on al-jazeera. holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s. its role in the world on al-jazeera. joe biden formally secures a majority as members of the electoral college votes to verify the presidential poll. this is the u.s. attorney general william barr is resigning amid tension with president trump over his baseless claims of election fraud. the whole romney watching of 0 life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 30 minutes a massive covert 19 vaccination campaign is underway in the u.s. on the day the death toll surpasses 300000 in the worst affected country.

and the u.s. imposes sanctions on turkey over its purchase of s $400.00 russian missile defense systems. and thousands of people gather in chile and argentina to witness a rare solar eclipse. welcome to the program the u.s. electoral college has formally validated joe biden's victory in the november presidential election just over an hour ago electors in california pushed joe biden over the threshold to clinch the presidency it's one of the last steps to finalize the outcome of november's election all states have already certified their results giving joe biden the wind and the electors are reflecting that outcome officials in the battleground states such as georgia pennsylvania and arizona are amongst those who voted for the democrats trump has falsely claimed that there was massive vote

rigging dozens of cases filed by his camp have failed so far. meanwhile u.s. attorney general william barr is resigning amid double trump's accusations that he hasn't done enough to investigate the president's false claims of elections fraud donald trump made the announcement on twitter saying that he had just met with barr and that his relationship with the attorney general had always been a good one trump said it was planning to step down just before christmas well let's get the very latest from shepard tansey who's in wilmington delaware and she had we talk really about the final hurdles to confirming the next president a legal arguments saeed is this now where we can draw a line and the whole process for joe biden he is the president elect with whole eyes for electoral college votes which will be cost any minutes now at this hour i'm sure joe biden and biden supporters would hope that was the case but

actually there is $1.00 more hurdle in january the 6th will be where these electoral college votes will be counted and certified in congress and there are some some reports that some republicans may attempt a final symbolic stand there at the very least to delay things we don't know whether donald trump support and 7 if he does it come out to support that then that will be a very interesting day otherwise there will just be another bit of another stop on the narrative of the stove with the stove in the election and we should say really right now this is all about the narrative not about the reality of what is what is happening under the constitution joe biden is now the president the president elect but. look at the polls. percent of voters feel that biden stole the election the good news for biden is the latest polls suggest that around 60 percent of americans feel it is time to move on even if even if some of them do feel that biden has stolen the election but trump has this he has his power that he has 73000000 people

voted for him these all just a few loonies or you know whatever you know the biden folks may say this is a big chunk of america who for whatever reason just don't trust biden they don't trust the media they don't trust the democrats trust the republicans or sarah lee but i do trust trump so trump has the power the question is what is going to do with it now there was an article over the weekend which suggested he just wants me still part of the conversation going forward while he deliberates whether to run again in the in the next presidential election or use this commercially or whether this is just about ego or revenge remember after the 2016 election the democrats the clinton kept very quick to say wait the whole thing is illegitimate that i'm a putin basically elected our new president. doesn't forgot that a lot of republicans haven't forgotten that and calls these allegations about nowhere with the motor investigation so it's not over yet but it is it is over and of course another story that's breaking coincidentally at the same time was this departure from trump's in

a circle yet another one why now and you might say transcend departure is imminent . well it's very interesting timing it has to be said but you know this is a circumstantial trump. analysis that has to go on just one california had put what biden over the 270 threshold with it without 55 votes we get these tweets this these tweets from trump saying oh you know my my lovely attorney general is leaving though and he tweets that the resignation letter from bar which is full of praise for donald trump they have had a very close relationship but this perhaps that's to do with trump that it had to do with bob barr has been attorney general before under george h.w. bush great believer in the power of the presidency the proud the executive and that suited trump very well especially during congressional investigations bar as attorney general can say look they have no legal authority over you trump loved that what he didn't like was off to the election bar not not getting behind trump's allegations of fraud by eventually saying that there were no evidence no evidence

of fraud as far as the d.o.j. was concerned not only that in the last few days it was leaked to the wall street journal that bar the house about an investigation underway into how to biden the allegations that he's been using his influence as the former vice president now president elect some to make lots of money but but but bob was careful not to mention that before the election trump apparently not happy about any of this lots of talk about him wanting him fired but today it's all sweetness and light and barr is graciously stepping down a much loved former member of the trumpet ministration which will see how this falls out in the next couple of hours i'm sure for the moment she had thanks very much for the update. barton is an elector in washington d.c. who cast her ballot she said she hopes the electoral process can help unite americans from all backgrounds. it was a very exciting process today we we the 3 other in that tours met at the washington convention center we were introduced by the d.c.

democratic chair charles wilson we cast our ballots the ballots were then certified our mayor mayor muriel bowzer we then happy marks from our secretary can pass it 2020 unfortunately as a year of where we had many strikes and death around the cook at 19 at him to make the virus that is happening and ravaging our entire world and so as a front line worker i'm excited to be able to participate in that process and also i'm a graduate of howard university so as a woman in the black you know i'm excited to be able to have cast the ballot for the very 1st african-american woman will hold one of the highest seats in our nation i think after this election and even during the season process it's important that we do unite and that we do heal and that we understand a 100 percent that every citizen matters every single person regardless of your race color or creed or your social economic status or where your zip code is where you live and i want to ensure and i hope and it is my prayer that even after today

that we cannot put our republic back to sleep that we have to make sure that all of us nurses other persons that are working have to make sure that everything the person even though you are not a politician you have to participate in our democratic process. early voting has begun in the state of georgia says it will decide who controls the country senate democrats need to in both 2 going control of the upper chamber republicans of long dominated in the southern states but presidents like joe biden's win the last month has fully democratic hopes either way the outcome on january the 5th will have any influence bods ability to carry out his campaign promises. the number of covert 980 s. in the united states has surpassed 300000 on the day the largest vaccination campaign in the country's history got under way

a new york intensive care nurse who's treated some of the sickest kovac 19 patients for months was the 1st to get the vaccine made by pfizer and biotech regulators approved it last week and almost 3000000 doses have been shipped across the u.s. it didn't feel any different from take it any other back live to our own i would like to live in france where her daughter and i will be in doing your job and they're all over the world. writing. home i hope for today. really. i think you're right and. medical workers and elderly care home residents are prioritized during the roll out and white house staff won't be among the 1st people to be inoculated president trump says that he isn't sure jule to take the vaccine yet but says he'll do so at the appropriate time over the last 2 weeks more than 2500 coronavirus

deaths have been reported every day on both wednesday and saturday the death toll was above 3000 and dr will the chair and is an infectious disease specialist at the university of maryland school of medicine joins me now live from perth as a maryland via skype good to have you with us dr chen on the program i mean you are at the heart of advising on the organizing a vaccine distribution now in your opinion how did it go over the weekend to where we are monday where we're now seeing those 1st inoculations in process. personally it was quite exhilarating to finally have one of the horses that we've had running finally come across the finish line so on friday late evening we had the f.d.a. issued the e.u. a and then. met over the weekend as well and developed our recommendations and had the vote and now we're here and launching these vaccines so it's certainly the best

outcome that i could have envisioned i'm so pleased with all the colleagues that i'm working with for many months and for all of their entire office work what were the main sort of logistical and transport challenges that you really had to overcome in terms of you know all this huge mammoth task. yeah well you know i only have a little piece of the pie that i look at for this problem but you know on the national level they had to coordinate so many hundreds of thousands of doses that came down to the states and then the states themselves had to do allow these doses to the medical system so i'm here at the university of maryland medical system and we received basically a pizza box worth of these vaccines these are 975 doses that we were then distributing out to our 13 medical hospitals in arse system and

basically we immunized our our 1st set of staff and physicians and you know we saw that all of the months of hard work finally paid off it is difficult as you say the logistics because of the very cold temperatures that are required for the storage of this vaccine. who finally got it done we often discussed with a range of guests on al-jazeera pinpointing sort of the hot spots areas across the country and how locations for distribution decided on considering the use the usa has a vast urban and a vast role area to deal with. you know so i think that's exactly right we do have very disparate areas even in my state the state of maryland which is a very small state as our urban areas but also has very rural areas we have areas that are near to the ocean and also mountainous areas and some of those areas are

very have very low populations and then we have baltimore and other larger cities and towns and of course that makes logistics difficult as well for the local jurisdictions that are receiving these vaccines news coming out of the united kingdom that the british health secretary has now said that there are very interest rate of covert 19 detected in the south of his country and that the vaccine can deal with and that's what he's saying to the public reassuring them at every level how concerned are you in the united states about variants strains of covert 19 is that a possibility yeah that's a good question we are seeing these variants strains thankfully when we sequenced these viruses and this is how you find these that the merriment is that these are small variations in the gene sequences and they are not predicted to be in the areas where they would make our vaccines that we've been developing for the many months any less effective so all of the good news is that all of these virus

variants right now are really very small variations the types that really will not affect vaccines ethical says dr chen is good speaking with you and thanks very much for your insights from bethesda in maryland thanks a lot good evening so he'll thank you. canadians have also started receiving the pfizer biotech vaccine with 30000 doses expected to arrive this week and the 1st batch has been sent to the provinces of ontario and quebec both of which have borne the brunt of the country's outbreak health care workers and care home residents are being prioritized after 80 percent of all coronavirus deaths were recorded in care facilities health authorities of the provinces to impose more restrictions as a 2nd wave sweeps the country or there's increasing pressure on europe's drug regulators to give the green light to the coronavirus vaccine to stop the exponential rise in cases across the continent or to make it easier to compare the

rate of infection between countries we can look at how many cases are being reported per 100000 people now this was the situation 2 months ago lots of the dark red color to show high rates of infection but look at nearly the whole continent has turned to dark red the european center for disease control is listed more than $120.00 cases per 100000 that's critical every country except finland norway ireland and iceland on this highest level serbia georgia croatia and lithuania have the highest infection rates but turkey russia germany italy and the united kingdom have reported the most cases in the past 14 days with turkey recording more than 400000 infections. well earlier the netherlands followed germany and announced a new nationwide lockdown because of the surge in cases a 1000000 people in london are also set to be placed under tougher restrictions as jonah hole reports. london's festive preparations dealt

a blow to the capital moving to tighter restrictions that will ban households from mixing and see the hospitality sector shut down again if the health secretary warns that a new variant of the virus might in part be behind fast rising infection rates the medical advice that we have is that it is highly unlikely that this new variant will impinge the vaccine and the impact of the vaccine but we will know that in the coming days and weeks as a vaccine this as the new strand is cultured. london joints much of the rest of the country under tears 3 restrictions a government plan to relax these measures for a few days over christmas itself is fueling fears of a 3rd wave in the new year there have to do what they have to do it's a shame that things have been left to the last minute this is something that in. the u.k.

is far from alone in europe to the christmas lights signal festive cheer but there's not a lot of it about french hotel and restaurant workers in paris protested for the right to work their industry shut since the end of october and won't reopen until late in january. in italy the government is debating tougher measures after an easing of restrictions saw shoppers pouring onto the streets on the weekend the country overtook britain to become the european nation with the highest official death toll more than 64 and a half 1000 italians have died. no such debate in germany set to go back into lockdown on wednesday with the closure of non-essential shops and schools until january the 10th in the netherlands there are about. to do the same. we have 600 deaths a day that's no joke i mean i'm 65 and i'm healthy touchwood but i'd like to stay that way and so now we all have to withdraw

a bit even though that's not what i want. in the u.k. the rollout of the pfizer biotech vaccine continues the 1st country in europe to do so a flurry of excitement in recent weeks suggested the pen demick was nearly over christmas besieged by new restrictions proves it's not jonah how al-jazeera. the u.s. has imposed sanctions on turkey over its purchase of russian missile defense systems increasing tension between the 2 nato allies u.s. had already removed turkey from its f. $35.00 jet program because of the deal turkey or the russian s $400.00 ground to air defense systems last year and it insists it poses no threat to nato present one condemn the sanctions targeting turkey's weapons procurements sector. from our nato ally the united states we expect support in our battle against terrorist organizations and forces they have plans for our region and not think that we are never country that chases after conflict with tensions with its

neighbors or any other we are fighting for the prosperity of our entire region and the world but this situation does not mean we will remain silent against our rights laws and sovereignity been trampled just like we don't want anyone's rights we will not allow anyone to take our rights either. robert hunter is the former u.s. ambassador to nato joins me now live via skype from washington d.c. good to have you with us mr hunter on the program i mean the u.s. has always weary and then angry of the closer relationship turkey and russia were developing and more so after turkey's purchase of the s 400 back in july 29000 all these sanctions imposed by the u.s. really going to have any effect on turkey. it's hard to say i think in terms of the military sanctions are being imposed they're less than what the congress is already mandated and it might in the longer term have some impact on turkey's capabilities

it's more a signal is to try to say to mr herder watch that as a nato ally and we're all going to be nato allies together facing a lot of common threats it's important for turkey to play its role as part of a role coordinate americans is not to be buying equipment from russia which is show . pushing against ukraine they took back to crimea and the like and that the united states has proposed a perfectly good alternative which is the american patriot system. for creation which i think. smart people on both sides should be able to set out to talk about it but i'm afraid that mr underwater has gone too far in buying this particular soviet system it one of the issues that the american certainly how is this sort of knowledge this transfer of knowledge you know how technology is the s 400 system in the eyes of the u.s.

a false superior system to the patriot system and is that the real concern. oh no it's not that it's so superior and anyway it's the fact that if you have. russian military people on an air base like let's say in true where the united states also operates out of and if you have a turkish system based upon. there is a russian type system which can target the most advanced u.s. airplanes in the region that causes group could cause a lot of problems there is a concern that that would compromise some of the most important western american nato military secrets in terms of technology. mr you know on in effect opening the door to the russians it was not very smart for mr awad of he has a problem with the americans and with nato to have chosen this particular route i would have chosen something else the president has been reluctant to sanction

president and see him as a bit like a strongman a bit like himself i mean will this be pups more impacted when joe biden takes office knowing that the democrats have been pushing the republicans over this deal . whether congress has just approved a veto proof defense bill which includes a provision that would in 30 days the administration has to start imposing sanctions on turkey mr trump was preempted that by doing something that's last congress has for now when mr biden comes in i don't know what he's going to do on it because he has a number of conflict i think he wants to achieve he wants to have better relations with nato you general mr dropped but he also wants to be careful not to compromise american technology and potentially american security would share in this case to transfer technology mr earle i'm afraid is making life difficult for her no

american president and that's not usually a good idea you want to give a new american president a chance to work things out rather than. taking on even before he's taking the oath of office which is the what happens of robert hunter thanks so much for joining us from washington d.c. thank you but the u.s. is officially remove saddam from its state sponsors of terrorism list the trumpet ministrations approves the move us a signed deal to solve the mobilisation deal with its royal. washington called 2 signs of agreement to restore the country's sovereign immunity me with it cannot be sued in american cool. at this development is a game changer societal. in rough analogy in very it also entails opening sudan up for investment for a long time we have said that we are a rich country we don't need donations and gifts removing us from this list is

a game changer really it helps create a different and new atmosphere. the us has formally accused iran for the 1st time of direct involvement in the disappearance and probable death of a former f.b.i. agent bob levinson vanished under mysterious circumstances while on a mission in the iranian island of kish 13 years ago now the treasury department announced its imposing sanctions on 2 high ranking iranian intelligence agents the trumpet ministration is urging the incoming president to make the release of at least 3 americans held in iran a priority a prisoner swap is under way between armenia and azerbaijan it's part of a peace deal that ended recent fighting over the disputed region of nagorno-karabakh. relatives cheered as names of returning soldiers were announced outside a military airport in the out of a moscow which brokered the truce says more than $4100.00 over to armenia on monday

while a dozen prisoners were returned to us or by jan it's unclear how many more people are still to be exchanged. a port in saudi arabia has reopened hours after an oil tanker was hit by a boat laden with explosives the kingdom has described the incident porter as a terrorist attack alexey o'brien has more. the blast rocked the singapore flagged oil tanker just after midnight causing a fire and sending smoke billowing into the sky the b.w. rhein was parked up in jeddah support its owner have says all $22.00 sailors on board escaped unhurt. saudi owned media reported that 2 small boats were same before the explosion. it's the latest in a string of attacks on saudi arabia's energy sector mainly claimed by who the rebels from across the border in yemen just 3 weeks ago the who fired a missile which struck a petroleum plant in jeddah damaging

a fuel storage tank the who things have been escalating the cross border strikes to pile the pressure on the kingdom 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 among them straight in the waters of the red sea are absolutely crucially important for the oil prize and the livery 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. the distance between yemen's shores and the port of jeddah makes it difficult but not impossible for the huth east to st to small boats filled with explosives more than 600 kilometers to launch such an attack it could also have been carried out by domestic operators who often don't claim responsibility for several days so far no group has said it was behind

monday's blast which saudi arabia's described as a terrorist attack there have been several violent incidents in the country this year last month in jeddah a bomb exploded at a non muslim symmetry injuring several people this is a very tricky actions don't buy buy buy. you know groups or states or orders or groups supported by states of course they don't you don't find any evidence and normally no one will say i have done this and this keep things basically in a. situation for now maritime authorities are urging vessels in the area to exercise extreme caution alexia brian al jazeera for around 2 minutes krone virus concerns were eclipsed in argentina and chile tourists gather to cheer on the show's only total solar eclipse star gazers were worried they wouldn't see much

because of the cloudy skies but the weather did clear up just in time and as a lot of america and it's a lucy and human report from santiago that's a bit of a wait for the next one. for the 2nd time in 6 months the moon passed over the sun in the southern hemisphere creating a stunning spectacle to turn state into night. unfortunately for residents and tens of thousands of visitors and astronomers who travel to southern chiles and i will kony a region the weather clouded over what they'd hoped would be a perfect clearview. eclipse is never cease to amaze especially astronomers they study the sun's corona which drives solar winds and can produce alterations in the cycles of the earth why is it just important to be able to see the corona better. than we can. we cannot forget that the sun is. in the solar system so if you turn.

the lights on. we. will die. in the capital santiago will only 80 percent of the moon could be seen covering the sun well this is about as good as it's going to get i can still see a sliver of the sun peeking through but you can still see some light out here but it's darker than it was just a half an hour ago at high noon there are no clouds in the sky it was boiling hot and now it feels much much colder. residents who come to see and feel the same things were not disappointed. this gives you a different energy it's an extraordinary sight a privilege. in 2024 another total solar eclipse will pass through mexico and parts of the united states but it won't be another one in this exact place for another 400 years to see a human al-jazeera sent out. well still ahead here on

al-jazeera will be live in wilmington delaware where as you can see u.s. president joe biden will be due to speak earlier members of the electoral college voted to verify his presidential election victory. there's been a big drop in temperature in the last week in the suburbs and out here in fact in the arctic all around the northern hemisphere this is represented by these these colors so really it is pink it's really cold below minus 20 that cold air in the seasonal way comes out across those of the warm waters the open waters of the siege on the sea even the yellow sea that produces snow showers which we've seen and the snow showers will.