the limits of time and the potential of other creative ways to deal with the issues research track it when tech tools go 5 episode 3 of all hail the lockdown on al-jazeera. revealing eco friendly solutions to come back threats to our planet. the u.s. begins its covert 1000 vaccination campaign in health care workers in new york and louisiana are the 1st to get the jabs. i'm about this and this is all to see a live from doha also coming up giving their stamp of approval the u.s. electoral college begins voting to formally confirm joe biden as the next president

. saudi arabia says an explosives laden boat targeted an oil tanker in the port city of jeddah. no longer a pariah state the u.s. removes sedan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. the 1st over 1000 vaccinations have begun in the u.s. says shipments are being delivered throughout the country within the last hour an intensive care unit nurse was the 1st to publicly receive the job in new york before the public vaccination governor andrew cuomo said he believes this is the weapon the will and the war that's going to hide it will cost or he's joining us live from washington d.c. there's no underestimating the scale of the operation that's going on in the u.s. at the moment and of course now we're at the stage where nations are already being given. that's right and just after 9 o'clock local time is only for

saw what we believe was the very 1st shot outside of a clinical trial of the covert vaccine in the united states now it's unclear because unlike great britain of course with its centralized health care system here in the u.s. it's up to each state to determine to whom and when to give these injections so what we do know though is that some $3000000.00 doses of the fives are vaccine left its warehouse overnight in michigan and was put on board put on board planes and trucks and delivered to all 50 states from here on out expecting throughout the day are more health care workers those are the front line nurses and doctors and hospital staff who have been dealing directly with code patients they are the 1st in line to get these vaccines and in most states they will be getting them throughout this week with next week in most states reserved for patients of nursing homes and other residential care centers as far as the longer game plan by the end

of this year which is only 2 and a half weeks away the u.s. government hopes to have vaccinated some 20000000 americans then by march according to u.s. health secretary alex as are that is when the general public may find vaccinations for covert in their local pharmacy or clinic and finally by somewhere around june that is when the u.s. government hopes to have some 70 to 80 percent of americans vaccinated reaching that herd immunity we've heard talked about so much but certainly today was only the 1st day of a very long journey to get to that point rob yeah this is all happening against a very so. we can forget of course that despite this optimism the numbers in the number of deaths in the u.s. are going up to about 300. that's right and that milestone it really expected to be reached today on the same day that the 1st

vaccines are being administered and this this comes out to more than 2000 of fact 2400 people in the u.s. dying each day as this pandemic continues and the big question is even if the the doses are available to the public will they even take it and we know that some of the latest polls from pew research show that some 21 percent of u.s. adults are saying that they will not take this vaccine even when they have more information about it so very troubling figure there rob heidi thanks very much indeed heidi took us to talking to us from washington d.c. or germany's president is warning the covert 900 situation there has become bitterly serious the number of infections is soaring prompting a nationwide lockdown still is the only weapon say chancellor angela merkel's office says germans face tough feelings ahead and officials in london have moved the city to $23.00 that's england's highest level of coronavirus restrictions there

is said to be deeply concerned about a sharp rise in cases across the capital jonah holes following the latest developments from london. almost 2 weeks ago now at the end of a month long lockdown here in england the government reintroduced this tier system strengthened it a bit narrow london narrowly at that point avoided being placed in tears 3 it was placed into 2 a lot of cities up in the north of england we're not so fortunate now with the spike in infection rate some parts of london have higher infection rates of some of those places that are in tears 3 the government would have presumably felt it had little choice it's very sensitive to being being accused of playing favorites with london and i suspect that would have had a big big part to play in this decision scientists including some of those advising the government have been speaking out quite loudly over the last week or 2 saying that the government should have put london in 2 or 3 from the very start as those numbers have been rising you've only got to look at pictures from the high streets oxford street very famous of course around the world absolutely heaving with people

shopping in the run up to christmas and then we've got this slightly bizarre situation of course that over the christmas period itself for a few days the government is lifting restrictions altogether to allow people to mix in their homes over the christmas period so all of that will be fanning the flames of a 3rd wave anticipated in january now just as the n.h.s. the national health service struggling already with exhausted demoralized staff dealing with seasonal winter illnesses anyway and of course the rollout of the vaccine the electoral college has begun voting to choose the next president of the united states this is one of the last steps to finalize the outcome of november's election each state has already certified its results now electors in each state are casting their ballot joe biden won 306 electoral votes surpassing the required 270 while president donald trump got 232 the state by state

votes have drawn more attention this year because trump has refused to concede to let's go live to alan fischer who's at the white house for us alan is this going to change the eventual outcome of this election. well let me tell you this steven miller who is a close advisor to donald trump has been on american television in the last saying that there's still plenty of time to overtighten that the result of this election that they might put forward an alternative slate of elektra college voters which they will present to congress in january quite what that means no one knows but it certainly wouldn't have any constitutional standing but it would muddy the waters and just in the last hour donald trump has retreated one of his own tweets saying again without evidence that there was widespread voter fraud so you'll know that he's lost more than $7050.00 cases in courts across the country each one a nail in the coffin of donald trump's hopes of turning this election some of the cases thrown out by judges that were actually appointed by donald trump then

there's the supreme court donald trump of course saying that the supreme court might decide on the election he was very hopeful that having putting 3 justices on the court that he might be able to get a victory from then they kicked out its case on friday along with the cases put forward 'd by the state of texas and so no donald trump's views are all on june at january the 6 wide january the 6th that's when congress will confirm the results of the electoral college donald trump says he'll continue to fight because he doesn't believe america should have an illegitimate president the reality is the electoral college is about to confirm joe biden as the president elect a talent for life 1st at the white house i want to talk to kaisha ramses of vermont state senator elect armors one of those presidential elections today she's joining us now from vermont capitol building in thank you very much indeed for giving us your time and after all the tumult that has led up to this and you've now cost your

board how do you feel. well 1st i want to say i went to high school with stephen miller and nothing gives me greater pleasure than casting a vote for president elect joe biden and vice president elect comolli harris knowing that soon stephen miller and others will be gone from the white house. and terms of the process itself for those of us outside the united states the 2 stage voting process in a presidential election the popular vote and then the electoral college vote sometimes gets really difficult to understand can you briefly going to talk us through what the principle is behind that and also whether or not you think it still works in this day and age. so i can talk about the principles behind it but i would start by saying i myself disagree that we still need an electoral college to certify our election results and we should really lived into our principle in this country of one person one vote and make sure that we honor the popular vote when americans vote for president on election day we have only had 2 recent examples of

overturning the popular will once in 2016 with donald trump and once with george w. bush. so i am proud that vermont and the country chose the president who is also elected by the popular vote for our electoral college victory as the wow what i can say about the electoral college is you know it was probably at one point designated for situations that felt uncertain you know we we had to go back into the 800 to remember when there was enough uncertainty to give that vote to the electoral college over the will of the people just in the aftermath of reconstruction in the civil war but you know i am the 1st woman of color to serve as an elector in the state of vermont and that goes to show you that it's not a particularly representative process and we should be focusing on the will of the people on election day. senator elect as i mentioned before so of course you're

going to be heading into a lot of conflicts a little bottles with the republicans in a wide variety of things in the coming months do you think republicans are going to be open eventually to negotiating and to talks and equally are democrats going to be open to those negotiations a as well or are both sides firmly entrenched where they are. well we are unique in vermont our republican governor was reelected with about 70 percent of the vote he listens to scientists and public health experts he encourages people to wear a mask he believes that joe biden and come out rightfully our next president and vice president united states he called this effort with the electoral college pathetic and bizarre and he is ready to be a partner with us as democrats and we are ready to do the same we are all hoping that washington can get its act together and help save lives around the country and stop with the bickering and the partisanship i personally would say more of that

has come from republicans but i'm willing to put that aside so that we can focus on doing the work that americans need us to do and turning the page in this pandemic and in this time of uncertainty let's look at the international picture here obviously the u.s. has a history all encouraging countries around the world to follow the democratic process which it believes is it is a good example of given everything that has happened to the u.s. democratic process certainly over the last few months do you think that the u.s. is still able to have essentially a moral high ground when it comes to talking about democracy to the rest of the world. you know i i believe that we should be focused as americans on aspiring and living up to our own ideals for what a democracy should be we should look to other countries that have been through processes of truth and reconciliation like germany and south africa and recognize

that our democracy has not always worked for all americans particularly black americans indigenous americans and other people of color and so you know this moment in fact these last 4 years under donald trump has not been in entire way store all bad in a way it was a wake up call for a lot of americans about the work that we have to do to write our own ship before we start navigating for other countries and at the same time we are a diverse country and we're stronger for it and our democracy is going to come out of this stronger and better and so you know i hope that we can continue to be a partner with other countries and not put ourselves on a moral pedestal that we can't live up to. you for giving us your time today thank you very much indeed thanks so much for having me. so i had an al-jazeera the un says fighters name to eisele have forced 400000 people to flee their homes in

northern mozambique. said i'm afraid that it will not take long for them to come up to me. choosing a life in exile the 15 year old to join a growing number of activists leaving home kong as authorities crackdown on dissent . there is bitter cold in the far north of china particularly in siberia and it leaks out given these lowish temperatures even for this time the year all the way from northern china almost as the south hong kong is going to forecast max is 16 on tuesday the consequence for the weather is rather more obvious here these streets are snow showers building over what is still open water and relatively warm compared with the collards going to us it's safer there and all of honshu

particularly the north facing all the western facing slopes it'll be snow upon snow upon snow there's a little bit around the potential in the korean peninsula but mostly to be sunny here high temperature of minus 4 in seoul and i've already mentioned hong kong beijing hogs around 0 as well as little real change from the point of view snow or temps photo we get to wednesday for the south and the rain is enhanced at the moment around java and the points east this cold monsoon the northeast monsoon will produce some pretty big showers the coasts of viet nam and the philippines which is of course normal this time of the year equally normal is what's happening in northern india this is all the way from pradesh right up to the borders in the north that's not going to change the whole of the week despite the fact the summer and the 1st signs. but. join africa's largest trade and investment fair and rwanda enter african trade

fair gives me access to more than 1100 exhibitors 10000 visitors and buyers and more than 5000 conference delegates from more than 55 countries participate in trade and investment deals worth $40000000000.00 as business and government come together to explore business and networking opportunities at the international exhibition boat t. by african export import bank and their premium partners the i.d.f. 2021 transforming africa. ga ga to remind of our top stories this hour an intensive care unit nurse is the 1st to receive pfizer's 19 vaccine in new york shipments are being delivered throughout the country governor andrew cuomo says he believes this is the weapon

that will end the war. most european countries are struggling to contain a new wave of covert 1000 cases all but essential businesses will have to close in germany from wednesday until january the 10th and london has been moved into england's highest level of restrictions. voting by the electoral college to formally choose the next president of the united states has begun this is the last one of the last steps by electors in 50 states to finalize the outcome of november's election. saudi arabia's energy ministry says an oil tanker delivering cargo was hit by a boat full of explosives at jeddah ports it's described the incident as a terrorist attack the shipping company hafnium said it's b.w.i. and vessel was hit by an unidentified external source that caused an explosion and fire it comes after another tanker was damaged by a mine off the coast last month that attack has blamed on yemen's hooty rebels

unders creed's an assistant professor at the defense studies department at king's college london he's joining us now it's good to have you with us as always andreas put this into some sort of context for us or is the timing significant in this. absolutely i mean the greater regional context is obviously united states versus iran and the maximum pressure campaign where the iranians are trying to break out but i think we shouldn't confuse this with this wider regional context and kind of look at the conflict in yemen as the as the local contacts between saudi arabia and the who are these obviously the saudis want out they wanted out of this conflict for the last year now obviously pressure is mounting with a new by an administration as well for the saudis to leave this conflict 3 and the saudis are probably more willing than ever to make concessions in this conflict to get out of what is a protracted conflict that they don't know they cannot win the problem now is what is the role of the who are these in the in negotiations to come what is the role of the who are these in the future yemen and i think the who these are trying to

double down pressure on saudi arabia we've seen a variety of different attacks against saudi coming from yemen mostly by there were these in the last month you know missile attacks as well as mine attacks and this one is just seems to be just another one of these attacks against you know a targets which are very vital for saudi arabia you know as the greatest exporter of oil in the world you know that the bubble mandeb strait and the the waters of the red sea are absolutely crucially important for the oil price and the delivery of the big millions of barrels of oil every every day so if you make this unsafe that will have an impact on saudi arabia security and that is a very very high target and that increases the urgency for saudi arabia to do something about this yemen conflict because this is a hard target and as we mentioned of course before there have been previous attacks there are going to be questions aren't there about the level and efficacy of security in that region. right and there's quite a lot of speculation is or the saudis have admitted that it was an explosive lowden

boat or vessel that was basically charged against this or tanker which suggests it was a very much a low tech low skill kind of job which is something that the who these can do without external support but the question that rises then is if you know obviously this is a high target and you know the general port is obviously a very very high security risk a high security target then you would make sure that obviously this port is adequately secured and it's kind of in the current context kind of surprising that the saudi authorities have not had it better under control and make sure that some of this cannot happen because of an external vessel can come into sight at the port and actually attack while of a tank as being unloaded this is obviously this should not a must not happen so that suggests then that possibly this might have been an external devise of a different type like the ones that we've seen last year being used against targets of the coast of geron saudi in the united arab emirates where again it was probably the most most likely iranians and iranian mines there that were glued on and stuck

onto the outside of these vessels and then exploded if it was one of these the top sort of attacks executed by iranians directly that is something that i can see the saudis being unable to deter and actually to deal with at the moment but if it is actually this kind of low skilled. boat being driven into the port and then exploded that is something that saudi authorities should have should have better under control and various korea always good to have your knowledge a desire to give us the benefit of your experience and expertise we appreciate it thank you very much indeed thank you. leaders of 5 african nations a meeting to discuss the escalating violence in northern mozambique which has displaced thousands of people united nations says attacks by fighters linked to al assad has forced 400000 people to flee on groups in capital gado province have seized key towns for brief periods wanting to set up a caliphate the region is home to

a multi-billion dollar natural gas project. as head of mission in mozambique for doctors without borders he says it's difficult for his organization to access displaced people in the provinces interior for the moment they are 50000000000 cells of the current that some of them i believe you could do which because they are in the city could play instantly in the central part of the book winds and also in the. in the mouth so these people are talking that we don't know exactly what because this league is in the accessible area and the world is or a great 500000 people and yet they are moving. most of the time now they are moving from one place on the base because of the. more protection and also the name of the plant and the government said that in the new games and this season buses. because now we are entering

a new meaning to them so of course is if you could do. anything and look at places that people may be reading you can for the commune weeks and months. the u.s. has officially removed saddam from its state sponsors of terrorism list the trumpet ministration approved the move as a side deal to sudan's normalization agreement with israel and october washington of khartoum signed an agreement to restore the country's sovereign immunity that means it can't be sued in american courts and return sudan paid $335000000.00 to the victims of the 1900 al-qaeda attacks on the u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania our lotto as an analyst in the horn of africa and a senior lecturer in law at q university he says the move will benefit sudan's economy social because it wasn't just a list it was not eligible for us for it ed now that this is listed

depending on how the relationship between the 2 countries upon our going forward i think there may be able to receive a considerable amount from from the us i think that also is some ways depends on how secure actions on the ground is today the self professed how the relationship between the civilian administration and the military council is today got a couple of these are legion would would progress going forward source would die and i think advancement to more democratic system would have a lot. to do with how much the u.s. is willing to support sudan going forward but there are also other regional spac that's more broadly if true done becomes the more important player in the horn of africa if you're there for example plenty to what the situation between egypt and ethiopia escalates i think that would make a very important country that the united states would be very keen to support.

farmers union leaders in india have begun a one day hunger strike in a bid to ramp up protests over new agricultural laws farmers being counted a major highways for weeks blocking some entry points into the capital new delhi they're angry over legislation that would change the rules about the sale and pricing apologies has withdrawn and has more from the gossiper border crossing between delhi and the top of the state's. farm union leaders are on hunger strike at all of the protest sites including here at the gaza border between the states of the predation delhi where traffic all traffic coming from the british on this key highway has been blocked for 2 and a half weeks and over the weekend we saw farmers blocking a part of another major highway between the states of broad just down and delhi farmers continuing to increase pressure on the government and they are receiving support from the ruling party here in the national capital region of delhi the state leader ivan cage and members of his aadmi or common man party are also on

hunger strike in solidarity with the farmers meanwhile prominent in that in the modi remains defiant he's defended the laws on the weekend saying that they will make farmers prosperous that they will attract investment in the agriculture sector but farmers maintain that the laws are fundamentally flawed they've rejected the government's proposed amendments and say they aren't going anywhere until the 3 found laws of repealed. farmers have been protesting on the streets for 2 months in punjab and it has been 17 days in delhi and it has been very peaceful we will not leave this part of nonviolence the government is hoping for the movement to turn violent people get restless because that might work in their favor but we want to tell them that we have enough provisions to last one year and we will continue our peaceful sit in protest meanwhile this battle over the protests and the laws is moving to court and the

a supreme court is going to. here plea on wednesday asking authorities to clear the highways to remove farmers saying that farmers are causing a disruption to traffic by blocking highways and that such protests shouldn't be held during a pandemic a law student who filed the petition is asking that the farmers be moved to a ground that was designated by the government for protests meanwhile farms unions themselves have asked the supreme court to draw these 3 laws saying that they were passed without enough debate and that the deregulation of the agriculture sector is going to leave them at the mercy of large corporations so both the protests and the laws are now being challenged and is top court. a growing number of activists in hong kong are facing a difficult choice as authorities crackdown on dissent many are deciding whether to risk serving a prison sentence or fleeing the territory if you brand has met one such activist

who's now facing an uncertain future there was a time when hong kong was a haven for families fleeing persecution in mainland china as 2020 nears its end people in this city for the same reason aged just 15 a rule ranks as one of hong kong's youngest political exiles here packing her bags in the hotel room where she spent last week before flying to london on saturday she was 14 when she was detained during protests 7 months ago and although not charged remains worried about the impact of a sweeping new national security law or said i joined a social movement last year and became one of the frontline protesters on my protest team might have been a rest and charge with serious crimes including rioting and. i'm afraid that it will not take long for them to come up to me her actions it divided her family but her mother supports her decision to leave. she's being helped by

a group assisting others who also want to go to britain where a ruler expects to resume her studies in january on sound i wonder if i did not expect that i would end up like this when i joined the protest i know it would be hard to say goodbye it would be sad but i wrote my belief to seek a better future and to live without fear there's much about this case that's troubling auroras age the fact that she was radicalized so young and is now seeking political asylum in a country where she knows few save the members of a group down effect be her guardians she leaves behind a city where pro-democracy activists are being arrested almost daily. on saturday the prominent businessman jimmy lai appeared in court charged under the security legislation and is now facing a lengthy jail term activist sony chung fled in august a warrant since been issued for his arrest for. my family who.

is still in hong kong. i'm not sure about us and i. missed the studio why is it a sign that some front office and their families like a real or a sunny doesn't know if he'll ever step foot here again and like her has no regrets about where their activism has led them adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories and intensive care unit nurse is the 1st to receive pfizer's covert 19 vaccine in new york shipments are being delivered throughout the country governor andrew cuomo says he believes that this is the weapon that will end the war i joke castro has more from washington d.c. just after 9 o'clock local time is only saw what we believe was the very 1st shot

outside of a clinical trial of the coven back in the united states.