global pandemic could lead to positive change. or fix for him. all hail the lockdown exposes privilege and poverty during a crisis on a. and i thought he said it more than 300 school boys who were kidnapped almost a week ago have now been freed. hello i'm adrian from again this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up a u.s. panel of medical experts puts forward its recommendation for the corona virus vaccine paving the way for the f.d.a. to approve it for emergency use. a back handed apology from the u.s. company blamed for fueling the deadly opioid crisis. and computer software giant

microsoft admits that it's the latest victim of a highly sophisticated hack by suspected russian operatives. to begin with news of the release of hundreds of school boys kidnapped by an armed group in nigeria 6 days ago the government under mounting pressure over its handling of the crisis has been negotiating for their release protesters politicians to increase security while the large social media campaign labeled bring back our boys has been launched at ciena state government says that it's not yet clear if all of the schoolboys have been freed. we have so far. given 340. schoolchildren later on we also understand 4 have joined so we have to leave 344. children that

we need to cut and now they have surrendered or that is with them so we will find out from. parts. still some left like i said even the figure we gave was not to stick because we were looking at doing city $30.00 to $400.00 and now we have gotten $344.00 so we will know exactly about tomorrow the boys were taken when government thought to be linked to boko haram stormed a school in the northern city of kut sida last friday hundreds of others managed to escape before the kidnappers fled to a forest hideout utility. 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 bandits they then give us a spot that was when we realised that would 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 at the to my lift before i could continue the treacherous walk into the bush as the bennetts continued to float people from the bank so that they move faster. an update now from the series of addresses in cut scene est. a roll call will now have to be med and contact tracing will be mad to find out exactly if all boys or missing boys are fully accounted for now the focus now is to get those 344 from neighboring zamfara state where they were taken and they were released to cats in a state earlier we were told that they should be here in the next one hour or one and a half but there are some issues protocols that needs to be followed then we understand that they could take a longer time to get back to cats in a state while the governor said there will be camped in a particular location

a team of doctors and nurses to look after their health the president is expected to meet them before he flies out to remember the president has been vacationing yeah for the last 6 or 7 days so he wants to meet them before he leaves or he's already put out a statement expressing his happiness about the release of these children and then later on we'll have the parents coming into cats in itself to look after to meet their children a panel of experts advise in the u.s. food and drug administration as recommended the emergency use of a 2nd coronavirus vaccine the committee endorsed the madonna vaccine a week after backing the fight is a big u.n. tech jab which is currently being administered across the u.s. the f.d.a. is expected to grant its emergency use as early as late thursday or friday that's out of the u.s. we're just a double record of both deaths and infections in a single day for more let's go live to washington our white house correspondent

kimberly hellcats is there kimberly how fast can this vaccine both be rolled out once the f.d.a. gives its seal of approval. pretty quickly because after that it would be the c.d.c. director that would sign off and at that point distribution can begin and we expect that we could see that signed off from the c.d.c. by the end of the weekend meaning that monday the modernity vaccine could begin to be distributed we know that already there are 50000000 doses on standby waiting for that approval that would account for about 25000000 people because there are 2 doses of this being covered and we know that will be health care workers as well as the care home facilities that will be the 1st in line we've already seen this already getting underway with the pfizer vaccine that was approved late last week so this is certainly a hopeful sign at a moment when america really needs it given the fact that it's breaking records it

doesn't want to break when it comes to not only infections but also deaths and hospitalizations and the reason for this is because of the thanksgiving holiday it was expected there would be this 3rd wave despite given that millions of americans traveled many shunned the public health advice of wearing a mask and so the fear is with the christmas and new year's holidays around the corner that there is going to be a spike yet again so many people feeling hopeful about the news about the vaccine but at the same time there is also wariness some feeling that they can't trust the science that's why we see public health officials but also high profile officials like the vice president of the united states saying he will take the vaccine likely very soon in the coming days possibly on camera to ensure confidence and to promote confidence and we're hearing now that the top republican in the senate mitch mcconnell is expecting to do the same

a wiser as correspondent committee how could reporting from washington committee many thanks. france's president of money oh mccrone has tested positive for covert 19 that is self isolating off to developing symptoms he's canceled a forthcoming trip to lebanon and will quarantine for 7 days across office says that it's not where he got the virus but tasha butler reports from paris. the french president looked tired but relaxed as he hosted a video called friends with several charities the meeting came only hours after the release a palace announced that emanuel macro had tested positive for the convict 19 the 42 year old leader plans to keep working during his 7 days of isolation but he will not. he will honor his appointment but with even more caution than is usual for the president since the start of the pandemic in public micro was 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 and tony acosta and spanish premier petra sanchez who are now self isolating in france the prime minister and macros wife bridges are in quarantine several members of the government and president's party up being tested it is clear that the message from the me is that it is useless as usual unless michael's condition deteriorates he won't show it throughout his isolation there is that this doesn't change anything and. it's not the big deal that's what there is a disease trying to say but they're not saying what are the symptoms that the president has had we know that he was tested after showing symptoms and 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 united states is set to have its 1st native american cabinet secretary after president elect joe biden's latest nomination ted hollande despite his pick for interior secretary a 60 year old is in a fast as a democratic congresswoman from new mexico she'll head a department that's previously had an uneasy relationship with base of americans over environmental issues chaper tansey has more now from joe biden's hometown of wilmington delaware if he is confirmed she will be the 1st native american cabinet secretary and not just any cabinet department the department of the interior the battles between indigenous indigenous tribes here and the development here isn't just about oil and gas all of that's and natural resources as has been quite clear

in recent years if the department of interior which has within it the bureau of indian affairs which has been responsible for the destruction of native america over the last couple of 100 couple of 100 years now the idea of a native american woman in charge of that the public at least nominally is symbolically is astonishing and the fact that she would be in trouble draws a big swathe of the north american continent and trials of the public lands the natural resources the wildlife the water this is this is enormous that's not to say that joe biden hasn't also nominated various people in his cabinet who are very close to the oil and gas industry and you know you know there will be there will be battles that have but at least now there is real substantial diversity in the cabinet nominations from joe biden and not only that but he sounded just on wednesday the key progressive senator that said he hadn't seen one progressive nomination yet from joe biden now there is 15 he's also nominated

a form a 2 time governor of michigan as energy secretary jennifer granholm has been an adviser on clean energy programs that is expected to be progressive on climate policy. a weather update next he announces 0 then anjan tinian to express their frustration as their crippled economy continues to suffer from the financial effects of the pandemic. 10 years after a fruit seller set himself on fire triggering what became known as the arab spring in june is ins are still protesting. how i was going to snap my old week for japan and i'm afraid there is more snow in the forecast and say how the cloud is lined up in street says it's where you can

see from the orientation of the i suppose those winds coming from the northwest down towards the southeast across the sea of japan and that's been fading a lot of snow in across the area over the past few days some pasta seen as much as 2 meters of snow this is said there is more snow in the forecast we're going to see that cold air continue to push that sea effect snow in across northern and western parts of the country then there we go still more snow flurries there for friday friday that's not something of a rest by the worst of the conditions across the western side of honshu maybe up towards colorado as well as a little more widespread as we go on into saturday sheltered by the mountain since he too much of that in tokyo temperatures here at around 10 celsius behind that cold enough to be just hovering couple degrees other side of freezing for seoul and also for beijing further south it's all about the rain some very heavy rain pushing into southern parts of the philippines at the moment as we go on through friday possibility of flooding rains coming through here as we go on into saturday that

wetter weather will intensify to the north for india more heavy downpours to the south. following 2 fatal crashes in the past year boeing decided to brown the brand new 7 to 7 bags but this wasn't the 1st time that grounded a new aircraft back in 2013 the 77 dreamliner ran into trouble when the battery caught fire but as al-jazeera as an investigative unit discovered there was more to the problem than just smoking batteries. rewind broken during the boeing 787 on al-jazeera.

hello again this is al jazeera let's remind you of the main news this hour more than 300 school boys who were abducted by an armed group in nigeria last week have been released gunmen stormed the school in the northwestern city of kut scene the last friday there's been increasing pressure on the government to improve security . panel of experts advising the u.s. food and drug administration has recommended the approval of a 2nd coronavirus facts seen the madonna vaccine could be all the rise for emergency use by late thursday or friday. france's president of mario mccall has become the latest world leaders test positive for coated 19 several other european leaders have entered isolation because of contact with michael in recent days. u.s. government agencies are rushing to tighten their computer security after confirming

that they have been hit in a long running and sophisticated hacking operation the attackers a suspected to be linked to russia they reportedly pierced cyber defenses that accessed e-mail and internal files at the treasury and commerce departments as well as computer giant microsoft. the u.s. energy defense state and homeland security departments were also all breached to some degree the administration that manages the country's nuclear weapons was also targeted however it's not just government agencies either software giant microsoft as we said was also hit and f.b.i. investigation is ongoing to find those responsible president elect joe biden is transition team has released a statement saying that they'll impose substantial costs on those responsible and that cyber security under his administration will be a top priority richard steyn and is a chief research analyst for the i.t. harvest he joins us now live via skype from birmingham in the usas of michigan good

to have you with us again richard put this in to be here for us how serious a security threat is this how damaging is this breach. extremely serious and if you look at the history of these types of attacks attributed to nation states you know you can go back to taking rain in the early to thousands or buckshot yankee in 2008 that the defense department viewed as a wake up call and eventually led to the creation of u.s. cyber command this is being viewed as a wake up call which is unfortunate because we should be awake at this point but i think everybody's treating it with the seriousness that it deserves and that this will be viewed as one of the most serious attacks ever. in the fact that it was so those arab tissues silly deployed through a 3rd party through you know software vendor that moore's in hundreds of thousands

of companies even though a claim only $18000.00 were impacted we just saw from microsoft that 40 of their customers in the care have indications that they've been impacted and interestingly enough government agencies are the biggest representation in that 40 other tech companies are so weak it looks to future types of attacks of follow the same road through a 3rd party so now everyone has start worrying about their supply chain the department of homeland security has issued detail guidance for just how do impacted organizations government departments clean their systems now and and how do they continue to work when it's being done. yeah they know what to look for they've got indicators that will tell them if they were a victim of the initial attack the trouble is that taxpayers could wipe that evidence once a year establish a foothold. the. government agency overseeing mees

warnings that they're putting out is telling people use out of band communication because the attackers are still there in the texture of going so if you're discussing measures to get them out of your network you don't want them spying on what you're saying in your email conversations or assume calls to do that for children has talked to you many thanks indeed for being with us rich staying on that always a pleasure. russia's president vladimir putin held a media conference on thursday but made no mention of claims by the us that moscow was involved in that hacking of american government computers putin did deny that russian hackers ever meddled in the 2016 u.s. election when asked about his future plans he said that he's yet to decide whether he'll want to get in for president in 2024 the russian president also dismissed a report alleging that security forces were behind the poisoning of the opposition activists alexina valmy. it's not

a report it's the legitimization of materials from the american special services and the army has the support of the american special services and if it's true it's quite interesting that this does not at all mean that it is necessary to poison who needs him if the russians special services had wanted to fatally poison him they would have finished the job u.s. president on the trumpet spoken with king solomon been the lizzie's all solid of saudi arabia a white house statement says the 2 discussed regional security issues including the gulf blockaded cata a statement says the trump thanked king solomon phase leadership and expressed his optimism towards resolving the gulf rift the blockade imposed by saudi arabia the u.a.e. bahrain and egypt has been in place against cata for 3 years the owners of the company blamed for fueling the opioid crisis in the u.s. of apologized before a congressional committee for suffering course but they refused to take responsibility telling members that nothing could have been done differently subtle

a family owns produce 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 prevent it from entering the black market. over the years oxycontin has been on the market producer work to reduce the risk of addiction and abuse in a number of ways. in the past 20 years produce spent more than a $1000000000.00 on anti abuse diversion initiatives produce instituted what i understand was the 1st voluntary abuse and aversion to touching program in 2002 this program was expanded and endorsed by various state governments who later required producer to keep the program in place and i understand it was used as a model for at least one other reforms to company to follow their peer at crisis is devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of people almost half

a 1000000 deaths have been linked to the abuse of the painkillers john hendren it's been meeting some of the victims in chicago tim ryan with 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 back 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 od it 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 cut me to the room right next to where we were and i walked in there. indices. mike's one year old son is called bluey lifeless body just lying there with us as she talked to us shasta is still have the device in a smile for they were trying to ask write him i mean tears just started slowing down now with his wife former supermodel jennifer jimenez he helps former addicts through their substance abuse program to hope often users begin with legally prescribed painkillers 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're made 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 where there's city be more challenging time recovering because the 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 $634000000.00 in fines and pleaded guilty to contributing to thousands of opioid deaths now surging is the pandemic drives many back to drugs they need purpose and connection they need a 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. before which is even president concept was suki has told of 0 that he's proud of the progress made in creating a democratic government in the country suki oversaw to his years transition to democracy but he assumed office shortly after the arab spring revolution under serious jamal shall spoke at length with zuki i began by asking him about the legacy of the uprisings 10 years later. 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

a 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 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 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 tunisia 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 that pollute 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 out 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 ferocious situation and you can see that interview with nonsupport suki the former president in full in a special the arab spring 10 years on which as 1st saturday oh for 30 hours g.m.t. . the european parliament has voted against imposing sanctions targeting egypt's government but a resolution did raise concerns over egypt's human rights record among other topics and condemned the kidnapping torture and killing of the italian research regime me in cairo in $26.00 team last an american nations at economies have taken a battering recording their worst drop in growth for more than a century the pandemic is the main cause of the overall 7 percent drop

a figure representing mass job losses and businesses shutting down to reports now from argentina one of the worst hit countries in the region. the economies of latin america and the caribbean have been hit particularly hard by the cobbett 1900 pandemic so any grain of good news is welcome when grim new statistics are announced. so. our figures are negative all negative it doesn't mean that we are much better off than we were in july but the drops are a little lower than full cost. those statistics still translate into tens of thousands of businesses closing growing unemployment poverty and homelessness. but it's bad in latin america it's even worse in argentina the economy here is shrinking by 10 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2020 workers in social organizations have already taken to the streets on thursday alone we covered 2 demonstrations

within walking distance of the elders here office. what we'd like is health to be a priority especially in this pandemic year and this in a country where 50 percent of children are poor and need public hospitals that would be an increase to make the health system work. along with the peso hitting an all time low against the us dollar it's inflation that bites into workers' wages argentina has one of the worst rates in the world more than 30 percent this year forecast to be even higher next year you know. the. we've been saying on all our marches when the workers lose through inflation it's not because that money is disappearing it's because someone is profiting with what should be ours and the rest of the workers'. president. took office just weeks before the pandemic arrived he said from the start to put the nation's health before the economy but with the russian sputnik 5 vaccine due to arrive next week the economy hasn't gone

away. protests like this call for her making up. with. him but i think. there will be like 3 i. think. the question is always where the money's going to come from argentina is one of the world's leading grain produces but the industry has been paralyzed as a strike by workers demanding a wage increase enters its 2nd week. part of a growing demand from workers across argentina and the rest of latin america they don't want to emerge from the pandemic worse off than they went into an. al-jazeera one of cyrus winds of up to 285 kilometers have been lashing fiji as cycling yasser batters the pacific island nation a slow moving category 5 storm landed on thursday evening bringing torrential rain

and widespread flooding it's one of the southern hemispheres most intense tropical cyclones on rec ord. frank embody is blaming the storm on climate change. japan has deployed its military to help people trapped by record snow fall which is up to 2 meters deep in some places thousands of vehicles are stuck and power has been cut off to more than 10000 homes in northern and central japan and more heavy snow is forecast over the weekend. it's good to have you with us hello adrian finnegan here in doha the headlines from outside syria more than 300 school boys abducted by an armed group in nigeria last week have been released gunmen stormed the school in the northwestern city of can see that last friday there's been increasing pressure on the government to improve security they have so far.