the, who's our top story, this our, on the crime that the new covered 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. elite documents suggests germany tried to pressure the us not to slap sanctions on north stream to berlin warns that washington shouldn't sanction allies and shoplifting and vandalism. as the festive season begins, flash mobs and smash and grab a robberies. put us authorities to the test ah . broadcasting lab direct from our studios in moscow. this is our to

international. i'm john thomas. certainly glad to have you with us. all right, now, 1st on crime is causing havoc around the world. the new coven mutation has been highlighted as the variant of concern by the world health organization and has 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 have begun closing their borders to curb it's spread. the 1st images of the news stream originally detected in south africa have been published by italian researchers on the right is on the cron and on the left is delta. very. the read areas show it has many more mutations this time around, and that means that the virus has further adapted, but it's not yet clear if it's more dangerous. meanwhile, some vaccine developers have already stepped in and said that they are ready to

provide modified jobs to fight the new strain. the producers of rushes, food v vaccine, say that they are working on a new shot and have said that they can provide several 100000000 booster doses by february if needed. that comes, as pfizer says, it will make a new version within $100.00 days. if the new variant proves to be resistant to their current job, however, both developers believe that the current vaccines should already be effective against the emerging strain. but as governments are figuring out their response plans, many people have found themselves stranded in south africa amid newly imposed travel bands or policy or reports from johannesburg airport. this elation, desperation, frustration, 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 arriving here, dis, 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 off that they had to disembark. you had people that were waiting 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 l to me 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 15 days to my my bash and she started to 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 total parenting for 2 weeks and i've got 2 boys and i just knew that i, i actually had to knock on their flat. and i was devastated and heartbroken. i've got double vaccinated up what 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 sudden, but i feel like the other information is 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. and then within 3 days it, 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, it 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. they insist it's not a south african variant,

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 and adviser to the italian health authorities says that current preventative measures are only having a limited impact on the new strain, and this could be our reality for years to come. meanwhile, the u. k. is re introducing quarantine in a government mandated hotel for people arriving from south africa. and the british health secretary also believes coverage is going to be with us for in some form forever. he was asked to learn to live with coven. 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 in cases of omnicom 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 pleased 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 there 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,

i and i live on my own. we are consult oscillate and secondly with the job that i was 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. i've worked it out which is basically my rent money for the month. i'm a pretty citizen and 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 then expect the 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 the, 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 tear and says that the government needs more time to look at it. they don't use if you don't load 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 more. meanwhile, the ministers, the health ministers from the g 7 countries we'll 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. one of the 1st countries to ramp up restrictions is israel, which has closed its borders to foreigners. we spoke with israel's former un

ambassador who says the measures are unnecessary burden, as there's simply not enough known about the new strain. 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, we'll be able to open our borders, you know, divide, open everything up and stones more events. so i think, you know, a different culture because we don't know exactly about the, we have a case actually. now we have 2 cases of confirmed the only one you need, well that's why the government decided to act and very, very fast and to close the borders to the allow only ladies to come in. and those are to be for 3. dave, even though we exceed the base, you know, whether we should use the knology to actually one of the, the carry, the very end. you know, we have the courage to follow people that 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 who were confirmed we would that by was either now it's, you know, had a few people. i hope it will be the number, but i'm not sure that it would be because the latter, we meant that policy empowerment and in the public, you know, it even possible to do sat down on the slides. why are we going to do that every time the, the new variance coming out? but yes, i think we should watch it carefully and learn how to deal with that and expect the public to, to be patient about it and to cooperate with a guideline. in other developments, as western governments push their citizens to get a booster shot, the world health organization has expressed opposition to richard nations extending their occupation programs. while vaccination rates remain low in poorer countries across much of africa, for example, less than 10 percent of the population has had

a single dose. even no more vaccine should go to countries that have already vaccinated more than 40 percent of their population. until kovacs has the vaccines, it needs to help other countries get that to normal boosters should be administered except to immunocompromised people. most countries with high vaccine coverage continued to ignore our cold for a global moratorium on boosters. it is a huge point of contention and conversation. right now, we put it up for debate right 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 past it and then also still and be

affected by the virus off in. ready as one of the issues that i think they should be meaning of china, i've seen that education is key because we do still have a lot of hesitant people, not we're not wanting to take the vaccine. and also, just really, it just seems 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 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 who's who shot you know, various are going to continue to be generated. ready with those of ours 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 there's all it is in all our interests to support the

role of axis across the world. and we shouldn't be in a position we're having to choose we 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 covariance spreads across the world, joe biden and the mayor of san francisco are facing a public backlash after violating their own mask mandate. can find that story in plenty more online at our t dot comp. now at least 4 people have been killed and another 19 injured because of severe storms that are battering east on bull and popular tourist resorts in turkey. ah, the winds at toppled that a clock tower as well as overturning trucks,

tearing off roofs and felling trees. shipping traffic on the phosphorus straight has been suspended while numerous plains have been unable to land forecasters warned the dangerous weather will continue in to late tuesday. the sex trafficking trial of british social life juice lane maxwell has begun in new york. she is accused of grooming underage girls for convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein, who died in prison in 2019 ortiz john hud reports from outside. the courthouse. 59 year old gillan maxwell has been in 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. now she's among the federal prosecutors on the team. they maintain that melts maxwell essentially held,

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 tab seeing 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, our 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, you know, 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 monk 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 it. and that she was being used as a pond by geoffrey epstein. epstein of course, was found dead in his prison in his jail cell. shortly after his arrest back in august 2019. by the way, myself and one of my friends photographers was one of the last journalists, actually on edge think notorious 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 gillen mats will testify in 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. a pre 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. my president abida, which is next step. you know, one step from the u. s. supreme court. she's already ruled against maxwell 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 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 headlines. legal and media analyst, lionel suspects that if maxwell testifies, 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, is maxwell, is there anybody else that you think should be tried along with you? if indeed you're involved in some type of sex trafficking enterprises. and she would most probably say yes, the following people. she's the lynchpin 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 new leak to document suggests berlin tried to pressure washing to not to impose sanctions over nord stream to the german foreign ministry has also warned the us that sanctions against the new gas pipeline from russia damage. transatlantic unity as are to the son of comments 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 to from a journalist with ortiz, roughly video agency have a lesson. 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 would you confirm the germans federal government assets 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, nod 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, key of fears that in services will become obsolete. that's despite repeated assurances coming from both germany and the russian president vladimir putin. that note stream to will not be turned into an economic weapon. a wave of smash and grab robberies showed us during the thanksgiving holiday and the weekends. black friday, sales with many pointing out the police seemed to be overwhelmed with the level of crime that erupt it. and when the christmas holidays just around the corner,

people are asking of authorities can actually keep their city safe with their hands apparently tied by new policies. one of that next commentary from south to taylor, remember the days of good cop bad cop. while back on in case you missed the memo. now every cop is a patty. well, we need to completely dismantled minneapolis. police department. i i know. no. off to george floyds. my dad people came for policing budgets were slashed, force was and no go stop and such was out. accountability was in. so where are we now? well, 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 of laura in order to reverse the tide arising crime, we need to stop 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, lawmakers 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 list really does go on. it turns out that lol assess is not as exciting and real life as it is in the westons. and for the democrats already terrified of the mid term blood path. this could be a death knell 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 to 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 view. 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 their job. to be a police officer. you put your life in jeopardy. now some feel they're not protected . the criminals have more rights than police officers today. the careful what you wish for what started as a cat t slogan and a bid to be with the voters turned into a radical agenda that's been kind to criminals and cruel to the lawful ukrainian journalist is in hot water. after he uploaded a video of himself firing and artillery gun at what he claimed were russian occupiers. one was 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. yury boot who saw it says that he posted the video on a national day of remembrance of a famine that devastated the soviet union in the 1930 s. but the video is being cited as proof of ukraine violating a cease fire deal designed to end a years long war near the russian border. critics of the stunt took to twitter to vent their outrage. on there already, such journalists lived in ukraine, looks like cube of chase the way will those who dare to tell the truth about ukraine shilling and killing people. population in dumbass of blatantly violating minsk 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 imagined what their government and arm is doing in response to the backlash, but to solve updated his post in which he partly backtracked on his original words . he now claims that the video was shot a long time ago and was not in violation of any sci fi agreement for clarity on the situation. we heard from a journalist, brian mcdonald, who heads the russia and former soviet union desk at r t dot com for what he's basically doing it. he's created a priest with and now whereas if you are a militia man, a rebel or whatever, 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 that. and you're starting to think, well they're making themselves competent, they're not the danger of it. and you know, you reboot yourself is a very radical guy. he's known for it. i mean, he's a, 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 journalist, they've got political statements on their twitter accounts, ranging from crimea, the crane to, to support of individual political figures in ukraine. 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, on course, in the 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 and military weapon in a war zone. i mean, in any normal country that will get your jail time. imagine that does it for me, this are i will be back in 30 minutes of another full 1st. the good news, this is our international stay with me. the

long when i was wrong. when all through, just don't the any rules yet to see out disdain. because the after an engagement equals the trail, when so many find themselves will depart. we choose to look for common ground in legacy media continued to prepare a western audiences for a military conflict. and ukraine, another war of choice. also the not states doesn't export much these days. maybe except for so called values or those values attractive anymore. from the craft all the way up to the top management there.