this mistake is my mistake i regret and apologize to. the chancellor angela merkel backtracks on imposing a lockdown and concedes it was a mistake. quote unprecedented burden of the country. yet the government's response leaves people bewildered. and flourishing hate speech facebook is sued for repeatedly allowing online threats to journalists and spreading this information we examine how the platforms now facing crackdowns worldwide.

follows midnight here in moscow thursday the 21st of march welcome to world news from r.t. international 1st for you the german chancellor has reversed her decision to impose a 5 day lockdown over the easter period which had been announced earlier in the week u. turn comes after a massive wave of criticism and protests. enough i'd eden's i'm going to the idea was a mistake this mistake is my mistake alone a mistake must be called a mistake and above all it must be corrected at the same time of course i know that this whole matter trygaeus more uncertainty i regret their deeply and apologize to all citizens. says day to fast of april as well as the said of april should be defined as calm days with extensive contact restrictions and a ban on gatherings from the fast to the 5th of april. that's quite a difference from the early hours of tuesday morning to shortly before lunch on

wednesday a colossal u. turn from angola merkel we have heard some people come out in support of what she's done mark is older the leader of the state of bavaria and one of those he's vying to replace angle of merkel as chancellor at least if you believe the rumors coming bundestag elections in september he said he respected what the chancellor had done in fronting up to what she admitted herself was a mistake then we've also heard from another one of those content is to be chancellor comb september arm in lash at the head of the state of north rhine-westphalia who pointed out that all of the other leaders of the 16 states of germany were all present did not say meeting and that they all agreed to the same thing that i'm glimmer is now taking the rap for well they were all voices of support there's been some stinging criticism as well for this whole mess happening

in the 1st place the logic of the planned individual measures is not revealed and these can no longer be discussed planes to majorca empty outdoor restaurants in germany how can that be justified. we need to change our method of governance the last time became disappointed people who can't go on like this m.p. case that last 15 hours during which the essential decisions are made between one and 3 o'clock at night run the risk that in the end not all the details are clarified and thus communication becomes more difficult especially on such sensitive issues we're already seeing what some would like to see as the fallout from this huge u. turn from mongol americal with those in opposition calling for a vote of confidence on her government. position as chancellor i call in the chancellor to ask the question of confidence in accordance with paragraph 98 of the rules of procedure of the german bundestag because she is not

only admitted her own inability the lack of competence of her ministers out my and spam is obvious but because she has obviously lost the trust of part of her coalition factions ahead of what really crucial elections in september and a number of important local elections taking place beforehand we're seeing no wasting of time when it comes to jumping on this u. turn for political capital however no matter how you cut this it is not a good look. all the german government we discuss the possible reasons behind the chancellor's decision with an m.e.p. from the alternative for germany party. it was a result of the protests from outside politics and be removed in her own party. there were a lot of trouble more members of parliament and she had no choice her

politics on corona and covert has completely failed. we have a permanent lockdown since november. maximization is on 3rd world level so she is on lockdown and has. nothing to promise there is no light at the end of the tunnel and that situation she wanted even too tight. and there was such a wave of protest even late in her party bit she had no other choice than to do to you what she did today and it's her 1st u. turn ever it's indeed a result of. political pressure from outside her party to inside to work but so. french health care system risks unprecedented shock within weeks if the government fails to deal with the new code that's the warning from the country's hospital federation's chief. firm actions have been taken given this

delay hospitals are likely to be rocked by an unprecedented violent shock in 2 to 3 weeks. the 3rd wave of infections kicked in last week there are now more than 26000 patients in hospitals across france the highest figure this month and over 4000 in intensive care sets a grim record for 2021 the french emergency doctors association told us that the authorities response had been woeful. hospitals across france are struggling facing a shortage of beds in the i.c.u. there's an influx of patients their numbers are growing at an unprecedented pace the problem results from the fact that the government hasn't provided any extra beds for a year already furthermore our country is falling behind in vaccinations pharmaceutical companies have delayed their supply shipments are not kill ation rate is very low compared to other nations like morocco or serbia where health care efficiency is

inferior. while the streets though many have been left stunned by the mixed messages coming from the french government amid harsh lockdowns and official warnings of dire consequences ministers alleging head dresses and chocolate shop stay open what they describe as french morale shall do bends good reports next. you'd think that by the time the 3rd time was announced the parts of france that the government would be. termed it this is what you can do this is what you can't do but it's been anything but the case do you think you understand the restrictions now in place soon places like paris. now it's. better but it's typical shows you've got some points there too much numbers but the rules are not too well it's a little bit lax we can do a little like. they were clear enough they are good at differentiating things

faster realizing that they're fuzzy so it is not really a lockdown. we can refer issues but we can buy that. mistake and i shouldn't go after 6 pm. after suffering now really i didn't thank you. we don't understand the new rules at all for example we're supposed to be in lockdown yet we're walking in the chandeliers there are a lot of people even though it's tuesday normally during lockdown there should not be so many people yet. there are a lot of people and when the prime minister announced that 16 regions would be heading back into a lockdown last week he said citizens would have to once again fill out public mission reforms to show that they were leaving home for essential reasons when the new forms were published they contained so many options as to why you could leave

home they caused widespread confusion. say zhang cost takes how come here allow me to take a breath 10 kilometers away but force my dog to stay within one kilometer of his candle i come home from work certificate i pick up the kids from school certificate i buy a bread certificate it's a little after 7 pm certificate luckily i have no dog originally the 21 or so 1000000 people impacted by the new lock down were told they could travel up to 10 kilometers from their homes unfortunately they dogs could only go one kilometer mulcted poked fun at and even the government had to admit that the form was called lex and soon it was true that lets you need into trouble more than 10 kilometers i don't want to go out of the curfew as yes that's still in place the next level of before movement came as it emerged that most of the businesses that

thought they would be closed as they were not essential like florist headdress and chocolate shops were told they could stay open we made some exceptions such as head dresses for french people we did it because there were professions like florist to make whole food turnover during spring we did it for the chocolate is because it's easter so is it really. a look like as it's been up here and do people in paris know what they can and can't do do you think you can eat lunch with your friends in the park yeah. i think it's possible no they've said it's not they do not recommend eating lunch with your friends right now i think we have the right to eat in a park with friends to go out after 7 pm under certain conditions i think yes but visiting friends at home no i don't think that's possible after 7 pm we don't have

the right with the curfew we don't have the right it is all just. aside a year of bouncing in and out of lockdown says certainly brought everyone to the same feeling that of being generally fed up and you can't help but feel that french government is in its own confusion about what we should and shouldn't be doing causing the higher ups unnecessary public anxiety. arty paris. here vadim in vaccinated the kremlin to confirm the president putin has received a covert 19 but which one will stay a mystery with officials saying they won't specify the shot in order to highlight that all 3 russian vaccines are safe and effective while the 6000000 of have their 1st job here in russia since the inoculation campaign started over 4000000 of already had both doses and also as you can see next the infection rates for those with the number of daily new cases now under 10000 outies entendres of skin spoke

to the russian deputy prime minister for health and social policy about the vaccine program and how it differs from the rest of europe if you say that vaccination is safe and we're monitoring it safety would it be easier for the government to make it more or less mandatory or if not forcing people strongly compelling them as in israel if you don't want to be vaccinated don't leave your house. russia has extensive experience nationwide vaccination we have got used to it's voluntary nature i think trying to pressure force people to get the chip or stay at home because they haven't been inoculated that's wrong because everyone is different we're now seeing a scandal unfolding around the astra zeneca vaccine while the w.h.o. says that it's too early to draw any conclusions and suspending it may be unnecessary what do you think what is your general attitude to this scandal. we are extremely careful when it comes to any data connected to side effects potentially

provided by this or that product why because we did not have the opportunity to fully check it using medical data in this case we can only speak about ourselves and here i can say that each country monitoring all of the potential posts vaccination side effects the vaccination process should not be politicized because the process itself is aimed at one particular goal saving lives and protecting the population. but we're not politicizing this as a country. we are saying that the country created 3 product of its own we're telling the whole world about them in the same way that everyone else is why wouldn't we it's our achievement we're proud of it at the end of the day it's an appraisal of russian science which some have been trying to diminish and say we are not capable of anything we are in the long run we do acknowledge that there could be a 3rd wave there may be a slight increase but why is that massive everywhere but moderate in russia well we

see how the party may logical situation is developing in europe and in russia one of the reasons for this development is that they were constantly unlocked and people stayed at home they did not go outside their sterile in the sense of the virus so then they go out and catch it that's why they never develop collective immunity right essentially yes when do you think this will all end we are now working on the assumption that we will achieve 60 percent collective immunity by august it is clear that most likely there will be some seasonality everyone has been talking about that. so it could come back in october. yes but i really hope people will get vaccinated because dealing with the consequences of the disease will be far more difficult than getting voluntarily inoculated. some people are still wary about getting the coronavirus. been reviewing a few of the myths surrounding russian sputnik the vaccine.

existing approved vaccines contain a small fragment of the virus one of its genes even half of it and of course it constant sexy with code it. has side effects and complications are the same as after any flu vaccine at the business i've seen these are not really side effects the expected reaction of the immune system as the vaccine trains it to defend itself against an enemy and it gets activated. if you. effectiveness and to keep parameters the crucial for vaccine testing and i'm. most secure what's it's based on proven technology that has already been used for the vaccine as a company that registers a vaccine does it's strictly on the international protocols all vaccines are tested

this way and that's how all vaccines get to the market. moves i wonder where this is coming from is completely in comprehensible no vaccines cause infertility that is complete nonsense from a biological point of view. on what vaccines of wild virus can cause infertility because it can affect the reproductive organs of certain individuals almost more than both of. you all of them very public your list you should we all have to make a choice and weigh up the risks give you the only way to prevent any viral infection including the growing of ours is vaccination. you get vaccinated or get sick. more headline news coming right up facebook has been slapped with a massive lawsuit as press freedom monitors say it's got questions to answer over

the proliferation of hate speech and this information it's our next story when we come back.

join me every 1st week on the alex salmond sure and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or. i'm sure i'll see you then. all over again global media watchdog reporters without borders has filed a massive lawsuit against facebook for allegedly letting hate speech flourish including false videos of a pandemic that are being watched millions of times but is just one of the serious allegations now hitting the tech giant around the globe. reporters without borders lawsuit demonstrates that the california based company's undertakings to its consumers are largely mendacious and that it allows dissent from ation and hate

speech to flourish on its network contrary to the claims made in its terms of service and through its ads facebook a mere pittance has grown to be too large for the company itself even its exacts when unaware of being filmed of course admitting the giant has to be tamed. to. do it but until this happens it's up to individual countries to rein in the dominance of facebook and they do the u.k. has taken the social network to court for losing control of the data of british hughes's italy find the company over the lack of transparency in their privacy policies facebook was misleading users to register on its platform by not informing them immediately inadequately of the collection activity with commercial intent of

the data provided by them astray or forced facebook into a commercial deal making it pay news corpus trulia for journalism from its local mastheads but only after an ill tempered fight in which facebook inadvertently shut down some of vital information services in australia. on the side of over and fulfillment in doing so some content was blocked inadvertently even in the united states where facebook is widely viewed as a mass mind control tool in the hands of political establishment is taking steps to limit its reach for these books user profiles would allegedly reveal an individual's likes dislikes interests and habits over a significant amount of time without affording users a meaningful opportunity to control or. and the unauthorized exploration of their private lives some say the big tech has replaced big oil as the global corporate

power play up except it controls not only the money but also information streams and whether its concerns about snooping censorship or monopoly practices the raw signs that the global mood could be turning on the online giant but it won't go down without a fight fairly powerful groups like media organizations and governments coming up your facebook from very different angles now none of those entities are powerful facebook is right now that of course might be one reason that these governments are a little worried about how or at least trying to rein it in you're already a very very scary territory all right it's only going to keep going in the same direction that it has been going governments or have been slow to rein this in governments and sort of try to do anything about it he said joins are stronger than governments they are the most powerful forces on the planet they're also talk of course of the planet as undersea they control the conversation they control who

gets the herd who doesn't get bigger they control what you see they control what you buy they know everything about you they are showing us who's in charge. us secretary of state swarmed by land of possible sanctions if the north stream to gas pipeline between russia and germany is completed the message was sent to his german counterpart in a face to face meeting during a nato summit in brussels i made clear that firm some gauged in pipeline construction risk u.s. sanctions the pipeline divides europe it exposes ukraine and central europe to russian money play ssion and coercion it goes against europe's own stated energy security goals so what i said was that we will continue to monitor activity to complete and certify that pipeline and if that activity takes place we will make a determination on the applicability of sanctions. despite u.s. warnings nato faces a split in views over the project during a 2 day summit in brussels the alliance's chief stoltenberg admitted that the issue

was top of the discussions that a common standpoint was yet to be reached they did stress that it was an appropriate platform to discuss this type of plan russia's foreign ministry in turn has questioned nato's motives. nato doesn't have a common view on north stream too but why does the military organization have to take a common standpoint toller it's a business project between 2 independent states maybe their alliance has plans to invest costing just over $9000000000.00 euros the north stream to project is already more than 95 percent complete it will allow russian gas to flow directly into germany under the baltic sea it could also be used to bypass existing pipelines we could take gas through ukraine which would cost valuable transit fees german journalist thomas fassbender says nato may be turning into a geopolitical tool for washington to dominate europe. well there is general in knowledge meant that pipelines gas oil pipelines are offered to your political zeal

economical relevance so that explains why the subject is being discussed in the middle to forment since nato has been looking for a new identity and now there is growing concern especially in europe there's a nato identity may be turned on that need to may be turned into an instrument to ensure a. u.s. domination of the eurasian marts that the us must not allow any competing in the stick power ruling over a don't we need him or with the eurasian continent europe is in danger in danger of becoming something between a rock and a hard on the one hand we appreciate to protection by the u.s. military and political ally on the other hand we do not want to get in between the in between the us chinese or us russian rivalries in the end. worst case

as cannon fodder and and a better place. issue of race reparations in the united states a split opinion after the chicago suburb of evanston became the 1st city to pay black residents who suffered segregation and housing discrimination in florida if approved a $10000000.00 package setting aside $25000.00 for each and a double family the money is to be spent on the home repairs or is down payments on property reparations will be funded by income from annual cannabis taxes over the next decade but on the wider issue of reparations a poll suggests that just one in 5 agreed damages should be paid to the descendant of slaves and many also question how eligibility for such programs is to target with race ancestry and evidence of discrimination all being considered we discussed the policies viability here on r.t. . this quite in the current development it's quite new and heard of.

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

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

a larger social movement that ask for much more at the national level. and that's the way looks for moscow for now i'll be back with your next starting international update 32 minutes here. by the pandemic no certainly no borders just blood into nationalities. as america. we don't look like seem. to be. judging. commentary crisis with this system things. we can do better we should be better. everyone is contributing a way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges

created with the response has been masked so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we're in it together. it. seems wrong but all the old just don't all. get to shape out just they come out ahead and in gains from it because of the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. america depends on the kindness of strangers to fund their speculation and to fund their extraordinarily cheap lifestyle made from the labor overseas

and. so i find it interesting the saber rattling going on in washington d.c. right now because the kindness of strangers can evaporate in a heartbeat if they no longer want to play the u.s. dollar reserve currency again and then inflation right now is signaling a 10 from 10 to 12 percent current inflation rate adjusted for reality to 24 to 30 percent of pleasure to. know the move. into the next new.