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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson.

And in the early hours of Friday, the 29th of January, these are our main stories. Joe Biden begins rebuilding Obamacare. EU inspectors visit AstraZeneca amid delays in the vaccine supply and how a history of racism in health care has led to a lack of trust in vaccines in minority communities.

Also in this podcast, court documents reveal the leader of the far right proud boys group was an informer for law enforcement.

And 80 million dollars, it's yours. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you so much.

A portrait by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli sells for a record price.

One of President Biden's key commitments during his campaign was to expand health care and in particular help people who've lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and consequently their health insurance. And now, just over a week into his presidency, he signed an executive order which reopens access to the online health insurance marketplace, a move meant to shore up Obamacare, which Donald Trump had spent four years trying to repeal and replace.

Basically the best way to describe it, to undo the damage Trump has done. There's nothing new that we're doing here other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring the Medicare to the way it was before Trump became president, which by Fiat iTunes made more inaccessible, more expensive and more difficult for people to qualify for either of those two items.

Our correspondent in Washington is Labutta DiCicco. As Joe Biden says, he's not doing anything new. It's kind of a return to the old order, the return to the order when he was vice president and President Obama was in office. So the first thing is that this online marketplace, I guess if you're not American, it's quite difficult to imagine. But this is where people go and sign up for health plans or health insurance plans that are backed or can be subsidized for some people by the government.

So Donald Trump had tightened the window under which people sign up for this. And he also, you know, there were complaints that his administration had not publicized when the window was. Now, Joe Biden is expanding that from the middle of February. There will be three months for people to sign up to that. There's also this federal fund called Medicaid, basically for people that are below a certain income. This is federal health insurance. So he's looking at removing barriers which Donald Trump had brought in.

So there were some instances where it was linked to work. You'd have to work in order to qualify for Medicaid. He's trying to remove those barriers. So all in all, I think if you're a conservative, if you're somebody from Donald Trump side of things, that there were many people who were very opposed to what's known as Obamacare, they will see this as a change. But Joe Biden, President Biden billing this as a return to things as they should be, according to him.

I also see on the White House that President Biden has reversed some of President Trump's anti abortion policies. What do you know of that?

Yeah, so this is something that actually I mean, the first one is something that was actually brought in under President Reagan, and it's known as the global gag rule, or some people call it the Mexico City policy. And essentially it stops international NGOs from getting tax funding if they provide abortion counseling. And you found that over the years when they were Republicans in the White House, they bring it in. When there are Democrats in the White House, they repeal it.

So that is what Joe Biden has done today. But he's also looking at rules around domestic family planning providers for low income Americans. You may remember there was a lot of those big row over providers such as Planned Parenthood, which were part of these this kind of tranche of providers that that helped low income people. Joe Biden now looking at restoring money to them. They had had money stripped from them for offering or referring women for long nonselective abortions. Labu DiCicco in Washington in the last edition of the Global News podcast, we told you about the row between the European Union and AstraZeneca amid a shortage of vaccine supplies.

Now, EU inspectors have visited the AstraZeneca manufacturing site near Brussels to find out why the drugs giant says it's unable to fulfill the bloc's order on time. Our Europe correspondent in Brussels, Gavin Lee, told me more.

The European Commission has said very little about it other than to confirm it took place that the Belgian authorities spoke to investigators from the Belgian faculty of medicine, went to this site. It happened yesterday. I understand from talking to EU officials that they took away some samples that took away some papers as well from the site. What the Belgian authorities have said is they acted on behalf of the EU Commission, that there was doubts as to the story being given from Zenica about why it couldn't supply the EU with up to 100 million doses of the vaccine by March.

And in fact, they're expecting a quarter of that. And it's this site in Belgium that's supposed to have the production problems, the the bat yield now. EU officials have said to me that there were so many stories they've heard from AstraZeneca. The deep suspicion is that some of these stocks that have been sold off to other countries, possibly the U.K., so that gets to the heart of what has become a deeply unpleasant row. And we're told there will be another inspection at the same site later this week.

Yes, because the European Union has said it wants AstraZeneca to use the production from two U.K. sites to supply vaccines to the European Union. But there's also talk that the EU might prevent the export of vaccines from the European Union in particular to the UK.

What EU officials are saying is it's stipulated in the contract with AstraZeneca. They claim that the site in Oxford and in Cheshire in the UK are the two primary sites for supplying them in Belgium and the Netherlands are two European sites are classed as a third and fourth of most importance. And therefore, they say it's contractually, legally an obligation for the company to provide doses from the UK. And this is not about stealing. This is about having their own fair share and making sure their contract is met.

The company AstraZeneca have claimed that the UK had the bid first and in the UK's contract, they've got the the first say on those doses. So that's that story that's still to rumble on how they find a solution we don't yet know. The EU has had problems with Pfizer as well. Tomorrow, the commission is going to announce its plan on controlling the movement of these vaccines. At the moment, they're talking about transparency and they will make companies notify the EU if they're taking them outside of the union, even to the UK.

What the Germans want to see is the right to say yes or no. And briefly, what is going to happen tomorrow, we expect is that the EU will say member states have the right to effectively block supplies of vaccines from leaving the EU if their citizens want it first. So this is potentially a huge development happening tomorrow.

Briefly, Gavin, the shadow of Brexit hangs over this, doesn't it?

The British papers today full of stories of the EU demanding the UK's vaccines causing outrage here, but it can't be good for EU UK relations in the post Brexit world.

No, officially, EU Commission, EU Council officials talk about how this is not about politics. But you know, it's not to any single national newspaper or politicians in member states who say that, you know, all the talk that the UK gave before Brexit, that they would have stronger, warmer relations once they left the union. Well, that doesn't seem to have happened.

Gavin Lee in Brussels to see how members of the EU are faring with the pandemic, we checked in with our correspondents in France and Germany. Here's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

It's more or less taken as read that in the next few days there will be an announcement maybe made by Macron about a toughening up of restrictions, maybe into really quite severe lockdown. And there are distinct signs with the British variant. I mean, I know we shouldn't call it that, as what everyone calls it here arriving. I think things are about to take a turn for the worse every day. Now, there are about 2000 cases coming into about 10 percent of reported cases are now from the new variant.

So they're very worried about and it looks like, therefore, there will be a lockdown of some kind coming. Of course, the AstraZeneca shortage, you know, reported is not having any effect yet. But of course, the AstraZeneca drug is not authorised yet. It's about to be, but it's not here yet that there is anger here, of course, as the results were about the projected arrivals not being up to the level they expected. But that's for the future.

For right now, there is another problem, which is that the vaccine that they do have, which is the Pfizer and the Wadena, is not arriving in sufficient quantities. And there are shortages of. Beginning to become apparent, if you look around the local press, as I did today online, you see from lots of regions of France reports coming in about vaccinations being put on hold because supplies are not getting through. We just had a report out of the Paris region that from next week, the first doses of the two doses will not be applied.

They'll continue giving the second dose, but the first doses will not be given again because of supply difficulties, which are not, as I repeat, they can't be linked to the AstraZeneca. They're linked to difficulties with Pfizer, which is what is providing the bulk of vaccines now.

Hugh Schofield in Paris. In Germany, there's talk of ten weeks of vaccine shortages ahead. Damien McGuinness is in Berlin.

I think the real problem here is about vaccine delivery and that is being called by the newspapers here, a scandal. One newspaper put another newspaper says that Europe is threatened by vaccine crisis. Those those words of scandal or crisis are being thrown around a lot. And that's why Angela Merkel has just announced that she will be holding a summit on Monday, a vaccine summit, it's being called, with the regional leaders from all over Germany and ministers, as well as vaccine producers and pharmaceutical companies, because that's really the problem in Germany.

When you look at the numbers overall, we're starting to see a slightly more positive picture. So infection rates are starting to go down, which is good news. Death rates still pretty high, but the infection overall is coming down. And that's because of quite tough lockdown measures over the past month, really. But the real problem is if you can't get the vaccines online time, then that's not going to help those people who are still vulnerable. Of course, the AstraZeneca debate is really playing into the debate here.

Interestingly, of course, German officials have also recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be used for over sixty fives. That's not a ruling. It's a recommendation. And of course, as you just said in Paris, AstraZeneca vaccine is not yet authorised in the EU. That is expected to come tomorrow.

But if it does come, it plays into this idea in Germany, which is really the centre of the debate here, whether the AstraZeneca vaccine, once it is up and running, once it is delivered, is that effective even because a lot of the trials show it's more like 60 percent effective compared to, say, more like 95 percent with the Pfizer biotech vaccine.

And this idea that it's not possibly it's not as effective for older people is also has a lot of currency here in Germany. So even if enough numbers are delivered in Germany, there is a feeling here, justified or not, but there's certainly a feeling that it's not as reliable as the Amerine vaccines, which is Moderna and the Pfizer biotech vaccine. So I think we're going to see more of an uptake anyway of those two vaccines rather than the AstraZeneca, even when the AstraZeneca vaccine comes online.

Damien McGuinness in Germany. So what does AstraZeneca have to say about efficacy in the over 65? Here's our health correspondent Paula B'Gosh.

There were too few elderly people in the clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine to say for sure that it's effective in the over 65. But there were enough participants to demonstrate that it's safe for this age group. This coupled with the clinical evidence that the vaccine mobilized immune cells in them to fight off the virus, convinced the UK regulator to authorise its use on the elderly. Paul Hunter, who's professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that the over 65 should not worry about receiving the AstraZeneca jab.

I'm almost 65 myself, and I would happily take any of the vaccines, including the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. We do know it is safe in people over 65. They have much fewer side effects than younger people, and it is almost certainly provides substantial benefit in terms of preventing disease and reducing your chances of going into hospital.

Public Health England said that the risk of severe disease and death among coronavirus patients increased exponentially with age and that the priority was to vaccinate as many vulnerable people as possible to protect more of the population and save more lives.

Halab Gauche health workers around the world are trying to dispel fears about the vaccine, and there's growing evidence that faith in the covid vaccine varies along ethnic and racial lines, with white people more likely to be vaccinated than black and South Asian people. Researchers have said long standing racial inequality has eroded trust in medical institutions in many minority communities. Jois, a tutut of the BBC's reality check team, has been investigating the role that online misinformation has played in stoking that mistrust.

Some of the claims we've looked at have been focused on things such as claims about a. Priority list, vaccine ingredients, is it halal and human guinea pig claims, which have been around for a while now? And in the early months of the pandemic, a video was widely shared online of two French doctors discussing the initial testing of a possible vaccine in Africa before being tested anywhere else. And the comments led to huge outrage and angry responses from users on social media.

And these comments also fueled existing concerns that Africans could be used as guinea pigs for a future covid-19 vaccine. But this didn't actually happen in vaccine trials happened all over the world. The Oxford University vaccine team, for example, they initiated testing in the UK and later in Brazil and South Africa. And the fight, the biotech vaccine had clinical trial sites in Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, South Africa and the US.

OK, so this is, I suppose, also with the information that you mentioned there, things could spread so quickly when it comes to social media and there is so much information coming at people, good and bad. I mean, what can people do to try and figure out what is false and what is true?

Yeah. So like you say that, you know, there's a lot of information that misinformation, should I say, that travel between countries and that's really common. A lot of it is shared on social media, private group chats, which of course makes it really difficult to track. And during the pandemic, we've spent so much more time on our phones. But more and more people are actually getting their news from social media, which all, of course, are declaims, travelling far and wide.

Social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube have recognised this, and they've also introduced policies to clamp down on misinformation. But I think on an individual basis, you know, if people do want to export to fake news, should we say you really have to ask yourself a few questions? Does it look like a credible source? Where is this information coming from? And before anybody shows anything, they should really pause. If they're unsure, then they should definitely not share Joyce a tutu speaking to all Acheron.

Now the actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry has produced a TV special aimed at African Americans concerned about the virus. He said doctors had asked him to help to promote the jab. Mr Perry told Gayle King on CBS This Morning that black people have not forgotten notorious historical cases of white doctors using black people for unethical medical experiments.

If you look at our history in this country with the Tuskegee experiment, Henrietta Lacks and things like that, it raises flags for us as African-American people. So I understand why there's a healthy skepticism about the vaccine. I understand why they reached out to you. I know you're certainly younger than 65, but they thought if Tyler Perry gets it, it'll send a strong message. What questions did you have for the doctors? I'm curious. Give me your top two.

What did you want to know from them? Well, I wanted to understand the technology. I mean, we talked about everything from the Spanish flu of 1918 to what is happening now to where it came from. But I think my top question was understanding the RNA technology and Dr. Kimberly Manning and Dr. Del Rio did an amazing job at explaining that and how this new technology has helped to come up with the vaccines so quickly. Because when I heard things like warp speed, I was really concerned because this last administration and all the pressure they were putting on the CDC and FDA, I don't know.

I didn't really feel like I could trust it. But once I got all the information found out, the researchers, I was very, very happy.

The actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry. Still to come in this podcast, the UN says migrants are being illegally expelled from European countries.

We have numerous reports of individuals forced back borders in other countries, beeton their possessions stolen.

And the British government pulls a public service ad that was criticized as sexist. In one of its first decisions, Facebook's new oversight board has ruled that the social media giant was wrong to take down four out of the five posts it's examined so far. Facebook has seven days to restore the posts and says it will comply. One post concerned a commentary on China's treatment of Muslims. North America technology reporter James Klayton is in San Francisco.

The way Facebook moderate's its platform has never been under more scrutiny, with so much fake news and hate speech on social media. Facebook decided to set up an oversight board last year, which it claims is independent. Another case was upheld by the panel Freedom Meaning Slur aimed at Azerbaijanis. Donald Trump will be looking at the process closely. His posts are regularly some of the most engaged with on Facebook. His account is currently suspended indefinitely, but could be overturned by the board.

It's been three weeks since supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. More than 150 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, including at least six members of the far right group, the Proud Boys. But it's now been discovered that the group's leader once worked as an informer for law enforcement.

Peter Guffin reports.

The proud boys have been called a hate group by civil rights watchdogs and just this week designated a terrorist entity by the Canadian government. Anti-immigrant, all male and staunchly supportive of Donald Trump's presidency. The group has a long history of violence there.

National Chairman Enrique Takio may not therefore seem a natural fit for maintaining law and order.

But court documents show that Mr. Correa was an undercover informant who helped the U.S. authorities after pleading guilty to fraud nearly a decade ago. Mr. Torrio has denied working with law enforcement, saying he doesn't recall any of the details presented to him by reporters. But a former federal prosecutor, Vanesa Singh, Johannes confirmed to Reuters news service that Mr. Tarryl provided information that led to the prosecution of 13 people in two separate cases.

And a court transcript from 2014 shows Mr. Taros lawyer asked for his prison sentence for fraud to be reduced in light of what he called his client's prolific work informing on drug and human smuggling schemes. Several proud boys took part in the assault on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. U.S. officials say they're investigating the extent to which the group may have helped plan it.

But Mr. Torrio was not there. He was arrested in Washington two days earlier, charged with illegally possessing high capacity rifle magazines and with burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a D.C. church. The FBI has since said they had information that Mr. Torrio was planning to incite violence as Congress voted to certify President Joe Biden's election victory.

He took off in the United Nations refugee agency. The UNHCR has issued a warning that systematic efforts are being made to deny migrants basic human rights as they try to get into Europe. U.N. officials are highlighting forced expulsions at land and sea borders in Greece, Italy, Malta and Croatia, which they say are not only inhumane but illegal. The BBC's Paul Hennelly spoke to Peter Kessler, the UNHCR spokesman in Greece from Greece.

We've heard reports of individuals picked up in refugee reception centres or other detention centres and taken back across the border force, back across the border. We've had reports of a minor child who was outside his home who is picked up at a bus stop and then called back his family two days later, having been summarily deported and not being given access to a phone or anything. We have numerous reports of people being pushed back at sea or being collected on coastline areas where they had landed and then forced back into boats once again and towed back out to sea.

And of course, in other countries across Europe, we have numerous reports of individuals forced back from borders in other countries beaten, their possessions stolen, and it's too numerous to ignore at this stage.

Why are these things happening now? Are they new? These are not new phenomena. Greece has always had a very stiff border control policy. But despite the fact that asylum numbers have progressively decreased in recent years, we have sky rocketing information from our own sources and other very reliable sources that people are being pushed back from Greece's frontier and from other borders across Europe, in some cases under the guise of covid controls. But elsewhere, it seems to be blatant attempts to prevent.

People from seeking protection from persecution or people who are fleeing war. But the UNHCR uses the word systematic. Are you suggesting that this isn't just misbehavior, but that it could be sanctioned at state or even EU level?

It's difficult for us to say in terms of sanctions and the level that they may take place. But certainly the performance of border authorities, of coastguards, of police is very much a concern. Clearly, it seems that persons are not being treated in accordance with national laws, with EU laws, with international law, and that for this to happen, at least on the scale that we see in countries like here in Greece, it has to come with a green light from a fairly high level.

You've raised concerns with governments and with the EU. What's the response been?

Some governments, as we see here in Greece, flat out deny that it's happening elsewhere. Of course, we have similar reports or proposals for there to be some factfinding. But what needs to happen with each and every case is a proper investigation, remedial activities and, of course, affirmations from the Coast Guard and border and police authorities that this will stop.

A special court in Columbia has charged eight commanders of the former FOK rebel group with war crimes for taking hostages during the country's armed conflict and torturing and murdering them.

Despite reports the 300 page indictment is based on the testimony of more than a thousand victims, it describes at least 30 years of what it said was a systematic practice of kidnapping by the former rebels. Prosecutors say at least 20000 people were abducted, almost 2000 of whom were never heard of again. Prisoners were used as pawns to be exchanged for money or Fark detainees. One soldier spent 14 years in the hands of the rebels. The former commanders are also accused of the murder, torture and sexual abuse of their kidnap victims.

Candace Pyott. The British government has taken down an advert on social media urging people to stay home and save lives after it was criticized for stereotyping women. The poster, which warned the new covid-19 Verant was spreading fast, depicted women undertaking a range of domestic activities.

As our political correspondent Chris Mason reports, the advert attempts to illustrate what might be going on inside for households during lockdown.

One shows a woman in dungarees with a bucket gesticulating at a girl brandishing a mop.

Another has a mum holding a baby while staring at an ironing board. A third has a woman on her knees clutching a book with two children on either side of her at a table. The only man to feature appears to be stroking a cat while relaxing on a sofa in the company of one assumes, his partner and their child, Labor said. It looks like 1953. The prime minister's official spokesman said the poster did not reflect our view of women and added we've removed it.

Chris Mason, an extremely rare portrayed by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, has been sold at auction at Sotheby's.

It went for 92 million dollars, a record for any work by the artist. Farhana Dorward has the details.

The virtual auction was held in New York with bidders on the phone to Sotheby's staff and online. This was the moment a young man holding a Randol was sold at 80 million.

Last chance and selling Lilya to you. Congratulations only at Sotheby's for the Botticelli 80 million dollars. It's yours. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you so much.

The auction may have lacked the usual excitement of a blockbuster sale, but the price didn't, including fees and commissions. It was just over 92 million dollars. The 15th century piece is a portrait of a young male noble theatre, perhaps a magic family member. The man dressed in a simple tunic holds a round deal or medallion depicting a saint. The artwork is thought to date back to fourteen eighty and is one of only around a dozen surviving works by Botticelli.

The painting last sold in 1982 for just over a million dollars, which was an incredibly high price at the time. Its current price breaks the artist's previous record of ten and a half million dollars made by the auction of Madonna and Child with young Saint John the Baptist eight years ago, Farhana Dharwad.

And that's all from us for now. But there'll be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you. Send us an email address, this global podcast at BBC, Dot, c0, dot, the U.K. This edition was produced by Peter Gothard, the studio manager, Graham White, and the editor Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time. Goodbye.

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