ah ah, the headlines here when asi international joe biden is accused by republicans of surrendering to vladimir putin by dropping russia punishments from a defense bill. while democrat, to drafting what they're calling the mother of old sanctions targeting moscow. now it all comes off of the president of russia, and the us health crisis told ultimately triggered by tensions over ukraine. also in the program, we speak to an afghan family that found a loss toddler during august's celtic us withdrawal when desperate parents were just handing the kids to western soldiers just trying to get them out of afghanistan and do it. so suddenly i saw this baby on the ground, crying in pain, was to haunt the baby, was just wearing a shirt. so it was difficult for me to leave him that an outrage boils over this

regard regarding boris johnson's foremost folks post and whose jokingly imply that a christmas party was held in downing street last year despite enormous locked downs restrictions and mosques and repeated government denials. ah, you went, they won't headlines lie from moscow. this is auntie international. very well. joe biden is being branded as spineless for not pushing forward with sanctions targeting rushes knoll stream to gas pipeline to germany. or the most vocal criticism was from republican senator ted cruz. this calamitous foreign policy disaster is jo biden's fault. this is the direct consequence of joe biden,

to surrender to vladimir putin on north stream. to that tirade came as to drop us defense budget for next year. moved up to the senate, a number of anti russian and measures were dropped in the house. in his previous form, the bill included a ban on americans buying russian debt and sanctions on, nor stream to the senate will vote on the defense budget next week. meantime, marty america host pence, one says the removal of sanctions from the bill basically means the american president doesn't want them that the fairly big deal. consider the fact that obviously when the house version was written, as you mentioned, the sanctions were included. the senate version, they're not included, that's something called reconciliation, where essentially the bill has to match. and so it looks like those stations won't be there, which means that the biden administration is actually cutting ties with a lot of the rhetoric of the democratic party right now. in the u. s, which is insistent upon having these kinds of sanctions built into these us depend spending bills and it's pretty significant for a couple of reasons. one is because the president himself has been indicating for

some time that he does not want to continue to push forward on the sanction, specifically over north stream too, because of pressure he's getting from germany, the germans don't like this idea. remember, this is not a unilateral measure on the russian part. russia and germany together are saying we want the pipeline. russia says we want to send oil and natural gas that pipeline. germany says we desperately need oil in natural gas pipeline. but it does as you know, all go back to this issue of ukraine. the idea is that by russia bypass the ukraine, that somehow this will be harmful to ukraine, or they'll be able to have greater leverage over ukraine. and so the rhetoric doesn't necessarily match the reality, and again, you have to sovereign nation insisting that this is something they both want and both need. and i think the u. s. and finally, backing away from this idea that they now recognize they can't stop it from happening. it comes after the russian on us leaders held crisis talk so ultimately of attention regarding ukraine and that of nato expansion in the region. often some initial pleasantries abide and apparently run the top talk about sanctions against

russia in the event of a war with ukraine. and since that time, us officials have typically been proposing while nearly any idea that comes to mind . i would not rule out american troops on the ground. we don't do, you know, we don't rule out 1st use nuclear action. some pretty concerning woods right there. but with more details on the official u. s. position and how the meeting went down. state side is all correspondent caleb martin. here is what we heard from the biden administration. they talked about how biden raised concerns about the build up of russian forces near the border with ukraine and from there. talked about how the united states and its allies would respond with decisive economic and other measures if there was a military escalation. now, biden called on to de escalate and to return to diplomacy. and he instructed the respective teams to continue dialog on ukraine the same time we did hear from the

national security advisor, jake sullivan. we still do not believe the president putin has made a decision. what president inviting did today with lay out very clearly the consequences if he chooses to move that, you know, seems to fly in the face of some remarks that we've heard from other us official. there are new sanctions to be imposed on russia that are currently in the work. these are not run of the mill sanctions. what is being discussed is at the maximum end of the spectrum, or as i have call that the mother of all sanctions. so there seemed to be a desire on everyone's part for today's meeting to result in a de escalation. however, this hasn't stopped united states from talking of these new sanctions, and it hasn't stopped us media from playing up. this idea that there is somehow a russian threat or russian aggression. so quite an interesting day, i were waiting for more information from both sides about what went on in the meeting between the 2 leaders. the france giving conscience is threatened to say if

you move into ukraine will hire, you know, knowing that if they move russia was into your crane. the us, there is, isn't much the him do besides high besides sanctions. but at the same time, i don't think that putting wants to move into ukraine. he's also, it is on and his own side, sending a message. there was in diplomatic agreement that nature would not go farther east . and, and normally in foreign policy, diplomatic agreements, i respect it. and in these cases, several of the actors united states pretend, disagreement ever existed, which he my own research with europeans, every single european actually come for him. it was there. so at this point, put in does not trust the ward anymore, and he wants illegal commitment and and he is writing, asking it to be they, frank, well, sanctions do remain a central tool of

u. s. foreign policy. a with usaa under secretary of state for political affairs, victoria at newland, once again threatening russia. this time with heavy economic punitive measures what we are talking about would amount to essentially isolating russia completely from the global financial system with all of the fallout that that would entail for russian business for the russian people for their ability to, to work and travel. and trade washington's also just robbed china up the wrong way by imposing a diplomatic boy caught on the upcoming winter olympics. it's also just imposed penalties on 14 officials on 4 entities and iran and syria over rights abuses. so we discussed the role and impact of sanctions with a panel of guests essentially got you've got a view in watkins here and that it's us, it's american exceptionalism and, and supremacy. and they are basically, they're, they're,

they're doing whatever they can. do you know where we're married? it's a very arrogant policy and they use the sanctions. and if it really is a means to destabilize other countries, sovereign nations, it creates economic hardship. era. why do you think america is threatening to sanction russia for something that a has not happened and b will not happen according to the kremlin? i think in one way, it's a political move on that side. the other part is they, we need it. we need a bogeyman and i think partially, there were luther are in once. it's kind of like a rabid dog. you know, you start to lash out in, in different ways. find that project yourself. and the only one problem we have is the thinking is this kind of destructive approach to international relations. but it's, it's just so silly because ultimately you saw the brand she was sitting on. or do

you think the continental united states is going to survive? if it makes it devastated, mess of the rest of the world. do you think any western power seriously believes russia is about to invade ukraine? you know, it's hard to understand the logic. what could moscow stand to gain from, from starting a war? well, i think that the western governments do well know that this is rather blame game. they make the public belief that russia is a real threat to the ukraine at the moment. russia is really in defense because they have to fear that a ukraine will become a part of the nato alliance. and this is, of course, a major threat to the geopolitical setting of russia. cutting russia off. busy busy from swift would be the most extreme of measures deployed, viet helping to run devastated the economy there. is there any chance at washington pursuing what's being called

a nuclear option based on their questionable diplomats they, they potentially good. i would think be very unwise move, very little impact, i think internally, externally it would, it would kind of back fire. i would think rub europeans would be very strongly lobbying against such an action. and if you're going to set off to do something like that, presumably. ready not the goal. well, let's just like opening a black hole up under the international banking system. we're seeing what's happening and showing with a grunt warbling in the property market, possibly going down the drain. and that's going to pull down the western banking system potentially just a day since the u. s. coven, josh said. the armor con variant is almost certainly no more severe than delta. it's still come to light, the wealth of the vaccine make us a sort since the discovery of this new strain, the share price is of pfizer and modem that are up by $10000000000.00. and while

the world health organization is repeatedly called the most companies to share their vaccine licenses to poor nations, it seems the farmer joins don't share that view. the wave of proposal is based on the incorrect notion that vaccine access is limited due to current levels of manufacturing. the industry is already well on its way to produce and our vaccines for the entire world by the middle of next year. if you let the current industry are industry now work hard and do what they need to do, i think that it will be sufficient. it will take different companies so much longer . india and south africa have been pushing the world trade organization to wave intellectual property rights for covert vaccines and treatments. that's because most jobs go to wealthy countries rather than the developing ones where the vaccination rates are still low. the w h o z director general says the current policies of these companies are unacceptable. low and low. a middle income countries are not the 2nd or 3rd priority. their health workers,

older people and other at risk groups have the same right to be protected. i will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world's poor should be satisfied with left overs. or the pandemic has certainly proven lucrative for the big farm of officers, especially since the new abra cronan was discovered. madonna's c e o alone added more than $800000000.00 to his personal wealth as the company shares skyrocketed since last week and the director of global justice. now, nick didn't a questions how companies can put prophets before global health when you're talking about life saving drugs. when you're talking about medicines, the people that are going to make a difference between life and death and i going to prevent enormous suffering. and i don't personally believe that they should be business opportunities, but sadly, what we've seen is the richest countries on earth and sitting on track seems that

they're never going to need with no plan to even donate them. at a meanwhile blocking the ability of other countries to settle and protect their own manufacturing bases, so they may be able to make their own vaccines and, and coming in at the world trade organization to prevent a wave or intellectual property. here in my country, we vaccinated in coming on to 70 percent of the population. ah, in parts of the african continent, you know that the figure is as low as 3 percent. i mean, some of the countries in southern africa where it's the leaf the armstrong emerged and was spread only 3 percent of the population. a vaccinated wanting 10 health workers in the african, contra continent vaccination. and that, that simply can't be right. or either let's cross like not a david navarro, the special envoy on cove at 19 director general on cobra. 19 of the world health organization is a pleasure to see today. so thank you very much for joining us here on archie international. let's get straight into my questions for you. if i may, the new amr kron strain is now being picked up in 57 countries. our scientists

concerned about this. oh, thank you very much, rory, and greetings to everybody. it's nice to be connected again. yes, scientists are concerned about everything to do with the virus. you see, we've never said this is just a mild virus. we've sent, this is a dangerous virus. and we've also said that it's new. and quite honestly, the scientists that i know are still busy learning about it. the one good thing that they tell me is that the techniques you need to use to stay safe when i'm a chronic, or delta or any other variant, is around these techniques. a pretty much the same, i'll just summarize them. first of all, you do everything possible to interrupt transmission, true wearing masks,

true physical distancing. say you don't breathe, then the air exhaled by other people. and you also need to practice good hygiene and you need decent ventilation. you need to be able to suppress the surges of disease, like we pad in much of europe in the last few weeks. and there, sometimes you have to stop people moving so that you can actually suppress a surge. then you need to protect vulnerable people. older people, people with diabetes, people with heart disease, health workers, who as your correspondence and just now often on the front line. and that's where vaccines are absolutely brilliant. they can protect people who are at risk. but miss and about on, i'm sorry, i'm just going to jump in here because what, what you, what you're telling us is very valuable information. but i want to move on from this, because here in russia and around the world, we're already doing this. we're,

we're trying to protect ourselves and where i'm offering down enough, rory, it's not on another. all right, well, let me ask you this, miss miss. and the borrow because you're not gonna like this. i go to play devil's advocate here. but you know, people who are getting very panicked about alma chrome. well, the cove is czar and america doctor felt she has come out on the last day saying the new armored mon strain is not as deadly or not more deadly. i should say than delta at the south african medical institute where they discovered omicron. they also said armor crohn is not that deadly in australia. the senior medical officer in australia said some people with homer con, have mild symptoms. some people have no symptoms at all. should we be that alarmed or is this more of a knee jerk reaction? because we keep having these different variants and perpetual boosters and vaccinations. but yeah, i'm good to say, rory, you know, people do not understand enough about is paris. nobody knows for sure how nasty omicron is, but there's information coming through that it's,

it's not too awful that this is good. but it takes time to sort these things out. and we're in a kind of obs on stage at a moment where we're breaking for the results of the research. what i want to say is everybody keep doing the stuff that you know what to do, even if you're bored a bit. and sooner or later, we'll find out how bad only cronies, but right now, they're a hopeful signs. as you said, are you, are you optimistic that the, the let his vaccines will be effective against omicron, even if on work on isn't as delta as, as deadly as delta, as they say. i'm certainly hopeful. there's obviously different pieces of information in the newspapers. some companies saying their vaccines will work other saying they can a need, a boost her for them to be effective. all this will come clear usually takes about 4 weeks, and i, and to spite not what happened, but privately inside my so just go, she was me, i'm really hopeful that 1st of all,

the acts vaccines will work reasonably well. and secondly, that this doesn't prove to be a much nasty virus than the earliest trends. what do you, what do you think about the growing trend of locked allen's for unvaccinated people? it's being led basically by various european states. you find this to be of the lockdown defective. you think in preventing the further spread of, of corona virus. i've been involved in controlling disease outbreaks and pandemic since 2005. that's quite a few years. the one thing i've learned try never to force people to do things through various incentives like fines or even nastier things. instead, do everything possible to make sure to, to partner with the people and you do it. whatever is done with their ascent. so that means the guy will say, along with my colleagues in the world health organization mandates are

a last resort. please don't compel people to take vaccination, is it can caldwell and it also tells you coerce people miss and a bar because a lot of people right now are losing their jobs in america. there are hundreds of medical staff workers walking off the job because they are being forced to take an injection of vaccination. you're saying people should not be forced. is that what you're saying? you're saying last resort rory, last resort. we would never say, don't do something. every government has a sovereign right to decide what it's going to do. but we say in our experience, these kinds of coercive measures at don't tend to create a good sense of together working between public and government. so we are saying only do it when you have apps, e. no alternative. and what is your take on a children getting vaccinated against covey? latest reports, i've read, say that children actually aren't very vulnerable to

a compared to the elderly with pre existing conditions. rory, you're right on that. we think that really, vaccines ought to be prioritized for people who are likely to get severely ill or even die, and that they're the ones who should be receiving the vaccines. the use of vaccines in children is because they did thought that vaccination will help to reduce circulation of the barrison children. but right now the world health organization sticks with its recommendation that vaccines should be used. but people who are at risk of severe illness and death, montana borrow, i've got no time left. but i just want to ask you very, very quickly here across europe, we've seen a high success rate with mass faction a vaccinations. a lot of the major countries in the european union have got up to 70 percent of their citizens vaccinated. and people don't really talk about heard immunity very much, but at the ty, at the same time as we're seeing mass vaccinations nationwide in these european

countries, we're also seeing a spike in coven infection numbers. how do you, how do you make sense of that? first of all, there is still an awful lot of susceptible people around even when you've got 70 percent vaccination coverage. and this, ah hi, right of, of cases you're being driven by their susceptible. secondly, their doubt seemed to be a capacity for the borrower to re infect people, especially if it is some months since they either had their previous infection or had their immunization, the protection doesn't last for life, it wears off. so that's i think, the reason why we're staying the spikes, even though it's high vaccination. david navarro the director general on cove 19 with the world health organization. a great privilege to have you on with us here at ot, i really appreciate, appreciate your insight. thank you. very much. i enjoyed talking with you, rory. thank you. thank you. a police in london are examining it. new evidence that

downing street staff party last year during the height of the coven lockdown apartment to boris johnson denies. any rules are broken yet recently emerged, video shows johnson's former spokesperson joking about the christmas party suggesting it certainly did happen. his correspondent, shoddy edwards dusty. well some i even saying this could be the final nail in the coffin, full bars, johnson, the prime minister as he's now being accused of lying. it comes off to this video footage, show top officials in downing street, joking about a so called a legit christmas party that happened. wait for it. last year, during the cove, its set of restrictions, his, the itv exclusive interview she recognizes are at home as fictional policy was a business means and it was not associated. so that exchange happened in a rehearsal of the press briefings that were happening quite regularly at the time

. it was a few days off to the so called party was thought to have taken place or the wine and cheese event as she puts it. now, if all of this is true, it would have completely contraband. the strict cobit restrictions, the u. k. london in particular was in tier 3 cove. it restrictions, which meant no indoor mixing as she then went on in that video to say the room was absolutely packed. now the day off to this party london then went into the next phase of the private restrictions, almost a total lockdown, and christmas was entirely cancelled. so multiple sorts of the same. this parties certainly did happen at boris jones, the number 10 saying it absolutely it did not. now we contacted number 10 for comment of course, surprise, surprise. they get to get back to us on that one. but things have now escalated so much that the metropolitan police have now wait, and they're looking into the footage. they're trying to gather evidence,

whether or not to consider it to investigate it or not. just to mention though, here in the united kingdom, 2000 people have been prosecuted for breaching private restrictions throughout the pandemic. so that's the sort of a statistics that we're really comparing all of this against. meanwhile, opposition political parties that saying the prime as time is up, we have number 10 government in london, breach in his food and cove at rules and, and joking opposed to on the video. it really isn't acceptable. and i have to say unfortunately, on the basis of this behavior, because it's not just about this, if it's a pattern of a prime minister repeatedly lies a prime minister that can't be trusted. he should pool. and he should go and i government broke the rules. they parted, and now they're laughing about it. they're treating the public with contempt. the promised nice to step up except what happened. i apologize. remember this isn't

the 1st time that something like this has happened, dominic cummings, the prime minister, is formed the chief aid. well, he traveled 270 miles from london to durham to visit bernard, cause we remember that saga. i lost it. then of course, the full man. how secretary at mat hancock founded an intimate embrace. both of these top politicians breaching the crew that restriction rules. if true, of course, the reality really is many people here in the united kingdom were in very heart, wrenching a position, some deciding not to go and even visit that dying mother holding that dying mother's hand. meanwhile, seemingly the tories were out partying fluttering. last summer's us troop withdrawal. many people were moved by scenes of desperate parents passing that babies to western soldiers just asking them to be taken out of afghanistan. unfortunately, at least one child was lost in their chaos at the cobble airport. let's show you sir haylock madi. he was one of those carried along by the crowds. his mother and

father are still desperately trying to find him with a host of organizations helping, one of which says that they have a lead in the case of sir hale's parents ultimately fled to america back in august after leaving afghanistan. as we understand, there's a glimmer of hope now, ought to you spoken to one afghan family who say they found a baby amid the mayhem at kabul airport. and our contact on the ground says it is that very baby. last by the commodity family. they named him mohammed and say he's become one of this. hey allison, you brought them hannah teas template and to me and they'll never hand him over to anyone. my system shall. it was late at night when my brother asked me to help him drive to the airport when he was leaving for the us. when we were there, there was a big crowd and chaos. everyone was pushing to get inside the airport. suddenly i saw this baby on the ground crying in pain. it was too hot and the baby was just wearing a shirt. i was confused, so it was difficult for me to leave him there. he was dying. so i decided to pick

him up. then i moved to each family i saw in the airport and showed them the baby and asked them whether the baby belonged to them. then i asked each mother there to feed him because he was hungry, but no one agreed, his condition was deteriorating, so i took him to some water and put it on his body, washed him and changed his nappy. i waited until 4 pm to find his parents, but couldn't. i had just one bottle of water and i gave him a few drops when he was crying. because he was hungry, i was worried because his condition was not good. it was too hot and he was lying under the scorching heat of the sun. then i contacted my wife and told her that my brother had already left. but i'm still stuck here because of a baby. i told her we are humans, and i can't leave this baby alone here while his parents are missing. i also told my brother to leave, but i had to stay until i found the missing parents. i let her show you a couple of pictures here. one arts he on the right is the missing boy. so haylock

madi, while on the left is a child found and cared for by the jan family that was not been confirmed. report suggests they are the one and the same. meanwhile, the johns, it say when they found mohammed he was in such a back condition, they had to take him the hospital. they say he was just over a month old when they found him. and the afghan man who found the child says he's now in touch with the apparent parent wriggling intellectually, we kept the baby and contacted many people to find the parents. we contacted the bbc in many others, but fail to find them. then we uploaded his pictures on social media sites like facebook later, some relatives of a missing baby in bad action province contacted us and told us that the parents of the baby are looking for their child. when they saw the images, they recognize him, but they didn't know the whereabouts of the parents. finally i found the contact details of the father of this baby i called and told him about his missing baby and asked him to send me the pictures of his child. so i could verify that he was the

real father. then he sent me the pictures and we confirmed your son is withers, don't worry. his father was so happy to learn about his missing son. we are so trying to establish whether so he'll lock, marty, and muhammad are the same child and have got in touch with the missing child's parents, or several news outlets as well as the organization leading the search. a. meanwhile, the jan's family say they've grown to love the baby so much they're willing to adopt. i looked off to him like my own baby. if we found his parents, we would not be able to keep you with us. of course we would hand him over to his real parents. i looked up to him like he was one of my own. i have 3 daughters, but i loved him too much. he was about 40 days only when we met him. we have seen difficult times with him. he is our soul and who love him too much. if his parents identify him will have no option but to hand him over to them. why the fellow that so nice the parents of the child are unable to take him back. i am ready to keep

this baby with me later. in fact, i would not be happy to hand over the baby because we found in this or if they don't take him on that we will keep him with us. we love him during class, i got my break and he was coming across right now. this hour at ot international in moscow or india's defense chief has been confirmed, killed off for a helicopter crash earlier today in the south. the country, a 12 other people also died, but as we understand there was one survivor general bip. and i don't know why it was 63 and had been the defense chief since 2019 or any of our stores you think you may have missed or you want updates on just log on to our t thought. com for the meantime though it's half past the hour here at moscow. we are back soon with more. ah. yeah, you know, start here, new. i just don't. you're on the, in the mall or pretty cordon arch woman is you know, that she is not here to we video don't. michelle kraus,

of mit with the athletes. you mustn't bernice a little which philosophies you can.