A dutch court finds shells nigerian subsidiary responsible for multiple pipeline leaks and or does it to pay damages to farmers. And we look at why namibia is government is auctioning off 170. 00 elephants despite the pills by conservationists im 7 asked with sports event is that cage and perrier refuses to criticize christiane around his top scorer faces a Police Investigation for breaching coded 19 rules by going on a ski trip. Alone welcome to the news hour we begin with the race to vaccinate the world against 19 and fears the poorer nations are being left behind and richer countries are rushing to secure supplies johnson and johnson has become the 1st company to announce trial results for a single dose jab it says its vaccine is 66 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe symptoms of covert 19 and plans to seek emergency authorization in the United States next week thats just a day off the American Company novaks said its vaccine was 89 percent effective in u. K. Trials but both vaccines a week against the variant that was 1st detected in south africa a country which wont receive its 1st vaccine shipments until february meanwhile the european you. An eon which is already secured to vaccines has now approved astra zeneca job for all adults as while it tussles with the company over delayed supplies and faces criticism of the slow rollout algis there is dominate kane has all the latest developments now from berlin this is the astra zeneca vaccine in use available to british patients most at risk from covert since late last month and from now on officially so too for many e. U. Citizens most at risk from the pandemic its a real pleasure to be here and to announce the 3rd positive 0 pinion for the authorize ation of the astra zeneca covert 19 vaccine this expand the range of Vaccines Available to e. U. Member states which will all help to bring the pandemic under control and protect the citizens of the e. U. Except that far fewer e. U. Citizens will be able to receive the vaccine for the next few months after the company cut back what it could deliver to the block astra zeneca a british swedish firm blames production problems at some of its plants and said it can only deliver fewer than half of the 80000000. 00 doses promised the europeans have complained and decided to protect all vaccine stocks made on their territory as a commission because a lot of good strickly targeted measures that will allow us to gather information about a production influx since and where manufacturers intend to ship them. The measure is term limited and specifically applies so it was all scored 19 vaccines that were agreed to by advanced purchase agreements as a measure is intended to run until the end of march although on the face of it this measure could apply to pfizer by on tag more downer and astra zeneca it appears most targeted at astra zeneca the root of the disagreement between the 2 sides lies in the contract they agreed last year the company says it promised its best reasonable efforts to produce sufficient vaccine for the e. U. The europeans disagree saying the deal is binding to both they say the company agreed to use its plants both in the e. U. And in britain in order to guarantee supply the europeans have also asked how astra zeneca going to have insufficient product for the e. U. But still supply the british who are immunizing far more people than in the e. U. Particularly since in the terms of this contract the company confirmed it had no other contractual obligation with any other party to prevent it fulfilling its obligations to the European Union and while the round rages on the measures to deal with the pandemic are intensifying in places germany has announced that from saturday it will ban travel from several countries where covert mutations have been reported dominick came aljazeera. Well angry has become the 1st e. U. Member to approve chinas sign of vaccine and says 5000000 doses of already been or did its drug regulate regulators signed off on the vaccine a week after also proving Russia Sputnik the on the e. U. Law all vaccines need to go through the books European Medicines Agency before they can be used in Member States but government is moving ahead with its own agenda right now it issued a decree calling for approval for any vaccine which has been administered to east 1000000 people in 3 other countries. Well can you are saying that health care and immigration workers are going to be 1st in line when it starts and people next month vaccines are being secured through the African Union and the. But Health Officials say it will take until june next year to vaccinate around a 3rd of the population kenya is a member of equal rights for c. D. C. And has made an initial commitment to procure vaccines through this for c. T. Weve this commitment the country will receive 24000000 doozies from different and we procure 11000000 boozes from other mechanisms to vaccinate nearly 16000000 people that is 30 percent of our population over a period of 18 months. Almost president has won the hospitals across Southern Africa around a severe strain 22 percent of all infections in the region were in the 1st 2 weeks of january alone this is doctors in zimbabwe of hit back a government spokesman who suggested the deaths of several Ruling Party Officials from the virus might have been the work of medical assassins a joint funeral was held this week for 2 cabinet ministers in a retired army general who all died of covered 19 of borders close many of the countrys elite have been forced to use the countrys Public Health system for the 1st time instead of traveling abroad for treatment doctors and nurses have been coming. In. Were going on. Were. Dying. Its how these people if you want to debate you. Ought to get straight about. This you know. Well i mean a handful of nations in africa have started vaccinating people and there if is a continent is being left behind in the fight to stop the pandemic 6 of the top 10 countries in the world with the fastest rising infections are on the continent just take a look at malawi which is number 2 on that is cases that doubled in just 2 weeks from 1991 on january 14th to over 22000. 00 on the 28. 00 continents kovan 1000. 00 mentality rate is now higher as well with the rest of the world at 2 and a half percent compared to the global average of 2. 2 percent there is simple positive news the African Union has secured a deal for another 400000000 doses of the astra zeneca vaccine but to could take up to 3 years to vaccinate 60 percent of the continents 1300000000 strong population which is the threshold needed for vaccines to work im not joined by peter drawback Global Health specialist and director of the sculls center for social entrepreneur pernicious at Oxford University joins us via skype. Missing this new variant of covert 19 spreading through south africa with really terrifying speed its overwhelming hospitals in that country but its this were seeing the same story with Health Systems in other Southern African countries facing a great deal of pressure if most african countries avoided the fatalities that we saw in brazil the u. S. And europe the 1st time around with the 1st wave is this new variant is going to change that. Well thank you for having me mary and i think the answer is yes it absolutely could and were seeing signs of that now a lot of countries in africa did a very admirable job of responding quickly to trying to contain the outbreak early on in the pens emic but its difficult to maintain you know significant restrictions for long periods of time as we all know but particularly in settings of of poverty and families that are living on the margins its really hard to ask them to stay home so you cant sort of hold on forever and i think thats part of what were seeing right now certainly the spread of some of the new variants including the one you mentioned out of south africa that are more transmissible is of great concern not least because they spread so much more quickly but also because of this emerging evidence that the there appears to be lower after effects excuse me efficacy of several of the vaccines you know to this and so it its an extremely concerning moment. Just speaking about this some of the figures what what its how the proportion of the continent population that has to be vaccinated for that to be. Immunity herd immunity now of the the proportion of vaccines that have been identified not this but in the proportion of vaccines have administered while why how i mean how many of those in africa. Its effectively 0 you know there may have been a handful but not a not a meaningful amount of almost all of the vaccinations have been concentrated in wealthier countries to this point about looks to be the case for the forseeable future many countries are aligned in that kovacs facility a multilateral. You know partnership that showed others helped organize to try to allow for some equitable distribution of vaccines and other technologies the role of that could be delayed by supply problems and it could be further worsened by you know some of the sort of trade war type talk that were now starting to see out of the e. U. So this is incredibly concerning you know that realistically many countries in africa and other areas of the global south may not see meaningful amounts of vaccine for months or possibly longer. Right i mean it i mean theres no mechanism either is there for stopping on federal unequal distribution of vaccine at stake tainted by market forces. Really are likely to see a hoarding of vaccine doses by which countries if it isnt happening already. Well its already happening you know canada the United States europe the u. K. Most of these countries have have creep purchase agreements for 5 times more vaccines and they actually need to cover their entire population and they did that to hedge their bets with multiple different candidates not knowing which ones would come 1st but theyve essentially bought out the global early Global Supply of vaccines and then some through nontransparent Bilateral Agreements and the problem with this is not just that its going to slow down access for the rest of the world and actually makes everybody less safe you know because its going to constrict the Global Supply for example the talk that were hearing out of the e. U. Right now about potentially limiting exports of vaccines from the e. U. Elsewhere could create choke points and a really fragile Global Supply chain that could actually limit the Global Supply even further you know its its silly to think that even if the u. K. Or europe or america was successful and vaccinate a lot of this population that suddenly they would be safe if the virus is still raging around the world we really need to think about a Global Cooperation type spend some time to then what are the implications of that a massive and balance in the line which vaccines in a distributed does that may if you have the virus continuing to spread and poor countries does that mean and you take actions are more likely to occur how does that affect the global picture in how the pandemic evolves. So certainly one risk is that any place of the virus is spreading out of control the more transmission there is the more opportunity there is for new mutations and the emergence of new variants so we could be entering a situation where were having to think about 2nd generation vaccines before weve even rolled out the 1st generation of axioms thats one problem but then the other thing is that how are we going to have some countries opening up while others still have raging out of control transmission its going to create an incredibly incredibly Unequal World i think its going to cause geo political instability and ultimately its going to make all of us less safe and its going to prolong the pentameter. Thank you very much. For joining us from Oxford University thank you thank you. All the developments elsewhere portugal has extended its nationwide lockdown and tighten its border with spain is it grapples with the worlds highest per capita death toll is that the mergence will be extended until feb 14th delaying the reopening of schools and nonessential businesses the Portuguese Health service is hiring foreign medics to tackle staffing shortages as intensive care beds run out and ambulance is a force to queue outside hospitals another 278. 00 deaths were reported on friday. The french Prime Minister is announced of the tightening of coronavirus restrictions but step back from imposing a widely anticipated National Lockdown junk aesthetic says the u. K. And South African variants of 1000 pose a dangerous risk in the coming days will be crucial from sunday borders will be close to arrivals from outside the e. U. For all but essential travel police will also set up checks on people breaking a nightly curfew will mexico now has the 3rd highest coronavirus death toll in the world with more than 155000 fatalities confirmed date exceeded the total number of deaths recorded in india which has a population of more than 10 times the size of mexico as its been struggling to contain a 2nd wave of infections and hospitals in the capital on nearing capacity and running out of oxen oxygen supplies mexicos president under his money Lopez Obrador currently has the virus himself but is said to be in good spirits. Well my appetite joins us live now from mexico city and many many we wouldnt expect that to be any comparison between india and a country of mexicos size how how did the situation deteriorate like this it is quite significant and i think that that comparison is something thats not lost on the average person here in mexico especially given how especially devastating this last month has been with the sharp increase in new cases and new deaths here in mexico just run through those through those latest numbers one more time as of friday morning there were more than 155000 deaths and more than 1800000 confirmed cases we of course know that that number is likely to be much higher given the lack of testing here in mexico but again on thursday evening mexico fishley surpassed india for the 3rd highest coronavirus deaths in the world mexico now takes its place behind just behind brazil and the United States for the most of the deaths around the world and overall its been a very busy week in mexico in terms of coke at 90 news but we just surpassed that milestone of 150000 cases over the weekend followed shortly by the news that the mexican president on this monday looked as over though it himself it tested positive for the virus a few days later carlos slim the richest man in mexico once the richest man in the world tested positive as well but really again this entire month has been as been very difficult one of a very difficult start to the year for mexico and its really stretch the limits of the Public Health system many are afraid that the Public Health system could be on the brink of collapse hospitals are nearing their occupancy limits overall i think the ox occupancy limit currently stands at 90 percent in mexico but we do know of at least a dozen hospitals that are already operating beyond the limits of their of their occupancy so there is a lot of concern over how much longer medical workers can can stay. And the Current Situation and what were hearing overwhelmingly now from Public Health policy experts is that the system put in place the policy the strategy by the federal government has failed and without a new stricter strategy the Health Emergency here in the country can only continue to worsen thanks very much from mexico city many rapid. Experts from the wild helpful guys ation of visited a hospital in the chinese city of one as they continue their investigation into the origins of the 19 who bay provincial hospital is one of the 1st to treat patients when the virus was 1st identified in late 2019 were such a spot with Health Workers about their experience on the frontline and w. H. O. Team is also expected to visit the seafood markets at the center of the early outbreak as well as the mohan institutes overall ag. But as always its an entitys will be limited to those organized by that chinese hosts. You with the news hour life from london much more still to tell you about the e. U. Moves to stop Northern Ireland being used as a back door to get covert 19 vaccines from the block into the rest of the u. K. Also more than 200000 people flee the fighting in the Central African republic a situation a former Prime Minister is described as apocalyptic and egyptian football fans give that African Champions a raucous welcome at of the fee for world cup. A Dutch Appeals Court has ordered the Nigerian Branch of Oil Giant Shell to pay compensation to a group of farmers for nigerian farmers 2. 00 of whom have since died brought a case against the company in 2008 accusing it of destroying their fishing villages with 3 spills its the 1st time a Dutch Company has been held liable for actions by its foreign subsidiary and could pave the way for more cases against the oil for im address has been following proceedings fr