if you don't like greece you can go turkey like i'm good but i'm also greek people in power investigates western strace contested space on al-jazeera. coronavirus case a surge across europe pressure mounts on regulators to approve a vaccine for use as soon as possible. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera life from london also coming up . the electoral college. vote top republican senator mitch mcconnell congratulates joe biden and his running mate camelot harris on their election victory an anxious wait for the families of hundreds of school boys abducted in northwest nigeria and scientists track a rogue antarctic iceberg that's on

a collision course with the island of south georgia. hello thank you for joining us we begin here in europe or several nations are facing tough choices in their fight against the coronavirus cases are surging ahead of the christmas period with fears that increased travel could accelerate the spread while new restrictions could hit businesses when they least need it but the past day is also brought new hope that vaccines could be administered in several countries as soon as next week that the reports from brussels. in brussels they're dreaming of a busy christmas shops reopened in belgium on tuesday despite a recent rise in coffee 1000 cases but bars and restaurants have to stay closed shop keepers here in belgium are hoping to make the most of the reopening but with

daily covered 19 infections roys ing and the reproduction rated almost one the government is not ruling out bringing in new restrictions at the end of this week. over the border in the netherlands they've gone into a 5 week lockdown closing all non-essential shops as well as schools prime minister mark router insists that rising infection rates make it essential to in his words bite through this very sour apple before things get better. it's totally understandable the number of afghan iraq if this wasn't done the consequences cannot be neglected. i looked down is not really dissolution of a strict enforcement law compulsory facemask even the coronavirus at and shopping malls the temperature should be checked but there's new hope at the prospect of mass vaccinations across europe after pressure from the german government the european union's regulate free body is set to approve the pfizer biotech vaccine next monday ursula von der lion president of the european commission tweeted i

welcome the e m a bringing forward its meeting to discuss the pfizer buy and take vaccine before christmas likely that the 1st europeans will be vaccinated before the end of 2020. germany hopes of vaccinate up to $4000000.00 citizens by the end of the year but with hundreds still dying from the corona virus every day it's bringing international lockdown on wednesday. in france they've lifted a lot down but they're bringing in a nighttime curfew and bars and restaurants remain closed tuesday so members of the cultural industries protest angry that places like museums and theaters and also allow to open not to see him a huge numbers of cinemas in theaters that will close is catastrophic person will no longer be the culture city it was before the lockdown. you know. you can't say one sector is essential and another is not there's no evidence of clusters in theatres and cinemas now the governments are voicing people to quarantine before meeting up at christmas because asians if you do control your budget plan

scientific can't sleep saying and i view that as reasonable if you can self confine for 8 days before christmas if you can it's not possible for everyone across europe the message from governments is the same please be careful over christmas so the new year can be a better one leading barbara al-jazeera brussels senior u.k. government officials are discussing whether to proceed with plans to ease coronavirus restrictions over the christmas period and the current measures 3 households will be allowed to mix over a 5 day as the ferry it but an urgent review was called for after 2 leading medical journals warned the decision to relax the rules was rash and would cost many lives u.k. cabinet office minister michael gove has held talks with leaders in scotland wales and northern ireland they've agreed to seek further advice with the session expected on thursday. meanwhile tougher restrictions are due to come into force

here in the british capital at midnight local time jonah hole has the latest from london. tonight we've been spiraling rates of infection around the london area and the southeast in some places infection rates doubling in 7 days we're told that there is this particularly virulent variant of the virus that's been identified in part responsible for that fast uptick in infections and then this rather in congress situation where the government is lifting all restrictions for a 5 day period over christmas to allow families to get together in their homes to mix together and it sparked real concern about what comes down the line beyond christmas possibly a 3rd wave in january maybe even a 3rd lockdown real criticism aimed at the government not least on tuesday for 2. preeminent medical journals in this country both internationally respected that have issued a very rare joint editorial warning the government of what is at stake here saying

simply that if people do get together people will die most likely elderly relatives predicting that the caseload for the national health service after christmas will be 40 times higher than it was at the beginning of the 2nd lockdown back in the autumn and urging the government not to blunder it says into another era so lots of these voices now aimed at the government urging change that it sounds like there might be some tweaks in the offing the government and the other nations of the u.k. discussing the possibility of tweaking these rules and one minister earlier on in the day admitting that look all coronavirus measures are under review all the time . a 2nd coronavirus vaccine is set to be given approval in the u.s. this week regulators say the job produced by the drug for madonna is safe and highly effective if an independent panel gives it the go ahead on thursday it would make the u.s. the 1st country to approve 2 vaccines tests show them of their own

a job is more than 94 percent effective when 2 shots are taken within $28.00 days of each other. while just as well because the u.s. is experiencing the largest exodus of public health leaders in its history more than 180 state and local health officials have resigned retired or been fired over the past 8 months some say they had no choice but to leave after being targeted by activists angry at coronavirus measures victoria gate and the reports. protesters in the u.s. state of idaho gather outside a public health meeting they say they oppose the mandatory wearing of masks some health officials say they face similar demonstrations during the coronavirus pandemic if you haven't figured it out when you know this whole length of the. tissue coleman is the linn county public health administrator in the state of kansas she says she struggled to keep her rural county safe from coated 90 my

friendship list has decreased and i just i don't have. it's not that important to me to be friends with someone who's going to be so against trying to protect the public because they don't want to be told to do something at least 181 health workers in $38.00 states have resigned retired or have lost their job since april experts say it's the largest exodus of public health officials in american history this is a huge range rainer you know you know where we are. right now. linda vale is the health officer in michigan she's received letters at home calling her a communist and a fascist but she says she won't resign clearly have made that decision and they're not easy decisions to make because this is not a job that you want to leave during the midst of a pandemic there is an entire community of people that are out there depending on

you and with the biggest back sation campaign in the country's history and a way that may be more true now than ever before victory gayton be al-jazeera. the republican party's refusal to accept joe biden's presidential election win has all but collapsed after the most senior congressional figure congratulated the democrat majority leader mitch mcconnell offered warm words to the president elect a day after the electoral college well fishley voted in the winner the electoral college has spoken so today i want to congratulate president elect joe biden the president elect is no stranger to the senate he's devoted himself to public service for many years i also want to congratulate the vice president elect our colleague from california senator her beyond our differences all americans can take

pride in our nation as a female vice president elect for the very 1st. let's cross live now to allan fisher who joins us from the white house so allan how much weight do you think air mcconnell's comments will carry. it's important and significant but it's still not going to turn away those that support donald trump and believe that he has every right to continue to challenge the election result in fact there's been a briefing here at the white house just in the last hour or so the press secretary was asked does the president acknowledged that joe biden has won the election like mitch mcconnell has done in the last couple of hours she said he's still involved in litigation over the election and sees the electoral college process as just one more step in the constitutional process so from what you can gather that he's going to continue to push forward with the idea that the election was stolen from him in fact on his twitter feed in the last hour he's been tweeting out allegations that

he is gathering big evidence of fraud across the country of course he's done this sort of thing before you remember he said that he was gathering evidence to prove that barack obama wasn't born in the u.s. and in the end had to acknowledge that he was indeed never produced any of the evidence that he said he was gathering but there is pressure on him to acknowledge the results of the election which happened 6 weeks ago today in fact chuck schumer who's the leader of the democrats in the senate also said it's time for the president to really acknowledge the situation as it actually exists not as how he would hope it to be for the sake of the country president trump should take his cue from leader mcconnell that it's time to end his term with a modicum of grace and dignity qualities that his predecessors took great pains to display during our grand tradition of the peaceful transfer of power enough is enough our republican colleagues for the sake of our democracy for the sake of the

peaceful transition of power should stop the shenanigans stop the misrepresentations and acknowledge that joe biden will be our next president. well after the electoral college made its decision clear and everyone knew it was going to be there were a number of senior republicans who acknowledged to joe biden was indeed the president elect mitch mcconnell has come a bit late to the party and after a number of world leaders have already called joe biden to offer their congratulations in fact vladimir putin just in the last few hours ignored that joe biden had won the election saying that he was going to wait until the results have been confirmed and that had been done so by the electoral college so what happens with donald trump no well of course you'll remember that he's lost more than 50 court cases across the country of course lost a significant hearing at the supreme court on friday he has presented no evidence

of the widespread voter fraud that he says he exists and so now he's all focused on january the 6th why is that important that's when there is a joint meeting of congress that is when the iraq to fire the results from the electoral college here's hoping that there will be enough republicans who will stand up during the joint session and say that they don't accept the result that there were problems there and they cannot ratify what the electoral college has done will he get enough republicans to do that to stop the election there's absolutely no way that's going to happen the reality is that donald trump is in as we of the white house joe biden will be sworn in as the $46.00 president of the united states on the 28th of january 2021 alan fischer from outside the white house allan thank you. still to come here on al-jazeera a man of honor this italian also is returning francaise highest award

a former government minister and well tell us why this bombing. wednesday is going to be a stormy day for the british isles that's the thing they're developing fairly quickly running up through all and 1st one crossing into england scotland and wales the wind and the rain and there's the straggling blue haze rain that goes away down through spain and briefly to push through to it to keep moving eastwards through france but showing itself more in denmark southern parts of both norway and probably central sweden where you'll see snow as well previous snow the next storm systems wait already so this is all going up this part of europe which means central eastern europe is quite quiet fairly calm but not standing busy anymore the eastern med is improving currently stormy weather but by i think the middle of when

said to be much better for the most part and that's you happen to be in north need it for example why because when windy and that same sort of weather going to creep in through morocco during wednesday of decreases it is no up on the at this mountains otherwise it's going to be rain showers and then of course it's largely dry i've been looking at temperatures throughout the sahara they've been on the high side recently all the way as far west as senegal they're coming down to where they should be no tension still in the middle thirty's just in a few showers around the gulf of guinea. building a new life on a beach living off the sea and. a dream is shared by so many but so few make it again it's. a family business led by

a market. with a flair for cooking and disaster living. island kitchen on al-jazeera. the a. welcome back here's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the members are preparing to roll out the pfizer bio and take corona virus vaccine as early as christmas european regulators are under pressure to approve the job and they're expected to deliver their the session next week. regulators are close to approving the modern coronavirus vaccine for use in the u.s. tests show that the modern

a jab is more than 94 percent effective when 2 shots are taken within $28.00 days of each other and u.s. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has recognized president elect joe biden's election victory for the 1st time the top republican says the electoral college has spoken and confirmed the win. a renowned italian writer has returned a major french honor in protest at the decision to award it to egyptian president of the. colorado out just handed in his to the for. in rome egypt's president was given the on the last week despite human rights concerns including the torture and deaths of italian student julia janie rights groups also want the release of patrick exactly an egyptian student who was studying initially and who is being detained in egypt since february while italy's former culture minister giovanna milan 3 says that she will also return her medal in protest and she joins

us live now from rome mr landry thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera 1st of all tell us what is your reasoning for returning the french. well it's a sad decision it's. it's a heartbreaking decision i was honored. in 2003 by president chirac for the great cultural ties between our countries and i keep on working for these ties and this has nothing to do obviously with with the judgment on the arms on france but it is it is impossible for me to share it this honor with a regime where young people are tortured killed you see an italian a young student a. young. excellent student in 2016 julia jane was unequivocally an equivocally. tortured and

killed and and it's proved now that there was a role. of the national security forces in this and. and also today as as you mentioned before another brave young italian student called patrick zacky a student from the university of belonging is detained illegally in an egyptian prison this is a human rights activist and frankly i think we all should as europeans as a chance and by the way i. you know i really hope that also the tannin government exerts much more pressure well diplomatic political tool and i was just going to ask you that because obviously actions like yours are hugely symbolic and they're having repercussions that the issue has been raised but you are

a former politician you know about the pragmatic decisions that often need to be made do you think that the kind of awareness that there now is to the human rights situation in egypt will change the political attitude of the italian government perhaps the french government other european nations. well exactly because i am a former politicians and i had our of chairing for some years the. committee for human rights at the house of parliament i know very well how to distinguish between you know diplomacy and also round pulling teeth with well yes with armoring with honoring community the word honor has a great significance it really means understandings that there is a there's a moral significance there's a. i'm going to say i am. a role that is recognized for for me i say also a cultural

a spiritual attitude now these 2 levels should never be mixed so i understand that diploma diplomacy and politics should go their way but frankly a true democratic state should award. a human rights activist rather than a regime where young people are tortured and yes i expect my government to exert much more pressure political diplomatic pressure egypt has dismissed a lot of italy's allegations on the process of 2 that it jamie and yet still today . the exact. illegitimately kept in egypt. again forgive me for interrupting you i mean obviously the case of a tribute to johnny made headlines of his like his italian pastor exact he was studying at a university in italy obviously and i guess within the european media as well these

cases made the news because they were european citizens do you think that all of this attention will also though focus the attention on the hundreds if not many many more of a gyptian zz was human rights are being broken do you think that that will also happen. well thank you for the question because you see both back that it and also do look at it jenny they are young students were working for human rights they are human rights activists and they were working for defending abuses against a young egyptian so i think human right abuses should never be awarded on earth 1st secondly europe must be united in in the fight for human rights and you know it is so important in this time. in a globalized were ward world to never forget how important human right you know

that news and our must be central to also the education of of the european future of our of our european project and our democracies absolutely john melendez a former culture minister speaking to us from rome madame thank you very much for sharing your views with us thank you thank you for having me thank you a faction of the armed group boko haram has claimed responsibility for the abduction of hundreds of school boys in one j. area the students were taken from a boarding school in the northern katsina state on friday the group's faction says they've taken more than 500 students become 6 years of the bottom kidnapped 276 school girls in the town of chibok many of whom have never been returned parents of the boys are unhappy at the nigerian government's response limited recess more now from the capital abuja. we understand that the group has been on the move since the

day or since the night they were taken from can kind of and they've been moving from one forest to the other climbing rocks in mountains according to witnesses who escaped the must subduction what they're telling the media with the telling government officials and kids in the state so it's difficult to say exactly where there are there are rumors that they've been moved from in a state deep into the forest in some for a state where over the last 7 years we have seen how. security has deteriorated with bandits attacking communities and displacing hundreds of villages and. rendering a lot of people homeless and the shooting we were told that only a few dozen students were abducted the need later turned out that they were more the governor of kut in austin was talking about 333 and now witnesses are even claiming that the number is much higher than that because the school had more than

800 boarding students and on the night of the abduction on the following the following morning after the night of the abduction more than 200 students were reportedly rescued or have come back to school before the school was finally shot so if you had more than 800 students in a school and only 200 have come back then definitely more than 500 are left and accounted for backcourt army saying that it's holding more than 520 of them if that is classified or doctors confirm them subtly this will be the most the biggest abduction since this conflict or the book crisis began 11 years ago. that dozens of homes belonging to magic tribes in indian administered kashmir have been demolished local authorities say the communities illegally occupying forest land at the tribes argue they've lived there for generations as alexia bryant now reports.

to those destroying these hats in the himalayan forests there unwanted pieces of wood and cement. but to the back are well and good the muslim nomadic tribes who lived here their home at least for 6 months a year as they move between the forests and mountainous pastures what they heard of goats and sheep. we are yet to recover from the shock we have been living here for generations. for our livestock and our children i tried to plead with the demolition team but they threatened us with the rest and a fine some in the tribe received a notice from the local forest department saying their homes were illegal a few days later people arrived to tear them down. the himalayan region of kashmir is controlled by india and pakistan and pot but claimed by both in full last year india revoked the region special status imposing restrictions on movement and

enforcing a communications blackout. critics say the government wants to change the demographic of the muslim majority region as carrying out the demolitions to do that. they want reduce laws be gradually from the. told them out make them all listen there are. so upset. indians there and that will. be aired agent of ridley with me but local officials say they only follow in court orders and that more than 60000 people are legally squatting on the land in india traditional forest well as a usually protected by law and tribal leaders in kashmir say that should extend to them. there's this old of. last year when the special status was repealed the government published a letter advisement that they were going to implement the forest act law in the

region but the reality on the ground is different the government is working against us people are suffering under pressure from the government to move from the forest and from encroaching cities some say their traditional way of life is becoming too difficult. we live in fear that remain fears of seeing freedom as the others we keep on thinking dear night that our homes may be demolished really would we go for generations they've led a nomadic lifestyle but that could soon become a thing of the past and exam brian al jazeera british scientists are setting off on a mission to investigate the world's biggest iceberg that could be threatening one of the world's most fragile ecosystems the iceberg measures more than 4000 square kilometers and it's on a collision course with the british south atlantic island of south georgia scientists fear that if the bird which is called a $68.00

a runs aground it could destroy wildlife havens so rounding the island. mostly our spokes when they're in the open ocean they tend to break up and go into smaller icebergs this one remarkably as remains intact and that is still even more remarkable because it's got quite a shallow keel is not very thick so we expected to break apart so something the size of luxembourg is going to be a massive impact on an island like south georgia which isn't that much bigger than blocks of book itself i mean it could scour large areas of the continental shelf but diversity on that shelf on the bands is equivalent to what we find in areas such as local activists and really significant amounts of carbon is stored up in this which by diversity on the seabed but also you could get in the way of these enormous colonies of seals and penguins globally significant populations of a heart of a walking penguins for instance i've found on the islands of south georgia

weisberg's car or the time what we are worried about is that models are predicting that this type of carving events is going to increase in the future and so we could expect more icebergs like this to be going in these sorts of directions in the future. now a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera e.u. members are preparing to roll out the pfizer buy on tech corona virus vaccine as a release crispus european regulators are under pressure to approve the jab and they're expected to deliver their decision next week prescriptions are being reimposed there's infections surge across the continent with germany entering a national lockdown on wednesday well senior u.k. officials are discussing whether to proceed with plans to ease coronavirus restrictions over the christmas period and the current measures 3.