on the question of the american dream and their compassion if you dream this war. in the headlines this new year's eve being glued extends covert restrictions on the number of areas affected as the rate of infections spirals following the discovery of a new highly contagious strain of the virus. elsewhere the e.u. strikes a milestone trade deal with china removing key barriers to investment becomes after years of talks and despite the incoming biden administration demanding it be consulted ahead of the deal. we speak to some of the medical workers around the world who've become the unsung heroes in the year of the pandemic. and they seem people dying in the scene people coming in they can't breathe we have to be away and now what we want then. is what we have to do all.

good day from moscow this 31st of december and as the 1st places around the world samoa and kiribati right now welcome in a brand new year congratulations to you guys stella 2020 kevin owen here in russia with the update from r.t. international's world news h.q. and 1st of all a miserable topic this become all so familiar this year covidien the latest today is that 3 quarters of england's been placed in the toughest stay at home for restrictions as covert cases saw after a new highly infectious strain of the virus was detected health hancock said he had no choice but to bring in new measures. the new variant means that 3 quarters of the population on now going to be 4 and almost all of the country into 3 of 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 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 of the 3rd consecutive day that we've 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 mutant strands of 191 seemingly even originating here in the u.k. one apparently have written a thing in south africa all of this so 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 gosh last. question it's to. control you start having to make incredibly difficult decision to decide who gets an ambulance and. quite often with. 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 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 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 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. pretty grim join your reward the national hospital doctors unions want to hold services over worlds to the point where clinics may soon face horrendous choices over denying some code patients lifesaving treatment. we got reaction from medical experts. it is one of those very unfortunate situations in which surely you have heard it was that look at here and. look at the latest inhibition to be. constraints or any situation in which you have to make a decision between late and. grow to begin there unfortunately and you have to be right mostly because you have to still run as others and of the nation at large unless we are strict in enforcing this tears it only becomes very symbolic there's a lot of i would call it the wood for the trees stuff here with the weary and

strain because i would like to say you still need to get infected whether it is the old strain or the new strain it is dropping your guard from infection that causes you to get infected rather than we now have a new strain and therefore it is the fault of the new strain making all these infections maybe more infectious but still if we exercise infection control you can protect yourself. from medical workers have become the unsung heroes of 2020 rising to the occasion time and again and saving lives often a considerable risk to their own health we speak to some of those people direct on the front lines of the worldwide battle against the corona virus pandemic. that phone was going every 15 minutes every 10 minutes as the nurse put one down it would ring again and it became so frightening because the patients or why it made me into the hospital. for me working throughout that covert is same by to

a patient and knowing that come back tomorrow and their bed is being. made to fresh because they died and we're seeing people die in the scene people coming in they can't breathe well having to put people out because they can't breathe because of covert 19 and then you've got people protested why do why are you looking so i feel as nurses most health care professionals it's quite difficult it's difficult for us you know i remember having a patient who. she would say that she looked classical music i remember she was classical music so why did these during my break i was able to go out and get my photo i put the music on my phone and then i put it into a plastic bag and then i was able to when i went back in i was able to just played music and just knowing that she could see the happiness usually you see somebody

decline. and you kind of she or you want to see peavy or you feel like something's wrong they don't look right but this was sort of like they feed off hey and then all this started you find out they're not ok not only they're not afraid. i don't feel like. a human being who simply cares. wants to help them and make a difference so we have to. show what we want to. do what we have to be told. i'm proud of all of us. we're going to. be. when we want to. make a decision. maybe we can play a little bit more and maybe we can be and how they make that decision so that we can make marriage. and impact all of us were running low on oxygen and supplies

on you know other respiratory drugs definitely bad definitely staff this is not over this is far from over that scenes are not going to i mean yes they're going to help but it's going to take a lot of time before we could vaccinate everyone. at the start there wasn't enough equipment we had to come up with impromptu protective gear repurpose it so that we could take patients it's obvious that the whole european continent was not prepared for such a pandemic not only spain turns out there was no centralized organized policy in any of the affected countries including spain even to this day spain has many different communities each with their own understanding of how to deal with the pandemic disagreements of the lock down risk the strong communities controlled by opposition parties because they do almost a 100 percent of the opposite of what the health ministry to do no mistakes throughout the whole year starting from not closing airports not implementing controls on everyone entering spain from other countries bodies and demonstrations

were allowed for too long many protesters took to the streets without masks obviously that was a huge mistake because we did not manage to stop the virus we should have been ahead of it including no small steps that are still affecting the current situation potentially to devastated parts of the population is even worse it's always late and not enough from the 1st wave in spain the maybe even during in march and april it became clear that the european union's a gigantic structure that's not working where equipment is stolen really has to ask you burn russia for help after failing to get aid in europe in spain when they are not in the 2nd wave but the 3rd remission stage i got the 4 as a vaccine i would have liked to get the sputnik the vaccine but it's unlikely to arrive here in spain with the current narrative with the virus has been made into a political and ideological issue we're going into tough days because people are objecting to vaccination antibiotics as bring home with their lies and manipulation in the media it's our every day struggles. through the unprecedented turmoil of

2020 of them there are some who are making unprecedented profits we're talking multi billionaire bosses while publicly expressing solidarity with all those who are suffering also pocketing extraordinary earnings this year. 2020 the year that won't be missed coronavirus current virus a covert 19 entire health care system is on the very brink of collapse lockdown short major health crisis hospitals and health care workers are bracing for an onslaught of growth of virus patients storing unemployment numbers and so many workers are still hurting very badly as the economy starts to tank hunger. and mass unemployment collapsed businesses whole industries brought to their knees stability security and choice just wiped out we're hearing the same refrain all around the world families are very worried as they are forced to make impossible decisions do they risk the disease as they go out to earn money to buy food will stay home and

watch their children go hungry but as some plunged into dire financial straits others soared to unimaginable heights how well it turns out that a pandemic is just the thing to how take the video conferencing up didn't even exist before 2020 no one knows will it exist after 2020 no one knows and given its c.e.o. pocketed 17000000000 dollars this year i doubt he's having sleepless nights also sleeping soundly jeff bezos with people border home imus and harvey blockbuster a year but according to the richest man or not just who made $75000000.00 as the global economy just crashed and bought and apparently it wasn't all fun and games. there is no instruction manual for how to feel at a time like this and i know this causes stress for everyone my list of worries right now like yours i'm sure is long for my own children parents friends to the

safety of you my colleagues to those who are already very sick and to the brutal home that will be caused by the economic fallout across our communities well that might not be a manual but that is math and it shows that bezos could give $105000.00 bonus to every single amazon waka and still be as rich as he was at the start of the pandemic but he didn't what did happen was grueling lockdown shifts like safety protocols and no moscow and firing people who spoke out. made a problem with it or that they have a relief you don't you just do it but you trust the virus it's like what you think it's like they want you to get sick you know here you know what the world is not

enough to even. believe on this about protection well he was the body that workers will college of business and other c.e.o.'s as pandemic profiteers who have made billions while putting workers and their families friends and neighbors at risk if you think you couldn't beat making 75000000000 a year but you can just ask you know musk he might have been broken 2008 but he'll raked in 123000000000 in 2020 and when the cash is flowing you know wanted to stop. all of them. forcibly imprisoning people in their homes. might. break the people's freedoms and want to bring. more people. into america country. and. so instead of forcibly imprisoning people in their homes musk courage

people to get back to work all face starvation and get infected on no pay what set lethal virus off to roll you know you're talking about saving humanity but these are humans that die in the process everybody dies 2020 the a one man could afford to just blow up his rocket while hundreds of millions are left picking up the pieces of that lives. it's quarter past the hour here in moscow coming up the e.u. and china agree a milestone investment deal after years of talks to try to get there but washington is owning agree it wasn't consulted before there was the but you phase in more detail what. some people would associate optimism with risky behavior because they don't want to live like the trolls they don't want to incite the state they don't want to invite

the c.e.o. they don't want to invite all kinds of trouble that comes with optimistic saying throughout history optimists have been punished it could be galileo it could be copernicus it could be einstein it could be all sorts of big steve jobs and they were punished for their optimism but now there's no punishment for relentless optimism. and almost seemed wrong. why don't we all just don't call. me. yet to shape out these days become active. and engaged equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

brussels in beijing of signed a massive landmark trade deal then after years of talks to get there it opens up the chinese market to e.u. investment while giving beijing an inroad to strategic european projects too but as r.t. shiela do bensky explains next washington is not at all happy about it. this deal is almost been several is in the making between the e.u. and 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 came to access to the documents and it's extremely light and human rights and slavery as i feared the french declarations on putting an end to forced labor as a condition for a deal which just empty words hey from the land the european commission president. brill you should raise recent human rights issues when you talk to see how they steal is also to likely to rub up the wrong way the new incoming for. hasn'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 boys in 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 jim's

point of view was to drive a wedge in tranches line to coalitions and brussels appears 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 after us 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. i spoke to professor benjamin cho the paris school of business he told me the u.s. still has a cold war mindset and ignores the benefits of the deal. the u.s.

is china's largest trading partner and the same is true by say so and even the tray is larger the trade between the u.s. and the u.s. the 1st 3 quarters so in that sense it's nothing i think it's a win win situation china 'd used to have. investment like many countries we have sections in education national security and by no means but scenes china has now 23 treatments in 2014 we have attracted a lot of money in all of the free trade so you know from the pandemic we know that there really. is both in the united states in europe and in china in many areas of collaboration depend then make the crime a change over the elevation and there were no initiate and so on the u.s. is helping still having a cold war minds it so i think we need to have

a bigger mindset more open to to look for gains is. some other news to brief you on today at least 26 people have been killed and scores injured in a wave of explosions and attacks on the yemeni port city of aden on wednesday the red cross says it stuff are among the dead and wounded. i say was the 1st attack today just after a plane carrying newly appointed yemeni government officials flew in from saudi arabia did a local t.v. channel caught the explosion on camera as people were leaving the aircraft it was followed by gunfire more blasts local reporters say the airport was also hit by a mortar drone strikes to those passengers were rushed to the presidential palace where another explosion took place so far no groups claimed behind it but officials are blaming who's the rebels the bigger picture. saudi arabia is leading a u.s.

backed bombing campaign of yemen against those rebels and the attacks come just a day after washington approved another huge $290000000.00 deal to supply more bombs to rear the contractor than $2000000000.00 weapons exports from the u.s. to saudi arabia that still spike repeated warnings on the spiraling civilian death toll from riyadh 5 year campaign so the officials claim their attacks are to stop a raid influence in the region but rights groups warn the outcome is an acceptable . the saudi led coalition and the group fighting since march 25th seen are responsible for laws of war violations in human rights abuses the conflict has killed and injured thousands of civilians. the going trump of ministrations rushing through other vast arms deals to the region to kuwait to buy $4000000000.00 worth of attack helicopters and egypt set to get defense and targeting gear with

around 170000000 security expert michael maloof thinks there's a good reason to why arms deals are being rushed through right now. this is part of trump's effort to keep the arabia. well armed and to use its influence of iran the biden administration may actually put the kibosh on 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. and it would and the 30 day period would be asked during the new year by an illustration should he be smaller and he could provide you could put a hold on a at that point. so some final thoughts the last 12 months maybe a year like no other

a but through the pandemic people's resourcefulness and creativity shone through didn't it already wait and see ruptly is captured some of the most touching highlights of 2020 happy and sad now before we show you that i'm kevin 0 in big season's greetings from may on the team be on the scene thanks for watching r.t. our channel in 2020 and we sincerely hope you continue to watch as in 2021 as well you're the reason we do it we'll leave you this hour with some of the sights and sounds of the year just about to go. it's a little a symbol gets a good moment to put aida us and then that is good because you hold but i guess in

one of the album age. 60. 6. he. would be i know that the good old lady i mean he's the last public out of this one of a couple of the rest of them as i. say on of us all scholars on the way i mean saw a lot about it call it the mozart the mumble the cup i don't know it was an idea.

through 6. every year with great pleasure to be answered questions from our viewers and this year is no different as usual your questions focus on future must be events my panel in a speech. join me every 1st week on

the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to get a feel of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then . play has changed american lives but pharmaceutical companies have a miraculous solution. based drugs talk to people who are chronic pain patients and believe that their prescription is working for them on the remedy be set to no price at the. worse or dependency and addiction to opiates to long term use that really isn't scientifically justified and i'll study actually suggested that the long term effects may not just be the absence of benefit but actually that they may because they want to.

mask geyser and these are the new year's eve festivities where. stacy right next the theme of our new year's eve special is. relentless optimism relentless relentless relentless optimism this is a work of art here by the way from chief monkey and mosaic rocks their team that sold this via our action on scarcity and the 1st lightning auction so that's really loved this optimism that is the bitcoin response to the famous economist headline from 1988 this is from january 9th

1988 get ready for a waltz currency also some historic stuff like can't britain keep booming that's what they were asking in 1988 and perestroika its 1st test says you know we're still back into a cold war britain is not booming and that in fact is sinking under mire it's mired in debt like most other countries in the world but we have relentless optimism max for 2021 oh yeah relentless optimism was in me was i mean was it me well you know in the past optimism has been. met with the forces of pessimism in the forces of can't do is of course there is america can is a star called america can't it's called america. but that's run its course because of the special interest groups and the sea out money play.