[000:00:00;00] ah, ah, i'll top stories this hour on the chrome. the new cobit strain discovered in south africa presents a high risk globally. the w h o says, as it spreads around the world with nations now canceling flights and even keeping the fully vaccinated in isolation. leak document suggests germany tried to pressure the united states not to flat sanctions on nord stream to berlin warns washington shouldn't sanction allies and shoplifting and vandalism. as the festive season begins, flash mob and smash and grab robberies. put us authorities to the test. and ah,

a global use and international reaction. this is r t from moscow. my name is colleen bray. welcome to your wealth uses our 1st the word on everybody's lips, all my crum causing havoc around the world. the new coven mutation has been highlighted as a variant of concern by the world health organization. and it's already been detected in multiple countries. there are also fears, it's highly contagious, and even people who are fully vaccinated could easily get it. nations has now begun closing their borders to curb it's spread. the 1st images of the new strength originally detected in south africa have been published by italian researches on the right is on the cross. and on the left, the delta vary and the red areas showing it's got many more mutations this time around. and that means that the virus has further adapted. although it's not yet clear whether that means it's more dangerous. meanwhile, some vaccine developers have already stepped in and said that they're ready to provide modified jabs to fight the new strain. the producers of rushes. sputnik v vaccine, say they're working on

a new shot and can provide several 100000000 booster doses by february if needed. and that comes as fighter says, it'll make a new version within a 100 days if the new variant proves to be resistant to their current job. however, important to say, both developers do believe that their current vaccines should already be effective against the emerging strain. but as government, sir, figuring out their response plans, many people have found themselves stranded in south africa. amid newly imposed travel bands. artes policy reports from johannesburg airport. this elation distillation aspiration and anger. these are just some of the emotions that people here in south africa are experiencing. i'm here on the tambo important one is the, this is the main international airport in south africa. and as you can see, the airport is practically deserted. a far cry from the scenes we saw just a short time ago when thousands of people were liveing here disk. but to get on any

available flight. often announcement was made that most international travel in and out of 6 african states was being implemented. that announcement came as a complete surprise. you had people that were waiting boarded that was sitting on planes about to take hope that they had to disembark. you had people that were already in the skies flying that had to turn around and come back. the situation such is that you now have tens of thousands of people who are stranded here in south africa. people who need to get back to jobs and families. and at the same time, you have so many people abroad, many of them, south africans desperate to get into the country. many of them have not been able to visit for at least 2 years. and they have loved ones, some of whom are sick, some of whom are elderly, here in the country, and waiting to see them. i say to them, okay, i'm coming to check in will i be able to get home? i'm only going for 10 days. my mother and she started the computer interested. all the flat for december had been cancelled. so if you go,

you can get back and if you get back, you're going to go to parenting for 2 weeks and i've got 2 boys and i just knew that i, i actually had to knock for their flight. and i was devastated and heartbroken. i've got double vaccinated, i've got a booster shot. i had all the documentation, i could have got on the flight and they would have taken me to south africa backs, australia, chose the borders so that they wouldn't allow anybody to come back into the country . and so i kind of feels excessive and it feels very sadden, but i feel like they're obviously have information that's making them really concerned. just in a few days. everythings for getting changed. i was out, i got a message from a friend. i'm checking the news and then more and more news updates had to keep checking. not knowing what would happen. i mean, within 3 days, i mean, it's all just completely changed and there's no way that i can go, i've been vaccinated 3 times. so i am as vaccinate as to be, i wouldn't make any difference. i do congratulate the, well,

the leaders for taking such quick action. but i do think that they really need to be properly informed before making decisions that really affect the lives of so many people. the prices for the few remaining flights out of here have skyrocketed as has the cost of mandatory cova testing. now, the international community is very cognizant of the fact that as many as 7 out of 10 south africans have not been vaccinated. and this is partly because they're not enough vaccines in the country. and also because many south africans are worried about the long term effects of the vaccines that are on the market. now, south african scientists have been very vocal in saying that they were the 1st to come forward and be transparent about this new variant that has been found. thanks . it's not a south african very end, and that it is elsewhere in the global community that instead of being applauded south africa has now been push on the blacklist policy r t to hannah's book,

south africa. mont advisor to the italian health authorities says that cover preventative measures jerone having a limited impact on the new strength. and this could be our reality for years to come. me well the u. k is re introducing quarantined in a government mandated hotel for people coming from south africa. the british health secretary also believes the cope. it's going to be with a spit in some form forever. we were asked to learn to live with cove and we will never defeat it. we have to learn to live with it. we have to learn to live with it as we have learned to live with flu. of course it is not flu and we need to learn more about the cases of, of new come have already been discovered in germany in belgium, the czech republic. and there are at least 13 cases in the netherlands that came after a flight of individuals came in from south africa. now, in a separate development, dutch police had to raid plain just before it was about to take off. after it emerged that 2 of the passengers on board had been in quarantine hotel and had

escaped from that desperately trying to leave the netherlands to try and get home as that panic is spreading. it turns out that the quarantine hotel that they had escaped from they were individuals who had presented with the omnicom strange, you really get a sense of just how scared people are at the moment. some individuals are now facing lengthy stays in quarantines, which are incredibly costly. particularly in the u. k. for me there is just no ways i can afford 50000 rand, which is equivalent to 2 and a half 1000 pounds to be in a hotel in land. and when my home is around the corner, and i live on my own, where i can self oscillate, and secondly with the job that i meant to start. if i'm now i'm starting approximately 3 weeks later, which means i'm 3 weeks without cellar, which is basic, have worked it out, which is basically my rent money for the month. i'm

a pretty citizen. i've lived there for 23 years. i have to find a way the government has to do something about the hotel quarantine and people are up in all that got government con, make these rulings and unexpected citizens to pay for it. you know, for those who were fully vax, as we heard from those individuals facing problems from south africa, they really thought perhaps this pandemic was about to be over, at least for them because they followed all of the guidance. they done everything that they were asked to have done. so this must be coming now is a bit of a cold shower for people in europe to realizing that having 2 or 3 jobs just isn't enough. when we faced these new strains that we know so little about in france, the french health ministers resigned to the fact that omnicom will be found here and says that the government needs more time to look at it. they don't use it along with they'll need to you since it's circulating in the u. k. italy in belgium, it's probable that there is a case in circulation and france. researchers are looking at whether vaccines must

be modified, but it's too early to say, since it was only discovered a few days ago. scientists who i spoke with on the telephone yesterday, including internationally say we need a period of around 10 days to no war. meanwhile, the ministers, the health ministers from the g 7 countries will meet later on monday to discuss this new variant and how it possibly can be tackled at the same time as the experts are really left in a situation with a race to understand exactly what this mutation means and what that means for the fight for the end of this pandemic. what are the 1st countries to ramp up restrictions is israel, which has closed its borders to all foreigners? earlier and i'll say we spoke with israel, former un ambassador, who says the measures are unnecessary burden because they're simply not enough known about the new strain yet. it definitely, i think maybe it was too much, but it's better to be on the safe side when you deal with new variance and we don't have that data. but i hope that, you know, within 2 weeks time will be able to open our borders. you know,

if you divide open everything up and stones more events. so i think you know, the precocious because we don't know exactly about the value we have cases actually . now we have 2 cases of confirmed the only quan variant you need well that's why the government the started to act very, very fast and to close the borders to the allow only ladies to come in and those off to run for 3. dave, even though we haven't seen the base, you know, whether we should use the technology to actually one of those that carried the very end, you know, we have it or should the quarter to 4 people that's the baited and that will go to the supreme court i'm sure again, so actually as we speak, the government decided to we initiate that policy, but only 2 people were confirmed. we would, that was other than, you know, had a few people. i hope it will be the number, but i'm not sure the policy will be because that that meant that policy empowerment

and in the public, you know, even possible to do, to shut down all the flights worldwide. we can do that every time the, the new variance coming out. but the yes, i think we should, they want you to carefully and learn how to deal with that. and we would expect the public to, to be patient about it and to cooperate with the guidelines and other developments as western governments pushed by citizens to get a boost shot. the world health organization has expressed opposition to rich nations extending their non elation programs. while vaccination rates remain low in poor countries, across much of africa, for example, less than 10 percent of the population has had a single dose. no more vaccines should go to countries that have already vaccinated more than 40 percent of their population. until kovacs has the vaccines it needs to help by the countries get that to normal boosters should be administered

at except 2 immunocompromised people. most countries with high vaccine coverage continued to ignore our call for a global moratorium on boosters as a huge point of contention and conversation. right now, we put it up for debate here. it would make no sense to ensure that most people at least get their 1st dose of the vaccine lava, then pushing for people to have the the booster. but then i think, oh importantly we have to look at the efficacy of the actual vaccine because we still know that people who have double days you can still partially and then also still and be affected by the virus or finance. ready one of the issues that i think they should be really that, you know, i've seen that education is key because we do still have a lot of hesitant people. not wanting to take the vaccine. and also, just really, it just seemed quite unfair that they still mandate the nice is now mandatory that health workers should have the vaccine. i think it should also include education,

the immunity generated by vaccination. decays, it over time, particularly actually in the elderly, the most vulnerable, and certainly up to 6 months. these boosters just really have a really significant impact. we're seeing that in real world data from israel, for instance, where they rolled out the booster campaign. so we can see the value of booster shot, you know, various are going to continue to be generated. ready was that was the virus is allowed to spread, particularly in countries, indeed like south africa where vaccination, right? so lower than what this emphasizes the need to control the pandemic at the global level as well as locally. and it's all, it is in all our interests to support the role of garcia across the world. and we should be in a position where every to choose should be supporting the increased manufacturing distribution of vaccines. and we should choose between boosters for the most vulnerable an hour late, and whether or not somebody else who hasn't been back, somebody gets their 1st job. and while the new coven variant spreads around the

world, joe biden, and the berra san francisco, facing a public backlash of violating their own mouthed mandates, you can find out story. i'm plenty more online right now at auto dot com. next at least 4 people have been killed and another 19 injured because of severe storms that are battering estoppel and popular tourist results in turkey. ah, winds topple that clock tower as well as overturning trucks tearing off roofs and felling trees. shipping traffic on the busy boss for straight being suspended while numerous plains have been unable to land forecast is a warning that the dangerous weather is likely to continue well into late on tuesday. the sex trafficking trial of british social. i'd glad maxwell has begun in new york. she's accused of grooming, underwrite girls for convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein,

who died in prison in 2019 altima. john hardy reports from outside. the courthouse 59 year old and given maxwell has been a jail nearly 17 months since being charged with several counts of federal charges, including the sex trafficking of miners. now prosecutors including, by the way, maureen, coney, who is the daughter a former f b, i director james comi. she's among the federal prosecutors on the team. they maintain that melts maxwell essentially help recruit and groom young women some as young as the 14 years of age to essentially perform sexual acts and massages, that kind of thing on disgraced and now deceased finance. here jeffrey epstein while also according to a number of the victims, a village victims in the case providing them tabs being circle of wealthy and powerful friends among the names that had come out as we've reported quite extensively. prince andrew, the duke of york ca, former new mexico governor, bill richard, also famous side defense attorney allan gershwin, all of whom have denied the allegations leveled against them. the alleged victim,

several of whom are here today at the court house, and other witnesses will reportedly testify under pseudonyms, but their identities will be revealed to the jury's. however, over the several years of this, the identity of those victims have come forward. we do know some of the most prominent ones, virginia roberts could fray monks several others. now, maxwell has pled not guilty to the charges against her arguing along with her defense team that she's essentially being scapegoat. and that she was being used as a pond by geoffrey epstein. epstein of course, was found dead in his presence in his jail cell. shortly after his arrest back in august 2019. and by the way, myself and one of my friends photographers was one of the last journalists actually on edge thinking, taurus island in the, in the u. s. virgin islands before his death. now, city medical examiner here, new york said, died by suicide by hanging as the jury basically, the jury's been picked and their civil questions really calling about the trial

among them. will gillan maxwell testifying the case? that's a very risky proposition by the 10 defense, for many reasons. also will jury see and what we're hearing is that the answers yes, that prosecutors will bring possible evidence from the quote unquote little black book that maxwell had. and also that epstein had of all the basically the names the numbers and contacts, including those wealthy and powerful friends. as i mentioned now, judge alison nathan, who has presided over many other high profile cases here and has also been nominated for the circuit court of appeals by president abida, which is next step, one step from the u. s. supreme court. she's already ruled against maximal several times in maxwell's bid for bail sank, agreeing with prosecutors that she is a possible flight risk. now, the trial is expected to last at least 6 weeks. so that would stretch it basically through christmas trent christmas here in the united states at the same court house

by the way, where other high profile defendants had been including my boss, john gotti, and bernie made off. so this is day, one of a very followed a trial and then of course a case that we've talked about. that's me, national and international headland. legal and media analyst line, all suspects that if maxwell testify, she's got nothing to lose by naming names. what's going to be the problem is if gallon maxwell takes the stand, which i hope to god she does. but if she takes the stand and looks around and wonders to herself, why am i the only one on trial here? if they were to ask her, miss maxwell, is there anybody else that you think should be tried along with you? if indeed you are involved in some type of sex trafficking enterprises. and she would most probably say yes, the following people. she's the linchpin because she has been with him for ever. now, as you know,

we hear names of bill clinton and prince andrew in various contexts. but remember, there are also countless hours of video tape and audio tape and hard drives of liaison with a variety of people that you could let your imagination run on that. where is that? so she's critical in answering a lot of questions. above and beyond, the said black book, a newly documents suggests berlin tried to pressure washington not to impose sanctions over an old stream to the german foreign ministry. also wilma u. s. that sanctions against the new gas pipeline from russia damage, trans atlantic, unity is equal to donald now report while germany has outright confirmed that it has reached out to some us officials to some your senators in a bit to discourage them from imposing new more sanctions on the nord stream to gas

pipeline that runs all the way from russia and into germany. the confirmation came in a response to a question too, from a journalist with ortiz, roughly video agency have a lesson less if there is a document suggesting that the german government at members of the you asked congress not to impose sanctions on the node stream to pipeline because this new would undermine us credibility and damage, trans, atlantic alliance, unity. he would you confirm the german federal government's efforts to come to the sanctions. i can say the departmental chiefs of both the foreign and economics and technology ministries visited washington d. c. recently and conducted fruitful negotiations with representatives of the u. s . government and congress. we are continuing intense coordination of efforts with the usaa ministration on the implementation of a joint statement on nordstrom to. we regulate exchange of views on the subject on many levels. our position in regard to sanctions is well known where categorically

against any sanctions against allies. so they should not surprise anyone to have a car while germany could become one of the main benefactors from nordstrom to gas pipeline, becoming operational. in fact, it could help the whole of the e u, you know, deal with the energy crisis. but according to the german ambassador in ukraine, node stream to gas pipeline is still at least 6 months away from that. now the whole construction has been hampered by some fierce opposition coming from the u. s . that has been slapping sanctions on various companies involved in the construction of the pipeline and coming from ukraine as well. see a huge chunk over rushes, gas gets into europe through caves, pipeline. so now with a new, a modern pipeline in place, kia fears that had services will become obsolete. that's despite risk repeated assurances coming from both germany and the russian president vladimir putin. that

nord stream to will not be turned into an economic weapon. a wave of smash and grab robbery, shook the u. s. during the thanksgiving holiday and the weekend black friday, sales with many pointing out that the police seem to be overwhelmed with the level of crime that erupted and with the christmas holidays. now just around the corner paper, asking if the authorities can actually keep their city safe with their hands apparently tight by new policies on that next. from southgate, taylor remember the days of good cop bad cop. while back on in case you missed the memo. now every cop is a body. well we need to complete this. not until the minneapolis police department i i know often towards floyd's. my dad people came for policing budgets were slashed,

force was in no go stop and such was out. accountability was in. so where are we now? while the politicians who pulled the money plug, leaving police departments high and dry, might feel safe from neg gated communities. but for the rest of america? well, from coast to coast, from small towns to big cities, crime is on the rise. one year and the biggest annual spike of homicides in 60 years later, states are now trying to fast track a return to the good old days over or in order to reverse the tide arising crime, we need to stop the demon demonizing and sabotaging the dedicated men women who risked their lives every single day to keep the rest of us safe enough is enough. we cannot the fund, the police. we need to refund the police. instead of less funding, we need more investment in public safety and

a knife in the back of the democrat law makers everywhere. almost 90 percent of marilyn's black voters back him because if they have been most affected by fewer patrol cars in the neighbourhood, and this isn't a one off. this yet has seen a wave of pro police candidates be elected all across the country from liberal seattle, to minneapolis, the very place george floyd died at the hands of a police officer. the lift really does go on. it turns out that lol assess is not as exciting in real life as it is in the weston's. and for the democrats already terrified of the mid term bloodbath. this could be a debt now, already blue republicans, the proud gun toting law and order party a polling 8 percent higher than democrats nationally. it's almost like voters have realized that it's one thing to shout a slogan to make a gesture. it's another thing to come up with a real game plan. it does not present any sort of plan for what will come after.

there is no specificity as to what services would provide what law enforcement would look like. what residents can expect. police might be back in demand, but it looks like too little too late. the usaa saying, record numbers of offices leaving the force and recruitment numbers away down despite all types of incentives to boost them. when you start treating those who hunt for criminals as the criminals themselves, then also willing to go out and take a bullet few, a lot of the competent people who would make good police offices, a refraining because they feel that they can go to prison for doing that job 3, a police officer, you put your life in jeopardy. now some feel they're not protected. that criminals have more rights than police. is today. the town for what you wish for what started as a t slogan and a bed to be down with the voters turned into

a radical agenda that's been kind to criminals and cruel to the lawful ukrainian journalists in hot water. after he uploaded a video of him firing an artillery gun of what he claimed were russian occupiers. oh, i must admit, i may have been involved in the killing of some people and on bass, but exclusively in the death of russian occupiers. are you rupert us off so that he posted a video on a national day of remembrance of a famine that devastated the soviet union in the 19 thirty's for the videos being cited as proof of ukraine violating a ceasefire deal signed to end the years long. civil war near the russian border. or critics of the stunt took the twitter to vent their outrage. on their own is such journalists lift and ukraine looked like cubes chased away all those who dare to tell the truth about ukraine shelling and killing peaceful population in dumbass, thus blatantly violating minx agreements and trying to shift the blame on russia. this video confirms not only the fact of the use of prohibited heavy weapons by the

armed forces of ukraine, but also the fact that anyone who wishes can shoot to the territory of the dumbass republics in addition to the ukrainian military. if this is what journal is doing, ukraine, imagine what their government and arm is doing all in response to the backlash which was off, updated his post, which he partly back tracked on his original word with a claim that the video had been shot a long time ago and was not in violation of any ceasefire agreement of a clarity on the situation. we had from journalist brian mcdonald who had to the russian former soviet union desk at r t dot com for what he's basically doing it. he's created a priest now. whereas, if you are a militia man, a rebel, or you want to call them, and in the don't back looking at that on the internet, you're thinking how many other journalists are doing this. and you're starting to think, well they're making themselves competent there. and that's the danger of it, and you know, you reboot yourself is a very radical guy. he's known for it. i mean he's,

he certainly blurs the line between activism and journalism. but then again, this is a breach of ukrainian media for the last 6 or 7 years. i mean, you need to look at their twitter accounts. there's so many ukrainian journalists, you've got political statements on their twitter account, you know, ranging from crimea, the crane to, to support individual political figures. and you crank something that wouldn't really happen in russia, and certainly wouldn't happen in western europe. for example. you could imagine that in any normal country, unfortunately, modern ukraine is not very normal. in any normal country, you will be prosecuted. i mean, he's a civilian, he's not a military officer who is fired a military weapon in a war zone. i mean, in any normal country that will get your jail time. imagine. and that's the way it looks from moscow this hour. thanks for watching on. call him bryley. be with you to morrow. meantime, sean thomas will be here to keep you posted on the big stories we're across here. you'll be here in just over half an hour. me,

i ah, lacy media continued to prepare a western audiences for a military conflict in ukraine under the war of choice. also, be noted, states doesn't export much these days, maybe, except for so called values by those values attractive anymore. ah, i,

ah, i'm action or dance in your watching, going underground. 24 hours ahead of a meeting of nato foreign ministers, and as israel lebanon relations, a disgust of the un security council, lebanon has long been a key front in the cold war, conflicts, and arguably still is the capital bay ruge would play host to the most successful communist known to penetrate the british secret services. kim fil, be a new book about his time in beirut. not only expose the life and loves of the legendary double agent, but also scrutinize is the role class played in britain's cold war defeats. and it's all the former deputy editor of the independent on sunday or in britain, james having joins me now. james, welcome to going undergrad. so tell me about what's new. i mean, i thought everyone knew about kim fil be the most famous of british by after james bond. well, i thought i thought we all know the po, restore, it's been done to death, but actually i, i looked into to pay it because i got some credit, some stuff from a former colleague bronze soule ah, a by about the circumstances in which will be left period and i started looking

into it and i saw actually i didn't do this. i didn't notice about the american