al jazeera and hope for the fight against covert drugmaker, pfizer says vaccine is more effective than originally thought and plans to request emergency approval calipso rommany watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha. also coming up encouraging news from china. her about a possible covert 19 vaccine, as cases in europe and elsewhere. saul and words of defiance from the leaders of ethiopia's, rebellious northern region to grey, they say, is held to its enemies. calipso rommany watching al-jazeera live my headquarters

here in doha also coming up. encouraging news from china, her about a possible covert 19 vaccine, as cases in europe and elsewhere. saul and words of defiance from the leaders of ethiopia's, rebellious northern region to grey, they say, is held to its enemies. returning to the skies, the u.s. aviation agency gives the boeing 737 mags the green light to fly again after being grounded for nearly 2 years. welcome to the program u.s. drugmaker finds or plans to request emergency approval for its covert 1000 vaccine in the coming days. this after results from its trial show that it's safe and 95 percent effective. the vaccine developed with german partner has shown consistent results across demographics with no major side effects. let's get the very latest

from our correspondent joe castor joins me now from wilmington, in delaware. really encouraging news from pfizer on the back of news of other companies like madonna saying that sort of their tests are good to go as well. that's right. so and these ethical see rates of 95 percent there really be yond, what the drug makers had hoped or even expected. but the irony is that these clinical trials, racing to completion, is really enabled by this spike in factions happening now in the united states with now 11400000 cases in the country. but today's good news is that pfizer says it has a 95 percent efficacy rate for this vaccine. the way they got that number is 44000 volunteers got this. were part of this clinical trial, half the vaccine they have another have didn't. and among the 170 cases of

kobe, that developed among these participants all but 8 or in the hat, that didn't get the vaccine. and that's how you got to that high efficacy rate. also notable among the older participants, 65 years old and, and older, they had a 94 percent of a cause, the rate and 9 out of the 10 severe cases of kobe that were observed. all those happened in the people who did not get the vaccine. and of course, this is piggybacking off of also good news coming from another drug maker. but during that also is reporting a $95.00 close to 95 percent of because you're right. so certainly giving much hope to these drug companies and to the american public for the update that it's very much hard to castro in will be to tell the way people in germany protest against the government's credit. i was rules please find was kind of interested. several people in the capital, berlin, thousands demonstrated as part of the debate of the bill,

which would allow the government to best reinforce credit. i was measures germany is and a 2nd lockdown after seeing a sharp rise in cases. now the chinese vaccine is also the latest to show some success during trials krone vacas reach stage 3 trials. researchers say it could provide enough protection against the virus, but they believe the vaccine could be suitable for emergency use. during the pandemic between e.u. has more from beijing. china has 5 vaccines in total, which are undergoing final stage days 3 trials. but the clear front runner here is a vaccine that's been developed by the company signed of that vi otec called corona vac. now this vaccine works by including an inactivated form of the virus. that is a virus that has been chemically killed in a lab. and that will be injected into a subject and ideally produce and an immune response in somebody who is receiving it. now, according to an article published in the medical journal lancet,

this vaccine had some success in mid stage trials. this was based on study and a study of about 700 people, although the article didn't say what the success rate of the vaccine was. now that was done that was accumulated in april and may instance then quite a bit has happened with the son of that vaccine. 1st of all they began phase 3, final stage trials overseas. now those trials couldn't be conducted here in china because of the lower number of carved 19 numbers, but they've since began in indonesia, bangladesh, and in brazil, a southeast chinese province called judge in september, started up a pilot program for members of the public to receive this sign novak vaccine, and since september the judge on government says 740000. people have received that vaccine, including many international students who were about to go overseas to commence their studies, as well as international businessmen. now of course medical experts around the world say it is extremely risky to be giving members of the public or people this

vaccine before. phase 3 trials have been have been ended, and they've had any conclusive results. but certainly the chinese government does seem to be very, very confident in this particular vaccine. the leader of the people's liberation front has admitted his forces, have lost ground. if european government forces have been advancing as the conflict in the country's north continues to escalate, both sides of claimed victory. know the conflict has forced thousands of people to flee. many more good news across the border in sudan with more of the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding the number of refugees that continue to arrive to sudan have been rising over the past few days. the united nations high commission for refugees. that's the refugee agency said that on sunday, more than 5000 arrived on a single day. more than 2300 arrived in the next day. and they say that those numbers are much higher than what they were expecting. they said they were expecting. and the numbers of 100000 to be arriving. now, as you can see behind me,

these are refugees receiving aid. this is the 1st time that refugees are receiving aid since they arrived to this refugee camp here. and a lot of not far from the border. most of them say that they've been going hungry for at least 3 days. other thing that they've been going hungry for more and that they have children, that they need to tend to. authorities obviously that the numbers have been rising . we've got nearly 330000 refugees, numbers that are expected to go up to 250000 over the coming weeks and sudanese authorities have been pleading for aid organizations to step up. so we've seen delegations from the united nations agencies such as the world food program and the united nations children's agency unicef visiting those refugee centers. the border centers this refugee camp and other refugee camps to look into the needs and assessments of what those refugees need. they say that they have produced dog food for about a month for about $50000.00 refugees. but then again,

those numbers are not what are expected. they're expecting more than 100000. so more demands by refugees and by authorities for aid organizations to step up. the u.s. aviation regulator has just given the approval for boeing's troubled 737 next jet to fly again. now its fleet had been grounded worldwide finale 2 years after a pair of crashes that killed nearly 350 people. the planes will now be allowed to take to the skies, but only after they're fitted with the software and pilots of retrained. robert bright has more it's been one of the worst crises to face boeing and it's damaged trust in the aviation industry as a whole. the 737 max, the latest generation of the world's best selling aircraft, was grounded in march last year after 2 crashes within months that killed 346 people. the 1st was a lion air flight from indonesia in 2018, followed by an ethiopian airlines flight 5 months later. both crashes were traced

to a fault that caused the plane software to fight against the pilot and put the plane into an uncontrollable dive. subsequent investigations blamed boeing for technical failings and a lack of transparency which it has struggled to overcome. we absolutely have to rebuild competence of the airplane and that starts with getting it certified, bringing it back to service. given us regulator, the f.a.a. is influence. this is an important step for boeing, but it still has to convince other international aviation or thirty's, and convincing passengers the plane is safe to fly, will likely take some time. just as we already has the alerts, it's safe passage and with compensation claims still being pursued in

indonesia, relatives of victims there believe it's too early to allow the 737 max to fly again . and tonsil hardy lost 2 brothers in law in the lion air crash. so you can be someone, you know, we want to be absolutely sure that the 737 max, the safe, don't let it be. just about profits and money and put human considerations are sight. and for boeing and the airlines who fly its planes, this crisis is now being overtaken in any case by the global pandemic. robin bride al jazeera u.s. secretary of state might. pompei is visiting israel on what set to be his last tour on behalf of the trumpet ministration. i hear rived on same day as the foreign minister of bahrain. they'll hold talks in the coming hours. bahrain, along with the united arab emirates and sudan, have normalized relations with israel as part of the deals brokered by the u.s. is expected to become the 1st top u.s. diplomat to visit a jewish settlement in the occupied west bank. illegal settlements are seen by

palestinians as a major obstacle to peace. the trumpet, ministration has broken with decades of us foreign policy in its support of israel by recognizing jerusalem as israel's capital. and announcing the u.s. no longer sees the settlements as violating international law or a force of our correspondent is in west jerusalem has been following events, a significant visit really by mike pompei on several fronts. that's right. i think there are 3 main objectives to all this. firstly, as you say, there is the overlapping visit of the bahraini foreign minister. it's an opportunity for my pompei o in these last weeks, the trunk administration to again promote this u.s. sponsored normalization between israel and various arab countries. already the bahraini foreign minister has met his israeli counterpart here, gabi, ashkenazi, they have been talking about employment about putting

a rainy embassy here in israeli territory. also ashkenazi, talking about going to bahrain next month to inaugurate an israeli embassy there. also high on the agenda will be the issue of course of iran. those reports recently that president trump was looking at potential military options on iran and its nuclear program. and that, according to those reports, pompei was among those who talked him out of it, or at least argued against it. but of course there is the ongoing issue of the nuclear deal. and the potential, as far as israel is concerned, are worrying but tensional for biden as president to bring united states back into that deal after trump followed israeli advice. and certainly with israeli support, pulled the united states out. and most controversially, there is this issue of the visit by u.s. secretary of state to an illegal israeli settlement in the occupied west bank. something that's never happened before. of course, pompei or was the one who last year, shortly after a court ruling against

a winery located in the occupied west bank in an illegal israeli settlement. a european court ruled that that winery could not label its project simply as israeli, but had to label it as coming from a settlement. it was shortly after that, that pompei 0 said the united states no longer viewed israeli settlements per se as illegal. he will be visiting that very winery as part of this visit, so it's something of a parting gift by the trump ministration to that of benjamin netanyahu. the question is how long term and impact it will make? settlement ante settlement activists. we've been speaking to says it's fairly irrelevant given that biden will soon be president. but a leading secular representative told us that it would at least create something of a legal argument to be had in future on the settlement side for the update to hurry for their force in west jerusalem. thanks, ira. well,

still ahead here on al-jazeera in uganda. word, the opposition leader bobby wine has been arrested again, sparking violence on the streets of the capital. and another setback in president don't trump fines against u.s. election results. one of the latest that to stay with us, however, say some really big down polls recently just around the korean peninsula, spilling out of the northeast of china. deep area of low pressure here. and it will continue to feed some very heavy rain across north korea. initially, going on into south korea, slides across the sea of japan and it will bring some very heavy rain into japan by the weekend. behind that will temperatures at about 18 celsius to seoul. but as a system makes its way further races look, at least

a 10 degree drop on at temperatures there as you go on through friday, just 8 celsius in seoul, at that stage. very heavy rain coming right in across japan, snow on the northern flank, but clearer weather does come back in behind where some sparkling sunshine. i see sunshine. meanwhile, across central and northern parts of india, some showers down towards the south once again, possibility of some localized flooding. once again, affecting parts also like a little bit saying the heaviest of the rain down towards carolus and big downpours . and that wetter weather. now starting to pull away as we go on through friday, into the open waters of the arabian sea, and that's one to watch. actually, you can see this circulation just making its way across. see a radius, a that's pushing ever towards the horn of africa. could bring some flooding right into somalia by saturday. do you feel validated in south way?

is a type of performative activism. let's go back to specifically you calling donald trump a white supremacist. the lights are on. there's nowhere to hide. join me richelle carey is up with the questions to my special guests and challenge them to some straight talking political debate from times on al-jazeera. welcome back. you're watching al-jazeera with the whole run a reminder of our top stories. u.s. drugmaker, pfizer plans to request emergency approval for its covert 900 vaccine in the coming

days. this after results from its trial show that it's safe and around 95 percent effective in all age groups. ethiopia's government says to grain forces are destroying bridges in an attempt to stop the military's advance to the main city. this week, prime minister announced what he called a sign the offensive to end the conflict in the region. and boeing 737 nights jet has been given approval to fly again by the u.s. aviation regulator wants the planes of fitted with new software and pilots, a retrained. the fleet has been grounded worldwide for the 2 years after 2 crashes killed nearly 350 people. ugandan opposition politician bobby wind has been arrested while campaigning in the country's east. the presidential candidate was dragged from his car by police in the district of luka. he's been arrested multiple times in what is the porters say, and it is an attempt to silence the opposition for the very latest from our correspondent who joins me now on the phone from my robie. probably wind is

obviously a very popular figure. and word of this has now reached the capital. what is the situation across uganda? and he said he was heading to luka, which is about $100.00. an economics of camp are that he was arrested there where the rest of the capital area, very many supporters. people took to the streets and that caused the roadblocks in the streets to even confirmed reports of small number of people being shot dead in class. we will bring you more on that as soon as we will be flying is very popular in particularly in areas in the towns and cities. and this is a threat to the government of president in the 70 elections that you are. 3 in the middle of january, president, during the 70s,

been in power for sanity for you has why is arguably the most popular opposition candidate. he's come up against violence, a popular a just a few years ago. got involved in opposition, politics. and now he's running for president in the last tentatively presidential rallies. 3 to go ahead, if they have crowds or can have more than 200 people, according to the ugandan ministry of health. 19 prevention measures for people lying and other kind of frequently attract much larger crowds. so this is the reason that police are getting for stopping these rallies, going ahead and for breaking them up in terms of where we think bobby wine might end up. what's been the normal modus operandi of the security forces. will they bring into the capital, or will they question him or detain him at the local police station?

malcolm, what's your general idea of what might happen next? or for the security forces in a situation silences between a rock and hard place if they did a good operation trigger along that cause more unrest. but of course, if they let go, that means they can also draw crowds of their supporters, that it's the street to stay out of actually on their way back to their home. so what they're taken to doing for quite some years now is when they're arrested on mission for a prominent opposition figure, they'll quickly take them back to their outflux, the neighborhood where they live, then release and say that they can. and on the 1. 3 stop the political activity there on the other hand, avoid flooding the flames of on rare, but it seems they haven't managed to get in to prevent it from going ahead in the capital, kampala for their day. thanks very much, michael. where there are corresponds nairobi. thank you. donald trump has fired his

chief of cyber security just days after he rejected the president's claims of electoral fraud. chris krebs and his agency are responsible for election security. he said the poll was the most secure in american history. trump accused him of making inaccurate statements. trump's legal challenge to the election results has suffered another setback. pennsylvania's supreme court rejected his campaign's arguments, that republican party observers did not get close enough access during vote counting. president elect joe biden is projected to have won the state, but trump is contesting the results. there and in other battleground areas. even resnick is a u.s. foreign policy expert, an assistant professor in international relations at nanyang technological university. he says, trump sanctions could dent 3, united states reputation on the global stage. he's becoming more reckless and the consequences of both of these moves. i mean it, in normal circumstances, you would imagine a president would,

would be quite happy to hear that there was no foreign interference in the presidential election. and who would reward a bureaucrat that was able to help guarantee the legitimacy of that election. but this is donald trump, we're talking about so this is a whole different type of beast. a good part of america's international interest derives from its longstanding position as the world's poorest. i'm ocracy and the oh, lure of the united states generates around the world as a result of its liberal democratic constitution and political processes is invaluable. and so trump is basically undermining american soft power in the eyes of the world. and that's a critical asset that the united states is going to be going to have and its arsenal as it sort of enters into geopolitical competition with an authoritarian regime in china. so if trump is undermining american democracy, that really is undermining

a swan intangible source of american power. thousands of anti-government protesters in thailand are back rallying in bangkok a day after violent confrontations. now they gathered as parliament debates a roadmap on possible amendments to the constitution. that's a key demand of protesters along with reforms to the monarchy on tuesday, more than 50 people were injured and 6 people shot as police responded to protesters, breaking past barricades got hired last more than bangkok the day after the most violent protest in this movement that really swelled in july, thousands of protesters gathering here in central bangkok, peacefully. this comes after a very violent night on tuesday in front of parliament. the protesters faced a minor setback when their draft to an amendment to the constitution failed. but they say that was a minor setback. they are still pushing for and that's why they gathered here tonight, wednesday night, peacefully. they want to make sure the government knows that they can still move forward despite this minor setback. they still maintain, they want their main demands to be met and that is the prime minister. resign that

the constitution be rewritten, and that there's reform within the monarchy and they say they can push forward that and their movement is growing by showing that they can get this many people out within a very short notice. a new mass grave has been discovered in the libyan city of that huna 2 bodies have been unearthed so far. all forces loyal to the internationally recognized government to found at least 20 mass graves since retaking the city in june. it was occupied by warlord khalifa, haftar forces during his failed spring offensive on the capital. tripoli that said to south america now where peru's new interim president has called for karma after he was sworn in francisco. sagansky is the country's 3rd leader in just over a week. the former official of the world bank will serve until elections in april 2021, bruised, been in turmoil since congress voted president martin this car out of office last week over corruption allegations. but his replacement resigned after only 5 days

following days of social unrest. marianna sanchez has more from lima on the challenges. francisco sagat see faces he's only going to take the government through these a last few months into elections on a, on april next year and turning the government over to a newly elected government in july. but he has many challenges ahead for these past few. for the, for the next few days of work for the next few months, i think the most importantly is to bring back stability in the country. that has been in turmoil for the past week. he understands this very well 24 hours before having been sworn in. he already spoke in congress saying that these protests have been a call, a serious call of attention to legislators and politicians from the people. and he

also understood that he had to get close to the people. he went out. he walked out and waved at protesters outside of congress, and then last night he went to hospital to visit those wounded in the protest. one very important thing. he needs to tackle the pandemic. peru had one of the worst outbreaks in the world, and he needs to tackle the economy because of the pandemic. millions of jobs have been lost. so he has a lot of his on the agenda now. and he has said, it's going to be brief and it's going to be hard, but they are going to be very focused, as he said. turkey will send soldiers to keep the peace in azerbaijan after being given the green light by congress parliament. a joint mission with russia will monitor any violations of the cease fire agreement. the deal was made last week to end the fighting between azerbaijan and armenia in the disputed region of thousands

of people have been forced to leave their homes with armenia agreeing to cede several parts of the region to azerbaijan. saudi arabia has told yemen's who teens that it will sign a un proposal for a nationwide ceasefire if the group agrees to a buffer zone along the kingdom's borders. if a deal is struck, it would mark the biggest breakthrough in efforts to reach a political settlement since the conflict began in 2014, u.s. president elect joe biden pledged in his election campaign to hold arms sales to saudi arabia to pressure riyadh to enter the war 3 former pro-democracy politicians in the whole call have been arrested for disrupting a legislative council session. the hong kong government says the politicians acted illegally, but the former politicians say it's yet another attempt by china to silence its

critics in hong kong. sarah clarke has the latest former pro-democracy legislated to head home. he was arrested at his home early on wednesday morning, also under arrest for 2 other legislators, right chan and eddie chu. they've been chance for this incident. the pro-democracy politicians through what was described as a foul smelling liquid at the president of the city's legislature. it was during the 2nd reading of a controversial bill, which criminalizes the mocking of china's national anthem. emergency services were called in the chamber was shut down as a result, delaying the passing of the legislation. police say they intended to cause harm. the politicians say their arrest is unfair and unexpected. i told them the other 3 arrests of the police and i told them what the regime is doing. i can't have people with democratic values,

people who speak for the whole value of these latest arrests, a part of a citywide crackdown on opposition and dissent in hong kong. it's intensified since the introduction of beijing's national security law in july that legislation targets what it calls acts of terrorism and painlessness critics of the mainland. november 8 legislators were charged for their role in a violent confrontation in the legislative council. in may, police is using public power as a criminal procedure to regulate operation legislative, what they speak, what they do in file that of which are, this is ridiculous. this only shows all the people and to the world that this regime, if it truly was a legislature, has now been left with no effective opposition. after 15 pro-democracy politicians quit last week, they resigned in protest against beijing to sit,

to allow the city's executive here sacked legislators without going through the courts for have been disqualified so far. there may be no pro-democracy legislators left in the city's parliament, but they could still face a wrist outside the china. but al-jazeera hong kong. and you can follow those stories on our website at www dot com. our top story that the moment to iran saying that it may well rejoin the tracy pierre way. if president like biden thinks it's a good idea, i know what you're observing. so romney reminder top stories, u.s. drug maker plans to request emergency approval for its covert 19 vaccine in the coming days. this after results from its trial show that it's safe and around 95 percent effective in all age groups. harder to castro has more from wilmington, delaware fees,

advocacy rates of 95 percent there really beyond what the drug maker has had hoped or even expected. but the irony is that these clinical trials, racing to completion, is really enabled by the spike in actions happening now in the united states with now a law.