decisions on people but how it effects their if the data. we are free to put the money in to really gauge the state is because we know there are going to see is interested not just in the mainstream news but also the more hidden stories from parts of the world that often go under reported. the end of the in the in. the geopolitics of immunization some countries have too much vaccine are there is none at all that the show says richer countries must act globally. hello i'm barbara sarah and this is al jazeera live from london also coming out face masks will soon become compulsory on all public transport of the us this is corona virus infections past 26000000. unkept promises in sudan where the economic

crisis continues to fan the flames of discontent. why despite being the world's a 2nd largest economy europe is home to a growing number of people that are living in poverty. the world health organization says governments should palls their coronavirus vaccine rollouts once health workers and vulnerable people have been inoculated to ensure there is a global supply the organization says it's worried about vaccine nationalism where that the solution to stockpile vaccine by one country means inevitably that others miss out and as the virus continues to spread around the world more governments are closing their border as france has banned all but essential travel from outside the e.u. singapore has to spend. it's so-called travel bubble with malaysia south korea and

germany and south africa joins a growing list of countries on a u.s. travel ban well since the pandemic began more than 2000000 people have died globally and there have been a 102000000 infections while there is hope immunization will help contain covert 19 that w. h. o. is warning equal access to vaccines around the world will speed up a global recovery scientists say increasing production is key you really need to vaccinate more people to get to the herd immunity so how we're going to get the 2 says if we can't. start thinking and implementing actually measure that expand production you really need to have all companies that can produce vaccines to start producing by sharing technology there are companies in the north in europe in america in other countries there are companies

in the developing countries do have companies that if you shirt acknowledge you with them and if you license intellectual property they can produce doses of vaccine and we have more millions and millions more vaccines this is this is what it will help us not tomorrow but it will help us soon if we started last year it might have helped us one way poorer countries are accessing vaccines is via the world health organization's kovacs program the scheme is helping 92 middle and low income countries quite amala is just announced it will receive its 1st supply of vaccines through the program in 2 weeks but the president alexandra gamma today says it will receive just 800000 doses by the end of february is false short of the number needed to inoculate around 60 percent of guatemala spoke relation in order to achieve herd immunity. fresh measures to contain the carnivorous pandemic are

being implemented across latin america including border closures and new lock downs but the number of deaths and infections is still rising as a 2nd wave of infections sweeps across the region then i reports now from the argentinean capital when i was. a rare piece of good news amongst the coronavirus misery bolivia's 1st max a nation a nurse in the country's hearted eastern city of santa cruz in. the end i feel good very excited and also a bit nervous but positive. she's in the frontline doctors one a medic is dying every day the virus has killed 10000 bolivians the government has ordered 15000000 more doses of the russian sputnik and the ox that astra zeneca vaccines. but. we have a plan to combat the corona virus in the 2nd wave

a plan to have stages such as tests tests and more tests a plan that has a 2nd element to provision of vaccines that today are becoming a reality for our health workers and there's a similar story in colombia where the president announced the national vaccination program is to begin in 3 weeks only for my law school and be honest. i would like to inform colombians that at this moment acquisitions are completely closed in order to guarantee the vaccination for the target population that we set out in the national vaccination plan. a new lockdown has been imposed in the capital bogota while borders remain closed trapping these migrants mostly from haiti but also cuba and africa their ultimate destination is united states lab and this young. is the request they have made is to be allowed entry into panama that is not possible because there is a presidential order to close the borders as a precautionary measure but in addition panama has all of its borders closed as

ghana has closed its long border with brazil barbados has announced a lockdown while canada has closed air traffic from the caribbean and mexico until april in mexico the president went before the cameras to say he's recovering from the virus and to announce the purchase of maxine's dollar via doing the. i still have covert but the dr stone me to time has passed the critical phase i'm now presenting myself to you so that there are no rumors or misunderstandings i am well although i still have to rest he was speaking of mexico became the country in the world with the 3rd highest number of coronavirus deaths more than 155000 behind only the u.s. and brazil a situation made worse by oxygen shortages in the capital despite that foreign tourists taking advantage of mexico's more relaxed travel restrictions continue to flock to the beaches the coronavirus. some of us are family ready had it.

it's not that big a deal and the governments are making it worse than it actually is however for many elsewhere in latin america it can't get much worse the vaccination programs provide hope but on the horizon it's still a long way off. thanks when they're all jazeera one of cyrus. portugal meanwhile says it's about to run out of beds in its intensive care units as a grapples with the world's highest coronavirus test hole per capita health ministry data shows there are only 7 beds left on the mainland out of 850 some covert 1000 patients who are critically ill are being sent to portuguese islands including madeira on friday the regional government there said it had 157 beds available for chicle is also recorded the highest number of new cases per capita in the past week more than 12000 people have died from the corona virus thus far. in the

u.s. the country has now officially recorded 26000000 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic facemasks will soon become compulsory across the country for anyone using public transport the government is struggling to meet its pledge to vaccinate $100000000.00 people within the 1st $100.00 days of joe biden's presidency and on capitol hill he's facing an early test as he tries to get approval for a $1.00 trillion dollar economic stimulus package magical dangerous us live now from capitol hill patty good to see you know this agreement right now seems to center around the issue of the minimum wage what's that about. well there's a whole lot of disagreement when it comes to this remember joe biden president joe biden so that he wanted to work with republicans so this is the 1st test to see if he in fact can do that or if he decides he can't is just going to try and go it alone some republicans say this is too much to the deficit some say that they just

gave some relief for coated that they don't need to give any more there's a whole lot in here there's money for schools money for food money for people money for jobless benefits but one thing that's also in here is a huge priority for democrats and that is lifting the federal minimum wage to $15.00 an hour over time just to give you a sense right now it's $7.25 and that has not been raised since 2009 so joe biden has said this has to pass or he put it in with all this coded related legislation so no or some republicans are saying he needs strip that out and do that separately he's not really shown any indication that he wants to do that so what happens now in the next couple of days we think that the buying team is going to decide whether or not they want to wait for the republicans if not they could use something called budget reconciliation and then they just need every single democratic senator all 50 to vote for the covert package and then vice president kamel harris can cast the tie breaking vote so it's unclear if they're going to take that step. republicans

say that would set a horrible precedent he said he wanted to unite the country at the same time joe biden has said look it's going to pass we have to do something we'll either do it with republicans or without the big question though is can he keep all 50 democratic senators aligned keep in mind the corporate america of a lot of the people who give contributions to these senators they don't want to see the minimum wage raised. so i mean that's going through congress now but when it comes to preventing further corona virus infections the c.d.c. has mandated the wearing of masks on public transport from tuesday but considering how divisive the issue has been how is that likely to be implemented i mean will there be fines for people who refuse to we know how it's going to work. well i read the order it said the transportation security administration could be part of the enforcement they also said they could work with local and state police departments

but it doesn't lay out exactly what the penalty will be now we know that airlines had this policy that you have to wear a mask they've kicked off hundreds of paid people who are trying to fly without so this gives them a little bit more ammunition to say no it's not just the airlines say it it's the federal government saying it and we'll go ahead we'll call the officers at the gate if you want to have a fight about this but this is really the closest the joe biden believes you can get to a federal master mandate and you're right it has been completely polar politicized in this country by a former president donald trump who really mocked people for wearing masks joe biden is trying to change that he's telling people that if everyone wore a mask $50000.00 lives would be saved in the next couple of months it's going to be a tough sell though so what he's trying to do possibly is say look if you get on a bus a train a plane if you're at the airport if you're at the train station if you're at the ferry if you are anywhere you see people wearing a mask maybe they'll start to dawn on you that it's ok to wear a mask and if you don't want to do that well then get off the bus basically and so it's not only just giving people power to enforce this and

a lot of states where there is no mass mandate it's also saying exactly what kind of mass is required very detail that says look you can't just lift your shirt up over your mouth and your nose and call that a mask it has to have these specific requirements so it's biden's way of trying to send a message that masks don't need to. be politicizing an issue it's a matter of safety it is indeed will be interesting to see what reactions that will be come tuesday in the u.s. for the moment thank you. to india were farmers are holding a day long hunger strike as part of their months long protests against new agricultural laws events in new delhi have so far been peaceful after a week of violence which has led the authorities blocking the internet at protest sites or a burden rally has the latest. here are these farmers have refused food for

a day 100 strike to show people in india their protest is nonviolent i this of the months of protests escalated into violent scenes this past week on the outskirts of the capital new delhi. on friday there was street fights after supporters of the governing party shouted slogans against. police dispersed the crowds using tear gas and patents. and on tuesday a pharmacist tried to rally culminated in these scenes at least they miss wright who was famous of encounter protest sites for 2 months to demand the government repeals 3 new agricultural laws the government has offered to put them on hold for 18 months the farmers with them dropped saying the only benefit to big businesses.

although there is heavy police presence the fama say more people have been inspired to join them. i want to congratulate the farmers of punjab and the unions for awakening the other farmers in the country who are fed up with the modi government and are sitting quietly at home these unions have mobilized them to protest on the streets and now this movement is not just confined to punjab and haryana but has spread across the country the indian government has responded to days of violence by blocking mode. internet services in 3 protest locations it's a method often deployed to prevent unrest elsewhere an unusual move and the captain authorities of blame some of the farmers for instigating the violence but the farmers insist it's a government. barely ordered 1st the government tried to remove people from the gaza called border using force since it had few protesters but the union leaders

did not allow that they instigated the locals here to cause a riot through stone pelting and other means these protests have been one of the biggest challenges for prime minister direct. lehigh of india's population is employed in agriculture 11 rounds of talks between the farms unions and the government has failed to resolve the crisis now the process is hearsay with time the movement is only getting stronger lure about how badly al-jazeera. man mars military says it will abide by the country's constitution a mentor concerns the armed forces might attempt to cool supporters of the military marched in the city of young gone on saturday days after a military spokesperson the climb to to rule out a power grab the army has been alleging widespread irregularities in november's election won in a landslide by anson sushi's ruling national league for democracy yet mars election

commission rejected the military's allegations of voter fraud on thursday. bangle there she is sending a 4th group of rinky refugees to a remote island despite calls from human rights groups to stop the process rights groups say that some of the refugees have gone to the island of bass and char against their will and they warned that the low lying island is risk of storms and floods bangladesh wants to relocate a 10th of the $1000000.00 refugees living in camps they took refuge there after fleeing violence in neighboring liam are. the prime minister shaker has seen a bill housing for us we were asked to come and we came here at our own will be my people and relatives came here earlier they said it's better here so we came. so to come here on al-jazeera could copper infused products provide a vital defense against the coronavirus the details in our special report from.

the cycloid seasons become active now for australia around the islands in the southwest pacific this is a tropical low coming over 80 mile beach it's mostly inland but it's feeding itself warm waters and then you've got an approaching fiji now ahead of. which is a tropical cycle has been an awful lot of rain this is flooding on the mainland and of it is pretty extensive as you can see there's been a lot of rain 200 millimeters at least so far the storm's going to go through fairly quickly as movement of that speed it almost makes the lowest hurrican catchcry not quite as severe gale force winds always and wind damage but significant rain will continue to fall now on sunday it goes south of the main island and then we're almost over talking a bit i think will stay west to talk back in the mainland though we've got this

circulating rain that's for the kimberley plateau and further south as like the yet more flooding in western australia further east parts of the onshore breeze give you a few showers it's fairly dry picture although victoria in the south of the south wales that doesn't look court showery changer for shoes in japan there will be an awful lot more snow to come in hawkeye day but not much at home shoot tokyo up to 12 degrees and then a line of rain didn't. at 16 cush who is living her dream of being a journalist but her father has his own dream for her to follow tradition and be married as our investigations bring her face to face with the ill fate of some of india's young women her father's search for suitable husband continues can both their dreams come true or must one overcome the other. deadline part of the

viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. the. the at. the end. of back is a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the world health organization has called on countries to pause their coronavirus vaccine rollouts after health workers and vulnerable people have been inoculated and should do that to ensure fair distribution around the world the us is now officially recorded $26000000.00 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic facemasks will soon become cost free across the country for anyone using public transport. the un

counterterrorism chief is urging that foreign children stranded in refugee camps in northeast syria be repatriated many are the sons and daughters of those fleeing the collapse of eisel vladimir voronin call of says there are around 20 $7000.00 children at risk of radicalization within the camps they're currently guarded predominantly by kurdish fighters but in january the un warned of a surge in violence in the largest of the camps that's hard it's estimated there are around 8000 foreign children from 60 countries in the camps far and cause argued they should be treated by member states as victims and those under 14 should not be detained or prosecuted almost 1000 have been repatriated to a number of countries including russia and kazakhstan only a fraction have been sent to european countries or ruth heather in turn is near and middle east spokesperson for the international committee of the red cross she says

a long term solution needs to be found to ensure the children's safety. they are stranded in legal limbo and so any sense of future is really something that they don't really have and yes these children should be victims are considered are victims and should be considered as such all of them and the international committee of the red cross is very concerned floor for all children under the age of 18 but even those young adults who were children when they were brought to this to these conflicts and so we are urging states as we have been doing and as we continue to do to really to step up that it is time for states to find a way to act to bring about this series of long term solutions that that this these these children need and not just the foreign children is in fact the vast majority of people in iraqis and are syrians so the kind of solutions we're talking about

they're really needed for everyone. so that as the terri orating economy has sparked protests in the capitol hill and other states the crisis contributed to the toppling of the country's long time leader all that all the share almost 2 years ago but after nearly 18 months under a new administration there is no sign of relief as al-jazeera is here but morgan reports. this has become a way of expressing anger at the economic conditions in sudan's capital hard to protest has blocked the city's main roads to pressure the government to improve living conditions the presence of basic commodities like bread fuel and electricity have gone up in recent months. there's no economy there's no fuel no bread no cooking gas the countries in crisis things were bad before but now they are much worse in other parts of the capital and the country the anger at the economy has been more vocal sudan's transitional government has been facing an economic turmoil

since coming to power in. its blamed it on 20 years of u.s. sanctions that were lifted. and the policies of the previous government under vent president. he was overthrown by his military after weeks of anti-government protests that were also sparked by hikes in prices of basic commodities the current administration has promised to improve the economy but after 18 months protesters say the situation has not improved much. things are still the same there is no change when bashir was in power the dollar was worth 50 now it's $300.00 we don't know what to do anymore we used to protest for justice and accountability now they've distracted us from that with demands for bread fuel and cooking gas. the government says the scottie of commodities and the rise in market prices are caused by shortages of hard currency because of limited international trade and exports while the official rate is $55.00 sudanese pounds to the us dollar most of it comes

from outside the official system or the parallel market the difference between the 2 has been climbing steeply the government has held to donor conferences with the aim of improving the economy it's also negotiated with the us government to be taken off its list of states sponsoring terrorism and open its markets for international trade and investment in exchange for sudan had to agree to recognize israel one of the few arab countries to do so last year but the economic problems run deeper so than owes more than $60000000000.00 to the world bank which has made it difficult for it to get more loans to ease its economic crisis and says the government subsidizes medicine and feel. it needs hard currency so the demand for cash with the parallel market being the only option has brought down the value of its local currency increasing the rate of inflation and frustration for many here the administration says it's found solutions to some of these challenges. the report we have is that there is no skews to you there are lines for fuel medicine and brood to get daily updates to know what's the root cause for scarcity no one in

the government is borrowing to what the people suffer we've spoken to the banks responsible for importing goods and they will increase the amount of fuel tank is imported as well as weight and medicine to ease the situation back on the streets those barricading the main roads say they hope the government listens to them and understand that even if the commodities are available it won't mean much because they simply can't afford to buy them people morgan al-jazeera how it's all. the european union is not fit for purpose when it comes to fighting poverty that's the assessment of u.n. special envoy leave year to shoot who is a warning the number of poor people across europe could reach new highs in 2021 a recent report found that one in 5 people in the e.u. regional block were already living in poverty in 2019 and the pandemic has of course affected millions for about 23 percent of those living in poverty are

children the report also says women are disproportionately represented and there is a growing number of working poor that's people who work but get paid extremely low wages. well the u. has a number of constraints that. it has impose on itself that makes it very difficult for member states to effectively tackle poverty truth because 'd fiscal competition between countries is institutionalized and as a result it's very difficult for these countries adopt progressive taxation schemes secondly because they compete on wages and on social contributions made by employers so it's very difficult to increase wages in line with put it to the gains and thirdly because these countries imposed macroeconomics trade jackets as a result of joining the euro the single currency you have to maintain a fiscal discipline making it very difficult for them to invest in social protection and as a result it is extremely difficult for european countries to do more to combat

probably to reduce inequality these measures that are dictated by the emergency by the sanitary crisis may be a blueprint for the future. for the future of the e.u. and it must learn from this crisis that it should build social resilience not put all its hopes in growth and efficiency gains but also build resilience which means investing much more in social protection and protecting people from economy shocks and i think we now are witnessing the e.u. a significant revision of the dogmas that had been essentially guiding the use past responses to crisis over the past 20 years. chile has utilized its copper industry in the fight against the coronavirus as the world struggles to deal with an air wave of infections the country has a large number of products on the market made of copper which some say can provide

protection the see anyone reports from santiago. they say necessity is the mother of invention. and nowadays nothing seems more necessary than finding novel ways to combat covert 91 option being applauded by judy's government is a formula that uses copper to destroy the virus really see that only good big congratulate you for senators in your 331 stores with nano copper particles this is a major step in protecting stuff from customers the strong n.t. microbial properties of copper which can destroy viruses bacteria and fungus are well known especially here in chile the world's number one copper producer. a firm called the copper company has been developing copper impregnated textiles for the last 7 years. in some terrible factory copper i own thread

a woven into the fabric but how effective is called birth specifically against kobe 19 in that you see it 10 years yet a good analysis conducted by the immunology lubber a tree of the university of burning switzerland demonstrates that 5 minutes after coming in contact with the fabric 84.8 percent of the viruses eliminated and after 2 hours 95 percent. according to the study commissioned by the company copper ions destroy the membrane of the virus thereby neutralizing it. gets their mind they could add. another go at it the cop was integrated into a different products we've developed a line that includes face small 6 sheets for hospital bed scraps for medical staff troubled kids as well as south covers for taxi seats to prevent infections. but there are still some questions about the overall efficacy of copper infused products such as this face mask so the scientists argue that one laboratory

findings are very promising it may be less so out here on the street or in hospital . we need more information to see how it works in real life before we can recommend it broadly but it's a very interesting and really edits root very simple idea. that for most everything related to the novel virus nothing is yet certain yet the bet is that these golden threads of copper could provide a welcome additional layer of protection. you see in human al-jazeera santiago. and the reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the world health organization has called on countries to pause their coronavirus faxing rollouts.