in the headlines this new year's eve england extends covered restrictions on the number of areas affected as the rate of infection spirals falling the discovery of a new highly contagious strain of the virus. also this hour we speak to some of the medical workers around the world who become the unsung heroes in the year of the pandemic. and we've seen people die in the sea and people come in and they call we have to do a shot what we want inside. is what we have to do. and that strikes a milestone trade deal with china removing key barriers to investment it comes after years of talks and despite the incoming biden the ministration in the us demanding it be consulted as head of the deal.

a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here in moscow thanks for joining us for a live news update. 3 quarters of england's been placed in the toughest stay at home tear for restrictions as covert cases so war after a new highly infectious strain of the virus was detected secretary mount hancock said he had no choice but to bring in the new measures. 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 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 in 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 has 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 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 gospel. 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 a new letter 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 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 plaguy the end 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. the national hospital doctors union has warned the health service is overwhelmed to the point where clinics may soon face renders choices or denying some patients lifesaving treatment we've got reaction from medical experts. it is

one of those very unfortunate situations in which sure we have been there that was a look at here and. look at the latest inhibition to be. constraints or any situation in which you have to make a decision between life and death but. grow to begin there unfortunately and you have to be promoting because you have to still run and so that is the of the population 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 wary 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. medical workers have become the unsung heroes of 2020 rising to the occasion and saving lives often at considerable risk to their own health is speaking out to some of those people on the front lines of the role why battle against the coronavirus. 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 i 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 liked classical music i remembered that she liked classical music so why did these during my break i was able to go out and get my photo up 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 play music to her and just knowing that she could see the happiness usually you see somebody decline *. and you can expect she or you p.d. or you feel like something's wrong they don't look right but this was sort of like they feed off ok and then all this started you find out they're not ok not only they're not ok but. 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. well we won't have to hear making decision. maybe we can play a little 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 lockdown respectfully strong communities controlled by opposition parties because they do almost a 100 percent of the opposite of what the health ministry to do their mistakes throughout the whole year starting from not closing airports and 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 those small steps that are still affecting the current situation financially 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 europe in

march and april it became clear that the european union's a gigantic structure that's not working where equipment is stolen where it's 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 remissions stage i got the 4 as a vaccine i would have liked to get the sputnik 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 toffees because people are objecting to vaccination antibiotics as bring home with their lies the manipulation in the media is on every day struggles. through the unprecedented turmoil of 2020 there are some who made unprecedented profits multi-billionaire bosses while publicly expressing solidarity with all those who are suffering pocketed extraordinary earnings this year taylor reports 2020 the year that won't be missed coronavirus coronavirus

a covert 19 entire health care system is on the very brink of collapse lockdown shut down major health crisis hospitals and health care workers are bracing for an onslaught of coronavirus patients storing unemployment numbers 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 and 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 help take the video conferencing up didn't even

exist before 2020 no one knows will 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 amazon had a blockbuster year but according to the richest man are now us who made $75000000000.00 as the global economy just crashed in pa 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 lack safety protocols and no moscow and firing people who spoke out. made a problem with it or that you have a belief that you don't you just let you trust the virus just like what you think it's that they want you to get sick you know here and you know what happened afterwards is not enough to even. believe one this about protection did well he wasn't regarding 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 do you think you could have beat making 75000000000

a year but you can just ask your own mosque he might have been broken 2008 but he will raked in 123000000000 in 2020 when the cash is flowing you know wanted to stop. all of it. forcibly imprisoning people in their homes. but might. break the people's freedoms and where the. people. it's america or the country. so instead of forcibly imprisoning people in their homes musk courage people to get back to walk all face starvation and get affected 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. still had the e.u. and china agree on a milestone investment deal after years of talks but washington's angry it wasn't consulted details on that story and more after this break. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then.

to welcome back this year's pandemic could be

a sign of things to come judging by the latest warning from the world health organization but the prospect of more deadly outbreaks around the corner the w.h.o. emergencies chief is urging all nations to ramp up their health care but this time they make has been very severe is it spread around the world extremely quickly and is afraid to get requirements but this is not necessarily the big one and we live in an increasingly complex school society these trends will continue if there's one thing we need to take from this trend and it could all of the tragedy and loss is that we need to get our act together we need to get ready for something that may even be more severe in future it's been almost a year since the w.h.o. declared code in 1000 a global health emergency and since then 80000000 people are known to have contracted the virus and an estimated 1800000 lives have been lost globally. well now bring in simon clark associate professor in cellular microbiology at redding university in the u.k. that we just heard the w.h.o.

emergencies chief saying covered $1000.00 is not necessarily the big one did we actually get off lightly this time. good afternoon well we may well of done this is the 3rd corona virus outbreak in 20 years that the previous 2 being sols mers so it's entirely plausible to expect that there will be another one along in a similar timeframe. and of course there is always the possibility of a serious pandemic influenza outbreak. this this virus although it's very infectious it is not desperately lethal it's mortality rate is not all that high but it causes 70 deaths by dint of the fact that it infects lots of people and we've just seen how it can be involved in to making. making

a new strain that is even more infectious so the possibilities is there that there will be outbreaks in the future that will cause problems and they may be bigger than this one as are saying there have been plenty of more deadly diseases in the past but none of them seem to spread as fast and as far as coded and globally connected world that we live in right now are we just more vulnerable than at previous points in history. but yeah we are more connected global issues put it in the me were 20 to 30 years ago and i don't see that changing anytime soon we will eventually get back to where we were say this time last year and we will continue to become more global i think that shimon nature and of course the more easily people can travel around the world more easily viruses can as well w.h.o. has also warned that the misuse of antibiotics against co that has caused a spike in bacterial infections but is there really

a choice in just not using those antibiotics. nor really i mean in the more severe cases people are going to get bacterial secondary infections which can kill him often when somebody is killed by flu they are actually not killed by the flea virus they're killed by the bacterial secondary infection they get and there is no alternative than to use antibiotics there. is not to you not to not use them because your. drastically increasing someone's chances of death if you do that but the answer is to make more make new classes around people takes and if we take a look at anti baxter's we've seen a resurgence of diseases including measles and mumps widely attributed to people refusing to get vaccines could this lead to new viral strains and widespread contagions yeah the more particularly there is for a virus to affect new people the more fertility there will be for it to me tell you

some of those mutations will have no effect at all some of them will be at that end the cation the real get one that causes a problem like we've got with the strain that's causing problems in mostly in southeast england and of course the strain that's the reason it was healthy africa . another daunting thought is there have been various scientific studies on ancient bacteria being reawakened by the melting permafrost for example there was a case here in russia people catching anthrax from a 75 year old defrosted deer carcass is that something we should be concerned about as climate change accelerates it's entirely possible that the schools. the bacteria that cause these are the fracs produce witness that the bacteria itself doris can could survive for hundreds and thousands of years so there is every possibility that if you go digging around the permafrost or indeed anywhere else you may where you couldn't things which have been dormant for centuries. simon clark associate

professor at reading university in the u.k. think you for a time and your comments you're welcome. brussels in beijing have signed a massive landmark trade deal after years of negotiations and opens up the chinese market to investment while giving beijing an inroad to strategic european projects but as artie's charlotte devinsky explains washington d.c. is not happy. they steelers almost being 7 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 human rights in fact some e.u. countries said they were unhappy with the fact that the e.u. hasn't done enough to secure those issues these countries will 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 investments 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 how they steal is also likely to rub up the wrong way the new incoming. 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 poit 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 genes point of view was to drive a wedge in transatlantic relations 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 under 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. professor benjamin shower the pair of school of business told us the u.s. still has a cold war mindset and ignores the benefits of the deal. the u. is is china's largest trading partner and the same is true by say so and even the

tray is larger than the trade between the u.s. and the u.s. the 1st 3 quarters so in that sense is that nothing i think it's a situation china used to have. the messman like many countries we have sections in education nestor security and finance but since china has now $23.00 trace since in 2014 we have a lot attract a lot of money in and a lot of the if you trace or 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 make the climate change over the elevation and grow initiative 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 it to look for gains by the end its beauty.

that's been our global news wrap up for this hour on this new year's eve but we'll be with you all day keeping you updated as the world rings in the new year as always thanks for tuning in. some people would associate optimism with risky behavior because they don't want to and like the trolls they don't want to incite the state they don't want to invite to see our mob they don't want to live by all kinds of trouble that comes with optimistic saying throughout history optimists have been punished it could be galileo it could be copernican 6 could be einstein it could be all sorts of big steve jobs and they were punished for their optimism but now there is no punishment for relentless optimism.

huge. welcome to the hope renee alex salmond where we present the highlights of 23 we hope you had a wonderful and common say christmas. when is the scots word for new year's eve i was taken very seriously in scotland normally tonight would see vast clothes and celebrations and the whole month. but this is a very different year and this helped many will be responsible i was socially distance just like this program i just discovered dominated the year it dominated

it right back at the start of the year we conducted the 1st of many interviews with cambridge for all just a naked scientist dr chris wirth he gave us the 1st indication of the dramatic shape of things to come what you potentially got is something which while it's less lethal than solves is much more infectious than cells and about as lethal as the 1918 flu pandemic and everyone susceptible to this like they were for the $918.00 spanish flu pandemic so if this were allowed to escape and go to its logical conclusion one possibility one worst case scenario is it could be as bad as 1918 and a member this is a type when president trump was joking about the virus and prime minister johnson of us not even turning up at the covert corporate meetings here's a selection of what our experts had to say about the virus as the year progressed and about the public health challenge as presented by credit we need to make

haste the. routine thing that you and we just don't seem to have a grip of what we need to do. why do you want to set up a private casting laboratory and a private contractor a thing service which will never ever work as efficiently as if you had invested in your local and it has services and systems in both the local authority in the n.h.s. and in public health england if we look at least starring amount of money spent 12000000000 pounds that is the equivalent of the and higher budget of all. is exchange is not that difficult where do the things that we proposed very enemy or casting we slaughter from wholesome precedents that oh don't was too difficult why what really is there is.