you. a grim picture in germany hospitals warned they're on the brink of collapse with the number of patients being admitted into intensive care 40 percent on the spring . americans struggling to cope with a record number of covert infections and congress has so far failed to agree on another stimulus package questions are being raised about where the money from previous 8 deals is gone. i know the big chunk of it goes to the military and. the people are taking advantage of it i think it just neither side really cares about poor people. and those around grapples with the worst crisis in the middle east lashes out of what it runs in the humane u.s.

sanctions this is a scuppering its efforts to access a vaccine. thanks for joining us here in the russian capital this is r.t. . the pandemics grip is tightening on germany where hospitals are warning the civilian overstretched the number of patients in intensive care is up 40 percent compared with the spring while every single german state is now deemed to be officially at risk these are all of the reports. german hopes for a loosening of code restrictions over the christmas period look in doubt as cases of the virus remain high across the country on sunday the state. became the final region to be categorized as an at risk area meaning the whole country is now in the

highest risk level according to the scale used by germany's public health authority the robert cock institute in the south the state of bavaria declared a continuation of a state of emergency is blocked by the fact remains that the numbers is simply too high the figures must come down to the health system because it's already a threat it's not just the number of people who have coronavirus which is causing problems it's also the intensity of the illness in those that have it which means many more are requiring intensive treatment those ending up in i.c.u. of risen 40 percent from the spring during the 1st wave of the virus. in states like saxony the number of patients in intensive care is 5 times higher than it was in april hospitals either reaching their capacity limits or have already exceeded. the lockdown light measures that were brought in at the start of november haven't

worked in lowering the number of infections to where authorities would have wanted them coupled with problems with contact tracing this pushing german health care deral strain. we can see that the health authorities are increasingly exhausted for example they are no longer able to determine from where people have contracted the virus we see more and more outbreaks in older people's homes and nursing homes is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the virus out of these institutions and to protect the people there local government officials here in the german capital fear the restrictions in place have not been enough to combat the spread yes of an american the start of the 1st wave was a children's party compared to what we have now we have very high case numbers many people affected and we didn't have at the start we had the pandemic well under control and now we have significant difficulties bringing the numbers down. while politicians from the local right through to the federal level here in germany

a concern that the current covert measures aren't enough to stop the spread of the virus we're also seeing protests against those very same measures by covert skeptics conspiracy theorists and those concerned that anti coronavirus measures will see them lose their jobs. i. believe and i think on the you know. despite those protests it seems more likely that the federal government would introduce tougher coronavirus measures across the whole country than there being any type of festive reprieve to the measures all. already in place peter all over r.t. . meanwhile epidemiologists wall of a possible 3rd wave of the pandemic hitting in early 2021 our panel of experts debated the necessity of lockdowns and their effect on society will bring in their

views they to this hour. america's covert crisis is also getting grimmer the average daily infection rate over the last week topping 200000 with some 2000 people dying every day despite the dire situation congress has so far failed to agree on a new stimulus package to help those most in need during the pandemic a bipartisan proposal includes around $900000000000.00 worth of funding it's aimed at helping american businesses especially restaurants hotels and airlines also americans who don't have jobs but as the of explains now previous stimulus packages appear not to have actually helped those they were supposed to. the united states is hurting worse than anyone else by couvade it's been a disaster by any metric lost lives lost jobs lost opportunity now is the time to help the american people at least hypothetically quote from mcconnell

yesterday he said we're both interested in getting an outcome now that seems like bland talk but in washington speak with the means we're actually talking see for you all for me couvade relief might mean money for food to pay rent for medicine a few $100.00 might make all the difference so how would you feel knowing that those same politicians that card agree for months or then don't whether to finally give the shrugging family a few 100 dollars wall less that those same people gave the pentagon a 1000000000 in kuwait relief money to quote prepare for and respond to the crew of ours so what are the pentagon do that by mosques by gloves perhaps anti sceptic. pentagon used tanks spend money meant for mosques and swabs to make jet engine parts and body armor and people are wondering where the heck the trillions

of dollars it could relieve just for a 2nd that's 12 zeroes where that covert money has gone ok so if issues are now calling for the pentagon to be investigated for such brazen misuse of money desperately needed elsewhere what about the rest turns out there's a 1000000 other dubious ways to spend qubit relief money are you tired of white supremacy. welcome to the club called $1800.00 burn it down resources for the revolution snack block and a parent group that helped organize b.l.m. protest a group that supports and enables the rights of writers that have shaken america qualified for $145000.00 in covert relief parity the group which has new web page and only recently started a twitter account is vital to the community systemic racism is

a blight on civilization but this is conveyed relief money right see this is something the pentagon doesn't get either this is money for the desperate for losing pain because of the virus lot money for jet engine parts or stirring up riots and these problem goes right to the top where a company that belongs to a congresswoman's husband the company which had a great year raking in millions in consulting fees can then claim half a $1000000.00 in extra pandemic relief money it's amazing how well socialism works for the few don't you feel powerless when you read stories like this one i sure do along with angry. now that's keeping it in the family while omar's husband's firm get half of all her campaign spending they also got a chunk of taxpayer provided relief people have lost jobs and homes in the morris husband gets half a $1000000.00 and go with relief funds when will the voters in minnesota do

something about her costs the congresswoman denies any wrongdoing as is tradition what can you do while you can ignore it all the incompetence and the corruption hoop that a few 100 bucks trickle down your way to pay off the angry landlord to keep your throat while you search for a new job that might still exist you and millions more just don't expect too much help from above they're busy doing what they always do arguing with each other with all the challenges america has right now we think covert reading should be on the floor but instead the democrats put cats and cannabis this week they'll say such pretty things i have tears in their eyes as they profess to care about your situation and then off all the fear radical help in the world billions trillions in relief that many americans will never see but hey pentagon just scored the sweetest

new dress uniforms why can't you just be happy for them it is a kind of naive to expect that even in an extreme situation that we are in now with a combination of the cold did a crisis the health crisis and the crash of our capitalist economic system the dominance of large corporations and the dominance of the wealthy is not going to be operating in the relief program and that is what is happening in the paycheck protection program $523000000000.00 a lot of money was supposed to go to medium and small businesses. it now appears from a report of the small business administration in washington that the richest one percent of companies over 25 percent of all that money that was not the engine that

was not the purpose but that is the way the society works and it includes doing that with relief efforts by the government. in california people are calling out what they see is another misuse of funds during the pandemic the state's governor allocated $80000000.00 to hording scaring educational messages about it but it's angered some who claim that the money would have been better spent supporting local businesses struggling with the impact of lockdown as americans wait for congress to release the latest covert relief package we've got reaction from new yorkers about the hold up. and i know they're talking about right now and getting a little bit more progress on a 2nd relief but it's still a long time coming i think it's going to get stalled no matter what i think both sides don't really actually care it's really politically charged that's probably why it's strategically to interrupt i deprecate it's very unfortunate that the same

time i realize there are kind of hurdles that you have to overcome in order to actually get it passed. i know that chunk of that goes to the military and paying politicians the systems are already set up i kind of i mean for a little bit easier for probably money and approvals to go through and in those situations they are prepared for any of this debate might have more a. it might help them out more to give money to. the military than to help the people that are essentially for this is america. i mean if there's a there's people that there's a way to take advantage and if you find $5.00 on the ground even go give it to the store that you find out front of i don't think so i have a small biz myself actually i know for a fact that people are taking advantage of it individuals as well as this is that don't actually need. large corporations even there's been a lot of people giving money back which is good i guess it's a step in the right direction but i guess you call it fraud right i think it would

be nice to be able to feel that the communities are supported by the dollars that are being paid by those communities so that it's filtering to the people who are the loudest and have the most people there reach a kind of arguing for them. the union representing britain's health care workers is calling for a public inquiry into what the p.p. shortages led to avoidable deaths but the general from doctors association u.k. says this would enable the government to learn from its mistakes. we think the government kicking the can down the road basically we already had the 1st wave of caveats there is no doubt about the fact that there was a problem with securing and ensuring that p.p. got the frontline we know because the doctors association were right at the front line of actually listening to frontline doctors who were telling us that i had daily reports of doctors telling me that they were having to go to screwfix to get think basic things like masks we worry that the government is conveniently

forgetting course lots of this what we need is to learn those lessons and the only way you can actually learn those lessons is by proper judgment inquiry according to a report between april and october more than 100 staff members including those who are working in the care sector died as a result of their work meanwhile human rights group amnesty international says more than $600.00 health workers have died during the pandemic in the which is the 3rd highest reported figure for any country around the world however the u.k. government insists that those an h s providers who've been audited were always able to get what they needed in time however dr jenny born again challenges that plane. why is it that the national audit office of come out and said there needs to needs to be comprehensive lessons learned there needs to be this proper exercise as to where that p.p. that was promised did actually reach the frontline they've had a long careful look at this and they produced

a report and i can tell you that i was giving a lot of interviews and as was you know much of v.a. u.k. we were listening to frontline doctors all of us were working hard and we were reporting these issues we have clearly data to support that it wasn't getting to the front line so this is again something that really worries me about the kind of memory problems the judgment might decide to have later on it was not the case that p.p.a. was officially getting to the front line so you know this needs to be taken very seriously and the way the government does is it commits to a timely just like inquiry a serious possible and that's why the doctors' accounts o.c.a. ssion together with the good law. good law project and our class are taking the government to court and it is the right decision now as they sions around the world battle to turn the tide of the covert 92nd wave experts are warning we are in for a tough start to 2021. we could still see

a very severe peak particularly i think probably in january is when i predict there would be most likely if we take our foot off the pedal on this the 3rd wave responsible but it's also preventable so we don't have to weave through to go on we mustn't board the mistakes of the summer by not wasting time in listening to those who speak loudly about these untruths that another outbreak is impossible. the u.k. france germany they've for all been implementing various lock downs and restrictions to fight the 2nd wave of german officials discussing the necessity of stricter measures chancellor angela merkel says that they might not be sufficient. relying on hope one help us the situation is getting very serious these measures will not be enough to get us through the winter. my colleague in an e-mail discuss the possible 3rd wave with our guest. quote 19 actually it's false to why this would not really care that it is of course most why me or the know anything anytime

the us will get the chance to come across my susceptible population it's one in fact that is going to me likely happen because of the mixing we will be seen getting the christmas tally this september january time was when we 1st started really to discover what the virus was all of the pandemic intensified into the summer a knob again are we facing the same scenario in 2021 do you think this is going to be a pattern i think 20 or 21 of them certainly be different than what we have had somebody anybody in 2025 medically because we are seeing the vaccine coming into the into the human and of course it would take a little bit of time before to get into the general public to achieve the herd immunity so it ought to be made it's also a change in of the virus but because of the vaccine $12.00 to $21.00 it will be different we've barely reached a plateau in this 2nd wave should the focus not be more impacting the disease not trying to break it instead of the what ifs of a 3rd way it's always a. brand new novel situation that we're all having to deal with 1st and foremost

we've got to do what's best in terms of the public health issue i have a virus myself earlier and. several months ago i think a lot of muscle around the world added or no people. die so a 3rd wave coming is obviously absolutely frightening and i do think it's wearing on us as humans as individuals but on the other hand we've got to let the experts really drive this and see this to an end so that we can really get obviously as we know it peter talk of a 3rd wave might dump in the spirits but just how important is it for businesses to get at least some of their seasonal trade in because you hear many stories of businesses having a tough year on the mic they make a good. almost on a good christmas a good new year if that's not here there's businesses that are going to close and they don't care too much about

a 3rd wave or talk of it we have bigger companies getting bigger or smaller companies going out of business the gap is widening people who are taking. the brunt of lockdowns are the cool or single moms they're people their kids are going to get your people who can least afford them lots of bankruptcies we've got tons of unemployment but i mean. it's going to i would hope that this 3rd time we might do something close to focus protection people work. but we tell people where you are elderly who have co-morbidities if they want good or right if you're not going to just go to. plentiful we'll news coming your way in just a moment. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy on sunday

shouldn't let it be an arms race is on spearing dramatic development only closely i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. the world is driven by shaped by. the day or thinks. we fear to ask.

welcome back washington's actively attempting to prevent iran from buying any coronavirus vaccines that's the claim being made by the chief of iran central bank echoing earlier remarks made by the country's foreign minister kobie 1000 vaccines have to be purchased through the official channels of the world health organization but all payment methods have been blocked by the inhumane embargo of the us government. when 50000 drains have died in the pandemic with over a 1000000 confirmed infections it's the worst hit country in the middle east so let's look at how sanctions could be affecting that situation the trumpet ministrations slapped restrictions on iran's financial system part of its maximum pressure campaign they target to rein in individuals and banks as well as foreign

entities that work with iran central bank transactions for medical supplies can be exempted but they need the u.s. treasuries approval. or harass the u.s. treasury to comment on the rainy and allegations u.s. sanctions are preventing access to a covert vaccine in the meantime cover for c r b a political scientist an author of iranian origin shared his thoughts on the situation . the sanctions are primarily in a financial and trade in need but the basically i think all aspects of the brain and economy have serious people effects on their hot sake the u.s. is doing whatever they can to undermine iran's ability to pool cue the necessary medical devices and in this case vaccines on the horizon. a case in point is prey sharing. government are sought. not to

unfreeze millions of dollars of the ring and acid that iran means in order to purchase. you know millions of doses of vaccine by causing all of these restrictions. and i'm creating the global war to combine these disease so you u.s. is not it will be declining has and i. am constantly iran it will not take such drastic actions that directly affect their well being a means of uranium. the u.s. and the e.u. all refusing to recognize the weekend's parliamentary election in venezuela with the opposition refusing to even take part the majority of votes went to parties that support current president nicholas but they. did result in the us and represent a real of the venezuelan people if you see got everybody's all i mean it's difficult to call that a victory because there was an overwhelming rejection of the regime with the

majority point causing the vote this farce was nothing more than an attempt to install a complicit puppet national assembly beholden only to the duro while destroying the country's any remaining democratic institution truly representative of the venezuelan people. venezuela's national assembly was seen as the opposition's last legislative stronghold you respond to anger declared himself interim president last year and used to be head of the assembly but following this election madeira has consolidated his power in a way he insists was democratic believe that we have complied with the constitution that we have complied with this constitution 5 years later i have to say we have a new national assembly the product of a popular vote the people have elected the new lawmakers and we have had a tremendous and gigantic electoral victory. washington rejects the the jitter

mysie of the current venezuelan government and demands fair and democratic elections meanwhile has been recognized by many foreign powers as the interim president but a so far struggle to gain significant political traction within his own country without the views of public policy expert andrew king. i think there's a ridiculous charge of. this accusation which is to be expected it is of course the sale is it in the of obduracy coming from the drug administration which is in the middle of the naked power grab the war against the venezuelan people has been bipartisan foreign powers these doubtless meant is by apartments in the pentagon budget in the russian against indian view of those nations saw voids only the yellow democrats are more hawkish even than republicans once on foreign policy issues in the i think the sanctions will not change and so i mean you know massive in robust people's movement. you know it's

a hands on in its look and recognize there are elections that people in the democratic majority in venezuela support the socialist government in a paul who's the squirrels in the upper class elites in venezuela who are a tool of the i.m.f. . the e.u. has approved a new global sanctions regime for human rights violations the block's foreign policy chief joseph burrell has called it a landmark agreement it will allow greater paean union good targets here's really great job uses violations of war why they're not going. to have a list discussion for any specific. well the sanction mechanism will target both individuals and entities involved in human rights violations worldwide those found guilty would be banned from entering the european union and have their assets frozen measures could only be previously taken against individuals and

organizations as part of a larger sanctions package against a specific country all 2070 states must unanimously agree on the new sanctions in order for them to be imposed. don't live on the line of a steven wall former member of the european parliament and briggs it campaigner very good to have you on steven your own is calling this act a global human rights sanctions regime what's your opinion on it is it likely to be effective it can be very effective but the question one has to ask is is a fair is it legitimate and is indeed going to help those who are really seeking to stop people from committing human rights abuses my personal view is that this is part of an ongoing kind of support for between the european union the united states and countries such as russia possibly even china where they no longer target the nation but they're seeking to target individuals who are not those who have

committed human rights abuses but actually appear to be friends or connected to those they deem to have committed to human rights abuse. just at the top of my head saudi arabia has been accused of all kinds of human rights violations in you does what 30000000000 dollars worth of trade with them will they use this mechanism do you think to sanction saudi arabia of any of the multitude of accusations or will business come 1st i think you know those countries business real come 1st and this is why you will see this kind of jew or pally of of kind of european union's. way of dealing with those that they don't like but keeping those that they do like or need on board the key thing that i see is concerning about this is the way that the for the opposition leader in the in russia alex nouvelle knee has said that we must target the money and the way that in the united states in the united kingdom and put 25 people on

a watch list for sanctions they included the doctors in the kremlin so what you will see here is they're trying to target people who happen to have money be friends of people like putin or the leaders of those in korea or china that they don't like you can watch what they did with the chief executive of who are we again this is part of economic warfare going on between 2 different regions of the world and this is yet another vehicle attack those who support the regime leaders in those countries i'm pretty sure any decent human being watching us right now would say ok this is a great thing protecting human rights and showing you know basic standards for anybody around the world but you know let's be honest politically we don't see that enforced in history are we seeing in realistic terms a weaponization of human rights. i think there has been a weaponization of a number of issues that are coming from the united nations we've seen the change of

language for example in relation to immigration that is no longer regarded as immigration but it's migration we've seen a language change in the united nations where they're going to enforce people who support moneys migration as to be deemed not the right language and therefore we should be targeting them this is part of a slippery slope of an overall world ideal where only those at the top in the united nations or the senior power countries can decide in d. who will be the right thinkers the right way of saying things and the right actions is a very dangerous slippery slope i believe it's weaponization not just of human rights but as language completely stephen thanks so much for tom pre-shared estaban with my guest former member of the european parliament i wraps it up for this hour precious your company to hear on r.t.l. return with.