Very good move only in New York Times. Correspondent reads Something Like straight out of a spy thriller live from moscow. Thanks for joining us. That was the north international. Welcome to the program. The 1st, the transition process to hand power to president elect. Joe biden has been officially kicked off in the United States. The head of the General Services administration confirmed the news in the last few hours and has more. Emily murphy, of the General Services administration, has said that she is now beginning the process of transitioning to a biden white house. Now she put forward a letter explaining that she was taking this move and she said that she was not asked to do this by anyone in the trump white house. They had not requested that she begin this process. But furthermore, she emphasized that she had been threatened and that she had faced quite a bit of pressure in the lead up to making this decision. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by an executive branch official, including those who work at the white house. Well, General Services administration with regard to the substance or timing of my decision to be clear, i did not receive any direction to delay my determination. I did, however, receive threats online by phone and by mail directed at my safety. My family, my stuff, and even my pets in an effort to cuss me into making this determination prematurely, even in the face of thousands of threats. So i always remain committed to upholding the law. Now what is significant here is that donald trump is supporting this move by the head of the General Services administration. He is announcing and he has made clear on social media that he supports emily murphy and her decision to begin the process of transitioning to a Joe Biden White house. This is the statement from donald trump, and while hes not conceding defeat, while hes making clear that shes not acting on behalf of his administration, it sounds like the trumpet ministration is essentially admitting that theyll be leaving office pretty soon. This is Donald Trumps statement in support. Of emily murphy, i want to thank emily murphy, a g. S. A. For his steadfast dedication and loyalty to our country. Shes been harassed, threatened, and abused, and i do not want to see this happen to her family or employees of g. S. A. Case, strongly continues, we will keep up the good fight, and i believe we will prevail, that a lesson the best interests of our country, im recommending that emily and the team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols and have told my team to do the same. Now its important to note that emily murphy received a letter from the u. S. Congress shortly before. And the u. S. Congress was urging her to take this action. Its also important to note that the trumpet, ministration has not conceded defeat. They still maintain, they were victims of widespread election fraud. The election was stolen from them. Donald trump main saints he is the legitimate winner of the u. S. President ial election. However, it seems clear at this point that the trumpet ministration is planning to leave office in january. Now it is also important to note that joe biden has considered himself the president elect for quite some time. Now. Hes been naming appointments to his cabinet, a number of which are former Obama Administration figures. And it seems like joe biden has been preparing to take office long before today. I mean, this seems to be the 1st indication we have from the Trump Administration that they will begin the process of transitioning away from power. And it seems like joe biden will be entering the white house in january. But joining me live now laurence chan, the host of a pod cost called pseudo intellectual. Lauren, thanks for joining us. That i ought to be good to have you with us. Now this announcement has come just hours off the minutes again. So defied its election results. Do you think this is the the final straw or if you will look for trumps hand, what was he really finally out of options here . Well, i think its important to note with this and like your other anchor mentioned, that this is in no way a concession on behalf of the trumpet ministration. Now the trumpet, ministration has been dealt some blows in terms of their litigation in michigan and pennsylvania, but they plan on appealing from what i understand. And a lot of people myself included, believe that ultimately this will end up at the supreme court. Now this is by no means over. However, by agreeing to follow this protocol, i think the Term Administration is doing their best to, i guess, appease media and the Democratic Party who are insisting on accusing him of staging some sort of sudoku, which is absolutely not the case. And even in the statement himself, the president made it very clear that they are by no means giving up the fight to ensure that you know, voter fraud. If it did happen is uncovered. Do you think trump is sort of treading a fine line here . Because in one tweet youve got him saying the transition can begin at the same time. Hes saying the good fight continues and hes going to win process legal action. Do you think this is his way of trying to sort of please will silence him . I think absolutely, and it is a fine line to tread if the g. S. A. Requests that the transition process begin, the troubled ministration were to say no. Then the media, his critics who are already accusing him of, i guess, defying democratic norms would absolutely have a field day for that. So i think this is honestly making the best out of a bad situation for him. He can continue his legal battles and again, he has until december 14th, when the electors actually cast their votes to make his case. And in the meantime, he can at least be seen by the media and by the American Public. As going along with the transition process, if things dont pan out his way. But i think the people who are saying that this is over for him, hes admitted to defeat. Theyre saying so a little bit prematurely. Lets talk a bit of a few because she said there was no prussia to make this decision. At the same time though, shes revealed, shes been receiving death threats. Thats bit of a contradiction, isnt it . Absolutely, and i think its goes to show how toxic the american political discourse has become, when now even american officials like the g. S. A. , which is by no means a glamorous print prison, are receiving things like death threats. And i think when she says theres been no pressure, im assuming she probably means to you, you know, other politicians, people in washington in the federal government and all that. But right now we have this base of rabid extremists in the far left who believe that trump is actually a literal nazi Holding People in concentration camps. So in the minds of these people, anything they can do to remove him from power, including doing things like rioting, looting and yes, sending violent threats. Its justified and my heart goes out to this poor woman and her family who have had to go through this. Its not acceptable, and my hope is that, you know, if trump does end up leaving the white house that he at least uses his remaining time to try to clamp down on the voter fraud. That theres growing evidence did happen. Whether its enough to sway the election, im not sure, but he also needs to do something and you know, if hes out of office after this, then biden needs to try as well. To really extinguish the growing amount of extremism that is growing in the u. S. How much damage do you think has been done to us democracy as a result of this delay to the transition . I mean, what sort of message does this send out to the world . Well, a lot of people have been worried about what the, all the litigation in the election result challenges mean for the status of american democracy. And i think that is absolutely the wrong way to be looking at it. It is not the investigations and the allegations of fraud that undermine democracy. It is the potential for fraud and perhaps even fraud itself. That is the real issue here. The u. S. Is an outlier among developed nations and how little Election Security they have, you know, they dont have federal id requirements when voting, you know, they, they allowed mass mail and voting things that you countries like france have banned. I mean places like canada as well. We have strict voter id laws and are very tight on our voter Voter Registration protocols as well. The fact that the u. S. Has managed to continue with its elections and the way it has for so long without this being an issue sooner is really something to be concerned about. So regardless of who ends up again, going into the white house. I think this is a problem that has existed for a long time. And you know, its unfortunate that this is coming at such a contentious time. But this is absolutely a conversation that the American Public needs to have right now. And i also find it ironic. How for the past 4 years, democrats were accusing, trump of having benefited from foreign interference in the election, which there has never been any proof of, by the way, and the same paper, same people now are flabbergasted that someone could possibly suggest the elections are secure. It just screams of hypocrisy to me. Host of the seat of the actual porter goss, thanks for joining us. Good to have you on the program today. Thank you. And other headlines, the race for a covert vaccine is heating up. Now the british swedish farmers on astra zeneca has published interim test results for its shots, which is being developed with oxford university. However, as a detail, its not proving as effective as some of its rivals. Astra zeneca are the latest company to join the front runners in the coburg 19 vaccine race, analysing an efficacy over 70 percent after concluding their phase 3 trials. Know these preliminary results may sound humble compared to other vaccines. The companys c. E. O. Is optimistic, same as you will be highly effective and will have an Immediate Impact with the u. K. Having already preordered 100000000 jobs. Boris johnson is more than happy with the result. Incredibly exciting news. The oxford vaccine has proved so effective in trials. There are still further the safety checks ahead. But these are fantastic results. Well done to our brilliant scientists at the university of oxford and astra zeneca and all who volunteered in the trials. So why the relatively low efficacy of Developers Say that 70 percent figure is an average of 2 doses rose humans, too. High doses gave a result of 62 percent with a high dose following a low one raising efficacy to 90 percent. Now this 70 percent average figure is therefore lower than trial results announced earlier by madonna at 95 percent also provides a 95 percent though that company raise their efficacy from an initial 90 percent result with a russian sputnik v. Vaccine standing at 92. Now these figures are crucial, given the highly competitive nature of the market, and its been a bumpy road for astra zeneca. Today, as these results were published, the companys shares actually fell on the back of the lower than expected average efficacy, even as european stocks rose on the good news of another vaccine entering the market. Now the vaccine trials had to be halted in september because of a serious suspected adverse reaction in a participant. And in october 1 of the volunteers in brazil died, causing uncertainty about its future. Why the advance trial of a promising vaccine was suddenly passed . Astra zeneca has caused its trials out to an unexplained illness in a participant in the u. As one Company Makes huge strides in the vaccine race and other drug giant hits the possible option on its late stage Trials Volunteer and where the most at vance to corona virus vaccine trials in the world has died. And despite the news, astra zeneca is testing continues. Well, those adverse effects were investigated. Though the company and the Brazilian Health authority refused to comment in detail on the case. The trial was deemed safe to continue there in the United States. The delay lasted several weeks, and todays results dont include data from american trials, or despite the lower efficacy, the upside to this vaccine is cost effectiveness. While the estimated price of the Pfizer Vaccine is around 19. 00, the modernity job between 25. 00 to 37. 00, those prices go up to over 40. 00 and as high as 74. 00 respectively for the total treatment of the cost of the sport mcvie vaccine is estimated at 26. 00 per treatment the final cost so yet to be announced. The astra zeneca job would not only be easier to manufacture and store, but the cost for both doses could be as low as 8. 00 for the race is now on to register. These vaccines, Astra Zeneca States that it would seek emergency use listing from the World Health Organization with russia saying theyve already begun the sputnik registration process. Despite the good news, its too early to say. Weve seen the back of the pandemic, even with these promising trial results, doos is not the time for complacency. While we continue to receive encouraging news both called good 19 vaccines and remain cautiously optimistic about the potential for a new tools to start to arrive in the coming months. Right now, we are extremely concerned by the surging cases we are seeing in some countries, particularly in europe and the americas hold workers. And the systems are being pushed to the breaking point. Even with several vaccines hitting the market in coming months with the world in the grip of the 2nd covert, 19 wave, there is still a very long and difficult road ahead. Until we see a return to at least some semblance of normality and head of the roll out of covert vaccines, chinas developed a way to limit the spread of the virus. Its calling for a global fire wall in the form of a system of q. R. Codes that would allow International Travel to resume. China has proposed a global mechanism for the meat recognition of Health Certificates based on nucleic acid test results in the form of internationally accepted q. R. Codes. We hope more countries will join this mechanism. Or chinas been using q. R. Codes. Essentially, visual bar codes to provide health data since february to generate them, users how to install a smart phone, which stores medical data and tracks their movement. Thats raised privacy concerns in the west. Or europe though, has similar schemes, including the idea of immunity passports in the u. K. Our colleagues ask you taylor put that issue up for debate. These tests can be a lot of false negatives. A lot of false positives and youre no better track and trace me werent going in terms of this town or that this incredibly dangerous. It is not only for my safety and youre seeing in the United States as well as across the globe. The people are starting to rise up saying enough stop, protecting me. I wouldnt live my life the way id choose. We not only i was reading today at heathrow airport, used to be one of the busiest i had seen. 82 percent fall and passengers. Whats the way that to get wheels out into, if not as a similar system to this reason that travels collapse is not the pandemic because the lockdowns, i mean, since march 12th, europe has not been able to fly to the us and europe retaliated, and we cant fly there and now were living under the region situation where yeah, we once believed in the right to travel, but thats been denied to us so many people have been locked in their nation states right now. The answer is to is, liberalism is to liberate, travel and liberate and recognize human rights. Again, do you think that we do need a cohesive Global Policy in order to try and move on somehow to try make 2021 better than 2020 . There have been studies that show the virus respond differently in different regions, that there are different conditions and different places on climate and so forth. So, you know, we dont want the world or standards because Global Standards means a lot on a fact thats, thats just leave about, oh, we dont care about cases. I care about the death rate and the death rate is very slow. And again, we have to be very cautious with technology because once you turn the saw, its very hard to turn off. They will never relinquish. I mean, passports were supposed to be temporary and rubra still stuck with them. A texas man suffering from around muscle wasting disease has come all the way to, russia for treatment. And spencer was told back home in the u. S. , hed never walk again. Since arriving in the russian city of perm back in october, you seen reza call improvement. I had to use this everywhere. I went when i was going to, when there was a new partner, she couldnt what without the right to know what i found, spencer could have been dead by now or in a wheelchair all bad bound. Thats what doctors back home in america told him 5 years ago. I used to use this all the time. It was absolutely necessary. Im going to go now into scary people walking in an incredibly allen has escaped all those outcomes. When i started to notice a Little Something with my hands, they were going to go on like this. So that not some sort of right. I didnt have any problem with strength, so i didnt think i heard anything wrong. 2012 came, i had a fall and i was like, whoa, that was unusual. 2014 i came again and i had a really bad fall. It was like, ok, theres something wrong, something wrong happened to be a rare inflammatory muscle disorder known as inclusion, body myositis, between 5. 70 people per 1000000 habit. They said theres nothing we can do for its completely untrue. What did you feel when you were that good . Will i wasnt as disappointed, she would think my father had died of a form of a. O. S. And so i thought, well thats as a doctor said, good news and bad news. The good news is youre not going to die. The bad news is youre going to be trouble to spare for the Vice President of