cairo on al-jazeera. holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s. is room in the world on al-jazeera. the world. we have simply let. down and unfortunately we are now paying the price of south africa tightens its covert restrictions banning alcohol sales again and making mosques mandatory in public or the world health organizations bleak warning of the pandemic but this is not necessarily but what. now i maryam namazie and london you're watching algiers there are also coming up.

in the streets a record high after president trump finally signs the covert relief bill. and a global outcry as a saudi court sentences women's rights activists lucina have to more than 5 years in prison. well it's just gone midnight in south africa where tough new restrictions have come into force the country is the 1st in africa to suppress a 1000000 coronavirus cases the new measures include a ban on all gatherings a ban on the sale of alcohol and the failure to wear a mask in public correctly has also now been criminalized the south african president so around oppose addressed his country a few hours ago a person who does not wear a mask could be arrested and prosecuted. convictions.

they will be liable to a fine or 2 imprisonment for a period not exceeding 6 months. both. a fine and imprisonment i must admit that this is addressed to measure but it is no necessary to ensure compliance with the most basic of preventative measures. well how much hassle has more now from port elizabeth on why these restrictions have been brought in it was a doctor and many of the health workers who were calling for these restrictions they were saying that there was really surprise of otherwise number infections what surprised them is how quickly it happened and generally other staff in the same they also not surprised that new measures were put in place jane the festive season thousands of people were travelling up and down the country visiting friends and family and some of them were seen and big parties and gatherings many not wearing

mosques not practicing social distancing not sanitizing and we are in the eastern cape province this is one of the provinces where this variant was i didn't fides and people here when you speak to them you can meet people here who tell you that i have had 7 people in my family who have died from covert 19 you told stories of people who attended funerals of prominent people and they came back and many of them became sick and port elizabeth is considered coronavirus hotspot at the moment and people who listen to president sort of of course are some of them had mixed feelings some were saying yes they understand why he had to be very heavy handed and somewhat harsh in what he did others saying that it was unnecessary these measures are too extreme and he shouldn't have done that and when you see. his vice chair of the south african medical association i spoke to him earlier and he told me that health workers there are in a desperate situation. health care will cause

a town in. some of us some of our colleagues have already died and some are critical but the majority there are more and very low and you know because also there is no psychological support for health care workers and. except that they are expected to be at the forefront of the better but in terms of support there is little support except the lip service that comes now and then so i think that is where we either moment and if we continue like this it will have yes have severe impact on us in terms of going for you know and fighting the pandemic and you must also notice that we've been getting quality t.v. is. you know even attends the numbers are not enough for us to find that there

is expected to use a mask. one must sometimes for the whole week. and you can imagine what would have been that so that would expose our cause and there is no risk assessment and that is going on in the us because as expected in there were place. well elsewhere new data here is suggesting that the actual number of cry to virus related deaths in russia could be much higher than previously reported johns hopkins university has calculated just under 55000 deaths for the year but these newly released figures show about $26000.00 people died there last month alone and the bomber reports now on a deteriorating situation across europe. extending the vaccination program and the pressure of a new figures russia is now offering its own sputnik v. vaccine to front line workers such as doctors and teachers over the age of 60 as well as to younger colleagues according to data from the national statistics agency

around 26000 people die due to the corona virus in november alone in response the deputy prime minister has said all thirty's of never hit in any day to uncovered 90 mortality rates. in portugal this nurse was one of many health workers getting a covered 1000 job at lisbon's largest hospital the country hopes to vaccinate nearly 10 percent of its population joining the 1st phase as part of the northeast i think it's part of our civic duty to try to prevent the pandemic as with measles and other viruses like influenza that said while in spain monday's front pages were all about the start of the vaccine rollout but phases perspire on the delivery of a new batch by a day due to what the government's calling a logistics hurdle spain's health minister says vaccines will be available to the public and she's day mourning and predicts 70 percent of the population will have been immunized by the end of summer 2021. the main worry for people arriving at this ski resort in central germany was getting stuck in the snow not the corona

virus but the national vaccination campaign is facing delays in several cities because temperature records showed hundreds of doses may not have been kept cold enough during transit becomes u.k. health care officials sound the alarm. healthful 40 say there are now. more covered patients in hospitals in england the judge in the previous peak in april the government says reopening schools in january will involve trade offs with other restrictions but its own scientific advice is have reportedly said any national lockdown in january would have to include all schools to prevent the virus spreading exponentially and august where the teachers will soon get the vaccine cabinet minister michael gove was noncommittal but we prioritize those who are most vulnerable the eldest and those with other challenging conditions and then we then make sure that the vaccine can be distributed. in the u.k. is hoping to get approval for a 2nd vaccine developed by astra zeneca this week so it can start administering it

early in the new year but it knows that it will only be part of the solution to a still growing crisis the al-jazeera well health organization has been speaking out issuing a bleak warning that the world needs to be prepared for even was pandemics in a briefing marking a year since the w.h.o. land of covered $1000.00 fighting in china emergencies chief executive michael ryan said any to be a wake up call for the wild. this pandemic has been very severe it's spread around the world extremely quickly and is afraid that every corner of this front but this is not necessarily the big well this virus is very transmissible. and it kills people and that's just the price so many people of locals but it's current case would tell us he is read recently law 'd comparison to other emerging diseases this is a wake up call. will straight as hit record highs in response u.s. president donald trump signing a long awaited car and

a virus relief bill he previously refused to sign the bill which he called to describe the $900000000000.00 aid package was insufficient and wanted to write payments to americans increase from $600.00 to $2000.00 bill restores unemployment benefits to millions of americans who lost their jobs in the pandemic but it comes too late for some 14000000 people who missed out on payments this week so let's go to rosen and jordan who joins us live now from washington and why did the president back down on this well it appears that the appeals to the president to think of his legacy and to cause more chaos may have persuaded the president to sign the legislation behind closed doors on sunday night at his home in florida but as you know that some 14000000 people whose unemployment benefits ran out this past week are now going to have to wait until probably after the new year before they

can be put back on the unemployment rolls and so that the federal government can send their benefits to their home states which in turn are responsible for distributing unemployment benefits and it's not clear that they're going to be able to get all 11 weeks that congress provided for in the legislation it's not clear that there is a retroactive provision to help these people get through the process of course it is worth noting that the supplemental unemployment benefit process has not been a smooth one here in the united states there are legions of people across the country who have said that from the very beginning of the pandemic they've had a lot of difficulty getting the supplemental aid that they need to care for themselves and for their families. and in all the developments roseland have been these efforts to override president chomps veto of the defense bill so yes to get in on that clash between the president and congress well it's more

accurate to say that it is a clash not just between the president and congress but between the president and his own political party they have been not seeing eye to eye on some provisions of the bill and the president has been upset that not enough republicans have stood with him in order to try to overturn what he says was an election that was stolen from him there's been no evidence that the election was stolen from him there's also the real sense that republicans believe that no matter what the political dissent disputes are with whoever is in the white house that the military needs to be funded so it is likely that when that vote comes up later in this hour or perhaps next hour in congress that the over ride will take place in the house of representatives and then it will be the senate's turn to vote to overturn the president's veto of that build as well so that could all be wrapped up by

wednesday at the latest thank you very much from washington resident jordan. meanwhile u.s. president elect joe biden has been speaking out he has criticized the lack of cooperation his transition team is receiving from the outgoing chump administration he accused some of trump's team of acting irresponsibly and criticized the way national security has been handled vice president harrison i along with our nominees the lead to national security is to to she's just been briefed by some of the professionals who have been conducting ages reviews as a part of our transition. for some agencies our t.v. c.b. exemplary cooperation from the career staff of those agencies from others most notably the department of defense we countered up structure from the political leadership of that department the truth is many of the agencies that are critical

to our security have incurred enormous damage many of my been hollowed out in personnel capacity and in morocco when all the stories are following a saudi court has sentenced a prominent women's rights activist to 5 years and 8 months in prison drawing international condemnation the chain of her fluid has been healthy as 2018 after being arrested along with at least a dozen other women's rights activists relatives say she's been sexually assaulted and tortured while in prison she campaigned against a ban on women driving and for an end to saudi arabia's male guardianship system well the national security adviser for joe biden has responded to the sentencing jake sullivan tweeted saudi arabia sentencing of the chain of how fluid it is simply exercising for simply exercising the universal rights is unjust and troubling as we've said the biden harris administration will stand up against human rights violations wherever they occur international ngo human rights watch is

deeply concerned by the verdict this was a comment earlier it is absolutely shocking to see the saudi authorities conviction and sentencing regime to have through today on the under the terrorism know what they have done is to now state to the world that they consider women's rights activism to be an act of terrorism now the saudi authorities have done this in the past with human rights activists which we have seen being sentence of being treated as terrorists but now we are seeing the same thing being dug women's rights activists. so that for you a chinese citizen journalist who reported from the han at the peak of the covert outbreak is jailed for 40 years we have that story and. my daughter needed chemotherapy and no one wanted to help and. an argentinean woman who lost the fight to save her daughter's life tells us why she wants to legalize abortion.

we may well see flooding across parts of queensland over the next few days some rather stormy weather across northern parts of australia the top 10 pushing into the gulf of carpentaria easing across a good part of queensland the area of low pressure here somewhat to weather to for good measure into new south wales so that will bring some lively storms over towards save me to the north of that as well pushing up towards the gold coast there's that west of weather persisting across the northern half of queensland in particular and it stays in place as we go on into wednesday the west the weather will gradually ease away from sydney still a few storms around as we go on through wednesday temperatures around 25 celsius the settled a hot weather i will continue down towards the south and southwest perth around 39

degrees celsius what's about the clearing away from new south wales will gradually push over towards new zealand so some rain is beginning to set in across the south and meanwhile it's going to be snow setting in across northern parts of china through the korean peninsula easing across japan once again then quite a lot of it as well you can see how extensive that is here's that cold air temperatures in seoul go from 3 degrees celsius on tuesday to minus 7 on wednesday . for. a unique perspective on nigeria we have so much more with those dots north of monies this most though we have. through the eyes of the sun liberated african photographer. on the tour enjoy impulse moment in still being us what he just did. it 3 years on how has life changed. rewind ga 30

on al-jazeera. the on world. watching al-jazeera live from london al main story this hour south africa's president has an el stricter measures to combat a surge in corona virus cases driven by a fast reading variant gatherings and the sale of alcohol will be banned and a curfew in forced from 9 pm. new data indicates the actual number of coronavirus related deaths in russia could be much higher than previously reported close 226000 deaths related to that have been officially reported in the month of november alone and our other headline a wall street hit record highs in response u.s.

president donald trump signing a long awaited coronavirus relief bill $900000000000.00 a package restores unemployment benefits for millions of americans. in all the news a chinese citizen journalist has been jailed for 4 years for lifestream reporting of the early days of the corona virus outbreak in the city of one hon john johns videos are widely shared on social media platforms in february she's among at least 8 whistleblowers facing charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble for that coverage of the outbreak the 37 year old former lawyer was arrested in may and is on a hunger strike in jail. so governments and when the official unveiled the evidence we as lawyers had no chance of producing evidence to the contrary so this was one likely reason behind why it was a speedy rushed hearing. in the building what i'm most worried about is that she's such a determined person and she still thinks she's innocent and we both treated her innocence

in court and the court gave such a harsh sentence she's probably more determined to continue her hunger strike until the very end so i'm very worried about her health and her life. 12 pro-democracy activists from hong kong face another night in chinese detention after a mainland court gave no verdict on the 1st day of their trial are accused of trying to flee to taiwan in august to avoid jail sentences their families say they've been denied any information sarah clarke has more now from hong kong. pro-democracy activists deliver a petition to beijing's liaison office. they want the group of 12 hold 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 is all harassment tight security is 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 law 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 their burdick as soon as possible i want to see my send again ferry much. families of the 12 have been in great need throughout their detention they are now only asking for the safety of the children and their earliest 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 us of interfering in their domestic affairs hong kong's chief executive says it's a matter for the mainland if these hong kong residents were arrested for bridging mainland or fences then they have to be dealt with according to the mainland laws in accordance with their jurisdiction before any other things could happen another 9 people in hong kong have been arrested suspected of helping the group flee the city in august they've been accused of arranging transport and the police here haven't ruled out making more arrests so al-jazeera hong kong. the government of bangladesh has started relocating a 2nd group of rango refugees who fled there from me and mom about 1500 refugees in

being moved from their camps in cox's bazaar to char an island in the bay of bengal that's prone to flooding 30 buses are taking the good by the city of chata ground but they're staying overnight before arriving at the isolated island on cheers day the un and human rights groups have condemned the reader cations arguing that they amount to ethnic cleansing as a divide in the camp between refugees who welcome the move but then there are also those who fear for the safety of their families. and going to the island because i believe that my life will be a peaceful where more peaceful than here whatever the bangladesh government is doing i think it's for our betterment that the reason we shouldn't go to the island is because it's low lying and if a storm hits that island we'll have no way safe to go inside their lives. election officials in central african republic say about 800 polling stations fail to open on sunday because of armed rebels attacking voters and barring star has more than 14 percent of the 5408 voting centers across the country but even though that

happened the un observers said that the poll was largely successful with a massive turnout president fasten archons to dera hopes to win a 2nd term in office a bit accuses his predecessor francois busy day of sending in rebels to try and disrupt the vote. the. population decided to safeguard democracy which is why they mobilized in the capital on a massive scale to go and vote so it's a relief. of freedom the woman the children are afraid because o'leary's the busies a neighborhood there's the problem too many threats there is catherine sawyer has been following developments from the capital bangui and she tells us more about the feedback from international observers on the poll. there was a press conference today by the un the interior minister defense minister the electoral commission and they all said that voting was by and less successful they

say that in the country the process went on smoothly but they did up knowledge problems in some towns and villages in the provinces in some areas for example polls could not open at all because of the security situation in other people polls open but people could not come out to vote because they were hiding out in other areas. groups came in and around polling stations. causing massive panic and in other places voting materials were delayed paul's delayed to open because of the security situation when it came to counting in some polling stations when counting was going on people would come in and take boxes and ballot papers and bar them by the u.n. says that they send reinforcements to try and secure some of the material so they say overall voting went on smoothly and now the next stage securing

the results they say many of the papers are to be airlifted to. not just because of the security situation but also because of the very poor road network well there's also been a historic election in the past few days votes are being counted now it could be the 1st time i will have a transfer of power between democratically elected presidents voters have to choose a successor to president mahmoud from among 30 candidates. the reuters news agency has condemned the detention of one of its cameramen in ethiopia family members say police arrested comerica machu at his home in addis ababa on thursday he hasn't been charged and no reason has been given for his arrest but he's going to be held for 14 days america over the tigre a conflict and while it isn't sure if his arrest is connected to his work.

now argentina's politicians are getting ready to vote on an issue that's divided the nation for decades abortion the lower house has already voted in favor of legalizing the procedure for all who want it something women's rights campaigners have been fighting for and on tuesday senate members will have their say from santa fe to raise above reports. thank you. no never thought she would become a pro abortion activist she lives in a poor and conservative community in the province of santa fe but her life changed when her teenage daughter who was pregnant was diagnosed with cancer in her job own . she was one month pregnant and i told the doctor why don't you do an abortion because she has 3 children but they said no that a judge needed to get involved my daughter needed chemotherapy and no one wanted to help her and the money yessiree there was 1000 when she died doctors kept her in a hospital until she gave birth so she could begin the treatment but the tumor

almost covered her entire face neither she nor the baby survived and many here are making a run i said only said they would do an ethical meeting while we waited on the streets with my grandchildren and i was pushing them so that they would begin treatment the ethical meeting was with the priests i wanted to save my daughter. that i might be off death shows that even though abortion is legal in argentina in cases of rape or if a woman's life if i don't risk it finds lots of resistance when it comes to implementing the law especially in places like this when working poor women have almost no we sources to fight for their rights. as the senate gets ready to vote on legalizing abortion stories like those of no marquesan her daughter show how entrenched anti-abortion culture is in argentina's most remote region. in spite of

this health authorities say at least half a 1000000 irregular abortions happen every year and many women end up in hospital because of complications. and that's one of the reasons why pro-abortion activists have been taken to the streets for years wearing the color green the symbol of their campaign. early in december. the lower house of congress approved a bill which would allow interruption of pregnancies until the 14th week the senate vote is expected to be close and then it's an hour more joggles it all is that the senate is much more conservative and we know this we're very conscious of this we also know that last year there was an election that renewed the legislative chambers and so there are more senators willing to make history and 30 to democracy that we have with $3200.00 women who've died in democracy and for all of us who are still alive and all future generations to come but the debate has polarized society

that has close ties with the catholic church. francis is argentinian and has been lobbying against the law that will get casa anything can happen with the result of this vote because we have a president who is taking it upon himself to demonstrate the worst of corrupt politics which is to go to his own party politicians and ask them to vote even though they may be opposed a president who is showing no mercy with this law because he thinks it will be his administrative victory and his end of year victory of victory that people like not hope will guarantee what happened to her daughter will not happen to anyone else that is how will. argentina the e.u. is given the green light for opposed to trade deal to come into effect on new year's day a massive us from each member state met brussels to approve the agreement the terms the deal will now come into effect from friday despite it not being ratified by the european parliament until late apiary. now subzero

temperatures hasn't deterred so many enthusiastic in siberia dozens braving the freezing cold water in the russian city of almost. daytime temperatures don't rise above minus 20 degrees celsius at this time of year decided to take a swim in this water the idea is to boost immunity and protect the body against disease or even the onset of dementia though i would probably have to have it to spend. just a quick reminder of the headlines now south africa's president has announced rate to measures to fight a surge in cases driven by a fossil breading coronavirus variant country has become the 1st in africa to pass 1000000 cases gatherings in the sale of alcohol will be banned and a 9 pm curfew enforced failure to our moscow wrecking public is all.