now subzero temperatures have done nothing to deter swimming in these ass in siberia dozens braving the freezing cold water in the russian city of almost square daytime temperatures don't rise above minus 20 degrees celsius at this time of year term as donning santa hats as they completed what is for some a daily ritual the cold water is thought to be used immunity to take the body against disease and even the onset of dementia so it's perhaps not as crazy as it looks. or minor of the headlines this hour south africa's president as an out stricter measures to combat a surge in cases driven by a different foster writing variant of the coronavirus after became the 1st african country to suppress a 1000000 cases gathering in the sight of alcohol are going to be banned and a 9 pm curfew enforced failure to our moscow wrecking public has also been

criminalized a person who does not wear a mosque could be arrested and prosecuted. on conviction they would be liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 6 months or both. a fine and imprisonment a muscles lips that this is addressed to measure but it is not necessary to ensure compliance with the most basic of preventative measures while new data indicates the actual number of coronavirus related deaths in russia could be much higher than previously reported according to official figures russia recorded more than 25000 deaths related to covered in november alone to confirm just under 55000 quite a virus deaths of role since the pandemic began. well in other news wall street has hit record highs in response to president signing

a long awaited client of ours relief bill the $900000000000.00 aid package restores unemployment benefits for millions of americans but 14000000 people missed out on unemployment payments this week saudi court has sentenced a prominent women's rights activist to 5 years and 8 months in prison jane i have flu has been held since 2018 after being arrested along with at least a dozen other women's rights activists and then a chinese citizen journalist has been jailed for 4 years of lifestream reporting of the early days of the corona virus outbreak in 100 jang videos will widely shared on social media platforms in february she's among whistle blows charged with picking quarrels and provoking trouble the stream is coming up next looking at the impact of lockdowns only environment i'll see off them.

tired like a walk into history need wrap up a whole week of episodes that it means just buy you online community look at the coupon and buy less. climate change it was not just to well as you may jack. and how lucky has a friend that's she want to talk about he does actually do not truly want. you've already jumped in. and you plummet change owners iris a will need to be honest.

and introduce you to the guess the guest getting she's disaster housing welcome to the stranger when you are. thank you my name is alvin when i work with oxfam international and africa program to get that we there are partners we present to the voices of ordinary citizens to the africa union made member stepped up to the global level or nations to do with food security and climate change and what is going to have you welcome to the stream generate tell everybody. thanks for having me i'm a climate science and environment correspondent with a.j. plas and national geographic channel. thanks elaine in the stream and welcome back to the scene christiana then maybe one or 2 people in the well who do not know who you are but i guarantee the i know you're introduced as. well everyone knows who you are emily south and keep going in the taisha lovely to be with you again and

again to get a sign i am opposed to reconsider sen i am speaking to you from a story i used to work for the united nations and the pleasure to leading the negotiations into the paris agreement on climate change and i continue to be a faithful servant of the global atmosphere and our wonderful planet so it's interesting and guess i'm going to start with making mocking next june when we are of the global pandemic and come a change of climate action how much some other candidates. well i would say not if you look at him rather superficially one obviously notices that nature is having a ball right now we are seeing birds butterfly and be coming back to our mode lines animals roaming the streets we have clear skies we have air

crash and so the air because we have paralyze the economy so why only environment has actually been benefited by the last 2 months it is actually nothing to celebrate because that is not the kind o. repair and regeneration that we talk about our when we are engaging with climate change or with biodiversity protection we're not talking about something that is circumstantial or something that isn't temporary we are talking about the need to have sustained efforts this year we already know that we will be dropping in will and greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 8 percent 1st time in the history of humanity and is pretty close to what we need 7.6 but we know that as soon as we engage again with the economy that is going to go back up so what we need is

a very different change and most importantly the dehumanization the protection of biodiversity and working out aren't it cannot come at the huge human cost that this has do not come at the cost of human lives and millions of human life and it's so interesting and the actual size that we have had but not what we want to continue. and get in bring you in here you are his new tourist from pollution small cars and one of the 1st speeches i saw of what the distance not. it was a beautiful night. right now we've got routines got zionists generally these are amazing if you're not down you really not down pages would see me to this what is this telling us about what. we can do john's armed. well has been incredible is that the drop in pollution and the

clearing of skies it's had a tangible effect where you can literally step outside and breathe in much cleaner air and as christine was saying you could see the birds or the animals out and it seems like nature is having a comeback it's been so hard to explain climate change because it's less tangible it takes so much longer for c o 2 to be originally atmosphere so you don't get that direct impact and these past few months of clean air have been a great way for people to realize what life could be like the quality of life that you have a big kind of connector between the 2 crises for me has been the law that's been our achilles heel in this crisis and cities where people are breeding and polluted air and tolerating that they've been harder hit with the coronavirus so there's interesting links that are happening between the 2 major crises. just to go to. and i'm going to put this to you judy hughley says need is good idea that once

a year to one months with shut down and help heal. this is just cause close from a walk or go cycling with that. i don't think it will work because for me in my view inequality and poverty increases the value that ability to climate change and end pandemics like khurana it is the common denominator inequality especially between rich countries and poor countries it is the most obvious flaw of the current new liberal economic model just as my colleagues christiane has put it but the climate crisis and the pandemics excessive classes tend to be qualities that different levels of the society and those that are bound to suffer the most from this extreme effects

august 2 phenomena are the poorest and the have nots in society so it's not about. shutting down there were. about addressing issues of inequality where think of it in a global economy where that was reached just one percent of people how more than twice as much as wealth that's 4600000000 of the poorest people and this is our report that we have done so the ability of this majority of population right now to to even access the resources they need to holistic in the blood of their resilience and bounce back to the global crises is severely limited and in some cases not non-existent so it's about fixing the economic not about shutting. unison is to think yes this is. done but not as a little bit special. think the next time don't need this don't. want to hear.

me. mentioning. it. india reporting thousands of new cases of covert 19 and by mid week the countries were monitoring supercycle in one of the most intense cycles ever measured in the bay of bengal one crisis is not and because of another one and in south asia this week because 19 crisis will collide with the climate crisis many of the solutions of the climate crisis such as stopping deforestation and ramp in agriculture are essential to mitigating the risk of the next pandemic we must pass transformed a policy that any burning fossil fuels and restore the stability of our ecosystems are unprecedented times demand all thinking and in this moment of profound disruption we must fill our moral responsibility to the safety of our children by

investing in the health of our planet. cristiana gary i salute personal interests. and well very well replied that. i had ever a simplistic and perhaps irresponsible. summary and that is human have evils global how we have been so used to thinking that human how can be completely independent from and not factor by god's help and we are saying no that is not true so we have to understand how it is fullest interpretation at those all away from individual humans still the entire planet and to every one of the ecosystems that actually are at the basis of our life finally perhaps we have our own ivan the current crisis is just slap doesn't the face would lessen upon lesson upon lesson and the question is going to be relearning those lessons every day we are on the

greatest learning curve that we have ever been the question is why as we are on the doors of our homes and offices will we remember what we have or will we take the lessons into policy will we take the lessons into individual behavioral change will we take the changes and make them sustainable take the lessons and make them sustained changes and not just one stop. giving before you jump in and counting your conversation i want to go to see lynsey who's in our v.g. jack june and he says we will see in masses really industrialisation to make things worse he's not feeling very optimistic about. he's absolutely right already and countries like china are seeing what's called the rebound effect where they're trying to make up for lost economy and working double

time factories are pumping out way more emissions already scientists are starting to see a spike in levels and that's the fear that ripple of fresh effect across the planet as everybody is trying to rebuild the economy get everybody back to work that we're going to really just lose all the great gains that we've made in the short amount of time something to the doctor talked about that i'm really happy that he touched upon is the issue of deforestation it's been harder to explain that link to the general public but the more we cut down trees and enter the habitat of wild animals and take over their homes the more we're going to have these viruses you know spreading across the planet we need to make sure we talk about overpopulation we talk about how we build cities and cutting down forests and natural habitats to create homes for humans guy raz is more of a part of blocks is not the solution either we have to change the way we live and well in our cities. and i'm looking at some of the peaches from nairobi album where

your price and people were. not kenya like we can see now kenya that sunni's inc but in terms of the. prints it is made more half on the environment around africa needs so that the. climate just what he's seeing the strange changes. you see robey and africa has has clean air when we talk about emissions africa contributes about 3 percent of global emissions and christiane is here so africa is also bearing the brunt of climate change so we demanding for rich countries to to play to pay their climate debt what we need in this there but on their way out is for the international community to on their commitment of the paris agreement

let's talk about climate try not they they agreed to that they will be investing 900000000000 of climate finance to strengthen africa's response to issues of climate justice this is critical for countries in africa that are vulnerable who need to reboot their economies in a sustainable and resilient way adaptation is needed to help well not a book communities withstand shooter shocks they're already suffering from climate issues and the risk of this pandemic will leave even live our people even more violent a future so for us it's a battle on every. you. not. give me. any more people to listen. well we have been we have been saying this. during cop $25.00 activists

leganes from macarthur we were together with them to one of our corporate in the 4th district crop to them out we have been pushing for accountability and transparency from the international community to pay their climate debt and we have been campaigning to enable developing a columnist already drowning in the catastrophe of climate justice to be assisted through climate right now because climate change is real and africa has contributed . a little on the catastrophe so that must be. we will continue to fight for climate and your message. is with where we are in terms of the global house of international citizens in many a sense get the trust that is the need in energy our international

city how to think about it we should be thinking about. a new energy. 90 shows how we can and must hurt house building a new energy systems which are much more resilient to figure shocks additionally. hundreds of hours to those of us who are in position to revisit some of our life choices and have a little more sustainable things are just transportation choices getting a clean art empty office buildings which can be converted to sustain our housing and green buildings could be sensible lines of how we can build back that up. you know it's pretty easy just just heard was. green jobs turned out of the global. well this is a great opportunity to get the people back to work and to retrain industries people who come from industries that are so fossil fuel dependent you know it is a chance to get people back to work to retrain a sort of set up

a new economy might my fear though as i've sort of been investigating a bit deeper is that that in itself is a band-aid solution if we don't start looking at our own consumption issues you know completely just electrifying you know getting electric cars back on the road and mining lithium and creating materials to build these cars that's not the solution we really have to look at our habits and our our addiction to consumption at the root level and i want to start myself before i point the finger to everybody else you know this endemic has made me realize how i do my own work you know i'm an international correspondent i was in australia bushfires the amazon covering deforestation and here i am with this simple lighting kid a microphone and i'm producing films that are having just as much of an impact if not more than my field reports so do i really need to be traveling the world timely stories can i be collaborating with local filmmakers and stock images and telling

just as compelling a story i'm having my own you know she mental shift that's happening and my own look at my consumption rates and i think that's where we need to start. well i totally agree i've been doing exactly the same thing i have also been traveling the world with my math and. climate just the vulnerability especially in developing countries the urgency to meet the climate crisis that is not on my end to the current crisis as we have heard and my experience is exactly the same do i really want to travel to the turns around the world to go to a meeting that last one hour or one day or even 4 days fortunately we have now all become so much more fluent in these technologies that allow us to participate and gauge live each other to have perhaps not the and exact same impact as if we

were personally in our bodies present with each other but honestly the marginal difference is just not great it is not worth the additional cost is not worth the additional emissions it's not worth the additional drain on our health is just not worth that so i also think that we will be a. major major shifts not only in the way we that we travel we will travel last certainly for business we will not be commuting as much we will be commuting much less because companies are assuming that it could actually save on office spaces by adams 40 or 60 or 50 percent of their workers working from home effectively we might even be attracting urban design because as you heard we are not that many cars we have a much better use for our free streets and for parking places we will carry you

imagine if we now have cities that actually have much cleaner air is going to be if we remember the lessons that we have that we are having around here from the. 2 months these are the lessons that i really have been learning you know 3 years and didn't and now they're just being squashed into that reality right in front of our noses and our obligation our response there in here is to take those lessons and make it a reality starting from the bottom up in the new reality that we create we cannot recreate what we had in the past this is not about recovering and the economy this is about resetting we designing reinventing an economy that is one resilient that is more fair that starts from the bottom up creation of jobs but not jobs that are going to disappear syra 10 years from now because those sectors basically i don't run they're wrong we've got to be able to think into the future and who readers are

in the economy. let me just remind everybody of that you said right at the beginning in this isn't this is a headline that john tell me it's kind of nice that much closer to missions for up to 7 percent this year and with the pandemics of the lockdowns and. yes industry etc but we got this question from twitter from the china and she says the drop in emissions service the president immediate financial international climate action targets you told us many times we have 10 years to get. him to kenya to reach climate change to really act. do you think these months back to normal here. clooney yes traffic not so much what happens to me. well you know this decade really is a defining decade current climate because we have to be at one hot the emissions

that we had at the start of this here not right now why how by 20 so a 50 percent drop in over 10 years isn't vicious because we've never done it but it is doable because we have shown this year that actually that was a 7 percent that was in that article the latest data actually pulls us away at 8 percent drop now as we said not the way that we want to reach but it does mean i would require both individual behavior changes as well as top down regulations from the governor and that are going to help us on tomorrow as our emissions reduction potential with our reducing the well being that's the trick we have just sat right greenhouse gas growth from economic growth especially in developing countries those 2 things to be dealing a.s.a.p.

. i suppose it isn't beginning of the view is that these my day came to us from these discussions some slighter june cantor who is a kind activist filmmaker and she wanted to just do a little period on the end of this conversation which she needs thinking about in the last couple of months of lockdown missions. there's a lot of time to sink and a lot of tend to reflect and what i keep coming back to again and again throughout the surreal nature of this and the heartbreaking nature of this is how fast we've been able to move as people and adapt to this crisis if we can take something that we always thought was not slacks a ball and actually change everything about it within a matter of months and weeks then if we can do that for this threat and this crisis it gives me some optimism that we can actually rise to the challenge of the climate crisis and adapt as people and be able to create the society in the world that we need to live in in order to survive. and you don't see when what time did manage to

change your. ways that needs he to waste in this experience. and that scene is guess and just you know ask him to do more and they didn't you wanted us i mean you don't last year. we are now approaching that crossroads this is a not an opportunity that we must not miss we can either continue with the business as usual way of development or we can church we can transform the way we do things and build an economy that's not as our people and our planet this is a political choice that is at stake and follow a sick country or the sick or children we lead us internationally and look up to choose the latter because taking the that's the tough school will only bring about more suffering and destruction of our planet in a way watsons learned a lesson to take us. i mean i couldn't agree more but i have to say and it's all

this suffering and fear and loss that we're all going through we have to make sure that we hold on to our environmental protections so rebuilding the economy and getting people back to work is really important but we don't need to lax important environmental protections to get back to work so we need to keep an eye on those to make sure government's hard swiping all of those cheap protections in the name of the economy and rebuilding and getting people back we fought hard for those and they're going to protect us in the future to see. what would be the most impactful sentence that you can deliver to people remember. well i agree with my 2 wonderful colleagues here i would summarize by saying our transition to sustainability has never been as is a long and never been as achievable as it is right now let us not miss this operation. gary out again thank you very much for helping us

explore the connection between the current vice president make our environment and climate change plans in place much xenix to take. business leaders resort to find a bra spot. business

leaders resort to buy no bra spock. the ultranationalist mugs connected with one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis we dealt as any migrant joining with the military to impose a deadly political agenda we have devoted our nation what has happened to the

injured that's one of the biggest stains on the country as a whole. as another religion this is the politics me and an unholy alliance on al-jazeera. hello i'm maryam namazie in london a look at the headlines this hour now south africa's president has announced rate to measures to fight a fost biting coronavirus variant the country's become the 1st in africa now to pass a 1000000 cases the sale of alcohol is going to be banned and a 9 pm curfew enforced failure to wear a mosque in public has also been criminalized a person who does not wear a mosque could be arrested and prosecuted on conviction there would be liable to a fine or to imprisonment.