the week's top stories here on r.t. international e.u. officials seek to reassure that the astra zeneca covert short is safe stressing that a vaccine hesitancy is costing lives but there are signs that the damage to public trust has already been done. police cars are torched bricks are thrown and dozens of officers injured as rioting sweeps northern ireland over post trade barriers. a former us intelligence analyst faces years in jail for exposing america's drone assassination program we speak to one whistleblower who is in close contact with him. but he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't have any chance of a little. of

the top stories of the week on the main headlines of the day welcome to the weekly . the european medicines agency is standing by britain's astra zeneca job saying the benefits outweigh the risks while noting that blood clots should be listed as rare side effects the regulator has received more than 200 reports of unusual blood clots in those getting the shot though that is among the more than 30000000 who have already been inoculated all across europe meantime in the u.k. authorities say that people under the age of 30 will be offered alternatives to the astra zeneca job due to a possible risks 80 people in the country have suffered incidents after a dose 19 have died but britain's regulator is taking the same line as the european medicines agency or at least that's according to our correspondent what does the.

the takeaway the message that europe's health authorities want to leave you with is that it's still worth it the benefits outweigh the risks the benefits outweigh the risks i does become almost a slogan for the after that make a covert vaccine earth portrait cases of unusual blood clotting following vaccination with the astra zeneca vaccine should be listed as possible side effects of the vaccine it's unfortunate start both vaccinated people and health care professionals are aware of the signs and symptoms of these unusual blood clotting to cylinders so that they could be spotted quickly to minimize any possible risks so why did it take so long i mean the rumors began months and months ago and it was all in the news on t.v. in the papers and the company kept telling everyone the same thing there's a new link between the jab and the well dive analysis of our safety

data more than 10000000 records has shown no evidence of an increased risk of palm in your family's or deep vein thrombosis and a defined age group gender batch or in any particular country unfortunately there was a link and now the astra zeneca job will have either diesel warning or it can cause blood clots and potentially death in people as young as 8 seed the age the youngest deceased and still they say it's worth it unless of course you can go and get another job in which case probably best to go for that their words adults who are age 18 to 29 years old who do not have an underlying health condition that puts them at higher risk from serious coben 1000 disease should be offered an alternative covert night in fact seen in preference to the astra zeneca vaccine where such an alternative face seen. is available over

a dozen countries only counting the european union have suspended vaccination with the astra zeneca vaccine or that servia to please their marketing department though i doubt that a simple rebranding is going to cleanse their reputation i would definitely say it's a stupid move because changing the name which means changing your shop window right in the midst of a crisis rather than increasing trust will increase especially because it always indicates that there is something you want to hide so i absolutely do not understand how 'd a company comes to such a decision at the end of the day i can't help but partially agree with them the alternative waiting for another vaccine could have cost thousands of lives but only partially they let these rumors steward fester for months before coming out and admitting that essentially people were right to be afraid and that unfortunately

has done irreparable damage to the vaccination drive worldwide well indeed vaccine shortages across the e.u. have prompted several member states to question the block's joint procurement scheme austria is one of them and chancellor sebastian kurtz has already negotiated a possible purchase of the russian sputnik 3 medicine it would help us a lot because the vaccination process would be significantly accelerated i advocate that we do this we are now coordinating this with the federal government i really hope that we will be able to acquire this vaccine as well as use it this is not only my decision but i strongly support it. germany's health minister says his country is also a negotiations to buy the sputnik very short from russia however the european medicines agency has did over the decision as yet to grant approval for the job of a european commission president younkers says if sputnik the gets the green light

the e.u. should include it in its procurement program and one cancer surgeon we spoke to thinks that europe has allowed politics to get in the way of saving lives. we need the vaccines and the problem is it was a political initially we many people in europe didn't except the russian vaccine and sputnik is a good vaccine and yet they were coming out and saying well this is not what we want let's look at the european at alternatives and you see here the problem is the politicians have fields to cover the nations with adequate back seeing dozes and this is a problem we have we don't have enough back scenes and if you see what she right now is that we're going back and asking russia for sport next we should have done that much much earlier we need all the players all the players on the table and that includes the school expects scene which has excellent data out there as has pfizer and as has modern so we should have known that much earlier in order to be able to provide our nationals with adequate vaccine does it is it and now we are

paying for those political shortcomings with human lives. that is out international and old an island has been gripped by writing throughout the week a police fired water cannon for the 1st time in 6 years as pro u.k. loyalists and irish nationalists faced off another step and says come amid a wave of anger of a post bricks a train that was and this was the scene in belfast on friday night the protesters torched a trash can a cod a hole the rocks and petrol bombs at police and all the nolens 1st minister in foster as always to both sides to show for strength the british prime minister has expressed his alarm and is calling for a dialogue. i am deeply concerned by the scenes of violence northern island especially attacks on the p.s. and i who are protecting the public and businesses attacks on a bus driver and the assault of a journalist this way to resolve differences is through dialogue not violence or

criminality. meanwhile northern ireland's justice minister has blamed the u.k. government for the flare up now and the long queues the conservatives of dishonesty over the way bricks it would affect the irish border saying they had promised on fed access while failing to work through their legal consequences she also slammed the british government's decision to suspend the northern ireland protocol which was part of the u.k.'s withdrawal agreement with the e.u. ultimately aimed at ensuring an open border jonathan tong a professor of british and irish politics thinks the government made a series of false promises to the people of northern ireland. the british government bodies johnson in particular have to bear a considerable amount of responsibility it was part of johnson who went over to belfast and totally democratic party the largest party in northern ireland told the party conference 3 years ago that it would be untold for any british government to preside over the border in the irish sea johnson says hockey's previous us of

treason made the signing of the deal we did a year for his johnson done that and since then he spent a lot of time to attend the risen lord between great britain and northern ireland so you disagree with a single glance you terrible sense of betrayal over what the prime minister's don't think that boris johnson needs to go to northern ireland explain what he's done in terms of of the protocol and try and also meet with the you leaders to instigate similarly the worst effects the protocol and diminish the number of checks to go between great britain and northern ireland otherwise we were looking at a grim some of potentially of violence in northern ireland. a former us intelligence analyst faces up to 10 years in prison for blowing the whistle on washington's drone assassination program and daniel hale pleaded guilty to transmitting national defense information his case comes amid mass disclosure of similar crimes allegedly perpetrated by the us.

i have to tell you when he called me a few hours ago he was surprisingly upbeat and optimistic and he he remarked about how much press this issue has been getting since he decided to plead guilty so in the end i think that he thinks that this is been worth it that americans know more about the drone program now than 8 they did 6 months ago or

a year ago and even though he's likely going to go to prison it was worth it the u.s. is flying these drones or at least it was until recently that were used ostensibly to kill terrorists or would be terrorists but in reality to kill anybody who might resemble a terrorist and that included women and children and the elderly and anybody else who happened to be on the ground i believe that we're we're a nation of laws and we have to abide by those laws whether we like them or not if we don't like them we should change them go through the process and change them if congress has not declared war on a country we don't have a right to attack it we just can't decide that we don't like the politics of whoever happens to be in charge in a place like yemen or pakistan or afghanistan and then launch drone strikes against them it's a violation of international law. data which hale gave to the online news site the intercept back in 2014 was ultimately made available to the public and he's now

accused though of disclosing classified intelligence information his supporters say these kinds of exposures are essential to using the espionage act in this way to prosecute journalists sources and spies chills newsgathering and discourages sources from coming forward with information in the public interest particularly when it relates to national security where government secrecy is at its height these documents detail the secret unaccountable process for targeting and killing people around the world including u.s. citizens through drone strikes there are a vital public importance and they related to their disclosure is protected by the 1st amendment. hale that was arrested 2 years ago and charged with violating the espionage act and other related offenses president biden though has imposed temporary restrictions on drone strikes in most countries but there are reports he aims to boost exports of weapons to countries including those with poor human

rights records or jordan kiriakou again says however justified was simple as exposures of drone strikes may be they have next to no chance of proving that to u.s. authorities. this is really the worst part of the of the espionage act this is the reason why ed snowden can't come home this is the reason why i couldn't go to trial this is the reason why jeffrey sterling the other cia whistleblower was convicted because there is no affirmative defense we are prohibited by law from going into court and saying i did it but i did it for this reason and in the case of daniel hale this was a war crime he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal the best thing to do for daniel as it was for me as it was for so many others here charged under the espionage act is to take a deal and to hope for the lightest possible sentence the decision that was made

early on even before joe biden was inaugurated to pursue the appeal against julian a son it was that decision that made it clear that joe biden was going to pursue national security leaks just like barack obama did and just like donald trump did after him. well here not international we are continuing our special coverage ahead of monday's historic anniversary of the 1st manned space flight in just a few minutes a veteran of space travel is tell us what hollywood gets wrong about space and just about all of its movies if you are watching us here with us in a moment. so

what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. let it be an arms race. dramatic. very critical.

15 pm on sunday here in moscow. the french has been accused of stealing children's drink by telling them to drop any ambitions of flying she's also scrapped funding for an aviation club. hit the runway a reaction to the grounding from a flight instructor. how macho you are willing to sacrifice to save the world's air travel is a major contributor to climate change that's a fun but told us to give it up and now our green mare in france has told kids to

fly jets about flying. their young environmentalist mare over the french city of what ca one. has said that kids should give up their dream of flying in france of all places the hopi were mad last the birthplace of the creator of the little prince and twang to scientific super leave. who is 31 years old has said and i quote we must protect the children from some dreams sadly aviation must no longer be parts of the dreams of the children of today and then she went and slashed government funding through the local flight clubs in her area because in her opinion government money shouldn't be spent on a sport that has a carbon footprint so i'm off to meet a flight instructor and examiner edgy to find out what he thinks about the idea of

stopping flying this french madness french politician has said children shouldn't even dream of fly. what do you think about that as as an idea but some point in the future it might be one of the pacific future it's just people . without is for everybody knows the stomach and comfort form for. pollution point of view the m 25 in one hour in russia has more pollution than the whole of the g.i. flick small aircraft so the m 25 being the big ring road because i was thinking if we have international viewers to be green right over the routes to the london so that's more pollution in one hour what we have in g.r. i can for you ok ga be a general idea generally easier with general footprint and this isn't as large as it would be going to be listed no lines over wow that's a big claim a day yes

a big claim for would you say isn't a young people who just say you're just an old man that loves flying and is obsessed with you know his own pastime and isn't thinking about requirement emergence a will that be right. but but if you're thinking about climbing climbing emergency if there were things of more important news i'm not i'm not. something nice to be done for my grandchildren or fully agree but generally the ocean. is just a pimple on the pigs but saw it. by saying what really struck a nerve with the liberty loving friends was this idea that kids can even dream of flying anymore luckily for now all kids dreams are being policed just yet and for those of us still wishing to take it to the spa is well play manufacturers

both big and small are working on creating new loan polluting models. this week the international space station welcome to a new 3 man crew through russians on one american the launch come ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the 1st manned space flight. the rocket launch from the very same site from where soviet cosmonaut yuri gagarin made history on the morning of the 12th of april 961 his vostok one craft took off circling the earth for 108 minutes the flight brought ghar an instant global fame so we sent all correspondence on to 3 different continents to ask people to identify the space pioneer 60 years on.

the front of. and i think here you could go right recognizing me and i wish i knew armstrong i'm sorry i don't know what. face recognition this feels in the wild actually your car is now if you. had a better solution. and he's promised to produce the pieces to show you to good god it was true i don't dispute that jesus is coming but good judgment to be a judgment is fairly good i mean you're getting.

a few. stumbling stone out of it all i see for the least. little bit of a sink in you i don't know if you will be got ready for this trip i did learn as to how far you've ever been to start to feel but it's what i do. body. his name is he. asked for knowledge i say how do you know. to be a good writer so now that we'll see a picture of your book you'll be going to be over the goldberg a bit. became god really all. i know about fullest. he doesn't and she put it on me and got him a lot of shuffle from the above them. if you get it now

a. lot of the security they're getting a lot of the stuff a lot of off the on the tops of. the judge in the whole game kidney or do you want to go to any. that is caught up on a little bit in the kitchen and on that i don't know judy id. you know. that's something i. made with them which i love that i was young and there were. big easy everything went on oprah and i'm not there yet. invented in felony. and unique way to. lead to merkel when i.

got from. dark who are borders will near your house and hearing. i think that. russian guy the 1st guy in the. jury something right. jagger is really like an actor he was in that movie with my chevy chase down at royce like back in the eighty's. miracle in mustique. who's the most mystery. and let. me take you to you never and. here we go you. are supporting the. and for 2

decades now humans have had a constant presence in orbit travel to get 27000 kilometers per hour aboard the international space station ultimately braving radiation and high velocity space junk so what is a saskia taylor question after norton 2 cosmonauts including russia's only woman space pilot on the joys and challenges of life in 0 gravity. ok what does the typical day of the cosmonauts preparing for flights look like the 1st one for example what is the cause and we have a shuttle for every day there is a person responsible for it who monitors with the parson examine each subject and go through all the necessary training the shuttle is very diverse you could be sitting in a classroom diving underwater skydiving or studying computer techniques that variety makes the difficult training that it calls more exciting we have to be multiskilled specialists and know how to do everything yet when you are the put that off i get it it sounds like spaceflight preparations are now piece of cake but

for lazy people chin up you can go into space without such conflicts training it's easy you just need to be an actor the space race has continued in an expected way is nasa has said it's planning to make the 1st ever movie filmed in space and at the same moment cost most decided russia needs to make such a movie to do. it but which of course they won't get the same level of training as the professional cosmonauts what they need is to be able to help themselves with food drinks hygiene and so on and not to get in the way if there are incidents that's the level of training they will be to have and it takes around 6 months and with the thought of that and we're talking about space movies and those are full of fantasy what's your forecast for the technological development for let's say the next decade will we see some fantasy become reality i think in the near future and you said 10 years i think we will have people not just visiting the moon briefly as happened you know 55 years ago but but actually starting to stay on the moon the

moon is only 3 days away billions of leaders of water frozen on the moon and if you have power and you have water and you just need a good habitat and you can live there right now that's the kind of a i assess is an international project but at the end of the day you do work for different countries and have different plans in your space it's chris other situations when you from. will come to dinner and say guys you won't believe what a discovery i've made and then you can imagine colleagues says don't tell them what's wrong with you or do you share your research that entire time we're working together and we're inventing space flight and we're we're figuring out how it's all going to work and and obviously getting to know each other it's important to socialize together but it's not competitive it's the international space station 15 different countries and it's different them some of the historical amnesties that we kind of cultivate here on earth so dave which sanjay i know all of you have

worked in space how does it feel to be on the brink of infinity isn't that terrifying it's nice that ashleigh it's not terrifying just terrifying the interesting is dangerous and hard work but it's fascinating you see your home in space from the outside and you see the whole planet and it's amazing to go out in your space suit as naturally as if you're stepping out some to the street and i don't know why the movies always make spaceflight look so sad you know call 011 movie or whatever that one was with brad pitt everyone looks so sad spaceflight is joyous and magnificent like you can see in these videos that you're running and and the reality of it is it's an immensely human and shared experience as we're starting to leave our. special cosmic coverage continues for the next 36 hours tomorrow monday the big day marking the 60th anniversary of the 1st manned space flight of course your car and i do stick around if you kind of for our special

coverage continues here on r.t. international. level. and in 1996 something happened different a company called purdue pharmaceuticals came out with

a drug called oxycontin and they started a myth and falsely promoted that opioids were rarely addict maybe only one percent of the time could you get addicted to no. that was not true then and it is not true and it never was true that was a false state and the other companies jumped on the bandwagon of making money in the false lies spread in the false marketing spread that they are guilty i believe that with every fiber of mud being. back in 1906 the 1st promotional at campaign for an opioid was broadcast and we found it. we think. we doctors were wrong in thinking that opioids.