the u.s. centers 2021 with a grim new record registering its highest daily death toll. and the restrictions take a devastating toll on the french hospitality sector we hear from a small business owner who describes the desperate plight some people are in. it was my neighbor who lived right in front of my house had a restaurant for 2 generations during the 2nd lockdown everyone had to close again but some roadside restaurants were authorized to open and she was not on the list the next day she hanged herself. several countries consider introducing covert passports while companies develop mobile apps to enforce compliance but the real warnings of significant complications.

although this is from moscow where it's now 1 am on january the 2nd i'm called a break with the global stories that we're tracking for you this 1st then the united states saw the year out with a grim do you record by registering more than 3800 deaths in one day one of the worst affected areas new york logged almost 8000 new covert infections. looks at how the pandemic has changed the city as the new year rolls around many in new york city are hoping that 2021 will be completely different the incoming administration of joe biden is promising that they will turn things around with coded 19 with very swift measures and a local government is reassuring everyone that soon things will be back to normal. here in new york city all of the country we're getting a shot of hope. we now know that we will ultimately defeat the coronavirus but what

will this new normal be a lot of things won't be like that old pre lockdown world before the masks and temperature checks are one of many small businesses will be gone over 30 different retail and restaurant chains filed for bankruptcy in 2021 and many more are downsizing stores and restaurants 'd shutting down during the pandemic big tech is now moving in amazon facebook and google have moved thousands of their employees to the big apple the 3 tech giants now have over 22000 employees in new york city and more are expected these silicon valley giants are buying up iconic office buildings another aspect of new york city life public transportation is also not doing so well the jobs of thousands of transit workers are on the brink as the trains shut down each night in order to be clean and comply with health regulations new york city is going to enter 2021 with the significant loss at this point the city has

actually dropped off the list of america's top 10 zip codes many rich folks have packed up and moved on the cost of rent has decreased by 30 percent so how normal will this new normal be once restrictions are finally lifted it looks like many things have changed in a way that is not easily reversed. artsy new york. the closing weeks of donald trump's presidency has seen him slapped down by the senate and the rest of congress and overriding his veto with the national defense budget it's the 1st time trumps being defined by the republican led senate. seeing the numbers for the user $81.00 the news or $132.00 thirds of the senators voting the quorum being present having voted in the affirmative the bill on reconsideration is passed the objections of the president of the united states to the contrary notwithstanding the national defense authorization act was passed by the congress in december it includes pay rises for troops but also restricts presidential power when it comes to withdrawing forces from abroad that was reportedly one of trump's main

objections he also wanted the bill to address alleged bias by social media platforms is the president comments from earlier we can tired republican leaders said will allow the bad defense bill to pass a disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to big tech negotiate a better bill or get better leaders snout senate should not approve and da until fixed. ok let's cross like to scott ritter who is a former u.n. weapons inspector and former marine corps intelligence officer officer scott welcome to the program why did things come to a head over this bill double track must have known his veto wouldn't take me get very far at least been told that's what would happen. there was no chance that his veto would succeed to this the national defense authorization act is you know a bill that's very popular with the congress it gives congress a chance to you know to look patriotic to their constituencies to create the

impression that they're strong on defense and if you put a lot of money in is lot of bipartisan support. and there is you know there is no way the president's veto is going to survive why the president in this new york i think the president right now is lashing out at just about. everything and everybody who is perceived as standing in his way he he thought that vetoing this he might be able to leverage sums to put some pressure on congress regarding section 230 of the communications decency act that is the part of the law that protects you know social media providers from from lawsuits the president has a grudge against twitter and he believes by getting 2 threes at section 3 to the 0 revoked that he could strike back against twitter but you know whatever the

legitimacy or are not of the president's case against twitter congress does not view that as being equal to. you know legitimate national security. issues and congress is going to pass this bill there's no way congress was not going to pass this bill that was one of the tangential issues in this massive bill that donald trump issue with the what about when i mention a bit earlier he was at all this with the paul the restricts the president's authority to bring home troops from overseas the president is commander in chief why is congress moved to the fact of the name at the present and so far it seems. well there's many in congress and believe that the president's moving too fast that that his decision to withdraw troops was a politically motivated decision taken out you know without due consideration to you know legitimate national concern is security concerns and they also believe that since the president is leaving office that these are decisions that should be made by the incoming administration and so congress is seeking to slow down the

president's president's ability to act on his desire to withdraw the troops requiring detailed reports to be submitted to congress prior to trans being used to withdraw troops these reports we talk about the consequences of withdrawn what the president's doing to mitigate that the hope is that you know that the time required to research and write and deliver these reports is greater than the time left to the president and that the president won't be able to act on his and his desire to withdraw troops so with that in mind that scott with the biden administration going to have to deal with the consequences of all this will any of this episode they take that the reaction that the incoming by the ministrations going to have to take. it depends on how many troops have been pulled out what the situation on the ground in afghanistan is the fact of the matter is that the trumpet ministration. has united states on

a trajectory to leave afghanistan altogether by may of this year. and you know when you withdraw troops down to 2500 which is the objective you create a situation where sustaining the numbers impossible there you can stay in afghanistan with 2500 troops you either have to continue to withdraw the troops dizzy or make a decision to significantly reinforce. this level back up to $8.00 to $10.00 or even more 1000 and i think that's the decision that's going to be confronting joe biden is do we continue with the withdrawal or do we carry out what would be a politically unpopular move of sending tens of thousands of american soldiers back to afghanistan a war which. you know nobody believes we can win and nobody believes we have a winning strategy so you're sending troops into harm's way in a conflict where you know the best we can hope for is they will continue to fight

and die without victory and i just couldn't a skull that if the senate also refused to consider that demand by donald trump to increase the covert stimulus payments to americans does that show a solid break between the president or republicans are they moving away from the setting sun or as he succeeded in trying to split the party. well both i think that the i think what we have is an indication that congress is it recognizes that there is no penalty to be paid when you just missed the needs of the american people that the 1000 dollar stimulus bill or stimulus check was a very popular measure among americans who who need assistance during these difficult times and congress has completely turned their backs on them or the president's to play this out as a populist move but again this is a lame duck president he doesn't have a future caliph after january 21st in congress no longer views him as a threat and joe biden the incoming president wasn't inclined to support 2000

dollars a month because of what he claimed it did to the deficit so. you know this is politics as usual the president may have split the party but he also didn't get what he wants and the people are paying the price of the american people still sounds like it's all to play for ok scott ritter former u.n. weapons inspector thanks for joining us on. france recorded to 26000 new cases of covert on a fast the highest rate since mid november when the government responded by tightening a nighttime curfew in several cities. we don't want to implement a nationwide or local lowdown so if we will propose an extension of the curfew which instead of starting at 8 pm we'll still it's at 6 pm in all the regions where it's needed is some cities or regions where the incidence rate is above the maximum alert level these measures will be implemented from generally 2nd 2021. and aside from the curfews bars and restaurants remain closed over the festive period and it

extends months of restrictions that have taken a devastating toll on the hospitality industry restaurant owner vincent mani i described to us the desperate state that some people are in and how his neighbor was driven to suicide. use this is for them so i've been living in la trinité so for 16 years i have 12 hotel rooms sent to restaurants we serve from 40250000 per year we employ 12 people during the winter period and around $22.00 people during the summer period so being suddenly left without work for 5 months is not easy our commune is special ised and selling local products seafood we produce a lot of fish there are no more events there are no more buses there is nothing and on top of that we are closed in terms of health i took antidepressants i took sentence i throw up every morning i don't sleep much and i don't sleep well and i think i'm not the only one in this position among people i know there was my

neighbor who lived right in front of my house who had a restaurant for 2 generations she survived the 1st lock down she was 36 years old she had a roadside restaurant it was an establishment that everyone knew and appreciated during the 2nd lockdown everyone had to close again but some roadside restaurants were authorized to open and as she was not on the list the next day she hanged herself if you want to morbid detail it was her 11 year old son who. took her down from the noose. well poll from a french socialist think tank suggests that 25 percent of traders most of whom have seen their income plummet of considered suicide out of all of those who've lost their jobs the numbers even higher than 27 percent the french economy shrank by a record 13.8 percent back last spring when the 1st lock down was enforced a business is deemed non-essential were the worst hit with the hospitality sector

seeing a contraction of around 50 percent in output vincent money again says many business owners see no way out. this for me if you want to close bars and restaurants that don't follow protocol that's fine but on the other hand most of my colleagues have scrupulously respected all the rules that have been imposed on us and today there is no study which proves that restaurants are a source of infection when you see people crowding in the subway i don't understand why there is less danger in supermarkets or in the subway than in a restaurant i didn't take a salary for 6 months so ultimately i paid to work luckily for me and my wife we've put some money aside we've put it aside but it melts like ice cubes in the sun so inevitably it makes us questions we wonder how it's going to be tomorrow if we'll be able to pay the rent if we'll be able to pay for the car if we'll be able to pay for the kids' school especially when we know that business owners and friends have

no direct help at christmas my children told me daddy don't give us presence we'll sell all our toys instead to earn money to have food well here at r.t. we have worked 247 throughout the past year to bring you the news as it happened and plenty of you have also headed to our website for updates. takes a look at some of the stories which generated the most clicks. roddy's ronnie's ronnie's will smith campaign oh good timing because i'm reading about you know no tory no how not today now i'm reading about it you'll savor it stories on our website this year the one you clicked on the most of all i'll be honest i spend most of my time online going through all of the hate comments that trolls me be on you tube so i've never really got round to check out our call but i'm glad i got the chance now well let's see this one came in.

a concept bodybuilders dream wedding to his girlfriend cancelled because of covert all your probably moved by this modern day juliet oh just look at the pair in thailand so sweet home. and i see why you like the story his girlfriends of sex don't you know like to fish but oh well what else what else ok well this one not why does remounted but still determined 2nd. a huge b.l.m. rally in new york whoa nothing new really have a protest today keeps democracy in play why so many hits then. you know i've got a thousands gathered here and it's ok but restaurants a shot and small businesses are killed to slow the spread trumps ronnie's of course

a dubbed super spreaders it's almost like you were not convinced that covert doesn't attend democrat led romney's visit restaurants before 10 pm shocking well timed to the big one then let's see what came out on top. what we have heya facebook and it's fact checking all need stories yes you have i remember this now tons out the lead story here is that the independent group is absolutely packed with democrat don't know as the next c.n.n. people on friday they've developed an appetite for branding any news to the right of well the left hopes what you it's actually quite surprising because usually big tech just nubs right wing media content while that's a wrap on this here's hoping you keep on playing through 2021.

welcome to the kaiser report 1st of the new year's day so we got an excellent the all nice christmas lights adorning the set i mean you know i took the money i save it i brought stats all right so i'm going to turn to pete charisma he's the editor over a crack and he's also an advisor calling. anyone else seemed wrong. but. just don't hold. me.

to shape out. active. and engaged because betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. join me every thursday on the alex simon sure and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. i get more of a headline news now politicians around the world are insisting that corona virus vaccines will stay voluntary that said many countries are already preparing for covert passports and companies are preparing mobile applications so the authorities can check through people's phones whether they've had the job or not the common

trust networks already developed such an app in collaboration with airlines including virgin atlantic and of cancer but as dimitri pork reports it leaves people with mixed messages on what exactly will happen. if you're still not sure you want to get a code vaccine the choice might now be a little clear several countries are debating whether or not people who get the job should have certain privileges for being covered safe not a bad idea on paper but for those in the back of the line or just hesitant to inject a rapidly developed chemical cocktail life might not be the same sure you don't have to get an ocular added but good luck if you want to travel or go to a bar or pretty much anything anywhere that requires your code pass several governments have already spoken against introducing such a system but have a very clear position on this as important as vaccination is for all of us there must be no special treatment for the vaccine these distinguishing between the

vaccinated and the knowledge vaccinated would be the same as making it mandatory it would divide society there are no plans to introduce a vaccine buspar to give people access to places such as pubs and restaurants once the coronavirus becomes available but not everyone's so opposed to the idea that the moment when it's not possible to offer solutions to have ruined such a procedure is the question but the discussion about to be still to know and even in countries that have said that they won't be introducing the covert passes some politicians are saying there's nothing they can really do against businesses requiring a proof of vaccination we are looking at the technology and of course a way of people being able to inform their physician that they have been vaccinated but also i think you'll probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues sports venues will probably also use that system and companies including i.b.m.

have taken matters into their own hands developing apps that would allow businesses to track employees and customers while there is an argument that encouraging more people to get the job will bring about the end of lock down. yes but what about personal freedoms that's the thing though you added more stuff and restricting people from doing this all bases that are strictly some of the rights your forces somethin upon someone for them to be able to live their life i mean what you hear in a country if you want freedom of speech and all not all that. is not really much of it is that i think is disgusting because it is a form of tyranny. it takes away our freedoms to travel freely. takes away our privacy completely mean at the end of the day people got their ferries about things and they don't want to be pushed into things they don't you know a lot of people think they. will tell you what to do having control of the. everything's up in the air at the moment some countries have taken the idea of

passports in another direction instead of handing out vaccine passes spain has decided to do the opposite and make a naughty list will set up a registry and shared with our european partners of those have been offered vaccination and rejected it spain's health minister didn't specify what exactly what happens to those who get on this register but when a country starts making lists of people it usually doesn't and very well it's a scary thought and it kind of reminds me a bit. of this is going too far but lists of people that are not complying with something almost reminds me. of the yellow star on the sleeves of germany a lot i don't really know what. i don't like when people get what we should all be leery of when people get put on the list for being the particular type of person that's not doing something or is doing something or is particularly or not to look at it that it's discrimination as we know it used to be rather interesting i would

tend to be against giving people. special rights or something just because the man after all is also a matter of how lucky are you to get in quickly and how low on the priority list that you may have to wait very long and i was for that because it is definitely would be i was with. dozens have been arrested in the u.s. city of minneapolis during protests over a fatal police shooting the local police department has released body cam footage of the incident which happened on wednesday night but just before but we're about to show you the video and you might find it disturbing to watch.

the shootout happened outside a gas station when police were trying to arrest a felony suspect according to officers the suspect opened fire from his car police shot back killing the man who's been identified as 23 year old. his parents who are somali immigrants have disputed the police account they say this was just sitting in his car when he was shot and the police later raided the family home. protests in minneapolis happened near the site where george floyd was killed back in may an incident itself spot a summer of unrest. u.s.

historian joel coen thinks the black lives massive movement could mark a major turning point in. how we can turn to what happened in april 960 in the united states after nobel laureate dr markham to king jr was killed at that

particular moment you had demonstrations erupting from the east coast to the west coast from the atlantic to the pacific. however there is another aspect of what's happening today that in a sense is unpleasant for now i mean the demonstrations global demonstrations well while in auckland new zealand in sydney australia and london and one in berlin germany so that is unprecedented and i think it's very significant as well because if you look historically at the struggles of black americans what you'll find is that one of the ways we've made progress in the past is because de mint a national solidarity and so that gives me hope for the future that one of the problems with the talks us the son may say so is that there is a leader there decentralized and that is

a direct result of the fact that however black people don't follow a centralized political war does asians such as the black panther party in the 1960 s. the government comes out to their leaders and puts them in jail and kills them and so therefore in the end they have to use to have you know we just you know people just spontaneously come to the streets now i understand that and but what that does is it makes it difficult to play it makes it very difficult to channel that energy into politics. donald trump may of lost the u.s. election but he's won something almost as important to him at least perhaps according to a gallup poll the outgoing leader is the man most admired by americans in 2020 and 18 percent he not barack obama off the top spot for the 1st time in 12 years and that leaves joe biden the next u.s. president trailing in 3rd head of top dr anthony fauci and the pope however long

terms followers maybe the media are having none of it he is the worst president we have ever seen period it's the greatest failure in the history of the united states a defeated impeached one term president still refusing to admit that he's a loser in the wake of donald trump's recent behavior causing millions of struggling americans to lose their unemployment benefits cut as the covert death toll continues to rise if you no longer just one of the worst presidents in american history but the worst of the eagle and media analyst line all things trump stands out as a politician who inspires anything but indifference and believe me i'm i'm a supporter and in my arrow president trump for a lot that he has done i've got some things i differ with but admire is popular yes i know there are pockets of places where he is indeed admired so i'm surprised at that because what this man has done and i've never seen anything like it nobody

reacts like to donald trump no it's either i think of him he's this savior or a.t.m. the media love to hate him they may stele you they hate them they love him c.n.n. has never ever achieve numbers like this when you least what are they going to do so they hate him but they love to hate him and the media themselves don't necessarily reflect what people do. ok that's it from a thanks for watching sean thomas as you next off the world news say in a half hour from that. plane. this is nothing like football.

it's not a money spinner but it is expensive. to end its dangerous. this is the speed limit. and they have no brakes it's a. trip that cuts some. is your media a reflection of reality. in the world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation community.