A sweeping majority for president Maduro Socialist Party in venezuelas Congressional Elections the opposition has called the vote a fraud. Millions of people across the u. S. State of california are preparing for harsh new coronavirus lockdown rules to come into effect in under an hour the stay at home order places restrictions on the opening of restaurants say in stores while also limiting gatherings the measures are being implemented as the state reported its highest ever number of infections more than 30000 in a single day their fears some hospitals could run out of i. C. U. Beds now the virus is now killing more than 2000 americans a day thats 2 people every minute they hope that the food and Drug Administration will approve a vaccine soon but it will still take months for it to be fully rolled out castro has more from washington. New walk downs are being put in place in a number of regions amid the ongoing surge in Infections Health officials are considering ending even Outdoor Di
Christiane and ben next have a lot to get to so lets get started. Heres a headline that will surprise no one in 2020 the u. S. Economy had its worst performance in 74 years since the end of world war 2 it contracted 3. 5 percent now this was of course because of the coronavirus lockdowns and the impact of the worldwide pandemic so whats in store for 2021 especially in an economy that remains so uncertain joining me now to discuss this and more. On it chrystia i ben lets start with you can you give us a rundown of how the economy did or didnt perform in 2020. Yeah i mean as you said in the beginning here its really no surprise to anybody the economy did not do well contract at 3. 5 percent as you said the worst its done since 1946 so its been a long time since the economys contracted that much in a single year and that came off of the 2. 2 percent growth that we saw the year before in 1900 the bottom line here is this is basically every sector was down because of the coronavirus with th
Citizens. Welcome to the program the president of the European Commission ursula fund a line is urging drug maker astra zeneca to stick to commitments to supply the e. U. With its 1000. 00 vaccine the british Swedish Company has said its cutting the number of doses by 60 percent because of production problems astra zeneca also says it is not contractually obliged to deliver but funnel line said the contract is Crystal Clear many e. U. Member states are still failing to meet their vaccination targets. Correspondent. In brussels so the president of the e. U. Commission says their contract is Crystal Clear what does it say about the livery. Look ive been looking into this contract which i have here with me for the past couple of hours and i have to tell you its its a little bit difficult to tell what it says on the delivery schedule because if you go through the Relevant Pages they they look like this so a lot of the parts are blackened out and so they do not provide the Crystal Clear few
Thats a lame excuse they say there is a clear commitment and that is why they hope the company will publish the this particular contract today for everyone to see that the promises that have been made to the e. U. Are unfulfilled so that the e. U. Not know that the u. K. Would have priority and is was the lack of Due Diligence on the on the use part or should i have told them. There from from the perspective of the e. U. There is a lack of information though the key issue for them is that if you cut the vaccine supply that was promised by contract by more than half by 60 percent you need to come up with some some really good reasons for that and those reasons have been given apparently there is a problem in the supply chain on the european side in effect 3 in belgium but from the perspective of the e. U. Arsenic as a club a company theyre producing as far away as india and if they have supply problems that bug needs to be shared by all the countries that they are at handing out their v
See the European Union has spent hundreds of millions of euros in advance even before approval from the European Medicines Agency so that a vaccine can be produced so the moment it is approved it is there to be vaccinators so but thats also part of the problem astras is supplying vaccine to the United Kingdom isnt it. Exactly and the argument of the European Commission is that stress anika is a close call company that is producing not only in the e. U. But also in the u. K. Also in india and that supply chain problems must then affect all those countries that are buying vaccines and europe is the biggest customer and it cant be that its just europe that is carrying the burden just because the supply chain problem appears to be in a belgian factory but both are strong and the e. U. Have said its states in the contract that they respectively were right and now the redacted version of the contract that you have in front of you still doesnt shed any light on the core issues here why do you