on the white 9 and the bookmaking africa direct on al jazeera, a lot of the stories that we cover heidi complex, so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can as al jazeera correspondence. that's what we strive to do noon . this is al jazeera ah hello there, i'm the thought, hey, this is the news. our line from our headquarters here and her coming up in the next 60 minutes. japan becomes the latest country to ban foreign visitors and response to the new cove at 19 variance. it's more very, very mold symptoms. while the doctor who fast detected the army con variance has patients have suffered only mile symptoms so far. after more than a year of protests,

india is parliament has voted to officially scrap controversial farming. on the corruption trial, a former georgian president, miguel suckers really resumes he faces impossible. 6 here jail time if found guilty . i'm doing the guys raska with the sports defending champion novick joke of it is unlikely to play it. your strategy and open, according to his dad, is described the organizes coven vaccine mandate as black quail with while japan is banning foreigners from entering the country in an attempt to control the spread of the new army con variant prime minister from you because she says it will take effect on tuesday and all the measures are also being considered . you know, i'm going to going schemas to we are responding to the army con variance with a strong sense of urgency. in my country, we suspended the entry of foreigners from south africa. and the 9 other countries from yesterday at midnight, as the new variance spreads further around the world,

we're considering additional measures to strengthen. border control measures, island nouns, when necessary. while the south african president has demanded an immediate enter, the travel bands that he's describing is unjustified and discriminatory against his country and its neighbors. but, well, house organization has warned the army con variance is likely to spread globally and poses a very high risk and such in countries to speed up the vaccination roll out. more than 10 countries have now confirmed cases of the new variant and g 7. health ministers are due to hold talks later on monday. well, let's bring in jerome how he's following developments for us from london. joe. and i see that there are more cases emerging in europe and the u. k. and not all of these are actually direct ceiling to travel from southern africa. no, that's right. and that would point to the idea of community transmission that is apparently ongoing at the moment. and that in turn points to the limits of what

sort of selective travel bands on selected countries are able to achieve. so, you know, yes, the numbers are going up. we've seen this before, of course that isn't going to stop 6 new cases in scotland. 3 confirmed cases here in the u. k. confirmed cases in countries across europe, france 13 in the netherlands, denmark, the czech republic, germany, and so the list goes on and as i said, that list will continue to expand. important to note, however, that at this moment touch wood, there are not yet any cases of severe disease or death as a result of the micron variant. that isn't a cause stopping countries responding and responding very quickly to it. more restrictions do in france, further restrictions coming into the u. k. as of monday to add to those travel bands, a much strict testing regime of people returning from all countries mosque wearing returning in some settings. the booster program being expanded to include,

or at least to make eligible over a teens and so on as everybody everywhere at this moment holds their breath, waiting for a while, perhaps the next 2 weeks or so for the scientists to carry on data collecting evidence, collecting and at some point in the next couple of weeks, tell us just how the biggest threat on the chrome really is. well, whatever, on holding their breath, g 7, ministers, i believe are set to meet this afternoon. what's on the cards there? g 7, health ministers, a meeting at the behest of the u. k. presidency. you'd expect this sort of thing to happen with a global response of this nature. they'll be sharing information, coordinating their responses and so on. you know, above all else they will have ringing in there is once again, the calls of people not least the south african presidents are ram, oppose or in the last 12 hours or so for the rich global north to continue to do more to do much more in terms of sharing vaccine doses in terms of sharing

technology so that the global south, the developing world, can stop producing vaccines for themselves. there is an enormous gap in distribution of vaccines. it allows the pandemic to continue to thrive in the developing world for the virus to continue to run free and for the conditions to exist for variance like mic onto emerge as we've seen. so one expect, frankly hope of the d 7 will be heating those goals at least discussing them. gentle that across those development portion london, thanks so much china. well, a south african doctor who raised the alarm about that new variance has her patients have actually shown many mild symptoms so far from me. the miller reports now from johanna, back to angelica sia is the south african doctor who 1st to take the new symptoms in patients who had contracted cove at 19 while she says the symptoms are peculiar cases so far have been mild. so what is interesting is that, that the clinical symptoms or not the same, that with delta,

extreme tightness and fatigue, and the young people that was how we 1st detected with a bit of her body i, campaign, and headache. very, very similar to what you will know was she was any vital infection. so the africa has to take to just over 50 cases of the new variant and enabling, but swan or 900 people have been infected. they've also been cases in belgium, israel and other countries. scientists say it may take up to 2 weeks to better understand the variance to determine how easily it spreads and how well vaccines work to protect people. because these more than 30 mutations, that might, it might escape the immune system, or it might escape the vaccines. what we have seen so far is people that has been vaccinated species were far as it around we had the last short in august this year did contact the virus and it's mild, very, very much symptoms. they are no known admissions to hospitals,

heal if people have contract that the new variant. what is your view then on the global reaction to this very and being detected in south africa, extremely premature. and you know, it is as if they went into a frenzy and each and every one out there on biking, a great a high about this. and the question is, you know what, why we have, we have won't that we are going to see a full or a wife. we have to say they will come at variance. we did say that the variance will mostly come from unvaccinated ivy paid people who's not controlled on the medication or never been to taking any medication. that's not, that's something that's new. well, scientists say the variance is behind a sharp rise of cases in the halting province. how the spread of the disease is managed should be carefully considered. an increasing number of experts say the law

downs and travel bands don't work and that instead damaging economies and causing unnecessary panic, then says the focus should be on ensuring everyone in the world has access to vaccines. south africa, india and other countries have been for months, quoting for payton waivers, to allow for vaccines to be manufactured around the world. so far, just 70 percent of africans have received a job with very low vaccine access, with the inability to be able to fully make our own vaccines and to be able to get out of this. been driving fast enough in a timely manner with the vaccine about it. witnessing and the stigmatization of certain countries in africa related to the variant. this is not a good look for the global not what we need is cooperation. what we need is global solidarity. and what we're getting in return is actually of a punitive approach to how we can actually will manage the spending 2 weeks from now. when we might see a different picture, we might see

a total different clinical picture from, from us what we experienced currently. but, but for now, we can't even cite, escaped the vaccine efficacy. we can say that while travel bands often used by time to better understand new variance and the spread of the coven, 1900 virus. some scientists in south africa, a calling it's a futile exercise. for me to mila al jazeera johannesburg. well that's bringing mark van runs. he is a professor virology at the university of live and he joins us now from brussels. professor, as we've been hearing that from jonah initially in london, there are already a sense of the secondary infections taking place community spread. so all the travel bands now being rolled out actually going to make a difference. i think there's a knee jerk reaction. and i understand them in the 1st couple of days, people want more information, the information is not there and they react this way. however, they should be really short list. this unfair south africa has

a suburban thrust orchard to detect the severance the viral just there to the the era he worked in or institute. he's a good friend. he's an expert in these things. and of course, if you look for them, then you will find them and i day, i don't think these countries should be punished for that. well, so far the suggestion from south africa as we've been hearing, is that the infection is mild, but the w h. i was saying it's still very high risk. are they just being cautious? i think in this case you should be cautious and also the young, the experiments of south africa and many of european countries is vastly different . in south africa, you would think that most of the infections are in relatively young people, whereas we haven't seen the jump from the young people to the, to the elderly in south africa. yes, probably on i think we all want to see what this fires does a bomb in a more older population or population more elderly in

a typical european country. so, i mean, rather the w h i was saying country is everywhere. need to ramp up their vaccine rollouts, but given the number of mutations in this varying especially around the notorious spike protein of the car. and vaccines actually likely to why it's very hard to predict. they might look, or they might, oh, what we need to have right now is the virus in so culture. and then just look at the antibodies that were generated by the different vaccines. now look, if they neutralize the virus, if they do, then it looks good. if they don't it, it might look more bleak. now directing companies that produce the messenger name vaccines there. so it is $100.00 days and, and will house of vaccine for these various ok. it's day for where his well infomedia report there. she also mentioned people living with h i v, and there's obviously been a huge debate around vaccine rollouts and equality. we've known for some time now

that more mutations do take place and immunocompromised people, right. so should they actually have then been prioritized to vaccinations? they should, we know people who have immune problems there, of course, a bonanza sort of virus. those can experiment much more in the so in these people and them issues if at all possible they should have been mad, it should have been vaccinated. so if people or if countries installed to hold them all at so fine for a very short period of time. um, but then that should sense. planes with vaccines. all you mentioned the length of these travel bands there. i'm, i'm curious. do you think that they're premature or that they should perhaps stay in place for longer? you said, you know, where on day 4 here, a lot of countries now considering travel bands of 14 days is that going to be enough time to work out what's what? well, there are a couple of things that we know that we will know in a couple of weeks. and so in a couple of weeks we'll,

we'll know more about ross trans. miss ability, we'll know more about the clinical picture, although it to be still limited. and we'll know about the, the vaccine protectiveness against it's very and so there are a lot of things that we will know in the short term are lots and lots of questions felt to be on said, mark van rance, their professor were ology at the university of louvin, thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us on out there. a professor. thank you. i mean, while schools in uganda are to reopen in january and nearly 2 years after they closed because of this pandemic. but still the u. n. is wanting that many students and teachers may not actually want to return to class. catherine so explains why timothy cyril go is a high school student, but he has not been in class for much of the last year and a half. uganda closed it's lonny institutions in march 2020, because of covet 19. some classes were reopened earlier this year,

but only for 3 mans, said go is now landing to fix computers. so he can start a business. he says he'll go to school in january, but many of his friends may not. and some friends of mine really, really big good, some work to do some ones that are in your dean somewhere. and they, i, me, mechanic, in very cause and some of my friends, the daily the in do things. and we are there, we're up there like with e, g, government officials, talis, they're working with teachers and other partners to make sure that at least the basic facilities are in place before january, but these little time left and not enough money to prepare and sweating safety and they were being ordered to tires and the land as we need them to be alive. we're talking about the opening but to we have no t taken it into other factors from 40 since we are looking at now. what is,

what is it that has been prepared at school level? the infrastructure level. in some neighborhoods, volunteers try to keep children busy. uganda has had one of the longest school closures in the world, and it's the only nation in africa. less students are still at home, but this is a classroom of a privately own school in the city. other schools have been converted to business and leaving spaces for rent. many schools are in a bad state, and some teachers tell us that they may not be able to provide a safe environment for students to come back. some aid work i see you can, that is facing a learning crisis that could take many years to fix. many children have been out of school for 2 years. they are lost interest. they are engaged in some of the army that debit is like child labor. some of them have suffers her cycle, psychos rosella effects, some of them having abuse,

getting all that character to come to school, getting the schools ready to accept the children and help them learn, getting the teas us back and getting the system ready for all of it. is a big challenge. some students have been starting online or with private tutors, but many like say rugle can't afford that. and once school starts, it may take a long time for them to catch up catching, sorry, al jazeera kampala are there so plenty more. i had few this news on including supporters of left us opposition, canada tomorrow. castro celebrates and honduras family victory, and the country is presidential election. i'm the rules are due in new york. we're british socially delayed. maxwell will face a jury for the 1st time in a trial, it's sure to be filled with drama, and steph carrier, if it's on the so for the golden state warriors and the n v a. that action coming up with jo.

ah, now representatives from russia, china, germany, france, and the u. k. i said to hold talks with iranian officials in vienna. it's in the hope of salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal and comes days after the you and watch drug release to report these. ellen concerns about a lack of access to surveillance footage from iran's nuclear sites. terrans, new government is warning that the talks will fail unless all sanction lifted or you recall iran signed at that nuclear agreement back in 2015. it was designed to limit terrans nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief. but then in may 2018 then president donald trump withdrew the u. s. and began li, imposing sanctions. in november last year, the i a, a reported around stock pile of enriched uranium had reached 12 times the miss levels. and the organization says terran has limited access to its nuclear sites

since february, and let's be to dos a jabari. she is in vienna for us covering these talks. and also i believe we're expecting some level of indirect talk. so expectations, presumably really rather low. well, what usually takes place here in vienna, these talks, this is of course, the 7th time the iranians are coming here since january. they mechanism was triggered from the j. c, p. o, a, because the europeans felt that the news, we're not abiding by the agreements, they have been holding these talk to the deputy foreign minister level as the radians are here, with the new representatives from the new government into her on or here they've been here since saturday, and it's one of the largest delegations of iranians that have come there's 38 members with the deputy foreign minister at the ball, very ok on saturday. they house meetings with the chinese and the russians on sunday. and they're due to meet with the europeans in the next few hours in the

hotel right behind me. they are saying that they've come here with this large delegation, most of which are from an economic background from the rain and government. they are very serious and that is what the large validation is going to show to the europeans. they have conditions that they come with. they have 5 conditions, mainly that the americans have to pay damages for leaving that nuclear deal. they have to pay iranians damages for the period that iran has been able to sell us oil to the international community. and the americans are here at a different hotel. and what happens at these talks is the europeans go back and forth between the 2 sides. since iran does not have direct relations with the united states, this is why these talks usually take a very long time because the europeans have to shuffle back and forth. of course, this was not the case when the nuclear deal was signed in 2015, but that ultimately to have direct talks between the 2 sides is up to iran, highest authorities. and that is not going to be the case. this time around,

the reading delegation will meet the pm's in the coming hours and they will present the list of demands that they have for the americans. and it will be up to the americans to decide whether not it will accept any of them. and we've heard so far here that so many analysts believe that the americans will say this is a very big ask from the iranian, so it does not look very, very positive. it was moving forward or those in the meantime, we've seen tear on ramp up violations. of the old 2015 agreement. can you remind us how we got here? certainly what happened was, as since a former u. s. president donald trump left a deal. their indians waited a year and then there were serious sanctions imposed on iran. they weren't able to sell their oil and also their banking system was put on us sanctions. so they couldn't receive any money from the international community. the iranians said that with each 2 months, they were going to reduce their commitment to the j. c. p. o, a as that nuclear deal is known. and then in it exactly almost

a year ago from today as the one of the highest iranian nuclear sciences was assassinated. just outside of, to hon. moss and factors are there. and after that, what happened was the very conservative hardliners in iran decided that they were no longer going to abide by the additional protocol of the nonproliferation treaty and they're reduced. there are access and come in, they are work with the i e. and that is how we ended up here, and that is something the i e, a director general who was just inter on last week said is proving to be very difficult because they are very much getting to the point where we're don't, they don't know where iran's nuclear program is heading and that will certainly have an impact on these talks here. indeed and trust it also jabari, they're following those talks. forest, indiana, thanks so much daughter. ah no one on juris the left wing canada shimmer castro has claimed victory in sunday's

presidential election. castro says that voters have reversed authoritarianism, has supported took to the streets of tegucigalpa to celebrate historic when the governing national party also announced though that it's candidate had one man, your apollo has moved from the capital. it's a bit of jovial environment. people very much happy celebrated and were val. we've already heard from us your motto, counselor herself, who came out and spoke to her supporters stopping short of declaring victory would say that today, the people of honduras have one and promise. i've got a minute reconciliation saying that it's early as tomorrow she wants to meet with the under other candidate to form a government of reconciliation. a government that truly serves all of the people of honduras. this election really does have the potential to be a pivotal one, not only because the of the potential for the scenario where we could see a 1st woman president of honduras, but because of

a backdrop under which these general elections are taking place. one of the most, one of the worst migrant crisis in the history of the country, a poverty rate that's reaching historic levels, it currently sits at somewhere around 75 percent. and regardless of your political background here in honduras, many people are simply happy to see the exit of the controversial president. one, orlando, at amanda, is a president whose administration has been marred by allegations of corruption misuse of public funds and ties to norco, trafficking, to, to drug trafficking, to the united states. his own brother, a former member of congress, now serving a life sentence in the united states for drug trafficking. so many people in this country are hungry for change. now, moving on and india's parliament has just repealed agricultural laws that spoke a year of protests fondness from across the country. demonstrated against the 3 laws that they said would ruin their incomes and favorite big corporations. the reforms were passed through the parliament that without the discussion that

opposition parties had asked for. and that's feet elizabeth parent, an india correspondence. she joins me now from new delhi. and so it seems that these protests, the biggest in india and decades find me, achieve their goal. what happened then in parliament? hello, mr. garcia, that's ry both houses of the indian parliament have passed. the farm was repeal burle, as cold as expected. on the 1st day of parliament's winter session, now the repeal of the laws, which farmers had been protesting against 3 agriculture lords for more than a year now. and what have been some of the biggest protests in modern india's history, that follows a surprise decision by problems to that in more than 10 days ago that the government would withdraw. these laws bought me the farmers, nor the opposition. happy about exactly how it happened. now the laws will repealed

through a very quick voice forward without the discussion that prime minister in the day under moody promised when he opened the winter session of parliament to add which the opposition parties wanted. now to be clear, opposition party support the repeal of these agriculture laws. they support farmers, but they wanted to debate exactly what was in the bill and also no doubt the governor future. but the speaker of the lower house, which a person of the upper house ended both meetings just minutes after they began just after the bills were passed, saying that the opposition was being too unruly. also lives is that lack of discussion. then the reason why farmers are continuing to protest it certainly why our position parties are continuing to protest, but fondness have a whole now the set of demand. now the repeal of the laws was their main demand, but they want all the guarantees including amended them at price for they produce,

which they say will help indian fall. remember 60 percent of the country's population relies on the agriculture effects, but they're asking for some other things that are very important to them. the dropping of charges against farmers who been protesting over the past year compensation for the families of $700.00 farm. those who died in the protests and importantly, they want and d as junior whole minister fact. and that's because one of his sons is accused of running over and killing, protesting farmers last month. now it is widely believed that in the day the movie decided to repeal these laws because of important state elections coming up in punjab. but also more importantly, in author page and just a few months, it's one of the biggest states and it's where he has bought a c h and the party have been losing support because of the laws. so that will be really interesting to see where these protests, what more of these protests can achieve,

and how much more the government is willing to concede, to hold on to power. and in the largest state, elizabeth thrown him there with all the laces for us from new delhi. thanks so much on our british searchlight glen maxwell is set to go on trial in new york in the coming hours. she's accused of enabling the crimes of sex offender jeffrey epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial. maxwell insist that she's innocent and claims that she too was a victim. gabriel is under as following the story from new york create a. how much did elaine maxwell know about geoffrey epstein alleged sexual abuse of under age girls? that will be the central question in the trial of the 59 year old british socialite, facing charges of sex trafficking and other crimes. and he is going to be the invisible presence hanging over this. and that is why i think that she is going to have to explain something that everybody really wants to know

. what was his holder, her? what was that relationship? a big unknown on the trial is how far the judge will allow the prosecutors to probe . and epstein and maxwell's high profile social circles that included many household names from politics, industry, and entertainment. one being britain's prince andrew to keep his accuser. virginia roberts, who says she was trafficked by maxwell to the prince per sex. when she was a teenager is likely not going to be called as a witness. he denies any wrong doing, but prosecutors are expected to call at least 4 other women. all epstein accusers who are going to tell the jury, maxwell groom them for sex with epstein, one when she was as young as 14 years old. it's a trial with all the trappings of a salacious, drama, sex power, money, and fame. but victims rights advocates hope that the jury does not get distracted

by that and instead keeps their focus on the women who say they were abused by epstein. and that it could have only happened with the help of maxwell. this is an example of one of the most horrific and long enduring patterns of sex trafficking and child exploitation. there are so many victims and what's particularly disturbing about the case is how open they operated. and how many people knew, and how many people they involved in this expectation scheme, maxwell has pleaded not guilty and denies all the charges. her legal team will try to cast doubt on the allegations and the testimony based on evidence that happened more than 20 years ago. the trial is expected the last 6 weeks if convicted maxwell faces up to 80 years in prison. gabriel's hondo al jazeera new york, all still a heavier on al jazeera why francis declared it won't be held hostage by british

politics on migration. after a crisis meeting that excluded the u. k. is more on the tribute to virtual abalone, the acclaimed men's where designed for louis retoma and founder of wise who's passed away aged 41 and the green bay packers continue their fine form. jo, be here with action as on the nfl. ah, how i was studying dryer and brighter across so spain and portugal over the next couple days. that's the good news elsewhere. it's looking pretty cool. wet when the am wintry for much of europe. we got a nasty area of low pressure now beating some very heavy showers over towards italy . the balkans tools grease very strong windsor.