i mean one of singapore's most beloved tradition it's famous straight story the fact he's one of the nice investigate focus. on al-jazeera context the. storytelling of the biggest issues. had to do you should do it again ready. hundreds of schoolboys abducted in nigeria freed after being kidnapped almost a week ago. hello i'm down in jordan this is our 0 live from doha also coming up a u.s. panel of medical experts puts forward its recommendation for madame is coronavirus vaccine paving the way for the f.d.a. to approve it for emergency use. computer software giant microsoft admits it's the

latest victim of a highly sophisticated hack by suspected russian operatives. and anger in argentina as economies in latin america see the worst drop in growth in more than a century. we 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 protestors are urging politicians to increase security while a large social media campaign labeled bring back our boys has been launched casino state governor says 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 are on their way to and now they said they have surrendered or that is with them so we will find out from. parents whether still some left like i said even the figure we gave was not to stick because we were looking at between city $32400.00 and now we have gotten $344.00 so we will know exactly about tomorrow but the boys were taken when gunmen thought to be linked to the armed group boko haram stormed a school in the northern city of katsina last friday hundreds of others scape before the kidnappers fled to forest hideout utility. that after we scaled the fence we were hearing voices saying that we should come back thinking they were police officers unknown to us it was the brain that they then give us to the spot

that was when we realized that would bend it's wearing military uniform. been walking for so long i was already exhausted from a sickle cell patients want to hold my friend shoulder on to my right here to my lift before i could continue the treacherous walk into the bush as the bandits continue to flow people from the bank so that they move faster. al-jazeera is often interests has this update from katsina state. we are told that they are moving in a convoy of vehicles ice courted by the military under tight security and they remember this is an area that for years has been suffering from attacks by bandits and kidnappers as well as robbers and other criminal criminal gangs that have been operating freely in this part of north in northern nigeria so what we expect early on we expected that they would be here by now however because of the long and dangerous roads we are told that we'll have to wait a little bit longer for them to arrive and when they arrive here in cuts in

a state they will be kept in a camp then doctors and nurses will be brought in to check them and then some debriefing as well before the president meets them i see prepares to leave the state of cats and back to he's been vacationing here for the last 7 days so i think what is going to happen is probably they won't the president may not meet them until probably later in the day because they're yet to arrive gets into as of now the equation added to this is of course the issue of boko haram we were told earlier and book has claimed responsibility of this attack and people are wondering what do the government gave you in return if not directly to boko haram at least to some of the bandits all the men who have been holding this children government for the time being is denying that there's been any payment of ransom or exchange of prisoners and there was no direct negotiations but what it looks like is that they

has been some form of negotiations between them what happened exactly we don't really know. is a nigerian affairs analyst and says there are big questions as to how the government is release. this is the president and i think a tricky position going forward going into the last election bihari categorically stated that he would refuse to negotiate with iran on the basis of them being an organization who don't want peace at the moment the key organization who have claimed this abduction of her arm that there is still a degree of confusion as to who is responsible or very shortly after the abduction and. the governor of the state in the set that he had entered into negotiations of the state entered into negotiations with the abductors and so the question remains at this point has the government's position shifted on the question of negotiation or is there some degree of division in the

government about whether or not to approach the question since instances like this of the significance of the northeast of the country is that the qur'an operations have been typically limited to so what we're seeing him if that is the case if they are responsible for this attack is a geographical spread which would be concerning. given the context of her arm having been declared by the government as having been defeated 5 years ago. so it seems to be a case of flexing might and sharing an increased amount of strength and also confidence and that raises concerns for people who are interested in or have a stake in the security of the north and the region in my area. a panel of experts advising the u.s. food and drug administration has recommended the emergency use of a 2nd coronavirus vaccine the committee endorsed the modernity vaccine one week

after backing the pfizer biotech one 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. registered a double record of both deaths and infections in a single day a white house correspondent can really help it has more. once the f.d.a. commissioner gives his approval which is expected on friday now that this recommendation is come out of the panel what we expect is that the c.d.c. director will sign off on this and distribution for this 2nd vaccine the madeira one will begin on monday of course a week ago it was the fives or vaccine that is already being administered to millions of americans what we expect with the 2nd vaccine is that this will provide about 50000000 doses that means that about 25000000 americans will be able to get the vaccine frontline workers the elderly those with immune disorders are the ones that have been getting the priority so far what we're expecting though is

a venture a leave by mid 2021 as many as 150000000 americans will be vaccinated by that time at least that's the goal in the timeline and it couldn't come soon enough because the country is in a 3rd wave of infections right now breaking records in terms of deaths in terms of infections in terms of hospitalizations this is all result of the thanksgiving holiday many americans chose to travel even a little they were told not to and this is why we're seeing the spike and the worry is that with christmas christmas and new years this is only going to get worse and very quickly we should point out as we're getting the news about this 2nd vaccine there is some hesitancy in the united states about taking the vaccine that's all we know the vice president mike pence will likely be getting it later this week publicly on camera to show americans he believes it's safe and we just heard that mitch mcconnell the top republican in the u.s. senate may be getting in the coming days as well. the french president among your

macro has become the latest world leader to test positive for covert 19 he's cancelled a forthcoming trip to lebanon cornton for 7 days across office says it's not known where he got the virus the prime ministers of spain portugal and belgium and the european council's president say they are now going into quarantine after meeting the french leader earlier this week from a putin says he's happy to take russia's coronavirus vaccine and has dismissed allegations he ordered the poisoning of opposition leader alexina valmy the russian president was speaking at his annual news conference which was held at his private home in moscow because of the pandemic some of the lego has more. the annual presidential press conference with a marked difference it is always american events lasting 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. to look at the vaccine as they go into 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 alexi never only while refusing to use novell in these name putting 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 command 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. russian hackers 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 sunny diagonal al-jazeera. time for short break or not as iraq when we come back why diplomatic efforts to end syria's war still brings us crazy 5 years after the un tried forging a path to peace. and 10 years after the fruit seller certain sounds on fire triggering what the game known as the arab spring tennesseans are still adjusting stay with us. hello the weather looks slightly fallen truck was a good part of the middle east but some places the cloud and rain into were pushing across the coaxes over parts of iraq could see somewhere. whether you can follow that lot of cloud and right is the west of iran just sliding across saudi arabia will central areas of the a red sea finance right here in concert national day 24 celsius light winds

possibility of some early morning mist and fog things freshen up as we go on into saturday a similar temperature but the breeze will prevent any mist all folk problems at that stage scattering of showers across iran scattering of showers to just around the gulf of aden and want to show us do make their way into northern parts of somalia so just around the horn of africa you could see some wet weather here as we go through the next day. central parts of africa plenty of showers here all the way over towards the gulf of guinea big downpours there into calmer and into good bomb as showers making their way down into angola follow the showers down the rift valley and they do extend across as zambia pushing into was in bob way central and southern parts of say in some lively showers the on the wealthiest of south africa also seeing some wet weather but the showers do intensify the southern pass the miami.

and the porous suburbs of 3 european cities community tensions often reveal a shot of cultural divides but they feel they have no future in our science lines as discrimination is their real problem universal al-jazeera will meet some of those struggling with racism radicalization and life on the margins detroit told this young man a week from d.c. than they were to stitch the other piece of gear up on al-jazeera. the roof. or. welcome back a quick recap of our top stories here at this hour more than 300 school boys

abducted by an armed group in nigeria last week of been released gunmen stormed the school in the northwestern city of katsina last friday there's been increasing pressure on the government to improve security. a panel of experts advising the u.s. food and drug administration has recommended the approval of a 2nd coronavirus vaccine the medina vaccine could be authorized for emergency use by early as friday. and russian president vladimir putin has held his annual news conference he says he's happy to take the locally developed vaccine and dismiss claims he ordered the poisoning of opposition figures alexy about. now it's been 5 years since the un security council adopted a resolution meant to pave the path to a political solution in syria european diplomats are told out as era they're growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress they believe the government has deliberately storing in hopes of a change in washington syria policy our diplomatic editor james bays reports.

2015 was arguably the year that changed the course of the war in syria russia got involved militarily films from its jets changing the fall choose of the assad regime. earlier in the war according to international inspectors the regime of used chemical weapons on number of occasions a red line had been crossed with the us leader president obama did not act in response to a growing crisis the international community came together unanimously around the un security council resolution that's been quoted by world leaders ever since with the united nations resolution $2254.00 times the security council resolution $2250.00. resolution 20 to 54 did on his edition of anderson on the dummy can rid us of the fancy him from fitness when. it was supposed to deliver

a cease fire and peace talks in reality though december 25th is when russia took the upper hand diplomatically with the rest of the world taking a backseat. with both turkey and iran russia organized the new peace process in a stan and sochi it didn't lead to peace areas declared safe zones were retaken by a sad helped by russian bombardment break 2 u.n. envoy has continued to work diligently trying to pursue talks but the latest effort setting up a committee to draw up a new constitution for syria to become bogged down many suspect this was russia and the sides plan all along it is increasingly apparent that the assad regime is the writing the committee's work time as it prepares to carry out a presidential election in 2021 and washed its hands of the u.n. that would take a political process let's be honest of them nearly a decade of conflict the political process has not delivered for the syrian people

and they continue to suffer deeply oh inside an old side syria. only a political solution to end this suffering historians judge russia's diplomacy over this period is both cynical and a masterful they've used their power in syria and their veto power in the security council to change the course of the war for the assad government they now could be less concerned about the international dynamics of the situation but they must be deeply worried about things inside syria the economy is now rock bottom their own supporters are increasingly unhappy they may have almost won the war but they risk losing the peace before it even starts james al-jazeera at the united nations. u.s. president donald trump spoke with king solomon of saudi arabia on thursday white house statements as the 2 discussed regional security issues including the gulf

blockade on qatar the statement says trump thanked king salmon for his leadership and expressed his optimism towards resolving the gulf rift the blockade imposed by saudi arabia the u.a.e. in egypt has been in place against cutoff for 3 years. the united states is set to have its 1st native american cabinet secretary after president-elect joe biden's latest nomination hollandaise biden's pick for interior secretary the 60 year old is in her 1st term as a democratic congresswoman for new mexico she'll head a department that's previously had an uneasy relationship with native americans over environmental issues biden has also nominated a former 2 term governor of michigan as the energy secretary jennifer granholm has been an advisor on clean energy programs and is expected to be progressive on climate policy. u.s. government agencies are rushing to tighten their computer security after confirming they've been hit in a long running and sophisticated hacking operation the attackers are suspected to

be linked to russia the u.s. energy defense state and homeland security departments were 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 the software giant microsoft was also hit an f.b.i. investigation is now underway president elect joe biden his transition team believes the statement saying they'll make cyber security a top priority and punish those responsible for the attack well richard stanton is chief research analyst for i.t. harvest he says that is extremely serious 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 2000 or buckshot yankee in 2008 that the defense department viewed as a wake up call and eventually led to the creation of u.s. saber 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 it deserves and that this will be viewed as one of the most serious attacks ever. in the fact that it was so surreptitiously deployed through a 3rd party through a you know software vendor that was in hundreds of thousands of companies even though we claim only $800000.00 were impacted now we just suffer from microsoft that 40 of their customers. have indications that they've been impacted and interestingly enough the government agencies are the biggest representation in that 40 other tech companies are so we can look to future types of attacks of file the same wrote through a 3rd party so now everyone has start worrying about their supply chain. members of one of america's richest families have been grilled by congress about their role in fueling the opioid crisis the sockless owners of pharma makers of the highly

addictive painkiller oxycontin last month the firm pleaded guilty to illegally pushing the drug but the settlement with the u.s. department of justice freed them from criminal liability out of the castro reforms i'm not sure that i'm aware of any family in america that's more evil in your words some members of congress didn't mince words toward david and cathy sackler cousins and former board members of purdue pharma the company whose oxycontin pill helped to fuel the opioid epidemic that's claimed the lives of nearly half a 1000000 americans the to sack lawyers declined to take responsibility for their families role in the crisis there is nothing that i can find that i would have done differently based on what i believed them understood then. oh i believe oh i conducted myself. out there and i believe the record will

demonstrate i still feel absolutely terrible last month produced pharma pled guilty to 3 felonies including paying doctors to overprescribe oxycontin and defrauding investigators the sackler family walked away without criminal charges but agreed to give up ownership of the company and pay $225000000.00 in civil penalties that's only 2 percent of the sackler is net worth meanwhile pharma is now pursuing bankruptcy protections that could shield it from paying out billions to victims. to say well it appears to me as family i mean it's going to use the bankruptcy process to get out of the u.s. and dick cheney to be one of the wealthiest families while the federal case against the sackler family and purdue pharma is settled nearly every us state has filed its

own lawsuit and the house oversight committee continues its investigation with bipartisan support families of young people who died of overdoses shared their stories the damage and the pain in the grief in life long and purdue pharma and the seculars need to be held accountable for what they've done to our family and countless other families company documents show the sackless push to drive up oxycontin sales while knowing of the drugs potential for abuse that in the eyes of the victims' families make the sackless drug dealers they say who got away with murder. castro al-jazeera washington. latin american 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 that's a figure representing mass job losses and business is shutting down dental sharman 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 crowded 19 pandemic so any green of good news is welcome when grim new statistics are announced. so i know that 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 forecast. 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 and social organizations have already taken to the streets on thursday alone we call the 2 demonstrations within walking distance of the el to 0 office. what we'd like is health to be

a priority especially in this pandemic and this in a country where 50 percent of children are poor and need public hospitals it would be an increase to make the health system work along with the pay so hitting an all time low against the u.s. dollar it's inflation that bites into workers' wages argentina has one of the worst rates in the walls more than 30 percent this year forecast to be even higher next year you know more of 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 alberto often and this took office just weeks before the pandemic arrived he said from the start to put the nation's health before the economy with the russian sputnik 5 vaccine due to arrive next week the economy hasn't gone away. protests like this noisy and colorful ermac in the feature of everyday life in

argentina with the covered nights he. puts it on there will be lucky to make 3. out of. 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. now 10 years ago a fruit seller in tunisia set himself on fire in a desperate and fatal act of protest by mad was easy actions tapped into frustrations and fury at home and across the region leading to what became known as

the arab spring went to newseum managed to transition into democracy but many say things have become worse al-jazeera is burning smith is there. 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 there's 2 reasons why people haven't come the 1st is coronavirus the 2nd is that people are rang gree 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 it was 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 seat is marginalised. cafes are full of men with little to do and little illegal migration from tunisia to europe has increased 4 fold in the last 12 months . and i went to spain in 2014. because there are no opportunities here i work daily from am to 2 pm to earn $156.00 it's not enough for cigarettes and coffee in spain well you know 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 demanding

a justice system free from corruption. this is the only official commemoration in tunisia of the protest by muhammad who is easy that sets off the jasmine revolution that sparked demonstrations across this region 10 years on form the arab spring and the complaints we've heard today about the jobs lack of opportunity and rising prices could be heard and perhaps any town and perhaps any street in the middle east. burnitz may al-jazeera city busy. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera 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 katsina last friday there's been increasing pressure on the government to improve security they have so far. given 340. schoolchildren later we also and as for have

joined so we have to live through how.