in the headlines this new year's eve the british government ramps up code restrictions across most of england infections spiral following the discovery of a new highly contagious strain. also bizarre we hear from frontline medics who have become the unsung heroes of the year. and we see people seeing people come in and they call we have to be way down what we want in 5. years what we have to do. and the e.u. strikes a milestone a trade deal which moving barriers to investment comes after years of negotiations and despite objections from washington.

very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at our in moscow thanks for joining us this hour. an extra 20000000 people across england have been placed under the u.k.'s toughest coded restrictions known as tear for case numbers have been soaring since a new highly infectious strain of the virus was detected and the health secretary says tougher curbs were unavoidable. the new variant means that 3 quarters of the population on now going to be 4 and almost all of the country into 3 and 2 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 on 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 gospel. christian students have. control you start having to make 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 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 by own 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 play by 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. hospital doctors the health service is overwhelmed by the latest influx of covert patients it warned that medics may soon have to make horrendous choices in denying lifesaving treatment to some people we've got reaction from medical experts. it is one of those very unfortunate situations in which sure we

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 life and what. grow to begin there unfortunately and you have to be right now because you have to still run and so this look 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 the 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 it may be more infectious but still if we exercise infection control you

can protect yourself. from my medics have become the unsung heroes of 2020 rising to the occasion and saving lives while often risking their own in the process we heard from some of them that phone was going every 15 minutes every 10 minutes as a nurse put one down he would ring again and it became so foreign in because the patients or piling into the hospital by finn a sad thing for me work in throughout that covert is same by to a patient and knowing that come back to mind their bed is now being. you know made a 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 brave because of covert 19 they've got people protested why do why you look in lost so i feel as nurses and most health care professionals it's quite difficult it's difficult for

us you know i remember having a patient. she would say that she looked classical music i remembered her movies she likes classical music so what i 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 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 want to succeed or you feel like something's wrong they don't look right but this was sort of like a fiend off pay and then all of a sudden you find out they're not ok but not only they're not ok they are dead i don't feel like i'm here i mean i'm an american i just feel like a human being who simply cares for others and wants to help them and make a difference so we have to do away what we want in so. here's what we have to do

so. i'm proud of all of us and i think we're going to get through this. and now hopefully point this is all over me and we won't have just politicians making decision. maybe we can step up to play a little bit more and maybe we can be on. so that we can make very sure we. think that in fact all of us were running low on oxygen on supplies on you know all the rest which were drugs absolutely bad definitely this is not over. this is far from over that scenes are not going to i mean yes they're going to how 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 respectfully strong communities controlled by opposition parties because they do almost a 100 percent of the opposite of what the health ministry are 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 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 were in 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 fires of 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 we're going in a tough ways because people are objecting to vaccination and bring home with their lies and manipulation in the media is our everyday struggles. throughout the turmoil of 2020 some people have managed to get richer than ever multi-billionaire pastors who are publicly expressing solidarity with all those who are suffering have been ranking and profits ask a teller of the details. 2020 the years that won't be missed coronavirus current virus a covert 19 entire health care system is on the very brink of collapse lockdown short film major health crisis hospitals and health care workers are bracing for an

onslaught of patients storing unemployment numbers and so many workers are still hurting very badly as the economy starts to tank hunger. 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 family is a 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 to 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 hardy blockbuster a year but according to the richest man or not just who made $75000000000.00 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 lack safety

protocols and no moscow and firing people who spoke out. made a problem with this 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 you know what happened afterwards is not enough to even. believe 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 do you think you could have beat making 75000000000 in a year but you can just ask your own 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 it. forcibly imprisoning people in their homes. all across europe or in my opinion. breaking people's freedoms where there are already. people. into america or the country. and. so instead of forcibly imprisoning people in their homes musk courage people to get back to work all face starvation and get evicted or 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. britain could see

a shake up of its food supply a post back search after the transition period ends tonight the country will be free to import products that are banned in the e.u. that includes u.s. meat products treated with drugs including hormones and antibiotics but sustainable food campaigners are saying the government should say no given the growing world problem of and to microbial resistance it would be completely irresponsible of the government were to allow the import of beef pork or poultry produced with antibiotics for growth promotion which have been banned here. now that report from the sustainable food trust singled out a drug use on pigs which leaves carcinogenic residues even after cooking and mention of various types of antibiotics used to promote growth on u.s. factory farms which can cause antibiotic resistance and undermine treatments of various diseases in humans the report refers to a new proposals to ban all preventative use of antibiotics and animals from 2022

and to require exporters to do the same and example of feed additive called racked up i mean is routinely used by u.s. farmers and it's banned in over 160 countries including russia and china scientists have linked it to shorter life expectancy among consumers are going to cross live to richard young policy director at the stain about food trust and one of the authors of that report there could you explain why a livestock and about acts are such a concern well i think everyone knows these days that your resistance is a growing problem it's just 80 years since the flow. of flooding and colleagues were developing penicillin which became the world's 1st antibiotic and yet the sort of great deal we don't know about and 6 the way in which antibiotic resistance develops and transfers even between bacteria that are not related between baltics that are related and so the position that was taken in europe and

in the u.k. nearly 20 years ago is that we really shouldn't be using any antibiotics to promote growth and. critically important to all of us to humans and to farm animals to treat disease when it occurs but we've been using them irresponsibly for far too long to make animals grow faster defectively to prop up the most intensive livestock systems. but at the same time if millions of americans are eating these items on the daily basis possibly could they really be all that harmful. well i mean no one is able to check things like that because of course we all see. a wide range of things but if you look at the sort of cancer rates now you know one in 2 people these days. population will get cancer at some point in their lives. do we know exactly why that is we still got very high levels of heart disease

despite the fact that we've people have changed diets and things like that there are there is evidence out there that the these drugs are being used. there residues of them could be contributing to the but also i mean just let's just take america because this particular report was looking at the situation in the u.s. which is probably not the only country that have uses antibiotics by a long way but you probably find go a long way to find a country that's being more excessive in their use than the us the the last figures the 35000 people in the u.s. died a bunch of our existence in fact. should we have we're do know we're speaking with richard young policy director at the sustainable food stress we didn't lose the connection but i think we've got him back richard can you hear me yes i'm sorry i didn't realize i was talking to us from fresh air then obviously we lost you for just

a 2nd there but if we could go ahead and just get in one more question i want to ask you about the bill that came out in the u.k. back in october to enshrine food safety in u.k. law after brags that that failed to pass is it just not important enough to the government. the government is saying that it will maintain the high standards that we've got at the moment which to be quite honest have been driven by some of the scandinavian comfort countries in europe rather than by the u.k. itself but what we're being concerned about is that once they get into a trade negotiations with the us all with australia or with some other countries some of those countries are very keen to export their meat to us and most of those countries are using antibiotics more excessively and more 'd irresponsibly they're being used in the u.k. and so for us it would be a very regrettable step if after all the sacrifices and hard work of british farmers to find ways of keeping animals and keeping them healthy without such

excessive use of antibiotics that we actually then started to allow in meat that was produced for the very antibiotics that we found in this country we've been speaking with richard young policy director at the sustainable food thank you for your time and your comments. still ahead in the program the e.u. and china strike a breakthrough investment deal after years of negotiations washington is saying it should have been consulted that story and more after the break. 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 this. 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 copernicus it 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. the world is driven by a dream shaped by one person. the day or thinks. we dare to ask.

welcome back china and the european union have signed a landmark trade deal after years of talks it opens up asia's biggest economy to e.u. investment while giving beijing and grow to some strategic projects but as artist he explains washington's not happy. place dealers 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. 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 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

. jones abril 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. 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 boyden 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 jim's 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. asia studies professor benjamin child told us china's eclipsing the u.s. as europe's main economic partner. 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 us and the us and the 1st 3 quarters so in that sense nothing i think it's a situation china used to have. the messman like many countries we have

even sections in education nestor security and finance but since china has now $23.00 trace since in 2014 we have attracted a lot of money in and all of the if you trace so you know from the epidemic we know that there really. is both in the united states in europe and in china in many areas of cooperation 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. your last 12 months won't soon be forgotten not least because throughout the pandemic people's resourcefulness and creativity shone through our video agency ruptly has captured some of the most touching highlights of 2020 and we'll leave you this hour with some of the sights and sounds of the year the world already

begun to say goodbye to you as always thanks for tuning in. i. told. you it. was a little symbol. of us and that is. what i miss him on the album age she. says she. should. be.

you know that the good old. while still the. good one of a couple of the nearest and. oh sure you feel in the us i was telling on the way i mean saw a lot about a lot of those are the number the cop on the right through the.

ah yeah max geyser and these other new year's eve festivities is aware. that stacy right next the theme of our new year's eve special. 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 option on scarcity the 1st lightning auction so that's related to optimism that is the bitcoin response to the famous economist headline from 1988 this is from january 9th 1988 get ready for a world currency also some historic stuff like britain keep booming that's what they were asking in 1988 and perestroika is 1st test so you know we're still back into a cold war britain is not booming and 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.