but due to my work as recent exploitation in the forests of sweden, when i went east investing aids on out of the room, ah al jazeera, with every oh a cheaper, faster way to treat coven 19 us drug authorities, a green light, an anti viral drug for home use to treat early infections. no country can boost its way out of the pond to make a global health spa swans rich nations bo, against sweeping boost to program, saying they will deepen vaccine inequity. ah,

i'm come all santa maria here in doha with the world news from al jazeera, a lifeline for millions of afghans. the u. n. has voted to exempt humanitarian aid from sanctions imposed on the taliban governments. and a minister in madagascar swims for 12 hours to save his life. after his helicopter crashed on a rescue, mission could just be a big leap in the fight against cove at 9 seen as nations across the world are racing to out. paste the surge of infections driven by alma crohn. u. s. health regulators have approved the country's 1st antiviral pill to treat cove at 19. it comes from pfizer. it's called pax lovin, and the study suggest it reduces severe symptoms by nearly 90 percent. meanwhile, wealthy nations are accelerating their vaccine. rollouts israel is going to offer a 4th dose to the vaccine to over 6 days in germany. they're considering something

similar. however, we have heard from the head of the world health organization and he is criticized this approach have a listen. the global priority might be to support all countries to reach the 40 percent target as quickly as possible and the 70 percent target by the middle of this year. no country can boost its way out of the pandemic and boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to go ahead with the plan celebrations without the need for other precautions. and then the ongoing debate about lock downs, a belgium, some states in india, they are among the latest to tighten their restrictions. let's talk about this pilla. this is really interesting stuff. and judy fisher and associate professor of micro biology and immunology from georgetown university medical center is with us to talk about it from alexandria virginia. just to make sure julie that i'm getting

this right, a vaccine is precautionary. this pill would be i treatment. if i got coven, i would take the pill immediately. in theory. that's exactly right. the vaccine prevents infection. the, the, the treatment that was just approved by the u. s. f. d, a under what's called an emergency. this authorization is intended to be a therapy for the people who are at highest risk progressing to severe disease or even to death if they are infected with covered $900.00. and so what do you make of it? i mean, the, the fact that we are even talking about these things. we talked about vaccines, you know, less than a year after cove. it came out and now a pill, 2 years later, what's your take on it all? on one hand, we are making amazing progress at a speed that is completely unprecedented. the speed of developing these novel therapies, when you compare it to other viruses, for which we have really a very limited tool kit is just stunning. so it's great news in the sense that we

have an effective therapy, you know, to put us into the panoramic effective vaccines one year. and we have so many more tools than we had when this virus emerged. tell me about the flip side though. is it going to be cost effective? are they going to be able to scale it up to any level where it will make a real difference? that is exactly the challenge. in the short term, it's going to take a while for pfizer to wrap up the production of this therapy. it's not easy to scale up quickly. it's a, it's a complex drug to manufacture. it's actually 2 different treatments combined. and while it 2022, pfizer is, is committed to providing about a 120000000 courses of, of this treatment in the short term. what's comments in the next few weeks is about 65000 doses and put that into perspective at current koby 19 infection rates in the

us with a number of new infections a day. if half the patients who are eligible because they are at risk of progressing to severe disease and be hospitalized would come at 19 disease, we would burn through that entire stock in one day, even half the people were treated. so it's, it's not a lot and the 2nd thing is it's not a cheap treatment. so we're still looking to the vaccines to prevent severe disease as the most effective way to keep people out of hospitals and to perfect and to, to protect it from severe disease and death. but it's good to have another tool in the to okay, so let me ask you about the vaccines because i want to pick up on a, on a, on a, on the phrase. you used been talking about the pills. you said the course of the, of, of the pills, not necessarily one pill. similarly with vaccines, we're now into the realms of 3 vaccines. and as we heard about israel and may be germany, the same for vaccine. and dr. tedra from the w. i choices, look, you can't just keep boosting your way out of this. what's your take on that? because it does feel like, you know, what does fully vaccinated mean anymore?

and i, i do think that we're going to see that definition of what fully vaccinated means. very quickly expect to, to potentially mean 3 doses of vaccine, which is not that unusual for, for vaccines that do give, do, given during protection. but i think to get back to what dr. tedra was saying about, we can't booster way out of this. giving a booster doses to people who are fully vaccinated does give those individual some a, some incremental protection and potentially does protect them against severe disease and death, which is again, incredibly important to protect those from their ball populations like people who are older, who have underlying chronic diseases, but boosting people who are already vaccinated in particularly high income countries and high middle income countries is reducing the vulnerable population slightly. while we have enormous populations worldwide that haven't even had the

opportunity to have a 1st dose of vaccine and to have that protection. so in a way where we're offering little bits of extra protection to those who are already the most able to protect themselves while health care workers. and those on the front lines of dealing with this disease in low and middle income countries are still still not protected. by those 1st 2 critical doses, ok, we can stop it from spreading. we can't stop the variance from emerging until we can stop the spread of the cities everywhere. yeah, i'd say right, jenny fisher, always a pleasure talking to you and was really so informative. thank you for your time. thank you so much. now, more than a 1000000 covered vaccines have been destroyed in nigeria. health officials said that i says it expired. i went to nature to the international kovacs program and delivered within weeks of expiring for ellison bar reports. now, from a butcher, that by monday, health officials and journalists watched as more than

a 1000000 doses of expired astrazeneca vaccine were crushed. he destroyed vaccines were part of a massive shipment of more than 2000000 doses received in october. it domission from developed nations by november, many of them had expired before been put into people's homes. the government was came to show people that no expired vaccines would be given out in a bead to post confidence in the vaccine program. the head of niger is primary health care agency says they procure the vaccines on the very difficult circumstances. adding that the step was taking to protect the public. we accepted in vaccine in an environment where, despite the interest, despite consorted, enforced by the federal government to procure these vaccines, this vaccines were not available in the open market. if you want to go,

because they had largely be mobbed by the wealthier nations. and we had no choice to accept this vaccine, which short staffed life because we are interested in protecting our citizens from cove 19. the government has made repeated efforts to get more people vaccinated, including restricting access for the approximate it to some public buildings and events. but so far that made limited progress, the government has set a target to vaccinate more than half the population by next year were less than 5 percent of the country's population of about $200.00 me have they fully vaccinated, according to health officials. authorities have leading to the low turnout of ineligible citizens to take the shock for the spread of the corner virus. at this vaccination center in the missions capital, some residents are trying to encourage orders to get their shots. i think the best

i can do it also as a parent, it's not the only 2. 0 baby could be my thing. basic rules. what else is coming out to take the my sin? because our missions are trying the best that i can to combat to be copied 19 the spread of will be 90 and i've seen a lot of people lost their loved ones. so the best i can do is come out to take the lesson. we just got out of the full year if you did it because of the vaccination that was taken place. so this summer i employed people to come and take a district, is that the spirit less the country has witnessed a spike in cove in maiden kisses in recent weeks. and health officials say the a puppet to handle the fort we've. and we have the 3 products available. now. we have the pfizer, we have them, we're dana, and we have us right. then you can all get back with that is so we don't have any

shots each on fatty gee. nigeria has recorded more than 200000 cases of calvin 19. and nearly $3000.00 debts says the outbreak of the pandemic last year. fidelis number, i'll just 0, a boucher rescue teams in me and my are searching for a 70 people missing after a landslide. at a jade mine they were swept into a lake in northern catching state authorities. at least one persons died. the theory, the center of me and mas jade industry, where mine is often worked in dangerous conditions, landslides, of course, hundreds of debts and recent years. the un security council has unanimously adopted a resolution allowing humanitarian aid into afghanistan. the council voted to apply a sanctions exemption, meaning governments and aid agencies can now send money and goods to the country for the 1st time since the taliban took power, millions of afghans desperately need food and medicines. kristen salumi reports now

from the united missions is, will not cook as by the un security council paved the way for more aid to afghanistan unanimously. passing a u. s. sponsored resolution, explicitly stating humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs and afghanistan are not a violation of international sanctions. china supported the resolution after pushing back against an initial draft, requiring case by case aid exemptions. donkey i'll hunt you for the current situation in afghanistan is out a critical stage facing monte pom archers and complex challenges. the most important task is to help africa understand, mitigate the humanitarian crisis, the soonest and to stabilize and bristol, with the economy you're hugged in the u. s. insisted the un emergency relief coordinator report back to the counsel every 6 months to ensure the aid does not

benefit those on the sanctions list. it is essential for the security council to receive regular updates on the implementation of this resolution. such information is critical to enabling sufficient oversight to ensure that assistance is reaching the intended beneficiaries. by mitigating diversion, after the resolution passed, a spokesman for the taliban, welcome the measure saying we appreciate it. it can help afghanistan's economic situation. he also called on the international community to speed up the removal of crippling economic sanctions. the u. n. has warned that half the population doesn't have enough to eat cash flow been an issue since the taliban took control of the government, leading the world bank to freeze nearly $10000000000.00 and assets. civil servants haven't been paid and months. aid groups. welcome the resolution. it is a very important that i understand, but the sanctions i had an impact on,

on the capacity to, to bringing assistance to bringing. i mention the support that the cheese to our people in the services that we need to to support right now at this moment. the ones humanitarian chief martin griffith's called the resolution on milestone the rare agreement among council members. evidence of the shocking level of need and suffering and afghanistan, christian salumi al jazeera, the united nations. in the news ahead. after months of warnings, the you take steps to punish holden for what it holds. violations of a key treaty. attentive at a very special golden, written for the roman era, discovered by israeli archaeologists ah,

getting going for thursday, december, the 23rd. here's what you need to know for the americas hello. everyone will started in california. more rain coming at you. it was just about a week ago, san francisco scooped up 75 millimeters in los angeles, about 35 and more to comp. now for the u. s. gall states, the se, things are settled here are plenty of sunshine tallahassee, 17 degrees, and that vigorous system that was impacting so many his shoved out toward the atlantic, but still getting blast. it was some wind and snow for newfoundland when mornings in play. here. could see those winds were up to a 130 kilometers per hour. was found. we go, a big drop in temperature is coming british columbia, 3 degrees in vancouver on thursday. wouldn't really know it. right, but pet, let's look at the 3 day forecast. just minus 2 on sunday. by the way, you could see your 1st white christmas here in more than a decade. central america frontal system is given us disturbed weather, eastern bahamas at cuba, jamaica right into his van. you all are in

a place we have seen flooding north west of bolivia, now central and eastern portions, flash flooding, a destroying roads here, cut people off, waiting and wondering what happens next. a lot of that act of whether pushing into western brazil. we've got some storms in the forecasts for rio de janeiro on thursday, with a hive 26. that's it, sir. ah. coded 19 is a public health crisis that has been compounded by capitalism. alleyway navigates the big questions raised by the global pandemic power. the system based on private ownership profit. so the world and economy. capitalism is the pandemic. cause of so much of the suffering exploited protected people all the profit episode, one of all hail the look down on out is the lulu

the me on i was if they were these out the top stories this all the us health regulations have approved. find the hills, treat covered 19 studies that show it reduces severe symptoms by nearly 90 percent as well as the approval of a hill for merck in the u. k. as well. israel's prime ministers, welcome to plan to offer a full back same dose now. for people in 60 a panel of experts make that recommendation. it is expected. a final approval from the health ministry will be in the coming year, and authorities have been forced to destroy a 1000000 expired cove. it back themes they were already close to expiration when they were delivered. the will help the concessions warning vaccine inequality will

prolong the pattern. india's tourism industry has been hit hard by this. so the current variance, even though cases the lower then in many parts of the world, the governments impose new restrictions on inbound travelers. just days after fully reopening its borders poverty met with one afternoon the famous hub on the head was all set for a busy season. it's a favorite among foreign tourists who expected to throng the storied monuments of roger tongue in western india. but now these rooms and hotel lobbies are empty during peak season. plunging the struggling industry into further uncertainty and heavy losses for into listening to them and the business of dependent on it will not pick up until for him to come in and start properly. even today, the situation is such that the to this rush is only felt on weekends and the hotels live you can enjoy reopen the board is last week for the 1st time since the panoramic began in march 2020. but new restrictions and testing requirement for

inbound travelers fuel by fear over the only one variance means many have seated away. in 2019 tourism accounted for almost 7 percent of indian g, d, p. and 14000000 jobs. much of this income was generated before and visitors. but last year as borders remain close to most travelers, the industry lost nearly 75 percent of its annual revenue. we know to store in the heart of new delhi was, was bustling with international customers. today, small businesses like his are struggling to survive what a shiny lead, easy business has been done, but i had there was science that international, slight resuming woman. we thought people to start frequenting market and business will pick up. but omi grown, i don't know how long will have to be before situation improves. many states including your cache, one of the highest number of on the cases have limited gathering to the end of the some says,

having those nice off you testing requirements for travelers. the prospect of a, you know, a way to recovery for the traveler, hospitality industry has been to shop limits and also see that usually the mac or an outbreak in south africa is how tang province appears to have passed its peak. but a month after it was discovered there, the number of new daddy cases is now falling on both sides, se that could be down to lower levels of testing, of course. but data collected by the south african institute for communicable diseases shows on the current continues to appear less severe than previous variance to libya where the elections commission is proposing the countries presidential. paul, now take place on january 24th, was scheduled for this friday, but the balance has been marked by disputes over rules and regulations. malik, trainer reports from tripoli just 2 days ahead of what had been scheduled as the 1st round of a presidential election. he high national elections commission released

a statement suggesting polling people's pond for a month to january 24th. more than 2 and a half 1000000 people had already picked up the records for the december 24th vote . but the whole process has been more by controversy about rules and regulations. many say without a constitution, a presidential election will only lead to more division and conflict. it's now clear, it won't go ahead as scheduled. either could move does the delay was expected. that of another number. busy we were expecting that the elections one to going to happen on december 24th. but now setting a new date will also be a contentious issue. from a legal standpoint, the parliament must agree with the high council of state on a new date. the question now is them as how long will the postponement be far and will they come to an agreement on a constitutional framework anyway? according to a previous political agreement,

the parliament basin eastern libya and the high council of state in the west must agree on a constitutional framework to hold the elections. that never happened. here in this coffee shop in tripoli, some people tell us they don't think a presidential election is the way forward. i don't know. as far as elections are concerned, i think we need to have parliamentary elections 1st and then a presidential one. the parliament has been in power for several years and they haven't done anything for them and development of it. i'm happy the presidential elections aren't happening to hold elections. you have to have a foundation. now foundation is a constitutionally, if we don't have a constitution that identifies what kind of governing system we have, and the pal is a president, has we have, how can we vote for president on that? libya has seen 10 years of political divisions and conflict since the revolution that toppled war more good, duffy in 2011. the international community has painted presidential and

parliamentary elections as the only way to unite the country, or without a constitution or legal framework. many here believe a presidential election will only further. the conflict mal trina al jazeera trib leave the european union, taking legal action against poland over a court decision that violated one of the blocks key principles. only this year, pauline's constitutional court ruled that polish law takes precedence over you. law on the court, has dominated by judges loyal to the ruling. you are a skeptic, law and justice party. warsaw has called the use actions and attack on its sovereignty. we also considered that the constitutional triple not no longer meets the requirements of an independent and impartial deborah established by law as required by the treaty. the european union is a community of values and of low. and the rights of europeans under the treaties must be protect, no matter where they live in the union. tennessee is

a former president, msf, marez okey has been sentenced to 4 years in prison. the court charged more circular lives in france with assaulting the security of the state lessons because of recent comments he made, urging france to end support 14, his youth government current president, i said suspended parliament in july, which my suki as called a coup floods of the southwest syrian province of italy, the area controlled by rebels, or excuse me, as home to thousands of internally displaced syrians who have fled the civil war. many of those still stuck in camps agency. so people burning plastics to keep warm through the winter is now putting them at risk of respiratory diseases. but as i said, beg reports, syrians have very little choice. the homes bombed, displaced in their own countries, and now these syrians must endure floods. dahlias on a at about

a year. we've been called for 4 days. nope. the heaters land working and the tensor leaking water in our situation is miserable. we've been displaced for 3 years and have no idea whether we will return or not. people have lost hope to return home at night. it's not just the water, they have to contend with temperatures and when to can drop below 0. their struggle is to stay warm as well as dry. let us of a liberal, mon no, every morning i wake up and find that my children aren't near me. they go out early to collect scraps of plastic from the street, such as bags and shoes, holes, whatever they can find to feed the furnace hero overrides, which we can use to keep warm and cook her meals. but what the children collect to burn is bad for their lungs and love and i can't afford a boiler, and fuel is expensive. we need fire to do everything. i can't feed them because i don't have enough in the winter is very hard. welcome home. at least say something to keep them warm. one dish yearly, we don't get any aid or anything. and that's our situation. it gets crowded with

around 15 people crammed in 110, where they eat and drink and sit at them. but some a beginning to feel the effects on the help lauri hectic, the smell is strong and there is a lot of smoke. yesterday. my chest started hurting and i wanted to go to see a doctor, but i couldn't afford it. as an adult tried to repair the damage done by floods, the children who have no nothing else except this camp. try to make the most of what they have. i said bake, i'll 0 the you as well. food programs announced it will have to reduce rations for 8000000 people in yemen because of a lack of funding. the cutbacks will start from january and the u. an agency is warning of serious consequences. as hunger rises, the country's been on the brink of famine in 2016 because of civil war. w. a face of 5000000 people are close to starvation. now a government minister in madagascar swim for more than 12 hours to reach land.

after his helicopter crashed into the sea, he was traveling to inspect a shipwrecked malcolm, with no reports for fishermen found madagascar please minister swimming near the coastal town of my humbug. says gala had been in a helicopter that had crashed at sea nearly 12 hours before the mom. my time to die hasn't come yet. i'm cold, but i'm not injured. the prime minister came to meet him. the helicopter was in a loan to investigate the ship rec, when it crashed or next it was like any other accident from all of a sudden there were gusts of wind and the chopper dove. if we're still alive, it's because we were flying at low altitude. we didn't fall from very high because we were flying low and following the sea. kelly says he grabbed onto the helicopter pilot seat and used it as a float, the pilot missing,

and so he's galleys assistant, that the helicopters, mechanics survived. he also swam for about 12 hours towards the shore before being spotted by some fisherman. he turn asia and i'm going out of what it was about 4 o'clock in the morning. we were adjusting our sales and we saw him. and he called for help. he said, help helicopters down, help us to get a colleague. say he's, we've been a strong swimmer. many of those on board the wrecked ship weren't so lucky. somebody's have been recovered and dozens are still missing. malcolm web outers era . london's big ben is all set to chime again. the conic bell will mark the start of 22 by ringing 12 times it when silent in 2017 for renovation. the clock now has our hands made of gun metal weighing all of 300 kilos. the near gothic south, how was unveiled in 18591 of the most famous landmarks in the world. one of the

earliest known depictions of jesus christ says the good shepherd has been found on a ring, and it was retrieved from shallow waters off the coast of israel was amongst the whole of hundreds of os x discovered of a recent months in an area of rich in archaeological treasures, bernard smith has this report. these mediterranean offers rich fishing grounds for roman and mum will come ticket is if something glens, in the water. it's often gold. the commission in this find by israeli, archaeologists of coins gems and other artifacts with scattered along the sea, but just 4 meters on the water. one piece stood out a ring showing jesus christ as the good shepherd. the good shepherd was one of the earliest christian symbols and used by the christian community in the east. the image sort of tells that jesus is the shepherd who protects

the christians. nearly christians, it for the ring would have been made around the mid 3rd century. evidence of a christian community in the region. the archaeologists believe the whole is from 2 ships wrecked by a storm of the coast of the holy land. they found hundreds of silver and bronze roman coins, as well as figurines, pottery vessels at iron work. at the time the ships went down, the area was known as seas urrea. it's here. the acts of the apostles describes pizza baptizing the romans, ensuring cornelius in an area that was one of the earliest centers of christianity . bernard smith al jazeera. ah. these are the headlines on al jazeera us health regulators of approved fire as pill to treat curve at 19 studies showed reduces severe symptoms by nearly 90 percent

fall as the approval of a similar pill for merck in the u. k. is ross prime in this is welcome to plan for a for faxing. meanwhile, 2 people older than.