the lay of the land challenging assumptions and the official might be listening post on now to 0. 0. 0 this is the al-jazeera news hour live from london coming up. the nigerian authorities say 344 school boys kidnapped 6 days ago have been released and are on their way home we'll be live in katsina state with the latest. emmanuel michael tests positive for covert 19 sending dozens more french and european leaders into self isolation. to be uprooted laughs off an investigation blaming russian

agents for poisoning and explain of romney saying if they had he would be dead. in school the head of european football tells al jazeera that your wife could be doing more to fight racism. i can agree that maybe we are not doing enough and we will try to do as much as we can always on the church for answers for these government support to help tackle the problem. begin with our breaking news out of nigeria the governor of katsina state says 344 schoolboys kidnapped by an armed group 6 days ago have been released and are on their way home the boys were taken when gunmen raided their school in in nigeria's north west last friday. earlier protesters rallied in the town furious at the government's handling of the

case and a faction of the armed group boko haram released a proof of life video of what it said were some of the kidnapped boys. state governor says it's not yet clear if all of the schoolboys have been released they have so far. given 340. schoolchildren later on we also understand 4 have joined so. to leave 344. children that on their way to prison and now this is it they have surrendered or that is with them so find out. patents whether still some left like i said it will and the figure we gave was not to stick because who are looking at between city $30.00 to $400.00 and now we have $344.00 saw exactly about tomorrow let's go straight talk

correspondent in can see a state of mind interest to tell us what we know about their release. well basically the release happened immediately after the live interview we had with the governor just 2 hours ago and as he walked away from the center cameras he called us back a cord in the back and said we've got good news and the good news is that 340 students have now been released and they are on their way home with already sent buses to pick them up from there brings them for a state we know because all of these days we understand that the gunmen who seized them from the school in have moved across the forest which is snowfall from the school and from there there are several kilometers across the forest and rocky hills and into some forested was where they have their operational base and they've been operating there for many years now for at least 80 years and some for

a state so he told us that they're coming home and he explained to me that a 344 are now coming back home and it went on father by explaining that immediately they arrive we are moving to a secure location look after the health feed them and before we call on their promise to come and meet them we also understand that the president has been but patient in here in his home state will see them before he departs for object probably tomorrow all of the day after is any understanding that all of the boys have not been released august who are being kept that that. what the governor wasn't quite sure about the total number because this is cool that student population of more than 800 and this morning he told us that more than 400 have returned to the to their communities to their homes to their parents and what they are looking i had is probably 402 students who are missing and over time

into this evening he explained to me that. with the release of 344 now they believe that some students may help escape their captors and have gone back to their homes or gone back to their parents without the parents notify the authorities that they have arrived for safely or they have escaped and returned home safely so there are something now is that there is no student left with the captives in the forest what they're probably going to have to go out to do in the next few days is to find out trays these children and their parents to find out exactly who is missing and who has come back. hundreds thank you very much indeed for that update. now the way a greater is a security analyst from a think tank after politico he joins us via skype from a big thanks very much indeed for your time what do you make of this released you think of the government has done some kind of deal with us some group yeah thanks

for having me not that's still not clear because yes they've come out to announce that it's that today on jan 4th $44.00 students have been released but what's not clear is what did the government give in return because the does it it is to show that in ministry would we give them money was there an exchange of combatants or release of combatants rather or bought onto we need to think we still have to keep proving because it's very important to know if the government has used back john knows to negotiate we the book are on terrorists because it's very it's good to have stored information in public on and i want what do you make of the role of boko haram here because there is some suggestion that actually it wasn't book hermit cell but it might be another own group and that they did that they'd sort of been affiliated with what it was more than an idea of what's been going on in terms of that. yeah so this i thought this was an attack in concord to police in cuts in

the state bar and gus in austin is not twist of manger where i'm his tradition i mean the north east of menger so when wind when news broke that hundreds of students have been kidnapped initially people talked it was by bonded because bonded bonded and commune our guns are not all pretty and cuts in items on fire these states in not in not with engineer but we needed there was a confirmation form a car with a little book art on it became very clear that book list how do you route to play in this recent kidnapping without it did themselves or the outsource the kidnapping to bandits dustin not clear but we knew for sure that book is behind these attacks and what does that mean i mean if i'm not able to operate in an area that they went operating in before how significant is that as a development. well if it truly is because it's not sure that they've got

a good influence on the cunt operation in the wired in a way to do graphics piece because if you if you look at the trend of insecurity in the northwest there is 0 dollars this year that book around is going to capitalize on that much realize in recent times so if you harbor where i'm called a meeting or at least having the relationship we bonded all sales or whatever in not with mandriva then we're looking at it spread of terrorism all true the knot of men who are not a particularly troubling because the obvious or distressed team and they're going to. pressure right now so having to not spread for their forces or do with want to do to do with stoop to sub where combustible is it is it is a bit of it demand that you knew many would see in the i mean my my struggle with. thank you very much indeed agreed with thank you for your analysis thank you. for

coming up on this news hour from london a royal telling off sweden's king criticizes the government for its unorthodox handling of the coronavirus pandemic class ticket by prodded by doing drugs every day. a father's heartbreaking story the personal tragedies behind the us is opioid crisis. and in sport the world's best tennis players face a delayed start to their grand slam season and he's here with that story. the french president in one year mark hall has become the latest world leader to test positive for covert 19 a virus that's infected more than 74000000 people is still working but will quarantine for 7 days because office says it's very likely that he got it at an e.u. summit a week ago is also hosted several leaders in paris this week the promises of spain

portugal and belgium are among those now forced to self isolate in the u.s. regulators are discussing emergency approval for the maternal vaccine a day after the country set new records for deaths and infections a 2nd wave is now spreading through parts of west central and south africa health officials warn that cooler weather and pandemic fatigue could see cases surge and almost a year after the corona virus was 1st reported the world health organization says china has given it permission to go to woo han to investigate its origins and attach a butler in paris has more on president because diagnosis. the french president looked tired but relaxed as he hosted a video conference with several charities the meeting came only hours after the release a palace announced that emanuel macro had tested positive for the covert 19 the 42 year old leader plans to keep working during his 7 days of isolation but he will

not. quit he will on his appointments but with even more caution than is usual for the president since the start of the pandemic is a new. in public microwaves a face mask and takes precautions but at times he has failed to social distance. he's attended a number of offense in the past week including an e.u. summit he also met several european leaders in paris including portugal's prime minister antonio costa and spanish premier pedro sanchez who are now self isolating in france the prime minister and michael's wife bridges are in quarantine several members of the government and president's party up being tested it is clear that the message. is that it is just as usual unless michael's condition deteriorates he will the moment forward throughout his isolation there is that this doesn't change anything and. it's not a big deal that's what there is is trying to say but they're not saying what are

the symptoms that said the president as we know that he was tested after showing symptoms. and we don't know where those symptoms are the french government has lifted some lockdown restrictions but reimposed a nighttime curfew as the country continues to battle the pandemic michael's diagnosis is a sobering reminder that anyone can be infected. al-jazeera paris. the king of sweden says his country has failed in its handling of the pandemic the nation has been criticized for its unorthodox approach relying more on guidelines and never imposing a full lockdown sweden has reported almost 350000 cases and more than 7800 deaths most 8 times the number of deaths in neighboring denmark. name and even the real put simply i think that we have failed many people have died

and that is horrible that is something we can all sympathize with that we haven't been out to help them and it is very sad terribly sad. it's the swedish people who suffered enormously under difficult circumstances it's frightening to talk about it . you know his states has passed 17000000 confirmed coronavirus cases adding a 1000000 new infections in just the last 5 days it comes a day after the country set new records for daily infections and deaths 3656 fatalities were confirmed on wednesday and more than 247000 new infections 53000 cases in the state of california alone in the coming hours an expert panel to the u.s. food and drug administration will vote on whether to recommend emergency approval of the madonna vaccine former new jersey governor chris christie ended up in intensive care with code 19 after helping president trump prepare for his 1st

presidential debate with joe biden he's now put out an advert imploring people to wear masks this message isn't for everyone it's for all those people who refused to wear a mask you know lying in isolation in i.c.u. for 7 days i thought about how wrong i was to remove my mask at the white house today i think about how wrong it is that mask wearing divide us especially as we now know you're twice as likely to get covered 19 if you don't wear a mask because if you don't do the right thing we could all end up on the wrong side of history please wear a mask when white house correspondent kimberly halkett joins us live so what do you think a message like that will make would it make much difference you think to add to the u.s. where these are these numbers at the moment. it will certainly help but in terms of the numbers that we're seeing right now the problem is is that many people didn't listen to messages like that back when the thanksgiving holiday was happening and

now we are experiencing the surge that so many public health officials were warning and caution about saying that if you go in and ignore the travel restrictions if you don't wear a mask indoors with family gatherings that this is what's going to happen so the u.s. now breaking records in terms of not only infections total cases but also sadly in the number of deaths and so the public health officials are urging people to listen to messages like the new jersey governor's given the fact that they know that mass certainly cut your chance of getting covered 1000 by at least half so they're putting out these messages in the hope that as we now approach the christmas holiday here in the united states that many people will think twice about taking that trip long distances and celebrate at home. the possibility of another vaccine being authorized to how soon will we know about. well we're watching to see about

when this 1st gets out of committee were expecting based on what we saw last week in terms of the pfizer vaccine that there could be some initial approval out of committee in the coming hours but there's still a few more steps because the f.d.a. commissioner has just signed off on this as well as the director of the centers for disease control which is expected over the weekend but if all goes well and it appears that things are on track the 1st distribution of the maternal vaccine could begin on monday and what we know is that already standing by or about 50000000 doses that's about enough for 25000000 people but again it has to go through this approval process which is vigorous but moving quickly and already we have the pfizer vaccine here being given to people in the united states and they're hoping soon the madeira will be added to that in the midst of all of this though there are still many americans who are wary of the vaccine that's why these public health official messages are continuing to pour over the airwaves in order to try and convince people there's

a lot of skepticism to among communities of color and with good reason we know that in the case of these vaccines initially some of those trials did not reflect in terms of the people getting the vaccines reflect america in terms of its diversity particularly what comes to communities of color and well they did rectify that there is still a lot of skepticism but overall the polls show about 70 percent of americans say that assumes they can get this vaccine they will keep me how can i thank you very much indeed. officials in south africa say cases surging exponentially that when 10000 new infections reported on wednesday how do we trust has more from johannesburg. well the rise in infections was expected when lockdown measures we eased 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 whatever it is economy cons the stain along the locked out i mean the unemployment

rate areas more than 30 percent and they've been massive job loss because of 19 government concern that once the 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 of 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. international investigators have been given the green light to travel to the chinese city of new hand to look into the origins

of the corona virus. will visit china in january after getting permission from beijing most experts believe it spreads through food market in the city of charlotte has more. it was heron who hired a year ago china 1st reported cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause 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. to see. as far as the. january most experts believe the virus originated in animals and spread through this wit market and 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 one 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. person now 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 astray or called 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 breaks 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 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 locked down and wondering how this all began and more importantly when it will end charlotte dallas al-jazeera. the owners the pharmaceutical company blamed for fueling an opioid crisis in the u.s. have apologized to a congressional committee but they said they wouldn't do things differently even if they could sack a family onus purdue pharma the maker of the addictive prescription painkiller oxycontin last month the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges it admitted providing misleading information about the drug and doing little to stop it

entering the black market 3 brothers from their sackler family bought the company that would become purdue pharma in $152.00 since then they've amassed a fortune estimated to be worth $10000000000.00 how do you pharma went on to produce oxycontin in the 1990 s. sparking the crisis over the years the family became known as for anthropos hts giving millions of dollars to the arts many of those cultural institutions have since distance themselves despite the family claiming they were only passive board members. on to your question has more from capitol hill. critics of the south their families say they have a skate accountability for years and so expectations were high when 2 family members david and kathy sackler agreed to appear under threat of subpoena before the house oversight committee this is a panel that has been investigating this family and the role of their company purdue pharma in jumpstarting the opioid crisis that has killed more than 450000

americans and in recently published documents from the company it's shown that the sabc lawrence aggressively pushed for the marketing and sales of oxycontin even while knowing of its highly addictive nature now committee members asked these witnesses for a public apology today instead they got a defense and refusal to take responsibility over the actions taken over the years and that drew a very strong rebuke i believe. i conducted myself. and i believe. i'm going straight. to feel terrible. and i was home so many. has also been associated. there is nothing that i can find that i would have done differently based on what i

believe the understood last month produce farmer pled guilty to 3 felony counts in a federal court for defrauding government officials and for pushing the sale of oxycontin on doctors through the form of illegal kickbacks but the family itself walked away without any criminal liability and now the company. is filing for bankruptcy which could shield it from paying out billions of dollars to victims. families in communities across america have been impacted by the opioid epidemic and as john hendren reports from chicago it's any likely to get worse i'm against the pandemic tim ryan was the recruiting director for a chicago consulting company and he founded a multi-million dollar executive search firm and he was also a drug addict people out this misconception that an opiate addict is the homeless

person on the corner with the brown paper bag that's 5 per cent you know the average opiate addict so 22 year old white middle class male a 23 year old white middle class female the disease of addiction does not discriminate after using for years he caught his son using heroin and opiates enjoying him my son and i that's how we get by on did by doing drugs every day then for tim came addiction prison ensue briony for his son nick a cycle of addiction jail rehab and relapse on the day tim recorded his 21st month of sobriety nick suffered a fatal overdose dr talked me into the room right next to where we were and i walked in there are indices mike's one year old son called 'd blue lifeless body just lying there with us a sheet up to his chest and he still have the divisiveness mouth where they were

trying to ask write him. i mean tears just started slowing down and now with his wife former supermodel jennifer jimenez he helps former addicts through their substance abuse program dope to hope often users begin with legally prescribed pain killers after an injury then when those run out they move on to heroin or fentanyl a powerful and dangerous synthetic opioid bought from street corner drug dealers for too many opioid users the journey through addiction ends like this knowing when you hear of an overdose on a street corner the lucky ones survive to end up here in the emergency room now seeing more opioid overdoses than ever overdoses are up 55 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. years or more challenging time recovering because drug use or very little in their communities one opioid

manufacturer oxycontin maker produced pharma has acknowledged its role in the opioid epidemic the company has paid 634000000 dollars in fines and pleaded guilty to contributing to thousands of opioid deaths now surging is the pandemic drives many back to drugs they need carcass and connection they need human interaction and unfortunately a lot of people are going back to abusing and using opiates and when you're asked what opiates you know you're gonna die it is an epidemic growing within a pandemic as the number of fatal opioid overdoses continues to rise john hendren al-jazeera chicago. so much more still to come this hour the u.s. government says the massive hacking campaign that emerged this week extended beyond uses of the solar wind software. 10 years after set himself on fire triggering what became known as the arab spring. still

protesting. and in support a bad day for an olympic legend in his bid to win sailing the america's cup. hello we've got so wet windy but mild weather pushing into western parts of europe at the moment behind this band of cloud this weather front that's going to continue driving its way eastwards quite tightly packed ice about some brisk showers just rattling 3 quotes of weather where we do have high pressure but it is going to be cold temperatures struggling to get around 4 or 5 celsius to many some snow there just around the baltic states pushing into that western side of iraq it comes out wet some windy but mild air which will fade in across the british isles heavy rain coming into western france and also into western parts of spain portugal i will the

next couple days i will sweep through making its way into madrid temperatures no higher than around 9 celsius here on sas day but at 12 there in london should be about 8 degrees as i said it is mild right especially any consolation i can offer some wet weather there. parts of france down towards the south as well central areas generally try and find it down into the eastern side of the mediterranean generally fine and dry it saying that dry weather stretches across the north east of africa but we have got some showers it's in northern parts of morocco some showers too general areas of algeria must see some wet weather once again just clinging on to the guinea coast possibility of showers all the way over to sierra leone. the virus is indiscriminate get those living in poverty are far more vulnerable to the dangers of covert 19 i'll be re-examined as the reasons for this disparity the social and economic inequalities that surround us so much much more problematic for

me so i doubt whether lessons learned from the global pandemic could lead to positive change the plan for the for the fix for him will be all hail the lockdown exposes privilege and poverty during a crisis on a just the. when the news breaks the impact of the storms in honduras has been particularly devastating when people need to be hurt no group has claimed responsibility for the shooting on the outskirts of srinagar in indian administered kashmir people here say they're living in fear al-jazeera has teams on the ground they never ate this type of food that we simply don't know if we can think to bring you more award winning documentaries and life needs on air and online.

i got a reminder of the top stories here on our syria the governor of nigeria's northern katsina state has told on his ear that 344 kidnapped school boys have been released and will be home soon rodger is government has been negotiating with what it described as armed bandits since the boys were taken from their boarding school 6 days ago. the french president emanuel back home has become the latest world leader to test positive for cope with 19 he's still working but will quarantine for 7 days several other european leaders of also entered oscillation after recent contact with michael. and the united states has passed 17000000 confirmed coronavirus cases a day after the 40 to record 3656 new deaths. are staying in the u.s. the department of homeland security says the massive ongoing hacking campaign that

emerged this week extends beyond users of a compromised network software solar wind cyber attack from to national security adviser robert o'brien to cut short a trip to europe and return to washington d.c. a tech company solar wind says around 800000 of its customers unwittingly downloaded software 9 months ago which allowed hackers to spy on the government multiple agencies are working to determine who's behind the hack russia has denied responsibility. we're joined now by skype from washington d.c. by chris paine to he's the full masonic coordinator at the u.s. state department under the obama administration briefly under president trump thanks very much indeed for being with us so we've heard just the seedling that this hack might actually the scale of it might actually be larger with the and it department suggesting that that the hackers may have accessed their networks than you can. possible nuclear breaches what how significant is this moment well it was

very significant before it's incredibly broad that you know there were still assessing what agencies have been hit but we know that multiple u.s. agencies have been private sector to the is likely international targets well the latest reporting it's unclear exactly what systems were accessed there but certainly that's very serious as well so it's really hard to overstate how serious a breach this is and all this i suppose in the midst of a pandemic and a transition now vulnerable is the u.s. to a cyber attack at this point well you know the u.s. has been billing cyber defenses for many years but this clearly shows they're not adequate and as you know we've had changes a person now recently chris crab's who led the d.h.s.s. department homeland security effort being fired. you know this hasn't really been a huge priority for this administration at least for this president and that's been a concern as well we did see a statement put out by the biden team today by president elect biden and kemal

harris that talked about how they would make cyber security a core priority in the new administration are across all the agencies and would hold hold bad actors to account so that's significant and that's good news because we need to treat it that way bad actors i mean is it your impression that the country is definitely behind something so on a scale. well that's certainly what's been reported that certainly would make sense we've seen a lot of russian wind activity over the years actually her friends back in 2016 and continuing we saw the not petty at warm which affected congress around the globe including us shipping in. denmark but also globally we saw the o.p.c. dubey to the. drug agency that was there was attempted hacking into that so there's been a lot of that now that's still under investigation that there hasn't been a clear statement by the government that russia is the actor but there's certainly

been a lot of reports that they have been and what you think should be done now to limit the damage from hack on the scale well as a lot that has to be done i mean simply you know some good actions have been taken calling this out making it clear this is a priority getting standing what they call. you know for a. coordination cell that involves f.b.i. the intelligence community in d.h. yes those are all important but this is not could be easy to rout out because even the way these hackers or at least one way these hackers got in through these systems was through the solar wind software but once they were in those systems and established what i call a beachhead then getting them out could be very difficult because they apparently erase logs and did other things and might have established other ways to get in the system so this is going to be a challenge especially given the scale of this it's going to take time and a lot of effort to do and i just want to bring it back to you i mean you will roll is coordinated wasn't failed how much damage do you think that has done and you think that's something that would be reinstated. i do think i'll be reinstated i

think it was unfortunate the both the coordinator job the cyber coordinator at the white house which which i was involved in helping to create and then my my former position at the state department the coordinator for cyber issues a bill every national outrage both of those positions were eliminated and that not only helps coordinate our our efforts and things like this but it's also a strong message to both our friends that we're trying to lead efforts in this area and our adversaries that we take this issue every seriously and unfortunately i don't think that message has been delivered i think we need to change this and i'm confident especially given the statement i mentioned by the president biden that it's going to change we're going to reestablish these positions and we're going to try to really make this mainstream this as a core a national security and economic party and not some outlier crisping to thank you very much indeed for taking the time to interest on not just air travel to be here . we have a town that joins us live from joe biden's home town named wilmington delaware and

as we head there biden has been talking about this ongoing hacking campaign what kind of promises it is he's been making about what he can achieve in future. his campaign released a statement which did say cybersecurity will become a top priority and he went on to pick up on some of your guest's themes by saying good defense is not enough we need to disrupt and to tell our adversaries are undertaking significant cyber attacks we will impose substantial costs on those responsible for malicious attacks i will not stand by in the face of cyber assaults on the nation clearly trying to draw a line between him and the perception of trump is as weak on cyber security. talking about offensive offensive attacks on obviously we should always remember the u.s. is the pioneer of these sorts of offensive attacks as would have met with snowden you know from stock snap which up until this moment has been thought of as the most malicious malware ever created so clearly that's all going to go full tilt full

tilt ahead to joe biden he's making progress it's also notable that he didn't talk about russia many democrats are already saying russia has declared war on the u.s. even though we do not know who is behind behind this attack biden didn't do that he in fact he was very clear is there's a lot we don't know yet but what we do know is a matter of great concern i've instructed my team to learn as much about about this breach of as possible as you can see why he wouldn't because the incoming administration will clearly want to have good relations with russia on a host of issues from rejoining the iran nuclear deal to the start treaty the nuclear missile treaty and climate change so not taking the opportunity has a some might have to do some democrats have to immediately lay in dividing the polluted and sour i'm going to i'm going to go get him and meanwhile i'm not going to move the transition to the united states but to have it set 1st native american cabinet. right but representative debbie holland

who's currently in congress would have to native american women who were elected to the house of representatives in 2018 the 1st the 1st ever to to do so there's been a lot of talk as joe biden has been rolling out his cabinet appointments and saying oh look at looks like america diverse about the difference between cosmetically diversity and substantiative diversity in the words of one civil rights leader and there's no point having lots of women and people of color in your cabinet if they support policies that keep women and people of color down this is subsist time to have diversity at last. in the biting biden cabinet debbie highland a native american in charge i've noticed any agency if confirmed with the department of the interior this is the department of the forefront of the destruction of native america over several 100 years and now it's at least symbolically a native american woman if confirmed in charge of

a huge swathe of the continent the wildlife the natural resources the public lands i mean that's that's a that is a big deal actually despite you know that it's about that is something i mean we have to see whether it would be more than symbolic because there are a lot of other people to biden is nominated who are very close to the oil and gas industry in the others who are you know despoiling a lot of a lot of this but this is this is a very important thing to have been much discussion about whether she would be nominated because of the slim majority in the house of representatives but once once nancy pelosi the house speaker said. on wednesday that she supported the nomination that was very difficult for the biden camp to to keep to that argument and in fact what we had been hearing was it wasn't because of that i mean there's no chance a republican will win a seat but it was the biden transition team that had concerns about her. level of experience but once you know minute pete but a judge for the department of transportation you can't really talk about experience anymore in your cabin and that's clearly just returning

a favorable to judge. dropping out of the race and helping biden biden when in fact biden went off to put a judge in the primaries saying look at this man has no experience so that argument is gone and it is representative and also also significant because finally the progressives have someone in the cabinet bernie saunders on one side also said i haven't seen one progressive but biden has nominated now here's one she had time to thank you very much that i mean putin says he's happy to take russia's coronavirus vaccine and has dismissed allegations that he ordered the poisoning of opposition leader and explain avani russian president was speaking at his annual news conference which was held at his private residence in moscow because of the pandemic so we're going to go has more. the annual presidential press conference with a marked difference it is always a marathon event last in close to 2 hours with relatively few surprises from his home in the suburbs of moscow president vladimir putin fielded questions from all

over the country his thoughts on current issues foremost the pandemic and whether he'd been given the russian vaccine sputnik v. which is yet to meet international approval standards. the vaccine is like going to civilian circulation are currently provided for citizens in a certain age range and vaccines have not yet reach people like me but i'm a fairly law abiding person i listen to the recommendations of our specialists so i haven't had the shot yet but i will absolutely do it as soon as it becomes possible there were also questions over the attempted assassination of his opponent alex inevitably while refusing to use these name putin dismissed allegations that he had been poisoned with a nerve agent and that orders to do so came straight from the top. if someone had wanted to poison him they would have finished him off his wife address me and i gave the commander right away to let him go to germany for treatment when it came

to talking about the incoming u.s. president joe biden he acknowledged his hopes of a reset in u.s. russia relations in donald trump he had a counterpart to empathize with his played nationalist strongman sentiments yet 4 years on after donald trump's victory putin once again denied that russian hackers had ever meddled in the 2016 u.s. elections. hotas didn't help the current us president to get elected and didn't meddle in the internal affairs of this great country this is speculation and an excuse to spoil relations between russia and the united states it is an excuse to dispute the election of the current president of the united states that was actually caused by internal political issues also promised serious investment in the pro moscow control donbass region of eastern ukraine and expensive tasca usually funded by oil and gas sales but low prices have in recent years constrained

moscow's ability to make money that way sinegal al-jazeera the united kingdom and the european union have admitted there's been little progress during trade talks with just 2 weeks to go until the deadline for breakfast deal huge queues of trucks are forming outside the british port of dover which is the main trading route to mainland europe the government has warned thousands more could find themselves stacked up if customs declarations are not filled out correctly once britain leaves the single market you case chief negotiator david frost has described the situation with the e.u. as very serious it says progress is blocked. exactly 10 years ago a fruit seller in tunisia set himself on fire after a local official confiscated his barrow his act of despair inspired

a wave of demonstrations across the arab world known as the arab spring as populations rose up demanding democracy it took less than a month of nationwide protests before tunisia's president. ben ali fled on jerry the 14th 2011 the country held its 1st democratic election in october a lot that year egypt's anti-government protests began on january 25th 2011 long time president hosni mubarak resigned 18 days later the once banned muslim brotherhood won the 2012 election but was asked today year later in a military uprising led by current president of the fattah sisi yemenis took to the streets on january the 29th president ali abdullah saleh was hurt in an assassination attempt in july and ousted in 2012 hoofy rebels took advantage of the political vacuum he left seizing the capital in 2015 and sparking war with a saudi led coalition libyan protests began in february 20th levon but quickly

turned into an armed revolt against moammar gadhafi is 42 year rule he was captured and killed in october it is here in chaos the country split between western and eastern parliaments in 2014 only this year they agreed to work together protests spread through syria in march 20 levon the government responded with arrests and shootings war erupted in july allowing us all to seize a swathe of territory and impose its brutal rule in 2014. bennett smith reports now from the town of where it all began and where many say life was better before the revolution. but how much protest is commemorated every year in his hometown but this time there weren't many people here to see it in previous years this place would have been packed the locals have stayed away in protest because they say it is more deprived than it was

10 years ago. the reasons why people haven't come the 1st is coronavirus the 2nd is that people are angry promises of a new hospital a university and a bigger vegetable market haven't materialized but they've been on paper since 2011 with the official ceremony over the protesters moved in. memorial became their platform. why should i celebrate i didn't get anything from that if in the last 10 years what is there to celebrate maybe life was better before man because i want to scream at the government if you do not have any plans to develop the city please leave c. they will see it is marginalized. cafes are full of men with little to do and little illegal migration from tunis here to europe has increased 4 fold in the last 12 months. and i went to spain in 2014 while. here i work daily from. 15 do you know $6.00 it's not enough for cigarettes and

coffee in spain. it makes a difference but i got arrested and sent back. in 2010 they were shouting with one voice the people want the fall of the regime today the demands are more wide ranging. there are people demanding their constitutional right to work is on it graduates wanting jobs that match their qualifications lawyers demand. in a justice system free from corruption. this is the only official commemoration in see musea of the protest by muhammad who is easy that sets off the jasmine revolution that sparked demonstrations across this region 10 years old from the arab spring and the complaints we've heard today about jobs lack of opportunity and rising prices could be heard and perhaps any town any streets in the middle east bernard smith al-jazeera city visit. fiji is being hit by what was expected to be

the worst storm in its recorded history of government declared a state of emergency and a 14 hour national curfew after cycling yesa hit coastal areas with 95 percent of the population is in its direct path and everyone has been ordered to take cover yes is 250 kilometer an hour winds make it significantly more powerful than cycling winston which devastated the pacific island nation in 2016. children in the world's largest refugee camp and now have a brand new pair of friends nor and as these are the 1st ever reading the muppets designed by the makers of the us children series sesame street a part of the charitable play to learn program bringing educational videos to disadvantaged children worldwide in $400000.00 bringing the children currently housed in refugee camps in bangladesh after their families fled persecution in neighboring me and now. china's successful moon landing and return could be the 1st

step to even more ambitious astronomical plans chuang a capsule touchdown late on wednesday completing one of the most complex missions in china's space history to you ports from beijing. this was the moment a capsule carrying rock samples from the moon granted the earth's atmosphere the final stage of an ambitious unmanned mission the spacecraft touched down in china's northwestern province of in a mongolia at 2 am local time on wednesday within an hour recovery teams arrived at the site cordoning off the area in pitching up a chinese flag the capsule and its contents will be sent to beijing for analysis. the crew will inspect troubleshoot and measure the impact of the landing then the capsule will be hoisted and transported. 5 probes launched in late november the 1st attempt to retrieve lunar samples since

a russian mission 4 decades ago the spacecraft collected 2 kilograms of rocks from an area known as the ocean of storms scientists hope these will lead to new discoveries about the moon's origins and foundation chinese state media have described the mission as a national trial saying it will pave the way for chinese astronauts to walk on the moon within the next 20 years it is significant for china and a source of inspiration it's also a milestone in terms of chinese space exploration and provides a solid foundation for future moon exploration plans the little launch and landing would broadcast live technical failures during previous missions have caused the chinese government much embarrassment they doing has invested billions into research and development in hopes of becoming a major space power by 2045 but it still lags far behind the united states nasa has been banned from working with china due to security concerns for now dating is playing down any rivalry saying it intends to share the lunar samples with

scientists from around the world katrina you al-jazeera beijing there is only with support. thank you so much lauren or the head of european football has told al jazeera the u.a.e. for could be doing more to fight racism in the game but alexander chair friend says football it's more support from governments to help tackle the problem football is a reflection of society many times food was spectators coming. to watch football in principle they're very positive they're nice people they are not racists there's always a number of people who misuse football matches because of its impact of the reach to exercise these those. ideas. we are doing everything we can we are trying to educate the people we are punishing but we need help from the

government governments can see us if i should do something and that the same time they let. it happen in some countries without any any consequence so it's a big fight it's not an easy one but whoever says you are facing not doing anything or doesn't have a clue what you are face doing or has bad intentions i i can admit maybe we are not doing enough and we will try to do as much as we can but we are doing it we are dealing with it it's not easy to deal with it and we need governments to to join any of governments. out tolerating that kind of behavior then how can they expect us to police the police in their countries by nina can poland striker of 11 dusky has won the fee for best men's player award $11.00 bosky scored 55 goals last season has been want to trouble of trophies including the european champions league the winners are decided by a combination of votes from national team captains managers fans and the media

manchester city and england's lucy bronze was named best women's place. russia has had its ban from major sporting events reduced to 2 years after an appeal hearing the world anti-doping agency had given the country a 4 year penalty and $29.00 seem to want to believe the lab dates are handled 100 over russia during an investigation into state sponsored doping had been tampered with now despite the suspension being half by the court of arbitration for sport russia won't be able to be officially represented at next year's tokyo olympics all the 2022 football world cup in katsav this all began in 2014 when that german t.v. channel a r d reported on allegations of state backed doping in russia the following year russia's anti-doping agency was declared non compliance and world athletics banned russia's track and field athletes in 2016 grittier a chunk of the former director of anti doping in moscow detailed how he swapped dirty samples for clean ones as part of the diving plan and in 2018 there was some

russians were allowed to compete at the winter olympics and later that year the russian doping agency was reinstated but in 2019 that decision was reversed due to concerns that russian lab data had been manipulated this appeal verdict means russia will be officially banned from all major events until the end of 2020 suit but it's russian athletes will be able to compete under a neutral flag if they can prove their claim travis waldron writes about sport and politics for the huffington post he says the next olympics will still have a significant russian presence. the russian athletes for the most part are still going to be there and i believe the ruling today said that you can even say russia on their uniforms as long as it also says neutral or some other designation on it so we won't see the russian flags or hear russian anthem i suppose but for the most part it is going to be a lot like the rio olympics or past events where russia will be there will be marginally noticeable even if we're just kind of pretending that they're there or

not we're there facing some significant hundreds if wada can stop a scheme this large and this obviously corrupt and do this and do scale what does it say about their ability to stop this sort of doping that we know is rampant in others words that we know it's happened inside. olympic teams and olympic committees let including the united states that the 1st grand slam tennis tournaments of 2021 has been pushed back by 3 weeks to cry in a virus the australian open will now start in melbourne on february the 8th as they expected to arrive in australia on the 15th of january but they then have to go through a full team decor unseen parried on the local coronavirus rolls a 4 day men's qualifying event that's been made to cats in early january. not a great day for

a 4 time olympic sailing champion bene ainslie in his efforts win next year america's cup is any os team u.k. bugs plagued by technical problems and was forced to retire from its 2nd race in the america's cup world series in new zealand this is a preliminary competition to find out who to take on the defending champions the new zealand yacht squadron next year. and the woods name may yet dominates golf for a few years to come yet take a look at this swing from 11 year old charlie woods son of tiger the 15th time major champion is getting ready to play alongside charlie at a father and son of vents in florida look good. or right that is a sport looking for now let's get back to lauren in london andy thank you very much and that's it for me for this news out on the back out without a full run of late news in a couple of minutes you stay with us here. read

a book by a logic chemical agents heart radio weaponized throughout history a lot of water 1st heard its head when men started fighting developed by nation states there could be enough to affect every child. now within reach of those seeking caleb's comprising the most toxic substances the little. man made invisible thread on al jazeera it's the u.k.'s biggest hospital with eventual

capacity for 4000 covert 19 patients built inside a london conference center it took just 9 days to construct with the help of army engineers dramatically expanding the critical care bed count and other similar sites on the way the actual london numbers could be much higher than advertised researches say that huge gaps in testing capacity that the government is now trying to close extrapolate that across the country and the spread of corona virus appears far wider than anyone thought. what is that they've been doing with the money that it's boring we bring you the stories and developments that are rapidly changing the world we live in college and seen as congress is debating a bill seeking to raise billions of dollars for the super rich support families hit hard by that counting the cost on al-jazeera.

award winning documentaries from around the walls off. on algis. nigerian authorities say 344 school boys kidnapped 6 days ago have been released and are on their way home we'll be live in katsina state with the latest. on our intake of this is our jazeera live from london also coming up french president emmanuel macor tests positive for covert 19 sending more world.