the niece and current affairs. countess the. pressure mounts on the nigerian government to secure the release of hundreds of students kidnapped from a school last week. again i'm peter w. watching al-jazeera live from doha also coming up the french president emmanuel mack wrong test positive for corona virus prompting leaders of spain and portugal to go into self isolation. the u.s. records more than $3500.00 deaths the highest daily toll since the pandemic began.

congress questions the owners of a drug company accused of fueling an opioid crisis that's killed nearly half a 1000000 americans. bring back up boys that was the cry heard in northern nigeria days after hundreds of school boys were kidnapped there have been protests in the state of kut ciena a march was held by a group called the coalition of more than groups only 17 boys have been rescued by the security forces so far a faction of the armed group boko haram says it was responsible for the kidnappings . well boko haram has released a video said to show some of the abducted children making statements apparently under duress al-jazeera has decided not to show the video earlier one of the nigerian schoolboys who escaped capture spoke about his ordeal to a journalist. and we had one walk out of that after we scaled the fence we were

hearing voices saying that we should come back thinking there were police officers unknown to us it was the brain that they then given us at a spot that was when we realized there were bend it's wearing military uniform. been walking for so long i was already exhausted i'm a sickle cell patients want to hold my friend shoulder on to my right the up the to my lift before i continue the treacherous walk into the bush as the bend it's continued to flow people from the back so that they move faster. ok let's join us now our correspondent he's in katsina where the students were abducted or what's the military or the civilian administration doing to get these children back. well the governor here is talking about making contacts with people into media as by the way the. media and the cuts will be disassociation of nigeria who

they believe is sort of connected or have links to the people who abducted the children they believe that the the abductions was actually done by not boko haram but by local bandits who have been terrorizing kids in the state and other parts of northwestern nigeria now on the side of the military we were in this afternoon and we've seen a large deployment of nigerian special forces there one source is also talking about intelligence being spread around that area locals also told us that over the past few days they've seen aircraft surveillance aircraft moving overhead and we were told that the abductors have been pinned to a particular location and in the words of the governor whatever is going to happen happens on the front line and it's between federal forces and the kidnappers not on the civilian administration here which doesn't control either the police or the military so when we are asked whether or not he can speak on that he said he was

referring us to the military for now the military is stepping up its a cordon of the area that. we know and we sure of because we've seen so and we we were told to wait for the next few days to see how things pan out but because people are really really anxious about the situation in iraq and other parts of northwest nigeria a lot of parents really really wanted because we met some of them this afternoon and what they are what telling us is that yes they've been asked to wait patiently for their route for the return of their kids and one father told me that yes they've been doing that for nearly a week and whatever the government is doing means that base not working for the time for now they need to walk harder to get. children out of harm's way there is this video that people have been looking at mad we have decided here on al-jazeera not to broadcast it to our viewers but i know you've seen bits of it or at least

bits of it perhaps all of it do we learn anything from the video and what's the parents' reaction been like to the video when some of the parents we i showed the same video to some parents who did not recognize their children some say yes the uniform result resembles that of the school where these kids were taken and of course we spoke to a parent who recovered his child actually he is nursing the child in a coma now because the child has to go cell anemia and he's in a bad chip fighting for his life he told me what the what the father told me about the boy was that he eventually succeeded in 3 himself from the kidnappers after a 2 day ordeal but now the son couldn't recognize the the the pictures we showed him but there are conflicting reports about who these children are some of

them are telling is that yes they could be students who were kidnapped from that school and got to others us saying that the country cognize these children but whatever the mood is the mood in is mixed and of course it's not a fear and confusion many people say they believe that the video of course represents some children out of science are going to school so that's what we know for now overall it sounds like the administration the government there and the military indeed they are coming under increasing pressure to be seen to be getting results here. without a doubt peter that is the situation right now remember to book nearly 7 years ago 14th october 2014 that is what nigerians are afraid of they are afraid that the longer it takes the more chance these abductors will have to move these children out of the reach of the nigerian military or civilian administration remember these

bandits have been operating in this area and the been talks about some kind of coalition some some form of partnership between them and boko haram that's the reason why boko haram in the 1st place said they are holding these children need to public is not far away from kids in a state that's a state in fact shares border with nigeria public so also. many other states in northwest nigeria so the moment these children moved across the border it would be difficult to find them because they could be moving in tunisia area a large number or a large space in the jar is ungoverned space they can move from here to mali and formally deliver these children into the hands of eisel al qaeda and other armed groups operating in those areas so that's the fear now the nigerian government and the nigerian military are really really under pressure to do something to save these children we don't know exactly how many there are there are conflicting reports about how many children out there the governor here is talking about 333 others are talking about much more than that because the number of students the

student population in that institution is more than 800 if 200 or 300 have been rescued that leaves a balance of more than 500 yet and accounted for so that's that's the situation right now thank you very much a committed wrists correspondent there reporting live for us from katsina. ok let's just show you some live pictures coming to us out of the lease a palace what you're looking at right now is the french president emanuel macro doing his job as french president despite the news that broke a little earlier today that he's tested positive because at 19 he's self isolating but he's doing his job there in a secure safe environment for himself and the people that he's dealing with there at that humanitarian conference that's taking place as you can see there clearly virtually in some regards not virtually as far as the 6 of the people in that chamber there he is develop he has i should say develop symptoms is

a humanitarian conference that he's addressing there was talk that that might be put to one side that has not happened what has been canceled this is forthcoming trip to lebanon that he will be in quarantine officially for 7 days it is not known according to his office at least a palace as to who he contract at the virus from there is a domino effect here going on amongst presidents and prime ministers because the prime ministers of spain portugal and belgium say they're now going into quarantine after they met emmanuel macro earlier this week the french prime minister however cost x. and the european council presidential michel they're also self isolating but the key thing here the french president. has tested negative for covert 1000 coronavirus natasha butler wraps up the day's developments from paris. what we understand from the least say is that mark ross started showing symptoms late on

wednesday evening he was tested today and that is when he got these latest results elisei says he will now be of course in isolation of the next 7 days as his procedure here in france and hope be working from home in fact they do say though that he is in good spirits and relatively well if you want to put it that way for the time being he's feeling ok well enough to take part at least in a meeting this afternoon by video conference it was supposed to be a meeting in person of course that's not possible anymore so we will actually be able to see him at all micro a little bit later when he has this survey d.-o. conference meeting with some n.g.o.s in a few hours time now the french president has certainly spent the past few months talking about how people in france must learn to live with the virus but he has repeatedly said that it is very important to continue to wear masks in a manner micros always been seen in public with a mask trying to social distance but of course as

a world leader it is very difficult because you do come into contact with a lot of people the u.s. was registered to coronavirus records in one day the number of deaths and new cases figures from johns hopkins university show nearly 3600 people died and close 225-0000 were infected along fishes and washington he has more now on the surge in numbers across the u.s. . the experts saw it coming they warned the boater and this is exactly what has happened and it's put a strain on almost every hospital across the united states that are very few states that are reporting that hospitals are close to capacity and of course when you put pressure on hospitals like that it means that ordinary cases like heart disease and cancer elective surgeries they simply can't be entertained at this point and many horse battles are saying that their staff is simply exhausted they're not able to cope with the hours that they have to work to make sure that everyone gets the treatment and donald trump had been talking about how the death rate was going down

even though the number of infections was going up that's simply not the case no what we're seeing is infections no i thought 3 times greater than the wear in september when the 2nd wave started and almost twice the number they were during the peak in the spring we've had a number of instances where. chris christie who of course is the former new jersey governor is know putting an advert which is being aired across the united states are doing people to wear a mask he of course in itself was hospitalized in intensive care back in october he says the big mistake he made was coming to the white house and taking off his mask he was here to help coach donald trump for one of his debate appearances he said he really should have worn a mask and are doing people to do that particularly as we're very close no to the christmas holiday were more people expected to travel again staying in washington the owners of the company blamed for fueling the deadly opioid crisis in the u.s.

have apologized before a congressional committee but told members they wouldn't do things differently even if they could the sackler family owns purging pharma the maker of an addictive prescription painkiller it's called oxycontin last month the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges it's knitted providing misleading information about the drug and doing little to prevent it entering the black market watching you justifying makes my blood boil. i'm not sure and i'm aware of any family in america that's more evil in your arms hi joe castro has the latest on that hearing from capitol hill. 2 members of the sackler family who are a lot always lawyer it up they're. protected usually they agreed to testify at this hearing remotely under threat of subpoena and members of congress did not hold back in grilling these 2 cousins asking them point blank whether they would

take responsibility for the role that their family played in this pandemic that has killed 450000 americans from opioid addictions so in paraphrase they said sorry for all the pain and suffering but not sorry for whatever actions they may have taken that led to it and as you can imagine that drew some fierce responses from congress including jim cooper a democrat same to the the spam way that there is no family more evil in the united states than there's still to come on this program origin story a world health organization team starts travel to china to investigate the start of a crisis change the world. also when we come back a decade after the arab spring began in china to see if we look at what has been hasn't changed.

hello once again the weather remains dry corsica parts of the middle east we have got some showers still leaking the way else it is pushing over towards the caspian sea mold in parts of iraq you see some very rain from time to time we wanted to showers into the west as well as south of that it is generally try national day here in concert on friday tabs is about 24 celsius a light wind has a little bit of the morning mist in full. to watch out for that will shift by saturday as the winds pick up maybe a line of whether it's a sliding outs of more than pots of saudi arabia for a time not too much on this but some rain there a possibility nevertheless just some rain to just around the gulf of aden some a western weather and play him will see that west the weather just

a fight to the north of somalia as we go through the next hour or so i want to see showers just sliding towards the horn of africa elsewhere across central africa plenty of showers around the rift valley sliding down across. to wards botswana will see some heavy showers for a time to into zimbabwe some pass' and bob will see some heavy rains central southern parts mozambique also looking pretty just over the next couple of days that rain and sodomize and big popping up for saturday with the possibility of flooding. frank assessments you've got colleagues on the ground and in the canaries what is the situation there is only one doctor and one nurse or 2200 people informed opinion as to how big this foreign policy figure in the early stages of divine inspiration he comes into office with a huge amount of foreign policy experience in-depth analysis of the day's global headlines how will a place like it live get

a back seat when there's no money at all the rest of rich countries are fighting for an inside story on al-jazeera. the move. welcome back let's update your top stories for you so far this half hour there have been protests over the security situation in northern nigeria days after hundreds of school boys were kidnapped only 17 boys have been rescued by the security forces so far a faction of the armed group says it was responsible for the kidnappings. the french president emanuel is carrying on his duty is despite testing positive. is addressing a conference the french prime minister will now also self isolate after coming into

contact with he has tested negative. the u.s. is registered to. the number of. nearly 3 and a half 1000 people died and closed 250000 have been infected. internationally investigators are being given the green light to travel to the chinese city of who has to look into the origins of the corona virus a w.h.o. led team will visit china in january after getting permission from beijing most experts believe it's spread through a food market in the city of charlotte bellus reports. it was heron who hired a year ago china 1st reported cases of pneumonia from an unknown course and in january it was the 1st place to go into a strict and sweeping lockdown but was it where it all began the world health organization is seeming investigators to china to find out our understanding at

this time is that china is working with the international team and their visit and this is dissipated as far as we are aware happening in january most experts believe the virus originated in animals and spread through this wit market to move on but china has strongly opposed calls for an international inquiry into how the pandemic began saying it felt unfeeling targeted chinese state media have suggested covert 19 existed abroad long before it was discovered in were han. since the outbreak of the pandemic china has acted in an open transparent and responsible way we started cooperating with the w.h.o. on origin tracing very early on w h r experts have come to china twice and chinese experts also held many video conferences with the w.h.o. personnel and international experts the search for the source of covert 19 has fueled political tensions u.s.

president donald trump accused china of a cover up a straightly a call for an investigation into the viruses origin's which soured trade relations with china but the world health organization says it's trip is not to apportion blame the gather dust or to prevent future outbreaks to harm residents are welcoming the scrutiny. of the gotham we all know that it is a seafood market where it was 1st discovered but it is highly possible that it came from elsewhere and then ended up at the market seafood doesn't come from will harm you know perhaps there are even some deeper origins prior to hand that need to be looked into. for the 11000000 people who hahn life is largely back to normal they haven't had a locally transmitted case since may but for most of the rest of the world life is anything but normal millions of suffering. and wondering how this all began and more importantly when it will end ballasts. several african

countries are seeing 2nd wave south africa reported its highest new delhi since august her from johannesburg where the rising infections was expected when. a few months ago so over the past few months you saw schools reopening businesses reopening and people being allowed to move up and down the country now it's time for his economy consul staying along the unemployment rate here is more than 30 percent and they've been massive job loss because of 19 government affairs are concerned that once the festive season starts they going to see thousands of people leave big cities like johannesburg and go to the rue areas to be with family and friends and try to implement some kind of measures on the ground to try and stop the rise in infections one of them is a nighttime curfew they also saying that the sale of alcohol for example can only be sold on certain days and at certain times they're limiting the number of public

gatherings another big concern they have is that it's a tradition here in south africa where families and friends gather at one of the many beautiful beaches across the country in their thousands and party for days during the festive season the government says that it would no longer be allowed to try and stop this rise in infections but it remains to be seen if people will listen to what the government is told them to do. health officials in australia are rushing to trace the source of a growing cluster of covert 1000 cases in sydney 17 infections were confirmed in a northern suburb 250000 residents are being urged to stay at home for 3 days and emergency testing centers have now been set up it marks an end to what had been a relative return to normal over recent months australia has been cautiously reopening after very few or no local cases. the european union's top court has ruled hungary is guilty of breaking asylum law the european court of justice when migrants and refugees were denied a right to apply for asylum and forcibly deported to the serbian border it also

found no special protection was offered to children or the vulnerable hungary had implemented anti immigration policies during the peak of the syrian refugee crisis in 2015 the us government agencies are rushing to beef up their computer security after confirming they've been hit in a long running and a sophisticated hacking operation the attackers are suspected to have been russians they pierced cyber defenses and accessed e-mail and internal files at the treasury and commerce departments and possibly elsewhere. the russian president vladimir putin hasn't spoken about this particular hacking incident during his annual media conference but he's denied that russian hackers ever meddled in the 2016 u.s. presidential election mr putin was fielding questions from journalists and citizens from his private residence outside moscow when asked about his future plans he said he had not yet taken a decision on whether he will run for the presidency again in 2024. the european

parliament has voted against imposing sanctions targeting the egyptian government the resolution raised concerns about egypt's human rights record among other topics it condemned the kidnapping torture and killing of an italian research julio origine in cairo in 2016. sudan's military has accused ethiopian forces and militias of ambushing its officers to train a security patrol close to the border on tuesday and says a number of soldiers were killed in an area bordering ethiopia's tikrit region where the ethiopian government has been carrying out an armed campaign against local forces in sudan's prime minister went to ethiopia on sunday and expressed concerns about threats to sudan security along its border with te great. u.n. world heritage sites that have been damaged by warfare or neglect or of risk of losing their status in the latest installment of our sights series rather on unesco's endangered list we visit the ancient fortress villages of high in the

mountains of northern georgia from there rob interest a walk or reports of a story of uncontrolled tourism and failed restoration. were. for centuries these defensive towers protected and preserved this phone the community. the cluster of villages has world heritage status but these extraordinary medieval architecture is steadily collapsing. mosts family tower was damaged in an avalanche he says the with thirty's promised to repair it cope never came. we were celebrating a religious holiday and the tower collapsed thank god nobody was hurt but the

saudis thing is i have a teach collapsed with it. that heritage has outstanding value to humanity as defined by unesco before the pandemic it brought tourism vital income. but tourism broad unregulated development like it's towers which goodies value is eroding this neighborhood is emblematic of the problems facing. you can see that breeze block extension over there completely out of keeping with its surroundings this ancient family home has been almost destroyed after a tower collapsed and the tower is being rebuilt by the government but locals tell me that the quality of the work pales in comparison to the majestic craftsmanship of their ancestors george's heritage agency admits the work has been in authentic

but it also blames locals for illegal construction have fun rights campaigners say the responsibility for protecting this unique culture must be shed. is in danger and he definitely needs the attention of the state no one else is responsible for our material cultural and spiritual heritage it's the responsibility of the country and its people. until then sons are taking matters into their own hands. years taua contains family heirlooms dating back 8 generations he lost patience waiting for experts to protect the building from collapse so he did the repairs himself. appears frozen in time in reality it is falling apart without

a plan by the government for this community its uniqueness may not survive another generation. robyn 1st year walka. 0. and in part 4 of this 5 part series will be incentive. to a unique species of wildlife will join those patrolling it to protect us from 10 hours g.m.t. on friday here on al-jazeera it's 10 years since the arab spring began in tunisia before much in asean president has told this channel he's proud of the progress made in creating a democratic government in the country. sat down with him he began by asking him about what the legacy of the uprisings has been. if we consider the situation in tunisia i am proud of the number of achievement. that we have realized during the 1st of all we are now a free nation we have free elections we have

a free parliament we have freedom of expression we have freedom of gathering etc etc and i can assure you of that as human rights activist i was very extremely cautious about torture i said from the beginning to the advance the police and the army that i will never accept any kind of torture and torture has stopped in tunisia so i can say that from the political point of view we have a ship that a lot of course we didn't realize perfect democracy we still have. democracy we still have even a corrupt democracy but we have democracy and this is very important that our board those gains as you mentioned as you described them very importantly those fragile gains they were overturned almost you know by night are you not worried that with all the foreign interference that is happening that those gains that you talk about could disappear also you know very quickly absolutely i agree totally with

you i agree totally with your big but this is why i said we we have a democracy but very ferocious democrats here and now at this very moment you know people are here in tunisia are talking about who they are asking the military to intervene because we have a lot of economic problems etc i am very very aware of this situation. this is al jazeera these are the top stories there have been protests over the security situation in northern nigeria days after hundreds of school boys were kidnapped and 17 boys have been rescued by the security forces so far a faction of the armed group boko haram says it was responsible for the kidnappings committed racin katsina he has more on the search for the missing children. we were in this afternoon and we've seen a lot.