jussi are. in for. 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 that i'm laura carlisle this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. with more than 1300000 confirmed cases mexico brings a new restrictions 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. plus meet snore and

a new sesame street muppets raising awareness of rango stock in the world's largest refugee camp. emergency talks in the u.k. 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 southeast 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 and cheap medical officer for england chris where he says the need take his train is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original there is not thought to be more deadly and vaccines should still be effective for a challenge has this report. 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. a 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 residents in those areas must 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 clear 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 increase pressure on the n.h.s. what's the impact for mr speaker we should have the guts just to say what he really wants to do which is to cancel the plans people who have made and cancel i 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. that will no longer be permitted equally it will no longer be permitted for any advise to travel anywhere in the rest of the u.k.

for christmas we simply cannot take the risk of this stream travelling from different parts. but it's not just the united kingdom other european countries are tightening restrictions to 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's distinguished professor of epidemiology at the city university of new york school of public health he says new strains will not alter vaccination plans though one has 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 on i want to be really waiting for 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 quick sets materially quickly. and so hopefully we'll be knowing more in the next few days. as as a people in mexico as capital have ignored all of us who attend to knock down to curb the spread of coronavirus there the streets of mexico says it appeared to be

business as usual assassin despite orders for all but essential services to close the new instructions will be in place for 3 weeks but are not being strictly policed mexico has recorded more than 1300000 infections and around 117000 deaths while bunny tasman out as a professor at the national thomas university of mexico he says many people simply can't afford to follow restrictions. the program in mexico is many people is very poor and they have day jokes in the street and they were only has many promised to control this in the streets this is the big problem to the mexican authorities found for their mexico city mayor. the people don't respect their rules because 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 economic structure is very different than the european or the us and conditions and the people cannot stay in com for many days because of these these look down if only for dinner 15 days and they were in cannot put more more of their base the top down and in january they will open again their districts. daylesford pharmaceutical companies pfizer and astra zeneca to provide 20000000 doses of covert 92021 the 1st. arrive and february as the country passes a death toll of 40000 the number of infections on the rise once again as under. its usefulness might be debatable but some business owners in colombia capital are going to the extreme of mass spraying disinfectant people to control the spread of corona as crowd strong malls and streets for the holiday season.

health officials are also worried cases have gone up in recent weeks. stepped up their testing campaigns in parks streets and plazas service. people have totally lowered their guard a seat among my friends and this is very worrying i'm watching 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 2021 we will be starting the process of mass vaccination. but despite the optimistic announcement. plan is to vaccinate only 2000000 people in the 1st trimester of next year starting with health care workers and those with preexisting conditions were true mass vaccination still far away some medical experts believe the country remains ill prepared to face many more months of new cases in. many regions already in an alarming situation and a health system with very limited capacity it's true that there has been an increase to the number of i.c.e.'s in the country from 530211000 but that doesn't

mean that we're able to attend more patients that these new units have been fitted properly we lack provision medicines and doctors the government should return to more drastic restrictive measures. and for now many more interested in celebrating the season and their liberties while the lasts even if the hangover could be deadly. as president donald trump has contradicted his own secretary of state saying the hacking of 6 government departments is under control. says it's pretty clear that russian hackers are behind the cyber attack believed to be the worst in american history a trump has hinted that china could be behind what's been described by some politicians as a declaration of war and. president donald trump has weighed in on what's seen as the biggest ever cyber espionage attack against washington

downplaying it on the kremlin's involvement in the hacking. he says the cyber is far greater in what he called fake news media than an actuality i have been fully briefed and everything is well under control russia russia russia is the priority chants when anything happens because lame stream is for mostly financial reasons petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be china it to may speaking on a radio show might pompei if said it was clear russia was involved with 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 heart

began as early as march and targeted widely used software made by solar winds the texas based company says up to 18000 customers downloaded compromise software updates which allowed hackers to spy on e-mail exchanges i think the damage is going to be. potentially more worse i suppose or no longer. your knowledge it seems to be. attackers are aiming to steal information rather than trying to scare. religious merinos of the system 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 burnt down to the ground and rebuilt a marriage or 3. president elect joe biden has rolled out his environment and energy team assuring in some governmental firsts they include the 1st black male to head the environmental protection agency or a nubile power advocate 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 to serve in the role that looks after tribal lands and vast parts of native world and us. still ahead on al-jazeera home at last hundreds of schoolboys are reunited with their families after

a traumatic 6 day kidnapping. and we head to the gambling city of macau is it marks 21 is there a return to chinese control. the weather's looking pretty quiet across the middle east at the moment we've got some bits of shabby rain just pushing across a little cloud here and will slide its way over towards afghanistan kabul 8 degrees celsius but notice some spots of rain there into central iran up towards the cocoa says wanted to show is just for this filtering their way over towards media much of the middle east as i said doesn't look fine and dry you might just catch a shower just around the southern end of the red save time here in qatar cools off temperatures now high that around $22.00 celsius on monday pleasant sunshine

nevertheless the sunshine that stretches its way down into one mold in parts of ethiopia because some showers just around the whole of africa having said that in the usual rash of showers through the heart of africa some big downpours a possibility of around pushing over towards cameroon and those showers extending their way down into a good part of angola some wet weather to just around the rift valley of course the the sun with not too far from its lowest point south of course the winter solstice just a few days away and the showers along the spells of right night stand there way down across the botswana into the north as far south africa wetter weather from the baby pushing for the south. i was reason france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is mean. by them both isis and the us on.

the 2nd of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihad. on al-jazeera. hello again with al-jazeera has a reminder of our top stories this hour bush prime minister boris johnson has announced new restrictions in london and southeast england non-essential shops sols an indoor venue's a closing the government's also backtracked on easing some restrictions for the christmas holiday. tougher rules are in response to the discovery of

a new strain of corona virus that's up to 70 percent more infectious feeling the spike in england's hospice patients rates it's not for both to be deadlier than the original. and thousands of people in mexico's capital have ignored orders to return to lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus streets of mexico city appeared to be business as usual on saturday despite orders for all but essential services to close. all of the 344 boys kidnaps in northeast nigeria last friday have been reunited with their families abduction has highlighted the west wing security situation africa's most populous country. went to the town of cum carra to meet some of the students and their parents. the last time a book and going to school and received so many visitors was 15 years ago that was when their youngest child booster was born. neighbors and well wishers returned to

celebrate again this time most a safe return home after 60 ordeal at the hands of kidnappers mostly as one of the 344 schoolboys released after they were abducted by gunmen from a boarding school more than a week ago one of the most to go i can't really express how i feel who was miles have returned home there is no after everything when it is the same story in almost every home affected here in cancun and s. away. from bishop is to become a surgeon but after the days he spent in captivity he's having a rethink about future studies because. frankly every student is scared of going back up isn't threatened to kill us next time they sees us many of his fellow students will regain their freedom are equally scared about continuing their education after threats made by the kidnappers but slowly they can get a community is getting back on its feet. the mood has dramatically changed since

our last visit here are a few days ago when 344 students are still missing now the local market is fully open but the main talking point for the people is security they want to see evidence of more protection by the security forces. at the age of a force that stretches into them for where many of the bandits gangs of gunmen hide out before launching attacks on local communities. is the most vulnerable council area in katsina states yes we have one armored personnel carrier a few soldiers and police but that's not enough to deal with the big threat we face daily. become for now but in other villages around here people are living in fear they have been reports of other attacks on the police to communities nearby since the news of the students there's been a significant security presence here because of the recent abductions but it's not

clear how long that will last how many degrees. north west nigeria. demonstrations are taking place in sudan's capital 2 years after the uprising that led to the removal of president and while the share since has removal little has really changed with millions of sudanese having to enjoy a rexx economy and limited government services ever morgan reports on the 2nd anniversary of sudan's revolution which led to the overthrow of longtime president already. thousands spore to the streets of the capital and other things some came out of 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 of a suit a reserve lota 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 the revolution they say there 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 hamad nude 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 osman makes de took part in the protests in time to 18 and 2019 he lost his hand when a stun grenade exploded telling you that. i wanted better living conditions access to better education health care all that didn't happen this government failed i

blame the military component and the government of rwanda 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. until they're fulfilled he does iran. violent protests broke out in lebanon after a major hike in university tuition fees police used his gas to disperse crowds in the capital beirut students responded by throwing bottles and other objects protests follows a decision by some universities to price that you wish in on a new dollar exchange rate which will see some fees triple. versioning is under way in thailand's 1st local elections as the 2014 military coup tens of millions of people are expected to participate in the polls for regional representatives aussie's elections are not expected to have much impact on national politics the

vote could case how influential recent anti-government protests have been. macau is marking the 21st 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 wrecked lanes both churches from western powers unlike hong kong macao has embraced spade gangs tight grip and over says to pick apart and looks at how the casino capsule 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 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 many people. started. the british in hong kong instilled the idea of democracy in their final years the

portuguese largely recognise 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 zhuhai bridge 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. more. and i'll ask for it to. slap west

a strong 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 if you go poland al-jazeera hong kong apple has placed one of its i phone contractors on probation after major concerns over the way employees are being treated at one of its indian factories workers at the wistrom factory in southern india as color attack a state rioted last week after many of the paint was in millions of dollars worth of losses apple now says the taiwanese owned company which assembles one of its i phone little's will not be awarded any new business until it complies with its code of conduct. new york's smithsonian design museum has acquired to emerge as part of its collection a person with a headscarf and into

a skin tone couple emerges will be featured in a new exhibition both symbolize inclusion and have proven diversity visas is the 3rd person that museum images to their collection. in the t.v. show sesame street has developed new characters to support children in the world's largest refugee camp in bangladesh the puppets nor the tailor to support rang the children who fled man shiloh palace explains. bridget children have got 2 new friends just like them 6 year old nor and her twin brother . they see so many street markets and join the forecast in cox's bazaar bangla dish to provide education for young ranger refute. children in bangladesh after the last exhibitors in 2017 there haven't been anything done for them their education has been ignored for many years so this is one of the 1st life for our

young children 800000 live in cox's bizarre half of them are children it's the world's largest refugee camp many experienced extreme trauma fleeing me after a violent military crackdown in 27 taking. my name is to my are my home this summer cool refugee camp they called us foreigners we fled burma crossing tall mountains when i remember those days i get scared and can't sleep for many these camps have compounded this suffering the new show wants to help them process these emotions through plague it's not the 1st time the t.v. show has tried to help young refugees in recent years 6 of the street has teamed with n.g.o.s and governments to support other children to her grave or i am from sesame street push their agenda at the un seen here with the nominee for u.s.

secretary of state tony blinken refugees are just glad. to afghanistan with a launched a local version of the show and created sari a 6 year. afghan girl who enjoyed sports and this year welcome 6 to make a show in arabic and kurdish to support children displaced by the syrian war. system the street was created half a century ago as an experiment an early education for a hindu children nor an azizah welcome friends but with a big task ahead charlotte dallas al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera these are our top stories british prime minister barak johnson has announced new restrictions in london and southeast england non-essential shops along as an indoor venue is a closing of government also.