like a love for you from having has not been what we hoped for not see, because most of them can read or write for. they work the fields, only they and the children stay home with no one to help them with their homework. i would if you open the books and there is nothing on the notebook the but it worries me, the parents lay them with them to work in the field and they might quit school. oh, i see us and we see it's going to be hard to get back on track. but with the help of parents and teachers he had to school, it's possible we weren't to motivate the children to have them continue with directv. to do the homework, that would be every turn strategy ah, updating itself stories for you. so thought today here on al jazeera,

you leaders according to the sanctions on bella, rue soft. what they say was the hijacking of a commercial aircraft. they're accusing, beller is faking a bomb threat in order to force the plane to land. the then detained an opposition journalist for brandon has more on the international reaction howls of outrage. i mean, 1st of all, they were dumbfounded european leaders. they always couldn't believe it. reactions initially were very mild until they realized exactly what was going on. i've looked at the timeline of the social media posts, and 1st of all, we just glad to build the aircraft to been allowed to take off again with no bomb discovered. and then they realized exactly what had happened that a journalist have been taken off the plane that apparently for russian speaking people had also got. busy off in minsk, which raises the very grave suspicion that this was a targeted surveillance operation leading to an interception in mid air. this all starts to become a really fully blown international crisis. the me and my leader unanswered,

she has appeared in court for the 1st time since the coo in february. she said, her national league for democracy party would continue to exist as long as people exist. iran has told the un simply a watchdog. it will extend a monitoring deal with the agency for a month. the 3 month deliveries and february was set to and this month iran has told the regulator, it no longer have access to data from its nuclear facilities. once the agreement had expired. a suspect, accused of war crimes and sedans, region of duffle and the conflict there has appeared before the international criminal court. the 1st time ali abdel rahman is charged with $31.00 counts of crimes against humanity, including rape and the killing of civilians. the world war against cove it thus the declaration from the head of the un, antonio parish was addressing health ministers from all over the world. up next to the inside story rope has the news from 13 g. i will see you very soon. bye bye. mm ah

ah, the holidays are back on europe, ease is covered, $900.00 travel restrictions just in time for the summer. so will the tourism industry recover? and is it safe to reopen as new virus strange cause concern around the world. this is inside story. ah. ah, hello and welcome to the program. i'm how the jim jones most of us haven't been able to travel in the past year because of border closures to contain the pandemic . but with increasing numbers of people receiving covered 900 vaccines,

some countries are ready to welcome back tourists. the european union has agreed to reopen the block to vaccinated travelers. but it's up to the 27 member states to make their own rules on who can enter and decide visitors need to spend time in quarantine. nations that depend on tourism such as portugal and greece have already ease some restrictions and spain is allowing all vaccinated travelers to enter from next month. yet it must be received from the 7th of june, tourists, from all countries that do not have an agreement on freedom of movement, including a country that is also very important for us to respect to the united states will be able to and to spain. that is, provided they have a certificate stating that they are fully vaccinated with a vaccine authorized by the european medicines agency or the world health organization. i mean, in other words, from the 7th of june, the all vaccinated people and their families will be invited to come to spain from regardless of the country of origin. going to been in 2020 was devastating for europe's economy with borders and businesses close spending more than have to cross

the block. while there's still debate over the timing of the reopening, there's little doubt on the effect it could have. italy is one of the countries fully adopting the planned e u. health pass. after suffering a record economic dropped last year. the recovery has been called an uncertain ascent from the abyss. france is also adopting that pass. but if you have to fully lift it's covered 1900 restrictions, the 1st wave of travelers will still have to keep the rules on indoor dining and even in curfews. but not all countries are as eager to start. reopening german leaders are hesitant to live restrictions after holiday makers caused a surgeon cobra 1900 cases last year. they've also imposed compulsory quarantine on travelers from the u. k. ah, all right, let's bring in our guess in london, sharon livingston, founder of the travel magazine dot net, an online travel website. inverse berg o rick brook and our political analyst professor at stanford university in berlin.

and also in london, richard wood, director of fleet street clinic and a specialist and travel medicine. a warm welcome to you all sharon, let me start with you today. by and large. from your perspective, do you believe that most you countries are well prepared to start welcoming tourists right now? they are preparing well rather than being well prepared. this has been a very known scenario and because there's so much uncertainty about what the vaccinations are good for. what the variance of the mutations, it's a constant challenge to keep on pointing out what the status quo is. and of course the vaccination roll now is so important. and the quicker that happens, the more prepared they will be to get tourists in. and that is happening at different stages around europe,

but it is beginning to happen when we are getting countries working very, very hard to get there as quickly as possible. so i think it will be another couple months yet, but we are getting their research when it comes to this new criteria about the you starting to relax, travel rules, how many countries were considered safe before and how our country is going to be determined safe going forward, i mean, do we know this at this point? not really. i mean, each country seems to be developing its own criteria that certainly the case from the u. k. banding countries into, you know, red, green, amber. but there's never going to be a truly perfect time to really in trouble. and i think now is as good a time as any for that process to begin. and it will be very carefully monitor. there's a very, you know, i think we are increasingly confident the vaccines do give robust

protection even against the various strains that people have been worrying about. and there are also very robust testing regimes, both pre departure and on return in various trees. and i think that this is something that is going to be monitor, that's very cautiously as time goes on, so that it can be fine tuned. if we feel, if it's found that problems are encountered, that so many people's livelihoods depend on travel and the people have so many reasons for needing and wanting to travel. i think, you know, we've got to reach a point where the things begin to open up. oh rick, are there other hurdles that are going to need to be cleared before these new rules that have been announced by the you are set to become formal policy? and if so, when do you expect that that's going to happen?

well, i think it's way too early to make a forecast to say this on that date in summer we have a perfect system rolling. i think we will just continue with trial and error la. i'm personally very happy that we have an agreement on our certificate, but to implement the certificate of into a functioning system requires so many steps. we need data, we need to software, we need to find a way to compare the different vaccines. there will be different pressures, politically, and countries that are massive t dependent on tourism and others still suffer from very bad numbers when it comes to infections. so the picture is so diverse and the interests are so complicated to moderate, that it's good to have a seek. no, yes, we have this green certificate, but i think the summer will not be long enough to find

a system that works smooth enough that everyone is happy with it. sharing your heard or we can talk about how complicated all of this is, how various countries have different interests and how all of this makes it a more complex picture. so let me ask you based on what your observing thus far, do you believe that it's possible that the tourism industry in the e you could potentially recover this summer? i think this summer is a bit to say i wouldn't call it for this summer. i know that some countries may find their tourism, increase it depending on of course, on their own restrictions and the restrictions to their country from other places. so none of that isn't staying yet. everything is still being modified as new data comes out. so i don't think it'll be in time for the summer. there will be spurts of tourism in some countries, but as a rule, no,

i don't think so. i think really to go back to any sort of proper normal. we'd be looking for 2022, richard. i want to talk about a different region right now when it comes to cobit 19. i want to talk for a 2nd about taiwan because i wanna reported 457 new domestic coban, 1900 cases on sunday. tiwana had no local cova transmissions for over 200 days. and it had been widely held up as an example of a country that was successfully containing the corona virus. in regard to this discussion, i mean we're talking today about the e u and loosening restrictions. things may be looking better across the u right now, but what's happening in taiwan and even in singapore, which was also held up as a model country and how they dealt with covered 19. and he doesn't really show how things could get out of hand very quickly. well, he does indeed the, the, the problem is the countries that has brought down the number of cases purely by

a lockdown strategy, leave themselves very vulnerable to things changing down the line. so essentially what they're doing is kicking the can down the road and, you know, i think this is very wiring. my mine looks at the parts as well that have had that of the so strategy without implementing a very robust vaccine program. because really, the only point of delaying delaying the opening up of borders under return to normal is if you use that time very productively to boost the level of immunity in the population so that cases cannot spread. once the, once the re reintroduced, there is no way that we are going to end up with a 0 cove. it outcome in this, in this world we are never going to get to a point where there is so much immunity through natural

infection or by vaccination. i think we've just got to use the time to to prepare ourselves for things to ultimately returned to some kind of normalcy. so we do need that seem programs to be wrapped up and in every country and, and to be deployed and be prepared for what may happen or want to go back to the point you were making before about how complicated all of this looks. you know, the use aiming to take a coordinated approach to travel and tourism, but individual member states are still going to be allowed to set their own requirements for travelers from individual countries based on their own epidemiological criteria. how much does that complicate all of those? well, it certainly complicates more, but i think it's also the wrong perspective to only look at it from

a medical point of view last year that top priority was, can we save lives and that's legitimized every possible step of lock downs or whatever freedom restrictions. now we are at the point where the rolled out of that explanation show success. and we should also think of what the alternative call that go beyond the pure health orient ones. and the countries are massively dependent on tourism as the source of income. and if we have a much more individualist culture in european countries compact with single or, or some other countries in asia, and it's extremely complicated to just say, well, look at senior for, and implement what they have done and then we are off. this is not how it works. i think if we wouldn't come up with an integrated solution in europe, people would simply not listen anymore and don't obey to the was any more and the situation will be much worse. sharon,

you were talking before about when the tourism industry across the you may recover . i want to now for a moment, look at the state where it's at right now. i mean, how devastating has the pandemic been to the tourism industry and you nations and you know, how much will loosening restrictions help the industry to recover the travel industry is non non existent right now. people haven't been able to travel for you for a year. there would have been restrictions on him and many of the countries in the you have been on the look them in terms of their own tourism financial gains. there hasn't been any, when tourist own come, there are loads and loads of businesses that will collapse, including tour operators, 2 companies. it's been devastating them. we've seen that cruise is cannot cruise.

we cannot fly. countries are not letting people in from other countries. it's been just awful. i mean billions of pounds has been lost. millions of dollars has been lost because of this in the travel industry in terms of will actual travels come back travelers. will they do it? i think from around research, we found that people are hesitant. they're looking to see what will happen in the long term. because so much uncertainty has happened. been here in the u. k. we've had to look them. and sometimes they were very last minute. some people got banned and abroad while they were on holiday and it was chaos. so we don't want to have to suffer anything like that. again, i'm, it could happen. i know we don't want to not look down. no country want to know the look down. it's just devastating for business and the streets that are usually filled with colorful tourism artist empty even portico now, which has have

a spurt of tourism, especially from their favorite, where i would say favorite, but that the most prolific travelers from the u. k. even though that has been quick of mark travelers, it's still quiet. so in terms of rebuilding tourism, i think it's going to take a long time and some people are going to have to have nerves of steel to continue. richard with the new variance that are out there just how risky a proposal does this become? well, i think there's a losses emerging data to support the idea that the vaccines are effective against the variance. so i think this is something that needs to be watched carefully. you know, again, be surveillance on people returning from trip suddenly in the u. k. and i know in many other countries the testing regimen on returning travelers and u. k. the 2nd, returning home,

up there is mandatory testing for all returning travelers. other than those from the those with us, the green corridor will be a very small number in that category. but for everybody else on the 2nd day, full return home, there is not only a pcr test but also gene m sequencing for any positive results. so there's very robust monitoring for variance. and i think on that basis that will allow some of the concerns that people have because if it suddenly turns out that there is an uptick in the number of variants, it would be very easy to implement the controls. so i think that they're all good systems in place to allow some recovery and returns to normal. i totally agree that it will take some time. that would be anything like i

usual picture of what travel is like, but it's got to begin to return, you know, the cost of not doing it. if it is a huge economic costs, have ripple through every other area of our lives. you know, whether it's mental health, economic health and indeed the, the physical health of the people are prevented from doing all the things that protect and improve the health you know, the process of being locked down and resent. no. the, the all very important considerations that need to be balance and i don't think, you know, i think that there is really good surveillance now in place to enable a cautious return for the travel industry. oh rick, is it it all clear yet how the vaccination status of a visitor is going to be determined? i mean, will, will europeans have digital certificates?

and what about non european travelers? do we know what kind of certification that they are going to need? well, 1st of all, even our country like germany that faces a massive digitalization boosts during the week. we still use most of the people a paper certificate where you blew in a sticker, which is of course far from being proof for whatever abuse of it, or if people can fake it. and that is not something that would match the standards of the 21st century, but there also are a number of other technical obstacles that have to be removed. otherwise people will be prostrated in this part of how the european union managed it. given the criticism that you faced on the roll out of the nation, when we think of people who are not citizens and who are not part of this,

this makes it even harder to find a common denominator. and when we look beyond the nation states in germany, it's up to each and every region to decide what you do with the different certificates given the different situation in bavaria compared for the north of germany. that is the tourism sector, which sees very lower numbers. but on earth much more health oriented compared with . ready the ones in the south, so it will remain a mish mash on different standards, different criteria, and it certainly won't make things easier. sharon, do you think that we're going to see an attempt to standardize you vaccination certificates with non you countries? i do hope so. we finally finally had agreement just the other day about having a digital car for vaccination pulse for the e broke. and i believe the, even though britain after breakfast, it has become a sad country. we're going to be included in that as well,

which is great news that will alleviate a lot of hassle for people, because right now we're using just in a chest out. and although that does work, we do need something across europe. if it can be expanded, and the good thing about systems that work is, are all the people of the country look at them think, well actually we could have that too. so i think it may happen that way. i'm really hard. so because the more standardized we become, the easier be to trouble move right now. if anyone who wants to go on holiday thinking, gosh, what do i need in this country will let me in my countries saying, i can go there and come back without quarantine. however, i will have to take pre p c r test, and that's quite expensive. so sometimes the pcr test cost more than the actual holiday, especially if it's a short holiday. so the has to be, is one of the standardization of the passport digitally. we also need to bring down

the costs of the testing, so the people can go many been vaccinated. people can go, but they need the test. so nobody can get away without having the tests and it is expensive. richard, the you hopes to deliver enough vaccine doses to have 70 percent of the you adult population vaccinated by july. is that target actually achievable, especially considering how initially it was a very sluggish rollout? well, i think the focus has to be on the individual's her greatest risk in it. certainly in the u. k, it's been of age stratified, rather focusing on the people who are almost vulnerable as protecting. and i think the uptake of vaccine does very suddenly seems to vary from one country to another. so i think there's a lot of work to be done to overcome any hesitancy,

reluctance on, on the part of people to, to be vaccinated. the moment the limiting factor is the supply of bucks seen. but presumably at some point we'll get to the stage where there is enough vaccine, but there's not enough uptake path. encouraging people to be vaccinated for travel may be a good way of incentivizing people to you know, to make the most of the vaccination. i think the other thing is that once there are once that scene is freely and readily available to people, it could be that we moved to a situation such as already exist. some countries where proof of vaccination, that testing is acceptable. mrs. certainly, you know, the case of the thumb trips to, to, to some countries. so i'd like to see that coming in as

a think until vaccine is freely available. it will be more testing based. but ultimately, i think people who can prove that they've had that they've been properly vaccinated ought to be allowed to travel more freely. orac. i just want to shift gears for a moment to look at the bigger picture of this. i mean, the fact that it's going to be easier ultimately for vaccinated people to travel internationally. this is really going to deepen the divide between the majority of countries that still have extremely limited access to the vaccine. and to the much fewer wealthier nations that do, isn't it? i mean, this is really going to highlight the equity at play when it comes to access to the ac seen. right. exactly. and it also shows a fundamental difference between the united. 2 kingdom and the united states that both insisted on not sharing any of the vaccine that was produced within their countries and the european union that exported as much as they used for their own

citizens. because everyone in the european union knew that if we don't share and if we don't express forms of garrity in both fire back because we will import mutations that are bad for mankind. and not only for people who can't afford to build up production site, or to use generics or whatever. so it is not only a moral obligation, it's in everyone's best interest to build up more production and to share in a global strategy. and not only my country 1st sharon, we don't have a whole lot of time left to let me ask you. the you also said it was gonna grant cobra 19. corona virus safety seals to tourism. business is compliant with health and safety requirements from your vantage point. how much does that help and do you think that these businesses are going to try to get those certificates and be in

compliance? i think they will because they are very incentivized to do that because the safer other people feel to work with them, the more business so able to upright. so it makes total sense that everybody can show that they all cove id, say it. if one person is safe, that's not enough. you need everyone to feel safe, to be able to go to wherever they want to go. and if you want him bite people to work with you or do business with you, you have to show that to it makes total sense. all right, well, we have run out of time, so we're going to have to leave the conversation there. thanks so much. all of our guest, sharon livingston, or rick bruckner and richard wood. and thank you to for watching. you can see this and all of our previous programs again, anytime by visiting our website 0 dot com and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our

handle is at a j inside story. for me, my name is jim jim and the whole team here. bye. for now. the i talked to al jazeera, we were attacking ringer, and now they're attacking everyone in me. and my do you regret was like, gosh, we listen. absolutely. nigeria with a woman present, it would be great. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera, on kindly because china is in terms of millions of wiggle,

has less than company scrambling. 11, supply chains off the huge job losses while, well, the tourism industry recover flop out robot could transform that. there was a trade counting become hold al jazeera, getting close to the people, most affected by those in power is often dangerous, but it's absolutely vital to stories. if you tell lots of society in this area, we pushed as far forward as we can to the front line. now the smell of death is overpowering. a lot of the stories that we cover highly complex, so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can to as many people as possible no matter how much they know about a given crisis or issue. as always, is there a correspondence? that's what we strive to do. warring drug cartels on vigilance groups in a population call in the middle. what's your reason for being mature? why do you want this territory? i'm reporting from an epicenter of mexico's violence to investigate. can an

upcoming election change? anything for people living here. so we're getting to join me john holeman for the full report on out. i don't know, madison, and don't tell stories on algae 0. e leaders are calling for sanctions and bellows softer. what they say was the hijacking of a commercial airliner, the accused bella russo faking a bomb threats in order to force the plane to land, entertain and opposition journalist for brandon has more on the international reaction. the situation is really developing into a full blown international diplomatic incident. now, the timing, of course, on the eve of european council summit in brussels when the heads of.