only if. my team is the island kitchen and. pfizer vaccine supplies make their way to distribution sites across the united states as the country's coronavirus death toll approaches 300000. dollars the whole robin you're watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha also coming up brazil's supreme court gives the health minister 48 hours to fix the starting date for a career covert 900 vaccination program that's been accused of lacking in detail. also the u.s. says hackers infiltrated computers at the treasury department and possibly other

government agencies. also john the carrying the spy turned novelist whose narratives defined the cold war as fear knowledge thriller has died at the age of 89. welcome to the program a massive distribution effort is underway in the u.s. to dispatch the 1st batch of a coronavirus vaccine truck some planes carrying 3000000 doses of these fires a biotech vaccine are heading for all 50 states as the nationwide death toll approaches 300000 workers cheered as the 1st shipment left the production plant now they're loaded with dry eyes and g.p.s. enabled sensors to ensure the doses remain at minus 70 degrees celsius a very different picture in brazil where the president's vaccination plan is receiving widespread criticism no start dates been provided and no details on

vaccine supply despite being in the midst of the world's 2nd deadliest outbreak over in europe italy's now surpassed britain for the worst death toll on the continent more than 64000 people have died in both nations well we'll have more on the situation in europe shortly but 1st 100 reports on the race in the u.s. to inoculate millions. the united states rolled out the most ambitious vaccination program in american history. to the applause of workers advisors michigan vaccine plant it is a test of an unprecedented national effort to save millions of lives in the nation most ravaged by the pandemic. workers low dry ice into boxes containing the super chilled vaccine kept it negative 70 degrees celsius. then in a scene not witnessed in this century that scene bearing ferric to u.b.s. delivery trucks are escorted by u.s.

marshals the shipments are expected to reach the 1st $145.00 locations on monday in a total of $636.00 by wednesday $20000000.00 vaccinations this this month and then we think will be up to $50000000.00 total vaccinations of people by the end of january and $100000000.00 shots in arms by the end of february just what that. they are not foster vaccine but amid the celebration there are warning signs to achieve the herd immunity necessary to stop the disease in the u.s. just say 75 percent of the public must be vaccinated but in a study of one health care system florida's jackson health system half of the health care workers said they would not be taking the vaccine another 35 percent said they would not take it in the 1st round the head of the u.s. national institutes of health says that's a major concern i would like to plead this to people who are listening to this morning to really hit the reset button on whatever they think they knew about this

vaccine that might cause them to be so skeptical please people when you look back in a year and you say to yourself did i do the right thing i hope you'll be able to say yes because i looked at the evidence across the u.s. the virus is reaching new peaks state of mississippi reports it now has no more intensive care beds available what i fear that people do not understand however is that the resources are finite. they are finite there gets to a point where we have to say. we don't have another place to put another patient safely we can't do it with nearly 300000 dead and new infections rising the human toll continues to mount john hendren al jazeera washington the brazilian government is also facing criticism over its vaccination plan and the supreme court has given the health minister

a false deadline to fix the starting date. from the option time competent one as honorees. a president who right from the beginning didn't take the virus seriously called it nothing worse than a little flu really whereas moths in public. suffered from from the virus and then recovered but he's been giving out mixed messages his health ministry has announced that it wants to vaccinate 51000000 brazilians in the next 5 months but it's not clear where those that are going to come from which vaccine they're going to use how it will be rolled out and then have how the next group of people will be vaccinated after those initial $51000000.00 health workers and the most vulnerable mostly elderly people and those with serious illnesses newspapers health experts all the politicians have criticized president job also now are accusing him of homicidal recklessness criminal negligence in his approach to trying to have 200 or

so 1000000 the brazilians vaccinated about 7000000 brazilians have been infected with the virus 181000 have died the numbers keep rising i.c.u. beds close to such a ratio and more than 90 percent occupied in cities like brazil. and so they released these mixed messages the president himself saying he's unlikely to take the vaccine has cast doubt on their effectiveness to really his supporters going along with him and continuing to mix in public trying to work trying to keep the economy afloat those who are opposed to him strongly critical accusing him of incompetence among other things. well as we mentioned earlier italy has overtaken the united kingdom to be the country with the most crown virus related deaths in europe and in germany strict a lot of measures are being imposed until the middle of january to reduce the surge in cases that are so many details from across the continent. quiet days

and silent nights this is a festive season like no other here in germany where traditionally at this time of the year the streets are bustling with christmas markets this year not so after more than 20000 cases were confirmed on sunday the chancellor angela merkel announced most stores would be closing of the christmas shopping period as well as further measures placing germany into a complete lockdown over its record number of infections the killing in the hundreds but of when we urgently need to act the decisions made today are the result of that the goal remains we need a ration of 50 cases per 100000 people per week all this will all have an impact on the holidays we know this but we're forced to take action and that's what we're doing. initially another grim milestone has been passed at least

64000 people have now died from kiev and 19 of the take in the u.k. for most deaths resulting from the virus in europe. transmissions had slowed down over the summer but as the days grew colder the numbers began to rise again. much hope is being pinned on to a new vaccination campaign that will see pavilion set up in squares across the country to dispense vaccines the hope that it's really will bloom again in the coming year france's stay at home policy has now been lifted but a nighttime curfew is today in place the government will only loosen the restrictions with infections full to around 5000 a day but it is a long way off from the figure with an 11 and a half 1000 new infections announced in the past 24 hours in the u.k. joining another nail biting moment in the brics negotiations the vaccine rollout

has already begun as the spread of the virus continues relentlessly from 16 and a half 1000 new cases a day a wednesday to nearly 18 and a half 1000 on sunday with the capital once again one of the worst hit areas so on a day ago al jazeera british and european union leaders have agreed to extend brooks the talks are both sides seem to agree on a trade deal by december 31st they'll be border checks and tyrus for goods traveling between the u.k. and you john holl explains. high drama and 11th hour brinkmanship north for the 1st time in the 4 and a half year breakup between the u.k. and the e.u. our negotiation teams have been working day and night over recent days and despite the exhaustion after almost one g. of negotiations and despite the fact that lines have been missed over and over we

both think that it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile did the fact that the 2 sides hadn't called a halt to trade negotiations as some had expected mean that progress was being made you know what was going that far. i do think as i say there is a deal to be done if our partners want to do it but we remain very far apart on these key issues and they are u.k. can't be locked into the e.u. is regulatory or bit we've obviously got to take back control fisheries full of years after people voted for it no deadlines been set for this latest extension of talks frankly there's been so many deadlines made and missed that no one would believe it anyway the only hard date now is the 1st of january by which time these 2 giant trade partners will have separated for good deal or no deal britain intent

on protecting its sovereignty the e.u. looking after the interests of its single market it is a nail biting time particularly for businesses for whom world trade organization rules in a no deal scenario would mean tariffs and quotas raising the cost of imports and exports with implications for some sectors that may struggle to survive the amount of tax. and the poor even more poor soul. we don't know how it's going to be boris johnson's government is adamant britain will flourish even without a deal no one it says should warre but plenty do. well let's take a closer look at the 3 main sticking points preventing a break sit deal and they are fishing rights while european boats catch about

$800000000.00 worth of fish in u.k. waters every year now the e.u. wants to retain that right and britain wants most of that business back a level playing field well this ensures businesses on one side of a free trade agreement don't have an advantage over businesses on the other side the e.u. is worried that u.k. businesses can cut costs by cutting regulations and it wants u.k. laws to closely resemble each new rules and dispute settlement so how will the rules of any deal be enforced and who will adjudicate disputes the u.k. argues that as a nonmember of the e.u. it cannot be bound by the european court of justice but paul brennan is following events for us in brussels and believes the talks may finally be making some real progress. this is a mess a deep fundamental importance to both sides britain insisting that the brics it votes gave it a mandate to divert from european regulations or rules to go its own way the

european union equally adamant that if you want to access to this massive single market you have to play by the single market rules you can't just simply divergence simply and expect to have the same degree of access that set us live on the land on said on friday said that the european union was no longer expecting britain to follow the rules of the european union as rules evolved as standards go higher as regulations change but she said there would be differences in the way britain accessed if the divergence was there and so what i think we're really looking at here is trying to manage the divergence that's what i think they're discussing in the building behind me and we'll continue to discuss how to define for example what is unfair competition how to define what kind of process should be triggered if unfair competition is seems to be in evidence who should adjudicate on that those kind of issues and whether it should be sort of a big transgression or whether it you know minute should be picked up so i think

these are really important issues for the european union and for the u.k. then matters of principle but they are matters which i think can be negotiated the prospect of no deal is so stark that they're willing to continue right up to december 31st in the hope of of coming to some kind of agreement on this. well still ahead here on al-jazeera what it was was a strength by united opposition in pakistan as protesters demand the resignation of the prime minister in iran can. push downtown persecuted why christians in iraq say they no longer feel safe those stories after the break. we're about to create a winter wonderland throughout honshu it may not be

a wonderland the amount of snow potentially his quite a lot and you can see why it's colder coming across the warmish waters and then hitting the higher ground of honshu it will be snow after snow after snow for monday tuesday and beyond we've had a little bit of snow in the korean peninsula but i think it will just be catching that western edge but the air in which it's folding is really cold minus 5 as a maximum sol it should be plus 4 so we're 9 below normal proximately $5.00 to $9.00 below normal for a good part of northern and central china not koshary felt that hong kong with your max about 16 which is below normal with a chill breeze not chill breeze and also increase the the frosty of the potential sunder storms on the coast of vietnam now that it's rainy season and the weather to go to should too is significant rain for thunderstorms daily job for borneo sumatriptan at your malaysia at a good product southern thailand than usual rain on its way through mumbai and up

into the interior the north of that it's still settled and quiet weather the forecast for new delhi tells half the story says fog now you can call it smog. al jazeera while tells the intriguing stories high for classic styles from palestine enjoyed social snapshots of different times and places from the british mandate to 950 jordan and the palestinian diaspora today musical expressions of their cultural identity and their yearning for the homeland that many of the forced from in 1948 songs for the love of history on al-jazeera. world. the world.

market watch al-jazeera with me still run the reminder of our top stories the 1st branch of the pfizer biotech coronavirus vaccine is being dispatched across the united states back to the nation of health care workers on the elderly begins on monday that sounds the nationwide death toll approaches 300000. and italy has overtaken britain for the worst coded 19 death toll in europe both nations of registered more than $64000.00 deaths it's nice special commissioner for the pandemic says all e.u. countries will begin their vaccination program on the same day. and e.u. and british leaders of agree to extend the talks without a trade deal they'll be border checks and tyrus for goods traveling between the u.k. and the e.u. after december 31st. hackers have infiltrated computers

at the u.s. treasury department and possibly other government agencies the u.s. national security council says it's investigating the cyber attack it comes less than a week after a major u.s. cyber security firm fire eyes said foreign government hackers had stolen tools eases to probe the defenses of its customers which is seen in its chief research analyst for i.t. harvest he joins me now via skype from birmingham in michigan good to have you with us live on al-jazeera so how much of a concern is this announcement from the government that basically several government departments might have been hacked. yeah and there's the story develops it appears that this is a widespread use of an attack and supply chain so 1st we had the attribution to russia and the hackers called cozy bear her a p t 29. minutes later we learned that it was just the same people as the tech

as the treasury department but now we're learning that they got in through a vulnerability in star in a major piece of software infrastructure called solar winds in solar winds has tens of thousands of customers around the world 90 percent of the fortune $500.00 and many government agencies all 5 branches of the u.s. military the pentagon the state department and the office of the president so if they get a foothold in these early indicators the treasury and fire could very well be that they are also already penetrating in breaching these other agencies americans must be sort of maybe or could be scratching their heads as they get this news the sort of the department of homeland security has still been unable to stop hackers attacking servers across the u.s. if you know as they are in some cases connected to government departments it is

a concern but how far does that concern go in terms of the usage for americans at large. yeah problem doesn't impact them directly though there could be you know costs that they have to foot the bill for but they should be concerned because we've been hearing these warnings and hundreds of myself in that group have been criticizing the government's approach to security for a long time in it but it should be no surprise really to have a gigantic bureaucracy and then larry in new branches of government like the h.s. on top of that big concern policy but they don't control the purse strings you know it goes through congress and cetera so they really can't be proactive who are prescriptive about the actions that each of the agencies takes so what does a company like fire i for example have to do now in terms of where they investigate the way that hack perhaps happened and how to prevent it in the future and what they share that information with other companies across the u.s.

to make sure it doesn't happen to them or they sort of keep that secret to themselves. no i believe it would be one company because most of their business comes from investigating and responding to some weird types of attacks so they really demonstrated. good transparency there's to what happened in and they even and started throwing out the indicators of capra mizer anybody uses fire as tools for an attack these police are not the signatures of those tools so i think virus responses been really good in of course they will you know figure out how lack down and now they have to develop defenses against softer updates in their own supply chain so they're using solar winds product and you know just accept updates because accepting updates is a tenet of good security practices but now you have to check them in check the digital signatures and check to make sure they don't been corrupted in some way so

we're going to be some adjustments for all large organizations as a figure out how to counter these types of attacks which are very similar to what was used against during that pay tax which started in ukraine a couple years ago well we'll see how it transpires in the coming days and weeks the moment it should stand and thanks so much for joining us from birmingham in michigan thank you for your time thank you. all place in the u.s. have shot and killed a gunman after a shootout outside a cathedral in new york city shots were fired at an outdoor choir performance on the grounds of the church of st john the divine on the upper west side of manhattan there are no reports yet of any other injuries or the identity or motive of the gunman. this wittiness prime minister has died 4 weeks after testing positive for covert 19. me passed away in a hospital in south africa where he was being treated when he was aged 52 the

country formerly known as swaziland has a population of 1200000 and has recorded nearly 7000 infections derrius president has made his 1st public appearance since testing positive for covert 19 nearly 2 months ago. boone has been receiving treatment in germany since the end of october now there's been widespread speculation about his health not much of mention about his condition was released the 75 year old appeared in a video posted on twitter saying he was expected to make a full recovery over the next 3 weeks. oppositions for the pakistan have defied coronavirus restrictions to protest against the government but they want prime minister iran kong to resign accusing him of failing to deliver on his promises mishandling the pandemic brown reports was pakistan's opposition party has described this rally in the whole as a referendum on prime minister imran khan's government they say the turnout proves

he has to go vowing to march on the capital islamabad to force him from office leave. the time for dialogue is over we don't have any other choice except a long march i want to log on you're coming now islamabad we are coming. this is the latest in months of protests by an opposition alliance called the pakistan democratic movement is accuses khan of incompetence and failing to deliver on promises made ahead of the 28000 election by building millions of houses and creating jobs for the poor. inflation has reached its peak no one's listening to us people are helpless and they can't feed their children we know the corona virus is spreading rapidly but we don't have any other option except to protest. the crowds defied covert 9000 restrictions which ban gatherings of more than 300 people cases have been on the rise in pakistan where 2nd wave as well and away leaving

some hospitals overwhelmed the government has said opposition leaders are pushing their own interests ahead of their supporters by holding rallies in the middle of a pandemic. this is a political circus they're threatening the government but it's useless they're just playing with people's lives while the corona virus is spreading rapidly. the former cricket legend turned politician can has dismissed the allegations against him as pathetic he said the protests are aimed at blackmailing him to drop corruption cases against opposition leaders like convicted former prime minister nawaz sharif who now lives in exile his daughter was among those who addressed the crowds calling on supporters to join the march to the capital prime minister imran khan though says he will never give in. the next year brian al-jazeera.

john kerry of aspiring turn novelist behind some of the world's best selling espionage fiction has died at the age of 89 like areas agent says he died in cornwall in england on saturday after a short illness he worked for britain's intelligence service before turning his experience into books which helped define the genre of cold war espionage literature thing clude the books tinker tailor soldier spy and the spy who came in from the cold well tributes have been pouring in for the late author including from writer stephen king who wrote in a tweet this terrible year has claimed a literary giant turned to humanitarian spirit another famous writer margaret atwood said like areas novels are key to understanding the mid 20th century but pope francis will make his 1st ever papal visit to iraq in march the announcement has been welcomed as a sign of hope by the country's christian community that's fallen from 1000000 to

about 300000 soon to 14 reports now from the christian town of boteler. in iraq's town of the christian orthodox march many church has reopened its doors it was partly destroyed by eisel as the group launched its offensive in northern iraq in 2014 but there are few worshippers to fill its restored nave that with suliman has been a pastor here for 24 years and has gradually watched his congregation shrink so. if this hard situation continues it will be difficult for christians to stay in iraq maybe we will persist but the next generation we cannot force them to stay. but tell i used to be a christian majority town but over the past 4 decades the number of muslims here has steadily grown in the 1980 s. then president saddam hussein nationalized farm lands belonging to christians and gave it to families of soldiers killed in the iran iraq war in 2014 eisel took over

forcing the christian population to flee almost half emigrated abroad about a quarter have returned while another quarter remain in the semi autonomous kurdish region members of this family in that abuse christian quarter of say the reason they don't feel safe to go back is the security force that controls the town they want to remain anonymous for security reasons. of course safety is the most important thing we've had enough of the infringements on our lands there is should be controlled by the sons of the area why did they bring strangers to rule the area . that group is the 30 year brigade of the shia led popular mobilization forces which held 3 take but i saw the brigade is composed of ethnic shabab just like most of the muslim population that lives here last year its leader though was placed under u.s.

sanctions for alledged human rights abuses against christians other was forced to step down 2 months ago he denies the charges against him and out here. i believe there's no control of one function over another we should back on the christians have been residents of the area for a long time the christians are welcome to return back to live in their homes and we support these returns there's complete stability and security. the majority of the town is now shot back many shopkeepers in this market are shot back who have bought or rented shops that used to be run by christians one of them mohammed who recently returned belief such changes are a natural development it's the purchasing power that is ruling the situation the christians don't have money to buy but the muslims can boy but many christians say they are being pushed out and that much of the construction in but is funded by people in power who want to accelerate the demographic change the vatican's

announcement of pope francis visit to iraq has given many christians hope that what is left of their heritage can be preserved but the demographic changes here are so extensive that few believe they can be reversed seem awful to al-jazeera but. you're watching our deservedly so robin a reminder of our top stories the 1st batch of the fires a band at corona virus vaccine is being dispatched across the u.s. vaccination of health care workers and the elderly begins on monday the nationwide death toll approaches 300200 has more from washington d.c. in addition to sending these 2 specific hospitals they're also being sent to c.v.s. and walgreens to drugstores and their pharmacists will receive the vaccine.