covid-19, almost 180,000 new cases over the past 24 hours due to omion. new government measures are being enforced. overseas, reunion island is in a state of emergency. the situation in myanmar is raising great international pressure, 35 civilians killed, including two members of the save the children organization. we are joint by the chief

executive of save the children international for more on this. u.s. hospitals report more and more children admitted over covid-19 -- 215 -- 250 a day in the run-up to christmas in new york. an ngo closed by the kremlin, set up in the final years of the ussr to assess estate crimes of the soviet years. their research now clashes with the narrative vladimir putin wants to highlight. in the last hour, it has been revealed that here in france there are almost 180,000 new cases over the past 24 hours of covid-19. the government announced when he four hours ago, fresh measures to halt the spread of the virus in the wake of record numbers of new infections over christmas weekend. now, the news is worse, with a

newcomer record figure for infections, 83 patients in icu, 242 people have died due to covid 19, but the figure on scre, just under 180,0 new cases in one day, a sad and scary record. we have more at france 24 with this. reporter: 179,008 hundred seven cases is a record high that comes one day after the french government announced new restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of covid-19. the new measures did not dampen the festive mood in the capital. many parisians say they plan to celebrate new year's eve in small groups of friends. >> [speaking french] >> [speaking french]

reporter: the new measures come into effect next week. it will then be mandatory for employees to work from home for at least three days per week. large events be limited to 2000 people indoors and 5000 outdoors. bars and restaurants will only serve seated customers. it was a relief for those working in the food service industry. >> [speaking french] reporter: several traditional new year's events, including paris' fireworks display, are canceled for the second year in a row, while the government announced closure of nightclubs three weeks ago. >> the number of children admitted to hospital with coronavirus is rising sharply across the west on average, more than 250 children ended up in hospital

each day in the week leading up to christmas. that is higher than the week earlier but lower than the last peak of infections in early september. nonetheless, new york is the epicenter, it seems, of the problem right now. reporter: across the u.s., children's hospitals are bracing for the worst. among areas hit hardest, the state of new york. in new york city in the week leading up to christmas, up to four times as many children ended up in hospital compared to a week earlier, almost all of them unvaccinated. >> many people continue to think children don't come infected with covid. this is not true. children become infected and some will be hospitalized. vaccination coverage remains low. reporter: officials have called on parents to vaccinate their children as soon as possible to avoid putting a bigger strain on overwhelmed medical staff. but it is not just in new york where pediatric hospitals are seeing a sharp rise in

admissions. across the u.s., the number of children needing treatment jump 5% in one week. it means that on average, more than 200 50 children are admitted to hospital every day. with cases rising, there has been a rush to get tested ahead of emily gatherings -- family gatherings. >> i feel as though becausef family members, especially if they are old or kids, just to be safe. reporter: but there is some good news. despite rising hospital admissions for children, the figure is still lower than the last peak in september. >> next, the united nations is calling for an investigation into the killing of 35 civilians in myanmar. the charity save the children confirmed two of its members are among the victim. the military has not commented on the killings. on friday, calls to the military junta went unanswered.

we are joined by inga bashing -- inga ashing, chief executive of can you give us your reaction?l. >> the situation is horrifying. violence against civilians is intolerable. this attack is a breach on international humanitarian law. as an orgization, we are in a state of grief because of wh has happened. >> two membe of your team were there, can you confirm why? >> we have been working in myanmar since 19 95. we have over 900 staff across the country and have been supporting millions of emr children, providing health care, education, protection, etc.. the two staff members that were attacked were coming back to the office after participating in a humanitarian response.

that is why they were there. it is two young men, young fathers that leave babies behind. they have been working with us for years, so they are deeply missed. >> and it is the military that has done this? >> from the information we have, it has been a military attack towards our people, yes and what we think is critical now is that the humanitarian, the international community is acting up a mixer that we are preventing more innocent people from being killed. as an organization, we think it is critical that the un security council convenes a meeting as soon as possible to set up next steps they will take to hold those responsible accountable, but also to secure a lasting peace in myanmar. because as we all know, it has been a country in conflict for quite some time. member states need to make sure

to make sure they are not selling arms to myanmar, and asean needs to convene action on the five-point consensus agreed to in april, calling for an immediate end to the violence in myanmar. we need mediation to find a diplomatic solution to the situation in t country. >> myanmar is under a military junta, the military overthrowing the civilian government after the party one at election deemed to be fair and well held, by the international community. inger, clearly this is a distressing situation for you personally as a group -- you personally and as a group, what would you like to hear from the military to going forward? >> what we want hear is the

inrnational community coming together and finding a solution to this situation in myanmar. the country needs peace, they need a lasting peace in the country and people ne to be held accountable for what has happened. but we as an organization are committed to stay in the country. we have been there since 1995, and the needs the myanmar people are facing, articulately children, are dire. there is a need for the international community to support the people of myanmar. >> underlining what you just said, what has happened to your people in myanmar, this won't affect your commitment to helping the children there? >> no, due to the incidents, we are temporarily suspending our operation in parts of the country, but are committed to remaining in country and committed to work the partners we have across the country, having our 900 staff members committed to stand deliver. >> inger ashing, chief

executive of save the children international, thank you for sharing your thoughts about the deaths of 35 children, among them to members of your team. thank you for appearing with us on "france 24," we appreciate your time. we are watching development on this story and we will bring you development says they happened. the u.n. is calling for an investigation into the killing of 35 civilians in myanmar, among them two workers from save the children. next, a group set up to revaluate soviet times has been closed by the russian supreme court. it is believed vladimir putin objected to the group called memorial and its negative assessment. putin came to accentuate the soviet role in defeating the nazis in world war ii and joseph stalin as a modernizer of the country. a memorial has thrown a negative light on things that happened during stalin's rule, went up to

20 million people perished in labor camps and executions. germany, describing the closure of memorial as incomprehensible and a reason for great concern. reporter: a verdict that came as no surprise. with one sentence, memorial's fate was sealed. >> i grant the petition by the attorney general of the russian federation to liquidate the international organization. reporter: brescia's oldest civil rights group has been ordered to closed by the supreme court. the official reason? failing to mark social media posts with its official status as a foreign agent. but unofficially, the ngo has been a thorn in the side of the russian government for years. its mission since its founding by dissidents in 1989 -- to catalog soviet-era crimes. but president vladimir putin accused the group of advocating

for terrorist and extremist organizations. while the crt called memorial a threat, and said it created a false image of the ussr and denigrated the memory of world war ii. memorial's attorneys dismissed the acting is asians -- dismissed the accusations and vowed to appeal. in the meantime, they vowed to find legal ways to continue their work. >> we disagree with the decision. it is illegal and unjustified. but these kinds of cases have a powerful political motivation. reporter: the government crackdown on the group sparked public outrage, supporters shouting shame turned up to protest outside the courthouse. for them, the supreme court decision is a step backwards. memorial is just the latest victim of a harsh crackdown on dissent by the kremlin. in recent months, many ngos,

independent media outlets and journalists have been labeled foreign agent send accused of extremism. >> at least 20 people have lost their lives after two dams collapsed in heavy rain in brazil. rivers have also broken their banks in the downfall and huge parts of a state are underwater. 72 towns are under a current state of emergency. reporter: much of this neighborhood is submerged in water as intermittent rain continues. some people had rushed ouof their homes in the middle of the night. >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: about 200 people were rescued by boats across three towns. heavy current swallowed -- have swollen a river and made rescue operations more difficult.

>> [speaking foreign language] reporter: flooding has continued on and off for weeks, causing what the state governor glared the worst disaster in its history. record rains followed a long drought, effecting livelihoods in the state of 15 million inhabitants. the situation worsened over christmas after a pair of dams gave way, sending residents scrambling for higher ground. local authorities are monitoring an additional 10 dams for signs they may collapse. 72 meters the polities across the state are in a state of emergency. reporter: france ordered the closure of a mosque in the north of the country because of the radical nature of its in m's -- imam's preaching.

it will remain closed for six months. authorities say the sermons incited violence. it was said the imam was targeting christians, homosexuals and jews in his sermons and it was said to be unacceptable. that is it. stay with us. more to come here on "france 24." ♪

>> i caught up with dexter and guitarist noodles to talk about their touring plans and their rock career that spanned nearly four decades. ♪ >> dexter and noodles, you are in europe on your world tour saying let the good times roll. your 10th album took nearly a decade to come out. i heard it was hard to birth, you initially started composing for it in 2015. a lot of things happened. you had not predicted a pandemic was going to take place. what do you mean by the title of the album? >> it seems self-explanatory. things seem not great right now,

but it is not just the pandemic, which is on everybody's minds. during and before this time, there has been social injustice, social pressure, political a people, stuff like that going on. it feels like everywhere you look, it is like, how could it get any worse? somehow, it does, so it seemed like an appropriate title to don the album. more than that, it almost makes you smile, like you have to laugh or you are going to cry, i guess. it helps you cope, which sometimes, music does a good job of. ♪

>> what kind of moods were you in at different stages of writing this album, 2015, 2016, recently? >> it took a lot of time, and we were touring a lot, three months out of every year. when we are doing that, we don't get into the studio and record or think of what we are working on. we focus on the live show. dexter went back and got his phd. we are proud of him. that took sometimes. but just creatively, we did not start firing on all cylinders until about two years before the release of the record. things came together. we were close to getting done in the pandemic can't and we were, we don't want to release this into a void, we can't go out on

tour on it. so we just kind of polished everything up, but at some point we realized, the record is done, we have got to put it out. >> you got your phd in molecular on top of being a rock star, not an easy bit. how did you see this covid-19 pandemic coming? were you interested in it as a scientist? >> from a science standpoint, yes, it was very interesting. you can almost, especially with the talk in the scientific community, it is, my gosh, we should have seen this coming a long time ago. i hope that it is a warning to put more effort into basic research because it looks like a lot of this could have been prevented at hopefully, we can prevent different outbreaks like this in the future if we spend more time studying viruses. >> there has been a lot of fun takes on some of your classics

linked to this pandemic. you got a revisit to you got to go get vaccinated, which is cool. injured drummer, to use your words, you had to get rid of him for the tour which led to headlines, do you get a job? how hard a decision was that for you as a band to do that? >> it was rough. we went back and forth with him for a long time. he was unwilling or unable to get vaccinated at the end and we looked at every scenario and kept coming into roadblocks. everybody needed to be unvaccinated. one unvaccinated person could have been disastrous to the whole tour and put the tour and a roadie at risk -- tour and everybody at risk. we couldn't take an unvaccinated drummer or any member of the tour. anyone who wasn't vaccinated

couldn't come on tour with us. >> it wasn't a personal decision. it was a logistical decision. you can travel, you can't fly, so many things you can't do being unvaccinated. it just wasn't possible. >> on the uk2 or, you were doing a benefit concert for nhs, the national health service there. i don't think you have done that in the u.s.. >> we don't have a national health service in the u.s., unfortunately. this was presented to us and we thought it was a great idea to give back to those people that really have done the most to get us through the pandemic. we have given up 600 tickets to front-line workers, nurses, emts, cops, food delivery people. all the proceeds are going to the registered national health service charity. >> you have another pandemic in your album and the fact so many people get hooked on medication.

can you tell us about this choice of topic? >> this song is about addiction, always awful. opioid addiction in the u.s. seems more inherent in the u.s. than in other countries, just the way it has come about. we felt it was different and needed to be talk about because it is almost inadvertent, people are out doing their daily thing, blue-collar workers, high school college athletes, they have a minor injury and get prescribed a medication they don't realize is so addictive and before they know it, they are hooked on opiates. endif the prescription runs out, they go and get street heroin or whatever. -- and if the prescription runs out, they go and get street heroin or whatever. >> and the influx of fentanyl in society is so deadly. such a small amount will kill you and it is getting mixed into all kinds of drugs, not just opioids. people are dying and records

number like never before. it is just horrifying. ♪ >> back to your recent music, you talk about a version of the song "gone away." >> 97, something like that. ♪ >> had you to decide to go for such a soothing version of that track? >> it was something we started when live during the set, an acoustic version of the set to bring everything down, let people breathe. we realized by doing that, you are laying the motions of that song bear. "gone away" may not be the most popular song we have done, but i would say it has touched people in a more profound way than probably any song we have done.

those emotions, like i said, are laid bare when you strip it down to the acoustic version. fans loved it and responded positively and they wanted us to do a studio version of it so we went and recorded it. ♪ >> now that the fo has gone away ♪ >> it was a fan mandate, a studio recorded version of a live track. >> you have also got your track "we never have sex anymore" which is an earworm for me, i was hearing it this morning. ♪ you have also done a french version of it. how did you decide to do a french version and why? >> there was something about the

song that said lee's, sink -- that said please -- that said, please, sing me in french. maybe it is about the musical tone, the loss of -- and i don't know. >> the french are known as being super passionate and sexy, so to say good song about the lack of passion in french seems like an interesting take for us. >> people warned me, now that you release it in french, you have to sing it in france. >> i had help from a great french girl who helped me pronounce the lines. in the studio, i could take it one lawn at best one line at a time and get it right, so the idea of seeing the whole thing front to back is daunting. but we probably have until at least next summer to figure that out. ♪

>> doing youtube tutorials, there has been how to bird watch , how to fly a jet, any other things you are planning to do as far as tutorials? >> we have got plans. >> we still have a couple in a can, don't we? >> we do. we were trying to figure out how to give people stuff to look out. let's do a series of videos and call it how to do something odd or random or different. really, we don't show you how to do anything. >> how to catch a wave, not

really. we just think of fun, random things to do. how to open a beer bottle with various objects when you don't have an opener. when you are on tour, you don't always have access to a bottle opener and have to make do with whatever is in the room, so we explore that in that video. but that was a lot of fun. >> thank you so much for taking the time to talk. >> thank you. >> a pleasure. thank you for having us. ♪ >> they contact us. the report, film, photograph. they are the voice of the voiceless, your eyes in the far-flung reaches of the world.

the observers, a network of 5000 committed citizens working with france 24. amateur footage and testimonials checked i journalists and broadcast weekly, from the observers at france 24 and the observers.com. ♪

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12/28/21 12/28/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> it is so exciting now to seek young people, especially, talking about building a new world, recognizing it is not about punishing this person and that person, it is about creating a new framework so