but industrial users worsening consist of fresh water counting the cost on al-jazeera. 2 deaths every minute a surge in coronavirus cases in the u.s. sends california into yet another lockdown. cards the whole romany are watching al-jazeera lines my headquarters here in doha also coming up a low turnout as polls close in venezuela's general election which the opposition has dismissed as a fraud. also crunch time for breaks it talks the e.u. and the u.k. push for a trade deal to prevent chaos at the borders next year. and ethiopian refugees

share stories of separation and survival as they find shelter in neighboring sudan . welcome to the program millions of people across the u.s. state of california are preparing for harsh new lockdown rules to come into place in the next few hours the stay at home orders places restrictions on openings of restaurants and stores also limiting gatherings the measures come in as the state reported its highest ever number of infections more than 30000 in a single day the recent surge in infections is prompting fears that some hospitals could run out of i.c.u. beds or coated 19 is not killing more than 2000 people a day across the u.s. health officials are hoping the approval of a new vaccine will happen quickly the food and drug administration is set to meet on thursday to review it how to castro reports now from washington d.c.

new op downs are being put in place in a number of regions amid the ongoing surge in interactions health officials are considering ending even outdoor dining and in most of california stay at home orders have been imposed this far from festive season for the small businesses that rely on holiday trade. christmas template mean that's how people get the now no mortgage no get beautyful holiday and now they should now again the food and drug administration is set to review a new vaccine this week it's a process that in the past would have taken months but in what amounts to a life or death situation how the fishes are hoping it will take a matter of hours based on the data that i know i expect the f.d.a. to make a positive decision but of course it's their decision and as you probably know they are totally separated and fired from the operation they will make their own judgment based on the data and i hope that the decision will be positive but even

when they are approved it will take months before the vaccines are widely available to the general public be thinking in the february march timeframe that you're going to see more general vaccination and by the 2nd quarter of next year will soon will have enough vaccine for every american that wants it as health officials continue to call on americans to follow social distancing measures and no other member of trump's inner circle who hasn't followed that advice has fallen ill to the virus rudy giuliani personal attorney was reportedly hospitalized sunday after he tested positive he traveled the country last week trying to help the president overturn the election it was trump who announced his lawyer has coded 19 on twitter calling it the china virus meanwhile the pandemic is claiming the lives of 2 americans every minute. castro al-jazeera 6 washington well let's speak to dr provine

palmer she's the associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at the university of southern california school of medicine joins me now via skype from los angeles good to have you with us live on al-jazeera dr palmer just pick the picture for us from the colleagues and friends that you're talking to medical professionals who are entering the hospitals and dealing with covert 19 right now across california. it's it's certainly a difficult situation we now have over 10000 cases today diagnosed in los angeles county we are now nearing 8000 deaths across the county and our i.c.u. capacity across the region has now been reduced to 10 percent so we certainly are struggling with this search how would you describe the demographics of those that are being affected that your being told about were obvious we're often told about many that have covert 19 have underlying health problems you know certainly many do but we have seen many individuals get infected we've seen people in their

middle age in their thirty's and forty's come down with serious disease so while if you're older and you have underlying health conditions you are at risk certainly knowing no one is completely without risk you touched upon the i.c.u. beds how well setup is california medically because the situation with the lack of potential i.c.u. beds is the alarm bell that really rings a politician and politicians and medics yes certainly that's true and that was the impetus behind the stay at home order in southern california and across the state you know the hospitals across the state have done really incredible work the nurses that this edition and the staff even those that clean our emergency departments are doing incredible work to meet the needs but we all are concerned that with capacity so reduced and individuals likely to be in intensive care units for weeks at a time that unless individuals really stay home our capacity could be stretched into this pandemic what nearly into the 9th or 10th months now often described as

you know the 1st wave but now this is the 2nd wave it's the winter did we have a get over the 1st wave in california. we certainly had a period where we were doing relatively well which was which was a welcome break i think that the thanksgiving holiday was a challenging time for many to be away from their loved ones so certainly that contributed to the weather has contributed across the country it went what is certain is that we are unfortunately likely to face some difficult times over the remainder of the year we're seeing president elect biden talk about the potential for men to treat mask wearing when he takes office you would actually perhaps emphasize that needs to happen right now i certainly think that everybody in communities across the united states should do their best to protect themselves and their family from cope at 19 well many do do ok when they get the virus certainly there are many vulnerable among us that need our communities protection and all of us are responsible to where to do that to protect us and our community obviously

you have a very wide network of medical personnel and friends that your speaking to and talking to what is morale like at the moment in hospitals that you're sort of your connected to. you know i would say i've been tremendously impressed with those that i work with i can speak for those that l.a. county the the faculty the the resident everybody comes to work every day putting their hands on the line really working as hard as they can and feels very committed to doing the best that we can program unities how difficult is it for those colleagues that you're speaking to to deal with families who can't be with their loved ones at the end of life. it is challenging and i think that's something that people don't realize that if a loved one becomes ill you know so there is a chance that you may not be able to spend time with them in the hospital potentially in their final moments with them in the hospital so it is important to have to remember that this is

a very lonely disease and for healthcare workers many of us have made the decision to really stay away from our family so that we can stay healthy to be able to serve our communities dr provine palmer from the school of medicine thanks very much for joining us from los angeles thank you for having me south korea's president has deployed the military to assist with expanded quinn virus testing and tracing as the country faces a growing new wave of infections more than 600 cases were reported on monday in the 30th in a row of daily triple digit increases health experts are warning here if this trend continues the hospital system could soon be overwhelmed more strictures of start to come into effect in seoul later on monday. and as well as opposition leader says he's still a leader of the national assembly regardless of the results of parliamentary elections counting is now underway for the votes which was boycotted by the opposition and the likely result is that present because majority for the consolidating his hold on power are latin america to lucien newman has more. it

wasn't necessary to wait for the official election results to be announced to know the outcome as it jubelin president nicolas maduro made clear that we will help us here and see if we had the patience the wisdom to wait for this hour to wait for the state to get rid of that nefarious national assembly that the opposition used to bring the plague of sanctions on to venezuela now with this vote we will have just going to the only witness when i. may have been israel is mainstream opposition boycotted the legislative assembly poll which they say lacked the minimum conditions of a fair and free election the pro-government supreme court had taken over 3 of the 4 principal opposition parties appointing new leaders who are accused of being pawns of mughal in addition the court appointed a new electoral council also known to the government. and there were no independent observers only staunch supporters like former bolivian president evo morales

despite threats to withhold subsidized food boxes to those who didn't vote the turnout was poor or their vento of the young in this voting center in the macoutes a district that is normally a lot of people when there's an election today what you have is a fraud in our country which is clearly detect and my. mother has foreign allies like russia china and iran will likely applaud the elections which could give their commercial agreements with venezuela a stronger legal framework with which to circumvent u.s. and european sanctions but the united states the e.u. and many latin american countries say they won't recognize the new parlor. it. mother who plans to ask the new assembly to appoint a special commission to try enemies of the state especially opposition you know one by the law but that could bring on more international reprisals declare. i think it

would be better from a juror to leave quite all alone and play cat and mouse with him grab him by the tail and let him go what will the world see an opposition leader who once had 61 percent support and now has half of that and is losing more by the day. why don't has been recognized it when israel is interim president by more than 50 countries but his legitimacy has rested on being the elected leader of the national assembly and have come january when the new legislature is sworn in the opposition will lose the only state institution it controlled destroying what critics regard as the last remnant of democracy in venezuela you see in human al-jazeera the meats respond to political analyst in the venezuelan capital he says a low voter turnout in sunday's election shows there's little interest in the result. there now is that the. expect will be about 70

percent in the very positive these being once was 75 percent it is like $44.00 it's now is so it is pretty about most of the population doesn't take it very seriously in that think they can take it seriously because they knew what it was for sure what they got it it's what. overbusy if we have what we. need major parts of it will not stay in their court for. most of it misled us don't speak forget about used election day and have been falling in and exhausted when this isn't. the one living in israel as well i doubt it's only outside of that as you can see. where most of the state interest in actually is working more or less outside of that i guess it's really people they employed by the most most of it didn't. know

that it was that. so outside that i guess it's ok to say that and these are and they got out that he. still had on al-jazeera boycotting the vote separatists in cameroon say their regional election is meaningless what they want what do they want and start. thinking outside the box we meet some of the design it's creating spaces for post pandemic world. well weather and the snowy weather in iran is being disbursed eastwards is a bit more to him still but mostly wish we're seeing snow in the last interest of the border or afghanistan or no pakistan that is the today's final for that there are few showers to the eastern med catching syria or south and turkey and the shame

obvious set up down the gulf which is arthur dusty or dusty in cold wind to run has got then one more day of unpleasant weather then it improves as should be fine weather by then the to say or wednesday now this wind generally speaking is persistent for 2 or 3 days and cools things down so the average is a bit better than this is doha's forecast is particularly cool at night it will be felt all things are relative after all now given what's happened recently we might well find showers into djibouti and the northeast monsoon line to induce a shower or 2 in mozambique with mostly we talking about proper rain further sucks at this time of the year and something happens in the arabian sea and that proper raise the seasonal stuff to zambia zimbabwe and mozambique and just telling off as you see in southern madagascar this rain is wanted in there is a beak and in zimbabwe and also in malawi and that's where his go to for.

dissecting the headlines in the midst of a pandemic let's start with some of the on the ground realities affecting the news coverage what's the lay of the land stripping away the spam. worry about presidential corruption. it's not challenging assumptions and the official line we all decided we need to tell our story we don't want to rely on the authority and . listening post on al-jazeera. the war the war the war the war.

you're watching our deservedly so whole romney reminder of our top stories millions of people across the u.s. state of california are preparing for harsh new lockdown rules to come into place in the next few hours the state has reported its highest number of new covert 19 infections more than 30000 in a day south korea's president has deployed the military to assist with expanded coronavirus testing and tracing more than 600 cases were reported on monday the 30th day in a row dating triple digit increases. as well as opposition leader fund why don't her slam sunday's parliamentary vote as a fraud counting is underway for the poll which was boycotted by the opposition it's likely that present nicolas maduro will consolidate his hold on power. negotiations between the united kingdom and europe are said to be on a knife a chance they struggle to secure a post breaks a trade deal they can't agree home 3 key issues fishing rights resolving future

disputes and how to guarantee fair competition the team barber has more from london . back in brussels for another go at striking a trade deal with his european union counterparts we're going to be working very hard to try and get a deal we're going to see what happens to negotiate today and that will we will be looking forward to meeting our european colleagues later on this afternoon thank you very much to resume talks between david frost and the e.u. michel barnier came after an hour long phone call between ursula on the lyon president of the european commission and british prime minister boris johnson their joint statement on saturday mention progress over the last week but said the 2 sides still didn't see eye to eye on 3 critical issues firstly there's fishing rights in other words what access e.u. fishing fleets have to u.k. waters and how quickly any changes happen then there's a more fundamental question of the level playing field. measures to ensure businesses on one side don't have an unfair advantage brussels wants the u.k. to stick closely to its rules on things like workers' rights environmental

regulations and especially state aid to businesses lastly there's governance including how any agreement would be enforced and what role institutions such as the european court of justice would have if no deals in place by the end of the year the u.k. will be operating on the world trade organization rules with a bloc that accounted for 43 percent of british exports and 51 percent of u.k. imports last year the british government says it's ready for such a scenario but business groups are warning of major disruption now be no formal cooperation between the 2 sides so all kinds of. health up and a lot of businesses you trade with europe will go home to our manufacturing industries very experienced farming's very experience even fishing is incredibly expensive even if there is a deal customs checks and paperwork could create a real challenge we know that there won't be carrots under a deal of. course carrots and good thoughts we do not know to what extent

you will allow manufacturing arts cars and girls. arts of the iris industry. to grow really into markets and the talks could get overtaken by events in the westminster parliament from monday it's set to re-examine the internal market bill which breaks the terms of the u.k.'s already agreed protocol on northern ireland that could kill off any prospect of giving negotiations yet another final chance the barber al-jazeera. the u.k. is getting ready to roll out the 1st doses of the corona virus vaccine made by pfizer and biotech on choose day now initial batches have been distributed to hospitals selected to administer it priority will be given to those over the age of 80 frontline workers care home residents and staff general is at a hospital in london where the vaccine will be administered. predictably it's already being described as the largest immunization program in history as we speak

hundreds of thousands of doses of the pfizer vaccine are in a country being held in ultra low temperature freezes at secure locations being tested rigorously we're told to ensure that they've survived the transit ok over the water from belgium where they were manufactured there then be moved in the next 24 hours or so to 50 hospital hubs that will act as the 1st vaccination sites one of them is behind me here the royal free in north london. and they'll begin that roll out on tuesday initially going for the most vulnerable sectors people over the age of 80 and also care home staff and workers then spreading the program out possibly quite quickly the government has told general practitioners in local clinics to be ready and on standby from the 14th of december perhaps the start of ministering the vaccine of local level then and then of course expanding more widely than that to the mass population probably only in the new year including

things like sports stadiums conference venues and the like but this is the beginning in 2 days as i say at sites like the one behind me the 1st vaccine doses will be handed out take a listen to what a senior executive from the national health service in england had to say this morning as a doctor this is a really exciting moment n.h.s. staff around the country vaccination hub such as this one we here at today have been working tirelessly to make sure that we are prepared to commence vaccination on tuesday this feels like the beginning of the end but of course it's a marathon not a sprint and it will take many months for us to vaccinate everybody who needs vaccination and the beginning of the end as mr barry said there of an immensely technically and logistically challenging operation is fact vaccine as we know has to be stored in very specific conditions around minus 70 degrees celsius it's got to be thawed before use it can only be moved around 4 times during that process 5

days shelf life all very well in a hospital setting like this much more challenging in hospital settings and then of course as we've been hearing there's bricks it to contend with on the 1st of january. aid workers say the situation in northern ethiopia is still too volatile for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of civilians in need the fighting is also forcing more civilians to flee into neighboring sudan well than 1000000 people integrate have already been displaced by the month long conflict mohammed there are reports from one date near the sudan ethiopia border. knowing that he was 5 her mother children grandchildren great grandchildren relatives neighbors all crowded into one tent they're among the latest if you opened refugees to cross the border to sudan then send them the final malicious and they would kill us because we're to grand they told us you have 24 hours to live and they began to lose our animals and property according to the u.n. during the last few days the number of refugees arriving into sudan has increased

from about 400 a day to more than 800 part of the cliche is due to a new round of fighting in the area of sherry west of the regional capital a killer there's a lot of men. they also reckon there's a lot of fear there's a lot of. communal conflicts to get i and they found it easier or safer to come to sudan i'm standing at one of the main border crossings between. this is the city dividing the 2 countries and these people you see behind me are all ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict inside utopia the other side easy to appear you don't see many people on the outside they tell us they are afraid to talk to the media but at the same time they say they really don't want to go far away from this place because it is the closest to their homes. stories of separation or not being able to reach family members are common here the sudanese

red crescent working in coordination with the international committee of the red cross is trying to help but then a man whose body on the other but not monica. we started a program called family reunification at the beginning we allow them to call their family members for free if that doesn't work we send short messages viral partner agencies in ethiopia so far we've conducted 2500 phone calls and sent 86 messages 70 percent of the phone calls lead to good results it's been 26 days since this if you open woman from the city of ramallah lost contact with her husband and children she is here again to check with this with a nice red crescent office for new information not ready to give up she says she prefers to stay near the border hoping that once i'd show up here at the moment. of 201 day at sudanese ethiopian border. sporadic violence has been reported in polls a camera enjoying its 1st ever regional elections one voter has been killed in the

english speaking northwest region nicholas hunk reports the downtown by mend the capital of cameron's english speaking region it was supposed to be a day of voting for greater autonomy instead it's another day of protest separatists in the north western region have threatened those taking part in the vote calling on people to stay indoors and not take part in what they describe as a sham regional election for them cameron's english speaking region is a country they call ambers onya fighting for independence against a central french speaking state that not only oppress is their right to use the english language but profits from their regions natural resources rich and precious minerals but for ruling party municipal councillors voting for these new regional assemblies in their political capital yeah one day this is an opportunity to have greater local autonomy each of the countries 10 provinces will have a regional assembly made up of both traditional leaders and elected officials will have a say on provincial affairs they're shown benefit to monk or maybe you can about

all we want our actual step toward decentralization of policy so that we can see changes in areas of held education and local policies. for the last 38 years incumbent president paul be has tightened his grip on power giving little room for autonomy for the country's $250.00 ethnic groups and languages the regional elections were meant to take place 24 years ago following constitutional changes to address cameron's diversity but faced with a growing regional crisis both in the far north and in the english speaking regions where more than a 1000000 people have been displaced and an estimated 3000 killed he agreed to these elections many in cameroon feel this is too little too late. so many times the government has proposed to do something but they have done nothing. that most people don't know what these elections are about they should explain to us what it's all about many view the new regional body as an added level of bureaucracy to

a centralized government controlled by the president with the opposition boycotting the vote the ruling party said to win all the seats giving even more power to paul b. as government in your own day and even more control over cameron's restive regions nicholas hawke al-jazeera australian emergency services are working against the clock to evacuate homes in the path of a bushfire in queensland residents of fraser island have been told to leave after fire burnt large parts of the north east coast the blaze was sparked by an illegal campfire 7 weeks ago and scorching temperatures are making the already volatile situation even worse well as the wall struggles to stop the rising number of covert 900 cases architects are already transforming the way we live to avoid future outbreaks and sarah clarke reports from hong kong designers are creating a post pandemic environment that limits human contact and encourages social distancing. it's the latest luxury hotel to launch in hong kong the harry will open

this month it was built before the pandemic i did to death to the social distancing regulation we've been fortunate in some regards to be able to watch what's been going on in hong kong and how the hotel industry and restaurant industry have managed or the social distancing and what the best practices are and whilst we may have wanted to have a big fanfare of an opening that's now going to be rather more located the pandemic is transforming the way we live work and interact with social distancing laws in place architects like john pauline who designed the aquatic center for the beijing olympics are adapting to avert future outbreaks in one of the buildings that we're looking at at the moment so we've got a continuous dream that going through the building with it into connecting still and this encourages the staff to walk through the building not touching anything and actually taking the demand of the elevators knockdowns have emptied hong kong streets must a mandatory temperature checks are in every building classrooms at this school have

been redesigned to be more adept a bull still allowing interaction but with more space incorporating social distancing regulations the space will be designed with more flexibilities it could and enable different kinds of learning situation in the library we desire spaces for different kinds of quality there are places for solid team which students can be quiet as they can meditate they can do their own exploration the way we live in hong kong was transformed after the sars epidemic 17 years ago since then the city landscape has been tightly regulated better ventilation has become mandatory and building codes have changed to deliver what the government calls healthier residential building natural ventilation is being increasingly installed instead of a conditioning systems that circulate used public spaces are also being redesigned to incorporate covered. the regulations hawkeye is a very developed city so i always say if we want to turn

a city upside down is kind of impossible and will be very costly we also need to create open space areas green area how we encourage people to stay active the current vice president has been the catalyst for change globally a hands free future living at arm's length is increasingly becoming the new syria clark al-jazeera hong kong. you want your deserve means the whole run the reminder of our top news stories millions of people across the u.s. state of california are preparing for harsh new lockdown rules to come into place in the next few hours the state has reported its highest number of new covert 19 infections more than 30000 in a day south korea's president has deployed the military to assist with expanded crowd of virus testing and tracing more than 600 cases reported on monday.