europe and this is all because of hitler's drive for leopard's ground and it was decision to that to dominate europe and to turn the peoples of eastern europe into slaves of its allotted for an eye for the news or me for the day however long you've been watching us here at r.t. thank you for doing so fancy set. historically

speaking the cold war was a great. political struggle. we are in another ideological struggle

but there is a different. ideological. family . that. every day. meet your needs and the needs of your family. if you have been thinking about.