post special, just 0, 000 . a boost for the u.s. president elect has a key federal agency gives joe biden, the green light to formally begin his transition to the white house. donald trump gives the agency the go ahead, but insists he'll keep up the spine to overturn the election results despite another setback in michigan. and to put al, this is al jazeera live from doha. also coming up a seneca says it's called the 90 vaccine is 90 percent effective and cheaper than rivals making it affordable for the developing world.

joe biden's, transition to the white house can now begin in earnest until now he's been doing it without the support of the federal office that's tasked with overseeing the transfer of power will then 2 weeks after his victory speech, the head of the general services administration has finally told the president elect the transition can formally begin means biden's new administration can meet with federal officials to work on the pandemic response and national security. trump took to twitter to announce that he's ready for the transition. he wrote, i want to thank emily murphy at g.s.a. for her steadfast education and loyalty to her to our country. she's been harassed, threatened, and abused, and i do not want to see this happen to her family or employees of the g.s.a. . ok, strongly continues. we'll continue to keep up the good fight, prevail saying nevertheless, in the best interest of our country,

he's recommended that emily and her team do what needs to be done. he went on to say that he's told his team to do the same. well, joe biden's transition team has welcomed the move from the statement. his team says today a decision is needed to step is a needed step brother to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation in the days ahead. transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response. have a full accounting of our national security interests and gain complete understanding of the trunk administration's efforts to holo out. government agencies were 2 correspondents covering the story. she had britain's ears in wilmington pedicle hain is in washington d.c. . let's start with passy. as a parent, just explain to us what this all means, how important it is. it's a pretty big deal. why is that? while it's the 1st time we've heard anything from the president that shows even the

remote possibility that he has knowledge is that he is not, in fact going to be the next president of the united states. now he said in that tweet a couple of things, let's unpack that. he said that he's not going to win, he's still going to continue with the fight. that's looking really, really unlikely. a couple of interesting things. he said he's directed the g.s.a. administrator. well, in her statement, she specifically said, i came to this decision independently. she has brought up the threats that she says she's been facing the line about the phone. she went on to say they are even threatening her pets. but still, she is not in this letter actually saying joe biden is in fact president elect. but saying that that is going to be left up to the electoral process. still, it's a big deal, not just because the action is happening. and now the biden team that she has will talk about they could move forward, but it's the 1st sign that the president is starting to get indication that yes, in fact, come january 20th at noon, that's no longer going to be his house. so the 1st indication, of course,

on twitter that, that is starting to sink in. yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that twist to that twitter toilets that donald trump put out. what do you make of it? i think it's a, it's a very big deal in that. he's finally starting to say ok, let's talk about the transition. even though i'm still going to, when i'm still going to fight, there's been a lot of reporting that he feels like he needs to fight to send a message to his supporters. and it's been really remarkable how few republican politicians or leaders have come out to say it's over. it's been weeks, it's time to move on joe biden's, one. this might give them more cover to do so. he has been threatening very clearly if people spoke out against him, he's going to get involved and they have to get the republican nomination again, and that he can just send out a tweet and possibly cost them their jobs. the other factor here is georgia. the entire fate of the biden agenda is going to come down to 2 senate races that were too close that go to a runoff in georgia. so they have to basically it's,

you have to get 50 percent, they didn't. so whoever wins those 2 races will determine the senate who controls the senate and that will determine just how and bischof joe biden can be when he takes office as president. so the concern among republicans, if we've already started to see this one of trump's lawyers sort of tweeted out that hey, these 3 publicans in georgia because republicans are in the state of georgia, georgia. they couldn't guarantee that. trump was the president's or don't show up to vote in those senate races. and mitch mcconnell likes being in power, so they're trying to walk this balancing act to try to maintain control of the senate, not get on, present, bad sides in case he actually maintains control of the g.o.p. out of office. but this is actually starting to show momentum against the president . we've seen national security leaders, republican big waves come out and say it's over. this is hurting democracy. it's hurting national security. we've seen really important c.e.o.'s of the richest people in the country, the tend to donate to these republicans. they've come out and said this is bad,

it's time to move on. so now that the president just opened up a little bit of a crack on twitter, it's going to be very interested in the next day to see if anyone stands up and says ok, it's, it's real time to go. time to accept that you've lost the election. so that's what we're watching for in the coming days. but for the news tonight, out of the white house is the president, not conceding, not making a phone call to joe biden, saying he'll be there at the inauguration invite them over for tea tradition. but he is say that the fight continues, but the transition can begin just in case seems very hard to imagine an invitation for tea at this point anyway, pedicle him. thank you live in washington d.c. as she had her. townsend, who is in wilmington, delaware, that's the home state of president elect, joe biden. and she had with, as we said earlier from the biden harris transition team, tell us a little bit more about what they're saying about all this. right.

and it was interesting, those 3 priorities that they, that they mention in that statement that you do, you read out earlier. so 1st of all they want to discuss the pandemic response with federal officials that they want a full accounting of our national security interests. and they want to gain complete understanding of the trumpet, ministrations efforts to hold government agencies. so interesting triumvirate, there of priorities. clearly this does mean that they have now referred draw resources to begin that transition. they can get rent, office space, they can hire personnel. interestingly, they were actually fundraising for the transition process. i see a member of the pool. the biden traveling pool is already also. what do you do with all that money that you raised? just in the last few days saying that you needed money for the transition, and the biden camp hasn't go back to reporters as yet, but they have the money. but clearly, what we have been hearing for for weeks now is the biggest concern as this transition process was structuring. was it was the pandemic response that they just

didn't have a clear idea of where the government was in its planning for a vaccine. and its, and its, and its current response with as far as personal protective equipment and so on is concerned. they didn't understand about supply trains for both p.p. e, but also for the sort of the sort of equipment will be needed to roll out of vaccine quickly. and we've been hearing over the last few days. all this positive news potentially about about a vaccine rollout. but the biden team was simply in the dark. it has to be said that there are career civil servants who are planning the rollout of a vaccine for example. and they will remain in the administration off to if and when the troubled ministration does eventually leave. so there is comfort there, but the biden camp really clear that they want to start planning now for pandemic response of that is the priority. and that was reflected in the state of the we, that we got from the biden to have a few of our girls go. sam,

do you think we need to see more republicans coming out and saying, you know, donald trump needs to concede? will this be seen as, as a wake up call? no, because donald trump hasn't conceded and he says the fight, the fight goes on. there are 70, well over 70000000 people voted for donald trump. this is a huge constituency, and you can't just dismiss that. that is a big chunk of the american electorate who believes in double trouble again. we also have the polls suggesting that a big chunk of that believes the troll hasn't lost the election. so this is a very important constituency. it shouldn't be just discounted glibly. has every right to, to go to the, you know, to use the fullest extent of the law courts in order to make his claims. they are then being ferried out pretty pretty quickly by, by judges. but the point is he does have that right. official certification is still under way the electoral college doesn't. he told us he has every right to do all of this and he's not conceding as, as yet. there was

a sense of more and more republicans telling him behind the scenes that it was over . and indeed with his buddy reporting to us that all trump himself knows it's over because all sorts of analysis as to what motivations donald trump may have had in continuing to fight not least revenge because you know, people do forget for the wild conspiracy theories that were floating amongst democrats who are now top taunting as republicans fight their own wild conspiracy theories. you were still there showing off the trump elections. they didn't want to legitimize his election. they said, oh, he was putin's puppet, that he was being blackmailed through a sex tape by vladimir putin. so it's possible numbers of clinton voters were saying that sort of thing with donald trump was an accident. it hasn't been forgotten that they were trying to deal it just summarize him by saying that there was and it was russian collusion which the miller investigation didn't didn't find . so there is the all rule wombs which the democrats, as they lost the republican base for coming up with crazy conspiracy theories seem

to be forgetting that they were almost a nightly basis over several years repeating amazing conspiracy theories without any, any proof or factual basis that is a rule or issue for, for, for the republicans, or we should remember that advice. this process began with president obama when it was donald trump and the republicans who attempted to deal it was barack obama by saying he was unable to american. so we are having this tit for tat process now as part of electoral politics to deal it is the winner of any election. democrats are just as guilty as the republicans. the democrats did concede following the projections on election night. that was what actually did take a few days. so this is just part of the process. and of course, trump is also looking at his own future whether he wants to run again. he's looking to georgia, the republican party is looking to georgia to even if they do feel uneasy about all of this. this is still good for the base for their strong base in georgia to come out if they're incredibly angry about what they feel is

a stolen election. this has to be good for trump turnout. they would have all these republican turnout in the georgia election. so there are various reasons or even though there was much background reporting that everyone kind of knew that the jig was up. ok, thank you for that. you have a tons of a life for us in wilmington, delaware? well, let us bring in the co-founder of the transition integrity project. so the g.s.a. is not actually determining the winner, right? it's just saying the transition process has been unlocks, but still, i mean, how major is this in your opinion? well, i think it's very important. there's about 11 weeks between election day inauguration day. and the purpose of those 11 weeks is basically to prepare the new administration to be able to take action rapidly. you know, you talk about national security briefings, making sure they are where all the threats that are out there not reached in. and that is also obviously getting ready to hit the ground running on. being able to

take over the management of the pandemic, including hopefully rolling out a vaccine really quickly at the beginning of the year. but the most important thing is getting all the people who need to be approved to get senatorial crew to get security clearances. and there are thousands of them, and that process has been stalled until now. so the fact that we now have an ability through the g.s.a. to begin the process of doing all those clearances and getting all these processes means that the binding is finished and hopefully hit the ground. running on the afternoon of january 20th. president says he directed the general services administration to do this. the administrators want to know, he says,, to go ahead with what needs to be done. the administrator of the g.s.a., emily birth, he says she was never directly or indirectly pressured by anyone about the timing or substance of this decision. what should we make of that? well, most part, my suspicion is the truck probably has no idea what actually goes into the transition process. after all, when he came in 2016,

his people didn't show up to the briefings that the obama people, if you're fully prepared for them in many, many cases. so do the transition properly on the front end of this administration. so it's not surprising, they're not doing it properly on the back end. in the biden, her transition statement about this letter from the g.s.a. . they talk about transition officials meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response to 3 things. a noted the penn demick response to get a full accounting of national security interests and to gain a complete what i thought was quite interesting to gain a complete understanding of the trump administration's efforts to hollow out government agencies. what are they getting at their? well, one of the things that the trump administration has been all about is what steve benen referred to as the deconstruction of the administrative state. where that basically means is trying to destroy as much of the federal bureaucracy as possible . and they've been quite successful at that particular pockets of the federal

bureaucracy, state department, it's been talked about a lot, but the environmental protection agency and many other agencies have seen the departure of many civil servants. so that's what they're referring to when they talk about the hollowing out on a big part of what the buy ministrations going to have to spend its, you know, 1st term, not the spirit is rebuilding all that administrative infrastructure and the 1st thing they need to do that is to figure out what's actually been destroyed because of course all of this happened kind of behind closed doors. do you think we're likely now to say this is a question i put to our correspondent, i want to put it to you. do you think we're likely to say more establishment republicans coming out and saying ok, you know, it's time donald trump, you need to concede, or do you think that trump's apparent willingness to cooperate with the transition to an extent will allow them to, to, to sort of take a step back and remain seated, take the take their foot off the gas as well. i think the elected republicans are mostly like a bunch of and wins on the ice and who want to be the 1st one of the water for the,

you know, the seals and shorts that are waiting for them in this film a short, in this case. trump and his twitter account. i think it's possible that we may see a bit of what's the 1st couple come out and start to say that he shouldn't see it. you may see, you know, a couple of dozen republicans in the senate, for example, coming out and saying that the next couple of weeks. i personally don't ever going to make a formal concession. however, it's just not that style. i mean, if he doesn't make a formal concession, i mean, he's never going to give up fighting there. do you think that's about holding on small holding on to supporters or do you think that's just, you know, part of donald trump? i think it's both. i mean, honestly, you know, the 70000000 or so people who voted for them are in a really important piece to see. no matter what you want to do him out of the presidency. he may want to run again in 2024. wouldn't surprise me if i were to run for reelection on the afternoon of january 20th. 2021 is intending his, you know,

to make a big comeback. that's not what it actually election stolen from him, but perhaps he wants to monetize them in other ways. you know, he can charge people $9.99 a month to subscribe to a trump t.v. . and he can get, you know, several tens of millions of these people that may solve many of the financial challenges he's likely to face up to the after he leaves the arts. i meant just finally, i want to come back to you to what this actually or names. i mean, this is not an official statement that joe biden is, the new president from the g.s.a. . just remind our international viewers of how this all works. the electoral college, you know, the giving the results to congress, how the next, what do you say 11 weeks sort of plays out. yeah. it's not the media that determines who the president is. what present the election was called 2 weeks ago, but that was an actually want to turn it in, or is it up to, you know, the g.s.a. or donald trump, or anybody else to sort of unilaterally declare that bind is when you actually process words as follows. by december 8th,

all the states need to submit their electoral votes to the electoral college which then nice on december 14th and got us. those votes were going to be tallied and sent to congress. and congress will certify the results on january 6th. to explain who are not rationing that certification process is what finally determines of the president and then the new president has been elected. 'd to the op, so that's the process that goes into the selection of the president. ok, thank you so much for that. gillman, the co-founder of the transition integrity projects they ground. hillary mann leverett is a former state department, national security and white house official. she joins us live via skype from mclean, virginia. thank you for your time. as well as we've been saying that he is a, is not actually determining the winner saying that the transition process has been how major is this? i think it is very significant and i think it is implied that even though trump

probably will never get a concession, i think it is imply that he is finally conceding in, in a defacto sense of not a jury sense because he's allowing the transition to go forward you will allow president elect biden, for example, to get the highest level classified security briefings and vice president elect harris as well if you will. how many of the staff members that biden has appointed just today? and yesterday, secretary of state national security advisor, secretary of treasury, you will now all of their teams to, to get classified information and understand the inner workings of the u.s. government. so it really is all but a concession. i think it's tremendously significant. so you think was my beta close is that we actually get to donald trump conceding that perhaps. and i think it's incredibly important policy sense because while the world is fixated that 19, rightfully so. there are many things that are trying to ministration maybe planning,

you know, in its last days we saw these very strange appointments, for example, to the pentagon, to the department of defense. a lot of things that could have to do with a potential, you know, military strike in the middle east. there are many different things that this is ministration could be doing and planning on its way out the door. so it's tremendously important that biden's team gets in there and understands what is being planned and what's happening even beyond the crisis of covert 19. donald trump, in his tweet, says that he directed emily murphy from the j. s. a. to go ahead and do this or to do what needs needed to be done. emily, where he says she was actually never directly or indirectly, pressured by anyone about and i'm reading here the timing with regard to the substance or timing of her decision. what should we make of that? i think that's one of the, that's one of the variables that i've looked at and leads me in part,

contributes to my, my assessment that this is all but it concession from donald trump because he's not supposed to interfere. and she, the head of the generals, the general services administration, has, has tried to at least have a public stance of independence. but you know, by him saying that he directed it. he didn't need to do that by him saying he directed it. it's a, it is a signal to, at least to the republican elites. you're washington, maybe not to his base, but to republican elites, here in washington, that he knows the game is over. and he's, he's allowing the transition to go forward. i want to put a question to you that i have. 'd other analysts, i guess it depends on who you talk to, you get a different response, but i'm interested in your take. do you think we're going to see more republicans coming out and you know, quite blatantly saying that donald trump, donald trump, needs to concede as a result of this. i'm not sure that you will. i'm not sure what there is to be

gained. they, you know, republicans everywhere still need to try to base the trump constituencies for in order to continue in their current offices and to run for re-election. i'm not sure they gain anything and it's not quite necessary for trying to conceive he can be. he can be, as he has been for 4 years, he can break the if the turn in the punch-bowl as we might say, and go out, you know, go out the door. you know, with a slam, slamming the door on his way out. he doesn't have to concede and the republicans don't have to put themselves in front of in front of that mess. they can start planning for what they're going to be doing next. they'll be some important senators so that i think it should be watching for certainly the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, to see what he says and want to travel tribe's best friends in the senate. lindsey graham, republican of south carolina, a very important figure on the senate foreign relations committee in the senate judiciary committee. be important to see what he says. so it's not necessarily the

number of republicans, but some of these key prominent republicans to see where they come out. i'm into i was interested to read in the things they said to joe biden. she says, contrary to media reports and insinuations, my decision was not made out of fair or favoritism. can you explain that for us and what he's getting at there? there's been a that there's been an interesting back and forth. i think behind the scenes here various various parties, various constituencies, putting different kinds of pressure on her certainly from the white house there is tremendous pressure on her not to let the transition go forward even in the initial protocols. so there, there certainly were some compromises that could have been had the general services administration could have allowed the biden to buy in team, you know, in the door just a crack with these initial protocols. but they didn't even do that. and there certainly was a lot of private speculation in washington that,

that she was being she was being forced in a way to not even allow these tiny little steps forward for the biden tradition team. that that pressure is coming directly from the white house. she also seems to be insinuating that there was pressure from other parties to go forward before she was ready and before it was appropriate to do so. so there's just a really, there's just a lot of back and forth, and i think it's all over. it's all about donald trump, not wanting to concede wanting to go through every last ditch legal or political stunt that he could on his way out the door. and she is. she's been a very loyal soldier in that regard. what is your favorite about? the next 11 also wakes up, going to play out their legal challenges, all those that are left from donald trump. right up until inauguration day. how do you think it's all going to play out? well, you know, i, i'm actually a harvard law school trained lawyer. so i have,

i do study things and follow them quite closely. and even though i'm not a trump supporter, i do think that he did have some interesting legal cases that he could have brought in a lot of these really close states in michigan in pennsylvania. but he didn't bring any of them. his, his legal team resorted to these while a series of conspiracy and not any factual or legal bases to really go forward, which i think they could have had. but they didn't. and i, you see, even prominent supporters of trump like the former governor of new jersey, chris christie, who is a former u.s. attorney himself coming out saying that it was the legal strategy, the legal team and strategy of donald trump was a national embarrassment. and it certainly was so the idea that he has any real legal play plays left to go forward. i don't see that at this point. but what i am concerned about over the next 11 weeks and beyond that, is that trump will be a constant thorn in the side of the biden harris administration. and try to weaken

them ridicule them. make it difficult for them to really do anything affective. and republicans in the senate will have their eyes on 2022, not necessarily the presidential race in 2024, but their own reelection, in 2022. more republicans are up for reelection in 2022 than were even up this year . so it's a critical time for that. and if they can get enough anger and resentment that biden didn't follow through with what he said he was, and enough new stars are for the trump kind of, you know, in your face politics. then the republicans can consolidate more control in the senate and set him up themselves up for a real fight in 2024. so i think we're in for not just, you know, the next 11 weeks, a very messy, dirty politics, but potentially the next 4 years. ok, thank you so much here tom. we really appreciate it. hillary mann leverett there former state department, national security and white house officials. thank you very much. as we know,

joe biden has a name to stay met mary frances berry is a professor of american social force and a professor of history at the university of pennsylvania. she says, despite by the diverse cabinet picks, it looks like more of the same from the obama era. if you are really only concerned about turning the page from trauma and the symbolism of appointing women who are black or males, who are, who are hispanic, or if you're looking at that some balance. and then you ought to be very pleased because you have some things you can point to if you're concerned about more than some alyson, which i am, you would be a little disturbed because all that has really happened is that the establishment of the democratic party is back in power, it is not just the obama administration, it is all those people who have them with general. but most of us been around

washington near, watched and seen and know joe button and these people politically for years. and they're all back. and the message to the world is that america is back and our foreign policy and our domestic policy, and the way that it was under obama is basically back. and in my opinion, is john kerry, who's been working on climate issues and who has a serious gang and is known by the nearest and a senior. so if he can sit at the table and produce some results, climate change which should be of interest to everybody, no matter what race, color or age or whatever you are concerns all of us. that's the real good news coming out of this. pretty much fall on president elect. joe biden's, transition off of the break was

hello there. we've got some dry weather now. pushing into japan bad. a cloud just easing out into the open waters. clear skies just tucking in behind but fresh the weather. 2 times in tokyo to around 16 celsius 7 and it's there for seoul and for basing perhaps a touch warmer insult, in celsius, struggling to get its double figures as we go through wednesday. as you can see, japan largely dry one or 2 showers into that eastern side of college, but nothing much to speak of just 14 celsius there for tokyo. i wish i was never too far away. so it's never too far away to central parts of china, but to the south of that, it is fine and dry with some sunshine, as is the case too close. in northern parts of the philippines indochina generates a fair usual rash of showers across much of southeast asia and the really pepping up. some are to seeing some heavy showers. the nation also seeing some lively

outbreaks of right as we go through the next day or 2 and those showers pushing down into indonesia, some very wet weather, pushing into india as well. at the moment we got this circulation, this nasty development that may well develop into wayside phone as we go through the next day or so. let's choose days pitcher pushing into turmoil not on to but desh turning increased the wet as we go on through wednesday. and that rain pushing further west the thursday in 2012, al-jazeera traveled to iraq. people here exactly scared to speak on camera, saying that if they talk to us, they think they'll be arrested down the line to take the pulse of a country ravaged under us occupation. some of these graves are completely destroyed. it's one of the most holy and sacred sites in all of iraq could turn into a battleground between the mighty army and the americans rewind returns to iraq after the americans at this time on al-jazeera.