don't you see. the it. the. the global death toll from covert 19 tops 1.5000002 of the worst hit nations the us and its only report of record number of fatalities. i'm fully back to watching al jazeera live from doha also coming up. this is not a football competition we're talking about life in the health of people britain faces criticism for its past approval of the pfizer vaccine raising fears it could undermine public confidence bangladesh transfers hundreds of rohingya refugees to

an isolated island despite concerns from the un and the rights groups and a major shift in hollywood want to brothers announces all of its films next year will be released at the same time online and in cinemas. thank you for joining us more than one and a half 1000000 people have now died from covert 19 worldwide a 3rd of those s. have happened in just the last 2 months several countries have been reporting record numbers of deaths among them where nearly a 1000 people died on thursday the highest daily toll since the beginning of the pandemic you knock down measures are being imposed to curb the outbreak and the world's worst affected country the u.s. continues to experience a surgeon infections with hospital admissions and fatah if he's reaching new highs president elect joe biden says he'll make masks calm for sorry sorry during the his

for a story months in office. in the 1st day i'm annoyed to say i'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask this 100 days to mask now for over 100 days and i think we'll see a significant reduction if we curb that everything that occurs with vaccinations and masking to drive down the numbers considerably considerably well the state of california has become one of the at the center in the us rob reynolds reports. with new covert 19 cases surging across the u.s. california's governor said he's pulling the emergency brake and will order a 3 week stay at home borders in parts of the state based on hospital capacity the bottom line is if we don't act now our hospital system will be overwhelmed we don't act now will continue to see a death rate climb more lives lost governor gavin newsome says the shutdown will go

into effect as each region's hospital intensive care unit capacity falls below 15 percent most parts of the state are due to pass that mark by mid december were bursting at the seams with too many i.c.u. patients too many patients that need oxygen and the projections suggest we're just in the beginning of this new some big people to hold on a little longer till coronavirus vaccines are rolled out we have a light at the end of the tunnel with these vaccines but we need to take seriously this moment this is the most challenging moment since the beginning of this pandemic but public health experts say restrictions lockdowns and stay at home orders are useless unless people observe them americans are fatigued we were never very good turns out and abiding by public health advice. we just

not we have to be more nast's we have been distancing we've politicizing it and been saying it's my freedom not to do it. and so we really battle back and i don't see any indication that we're going to change another issue that many states are struggling with is a lack of trained medical personnel to handle the siege rhode island's governor is begging for help and if a retired health care worker of any kind or a health care worker who's currently under employed maybe have some time to spare or are unemployed or working in a non health care setting. i'm asking you to suit up and help us out the nation's top infectious disease expert dr anthony fauci met via video link with members of president elect joe biden's transition team for what he called substantive

discussions about dealing with the pandemic here in los angeles the mayor had a blunt message for the city's 4000000 people cancel everything mayor eric garcetti told angelenos if it's not essential to do it rob riddle's al-jazeera los angeles more than a 1000000 people in iran have now had coronavirus nearly 50000 have died but the health minister says the actual number is probably much higher but the government is considering easing restrictions in several areas iran is the worst affected country in the middle east south korea meanwhile has reported its highest daily number of daily new cases since march there were 629 new infections on thursday half of them in the capital seoul the government has announced a ban on year end parties and free impose strict social distancing guidelines in the greatest soul area. now america's top infectious disease expert dr anthony

found she has apologized for criticizing britain's fast approval of the pfizer biotech vaccine it followed criticism from regulators about the u.k.'s approach shallot bellis has more. hope is housed in a belgian factory where millions of doses of the vaccine developed by german scientists from biotech and the u.s. pharmaceutical giant pfizer being made the u.k.'s leading the race to roll out the drug after its independent regulator gave the vaccine emergency approval on wednesday the 1st doses will arrive in britain within days we've got the very best people in this country and we've always got the best bet ical regulators much better than the french have much better than the belgians have much better than the americans and that doesn't surprise me as well because we're much better country than every single one while it may be a political win for the u.k. u.s. and fictious disease expert dr anthony felt she appeared to cast doubt over how british regulators approved it so quickly you know i love the brits they're great

they're good scientists but they just took the data from the wise a company and instead of scrutinizing it really really carefully they said ok let's approve it that's it may work with it the scientist hastily backtracked apologizing for what he called a misunderstanding she sued he did have great faith in the regulatory community in the u.k. it's essentially a temporary approval when it is made under extraordinary circumstances when there are risks to health and no other treatment available. it doesn't mean that the scrutiny is not there it does not mean that the regulators have not acted safely but i think what we're seeing right now is a bit of political posturing the rabbit approval had already been politicized by the you who called its approach more thora we are definitely not in the game of comparing regulators across countries nor in commenting on claims as to who is better this is not. football competition we're talking about the life and health of

people the world health organization has asked british scientists to share their findings the un body which acts as a benchmark for other countries is eager to approve a vaccine as soon as possible we need to develop more rights and we should stop we need more than these 3 or 4 we need to increase production we hold the price down we need we'd love a $1.00 vaccine because the all of the action so far 2 doses so the innovation is often if we need the research to continue we need everyone to support our research i will appoint the scientists the british regulators says the strict standards have been met to assure the vaccine safety and effectiveness the rollout is being cautiously welcomed in the u.k. but the race to regulate exposed rifts between scientists undermining international efforts to prove it safe and ready for years shelob ellice. a drug make a fine is or has revealed it had to slash its original vaccine target by half

because of challenges in its supply chain pfizer and partner biotech had hoped to distribute 100000000 vaccines globally this month that's been reduced now to $50000000.00 because they couldn't get enough from materials to make the vaccine but pfizer has not said which materials contributed to the shortfall drugmakers are also facing major logistical hurdles in distributing billions of dollars as globally the vaccine needs to be delivered using several medical supplies including gas file syringes and dry ice dr matthew davis is an infectious disease physician at washington university school of medicine she says a surprise chain issue will affect developing countries and poor regions the most. all of this attention on the development of the vaccines and all of the scrutiny and unfortunately to some degree the flitter great color at the expense then were placed around this made eyes not paying much as much attention to the supply and

distribution you're seeing now i believe a lot of these issues can be overcome in country parts of the u.s. in the usa who have the resources to do so the good is a big issue from the lower income countries were already have challenges in even obtaining the vaccine there is a very big level of difference between what i talk institution and hospital like washington university can provide for my patients then a doctor in rural america can and it requires infrastructure but a lot of what's left out of here is you know like you said a lot of the tools needed to make this happen a lot of the legion a lot of the injections and things that actually are needed to administer not to mention you know vaccinators that need to be recruited for training that needs to happen is a complex issue that requires a high degree of planning and neglect availability and for some places that

infrastructure is just not there and that is where we need to prioritize our funding and support. in other world news aid workers say hundreds of rohingya refugees are being coerced into moving to a remote island off bangladesh which the u.n. warns is prone to storms and flooding navy officials say more than 101600 drawing of refugees are heading to the island of bashan char from cox's bizarre nearly 1000000 ranger have been living in squalid camps in southeast bangladesh after being forced out of myanmar by a military crackdown. there forcing my son and his family to go he didn't want to go but he forced him i came to see him probably for the last time. my family didn't want to go there taking them by force. if my family go there to the island they will die because the floods. the missiles leave beat my brother and

broke 2 or 3 teeth when they brought him here brother didn't want to go to the other they beat my brother brought my nieces and sister in law here last night. al jazeera stand their child very has more from conses bazaar. at least 100000 going iraqis will be moved to boston char for security reasons mainly and also because of the concentration of people in the camp and we know that precisely 1642 are on the navajo basle on their way to the remote coastal i'm sure there is there are things all which could take 12 hours or more depending on the sea conditions what they're told us the living condition is good no doubt they've got to find considerable amount of money there cluster of the ledges and 920 of them and they have a room that can accommodate up to 4 people to hospital with 25 hospitals rather this police station there's a natural forward base and those who are there they don't those that were rescued

from the boat told us they don't want to be there that they're used to being near their homeland which is wondering where they live and they have extended families all across the camp they can visit so the accommodation itself might be good that moving 100000 out of nearly 1000000 is not going to be a make major difference for the government. still ahead on al-jazeera i will tell you why some muslims in sri lanka are refusing to collect the remains that their loved ones who died have covered 90 and the grass or staff it to modernize voters in the u.s. state of georgia before a runoff that will decide who controls the senate. but. the weather looks cold in unsettled across a good policy if europe at the moment big area of low pressure swirling away just

over england and that's dragging in much colder air in across that western side if you can see that lovely speckling of shower cloud coming in target practice the basa quite a brisk wind and behind this cold fronts some very cold taters a mix up with the other the moisture drifting in from the open waters it will bring a fair amount of rain and snow there over the pyrenees snow there into parts of scoffers and the highlands western parts of scotland rattling of shall is just coming through here and some wet weather to into the western side of the mediterranean picking up a little bit of warmth as it pushes across that western side of the med lots of heavy rains to northern areas of it late possibility of some localized flooding as a result of that and a fair bit of snow as well in fact over the next couple days we could see as much as maybe 3 maybe even 4 meters of snow over the alps months of the weather too much of the eastern side of the mess and showers around here cold enough but somewhat dry into the northeast a few of moscow to around minus 4 celsius

a lot of wet weather continuing there across western policies because for the next couple of days that cloud and right stretching down across much of spain and portugal. jump into this story and julian on global community bio diversity is. security is that essential for our species to survive be part of the debate i know you have 90 days and yet you can be part of this conversation when no topic is off the table the police are not neutral and all of these cases here is to terrorize and here's the other part of this there's no consequence this stream on out is the. the in.

the back a recap of our top stories on al-jazeera more than one and a half 1000000 people have died globally from covert 19 at a special pandemic session of the united nations the secretary general calls for a unified global responds u.s. president elect joe biden says he will make masks mandatory during his 1st 100 days in office hospitalizations and deaths have reached record highs in the world's worst affected country and aid workers say at least 1600 rohingya refugees are being forced to move to a remote island off the coast of bangladesh the u.n. warns it's prone to storms and flooding. to sri lanka where the families of a number of muslims coronavirus victims are refusing to claim the remains of their loved ones they're protesting against the government's force cremation policy as it goes against their religious beliefs they now fernandez has more. mammadov uncle

well he didn't jeffrey died of cool with 19 on nov 26th the sri lankan government crew meets the bodies of anyone who dies of course with 19 even if it's a suspected case it says it's technical experts have advised this is the best way to prevent the spread of the virus but cremation is forbidden in islam and some families are now refusing to collect the bodies in protest but he obeyed the law for you'll do whatever you want we don't come for i need this thing the need of the body with you and the welcoming a number of other muslims are also refusing to pick up the remains of their relatives on tuesday the supreme court dismissed 11 petitions challenging the forced cremations a joint statement by 20 civil society organizations on thursday rejected the ruling saying in a statement the fate the victims of forced cremation of called 191000 suspected

dead had been the highest court in sri lanka has been shattered victims and communities are now left without a recourse in sri lanka for the continued injustice they suffer the health minister says burials can't be allowed on till the technical experts committee presents its final decision after conducting an in-depth study into the virus. muslim activision says her community has lost patients and will continue to leave bodies organizers as they're called here at the morgue until the cremation stop almost 18 months the muslim community has been asking answer from the government so they are fed up they don't trust the government anymore they feel that it is a punishment so they don't want to be part of this process at all so therefore they are just leaving the genesis and i've been told at least 2 or 3 hospital muslim

john as a sub piling up government spokesman says the decision to cremate lies with the experts committee government to. ensure he just split committee that decides finally it's all government to government to the cabinet ministers the president prime minister the cabinet the ministers from nothing to do with it it is just that really we have and we are a team in terms of the. expert committee but cases like that of mary news are seen here in these pictures are hard for the muslim community to accept the 44 year old was cremated within hours of dying at the infectious diseases hospital the next day the family was informed her test record 19 was negative her son seen here in this mobile phone footage had the task of burying her ashes losing a loved one to covert 900 is bad enough but many muslims cremating their bodies is

a 5th worse than death the government says all covert victims are krimigis on the advice of its technical experts committee and it can't make exceptions for any community with inspections and rising rapidly the dispute is far from over fernandes out 0 colombo. india's government and protesting farmers have yet to find common ground on new laws that could affect crop prices they're due to meet again on saturday after a 2nd round of talks on thursday ended without an agreement farmers are continuing to protest against the legislation that was passed in september they're worried it will put an end to minimum crop prices and lead to corporate exploitation police in peru have shot dead a 19 year old farm worker during a protest against low wages he was part of a group of striking workers who blocks the country's main motorway with branches

stones and burning ties be the northern town of vero the protesters want wage increases and the scrapping of an agricultural law they say limits their rights and income. egyptian authorities have released 3 human rights workers who were being held on terrorism related charges after an international outcry they were working for one of the last white schools still operating in the country when they were arrested last month and accused of joining a terror group friends spreading false news the arrests were condemned by western government activists and the united nations to ghana now which is going to the polls on monday in what is expected to be a race between the incumbent and a former president unemployment and corruption a dominating the campaign so far i'm a dangerous reports. after months of job restrictions this food processing plant is slowly recovering from the impact of covered. many others did not survive.

the company's founder says doing business is difficult but when times are good. the infrastructure of the company of the nation is such that even if you have money and they're also not good or they are not there you can still benefit from meet the maurice sauce base that we have is such island which at times enterprise level i think you can't so it's a national something because you want skilled staff or employees to work with and it's not really is the. critics of the couple insecure to make policy say that businesses can't grow because of the harsh environment they operate despite the fact of coverage 19 experts say john is economy would go into a recession that's what tell you in predicting a one percent growth this year but concerns really about going and fight corruption last month the country's chief prosecutor quit alleging political interference from

the presidency in the fight against corruption is now in hiding saying his life has been threatened and again it is the wallies worried i did see patients of because states are sources by people in positions of power and the conclusion is that none of the 2 parties. is pure i dump you know rights because. the end as he had been in power and corruption was one of the key allegations he lit limaye gave them and the ruling government is also suffering from the attack of. the train mechanic and commercial motorcycle operate it. government is bad commercial to cycle breaking in the city produce accidents and pollution but most it does it

anyway because it's the only means he says to support his family in pain to the police when they get. to work for. them but they dispense with the government in doing legalize it so until it goes out the. hawks to raise money to education she registered to vote for the 1st time but has decided not to. the noble thing because i was being made to look up to you for me like i don't get to meet any benefits from you even when we are there right now we've been given bun treason quit. when most of our names want reform but they don't expect power to shift from the 2 dominant political parties that they say makes it hard to see a one they will see a real change. al-jazeera tema gonna. a runoff vote in the us state of georgia will determine whether republicans maintain control of

the senate or if democrats can take power donald trump is planning a rally on saturday helping to bolster the republican vote there's also an intense bush among grassroots organizations to get more people to the polls before monday's registration deadline attash ago name has our report from atlanta. hurt order hurt. these signs wallpapering speak to the election fatigue among georgians the 2020 campaign cycle is continuing at a breakneck pace the outcome of georgia's senate runoff on january 5th will determine the balance of power in the senate and how ambitious of an agenda president elect joe biden can pursue our ancestors fought and died for us to vote in the 1st place so it's almost like a crime for me and just who i stand for if i don't go out and vote one of the

georgia stand up is one of the many nonpartisan grassroots organizations pounding the pavement during this pandemic holiday season its target is mobilizing the black vote especially eligible young and women voters we are experiencing a cultural war. there's a shift in demographics there's a shift in power and so our job is empowered goes who have the right to vote the last time georgians elected a democratic senator was 15 years ago but during that time the demographics of georgia have shifted blacks hispanics and asians now comprise more than a 3rd of the electorate i expect that you know both groups will experience a mixed bag of wins and losses going forward and that they're going to be really close elections you know the same thing happened when whites were shifting their party identification in the eighty's and ninety's from the democratic party to the

republican party time around libris action is a conservative organization wooing the country's growing hispanic community latino's in georgia overwhelmingly voted for biden however the group points out that support for president trump in the state jumped 10 percent in the last 4. years we're seeing inroads we're seeing more and more are beginning to. take a look at the issues take a look at their their lives take a look at policy and begin to say you know what the message that libra is is telling us in conservers overall that that's that's the direction i want to go whatever the outcome of the georgia senate runoff the real winner might be the power of each person's vote to toss it in a belgian sirrah atlanta. hollywood 1st want to brothers has announced it will make its blockbusters available to stream online at the same times as their cinema

release is a major shift in an industry hit hard by coven 1000 knockdowns the company's upcoming titles will be released on the h.b.o. max platform in the months coming months rather may just have been forced to bypass cinemas as cocksure see their traditional revenue streams dry up john murray is a media and pop culture expert he explains how this decision came about. what happened wasn't 2021 of the brothers released him it was a movie by christopher nolan the director of the right of the producer and he was adamant that that film had to go into theaters well we're in a global pandemic and some people are going to beat us and depending on where you live in the world out of there is one quote so that will be heading over $200000000.00 budget but in the united states it only made $20000000.00 in its opening weekend of the global box office of the film has been strong they've made their money back and i'm sure what they start spinning it the bill obviously make money but one of the brothers was like no we're not doing this again so they've already announced wonderwoman was going to this screening platform h.b.o.

max in december and now all 17 of their 2021 films will go on their streaming app because they are trying to err on the side of caution but also be think up their streaming about what we've seen are streaming platforms like disney plus already take some projects that were scheduled for theaters and added to the disney 1st platform they've done that with several fields and for them just getting the unique brand new subscribers is a victory for the overall channel because the belief is if you show up for the matrix on a lot of brothers h.b.o. match or you show up or disney film on the disney plus at then maybe you'll stay in consume all the content and so that subscriber and the long time in the long term sense of things is better than just a one off at the box office and so you know i don't lot of the theater owners across the world are frustrated they feel the same losing money but the truth of the matter is everybody needs to err on the side of caution so the studios have this product and now they actually have a direct to consumer platform with the streaming apps that they can get the product

to them and they're not losing money in a lot. the original gun used by the major actor sean connery in his 1st james bond film has been sold for a quarter of a $1000000.00 the prop became one of the best known items from the film franchise officer appearing in the 1962 movie dr no it sold for higher than expected at auction more than a month after the actor died at the age of 90 the winning bidder has asked to remain anonymous at. the end the end. play again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera more than one and a half 1000000 people have now died globally from a covert 19 at a special pandemic session of the united nations the secretary general call for a unified global response u.s. president elect joe biden says he will make masks mandatory during his.