the revenge that's one of the biggest stains on the country as a whole. this is not religion this is a politics. an unholy alliance on al-jazeera. russia reports a sharp spike in corona virus deaths with more than 35000 fatalities reported in november alone. following that clark this is a live from doha also coming up a warning to people in the u.k. vaccines are on the way but another lockdown may be coming soon as well. a grim milestone in south africa as the number of corona virus infections passes 1000000. iran is to begin human trials were locally produced coronavirus vaccine is in the

u.s. sanctions impede efforts to buy doses from the web. so we begin in russia where nearly released data indicates the actual number of coronavirus related deaths could be much higher than earlier reported according to official figures more than 35000 people died in november alone that is a 55 percent increase in mortality from the year before meanwhile in the u.k. scientists there say stricter lockdowns baby needed next month and the pushing for secondary schools to stay closed but a government minister says the expected approval of another vaccine could see restrictions lifted more quickly india has started a dry run of its vaccination program to test its transport and cold storage facilities that's as a country recorded its lowest number of daily infections in nearly 6 months i mean while iran is beginning human trials of a locally produced vaccine after successful tests on animals terran has had trouble

securing other drugs because of sanctions on its banking sector. or let's start off with those figures from russia alexandra got for joins us from moscow. intriguing numbers tell us more. yes yes indeed the convening numbers though i mean people here do believe the call that related that are much higher than are officially reported this was count of the by reuters from the official statistics of the official body that gives of this it is russia are quite shocking because from the beginning of the pandemic sufficiently recorded that sarin the amount of some 55000 now there is excess mortality for the start of the been there mix of 2 till november which is around 240000 now reuters itself says when they were calculating and counting and looking at the statistic is that 'd some half of it can only be possibly contributed to that

that's related to talk or that so some 110000 people still there is twice as much as of visually reported now there is another explanation for the excessive mortality here in russia of the ease at the same time also connected to the pandemics and that the hospitals are simply overstretched in their efforts to care for patients some patients with other chronicle the z.z. is a might be the same time officials are not denying that the statistics might be higher than they're reporting what they're saying is that not all day is calculated in the daily reports that they are giving and also the vice prime minister of russia at the end of all of course said today that she thing some 81 percent of excess mortality could be due to the cause of its dia's ear in her estimation it is not

20 percent more people but some 13 percent but in any. case russia is seeing far more people dying these year in the bank dymes at than the years before are of us a story in russia it's on the go for science of that sort of u.k. 19 barbaras in london where i was to approve the oxford astra zeneca vaccine could speed up a loosening of restrictions. it's possible that later on monday there will be a decision by the government a cabinet cabinet minister michael gove has said that the situation is under review the government has all along insisted that one of its priorities was keeping schools open during term time so people's g back in early 'd january but it's now come out that last week in a meeting with ministers the advisory group of scientists known as sage told them that even with

a national lockdown on the same model as we saw here in november which shore schools stay open the our number the reproduction rate of covered 19 would go above one sometime in january that's an extremely worrying prospect for not just the public here but for people who work in the health care system over the weekend saturday was said by n.h.s. officials to be one of the busiest days ever and many hospitals in different regions reporting that their intensive care units a virtually full they really don't want to see that our number starts a rai's so possible action on schools because these the advisors said that specifically secondary schools should be closed to try to drive down transmissions it's thought that that's a bigger driver than in primary schools but they're blaming it on that mutated

variant of covered 19 but also they pointed out a new a different variant of the virus which was said to have come from south africa and they say that raises concerns about immunity among the population well on that the vaccinations of course here in the u.k. have started there restarting on monday after a break over the weekend and also the government is hoping that in the next few days there might be approval of the other alternatives. actually developed by. so the africa has become the 1st country on the continent to go past a 1000000 confirmed cases spreading variants of the virus is to force the government to unveil even tougher code 19 restrictions it has already had one of the toughest in the world for part of this year. africans in general are worried but then again this was expected it is. people have been traveling up and down the country visiting family and friends and for days

government officials have been telling us that when they do travel they should try and where they should not public gatherings but some of them were not listening so throughout the days in the weeks people posting on social media. where many weren't so many one practicing social distancing we are in eastern province this is one of the provinces where this new variant has been identified imported elizabeth is a hot spot in the area and speak to many people here you get people will tell you i've had at least 7 people in my family who died because at 19 isabel is going to far away from here with a public person many people in that area went to his funeral and those people ended up getting sick so it is getting very very real for people particularly in hot spots such as. and these think a problem. in his government is carrying out an early test of its coronavirus for its mission programmers to your 2 day trial run of the vaccine campaign across 4

states officials are hoping to run checks on the country's transport arrangements and cold storage facilities india hopes to provide 300000000 vaccine doses in the 1st phase of his immunization campaign this. precisely because of the scale involved in vaccinating india's population and that is why the states offer. have begun this 2 day trial run of the 19 vaccine so a number of hospitals community and primary health care centers private facilities rural outreach centers testing everything from the transport arrangements for the vaccine to the cold storage to the deployment of workers the app that's used to register and monitor people who are receiving the vaccines crowd control centers to ensure that their social distancing and what they're doing is around 25 people are coming to each vaccination session they've already been identified they mostly

helped with health care workers who will be the 1st beneficiaries of the vaccine and tens of thousands of workers have been trained in administering the vaccine now india already has the world's biggest vaccination program it's called the universal immunization program where more than 50000000 and fence and pregnant mothers are vaccinated every year but health experts say that the cold storage is already in a sorry state that vaccines aren't always stored monitored properly that fridge temperature gauge just don't work often rendering vaccines unfit for use and so it is going to be a huge challenge for the government to vaccinate it says it wants to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people iran is set to begin human trials of locally produced. pharmaceutical companies be registering volunteers following successful tests on animals to run and struggled to get its hands on other vaccines because of

sanctions on its banking sector. relate to snow. it is a race against time for the scientists at a lab near the capital tehran they're working on developing a covert 1000 vaccine a job made more important because of u.s. let sanctions against iran pharmaceutical company shuffle farm it started registering volunteers for human trials after tests were successfully carried out on animals. in the 1st stage we have candidates who get 2 doses of the vaccine and we have 56 people to test on and we'll do it in small groups once we're successful with the 1st dose then we'll carry out the 2nd phase since the beginning with observed all world health organization and us f.d.a. protocols as we deliver our results to the health ministry while the work continues here the head of iran's medical council is urging the world health organization to take measures against u.s. sanctions that have prevented iran from purchasing covert 1000 vaccines. doctors

after andy says millions of iranians need the vaccine soon. the pandemic is a global issue no country should be isolated when it comes to a pandemic if there isn't a fair distribution of the vaccine that the chain of infection does not break no country will be safe. president hassan rouhani is blaming one man for iran's shortcomings in fighting this pandemic us president donald trump. our people should know that for any action we plan to carry out for importing medicine vaccines and equipment we should coast drug 100 times. iran is the worst affected country in the middle east with more than a 1000000 covered $1000.00 cases and nearly $55000.00 people killed severe restrictions on its banking sector has made it difficult for iran to pay for the vaccine this isn't the 1st time that iran has faced such restrictions in buying

medicine from the broad over the years it's become increasingly difficult to find foreign medicine in the country so in local pharmacies you can usually find the reigning version of the medicine you're looking for and officials hope that will soon be the case for the covert 900 back seen as wall. but there is the issue of public trust and health officials we randomly asked 10 people in the city if they would trust an iranian covert 1000 vaccine have said yes while the other half have their doubts that i want to get the iranian made vaccine because i don't believe in a rainy and made products but. yes sure all use it because it's my domestically and manufactured based on w h o standards i don't think there's a problem while the politicians look to buy foreign coverage 1000 vaccines by circumventing sanctions back in this lab scientists continue to work on producing their own version officials hope by spring they will be able to roll out the rainy

uncovered 1000 vaccine to millions of people door such a pari al-jazeera tara tara separate far as their own research wrote human rights watch and she says countries imposing sanctions need to ensure the right to health is not violated. despite the existence of humanitarian aid exemption in sanction regime against iran banks and financial institution institutions over the years have been very reluctant to process and transactions that are for humanitarian purposes such as. air purchasing medicine and this case and agreeing to a transfer of iran's bond stored in foreign banks for to pick a purpose of purchasing back seen under human rights human rights principles. all states have an obligation to ensure and prioritise right to hold particularly under a pandemic and any country that imposes sanctions economic sanctions on another

country are obligated to monitor its impact and take steps to make sure it doesn't contribute to violations of rights particularly the most long interval group in the case of a pandemic and there have been numerous calls from different u.n. agencies the high commissioner for human rights and human rights groups to pay special attention to the impact that they cannot mix sanctions can cause in can it can cause an access in countries under sanction to sell a safe and effective vaccine and i want to emphasize it should be as soon as possible because the longer the longer we wait the more people are going to suffer and potentially die as a result of this pandemic. still ahead here on al-jazeera holding out for a week u.s. president donald trump signed into law a 2.3 trillion dollar coronavirus aid in spending package. calling pro-democracy activists on trial in china for trying to escape the territory by

speak. of. how low we've got more very wintry weather pushing towards japan now we've got something of a rest by to present but as we go on through the next couple of days they spanned of rain sleet and snow will sink its way further south was across northern areas of china through the korean peninsula and that she can see pushing across into her. thanks so for example 3 degrees celsius there on shoes day no higher than around minus 7 in the heat of the day for where to stay that really says the same for what is going on very heavy snow fall this is likely to cause widespread destruction across a good part of japan yet again as we go on through the next few days remember just the last couple of weeks or so we see some very heavy snowfall here i'm afraid that

is back but china things a good deal dry crisp sunshine top temperature in shanghai for around 0 celsius sunshine here across a good part of south asia but northern areas of india just around the northern plains will still have problems with the fog and smoke that extends across into pakistan travel disruption certainly on the cards here over the coming days i have been some flights canceled as a result of the dense fog further south it's about the heavy rain some showers coming back into the far south of india the parts of slang for also seeing some lively showers those showers continue making their way further west. do it with the money that it's borat we bring you the stories and developments that are rapidly changing the world we live in seen as congress is debating a bill seeking to raise billions of dollars from the super rich poor families hit hard by them and counting the cost on al-jazeera. if you want to help save the

world's. season hero. i look at your watch and 0 remind of our top stories this hour a newly released data from russia indicates the actual number of coronavirus related deaths could be much higher than earlier reported according to official figures more than $35000.00 people died in november alone and that is a 55 percent increase in mortality from the year before. south africa has become the 1st country on the continent to surpass 1000000 cases before spreading variant

of the virus is expected to force the government to unveil even tougher 19 restrictions. iran is to begin human trials of a locally produced coronavirus vaccine to run the struggle to get its hands on other vaccines because of sanctions on the banking sector. all right u.s. president donald trump assigned a coronavirus relief bill after refusing to do so for a week he said the $900000000000.00 bill was insufficient and wanted direct payments to americans increased from 600 dollars to 2000 democrats agreed with the rise republicans voted against it unemployment benefits for millions of people because of this delay so that said get more in this will speak to an official in washington and out and say trump wants to use these individual $2000.00 and democrats they were pushing for more money any way they like that so will this get through. the welcome to a very you know you see white house snake let me explain what's going on so the

people of understand what the noise is a doing a bit of tidying up of the trees around here all the way i can't post the noise you hear is that just started up to start chipping those branches that are being cut off the trees so to speak a bit larger to get over the noise is donald trump like if you get the $2000.00 that you requested no it's not likely to happen certainly in the next few hours. before the host imo should know. those $2000.00 checks are sent out to every american it will probably get through the house there may be a few republicans who will put against it but it's likely to be successful or not it is nancy pelosi essentially using a political trick because you know is that there will be republicans who will want to vote for it therefore they will be on record this $42000.00 help for americans it's likely to go to the senate and that's really not people who sees a big picture view because she thinks there's simply no support in the senate for

that move but of course all the leader of the republicans is already said that and of course there's a very important runoff election coming up in georgia in the next couple of weeks january the 5th in fact i did for publicans in the senate voted against that $2000.00 that gives the democrats the chance to go to the people of georgia and say look they won't even vote to help you with a $2000.00 check so this is all about politics but it also signifies to a degree that donald trump can't quite get that $2000.00 over the finishing line he sat on the bill for almost a week and in the end got absolutely nothing for it now the white house is saying yeah well they're going to look again at some of the spending priorities and the bill that he signed they're also going to look at the possibility of widespread voter fraud i'm sure what is going to happen is that both houses of congress will say let's see what your proposals are you know we'll stick on the pile we'll get right on to that on january the 21st or maybe not because you will be president

after that. something else is not going to get is on the defense bill because congress is about to write does now. yes things are looking great for donald trump in the last few weeks of his presidency the n d w which is a big defense bill has passed through the house for 59 years in a row but donald trump this time around decided to veto it now he decided to be to it for a couple of reasons 1st of all he said he wasn't going to sign anything that asked for bases named after confederate general is to be renamed and then changed in said he wanted a provision stuck in the bill that removes liability protections for tech giants that you know he's been going after the likes of facebook and twitter for some time he wanted to remove the protections that they've got under the law in the us a lot of people thought that doesn't fit into a defense bill so they went very keen on the idea but he vetoed it anyway the 132 issues during his 4 years and the white house the problem he's caught is that the

bill passed in both houses the common it both houses of congress with a veto proof majority you know nancy pelosi over the next day or so is going to go back and say we will veto the president's veto we will override it that's likely to go through there may be some republicans who vote to support her they can always dress this up by saying this wasn't a vote against the president this was a vote to make sure that american service people across the board get a pay rise and bonuses are paid out plus there's money there for cyber protection which after the recent hot we absolutely need and then it will go to the senate now in the senate it should go through as well it passed there with a veto proof majority but only needs one senator to stand up and say i'm concerned about this to slow the whole process started and ron paul rand paul who's a republican from kentucky has already said he's likely to do that mitch mcconnell still believes he can get it through but it just might take until january the thought now that's an important date in the american political calendar that's when

the new congress is sworn in and it comes in at may day but make mcconnell believes he can get this done before the new congress sits down so he's still hopeful that this will. go through essentially what both houses are saying is they will override the president's veto that will be the 1st time that is ever happened and it's a bit of a slight for donald trump but remember he still holds a lot of power over the base of the republican party and they around him thanks for that ton of fish there in washington d.c. . a group of pro-democracy activists from hong kong are facing another night in chinese detention after mainland court gave no verdict on the 1st day of the trial the group is accused of fleeing the former british territory to avoid jail sentences the families say they've been denied any information sarah clarke has the latest now from hong kong. pro-democracy activists deliver a petition to beijing's liaison office. they want the group of 12 held on the

mainland of china to be released after more than 4 months in detention is a secret trial you know people are not allowed the family member are not allowed to go or. hear a trial out and also they have not met a member over the $128.00 days that they are detained so there are no transparency no visitation by family or harassment tight security surrounded a court in the southern chinese city of shenzhen as 10 of the 12 activists attended the 1st day of the trial they're facing criminal charges relating to last year's and a government protests in hong kong and one of the accused has been charged under the national security team in august there were caught by chinese authorities trying to flee hong kong by boat they've now been accused of illegally entering my. family members say they've had no contact since their wrist and were denied permission to

attend monday's court hearing in change and they now fear for their safety. back the courts give the verdict as soon as possible i want to see my send again ferry much. later the families of the 12 have been in great throughout it is tension they are now only asking for the safety of the children and their return to hong kong the united states has demanded the accused be returned to hong kong to face trial but china has rejected that request accusing the u.s. of interfering in. domestic affairs hong kong's chief executive says it's a matter for the mainland if the hong kong residents were arrested for breaking mainland offenses then they have to be dealt with according to the mainland not in accordance with their jurisdiction before any other things could happen another not people in hong kong have been arrested suspected of helping the group flee the city in august. transport and the police here haven't ruled out making

more arrests so al jazeera hong kong. to central african republic now where the government has praised voters for braving the ballot box despite threats by a coalition of rebel groups to disrupt the election election authority says there was a good turnout despite what it called minus security concerns in some areas president's challenge for the 2nd term he accused the former president francois plotting with rebels to overthrow the government. accounting has begun after the election that could lead to new jersey 1st peaceful transition of power about 7 and a half 1000000 people cast ballots to choose a successor to president mahmoud. i would address reports now from the capital niamey. president mohammad yousuf who vote not to stay in power but to elect a successor. he chose to step aside at the end of his 2nd term and

a time some west african leaders tweak their country's constitution to remain in office the significance of this day is not lost on the 69 the or president that this is today is a special day for us it is also and most of all a special day phoenicia which will experience for the 1st time in its history a democratic change over and i hope that this change will be the 1st step towards other changes in order to solidify our democratic process i hope this 1st change over will enable him to solidify its reputation as a democratic country in africa and in the world and this is the man he designated as successor former minister of interior and 40 affairs it was a momentous challenge by 29 other candidates among them 2 former heads of state and a former prime minister. who senior them says he has voted in every election since independence and easy again to choose a leader for. a to do you wonder when to every time i do this is

a duty to my country but also expecting our leaders will fix our problems by force immutable worker it's the thrill of voting for the 1st time oh my god i'm what i can i can tell you it's exciting it's like no other i lack casting their ballot the elections were held i meet safety concerns after an uptick in violence killed more than 50 people this month among them members of new forces many voters list security and poverty as their main concerns now attacks by armed groups near the border with nigeria mali and brooklyn a fossil have killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians in recent years the local economy is also been tarred by covered 94 in the prices of its main export your reign as well as a long term closure of the nigerian border that many essential goods are imported of course. sale the elections as a success for the most. spot. there are few places where the elections cannot be

held by many others we were able to organize voting despite security threats results of the elections was predicted to be announced within 5 days and ratified by the constitutional court in 2 weeks we know will need 50 percent of the vote plus one to avoid a runoff otherwise the top 2 candidates will head to a 2nd round in february next year. the army. new year revelers in sydney and australia won't be allowed to watch the city's celebrated fireworks in person this year to one of the half 1000000 people normally gathered to enjoy the display but authorities have extended stay at home orders over concerns about the cluster of do coronavirus cases of people who live in the city center will be allowed to invite up to 10 others into their homes for the celebrations the guests must apply for permits we think it's too much of a health risk having people from the raisins and from sydney and from broader regional areas congregate all in the same day day in the advice to date has to all

of us spain try to avoid the same day and so on need save we're going to say to those frontline workers would pay to see invited will find another opportunity chairing the recognize what you've done. let's have a quick recap of the headlines here nonzero a newly released data from russia indicates the actual number of coronavirus related deaths could be much higher than earlier than reported according to official figures more than 35000 people died in november alone that's a 55 percent increase in mortality from the year before that it's going to go for people here is the latest from moscow. that's a much higher than are officially reported this call that related that's how much higher than are officially reported this was a count of the by a reuters from the official statistics of the of fish.