7 member states of the european union on the 20th anniversary of the euro entering circulation. alger 0 investigates how the eurozone benefited from having unofficial currency. o b, the hero world news for washing ah, for the 2nd time this month, the u. s. and russian leaders talk by phone at a time of rising tensions between moscow on the west. ah, and money inside this is out there, alive from doha. so coming up, corona virus cases inching to to 1000000 globally with the u. s. alone, accounting for nearly half a 1000000 cases shamed in public people

a parade it on the streets in china for violation. code 19 rules. ah, i'm defining a lockdown and breathing tear gas thousands protests against the military to don. ah, russian president vladimir pierson has warned joe biden, annie, us sanctions against moscow. could rupture ties between the 2 countries. he made those comments during a call between both presidents. it's the 2nd time this month. i've spoken in a bit to de escalate tensions over ukraine. the white house says the call lasted 15 minutes. russia has repeatedly denied its planning to invade its neighbor, despite massing tens of thousands of troops along the border. as gotta john henry, who's lying for us in washington, d. c,

the details of this phone conversation starting to filter out what will, can you tell us about what was talked about? that call wrapped up a little more than an hour ago. and last time this happened on december 7th. it was russia that was 1st to come out with a read out owning the narrative. well, this time it's the white house, gen saki, a press secretary for president. joseph biden, has put out a statement in that. she says, president biden urged russia to de escalate tensions with ukraine. he made clear that the united states and its allies and partners will respond decisively if russia further invades ukraine. president biden also expressed support for diplomacy, and it goes on to say, the president reiterated that substantial progress in these dialogues can occur only in an environment of de escalation, rather than escalation and ethically, or reference to the fact that there are a 100000 russian troops. arrayed on the border of ukraine,

the u. s. is concerned that those troops will invade ukraine, invade ukraine after russia has, of course, already in 2014, taken over crimea, and supported a separate movement in the eastern part of that country. this comes a head of some diplomatic talks going on in geneva, on the 10th through the 13th of january, involving both the us nato partners and some other european partners. but those are lower level talks. this is the 2nd time that president biden has spoken directly to vladimir putin. and on this occasion, it was potent who asked for that conversation. it's not clear whether he's trying to escalate or de escalate, what's going on on the ukrainian border. but that was a main topic of a conversation that also included nuclear arms in iran and rising tensions in europe. give us a bit more detail about what it is that each side wants from these various

conversations. how did we get to this point? well, from the russian perspective, they're concerned that nato has expanded over decades and is now coming right on the border of russia with the possibility that ukraine might join that western alliance. and they won't guarantee that ukraine will never be part of nato in the u . s. and need a weapons will not be installed in that country or on other border countries near russia. for the us part, their concern is more immediate. they're focused on what's happening in ukraine. they definitely don't want to see more russian troops in that country. they had expressed an expectation that there would be $10000.00 of those troops removed from that country that has not happened. and in the last talk they had on december 7th, jake sullivan, the white house spokesman said, the president insisted that if russia would have further invade ukraine,

there would be strong economic measures. there would be increased military aid, both to ukraine, end to the nato partners in that area. so a direct threat of more military assistance and more sanctions on russia. russia has dismissed the threat of sanctions is not really a significant threat. okay, many thanks for that, john henry that 1st in washington dc. well, samuel green is director of the russia institute, kings college london. he says the call is unlikely to lead to anything significant for good things for them to to talk about right. but both administrations need to be seen ought to be putting the effort in right for, for different reasons, right? for, for russia, this is an opportunity for put into differential victory to show that the maybe the west is buckling a little bit if he can, if he can spend it that way, for the bargain ministration, of course, for the european allies is extremely important to, to really do everything they can short of, you know,

making concessions that they can make to ensure peace and security in and around ukraine. it's really very difficult to see a scenario in which states and the rest of the nato allies could make a commitment that they could live with. the usaa, for example, could, could pass an informal treaty and that russia would see as, as binding. and i think that the motto is certainly smart enough to, to, to know that. so i think what they're really after here is a, a reasonably long and complicated and drawn out negotiating process through which mock might be able to extract various sanctions. i started very confessions that they can then turn around and present domestically as a, as a, when me global current of our as cases of hit a record high over the past 7 days with almost a 1000000 detected on average each day. the u. s. a was the fact that accounting

for nearly one in 3 cases in the world health experts, a warning americans to prepare for severe disruption in the coming weeks. as the virus threatened hospitals, schools and other sectors, such as being driven by both the delta and on the con, variance, but hospitalizations, death do remain well below previous peaks. and europe is also seeing a massive rise in cases with italy from spain and the u. k. all reporting reco daily infections in the past week or mass of jumps and testing results can be attributed to the christmas period. hospitals are still on the huge amounts of pressure. war, talents, reports from london, dedicated, skyrocketing hand cobit hospitalizations in england, or event highest since february, alarm bells ringing. there's an ami kron serge. it's about to crash over the

already struggling national health service. so if we keep increasing it, of course the pressures are again, my thing week on week when you've got workforce, as i said, that's already up to 50 for nurses and many more. and so 5 things then of course the pressures are building and building and building. so what will it be like in january, contingency plans are being put in place to cope with existing hospitals. capacity becomes overwhelmed with new temporary boards built the house patients, 8 temporary surge hub, being built at hospitals around the country, each one with a capacity of $100.00 beds more sites of being planned for an extra 4000 bed. if needed, it. hope that none of this will ever be used, but if they're just in case london is preparing for new year's eve, but with the big fireworks display cancelled for a 2nd year. and all micron keeping people in doors celebrations will be much

reduced on the continence new infection. records a beat in almost daily italy logged a 126000 on thursday up from wednesdays. 98000 testing centers are becoming overwhelmed and tempers of fraying heater. they're not being chewing since $930.00 . i am. i'm exhausted. it was madness to book in. it took me 2 days to be able to book it. the only available spots were outside central rooms on been with us while i came here and i spent 5 hours in line 5 hours. greece is brought forward new restrictions which have been planned for early january new year's eve aside. bars, night clubs and restaurants will be forced to close at midnight with no standing customers and no music as dismay in the hospitality sector. they were out of love must this, the s's in their gather, certainly for us in the restaurant sector. it is

a disaster. that's the key word he but on the other hand, you can't go against the health situation. i can't say i want to stay open and work while people are dying. greece, italy, and the u. k. have all seen record numbers of cases in recent days. and it's likely there are more records to come re challenge out as era london south africa has announced that it's midnight to for a curfew will now be lifted as the countries believe to pass the peak of its 4th corrupt current virus wave. it's mike was driven by the on the convent, which was fast identified by scientists in the country. the government says it will also let alcohol shop stay open past 11 p. m. if their licenses allow it a month at the wells latest coven way is being blamed on the new on the con variance. but delta, which emerged ali and 2021 remains a significant challenge as well. come on, santa maria has more. you may have heard dr. ted ross,

the head of the world health organization, talking about the twin threats of delta and all micron, but whether it's a twin threat to you and your particular part of the world. well, that depends. going to show you some maps festival from now world and data. the red map is showing army kron infections or at least well, micron is more prevalent, pretty easy to see. and no surprise that down in south africa. that's where we 1st saw a micron. also, australia, india, and russia. but i would draw your attention to europe, have a look the u. k. yes, we know there is a prevalence of our micron in the u. k, but the rest of europe is not as badly affected. it is dealing with delta change to the blue map, actually i'll change back and forth. have a look at the change across europe between the army kron and the delta maps. you can say there is a lot more delta to deal with in europe as there is a in south america, an pots of southeast asia. now, just to give us a slightly different take of chosen 9 different countries here. and we're looking

at their share of different infections. the red is all micron, the blue a delta infection. so starting at the top, south africa has got a rate of 96 percent ami crowd. now maybe that's a good thing. having more cases of the milder variant, further down the list, let's look at the united states, for example here, which is sort of got a 6040 splits between the 2. but i think what's interesting, and i'm gonna try to draw a box around all of them. here are these european countries a to leave france and germany with rights of 80 to 90 percent of delta. the more concerning variance, if i can put it that way of coven 19, and maybe that's why they are restrictions. are a little bit tighter in those sorts of countries. the question now is, is ami kron perhaps the lesser of 2 evils? police in southern china have been caught on camera parading for men through the streets in a public shaming exercise. the men accused of people smuggling while the ball does

remain largely closed. public shaming has been banned but housed reemerged during china 0 coven policy. beijing correspondent h katrina. you says these recent public shaming exercises have a backlash. videos were circulating on white board chinese version of twitter, but they have since been taken down for the most part after spock and quite a lot of backlash them mixed comments? think a lot of people were shocked because these public shaming exercises very unusual to see today, but they were very common during china's cultural revolution. the period of the 196970 is a very chaotic time. and for those alive who can remember it's a period that they would rather forget. and since then, public shaving has actually been outlawed here in china and i was just going back to those videos what we can see, a police parading for people around before a crowd. these people are in the hazmat or protection gear. they are wearing black

cards around the next that seem to have their photographs. now these men have been reportedly sentenced for trafficking people across the vietnamese border. and just for a little bit of context. and this is taking place in the city of ging, she, china's province of wong. she this is relative to china. it's a very poor area. it's quite a small city on the border. and in recent months ging, she is actually arrested incentives. dozens of people for similar crimes of trafficking. now in china we have this 0 tolerance approach to covet 19, but the border areas in particular are very vulnerable to outbreaks because of the poor smith. there have been a lot of outbreaks around different borders in china. and so the authorities in these areas are under extreme pressure to keep coven 19 cases down. the united states has condemned the killing us at least 4 protest is by security

forces in sudan. and was shot in arms or man where thousands of people rallied against the recent military takeover demonstrators in the capitol cartoon approached the presidential palace. they want the military to stay out of government affairs during at transition to free elections, ma'am at val has the latest from putting earlier in the day. the impression was that to this days sir protests was a, a less violent to. and the numbers of what justice less than during the, the, the previous occasions. but, you know, as the day progressed, it became clear that because security forces prevented the protest as an on demand to reach cartoon to cross the bridges into that central cartoon that made the major consultation took place in on government itself, particularly in their street called shara albin at thus where the goals are protest as were killed, 4 of them, according to medical sources,

and also sources from the side of the year. of the revolutionaries, the resistance committees. it's a major situation. they'll not only those 4 that have been killed, but also an unknown number of people aged. and that the indication of the, the, the big size of this, or this sir dangerous situation is expressed by, has been expressed by 3 doctors unions who called on their colleagues to go to the hospital in sharon, are buying the street of are buying and also in the on the man hospital to help or with the treatment of the, of those who have been injured in the, in the, in the, in the confrontations. also, even the state, the cotton states, ministry of help has issue the me a similar as statement calling on doctors to go to those 3, those 2 hospitals to help with the year. the treatment of the wounded. so as on al jazeera dying to protect their land,

environmental defenders in columbia appealed to the government and conversing animal waste into fuel and look at how a z, when the u. k, is leading the way and creating renewable energy. ah, hello, here's your headlines for the americas. nice to see that warm pusher there continues across the gulf of mexico pushing inland these numbers way out of whack. here in new orleans at 27 degrees. it's almost a good 10 degrees above where you should be for this time the, your potential to see some storms flare up across georgia on friday. so continue keep tabs on that temperature is also above average for eastern parts of canada toward the northeast. look at d. c. 14 degrees, quite mild, but if we head to the white straight. now,

this is where all that extreme cold air is, vancouver, just a high minus 3 extreme cold alerts, a blanket, alberta, edmonton, just a high minus 27 degrees. and all of that. what whether that was in california has now pivoted toward the east. it's impacting arizona. we could get into some downpours for phoenix and heavy snow through the rockies to be expected on friday. some rain likely to stream in 2 areas of costa rica and panama on friday as well. acapulco stellar forecast for you with a high of 31 degrees. storms are bubbling up through the peruvian and ease into the amazon basin out toward the south atlantic. but things are starting to dry out across by years stay, but still some thunderstorms in the forecast for rio de janeiro. and so paulo on friday that said, susan, ah, ah, we tell the untold storm. oh we speak

when other stuff. ah, we cover all sides. no matter where it takes a minute and power and parsha, we tell your story. we all your voice, your news, your neck out here. lou. oh, it watching al jazeera mines of top stories this hour. the u. s. and russian presidents have spoken for the 2nd time this month, and i've been to deescalate tensions of ukraine. joe bought and told vladimir putin,

the u. s. would respond decisively if russia invaded ukraine. global grant of ours cases of his record high in the past 7 days with almost a 1000000 detected on average each day. the u. s. is the worst defected accounting financing one in 3 cases in the world. he says, condemn the killing of at least 4 protest is by security forces into john. there was shot it on their bond with thousands of people rallied against the recent ministry take over a group of ringo. refugees who spend days at sea in a damaged boat have been rescued by indonesian authorities. the boat was towed by a navy ship off the coast of a province, 120 people, mainly women and children, disembarked in the port city of crew dick who, where they've been given temporary accommodation. they have been trying to reach malaysia out. there has been told as an agreement to revive iran's

nuclear deal with well, powers is still far off. the 8th round of talks between diplomats commenced in vienna on monday. sources close to the negotiations say there is deep disagreements surrounding towns demand for us sanctions to be lifted immediately. they say the talks are going in a good direction, but that they lack the momentum to achieve results within reasonable time. to also jibari has moved from vienna. there is definitely a sense of urgency. there is a sense that these rounds, at this age round could possibly be the final round. but there is an a feeling that all sides are not very serious about reaching some kind of an agreement or, or altogether is coming to terms of the fact that this nuclear deal can no longer be revived. of course, there were events that took place on wednesday morning in the reigning capital, teheran ad in iran space program. the defense ministry officials announced on wednesday morning that the iranians launched another satellite into space. this is

a 1st time since april of 2020. the radians have done this and to talk more about what this means and putting into context of the talks here in vienna. i'm joined now by mohammed mirandi and mr. mandy, can you tell us 1st, this, specifically, this launch into space? was it part of the rods ballistic missile program were? is it part of the space program? are they very much to separate or intertwined? and also can you tell us why with the iranians decide to do this at this juncture? it's a part of iran space program, and iran had a space program for quite a long time. it's cent. satellites into orbit, on a number of occasions is over 10 years since iran sent its 1st satellite into space . i think it's pretty clear that the iranians are going to continue with business as usual, whether it's regards to its space program or even it's missile. ballistic missile technology. we saw iran's military maneuvers just carried out

a few days ago. that was obviously a message the united states into this railways that any military conflict would lead to the devastating consequences. in other words, those maneuvers were carried out to prevent war. but to win the run is believed that when the united states is trying to prevent iran from importing even medicine and when the europeans assist the united states in banning such import, then iran has to become self sufficient. both sides have to together and they can't have anything extra them before. thank you very much for your time. mama, randy, they're from the university of toronto. the point he's making is that there is a lot of work ahead, and that is the general consensus by all parties involved moving forward into the new year. they're going to have a lot of things to hammer out in the european, the european union who's hosting these talks of also said that there is a lot of hard decisions that are going to be have to made in teheran and washington . but there is hope that they will be able to reach some kind of an agreement. in

the coming weeks i had environmental defenders calling on the colombian government to protect them. human rights watch says more than 150, were killed last year as criminal groups trying to get their hands on lucrative natural resources. i was under advancing reports from northern columbia, who does in community leaders of the magdalena may the region in central columbia have secretly gathered in this hotel conference room. their meeting with government officials to ask for protection. some leaders have been killed for speaking out against criminal elements in their communities. others have received death threats. most people do and we've seen a fair increase in violence for at 2021 from residual rebel group to near paramilitary groups that we politicians, business men, public officials, 3 face clashes and targeting oblique with killing us, especially in my area is where fracking project underway. the oscar told us that

he's been threatened by criminals. he claims are responsible for dumping toxic waste in every cultural or protected areas near the city of butler and cabbage. may the government has provided him with a daytime bodyguard, a flat jacket and a panic button. but he says the security measures, there are no match for the arm groups who operate with impunity. chapel, florida, we escape the government institution. they should be all recourse like the regional attorney, general inspector general number many often you have a way because they have been collected by the criminal group. human rights organizations say a 160 so called social environmental leaders have been killed in columbia in 2021. hold oh, the government and duke. he says it's doing all it can to protect him. well, if we're supposed to go. but despite what the government's claims, critic say, it's simply hasn't done enough. that corruption and violence in the countryside is

directly related to the 5 decades old civil war. that officially ended in 2016, but still reverberates throughout the country. has to do more in terms of protecting communities more of the month, the rules that are responsible for these these 2 point b, r o b has been ignored. it has been forgotten, especially for columbia. the national ombudsman recognizes there are difficulties in the implementation of a toro protection system. i will think that we can't hide. there have been issues with the implementation of the 2016 pace, deal with foreigner that offered more protection. and the pandemic is my things which are the protection of leaders, especially in remote areas. but this is the 1st government to introduce a public policy design exclusively for social leaders. so we hope things will get better. but experts believe only

a profound transformation of the institutions task with protecting these communities could really make a change in the life of these leaders who are the last line of defense for their people and the environment. i listened that i'm 50, i'll just ita barranca better me for a bird flew outbreak in israel is killing thousands of wild cranes and epidemiologists warned the disease could infect humans. a ministry of agriculture says the avian flu, h $5.00, and $1.00 was also detected and chickens from northern parts of the country and suspended the sale of meat and eggs from effected farms. israel says this is the deadliest wildlife disaster in its history. now, was you in the united kingdom as become the 1st in the country to generate renewable energy using animal waste droppings from zebras or ricks and other animals, a converted into fuel using bio mass technology need balkan reports from hampshire

in southeast england. morning at ma. well, zeus and dung patrols out eagerly collecting an abundance of bowel movements because where there's pu, let's power to generate heat and keep other parts of busy warm. until recently $600.00 tons a year. if the stuff was taken off site and composted with a significant carbon transport cost, but not any more, it's stephanie with us in the u. k. and as far as we know, it might well be the 1st in the world. i don't not azusa colleagues around the country all watching what we're doing very closely. they're very keen to see whether they still work on it does work. they've also got the same problem. they've got lots of oil, 5 buildings. they've got lots of big buildings that need lots of hate and they've got lots of waste. so you know how the 1st day works, food goes in waste goes out as them brought by this boom, avail to their special energy center, and to get them picked up all the all bathing and manure casino, floors, steam coming off already and it dumped it into this giant threader

after that the manure goes through a series of pipes where it's dried and compressed into these highly combustible brackets, but then fed into a furnace and use the heat, thousands of liters of water. sh elisa, some of the beneficiaries of all that the theory, a power sant off the floor, native to the jungles of south america, could continue doing very little in the zoos. hot house, untroubled by the cold weather outside. and donnelly, the crocodile monitor, can stretch his scaly limbs and sub tropical climbs. apparently, desert dwelling animals such as the oryx produced the best manure for making briquettes because they had dunks generally dry. given the urgent need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels,

a similar systems in the pipeline to use human waste to power town and cities around the world. for now, this zoo is leading the way in creating a self sustaining power station. but simply harnessing some of the best fuel major house to offer me broker al jazeera hampshire manas in south africa, are paying their final respects to anti apartheid icon. desmond, to see the archbishop's body is lying in the state in saint george's cathedral in cape town. before saturdays funeral, some africans are observing a week of national mourning for 22 who died on sunday at the age of 90. ah, this is al jazeera, these, you top stories. the u. s. and russian presidents have spoken for the 2nd time this month in.