how does. a new strain of corona virus in the u.k. forces millions of people to be placed under a strict lockdown just before christmas. i know there are a kyle this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up with more than 1300000 confirmed cases mexico starts a new lockdown in an attempt to limit covert 19. u.s. president donald trump contradicts his secretary of state over the impact of a vast cyber security breach. and election unrest in the central african republic

the former president is accused of attempting a coup u.n. peacekeepers are put on high alert. we begin in the u.k. where emergency talks about a new strain of corona virus have led to a further tightening of restrictions a higher tier of lockdown is now in effect across london and south east england where a viral mutation is responsible for a surge in cases that's filling up hospital wards the government is also backtracking on easing restrictions for the christmas holidays the chief medical officer for england chris where he says the mutated strain is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original though it's not thought to be more deadly and vaccine should still be effective right chalons starts us off with this reports for days scientists and opposition politicians have been saying it's the government

shouldn't be letting so many english households mix over christmas on saturday boris johnson relented it is with a very heavy heart i must tell you we cannot continue with christmas as planned. by new coronavirus variance with spreading alarmingly in london and the southeast he said adding that the world health organization had been alerted to the mutant strain it's 70 percent more transmissible and a new 4th tier of restrictions is needed residence in those areas most stay at home apart from limited exemptions that are in law. non-essential retail indoor gyms and leisure facilities and personal care services was close individuals can only meet one person from another household in outdoor public space their skull was just days ago boris johnson mocked his opposition rival kier starmer for questioning why restrictions were being eased for christmas and if he really is going to press

ahead with this can he tell us what's the assessment and has it been done of the impact that it will have on infection rates and increased pressure on the n.h.s. what's the impact. mr speaker we should have the guts just to say what he really wants to do which is to cancel the plans people have made and cancel cancel christmas that's really that's what i think that's what he's driving at this is because london has gone from tear to tear for a no family christmas in just 4 days in parts of england in lower it is allowing 3 households to mix for 5 days is being reduced to just christmas day itself scotland's 1st minister says her country is allowing only one day of mixing to and is essentially pulling up the drawbridge if you had people travelling to join you for christmas from in sweden and that will no longer be permitted equally it will no longer be permitted for any advise to travel to anywhere in the rest of the u.k.

for christmas we simply cannot take the risk of this stream travelling from different parts of the. part it's not just the united kingdom other european countries are tightening restrictions too among them italy has announced a new national lockdown over most of the holidays it's a lead germany france and 5 other e.u. states are coordinating the start of their covert vaccinations it's this italy's prime minister says that signals the nightmare is about to end rory chalons al-jazeera london. dennis nash is a distinguished professor of epidemiology at the city university of new york school of public health he says new strains will not alter the explanation plans them what needs to be learned about the mutation i don't think it changed that changes the role of the vaccine by any means the new vaccines are protective against all of the sars kovi 2 strains that are in circulation now and some of which have also mutated from the original one strain and so we don't have any reason to think that this

mutation will allow the virus to evade the new vaccines and i for one i'm eagerly waiting my opportunity to be vaccinated one day soon i think we don't know yet we it's not as i said it's not uncommon for viruses to mutate during pandemic spread sometimes these mutations change the virus behavior they can become more or less transmissible more or less virulent or you. know cause more or less likely to cause severe symptoms usually not both of these things at once and a new advantage and one of these attributes usually comes at the expense of the other but i don't think we know the details yet and there's a lot more to learn and it's great that the u.k. is looking so closely and monitoring these aspects of the virus it's really important to make these cuts materially quickly. and so hopefully we'll be knowing more in the next few days. thousands of people in mexico's capsule have ignored oldest to return to lock down to the spread of the current a virus the streets of mexico city appeared to be business as usual on saturday

despite orders for but essential services to clay's newest actions will be in place for 3 weeks but aren't being strictly policed i suppose recording with 1300000 infections and about 117000 deaths as being relevant says he's a professor at the national thomas university of x. and joins us live via skype from mexico city good to have you with us what exactly are the restrictions that are in place and all that being enforced a toll. yeah here in mexico and they were in the clearly in the lock down in mexico city and in the northern state of california and the border with california and the usa this slowdown is very strict because the people in mexico in this christmas season is going to the streets to to to acquire many many things gives presents and said to. the program in mexico is many people is very

poor and they kept their jobs in the street and they were made as many promise to control these people in the streets this is the big problem to the mexican authorities found for them mexico's he made your own but if they're not being policed how they expect people to abide by the rules yes the people don't respect the rules because of the kind of surveillance issue because. the people don't have formal salaries don't have good salaries they have to go to the streets to sell things things in the mexican economy constructor is very different than the european or the u.s. conditions and the people cannot stay calm for many days because of this this a lockdown if only for 10 or 15 days and they weren't cannot put more more of

their ace the rope down and in january they will open no it again. just how bad is the situation in mexico you got a lot of cases but how are the hospitals coping. well the big crisis is at the hospitals because the hospitals are in 80 or 90 percent of. the equipment it is is nothing in any in working mean and the whole capacity right now the army taking control of the streets near the hospitals protecting their facilities protecting the. person a lot of the personnel in the streets this is a very worse issue and for these routes on them the mexico city authorities want to keep the people in their homes and they don't want to for the 24 in the night to to go to the all the places of the house houses or with relatives etc but the danger

of the. rather difficult situation that mexico city. now thank you very much. thanks to. all columbia has a law agreements with follow suit coal companies pfizer and astra zeneca provides 20000000 doses of 1000 vaccines and 2021 the 1st could arrive by february as the country passes a death toll of 40000 and the number of infections on the rise once again. its usefulness might be debatable but some business owners in colombia capital are going to the extreme of mass spraying this infected people to control the spread of corona as crowds strong malls and streets for the holiday season. health officials are also worried cases of up in recent weeks. stepped up their

testing campaigns in parks streets and plazas urban. people have totally lowered their guard a seat among my friends and this is very worrying the news on t.v. and i fear what's been happening in europe and the us will be even worse here if we don't protect ourselves. just surpassed 40001000 deaths and on friday reached a new record for daily confirmed cases as people gather in increasing numbers ahead of the christmas holidays intensive care units are again reaching full capacity in a number of provinces' from. a year in local authorities are announcing new restrictions on restaurants and bars and imposing curfews but there's a silver lining the government has announced a deal with pharmaceutical companies pfizer and astra zeneca to provide $20000000.00 doses of coby in 1000 vaccines in 2021 another 20000000 could arrive

through the kovacs mechanism geared toward helping less wealthy countries. our goals as designed with kovacs and the pharmaceutical companies is that for the 1st weeks of 2020. we will be starting the process of mass vaccination. but the spike the optimistic announcement the plan is to back soon it only 2000000 people in the 1st trimester of next year starting with health care workers and those with preexisting conditions were true mass vaccinations still far away some medical experts believe the country remains ill prepared to face many more months of new cases and that's the moment the place where your demented body ever hear many regions already in an alarming situation and a health system with very limited capacity it's true that there's been an increase in a number of i.c.'s in the country from 530211000 but that doesn't mean that we're able to attend to all patients that these new units have been fitted properly we lack

provision medicines and doctors the government should return to more drastic restrictive measures. but for now many colombian seem more interested in celebrating the season and their liberties while the lasts even if the hangover could be deadly i listen to them and just you know but what that. still has here on al-jazeera it's been 2 years since an uprising in sudan led to the level of its president and. the streets still filled with protesters. and we have had the gambling center of macau as it marks 21 years of return to chinese control . how i once again we've got more wet weather pushing across central parts of the u.s. extending up into central kind of the here it is of coasts further race where we've

had our latest batch a snow that's in the process of pulling away we have got a clear skies coming in behind for a toggle area of high pressure here but this is the offending feature this cold front that's gathering that's making its way further east was snipe back over towards pennsylvania towards well upstate new york into new england into that eastern side of kind of that some heavy rain there for a time you see just around the mid atlantic states clear skies kwacha weather coming into central parts by sunday some snow there just around on terry and it's her best scotch want more in the way of snow also just fading up into the northwest of the u.s. around the pacific northwest into that western side of canada where we'll also see some rather heavy rain for a time that snow will make its way across the mountain states most lake effect snow there you notice over towards the midwest to the south of that things drawing up quite nicely in this drought quite nicely now across the cabin plenty of sunshine

coming through that will be oddities showers it has to be said just about anywhere you could catch a shower with 2 showers perhaps a little more alive if it's on sunday but drop by monday. and. what is that they've been doing with the money that it's boring we bring you the stories and developments to dramatically changing the world i'm leaving college and seen as congress is debating a bill seeking to raise millions of dollars for the super rich poor families hit hard by the damage counting on al-jazeera. play an important role.

hello again you're with al-jazeera has a reminder of our top stories this hour bush prime minister boris johnson has announced new restrictions in london and south east england non-essential shops allan's and indoor venues are closing the government's also backtracked on easing some restrictions for the christmas holiday. the tougher rules are in response to the discovery of a new strain of corona virus is up to 70 percent more infectious feeling the spike in england's hospitalization rays is not thought to be deadlier than the original. and thousands of people in mexico's capital have ignored orders to return to look down to curb the spread of the corona virus the streets of mexico city appeared to be business as usual on saturday spice orders for all but essential services to close. here's president donald trump has contradicted his own secretary of

state saying the hacking of 6 government departments is under control like pompei is said is pretty clear that russian hackers are behind the cyber attack believed to be the worst in american history but trump has hinted that china could be behind what's been described by some politicians as a declaration of war a march andriy has more president donald trump has weighed in on what's seen as the biggest ever cyber espionage attack against washington downplaying it and the kremlin to involvement in the hacking he says the cyber hug is far greater in what he called fake news media than in actuality i have been fully briefed and everything is well under control russia russia russia is the priority chant when anything happens because lame stream is for mostly financial reasons petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be china it to me. speaking on

a radio show mike pompei said it was clear russia was involved. very significant effort and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. the full extent of the cyber attack is still emerging but at least 6 u.s. government departments have been infiltrated among them the agency that manages nuclear weapons however they've said the security hasn't been compromised. the hack began as early as march and targeted widely used software made by solar winds the texas based company says up to 18000 customers downloaded compromised software updates which allowed hackers to spy on e-mail exchanges i think the damage is going to be. potentially worse i suppose or no longer is espionage it seems to be.

attackers are aiming to steal information rather than trying to. predict its own news of interest that some members of congress are demanding answers from president trump national security is the number one challenge the number one responsibility of a government is to protect our people. every government agency is compromised our national security is compromised. i'm disappointed that he is not bringing the government together to respond to it and the threat is far from over experts saying many more systems may be compromised without anyone knowing and the only way to be sure and network is clean is for it to be bent down to the ground and rebuilt a marriage or 3. presidents like joe biden has rolled up his environment and energy team are showing in some governmental firsts include the 1st black male to head the

environmental protection agency of the new of full power advocates to lead the department of energy and the u.s. is 1st of a native american cabinet secretary. has been nominated to be the interior secretary the 1st indigenous person in the role that looks after tribal lands and the vast parts of native wilderness. voting is underway in thailand's 1st local elections as the coronavirus pandemic tens of millions of people are expected to participate in the polls for regional representatives as a way to have much impact on national politics the vote could gauge how influential recent student protests have seen. now tony cheney's life person summit province and saying these local elections then are effectively a barometer of how popular the protests in bangkok have been. but i think that's what some people are thinking and we've seen some of the national parties campaigning across the country particularly move forward which is

the progressive party that did incredibly well in the general election last year was then dissolved its charismatic leader talent on and some of the other party leaders have been banned from politics for 10 years we assume that it's because they were so successful i think it took the military and their political allies by surprise but they have reemerged move forward under a new banner of move forward and they're taking contesting 42 of the 76 seats being voted for today whether they'll be successful or not is another question they're facing some very well established political dynasties in some cases and these are often local politicians who have been handed on power from father to son with very strong name recognition moved forward have been out around the country were here and some of the current yes they're watching talent on out on the back of

a truck despite the fact that he's been banned from national politics he is still able to go out on the campaign trail in the local elections getting a fairly good response here so that there are going to be some fairly major obstacles they're facing the voter turnout is not expected to be particularly high today with the long new year holiday just coming up many people. have already gone home for the holidays in addition to which we've seen the largest covert outbreak in thailand since the pandemic hit taking place in the province next door and i think that's going to have an impact on the number of people that want to go out today that in turn could also have an impact on the future of thai democracy because the election commission came out today to say that those people who don't cast their ballots will could well face disqualification when it comes to casting their votes in a general election in a couple of years time nonetheless what we've seen behind us this seems to be fairly optimistic quite a large number of people coming out to place their votes many people just go out of

the opportunity to take part in the democratic vote absolutely ok tony chang there in thailand thanks very much tony. macau as marking the 20th anniversary of its return to china from portuguese control the gambling hub like hong kong as a political experiment that began in the late 1990 s. when china reclaimed both territories from western colonial powers unlike hong kong like ours embrace spacings tightening grip and have a chance to make a part on looks at how the casino capital became a model for china's one country 2 systems policy. this is a tale of 2 cities macau a former portuguese colony now a casino powerhouse the other hong kong a former british colony and an international financial center both returned to chinese rule in the late 1990 s. . but while hong kong pushed back against beijing's tightening control in the following years that with little opposition in macau macau has

a large population with very strong mainland chinese attachment emotion the politically and culturally haven't set that in the reason years there are a minority of young people in macau who tend to support western style democracy and one of those is 29 year old sulu sue an opposition member of my cows legislative assembly who says gaining support for the fight for democracy is an uphill battle. china. started. while the british in hong kong instilled the idea of democracy in their final years

the portuguese largely recognised china's sovereignty over macau. mainland china is crucial for the city's economy bestowing favorable policies boosting tourism and building major infrastructure projects like the $20000000000.00 hong kong macau you highbridge perhaps this is the most tangible symbol of the communist party's push to integrate hong kong and macau into mainland china when it was launched 2 years ago it became the 1st physical link between the 2 former colonies and set them up for the next phase of unification the greater bay area development plan it's part of beijing's efforts to knit hong kong macau and southern chinese cities into a tech. some more. and i'll ask for it to. do this let me went to.

china. to. china's leaders sheeting paying called macau a shining example of the one country 2 systems policy one that beijing says hong kong's outspoken people could learn from difficult poland al-jazeera hong kong. demonstrations are still taking place in sudan's capital 2 years since the uprising that led to the removal of president omar al bashir since his removal little has really changed with millions of sudanese having to enjoy a wrecked economy and limited government services have a morgan reports. on the 2nd anniversary of sudan's revolution which led to the overthrow of longtime president already bashir thousands sports in the streets of the capital and other states some came out to voice support for the 15 month old transitional government others to voice anger at the economic and political developments. i'm proud of the revolution i think our

revolution has come a long way and that the sudanese have learnt a lot politically and have learned to be their own decision makers have assumed things that haven't been achieved but the revolution is far from over. your way here to demand the end of the transitional partnership and to demand justice this government has killed the revolution and not improve the economy we don't want the partnership and we don't want the economic plans for the country. the revolution was sparked by a rise in bread prices fuel shortages as well as rising inflation hundreds of protesters were killed before the military overthrew president bashir in april trying to 19 a power sharing agreement between the military and the forces of freedom and change coalition which represents the protest movement was signed months later that brought the current transitional government to power many had hoped that demonstration would bring the change demanded but inflation is now 5 times higher

than it was when the revolution started politically a legislative council is yet to be formed and justice and accountability for those killed in the revolution are yet to be achieved but that ministration was able to achieve some demands. the former ruling party has been dismantled and lost have been passed giving more rights to the sudanese people and as a 27 year so that is now off the u.s. list of state sponsored terrorism some years after their revolution they say they are yet to have a deep impact on the lives of many people in the country. the new ruling coalition says the challenges they face now are not of their making calling them the legacy of the former government how much nude a move on the shoes of justice in the comic improvement has been slow but all the economic woes are because of the economic policies of the past 30 years of the former ruling party you're only now living an ideal in with the consequences so there are challenges that the government faces but it's also making achievements

and it's starting to gradually show us man makes d took part in the protests in time to 18 and 2019 he lost his hand when a stun grenade exploded. i want to better living conditions access to better education health care all that didn't happen this government failed i blame the military component in the government over one they don't want the revolution to succeed and that's what's happened and there's no change no improvement such as protest puts more pressure on the government to meet the demands made during the revolution protesters say they won't give up on their aims until they're fulfilled people morgan al-jazeera khartoum. here in session general terrorism has called on armed groups in central african republic to put down their weapons peacekeepers were deployed ahead of the december 27th elections a number of armed groups have banded together to form an alliance present fast in our chance to have been accused of planning electoral fraud to secure a 2nd term because hackers cover the situation in central african republic

extensively he gave us this update from senegal. we know that 11 armed groups some of the signature of this of the statement against the president essentially have started deploying their troops have called on armed groups to head towards the capital bangui and as a result the 12000 strong un peacekeeping force have taken position on main arteries leading to the capital so has been deployed the central african republic army that was trained by the russians that is out in deployed to try to stop any of these forces from entering the capital just one week before this much anticipated presidential election so why are they all marching towards the capitol simply because they say the president is not respecting the agreement that they had signed in 2001000 in khartoum which was in effect to give these armed groups leaders a position in government but also funds so that they could disarms remember these

armed groups have control over large territories i mean we're talking about central african republic is the size of france there are some of these armed groups that have control of areas that are the size of wales or scotland and that's what's at stake in this election to try to reestablish the rule of law in the government in places where it has retreated but also come to help to these millions of central african republic people who population that have seen little of their government helping them. do with al-jazeera these are stories that push prime minister has announced new restrictions in london and southeast england non-essential shops in.