now a former us missionary has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, sexually abusing young girls in east timor, 84 year old dad, abused them at his shelter for orphans and impoverished children. he was the frog by the catholic church in 2018 years. christian group whose missionaries were held hostage for monks in haiti, says that they were not released. they escaped the groups as the 12 hostages travel through the forest. after having pass guards on december, the 15th, the gang kidnapped the group, mid october, were demanding a $1000000.00 for each person. ah, just bear with me. so he'll rob the reminder of our top stories, the restrictions on gatherings and businesses in south korea following arise encoded 19 infections. health work as a warning of a major crisis is, hospitals are stretched with new reco, daily infections and serious cases. the head of the world health organization is

calling for limits to gatherings during the holiday period. dotted her draw said that the evidence, the only constraint is more transmissible and can evade vaccines. but he's insisted, it's still too early to say if it's milder than the delta variant. and there are warnings of looting if a does not come to storm affected part of the philippines, tens of thousands of without food, water and electricity, since typhoon rise landfall on saturday. 375 people died and at least 56 are still missing in malaysia rescues or evacuating people from the worst flooded region of the country. 14 people have died. the government has been criticized every slow rescue reference due to a lack of boats and manpower. the head of the high national elections commission in libya says that he's dissolving the electoral committees and ending their work. when the trainer is following the latest developments from tripoli,

the 1st round presidential lunch or presidential elections. we're scheduled on this friday, but for the last couple of weeks, we've been seeing a lot of tension on the ground political tension. also tension within the security apparatus is within the country. there was a definite sign that these elections were going to be postponed. what yet, the national electoral commission, or the parliament or really any senior government official, wanted to come out and say that these elections weren't going to happen. turkeys, leora shown some recovery of the back of measures by the government at ease the currency crisis preserved regis type around announced a series of steps including a promise to compensate savers for losses incurred. he says, exporters will also be protected. those were the headlines. more news in half law next, it's inside story with hash um alba to stay with us. ah,

how can only crawl be stopped from spreading the very end of the covey 19th virus is infecting millions worldwide. many countries are imposing emergency restrictions, summer even returning to locked down. is it enough? this is insights, laurie ah, hello, welcome to the program. i'm hash and i had bought the global search in cove 19 cases linked to the army cranberry and is forcing some nations to re impose strict

locked down measures. days before the holiday season begins, the netherlands was the 1st european country to impose a nationwide locked down on sunday. others are falling, sue to try to slow the spread of micron france austria cypress, and germany have tightened travel restrictions, some even cancelling christmas and new year's celebrations. and ireland is among countries imposing curfews and limiting the number of people allowed in bars and ross drones. yeah, the toefl and bacon. i'm a bit surprised by the new lockdown over actually how quickly has come again. we had some idea that we had it under control. after all, that we have had done everything we could. we are fully vac says you actually do everything you can to support society and in the end it all goes in the wrong direction. yeah, sure, thank you. they can, you know, we often say that the government intervenes too late or we have measures. and now i

think that with the emergence of the new variant, they simply intervene really hard. that once i hope that will be able to tackle it and that in a months time will be out of it. especially when that booster campaign gets going. but you sometimes missed the long term visions and that is frustrating. we can no longer plan ahead and i think that's annoying. so neat social work. i didn't expect the log down to happen so fast. i personally expected that if the numbers start to increase with that very and that they could be strict to lockdown, but not so soon. but i know that cass top have had no rest either. so i understand we are just realizing what is happening now in the hague trying to assimilate these the situation. so we don't want to stay up home, but we're just having fresh air. the nice weather is dry and it'll be winds about. yeah, we're going to let there, we just follow the rules from the, from the,

the look down. but while some countries are toughing up action against the new servers, others have just begun loosening up after months of restrictions. the united kingdom has not ruled out new measures, and officials are warning that the full effects of the latest wave i yet to be seen australia, which has seen some of the toughest preemptive action, reopened its border in november and his easing restrictions all while because of new affections hit new highs, and in the us top, scientists are urging people to rethink that christmas travel plans and warning about all microns, extraordinary capability to spread. ah, let's bring in our gas from london oksana, pisec leader of the global citizenship program on ours breaks of infectious diseases at university college, london from amsterdam. yup. if he is journalists specializing in medical science

and in hong kong, john nichols is clinical, profess, same pathology or the university of hong kong. thank you for joining the program. oksana from the data available so far. is it fair to say that the world may be bracing for a search of infections similar to what happened in april 2020? well certainly will see that vaccinations are going to mute some of the symptoms, but boosters are very clearly needed and in the u. k. there is a target of trying to achieve 1000000 boosters a day, which is very ambitious indeed, but it won't be enough to quell the army conway that is rising faster than any other barrier that we have seen today. so it's likely that in many countries with a similar demographic to the u. k, will experience a similar rate of spread amongst its most vulnerable populations as well as in the

m. yup. the countries that have started going back into lock downs or re imposing tougher restrictions all these measures justified or there's a great deal of anxiety here. well, there is some discussion because actually our recent wave is actually still going down. but within that way, there's only one way of coming up and our hospitals are still kind of over flooded a lot of people actually even a getting oxygen at home. because we don't have space in the netherlands in the hospitals and not of regular care, a scale down. so we don't have time to wait. and we don't have time to figure out what happens with on mcgraw. whether it's more or less a severe as the other variance we had, so sort of it's, it's necessary now to it was necessary to take this step. john, many scientists are saying it's just

a matter of time before on the chrome becomes the most dominant variant with cove 19 taken over delta. but is it why town to start thinking about measures when we don't know yet whether this is less or more severe than delta? this is a thanks the session. this is a very challenging question because people are, does the data from south africa? says well, yes, it's very transmissible, but it's a mild disease, but more recent data, i think for the ox, and we'll have more information from you guys saying, well let's hang on a bit. i saw the early stages, we need to wait for about 2 to 3 weeks to see will there be this massive increase in the hospitalization? because even though it, some people think it may be less dangerous to the patients. the sheer number of patients will just do what's happening in netherlands is that you do not want to

have the overwhelming of the health care system. so any measures which you can date it due to dampen down. the people being admitted a bit through a social distance, seeing all or restriction measures or, or through the vaccination, is what is needed to stop the of one of the health care system. here again, hospitals and the increased mortality asada. why is it that the u. k. which is the hardest hit in the region with almost $93000.00 daily cases. not taking the same toughest approach than the other european countries are taking . well, there's only a difficult political choice. in this instance, the scientific advisors and stage are saying that, you know, we could be looking at $3000.00 and hospitalizations a day in coming weeks if we don't roll out a more intensive plan than the current plan b and are suggesting more restrictions like circuit breakers but tory mts have

rebelled even against very miles measures that have been recently re introduced. so again, it comes down more to political question and yes, the imperial study that has been published has also verify that at this stage we cannot say that in the u. k. armor chrome is going to be milder and south africa, there's the younger population. there's also a huge amount of exposure to a previous marion such as delta. so the picture looks different there, but it's not just to make that assumption now. and if we go, based on what hospitalizations are today, knowing that there's such a significant lag effect, we're going to be in big trouble. the british medical association has already said that by a christmas day, we could have one in 10 health, any chess workers off sick as a result. so it's not just about the number of hospitalization. we also have your staff to care for people with essential medicine and urgent care. you know,

since the thought of the coven, 19, or to break countries, took 2 different approaches, a drastic one, we have the look does. and all those tough measures, other one for something like a smart approach, where you have the contact races and so on and so forth, would be able to contain the search, the netherlands, when the opted for the option of a return to the look is because they wanted to give some leeway for the medics to be able to start with the booster before they decide how to move forward. yeah, there was, there was an issue with the booster campaign started way too late. we are one of the last in europe that has started so so only 846 percent of the population as received the booster. well, in most other countries in europe it's like 25 until even 35 percent so so we need time to, to catch up and conduct racing has never been well performing well in the

netherlands. we lost track in march. busy early in march, we tried to wrap it up in summer, but the last it's, it's a dimmer so it's, it's never helped us a lot. we, our municipal help service does work. do do conduct racing but not in a way to sort of push down the curve just to inform people about to get them to, to isolate. but it hasn't helped us a lot. john, people seem to be a little bit baffled by the fact that the kept the politicians need to get their act together when it comes to how to move forward. i'll just give you an example. we were told of the beginning, you just need to vac 2 shots and this is it. a booster is just for those with underlying health conditions. now we're being told, you know what, everybody needs the booster otherwise on the call might be a nasty variant. yeah, i think the, the thing with the problems that were all these was coming back to,

to bias, you know, always predictions. you know, which, because we're dealing so much with uncharted church. because when we thought that we had dealt under control the vaccines were working and then along came on and i think that was it that some people. ready were predicting it because in, in parts of a sudden, africa was a low vaccination rate. and also, you know, the, the reality is that this is not, are in a virus. and the more of our seeking to replicate, the more chance you going to get of these mutations occurring. so i think it's in a way people were saying that there's been some, been some faxing inequality between the rich countries and other places where there's been a vaccine coverage. so i think it's not surprising that the on broadcast, but i think it's basically the virus. this is variance is basically found a sweet spot of being able to replicate very, very effectively. and it was great transmission. so i think in way we've only got ourselves to blame for when we've been treated vaccine programs around the world.

oksana is it because i'm a chrome spreads as fast as measles, which means that it just likely to further continue spreading all over the world, which is creating the concern here was because we don't really know whether this is something that we could send many people to i see is, and this is why we're going to have real problems. well again, so we're looking at the question of trends, miss ability versus severity. and i think what we've tried to explain is that any benefit in the virus being milder, whether that's due to a vaccination prior exposure or the strain itself. because we are now looking at so many more people being infected at the same time that makes, or whatever reduction or hospitalization due to mileage is in some way sorted. so

you still are going to see a big pressure, particularly in those who we already know in a certain population's vaccines are just not as effective. so the booster, however, there's been good news that it provides 80 percent reduction in hospitalization. so that is great news that is going to t as time for many countries to get there. there are many countries in the world that still haven't even had their 1st dose to vaccine, so it'll look very different in different places. but i think the key message here is that the negative impact on health is going to be exponentially worse. the longer that we allow exponential growth of the virus to occur. yep. it sometimes the political advice outweighs the medical consideration and we do understand that because in europe they have a to 9000000 cases. and more than 1500000 cove is related. death doesn't explain the reason why people are going into those tough

a drastic actions because they just don't want to end up having hospitals swamped in the upcoming weeks. yeah, well it's just, this is the, the main goal in particular in the netherlands, but in most european countries has been not to we call it cold black where people will not get that place in hospital. busy to get treated either for a go very severe cove it or, or an accident or anything else, just severe. that's what they want to prevent. they have never actually really tried to keep the virus down the transmission low. actually they even flirted with eric immunity for a long. busy time and try to sort of maximize the number of cases within their health care capacity. and that has proven to be a very short sighted strategy. and in particular, now that, that's even previous infections do not well, no longer create enough immunity to, to not get read infected. so yeah, but, but still, a lot of people are thinking,

well, it's too late to change that strategy now. and actually we should have done it earlier . maybe we should still do it. it's very difficult political situation now. now john explained this to me, please, don't you think that the the needs to be able to think of the strategies themselves because we thought we covered 90 and there was a out of 5 very and better very in delta variant army, chrome very and most likely we're going to see more many more mutations and various in the near future. whatever you do, what, what kinds of restrictions you will have to do. you would have to wait for the next winter. and then you would have to re impose the same sanctions. and i don't think it's weaknesses, question and very quick. why? because you know, we, we can't predict what the next variance is going to be like the, the, some people are saying we maybe hopefully this, this variant will crowd out the other ones. and just some reason it may just

disappear. and i think that as a big challenge is, is that, that's, i think, whether the frustration people feel is that they say we've done the right things. we've had, the vaccine has been done. done this and now we've been told to go back to the restrictions and just get back to saying, which was said earlier, is that one of the recent studies just a lot just completed last week was that is armor con, actually replicates about 70 times more. ready effectively in the upper respiratory tract of the, of humans and then delta. so this is a vice in which is each person is, you know, when you get infected, it's very, very fixed, effective at replication. so i think that from it's going to lead to far more more transmission. this is a different beast. the other variance oksana. when you look at the data, we know that the unvaccinated people faced 20 time, greater risk of dying from cove. it 19 compared to those vaccinated. does it bring

to the table, the issue that people have to be fully vaccinated now plus the booster to be able to say by the spring time, we could see light at the end of the tunnel. well certainly we know that the act unvaccinated are also going to be putting on the greatest pressure and health care system as well because theirs are, as i already mentioned, even if they were infected previously. reinfection with i'm a crown is 3 to 4 times more likely than with any other variance on that we've seen today. so there has to be a better effort and engaging with these groups that have up to this point refused. and we also need to ensure that we're rolling out and to younger populations as well. so the kids been late to that, but they are starting now with the vaccinating younger groups as well. but we also have other tools and there's some promise with antiviral drugs and it's key for to be able to be administered early. and for this wave,

there's just not going to be enough supply for it to make a big enough dent, but certainly, hopefully is going to be the last winter of even discussing restrictions. because we'll have a wider tool kit available in terms of treatment, which perhaps some people who, although the vaccine remains the best preventative measure, it may be that others are also more willing to take other treatment with a wider therapeutics that are available. more population immunity built up, hopefully more efforts in ensuring that other countries have access to doses as well. so that we're tackling that vaccine equity problem. if we look at it globally, we can, we can push things further along, as long as we, we do try and learn those lessons about i, we can't ignore the rest of the world. it's going to have local impact. and that seems to be, for whatever reason, a difficult message to get through. oh that's,

that's a massive got by the way, because if you were talking about africa, you're talking about some places where you only have 28 percent of the provision which has been vaccinated. you mentioned the issue of a antiviral drugs. yup. the biggest fear for a doctor, for a nurse on a politician is the same pick of all supplies issues that we saw last year. and which means obviously more tragedies and more death. how do we spend and invested more time and energy and money on the under vital drugs? do you think that we could have reverse the trend? but i think it's one of the tools we talk a lot here about the swiss cheese model. we need all these different tools and at not all, at the same time, every time of the year. sometimes the season helps. sometimes we have a very and that's more, more sensitive or more vulnerable and more sensitive duties, treatments and but yeah, we will need them. these extra tools, but also that's what else i learned from my ex knowledge is this week that even for

a collection of people that have not had their booster, and they get effect that, that might even benefit from getting their vaccine today after they get infected, that might also help and then as it, and tomorrow's along with that, it also help or for vaccinated or other people that have not that chance to, to get their extra shot. john, in the u. s. she have a, you have some great news coming from different parts of, of the country. she's, she's saying basically that the country should be bracing for tough, few weeks, 2 months. and then you have places like maryland, where the surge infections is going into something like a 150 percent. it's the same trend which is in places like new jersey, same trend in places like new york. what's the problem here? what, what is the failure here? what, what does it come from? i think it's been mentioned a few times in this, in this debate, is that it, i think it really comes down to politics and it comes down to people's appeals

attitude is that is i think most studies have shown is that the high rates will come from that way, i'm getting the low rates of vaccination where people are reluctant to even have the mask mandates. so i, i, you know, even in hong kong and see we didn't had a community case of kind of it for about 2 or 3 months yet. so everybody goes round wearing masks even outside in doors, because, you know, we had this experience with size and we don't see it as being a, like a social stigma wearing a mask on. so i think that you know, that this, that to me is when most cost effective ways to try and decrease infection is, is a simple mass. and, and i think if people were to, i think just bite the bullet and just say, look like masks are effective, they're cheap and they're way of actually decreasing transmission. and then, you know, when there's no vaccines,

vaccines available. i have less than 30 minutes here. and i'm of the grim statistics that we've been showing globally. is there any good news or limit of hope that we should be sharing with our viewers to today? i start with the oksana. very brief, if you don't mind. yeah. well i think that all the thing that we know about breaking chines a transmission still hold true. so for every viewer, again, making sure that you are taking a test is that before you leave the house, that's a good move if you can get access to one. i know here in the u. k, there have been some shortages, but this same measures to protect yourself and your loved ones. at this time, you can employ a to really gauge your own level of risk, even if you are somewhere where there is a, perhaps more flexibility around that. so i would say that in the 6 weeks we're going to go through and in the winter period, it's going to be a bit difficult. but going round the other side, there's going to be

a better whether people are going to be outside more and we're going to have more tools available to us. so, and how that spirit of cooperation of global solidarity, we can make a significant difference in stadiums and economic recovery. yep. yeah. well we, but i think it's important to emphasize that, that, that the dynamic of, of having boosters every couple of months, people are bidding a lot about it. but it's not so different from the things we know from influenza, except for the influenza only sticks to the season, at least in the north or on the northern hemisphere. we have the flu season and then when you get this shot just right in front of that season, and as long as we can keep the virus as low as possible just by a having enough people that have some immunity during the rest of the year. we have boost once a year. that would be a good perspective, right. we some,

some perspective, john, good news. the good news is that, but i think we're much better position. and this time last year, family vaccines to look at ways of treatment. and i think we've, it's just going to be a matter of, i think of, and also making sure that you protection look after the health care workers are the ones who will be looking after you when you, when you come to hospital, it's always good when you hear scientists, i'm just telling you there's always a light at the end of the tunnel and that's always going to be a better day and pick you up if he's john nichols, i really appreciate your insight. thank you. and thank you for watching. you can see the program i got a time by visiting our website, a dot com for further discussion. go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation to what i'll 100 is at a j insights from the house and the entire team here in my for now. ah

a feeling the debates, 90 percent of the world's refugees have come from a common impacted country. the climate emergency is putting more pressure on across the world and amplify your voice. it's not really the future 8. now this is not a lot can get it completed. we cannot lose hope. we know what to do, and we have the tools to do to get back with all the paper. the stream on al jazeera,

from the al jazeera london broadcast center to people in thoughtful conversation with no host and no limitations. what is even more urgently needed now? it's system innovation. systems design and system transformation. part one of human rights activists. q me, ny, do and environmentally window analogy. i lived as you have the fossil fuel arrow my entire life, and i'm looking for a graceful transition out of it. studio b unscripted on out his era with

ah, hello, i'm adrian setting an endo harbor the summary of the news on al jazeera south. korea has imposed new restrictions on gatherings and businesses after a rise in the number of covey. 19 infections, health work as have been warning of an impending crisis. the new measures came into force on monday night hours here, as i said, beg reports. oh. 6 final drinks and a meal before the new restrictions take effect. restaurants, cafes, and bars must now close by 9 pm gatherings, unlimited to 4 people. as long as they are vaccinated. those who are unvaccinated must dine out.