the e.u. strikes a milestone deal with china removing barriers to investment and it comes after years of talks and in spite of resistance from washington. the british government puts most of england under the current toughest level of code restrictions as case numbers spiral following the discovery of a highly contagious new strain. that new variant of code has now been detected in the u.s. we chronicle a challenging year for the country worst hit by the pandemic. are broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our international i'm sean thomas certainly glad to have you with us now the e.u.

and china have struck a landmark deal after years of talks it opens up the chinese market to european investment while giving beijing and inroads to some strategic european projects. picks up the story for us. dealers almost being 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 country 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 came to 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 for. this isn't 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 poison a demonstration and 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 trances line to coalitions and brossel superiors 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. earlier we spoke with joseph gregory mahoney professor of politics at east china normal university he thinks both europe and china are trying to put ideology behind them and secure their economic interests. it is something that really appears to indicate a major shift in the aging concessions that got this you know what really came from the chinese side you know it's the postcode it reality where you know we all have to get things done deal with difficult times that are here and there 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 and i've seen a couple of negative comments some of the incoming by the ministration where they say that he looking forward to talking to europe about about china's unfair competition practices but i don't think that's the ministration pushing europe over this if i think it may encourage by them to take a softer position towards the e.u. in particular i think brussels is probably calculating that as well so we might see the us actually competing with concessions of its own. millions of people across england have just come under the u.k.'s toughest level of code restrictions known as tear for the measures entered into force from midnight thursday case numbers have soared since a new highly infectious strain of the virus was detected the country's health

secretary perhaps predicting a national uproar has said that 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 4 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 more regions entering turf or that includes the north east of england north west the south east 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 bow 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

tight a set of restrictions as much to do with today being the 3rd day the 3rd consecutive day that we have seen the daily cases absolutely at a peak is not really basically means that the 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 strands of 191 seemingly even originating here in the u.k. one apparently every thing in south africa all of this i was 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 was your. question it's to. control you start having to make it incredibly difficult decision to decide who

gets an ambulance and. quite often with she has numbers of people waiting. susan i know you 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 a top up that's around 95 percent even so the united kingdom has ordered 100000000 doses the 1st batch could be rolled out as soon as next week a huge improvement 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 the where 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 is really difficult to be quite positive here in the united kingdom of course britain has been dubbed plague ireland after the last few weeks it's easy to see why remember just a few months ago boris johnson promised the u.k. that it would be normality by christmas and really we've already done christmas and

it couldn't be. your all just xabi are going to told us the latest surgeon confections couldn't have come at a more challenging time for hospitals in the u k. you know it's a very challenging situation. in brenda's tremendous stress at this moment it is much worse than what we were seeing in march of dying and mind you these are the crunch window months and it is always in pressure in these critical months and electives one gets going and all of that we've got a pandemic so putting the 2 together it's highly challenging it's very very difficult to manage to balance the situation we've already links in a vision to be were gunned or constraints or any. of the 2 situations in which you have to make a decision between life and dead but it is surprising to begin there unfortunately and you have to be ignored because you have to still run

a so this and of the population at large. the new covered strain has now spread from the u.k. to the u.s. and has been detected in colorado while across the country the state of new york is bracing for a new surge and cases as well. we have been talking about potential for spread during christmas as america struggles to deal with the effects of the pandemic our u.s. correspondent to caleb moppin has been looking back at an especially grim 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 hit 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 their troll you wouldn't mind has only grown old boy. so if you want to talk about the row. it's part of that i mean if you send if you sent over if you sent us it's really it's been tough it's been one of the hardest moments of my life it's been really challenging and when burnt down we're we come in every day are not getting support

from our managers cars 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. else where you was the international community. we was the who. of experts to w.h.o. . to see these to you going to. of agencies we were reasonably when we were you we 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 hard 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 covert 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 forget this thing is not going away so 6300 people died in new york nursing homes that is the most in this country really needs to be able to challenge this wish that 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. and . 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 the 2020 will go down as one of the worst years in the history of new york city caleb mop and r.t. new york the chaos has ramped up in yemen with blasts and gunfire killing over 20 people details on that coming up after a short break this is our 2 international. some people would associate optimism with risky behavior because they don't want to invite the trolls they don't want to invite the state they don't want to invite the c.m.

they don't want to invite all kinds of trouble that comes with optimistic think throughout history optimists have been punished it could be galileo it could be copernicus it could be einstein it could be all sorts of be steve jobs and they were punished for their optimism but now there is no punishment for relentless optimism. the world is driven by a dream shaped by. the day or thinks. we dare to ask.

about this is our chief international know at least 20 people are dead and scores injured after a wave of explosions and gunfire in the yemeni port city of aden the red cross says one of its staff is among those lost and 3 others are wounded. in the. first attack happened at 8 in the airport just after a plane carrying newly appointed yemeni government officials flew in from saudi arabia a local t.v. channel caught the explosion on camera when people were disembarking from the aircraft it was followed by gunfire and several smaller blasts local reporters say the. port was hit by mortar and drone strikes the passengers were driven straight to the presidential palace where another explosion took place so far no group has claimed responsibility but officials are blaming hutu rebels former pentagon

analyst michael maloof believes there are other possible culprits as well. in terms of that attack that was intriguing because again the who thiis denied it and people point even though people have pointed fingers there's a possibility that it was also. isis isis was rolling back in yemen it was almost decimated a few years ago and their concentration seems now to be in the aden area and they would love to create disruption and create power vacuums in those areas and and create the kind of turmoil that we continue to see in them. the latest tragedy in yemen comes right after washington gave the green light for 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 of a g.b.u. $39.00 small diameter bomb one munitions and related equipment for an estimated

cost of $290000000.00 the trumpet ministration approved that agreement less than a month before the next president is slated to enter the white house and it follows billions of dollars worth of weapons exports from the us to saudi arabia in recent years it is happening despite repeated warnings over the spiraling civilian deaths in the saudi led bombing of yemen which has been ongoing since march 2015. the saudi led coalition and the who own troops 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. there are several other arab nations sealing last minute deals with the ongoing are the outgoing us administration quaid is about to buy attack helicopters with $4000000000.00 and egypt is set to receive defense and targeting gear worth around 170000000 michael maloof again thinks that

the flow of u.s. weapons to the saudis could be short lived. this is part of trump's effort to keep arabia. well armed and to try and use its influence to. subside administration may actually put the kibosh on it biden himself as issues with saudi arabia and in addition ensues meekly congress does as well it's and the congress has 30 days in which to disapprove and this is the period in which that would happen so and it would and the 30 day period would be a 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. looking at some other stories around the world this hour in syria terrorists have attacked a passenger bus in dare as zoar province killing at least 25 people according to

state media it happened near the iraqi border on a highway leading to palmira formally an islamic state stronghold the jihadi group no longer occupies any significant territory in syria but they are reportedly attempting to regroup in the desert. on to lebanon where riot police have clashed with students at a top university in beirut protesters tried to storm the main campus angry that despite a coded link to economic crisis tuition fees are being doubled also. tens of thousands of pro-choice activists erupted in cheers as argentina's senate voted to legalize abortion a deeply divisive issue in the catholic majority country people celebrated the decision by throwing green smoke bombs the color of the pro-choice movement argentina becomes the 1st major latin american state to make that move. meanwhile

health workers in argentina have received the 1st doses. of russia's sputnik convene as a mass covert vaccination campaign gets underway it is the 3rd country after russia and belarus to approve the shot argentinian president alberto for 9 days has dismissed western doubts over the russian job crying that he called a politically driven smear campaign he also said international trade wars over vaccines are holding back efforts to get the drugs to where they are most needed. there is a very vicious dispute going on very cruel dispute and it's 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 since the whole world is eager for the vaccine there's a geo political dispute who will be the want to distribute the vaccine our sister channel our spanish has been reporting from outside of vaccination center in the capital buenos aires. we'll 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 of 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 virus 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 end. 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 though a new stage for us the largest vaccination campaign in the history of the province of when a serious begin this morning and this is a vaccine that not only prevents disease. but also represents a real triumph of aleutian in the fight against coronavirus the campaign will involve around 7800 vaccinations centers as a whole distributing doses 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 11th major positive effect against the virus. we heard from latin american analyst francisco domingo as he thinks some countries are waging an

information campaign against the russian vaccine and he's a sort of effort to create a call all other laws fear deeply by the united states but also by some of the european car. and d.c. stating the typically in russia and china i see no reason needs that they have to come to the conclusion that they suffered a massive feat with the fighting against that and then it because these countries china russia and a few others actually have demonstrated that if you have a set if you put people before profits if you actually cared about the population rather than anything else then the results of you know demonstrably good whereas if you were to compare the formants all european countries the united kingdom but also the united states where you don't have subsidy close look at us to pretend that the reason why there isn't huge campaign unfortunately she's bored by it was the media

and the occasional riots in t.n.a. supported by conservative forces around mackley and my prison who created them asked the question we're going to leave the country controllers here where the jobs . 33 minutes that's where i will be back with another look at your news this is arch international stay with us. an entire village in alaska has had to move if another country trying to wipe out an american town. we do everything in our power to protect the. water they escaping climate change poses the same threat right now alaska seems 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 and

means the river is $35.00 closer than how. was your more i think were a part of america 1st from. is your media a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation or community. are you going the right way or are you being lead somewhere. die away. what is true what is faith. in a world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the

depths. or remain in the shallows. has changed american lives but pharmaceutical companies have a miraculous solution. based drugs the people who are chronic pain and believe that their prescription is working for them in the remedy be certain to. price that they pay closer dependence and addiction to opiates the long term use that really isn't scientifically justified and our study actually suggested that the long term effects may not just be absence of benefit but actually that they may be causing long term.

this is tommy. has certainly killed off might sound russian but tommy is a real friend who lives in finland. his name is pete and the river involved also. tonight told me he's heading for russia to take part in the european ice speedway championship. not many people know about this on the usual sports but motorcycle racing on ice is tommy's true passion. officially the nordic countries are considered the birthplace of ice racing but it quickly caught on in russia. speedway is beautiful to explain.