blood in tears the french take on an icy shut. on al-jazeera. the u.k. becomes the 1st country in the world to approve a covert 19 vaccine after completing all the necessary clinical trials. hello i'm adrian forget this is al jazeera live from go also coming up hong kong pro-democracy activists have been sentenced for their role during last year's anti-government protests. a firsthand account from one of the thousands of refugees who fled fighting in ethiopia stuck in a refugee camp with little news of relatives back home. and nearly 4 months out of

the roots catastrophic port explosion little faith remains the top officials will be held accountable. the u.k. government has approved a covert 19 vaccine to be rolled out from next week it's accepted a recommendation to approve the vaccine created by pfizer and bio and tech a committee is now working on final advice on who should be immunized 1st that's expected to include care home residents and health workers the u.k. health minister says that 50 hospitals set up and waiting to accept the vaccine. 3 of hong kong's most well known pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to prison joshua one will spend around 13 months in jail while agnes chyle will spend 10 months for their role in last month's last year's protests another activist ivan

lamb will be in prison for 7 months demonstrations outside hong kong's police headquarters and 2019 were triggered by the introduction of a controversial extradition bill which has since been shelved let's go live now to hong kong which is there was a dream brown is outside the courthouse there tell us more about the sentences. will adrian the latest chapter in hong kong's continuing political drama has been taking place here at west cowan magistrate's court where within the past hour the best known young political activist in hong kong just wrong has been sentenced to 13 and a half months in jail he was convicted of inciting an unlawful assembly as well as organizing an unlawful assembly agnes chow his close friend and colleague in the ongoing protest movement was convicted given a 10 month sentence for participating in an illegal assembly and also a 2nd charge of helping organize a the 3rd person ivan lamb received

a 7 month sentence now they had faced possibly a maximum sentence of up to 3 years but in spite of all that agnes cho is still in a pretty serious situation because 4 months ago she was arrested under the new national security law on suspicion of colluding with foreign powers now she's been out on bail or at been until she pleaded guilty of a week ago and if she is convicted doe or not if she is charged and convicted she faces the prospect of you know life in jail now barely a week goes by adrian. without you know a young activist being prosecuted in court since early last june more than 10000 people have been arrested a 1000 of them are under the age of 18 and so far there have been a total of just over 2300 prosecutions it means that the courts here in hong kong

are becoming clogged in fact they're still processing people who were arrested during the occupy movement 7 years ago so this is something that's going to tie up the courts for you know weeks perhaps you know years to come we know that joshua won't is no stranger of course to jail he has done 3 stints in prison before this will be his his 4th and of course he's been arrested no less than 10 times it means of course that agnes chow who turns $24.00 on thursday will be spending her birthday beginning a 10 month jail sentence and remember these 3 activists are all under the age of 26 and yet in many ways they are now veterans of all of the pro-democracy movement why adrian did the 3 plead guilty.

well they decided to plead guilty 9 days ago after consultations with their lawyers it hasn't been explained exactly why they decided to do that but of course it meant that they avoided a lengthy trial perhaps they felt that by pleading guilty they would get a shorter sentence they were certainly facing the prospect of up to 3 years in jail because that's the maximum sentence magistrates court here in hong kong can give but the fact that they have received you know sentences in excess of 6 months i think will probably bring a lot of critical comments from many governments around the world especially the incoming biden administration in the united states because the president elect has said that he believes that china will be his foreign policy priority and of course hong kong in many ways is at the center of all of that out zeros adrian brown reporting live there from hong kong adrian many thanks indeed just weeks before the

1st covered 19 vaccines are potentially distributed in the united states health experts there are recommending who should get them 1st they advise or a committee on immunization practices says that health care workers and the elderly need to be a priority and again like a reports. in hospitals across the u.s. medical staff are making preparations to receive the 1st branches of the coronavirus vaccine currently to drug makers pfizer and medina seeking emergency approval for their drugs as the u.s. averages 150000 new cases a day the death toll according to johns hopkins university stands at close 227-0000 the advice from health experts to the c.d.c. is that the elderly and frontline medical staff should receive the vaccine as a priority it's estimated that close to 900 health care professionals have died after contract in the virus. 50 concerns of prompted health care workers to strike

in illinois we pack our workers die from coal that we have health keeping laundry dietary worker's activity a everywhere all departments have died from this disease and so we might have to pay for our workers the elderly and those who care for them have also been hit hard by the pandemic the doctors say they'll be prepared when the time comes company has not yet told us all the details but we do know there's maybe a little bit of how they. after the vaccine but that's good because that means you're mounting a response and certainly i mean aside of that are they getting kind of it. ready the food and drug administration will meet with drug manufacturers later this month to discuss emergency authorization if vaccines are approved salt they'll be ready to ship within 24 hours ultimately it's up to individual states who gets vaccinated 1st but logistical challenges remain some vaccines require refrigeration at great expense others need more than one dose in all 321000000 health care workers across

this country and 3000000 people living in long term care facilities despite the challenges many states have been preparing for months for people who are in michigan as an example and we're going to make sure that they don't get left out. the feat is doing a lot of back and figuring out you know. how many people where they're going to distribute it health experts say the general population may not get the vaccine until spring next year warning that people will still need to wear masks and practice social distancing the next few months are expected to be brutal as winter takes hold and they gallacher al-jazeera miami florida brazil has unveiled its plan for vaccinating nearly $110000000.00 people that's more than half of its population indigenous people health care workers and those age 75 and above will be at the top of the list those aged between 60 and 74 and people with prior health conditions

will be vaccinated next and final phase will include teachers 1st responders prison staff and inmates u.s. attorney general william barr says the justice department has not found voter fraud on a scale that could change the outcome of last month's presidential election his comments to the associated press contradict president donald trump's claims that those that the vote was rigged alan fischer reports william barr got the job as america's top law enforcement officer because he was loyal to donald trump no the president might be questioning that loyalty just hours before a routine meeting at the white house the u.s. attorney general told the associated press he couldn't back up the president's claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020 saying we've not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election. william barr became attorney general after

jeff sessions was sacked donald trump didn't think he was loyal enough during the days of the investigation into alleged russian interference in the $26000.00 election since he took over bar has often been accused of acting more as trump's top lawyer rather than america's has the part of justice court involved in cases involving trump allies it dropped charges against former national security adviser michael flynn even though he had method lying to f.b.i. agents and it intervened in the sentencing of course trump roger steward. attorney general barr also announced the findings of the miller prove into russia interference but was accused of misrepresenting the final results to make his boss lose better investment geisha did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities i am sure that all americans share my concern about the efforts of the russian government to interfere in our presidential election

a concern aired by robert mueller himself but there was a growing rift between the white house and the department of justice donald trump wanted a pre-election investigation into barack obama and joe biden on the rules in the russia probe an f.b.i. announcement into hillary clinton's e-mails weeks before the 26th you know election gave him a boost he was hoping it would be the same again but had nothing to work with and couldn't deliver just weeks ago the man in charge of election cyber security said the 2020 presidential was the most secure in america's history that angered the president who claims without evidence that the election was stolen from him so he fired his official. when news of bars comments hit capitol hill other suspected what might be coming in response to attorney general bill barr i guess he's the next one to be fired since he now too says there is no fraud. trump's legal team

says there's been no substantial department of justice investigation into any allegations of voter fraud the vine covered b.c. they have substantial evidence of wrongdoing in 6 states evidence they've yet to make public or present in court alan fischer al-jazeera at the white house an election official in the u.s. state of georgia has lashed out at president truong postelection stuff the received threats georgia is carrying out a 2nd recount of the trunk campaign's request it has to stop. mr president. you have not condemned these actions or this language senators you have not condemned this language or these actions. this has to stop we need you to step up and if you take a position of leadership show some. a weather update next here and i was here and then azerbaijan's ministry moves in after media and serve its last swathe of

a green territory but all that's left empty streets buildings. how do we have something of a cold arctic blast across much of central america a very wintry weather across the eastern side of canada the northeastern corner of the u.s. what an active area of low pressure this one top impact i suppose wrapped around that and they dragging in some very cold it's a situation as we go along the through the remainder of choose day coal where to run with the rockies i was there was a western side and that cold plunge if anything there's a little further south it's in the east which as we go through the next couple of days we are going to say it's a retreat slightly as because through friday want to show us some of the wintry just around the central plains pushing

a little further south with southerly wind strong some warm moist air up from the gulf of mexico producing some rather heavy right into louisiana for a time become a little more widespread as we go on into thursday just not a little further east east and west of that it is generally dry it's on the cold side crisp sparkling sunshine for many in that sunshine stretches data across a good part of mexico we got some showers just coming into the yucatan peninsula wanted to show us still that just around the guatemala honduras some really heavy rain in place there for costa rica over the next couple of days and that cool some flooding. down into this stream and julian on global community by diversity is biosecurity it is that essential for our species to survive. part of the debate i know you heard my d.h. he can be part of this conversation when no topic is off the table the police are

not neutral and all of these cases here is to terrorize and here's the other part of this there's no consequence this stream on out is the. hello again this is al-jazeera the main news this hour the u.k. government has approved a covert 19 vaccine to be rolled out from next week it's accepted a recommendation to approve the vaccine created by pfizer and bio and tech a committee is now working on final advice on who should be immunized 1st that's expected to include cat home residents and health workers the u.k.

health minister says that 50 hospitals are set up and waiting to accept the vaccine . 3 of hong kong's well known pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to prison joshua one will spend around 13 months in jail while act this child will spend 10 months for their role in last year's protests on the activist side of the land will be imprisoned for 7 months. u.s. attorney general william barr says the justice department has not found widespread voter fraud in last month's presidential election his comments contradict president donald trump's claims the boat was wrecked. while the vaccine approval of the u.k. let's talk to exxon appears icarus with the u.c.l. global citizenship program on outbreaks of infectious diseases she joins us now via skype from london good to have you with us oksana what do you make of this with the britain being the 1st 2 were to roll out a vaccine. well this is fantastic news in the n h r a our regulatory body here in the u.k.

has done through the data has done months of rigorous analysis and is now happy and confident to put forward that it is ready for the population so this is a crucial independent step for the mh or a review and to say that it is as safe and the claims by pfizer there are verified all of this is fantastic because it means that we can move forward one step closer to wards the end of the pandemic. we know that pfizer says that it can only really have $1300000000.00 disses within the next year so that's definitely not going to vaccinate the world but we are taking that 1st crucial step which is which is exciting and you all. as far as you're concerned you're convinced that this vaccine is absolutely safe that it's not being rushed its development has been rushed in the britons are not being used as guinea pigs. all of the steps in any

clinical trial that we would have had normally went ahead no steps were skipped there were no corners cut and the end of any tirades job is to review all the protocol all the data and to verify that yes that it meets all of the safety standards so. in that essence the timeline yes has been passed but also we need to think about this unique contacts that we are in i know we have over 200 companies that have been focusing on one thing which is developing this vaccine that had unlimited resources unlike ever before and all of the world's talent has been focused on this problem so it just shows when the urgency is there when the finances are there what type of scientific innovation is possible and you know in the past me just even when there were good vaccines being developed in the minus soon as interest waned these vaccines didn't come to fruition but because the world has screeched to a halt and we've had this excel or

a good time line but it's really important to emphasize that no steps in any stage of the trial were spinach and major ray i thorough analysis as they would for any sin that needs to come to market so many people need to be vaccinated in order to eradicate the pandemic. well it's not just how many people we also do think about the distribution across the globe so we need this people to be vaccinated in high income countries and low income countries because you could have 100 percent vaccination rate in one country but it still won't put the global pandemic to an end now some of the vaccines have different levels of the feck you see which gives you a little bit of leeway all 3 front runners are a 19 which is excellent if we remember with f.d.a. said they were looking to approve any vaccine with over 50 percent if it is. her

margins the authorization use and even we her doctor found to say that anything in the 70 percent range at would be fantastic so we really have come up with very good vaccines with a 90 percent loss that is the rate which i get it gives us some leeway in terms of the number of people that would need to be vaccinated and have to be a full as is high and anywhere between let's say 40 to 60 percent and but again we have to also ensure that these low income countries have access to the vaccine really gets to excited many thanks indeed for being with us sucks out of prison and lank you in thailand protesters are gathering outside the high court ahead of a ruling challenging prime minister prayer for channel chess place of residence the former johnson leader who seized power in 2014 ended his career as army chief to become prime minister despite being a civilian has continued to live in an army house in bangkok protests calling for

his resignation started in july of sense protocols for reforms of thailand's powerful medicare of 0 scott hyla joins us now live from bangkok scott where are you what's happening. major know i'm right out in front of constitutional court and this reading the session where we expect a verdict in this case that you just described adrian just began in the last 15 minutes we expect this to run about an hour and what we're waiting for is a verdict on this ruling on what something the main opposition party submitted back in march and so that's something that we need to note is that this process against the prime minister started well before we saw the surge of people the surge of the anti-government protesters coming to the streets over the last several months this was even before that and what it focuses on as you mentioned adrian the the current prime minister was the chief of staff general in the army when he led a coup in 2014 overthrowing that then democratically elected government he stayed

in his residence the chief of staff of the army would be in it's on an army base he stayed there then he resigned from chief of staff and became the prime minister that you described he stayed in the residence so the crux of this argument brought up by the main the main opposition party is that he get legally stayed in that residence for the past 6 years and that's we're looking at now it could see the end of his political career if he's found guilty adrian company thanks to his house is called hi-lo that live for us in bangkok tens of thousands of people have fled ethiopia's to greater region to live in camps and they bring suit us for the heavy fighting in the area in the last couple of weeks and it's affected the lives of many 0 spoke to one university student who said no an option to leave. my full name is costing q do our guy. 25 cities or world i came from to drive 1000 or more

a. i was happy when i was with my family and i was helping my family i was playing with my friends i was playing with my brothers in my mother having you know when you are far away from your family you know. maybe you become unhappy it becomes time i pray to god to save my family when i go to church i pray to god to receive my family and friends i feel sad when i think of the future of this all people as well because. there are so many proposals that a family like father like mother of like sister bradley i mean there are some. people as there was on good life like the civil servants of the house the salary payments they can make their lives with but this wire it becomes bring to the bad life the sick of this one special the sick of this one so many people as they

go to the refrigerator. their become hopeless i have started to 10 days but when i look over now that i have observed this oil company there is not good food. still now some of them they sleep on the ground some of them they slipped on the plastic even. this is not would still 2024 to go people this is a bad you know all the i don't remember family in my life. bad you know for the future out of the signal existence become pool. even died on the drugs why because there is not any sort of. buy the doc the condition or the season was. out of distinction. if you know that's not a gun if you live in the system. not have it. you know is there you know people 8 percent they live on the angry country. by harvesting like. a

gun like they like to swim you know. in the car not part of it how they can live on idea i don't to go back there right because. if there is not freedom if there is not peace. i kind of goes if there is freedom. wherever that's my country. as about john's military has moved into the last territory handed over by armenia the agreement followed 6 weeks of intense fighting in the disputed nagorno-karabakh region qatar lopez hayat reports. the region of nagorno-karabakh is now virtually empty but deserted buildings roads and homes the armenians are gone and the district of lodge and is now under the control of us our version on the last of 3 areas yerevan agreed to hand over. but the military is there

a soldier raises the azeri flag as military units drive through the area and russian peacekeepers have also been deployed they'll be there for 5 years making sure the terms of the russia brokered peace deal are followed the will of all of the dance here today is a great victory for me a victory for martyrs and our wounded the armenians were forced to surrender. the celebrations continued in the capital baku was there is have been waiting for this moment for decades after the territory was lost to armenia separatists in the 1990 s. order of probable adams and that of the district is part of our parents and grandparents legacy i lived there for 19 years my ancestors house is still there if it hasn't been destroyed but for thousands of ethnic armenians the sorrow is overwhelming many have found refuge in shelters like this one. they're now trying to rebuild their lives after losing everything washington but we didn't take anything with us

the 2 grocery shops we owned were full of products we lived very well now we are here we came here with nothing in armenia frustration is fueling anger against the government is buying cheap at the resignation of the prime minister is not a solution just yet i think it's better to wait for things to calm down we have to be patient once other issues are resolved then we can demand his resignation. while a series celebrate the heart of the peace deal is now complete the tension between armenia and azerbaijan appears to be far from over. this over yon al jazeera. barely 4 months after the beirut port blast investigators have almost completed that time ask but the families of victims survivors and human rights groups fear that high ranking officials will escape blame so you know how to reports. out of the frontline of the explosion and from 4 months ago nobody helped us on august for

a powerful explosion believed to be caused by ammonium nitrate that caught fire ripped through beirut port its impact was felt kilometers away 200 people were killed thousands were wounded and tens of thousands made homeless. piers males extended family used to live in this 8 story building who are still displaced how can we come back in the states i didn't believe thousands of lebanese have been struggling to rebuild their homes the cash strapped government has largely been absent and geos can only do so much piers family didn't just lose their homes they lost a brother jacob what's happening grief is now compounded with anger towards a political class that's acknowledged knowing about potentially explosive material and safely stored for years they destroy not only this city not only in my houses and my brother houses and our building we lost everything we

lost any hope survivors and victims' families and human rights groups believe high ranking officials including the president should be held to account so far the investigation has focused on port and customs employees like other explosions and assassinations were not locally tried and therefore we called for an international investigation there is little faith of lebanon's judiciary long accused the big politicized there's also little faith in the political class accused of decades of corruption and negligence now some accuse officials of wanting to bury the past by demolishing structures at the port that have come to symbolize what happened to beirut and its people the state says the grain silos risk collapse an assessment dismissed by some experts who say the structures should be kept as a memorial there is a similar situation that happened in hiroshima when the hiroshima bomb

explodes. organized a sort of memory park. to recall that the memory of the tragedy in lebanon we used to raise only wait the memory of to which the grain silos are credited for absorbing the brunt of the explosion and limiting the damage to the western half of the city there also evidence of a crime many fear may go unpunished in a country with a legacy of impunity that occurred there. it is good sorry rather slow adrian fitting in here in doha the headlines on al-jazeera the u.k. government has approved a covert 19 vaccine to be rolled out from next week it's accepted the recommendation to approve the vaccine created by pfizer and bio and tech a committee is now.