terrorists co-host a virtual meeting of world leaders we'll bring you live updates and in-depth reports as country struggles to meet their climate targets special coverage on al-jazeera. the white house piles the pressure on the f.d.a. to approve pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use across the united states . and harvey what i'm come on santa maria this is the world news from al-jazeera president elect joe biden's and more of his top picks for cabinet posts just 40 days to go now till he's sworn into office. we will rejoice emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 the european union taking the lead on battling climate

change an ambitious target is set to help prevent global warming. and a surge in global gaming industry celebrates its success during this year's pandemic. hello everyone approval for the u.s. rollout of the pfizer coronavirus vaccine appears imminent in fact the white house is piling the pressure on the f.d.a. with president trump's chief of staff urging the head of the group dr steven han to expedite its approval really can't come soon enough as the world's worst affected country grapples with the death toll growing at a staggering rate in fact look at that number more than 2700 deaths recorded on thursday and a top u.s. health official expects that pace to continue for the next 2 or 3 months which means you're looking at daily death tolls equivalent to events like $911.00 and pearl harbor traumatic events that reshaped the u.s.

for decades infections are growing too on average the u.s. has recorded more than 210000 cases a day just this past week meanwhile in europe calls are growing for some tougher lock down measures in germany as it reports increases in infections and deaths switzerland is forcing restaurants and bars to close early wales might go back into lockdown after christmas as well we'll talk more about your place who will start with the u.s. mike hanna in washington d.c. i mentioned this pressure that is being put on the f.d.a. apparently in jest. sort of jibe that well you should prepare your resignation if you don't hurry it up but nothing's completely in jest these days. well basically it's shattering the fire wall that traditionally exists between politics and the f.d.a. in its deliberations the white house taking a direct intervention by attempting to bring pressure to bear on the f.d.a. to announce the emergency use authority now the f.d.a.

held a meeting with the independent experts in the course of thursday they voted to that the vaccine should be approved we're expecting approval at any moment to either later on tonight or tomorrow now once that happens pfizer says it's got 20000000 doses ready to roll out to the various parts of the united states in new york state for example the governor there says he expects to get some 180000 doses by sunday or monday that would be enough to vaccinate some 90 people 90000 people but the logistics of getting the vaccine to the various areas the united states very very complicated given that the federal government is not playing any role in the distribution basically what is happening is that it's being left to the governor of each state to decide how the vaccine is going to be distributed and most importantly who is going to get it 1st now the c.d.c.

has recommended that the 1st doses should be administered to frontline health care workers followed by those living in assisted living environments after that it will be essential workers now that particular category has got some 80000000 people so certainly there's going to be a shortage of the vaccine for a long period of time pfizer saying 20000000 doses it will roll out immediately another company which is expected expecting emergency use authority in the next 7 days also says it would have $20000000.00 doses to roll out immediately but the logistics of this are going to be incredibly difficult none the less in the next 24 hours of this expected the emergency use will be. and the vaccine finally will begin to roll out often unprecedented pace of development it is extraordinary good to remember that as well as and thank you mike hanna in washington d.c. let's pick up on some of that now with julie fisher an associate research professor

of microbiology and immunology at georgetown university joining us from washington just to pick up on what mike was saying about well so you've got this federal pressure get the vaccine approved get it happening but then as mike pointed out it goes to the states after that i know that is the way a lot of things work in the united states but is that a risk putting it out to the states and then having different levels of rollouts different ideas of who are essential workers in each states those sorts of things. well i wouldn't call it so much a risk as just a reflection of the way that the federal and state system works in the united states what it will mean is that the speed of rollout and the efficiency of getting that scene to the front line health workers and the people at highest risk well depend on the planning and the resources at each state level we know some states have done an excellent job of getting ready and as soon as those vaccine doses reach the states they will hit the ground running other still have

a little bit farther to go and perhaps some gaps in their plans on how they'll reach those most vulnerable populations the pace of the rollout is quite extraordinary that will the development in the 1st place that we are 9 months into a pandemic and we've actually got to a vaccine stage already and now this push to get it approved i mean could this have happened any faster we actually very lucky with how this has gone. i would say we are lucky and what we are also seeing is incredibly fast progress faster than anyone predicted based on decades of solid research behind it so. we've also seen that the willingness to invest a lot of resources and to collaborate internationally so that we're essentially beginning the phases of vaccine trials simultaneously instead of in sequence over a much longer period of time is paying off in the ability to look at the safety and efficacy of the vaccines in a very accelerated timeline this is an exciting development and once the f.d.a.

approval does come through and again as mike said it's deployed the 1st 20000000 doses i'm always interested to know how quickly vaccines can be made after that you know we see the little vials don't weigh and we think well that's a dose there but i mean that the scale and the pace that's needed here is like nothing we've seen before absolutely and it's we have to reach every person in the entire world by the end of this vaccine rollout so we know that the vaccine companies will be providing doses at a measured pace that they can only scale up so quickly and that to keep in mind also with the pfizer vaccine for example because it's going to require 2 doses those those $20000000.00 doses get cut in half in terms of the number of people that can be reached so we're looking at this early rollout now in in the u.k. earlier this week in the u.s. this week and then we'll see those doses being provided in batches over the summer

. within the u.s. and to countries around the world so timeline i mean i know. the string at the moment but what are your thoughts on. just if you look at the united states 1st of all how much more of 2021 do you think is going to be taken out with just the just the immunization. i think what we should expect is to see these doses roll out for health care workers and for people at the highest risk 1st the pfizer vaccine and then there are others obviously waiting to be reviewed and approved for safety and efficacy but we'll see those 1st wave of vaccinations again here by the end of 2020 in the very beginning of 2021 and then there's going to get a bit of a ramp up time unfortunately so there will be some acts of nations really ramping up the beginning over the summer and i think the hope is that by by the fall by the late summer and fall we'll start to see that vaccines reach everyone and not just those highest priority populations but obviously it's all they're dependent on

their the fact that companies rolling these doses out the agreements they've made with governments and the ability of the state and local. health care providers to get them to the populations all across the country but i think what really honestly people should compare themselves to keep being disciplined about distancing mass clearing and the other measures we can use to slow the spread of the virus through least the beginning in middle of the summer yes must remember that jellyfish a great to talk to you thank you for your time thank you so much for britain's astra zeneca will start testing a combination of its experimental vaccine with russia's sputnik vaishali trials for the combined inoculation are to begin by the end of the year of the barber has more on that. across the united states they're getting ready to vaccinate people against covered 90 it's a matter of urgency with the daily death toll reaching 3000 this week and hospital

struggling the food and drug administration is set to approve emergency use of a phase a biotech vaccine within days and vulnerable people could actually get the job by only next week as we know accident more and more people we will ultimately maybe by mid year next year when the 20 wanted sheep herd immunity. perhaps 75 percent of people x. and it's shut down and and a pandemic well late in 2021 in another big move u.k. and russian scientists to teaming up to study whether combining 2 vaccines office better protection trials in russia will involve adults getting both the sputnik v. vaccine reported to be 90 percent effective and the astra zeneca vaccine developed with the university of oxford with average efficacy reported at around 70 percent it's almost like cross training in athletics where 2 different sports can make you a better athlete so rather than giving them the 1st dose and a booster dose of the same vaccine maybe giving different types of vaccine for the

1st and 2nd doses might give you a stronger or more durable immune response but there are new setbacks to france's cental feet and britain's glaxo smith kline say their vaccine won't be ready now until the end of next year after interim results showed a low immune response in older people the vaccine was set to provide almost a 3rd of complex doses that's the global vaccine purchasing facility which many of the poorest countries are relying on and australia has counseled production of a domestic vaccine off the trials showed it could lead to false positive tests for a choice fixing the problem could take another year this is one of 4 vaccines the government there has ordered it's still planning to start vaccinations next march insisting its success in stopping coronavirus spreading means it doesn't need to rush we're aware of what is happening in other states and another now. around the world we have a front row seat frankly is as dye goes through that and work through any potential issues that arise in europe the u.k.

has a head start on tuesday this 91 year old became the 1st person anywhere to get the pfizer biotech vaccination as part of a mass rollout it was manufactured in belgium which plans to start vaccinations in early january other nations are set to follow once there's a green light from the european union. in the months months whether that will happen within the same hour week 27 member state of the needle is injected everywhere at the same time i'm not sure but we want to do this in a very coordinated fashion and show that everyone has the same kind of access. to all health experts and campaigners urging wealthy nations to make sure the world's poorest citizens have access to vaccines if and when they're ready the barber al-jazeera. u.s. president elect joe biden has unveiled more keep it for his incoming administration many of them familiar names as well with close ties to former president barack obama's cabinets castros and wilmington delaware to tell us more about this idea

that is there an issue for something with the fact that joe biden sort of going back in time a bit here. well i think if you asked some progressives they may have been hoping for a new blood here but that is not what president joe biden is going for he is showing definitely a trend of selecting people who he has close relationships with who he has worked with in the past and today he announced susan rice as yet another person he is bringing back from the obama administration of course you remember rice as being obama's embassador to the u.n. later his national security adviser but the role that she's been asked to do now is actually a different one perhaps a little bit unexpected biden says that he is appointing her to be the director of the domestic policy council so she would be in charge of liaising with federal agencies policies as diverse as health care to education to civil

rights so certainly not something that her resume may support but president biden saying today that rice has his full competence and that she knows the government inside and out and on the same trend of selecting people who are familiar names from obama's time biden also announced the secretary of agriculture to have a repeat stint as well as obama's chief of staff denis to come back but this time as the secretary of veteran affairs come on thank you count started with the latest news from the by the in transition. in the news ahead a u.n. back to court sentences a hezbollah member who's on the run from life in prison the 2005 assassination of former prime minister rafik hariri and while hong kong media tycoon jimmy lives been charged under china's controversial national security law.

we got some pretty wet weather wintry weather as well pushing across the central plains of the u.s. just spinning off the rockies big mass of cloud here and that's going to produce some very heavy rain across the great plains pushing which was the appalachians as we go through saturday and night system significant snow fall on the northern flank of this system as it runs over towards the lakes another system that rolls back in as we go on through saturday not just the race was on sunday sliding a little further south which is down towards oklahoma and some very heavy rain is that warm air gets pulled back in from the gulf of mexico by this stage it should be somewhat driving prices over towards that northeastern quarter but some heavy snow there across the eastern side of canada because he simply snow too into the

western side of canada along with the pacific northwest temperatures started to bounce back a little in l.a. getting up to 23 degrees it will be dry last you try to across a good part of the caribbean although we have some live a shower still in place there just around costa rica pushing up towards nicaragua some heavier rain to into hispaniola sunshine is shallow as for the eastern islands will sunshine than showers she brightened up in jamaica as you go on through sunday a top temperature in kingston of 27 degrees celsius. i was raised in france and these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is mean. by them both isis and us of. the 1st of a 2 part epic tale of

a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihad caught one on al-jazeera. they were found as they were these are our top stories the united states that set to follow the u.k. in rolling out the finds out biotech coronavirus vaccine the white house is in fact common pressure on the country's top drug authority the f.d.a. americans could be getting the vaccine within days britain's astra zeneca is planning to test the effectiveness of its covert 19 back seam and whether it can be boosted if combined with russian sputnik the trials are expected to start there in

the coming weeks and us president elect joe biden is about 5 new picks for his incoming administration many of them familiar names with close ties to the cabinet of former president barack obama. new evidence in the case of an italian student tortured and murdered in egypt could further implicate security officials there video clips retained by al-jazeera from italian judicial sources indicate for the 1st time that 28 year old research a jewel yota genie was being monitored while in egypt on thursday italian prosecutors announced they plan to charge for senior members of egypt's security services their genies body was found in a ditch outside of cairo and 2016 is some audio from that informant calling a high level colonel after having allegedly made a visit to his apartment. because

. we've got cloudier front of you're with us now human rights watch is advocacy officer on skype from milan cloutier the evidence clearly mounting up now and the italians made that decision earlier in the week to charge for people but where could it actually all lead i can't imagine there will be much if any cooperation from the egyptians. yes indeed in a statement a joint statements will use the earlier days week by the prosecutors from both sides they basically say that they just agree to disagree the. question the credibility of the evidence presented by the in the audience however they don't determine to proceed with the trial which will most likely be held in absentia and

will start in a few weeks this story goes back for years now maybe not everyone exactly remembers that and now that we hear this news that the. sorry origine was being monitored while he was in egypt can you remind everyone explain to them why he would have been monitored and why he was apparently things such a threat. well just just the fact tease is. what happened in the ordeal he went through is ordinary for 2000 people in egypt. or even genuine the past year it's it it's been nearly 5 years now it's become a symbol a symbol of of of hope but it's the national security i didn't see in egypt is quite torrijos we have documented the torture we have documented in forced disappearance in the country and how the judiciary he's effectively in service of

the system of repression in the country only happens to be from italy and maybe they didn't believe that he was even italian but we cannot talk at the towers and others as we speak fit into jane's image. how would you suggest that pressure could be put on a just as we said in the 1st question there's likely to be very little cooperation from the egyptian what's can italy other european nations any part of the international community to. well i can't believe i'm saying this but very. welcome 1st step could be to stop decorating egypt just earlier this week president mark wrong in france gave sisi the highest honor. of the french public but in general i would say that the attitude and the approach by the western countries towards egypt has been one of those i'm old and ceases brutal brutal western

diplomacy has been extremely weak just a few weeks ago egypt is being on the spotlight for the rest tree senior stuff from that you are one of the few remaining independent human rights organizations in egypt and it's been hard to have even some weeks statements from the to the west which is even rare occurrence there has been no action whatsoever in the u.n. human rights council western countries keep selling arms to to to egypt and the e.u. just adopted a global human rights sanctions which they should seriously think about some. officials. think of the from human rights watch thank you for joining us appreciate it take your call the trumpet ministration is pushing ahead with a planned 1000000000 dollar arms sale to morocco if approved by the u.s. congress the deal will provide robot with precision guided weapons and drones this

is just a day after the white house announced a deal brokered by the u.s. for morocco to normalize relations with israel washington agreed to recognize a claim over the disputed western sahara region as part of that agreements. if the o.p.'s government says it's returning eritrean refugees to camps in the northern region they fled to the capital at a stop about during fighting into today between local forces and federal government soldiers the u.n. says their return to to go so soon is unacceptable but ethiopia insists they will be safe there are $96000.00 eritrean refugees bread just in ethiopia most actually live in which borders every trade and aid groups have announced the killing of 4 workers in the international rescue committee says one of its staff was killed at a refugee camp while the danish refugee council 3 of its workers were killed last month. european union leaders have reached

a deal to try to slow climate change and tackle the most pressing issue of our times the block has agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 55 percent by the end of the decade 2038 comes head of a climate summit marking 5 years since the landmark paris climate agreement that was 2015 when world leaders reached a legally binding treaty to limit global warming well below 2 degrees celsius but friday is a you agree minutes for with challenges of global federation of trade unions estimates the transition to this net 0 emissions would actually put 11000000 jobs at risk mostly in eastern europe and climate groups say the e.u. target actually falls far short of tackling the real global climate emergency paul brennan has more on this from brussels. the e.u. would prioritize sorting out the 70 ad budgets and so they punted the negotiations over the climate deal into the evening and as

a result it went way into the night in fact it was around 6 am when they finally decided to agree a deal largely because i know a machall the german chancellor of germany holding the presidency of the european council for this 6 month period said it would be a disaster if they couldn't come to an agreement on the eve of the 5th anniversary of the paris agreement now what basically happened is that poland fell into line polish the polish economy is heavily reliant on coal some 3 quarters of the electricity generated in poland is from burning coal and the industry employs around 100000 strongly unionized workers so i'm hearing that the polish prime minister said look you've got to give me a deal to protect our economy otherwise i'm going to lose my job when i go back to warsaw although shell michele the president of the european council didn't say what kind what the exact concessions were i can tell you what poland was looking for and that is for economic concessions economic protections and also for the level of

emissions cuts to be associated with the g.d.p. of each country so although the european union is going to go for 55 percent as a bloc it's clear that some countries will probably not meet 55 percent and others will have to exceed 55 percent if that's a reach that 55 percent average as i say michel very relieved and happy that a deal was done it's hugely symbolic it's hugely important for the planet as well don't forget but it was a long night. one of the men found guilty of murdering lebanon's former prime minister has been sentenced to 5 life terms such as tried and sentenced in absentia found to have played a leading role in the bombing that killed roughly 21 others in 2005 his sentence was handed down by the special tribunal for lebanon based in the netherlands hong kong's pro-democracy activist and media tycoon jimmy lai will appear in court on

sunday after being charged under a controversial security law the allegations include that he colluded with foreign forces line who also has british citizenship is already in prison after being denied bail of a separate charge now cuba has announced a 5 fold increase in the minimum wage from january 1st part of a package of economic reforms the basic wage will go from $17.00 to $87.00 a month on the government will also unify its 2 official currencies you've got the convertible peso which is paid to the u.s. dollar that'll be phased out over 6 months leaving only the regular peso which is worth $24.00 times less the country's been suffering from tougher u.s. sanctions and a drop in tourism. such a long list of industries that suffered through this pandemic but the video game business isn't one of them it's thriving people locked up and i'm so skyrocketed and the successful year has been celebrated at the annual game awards trickles.

it's one of the biggest knots on the gaming calendar and if you're due to the coronavirus pandemic the industry's game awards point digital live streaming new games and recognizing the year's best and it's been a big year for the sector with millions of paypal stuck at home searching for new forms of entertainment gaming is seeing record revenue record in gauge mint and record numbers of new players the global market is estimated to generate nearly 100 $60000000000.00 in revenue in 2029 point 3 percent growth from this time last year there are some quite ready. just like stories the very. 'd best. you can find something for a while before the pandemic hit the industry was already thriving games are now

easy to access on mobile devices and evolving into the most you graphically striking forms of entertainment that the many can compete who feel more and it's being recognized gaming will be a category in next year's try back a film festival in new york. and for the 1st time a composer was nominated for a major risk trial in music award for a video game soundtrack i think it's reported incidents in the games industry provide. musicians creativity. as vaccines are rolled out in other industries reopen many experts are confident the gaming sector will continue to grow especially with more government supporting it with subsidies and incentives . it's. recognizing. sure i'm. just afraid of. the politician on

a one minute 2600000000 people around the world are estimated to play video games and gaming giants microsoft and sony are hoping to further benefit from people spending more time at home both releasing new consoles weekly gauge how does iraq. half past the hour and these are the headlines the united states is set to follow the u.k. in rolling out the fires a biotech coronavirus vaccine the white house is piling pressure on the country's top drug authority the f.d.a. for approval americans could be getting the vaccine within a few days as mike hanna with more from washington. the white house taking a direct intervention by attempting to bring pressure to bear on the f.d.a. to announce the emergency use authority now the f.d.a. .