ah, ah, the headlines here when r t a new cobra strain in southern africa are sparking global can sun. it's prompting nations to shut down air. travel with the region. cases are reportedly spreading, though with the latest detected and israel and the belgium. the developers of sputnik be prepared to test the russians shot against the latest mutation in the program. we hear from the hungarian foreign minister about his own country's vaccine policy. and the need to put lives above politics. there are too many countries. i'm considering the issues of vaccination as if you have a political order or ideology call nature. you know, it's about liable to people in, well, i didn't do anything special. i sit b battle for my life. every person in my situation would have done the say,

the 1st words of a rescue who was found alive and i have area, and coal mine after being presumed dead. a criminal probe has not been opened into thursday's explosion, which claim more than 50 lines. ah, welcome to the saturday program here on odds. he international yourself to 1 pm. now, here in moscow, the us and canada have joined the e. u in halting flights from 6 southern african nations off for the discovery of a dangerous new cobit strain. in johannesburg, the new restrictions have left air passengers scrambling to get out. if i can get on board now, i'll have to be an employee here waiting to go back to pay over. it is very serious thing, but on the other hand, always going to have new variance fraud on the whole. we gonna keep looking down every time we've gone, you varian, just a disconnecting one, going to the door and you pay is not for fear of heartbreaking people. i devastated

just before christmas. mom really said for many people at the airport, it's already too late. airlines have canceled flights from south africa to the u. k . ahead of the approaching deadline. although flights to some other western countries including the u. s. a. continuing until monday. and we've got a correspondence in johannesburg and she'll later be speaking with travelers stranded there. in the meantime, our correspondent charlotte gibbons, he reports from paris as to how europe is coping with a new cove. it varies will this see for a mutant strain of covey. it has been described as being more transmissible than delta. and that has really ramped up phase. it's been reported that it's already been found on the european continent in belgium, that is from a sample that was taken from a young woman who said to have not been anywhere near the south of the african continent. she had indeed been to egypt and to turkey,

and it's also said that she was unvaccinated key and that knock off will happen confirm. case of this variant is someone who came from abroad. this person was tested on november 22nd. he was not vaccinated and had no prior infection, so this case has been observed and confirmed. but i want to repeat that it is a suspicious fair and we don't know if it's a very dangerous one. of all, as a result of this, new countries are now scrambling to close their air space to a number of countries in the south of africa. that's because the super mutant strain has been found in several countries there. but it could already be too late, as that case in belgium shows. now not much is known about this particular mutation, but experts are really sounding the alarm over what they say, the potential properties of it could be. and the fact that it's such

a heavy mutation just give you an example. experts in the u. k. have described this as being so mutated that it is barely recognizable when it compared to the original strain of co vic 19. and as a result of that, we have seen devastation across the world over the last 18 months or so. the european commission president is urging other countries to take heed and to also close their space. the european commission has today proposed to member states to activate the emergency brake on travel from countries in southern african and other countries affected to limit the spread of the new variant. now the u. k was one of the countries that 1st decided to put that ban in place of flights coming add to and from those 6 countries in africa are. but it has said that that list could be expanded in the next few days with more and more countries being put back on the

read less than that could cause so many fears that yet again, travel plans as we head into the holy c season will be thwarted, just as they were back in 2020. now this also comes at a time when there is a 5th wave of the pandemic hitting the european continent so much so that countries are putting new restrictions back in place. we've already seen partial downs and locked downs in some countries, like in austria and in the netherlands. and even here in france, early this week, the french health minister saying that from the middle of january, people will have to have a 3rd job for covey. 19 of vaccine, if they don't, than their health pass to allow them access to every day, things like cafes and restaurants will no longer be valid. but the real concern here is if those experts are right that this mutation is so far removed from the original covert 19 variant. will the vaccines that have already been creative,

be enough? will they even be effective? or as many fair will they just be totally ineffective? against this strain, if that's the case, it's going to leave the politicians scratching their heads again and scientists having to go back to the drawing board. but the question many of us are now asking when will this and scientists already say the new variant has an unusually high number of mutations. although right now there's a 0 evidence that has any more deadly than previous strains. we spoke with biologist continents. every enough who explain why there is possibility to be concerned about. if this variant indeed is proficient, more proficient than delta and can substitute delta, then it's not the question of if the question of when it's very clear that this has been strained to merge to in it probably single individual which had

a case of long code. it probably was this preston mune system where the you varian had gradually accumulated multiple mutations well being in the single person and then was released in the environment and started attacking new individuals. what they can do, it's mostly just slow down the distribution global distribution of you very. and that will help them whether they are restrictions not germany is continuing to see a surgeon, cobra, and infections, new daily records. now 76000. the health minister says it's vital to keep the new cope. it's drain out of the country if possible. hello, good. the situation is more dramatic than anything we've experienced during the pandemic so far. and the, my goal has to be to prevent this very, from entering the best of our ability. the last thing we need in this situation is a new variance been internation. meanwhile, the german air force is being called in to help transfer cobit patients from overwhelmed hospitals. so our 2 military jets have been set aside for this. and

here it, i'll tell you, we heard from an infectious disease expert klaus deed has astro. he says that with the new strain, all options could be on the table. by under this new barrier and spreads quickly on the vaccines. we have now start work when they're worried about situations, people who already are not clay, it may not be protected. so we have to wait and see if that worst case scenario becomes the case. maybe we'll be lucky on the vaccines will also work against this mutation. the moment we don't know enough about it, there isn't a p c r test for. yeah, we have to be cautious. it thought that the virus is changing all the time, and several mutations have occurred. the virus is a multiplying a few 1000 times a day. errors occur in the replication and a new virus emerges when it's not unusual, i'm going up in every day. i have all the feel, plenty of uncertainty over the whole lot on there on a very end and whether the whole kind of cause even warranted, put on our website. we haven't explained for you all the information you need from

us spike proteins to that of the stock market setup. so waiting for your right now, what are the thought come with? will it back seem produces now we're already trying to figure out whether bad drugs will work against this new variant. here in russia, the head of the gun maliah institute behind the sputnik be shot. so as testing will start as soon as the institute has a sample so far though, they remain optimistic and then hungry as well, whether russian job has been widely adopted. a study has found that it's effective against all earlier covariance and compared to the alternative vaccines. it was more successful at preventing a hospitalization and death. well, budapest is now hoping local production of sputnik v will start next year. although their drug is still awaiting approval from the e. u regulator. the hungarian, a foreign minister peter c auto spoke to our folks on a boy about the need to de politicize the issue. i really don't find the verse to describe how i feel about the fact that there are

few, many countries considering the issues of vaccination as if it had a political or, or ideological nature. you know, it's about the lives of the people who knew the lives of the people. what is it for them as far as the political, it's whether a political and ideological debate, i'm very frustrated about that. to be honest. and i tell you why europeans regulation speaks very clearly about how way vaccine can be approved on the territory of 2 ways. first, by the european madison agency, which is a normal, let's say, business of usual way of approving a vacuum. but a european regulation says that in case of the state of emergency, this one, the national regulators, are allowed to approve of axioms. also on a temporary basis before we started to use both scrutiny casino far from china, the national regulator of ours has approved the use of both. which means that the

use of scrutiny in hungary is being based on a european regulation. and that's why to be honest, we don't understand why it is not being respected by the by the other member states . whenever i talk to western european colleagues on my vest or euro can colleagues of mine between for i, they always tell me that they know that the russian scientific performance can be spoken about calling very highly. and they said it 1st the best. of course it works well, hungary and experts have approve that. and regardless of the fact that privately, they all say that when it goes to public, they act totally differently. i have the luxury to be in this position for more than 7 years now. so i clearly remember who said what 56 years ago, and i remember the way we were really, really attacked. and we were considering very no very hostile way,

very rude expressions were used on us. and those who treated us in a very rude way. they are now giving, basically a standing ovation to those who act similarly as we acted back in 2015. what do you think has changed in europe on that issue over the last 5 years? you know, i think there's a big hypocrisy. there might be some comments which, which sound to be different compared to what has been says since 2015 by the essence, by the essence of the european migration policy remained unchanged unfortunately. and if you look at the document or the statement or the founding document of the, of the new german government coalition, you will see that this extremely pro migration, extremely a russian court has reminded 5 suspects in custody for a period of 2 months over a deadly coal mine blast at the men, 3 managers and 2 inspectors have been charged with violating safety protocols. all

of them have denied wrong doing, leading up to 30 days underground. methane explosion and a came out of a region which claimed the lives of $51.00. and the head of the mines section where thursday's last happened, insist he had received no prior complaints from the miners or the death toll was early. a revised onwards after a rescuer, who had been presumed dead managed to crawl out of the mine is survival. lube was described as a miracle by the emotions he chief working at the side. the local might as have pretty much lost all hope of finding any more survivors were perfectly front room for the last chance to get out was with the rescuer, who survived. don't wait for the rest. got goodness, go ahead, sir. nobody could have survived as long as this is, especially because oxygen is now gradually being replaced by any thing. i have no idea how one man managed to survive. you. how can one predict more such a blow so much of his new mining, la gahan with only more ventilation and more checks will hello miss bowler for yeah, those are before no co, no money. everyone is trying to fulfill the plan and earn something we'll get the

widget ventilation services are responsible for checking the guest levels in the mines. shocking 18 years ago when i witnessed the my, unless the shadow is poorly ventilated, so a specialist has to come and check all that needs to be checked to be done. but that time work started straight away. the rescue operation is still ongoing. more than 2 days after the blast and families have been waiting for news at the entrance, holding on to any glimmer of hope. yeah. yeah. my son is down there in the mine. as his mother, i feel that he is alive without some hope. when one man was found alive, you see that down there and survived me. it's possible to tell people die in 2 or 3 hours. they are monica on the rubble. they are ready counted his dad, but you just like that matter. right. so it's been 3 days since the explosion that the coal mine and emergency services are working around the was trying to secure

the mind. and also relatives have been coming and going to the mind. first of all, get the final word on the face of their loved one and pick up personal belongings. were ashley who just saw several of those women who husband and son are full tracking there at this point presumed dead. well, obviously their relatives are very distraught and they still haven't lost hope that their loved ones might still be alive. and that whole has recently only been fueled by the recent lack of recovery of one of the rescuers who are presumed dead but unexpectedly turned up alive. the 51 year old alexander's ass and tire de, trapped inside the mine. virtually nobody thought that he had any chance of surviving, but nevertheless, he somehow miraculously came to the rescue workers himself. and here was his 1st interview after being rescued. alexander, how do you feel? great will surely start. are you able to see better?

yeah, but what you see where all the crime and it all went well, i didn't do anything special. i should be the battle for my life. because the my situation would have done the same doctors say that he is in a state of shock and that he has suffered some hypothermia and market whole ition. but nevertheless, his condition seems to be stable and he is expected to make a full recovery and return to his wife and son, who frankly, must have gone through quite the emotional rollercoaster. first they learned that their husband and father was dead and then somehow miraculously, he came out alive. but unfortunately for the rest of the people trapped inside the line doesn't seem that they there's any chance of survive. ultimately, the tragedy took the lives of 51 people, including 5 rescue workers, and many people are now wondering how this could have happened in the 1st place.

president putin has ordered authorities to get to the bottom of what happened is to figure out who was responsible. he also commented that these measures should be put into place should not be reactionary. and he said more preventative measures should be in place and should have been in place while a criminal investigation has already been launched. and 5 people have already been retained the director of the mining company, his deputy, as well as the person in charge of the president might have been detained on positions of violating safety for seizures on a hazardous production facility. also to see if in fact you're having to pay on suspicion of faking safety inspection of this exact mine just a week before the periphery of closing. now apparently there were a lot of issues plating the mine and all the minors apparently knew about them and reported them to the higher ups, which apparently haven't done that much to make this work safe. i. here's one of one of the relatives of the miners has said one that goes on. i remember my brother

in law telling me about a missing program in the mine and the instances of a gas build up soon. anton told me that when the level of me thing went on the scale and all good grounds to haute those. but sometimes despite this, there was a forbidden level of me. and even though it wasn't that high, the miners will still have to work. they even have to resort to various methods to decrease the level indicators in order to get work done. occasionally let his former head know about the situation. he wondered how he could work in such circumstances. the minds management was aware of what was going on while, while the investigation will be taking all of these reports into account in their attempts to find anybody and everybody who was responsible or might have had a hand in this blatant violation of safety rules on such a hazardous facility here is what the investigative committee has said, because it is not commonly known that tragedies of a similar nature have occurred in the minds in the camera of

a region and in other regions to the cost of these mistakes is invariably people's lives. the investigative committee intends to look into the circumstances of the situation and address the deep causes that lead to serious consequences and provoked the tragedy. listening to me to me to her now emergency services, working round the clock to secure the line and allow the workers to extract the bodies of the victims. meanwhile, relatives are in despair and demanding more answers. 20 fox valley here in moscow. beijing and moscow have accused us of stoking division with an upcoming summit for democracy. neither nation has been invited to the december event, although the likes of iraq and d. r. congo have made the list of the russian and chinese ambassadors wrote a joint article explaining why it's a bad idea. democracy is not just about domestic governance. it should also be reflected in international relations. a truly democratic government will support

democracy in international relations. it will not force the hic m many and division abroad while building democracy and unity at home. earlier, i was joined here in the studio with our to use ascii taylor. she gave some perspective on the gathering of so called democratic nations and why it's riled up moscow and basing? well, we are a bit over a week away from the american hosted summit for democracy and the state department released the guests less for those $110.00. also countries invited and there are 2 major snobs, russia and china. there was a lot one pack in the article, but in a nutshell, the positive reaction is that this kind of event is a throwback to the cold war mentality. it also sets up this division between superior and inferior countries. and it also does undermine global cooperation. that also is a rebuke for washington, of course, pointing itself the arbiter of what is right and wrong. no country has the right to

judge the world's vast and varied political landscape by single yardstick and having other countries copy one's political system to color revolution regime change and even use of force go against international law. and obviously anti democratic washington of course, sees this all very differently. it thinks it's a great opportunity to kind of shad visions for free and democratic future. now we already know that russia and china are not a part of that future neither by the way it's talk, you apparently know, and this is very interesting is hungary, despite of course being both and you member state and a nato ally on the other hand, was hops a couple of surprises when it came to those who did make the caught for example, iraq, which and last year democracy index ranked 100. 19 out of $167.00. so as the democratic republic of congo, which unfortunately despite its name, came in $166.00 out of $167.00. so quite

a broad and maybe unexpected mix of nations. but really, the bottom line here is that moscow and beijing feel that this summit will set up a clash between different ideologies. and really, this is a point increasingly diverse in fracture walled. instead we need to be bringing states together. that's a bit of our and it's all of this isn't there. i mean, the whole image of america democracy not trying to con flames or something, but it really has taken a bit of a hit this year. well, i think that's more than a bit of irony here. take just what's going on in the u. s. right now. so you've got people cooling. one is the bedrock of tomorrow. is alex the justice system winked against thoughts and ethnic minorities. i'm talking about a considerable chunk of population still believe that that was some kind of foul play in the 2020 presidential election. and then abroad on top of that, k, your tick seems to or from afghanistan afresh, and our mines. i mean, whatever washington says it went that to nation build, it installed a, quote, democratic government, which then collapse. so you really can't blame these on positives for pointing out

the hypocrisy of this upcoming. so meant, there is been no shortage of wars and term or worldwide to prove that spreading democracy. it's political system and values against other countries will severely undermines regional and international peace, security and stability bombings of yugoslavia. military intervention in iraq, afghanistan, and libya, and democratic transformation do nothing but hom, countries should focus on running their own affairs. well, not condescendingly criticizing others and, you know, thought right, that is the very essence of this article is not really about lashing out washington . it's a request for people to kind of stay in the lanes to understand that different countries develop different rates that different systems of governance, walk in different countries. and no one country should be imposing cause that vision and interpretation of democracy on to everyone else. so really it's sort of goodbye to hedge money and hello to mutual respect,

a multiple charity. but you know, look, we'll know that america for a very long time has enjoyed being top dog. so any future where it is, the throne is a future. it just doesn't want to hear about the black friday. we're supposed to bring mega profits to the world's biggest retailer, amazon, but across europe in the united states, the event was overshadowed by protests with the company's treatment of workers on the environment of corresponding kellum often reports from the heart of the demonstrations in new york. i well, we're here on 5th avenue and manhattan outside of the building where jeff bezos owns 4 floors of luxury apartments and right out here. as you can see, we're seeing representatives of labor unions and progressive community activist groups who are assembling to demand the recognition of a union at the amazon warehouses now among the crowd,

our amazon workers allies of the labor movement, progressive activists, et cetera. all highlighting the conditions at the amazon warehouses on demanding better treatment for the workers. here is some of what was in the call made for actions against jeff bezos on black friday. what is traditionally a top shopping holiday in the united states? the pandemic has exposed how amazon place is profits, head of work, as society and our planet amazon takes too much and gives back to little. the make amazon pay coalition is demanding higher wages for amazon's employees. an end to the workers surveillance policies, extended sick leave and improvement of anti coven measures, an end to casual employment status and representation for the union. and they want amazon as well as it ceo jeff bezos to pay their fair share and taxes. now, last year on black friday, there were massive protests targeting amazon around the world. and this year

continued that tradition, we saw actions in the united kingdom actions in latin america, actions in bangladesh and many parts of the world targeting jeff bezos and amazon, highlighting the treatment the workers and demanding union representation. now some of the protesters here today said that this is a global movement. we chose this day because we were following in the footsteps of what happened last year. and it proved to be the right thing to do because we're here today. but when we woke up, the workers in europe are already blocking us warehouses in england, their actions all over the globe. and this, this is a massive movement against greedy capitalist like basis, last year's, as, as well as a 2019 were pretty big. but this year may be the biggest, i mean to day, you know, hemmerson workers in south africa walked off the job. m's all work is in brazil and in mexico walked off the job. so it's quite

a gathering our seeing voices from the labor movement from climate change activists supporting groups. progressive organizations, white a gathering here on 5th avenue in manhattan, kayla marvin archie, new york. amazon issued a statement in advance of the protests defending its environmental record and saying it provides a very safe working conditions and great benefits for all of its staff. although not all of them agree with that. can you describe the conditions and the amazon warehouses? yeah, absolute air, brutal, especially around the holiday season. they were came the 12 hours would a extra day now. mandatory extra time for the next 6 weeks, $6.00 to $8.00 weeks. um, you know, work is going to be working 55 plus hours just to fulfill packages for christmas in holidays. so these warehouses are over a 1000000 square feet. so they walk, plus the 10 miles a day. they only feed all it all the all the time. ok, there's no real bathroom breaks because if they take away from the talking to

station us time of task and they can absolutely be fired for that. so they're subjected to a, you know, long days of no ris, minimum, bathroom breaks, minimum break time in the working conditions that continue to get worse. i think it survives the sad and ready bad. and especially when happening in the last 2 years in this country, people are suffering especially the working class. jacqueline is a symbol of this country, but that county which is not based on the humanity, was based on the greed, jeff bezos. and just in a minute is earning what amazon workers would dream of working in hours and hours and days. so we have to really focus on how they have so much money, so much control of markets and ability to drag down the wages. and that story continues right now online at r t dot com. well, thanks very much for joining us here for this hours news cost life from moscow. a naughty international. my colleague, a union o'neill here at the desk in half an hour's time. i do hope you can join him

. ah, the postal service delivers a 155000000000 pieces of mail every year, approximately 40 percent of the world's mail right now the us postal service is in the fight of its life to see everybody that is reduction bad financial shape. now facing default, the postal service is a cash cow, and there was a way to pull money out of the postal service to put into the federal budget. there was a mandate that you're bringing a $100000.00, new revenue every month. the nature of privatization in the us postal service is very much hidden from public view. it's privatization from the inside out. that's

a big business in money. it's not about the public and given them the service that they deserve. it's not about quality train workers. it's about with us dollars reserve currency. the days are numbered there that was even in the big claim community that held up hope that somehow the us dollar well remain on the world stage. but it's hillary clinton herself, points out the coin is essentially undermining or destroying the u. s. dollar, because the u. s. dollar can hold its purchasing power because it's fee of money and no fee of money over the past 300 years has ever escaped trading to 0.