this hour's headlines stories. deal with china removing barriers to investment. talks resistance from. the british government. current level of restrictions case spiral following the discovery of a highly contagious strain. has not been detected in the u.s. . challenging year for the country worst hit by the pandemic. just

after 8 in the evening here in moscow on this wednesday the 30th of december 2020 my names you know neal you're welcome to r.t. . the e.u. china. deal 7 years old talks it opens up the chinese market to european investment while giving beijing in wrote to some strategic european projects taking up the story for us this hour r.t. charlotte. this deal is almost been several is in the making between the e.u. in china and they've really pushed the boat out to get it done before the end of 2020 essentially it means that there is the opportunity for the e.u. for investment in certain industries this is companies within the e.u. to be able to invest in areas of china before it had barriers around them such as the financial sector and the health sector for china it means that there is this possibility of investing in renewable energy so this is something on the table for

each side in this and this deal has been described by many as being the most ambitious deal that china has ever struck with a nation country tomorrow's post covered world needs a strong e.u. china relationship to build forward better but this requires cooperation reciprocity and trust especially in our trade and investment relationship but this deal comes with a huge amount of criticism many have said that the e.u. is far too soft on china on issues such as labor rights and human rights in fact some e.u. countries said they were unhappy with the fact that the e.u. hadn't done enough to secure those issues these countries were countries such as the netherlands and belgium and the was also criticism from some e.u. parliament ariens who said you know essentially this didn't tackle issues such as hong kong and that of the weaker muslims in china e.u. china investment agreements we gained access to the documents and it's extremely

light and human rights and slavery as i feared the french declinations on putting an end to forced labor as a condition for a deal which just empty words hate from the land the european commission president well just as a bro you should raise recent human rights issues when you talk to see what they steal is also to likely to rub up the wrong way the new incoming. resident of the united states joe biden just a few weeks ago the e.u. said he wanted to coordinate its interaction its issues with china with the pardon a demonstration in yet just weeks before he takes office it's decided to push ahead with this deal some of those who have suggested that china was going soft on the e.u. in a way of perhaps ramping up those tensions the main deliverable from the genes point of view was to drive a wedge in trying to coalitions and bras also piers to have complied it's just mind

boggling that the you would even consider rushing to a green investment pact with beijing weeks before biden takes office after claiming for several years that they wanted transatlantic cooperation on china while the e.u. has rejected that criticism saying that washington has done its own deals over trade and investment with china under the trumpet ministration so that's boy the boy but regardless of the geopolitics surrounding this deal what is clear is that angle of merkel wanted to get it done before the e.u. presidency transfers to another country next year and it seems for her because she believes that this gives the e.u. a more level playing field the gates china that trumps everything else. no 2 just of gregory mahoney professor of politics to east china normal you know 1st the just good to have you on the program we'll get perhaps to the more pertinent interesting details in a moment but just what our correspondent was going through near the end there at

the u.s. clearly on the deal between the china the white house has called it a propaganda win for beijing what's your view. well i think it is clear. especially. given the earlier success that they had negotiating our c.e.p.t. i think it gives them some momentum in diplomatic affairs. you know at the end of a very difficult year not only for china but everyone many sectors in china have until now know better than most being pretty much closed to foreign investment how much access is europe actually going to have here how much of a game changer is this. well it is something that really appears to indicate a major shift in the aging concessions that got this you know top really came from the chinese side but i think one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that

in many respects it's particularly in financial services it's really just keeping pace with the deal that was already negotiated with phase one with the united states so i don't see this is a major major change i think this should have been expected and i both because china had said they expected to reach this you know by the end of this year that said you know china certainly over the past year has faced difficulties with australia india and the u.s. and this gives them a chance to lock up a market share it's going to come at the expense of having open up certain parts of their economy but again i think that was already the trend already some of the direction that beijing was headed what about the timing of when it's actually helping the agreements gone through just weeks before joe biden takes office do you think beijing was in to submitting some resistance from the incoming administration . well it's clear that by you know aims to reset relations with the e.u.

. you know trump has taken such a difficult position or is it you actively encourage bret's that actually encouraged no human rights but i think i think you know as the leader noted before the e.u. presidency would shift to another country before merkel steps now before voting comes in i think all these were factors to get it done yeah it's interesting though isn't it like aside from the short term public politics of it just have is this a direction the e.u. is heading in economically is it shifting away somewhat from washington and looking closer to the east than there are for china. i don't think so i think that again that this is something that's been in the works for 7 years it really is just keeping pace with the deal that was negotiated with washington phase one. and you know it's the postbox it postcode it reality where you know we all have to get

things done and deal with reality. deal with difficult times that are here and there to come and the need to step away from i think ideal ideology and ideological standards that are putting food on the table or products on people's shelves this is this is just where things are at this point from words looking into to a deal like this it looks as if the deal opens up the chinese market to european affairs but china already had plenty of access to europe so just in a nutshell really what those beijing stand to gain. well in a nutshell what they gain is protect market existing market share and again as i said because this is something that has been a miss an australia the united states and india but it also opens up new opportunities for one of the areas where china is a leader in renewable energy and to be honest i think that the thing that beijing

was was perhaps most worried about the labor related visions i think beijing will use this sometimes china needs an external pressure to to reform domestic matters i think that there are a lot of people in beijing who want to have this type of policy so they could discipline themselves and so i think that will be ultimately a positive for china they have very interesting thanks very much for you this hour joseph thanks for coming the progress of gregory mahoney professor of politics at east china norman university. millions of people across england are about to be placed under the current toughest level of covert restrictions known as tier 4 case numbers have soared since the new highly infectious strain of the virus was the tech did the country's health secretary perhaps predicting a national opera were around this time particularly as said there was no other choice. the new variant means that 3 quarters of the population are now going to be

4 and almost all of the country into 3 and you and i know that 3 in 3 measures place a significant burden on people and especially on businesses affected but i'm afraid it's absolutely necessary because of the number of cases that we've see so as of one minute past midnight here in the united kingdom all regions will be entering to fall that includes the north east of england northwest they will be joining the south east of england and in fact that takes a total of 3 quarters of the population will be in the type to set of restrictions of course the rules in that area is to stay at home now experts are warning there that to 4 is not even going far enough and many say that what's needed is a full scale national lockdown to try and take control of this virus nothing on that though from westminster nor was there any talk of a to 5 of course we've heard some rumors circulating over the past few days that potentially there could even be

a tear 5 coming out of all of this nothing on that either but this latest set of tide to set of restrictions as much to do with today being the 3rd day the 3rd consecutive day that we've seen the daily cases absolutely at a peak basically means that this 2nd wave of 19 is much harsher and much worse than the 1st wave and of course we've just been seeing in the last few weeks these 2 mutant strands of 191 seemingly even originating here in the u.k. one apparently average meeting in south africa all of this so is placing a huge amount of pressure on the n.h.s. many say that the n.h.s. of ta it and frustrated but it's also coming being quite apparent in the hospitals within themselves we're seeing a shortage of styles but also a shortage of bed spaces as well. control groups are having to make incredibly difficult decision to decide who gets

an ambulance and what order quite often with huge numbers of people waiting from you and susan and they have nobody left to send while working behind the scenes is the medical and science professionals and some good news coming from them because the latest vaccination has just been approved in the united kingdom by the u.k.'s medicines regulator that's the oxford university astra zeneca vaccination being the 2nd one here in the united kingdom following of course the pfizer biotech vaccine just a few weeks ago so studies show so far that the full 2 doses provides around 62 to 90 percent efficacy the biotech there was much further ahead and much further advanced when it comes to the effectivity of it because after top up this stuff that's around 95 percent even so the united kingdom has ordered $100000000.00 doses the 1st batch could be rolled out as soon as next week a huge improvement though on the biotech vaccination is that this latest one only

needs to be stored in room temperature and normal fridge temperature as opposed to minus 70 degrees so this one is much more easily transported as with the 1st vaccination this one also is going to be abiding by a priority list at the top of the list of courses the over 80 is the elderly but also staff on the frontline as well much like though when the united kingdom 1st approved the bio on tech vaccination the e.u. said actually the u.k. is really rushing things through and the e.u. will be taking their time with things we need additional data about the quality of the vaccine and after that the company has to formally apply but even with this vaccination it is really difficult to be quite positive here in the united kingdom of course britain has been dubbed plague either and after the last few weeks it's easy to see why i remember just a few months ago boris johnson promised. do you care that it would be normality by christmas and rarely we've already done christmas and it couldn't be last. well the

new covert strain being spoken about has no spread from the u.k. to the u.s. it has been detected in colorado that serves the state of new york braces for a new surge in cases we have been talking about potential for spring during christmas as america struggles to deal with the effects of the pandemic or u.s. corresponding killer has been looking back alone especially tough year for the city dubbed the epicenter of the crisis new york. they call it the big apple and in 2020 that apple got a giant one minute and that worm is known as ovid when a national emergency was 1st declared in the city back in march many panicked.

stores soon had empty shelves. the hospital soon had capacity and emergency tents were set up in central park. there was a shortage of protective equipment like masks and hand sanitizer health care workers took to the streets to protest they're told to you wouldn't ask only old boy. so if you want to talk about the row. it's part of that i mean if you send if you send over if you send to us it's really it's been tough it's been one of the hardest moments in my life it's been really challenging

and we were burnt out we're we come in every day and are not getting support from our managers are you know our government is telling us we can wear a simple bandana we don't have many noted that in circumstances like this we had local officials blaming everyone but themselves we was the whole international health community we was the whole national shows of experts the w.h.o. d.n.i. to see these the then all of that soup of agencies we were reasonably when we were you. where was the intelligence community with the brief. videos of trucks used as temporary morgue to do to an overflow of dead bodies became a horrifying emblem of the era.

new york city's heart island became a graveyard amid the overflow of dead bodies. one of the ugliest scandals involved nursing homes at the end of march andrew cuomo the new york state governor ordered coded patients to be sent to nursing homes for the elderly now this order was revised on the 11th of may but it was far too late the death toll in new york's nursing homes was approximately 4800 people remember that the elderly are the most vulnerable such a poorly calculated move is pretty hard to forgive this thing is not going away sir 6300 people died in new york nursing homes that is the most in this country really needs to be able to challenge this wish to leave you would do it you're in a little bit of criticism of your very much like there was

a glimmer of hope over the summer but then a 2nd wave came when it got cold the new lock downs have had a devastating effect on the economy restaurant owners and workers have taken to the streets. while the state was crashing and burning with the rising body count andrew cuomo took the opportunity to write a book about his personal achievements. 2021 doesn't look like it's bringing any relief either national health officials are

warning us that january could be devastating without substantial mitigation the middle of january could be a really dark time for us some say that the lockdown was imposed too late others are saying that cuts in health care facilities and the closing of hospitals over the past decade have played a role regardless of why there's no question that 2020 will go down as one of the worst years in the history of new york city. r.t. new york. ok from north to south america where health workers in argentina have received the 1st doses of russia's sputnik. vaccination campaign gets underway there argentina has become the 3rd country after russia to approve the shot president alberto fernandez has this mr western for the russian seen crying what he called a politically driven smear campaign he also said international trade wars over

vaccines are holding back efforts to get the drugs they're most needed. from there's a very vicious dispute going on very cruel dispute and a shameful one where by some discredit how this and i think the 1st thing to bear in mind is that a trade war has been unleashed also says the whole world is eager for the vaccine there's a geo political dispute who will be the one to distribute the vaccine on our sister channel or to spanish has been reporting from outside the vaccination center in the capital buenos aires. they will be remembered in argentina as the start of the biggest vaccination ever carried out in the country has received 300000 doses of v. now the focus is on monitoring the vaccination of medical workers and hospital staff caring for people infected with coded 19 they were the 1st to receive the vaccine across medical centers they worked hard to tackle the virus but it's been difficult not least because some of even seeing colleagues lose their lives the

delivery of the vaccines cause for dismissal. this is a ray of hope for us it's like we've crossed the line of fire and are now moving forward against this damned byron we had a very difficult year there was a lot of fear this is a great hope for us and i'm eternally grateful on behalf of all of the nurses. i am satisfied i am very happy these are the emotions that come to my mind now i remember our colleagues who died because they worked in the health sector and happy because this should and. in the province more than 300000 people signed up for voluntary vaccination with the provincial governor who was the 1st to be vaccinated in the region detail the significance of this new step in the fight it gives the pandemic. it seems to me today is the beginning of a new stage for us largest vaccination campaign in the history of the province of when osiris begin this morning and this is

a vaccine that not only prevents disease. but also represents a real triumph as supergroup aleutian in the fight against girl the virus the campaign will involve around $7800.00 vaccination centers as a whole of distributing those is brought from russia everyone vaccinated will be supervised for possible side effects as well as to inform when a 2nd round of vaccines arrives more than 20000000 doses are expected to be delivered by february of a major positive effect against the virus. ok moving on now a german lawmaker has suggested that cole would restrictions could provide a template for a fighting climate change. his views in an opinion piece for a newspaper. there will never be a vaccine against c o 2 so we need measures for tackling climate change there are similar to the restrictions of personal freedom in the pandemic the social democratic party lawmaker who is also an epidemiologist admitted his idea is unlikely to ever happen

use our fire storm all social media. to this and pretty much everything that is t not climate friendly could be banned the struggle for freedom will never end a lot about it is already proposing look down like measures to combat climate change let's enjoy the festive season and gather strength for the demonstrations and resistance against state violence in 2021 at about the same time the covert log downs and the lockdown for climate change begins since we have been so willing to give up our freedoms lockdowns will now be routine or we asked our guest for their views on the proposal. do we have the sure. is one that simply hasn't worked in the code the presence of the genuine emergency and the will respond and we are the shooter. doing kroger across

needs to be tackled with this is much good we do not need to look at the kind of the effect of the term occur reduction during the long run here it is the equivalent to taking $100.00 the degree centigrade over the global warming that we expect or experience for 2030 and we need something which is much effect but also something which struck in cruising done in the strewn society actually starts a new industry which will. make us better off and allowed us to live large to food but in a much cleaner and less in poor blocked ounce where where a certain except for the 1st time around right. now we've got in such a mass that i think this is the reason why we're getting so many problems or people of anger votes out i don't think anyone has any world ready and enjoys locking

countries down we've lost control of this virus testing trace has been a complete mass a complete waste of money climate change would be similar especially much the uk government generation because i have a reason for doing it so you know what to happens to be chirpy time it's an economically wealthy conscious liberal the per money drain by paying for. the reply to the carried $19.00 money completely wasted which they could of course ensued environmental projects to help our well country bridger issues are with that with the top country well the rest of the world is not so much of a problem but this is i reached my reach to get any personal freedoms whatsoever. a nother deadly day in yemen at least 20 people have been killed scores more injured in a wave of explode. gunfire in the port city of aden the red cross said one of its stuff is among the dead 3 others are wounded.

i. think. the 1st attack happened at an airport just after a plane carrying newly appointed yemeni government officials flew in from saudi arabia a local t.v. channel called the exclusion on camera you can see people were just in barking the earth it was followed up by gunfire several smaller blast as well local reporters say the airport was hit by mortar drone strikes the passengers were driven straight to the presidential palace where another explosion took place there so far no group has claimed responsibility but officials are blaming the revelled former pentagon michael maloof though believes there could be other possible culprits in terms of that attack it was intriguing because of the who thiis denied it and people are pointing even though people are pointing fingers there's a possibility that it was also. isis isis is growing back in yemen and

it was almost decimated a few years ago and their concentration seems now to be in the area and they would love to create the structure and create power vacuums in those areas and and create the kind of turmoil that we continue to see in yemen. well this latest tragedy in yemen comes right after the u.s. state department gave the green light to a $290000000.00 arms deal with saudi arabia the state department has made a determination approving a possible foreign military sale to the kingdom of saudi arabia $39.00 small diameter bomb one munitions and related equipment for an estimated cost of $290000000.00. the trump administration approved of agreement with less than a month ago before the next president takes office has billions of dollars worth of weapons exports from the u.s.

to saudi arabia in recent years it's happening despite repeated warnings of the spiral civilian deaths in the saudi led bombing of yemen which has been ongoing since march 25th. the saudi led coalition and the group fighting since march 25th seen are responsible for laws of war violations and human rights abuses the conflict has killed and injured thousands of civilians well there are several other are a nation sealing last minute deals with the outgoing us administration kuwait is about to buy attack helicopters worth $4000000000.00 egypt is set to receive defense and targeting gear worth around $170000000.00 michael maloof again thinks the flow of u.s. weapons to saudi could be short lived says paratroops efforts to keep the arabia. well armed and to try and use its influence of iran the biden administration may actually quit the combustion biden himself as issues

with saudi arabia and in addition the congress does as well and the congress has 30 days in which to disapprove and this is the period in which that would happen so and it worked and the 30 day period would be up during the new biden administration should he be sworn in and that will be and he could biden could put a hold on it at that point. now it's been labeled one of the biggest wake up calls in years babies being born with plastic already in their system. directed the single and use polish in iraq and us watching all of us delve into other war moments.

an entire village in alaska has had to move if another country trying to wipe out an american town. we do everything up our protect the. water then escaping climate change is the same threat right now alaska does seem some of the fastest coastal erosion in the world we lost about 35 feet. 35 feet of ground in just about 3 months while we were measuring. is fast paced the river is $35.00 closer to the hour than was. i think were part of her thirst for.