that changed the political landscape of the region tunisia's former president. discusses the arab spring 10 years. this is al jazeera. hello i'm sam this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes several european countries banned flights with the u.k. as its health minister says a new strain of corona virus is out of control israel begins vaccinating against covert 19 but it's not known when millions of palestinians will be offered the job . regional leaders hold an emergency meeting to discuss the diplomatic fallout between kenya and somalia. and the test for democracy holds its

1st local elections after months of protests against the government and the monarchy. and i'm peter stone who told the sports news mexican boxer who easily beats callum smith to become a food a visual world champion more later in the program. now we begin this news hour with the global battle against the coronavirus more and more people around the world are starting to receive vaccines but the rollout is only highlighting the division between the global haves and have nots a mass vaccination campaign is underway for example in israel the government there aiming to inoculate 60000 people a day but the national rollout excludes 2 and a half 1000000 palestinians living in the occupied west bank in gaza in the u.s. the 1st batch of modernity vaccine is being prepared for delivery the 1st of those

injections are set to be given out from monday it comes as senators race against the sunday night deadline to approve a 900000000000 dollar emergency stimulus package to avoid a government shutdown and in london and other parts of the u.k. extensive restrictions have just been reimposed the netherlands belgium and italy banned flights from britain and germany is considering doing the same all in a bid to stop the spread of a new more contagious strain of the virus. we'll get more on the situation in the u.s. from our white house correspondent kimberly hellcat in a moment or 1st let's cross over live to nadine barbara in london so what in the new restrictions here for what does it mean for people there. who sent me this new level of restriction above the previous tier 3 which meant

very high and it's taken millions of people by surprise it means that here in london in the southeast in the east of england 80000000 people are being told firstly via contrary to expectations they cannot mix with other households at christmas just 3 just a few days ago the prime minister boris johnson was mocking the leader of the opposition saying that he wished to cancel christmas in his words saying that that would be inhuman but he did do that effectively on saturday ascribing it sue this emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus the actual knowledge of the virus the emergence of this virus was made known by scientists in september but the government stressing that it only became aware of what it was doing in the last few days they say it's responsible for around 60 percent of covered 19 infections here in london and that

it's much more transmissible although it's not known to be more deadly or to have more serious health effects for people who catch it but the government is now under pressure to explain why it's taken this action is so close to the christmas break because members of the the n.h.s. the national health service senior officials there as well as politicians were saying in the last few weeks is it really wise we are warning you that there. will be an impact in terms of deaths and hospitalizations if you allow people to gather for 5 days as was the previous plan and now it's only one day in areas outside this tearful region so lots of political questions right now but survey suggesting that the broad majority of the population do support these tougher

measures to try to drive down the infection rates but lots of questions still to be asked about these variants as well and a lot of reaction across the continent to this news from the u.k. right now. absolutely we know that in the netherlands this variant of sars cove 2 that the virus which causes the illness has actually been detected will the netherlands which is in its own locked out now has imposed a ban on all air travel to and from the u.k. we're hearing that belgium is doing the same and that france and germany are considering a similar step i think this really reflects a lack of knowledge about exactly what kind of threat this new covered 19 variant poses but nobody wants to take any risks particularly given that the prospect of

a vaccine for the population is such a real prospect here in britain they say that by the end of sunday they hope to have around half a 1000000 doses administered the rest of the e.u. doing it in a coordinated fashion possibly in this coming week once the vaccine is approved as expected on monday so the message to the public is please try and be careful because there is that hope of a vaccine into the new year and once enough people have bought hopefully the pandemic can be got on top of but here in the u.k. the health minister the health secretary rather hancocks has hinted that it could be a couple of months before they can lift those tearful restrictions that are the really tough for lockdown because of this in his opinion virulent strain which really necessitates tougher measures thanks so much 19 bob there from london white house correspondent kimberly halkett joins me now from washington

d.c. and it's the vaccine rollout is imminent now in the u.s. right but that doesn't change the fact that the virus is also still claiming a very high toll there. now there's no question that this is not a good time for the united states as it fights kovac 19 with the number of infections rising the number of deaths rising and hospitalizations rising and hospitals really being overwhelmed that's why the news of the mcgurn a vaccine approval was such a lifeline for so many that are hanging on for hope but there is still of the logistics of rolling out this vaccine to be worked out we know that the centers for disease control that handles distribution is working on that now and having to make some very tough decisions when the pfizer vaccine was 1st rolled out just a little more than a week ago we knew that it would be front line workers and those who are the

hardest hit by coven so far in the united states that is residents of care homes the elderly but now as we go into the next phase of what is still phase one of this vaccine rollout the difficulty is deciding who is next and when it comes to the essential workers that help keep the united states running that is a really large number it's 87000000 people in various sectors whether it be transportation whether it be the police whether it be those in manufacturing in the air and transportation in the sort of food processing the problem is that by the end of january we know there will only be $50000000.00 doses so you can do the math and you can see that already that's not going to be enough to handle all of the so-called essential workers that are really standing by looking to get vaccinated and allow this country to get back to normal so these are the tough decisions that are being made as the centers for disease control sits down to prioritize and get

the vaccine out we believe as early as monday. and another battle looming in congress right to avoid a government shutdown of are going to put off. well it appears that as of saturday evening there was a breakthrough on a sort of secure sticking point the seem to have republicans and democrats at odds it does appear now that this is going to be pushed through in record time which is astonishing given the price tag the cost of the sort of cope with relief that is going on is $900000000000.00 but also within this package is another $1.00 trillion to keep the government open if this is not agreed on in a matter of hours and we have to keep in mind that this is something that has been going on for months trying to agree on this package if this is not resolved within hours the government will shut down sunday evening at midnight or monday morning at

midnight so this is the tough task at hand the chambers are meeting in a matter of hours we do know that standing by is donald trump the president who needs to sign this into law he seems pretty keen to do this in fact he's been tweeting that he wants to see americans get direct payments that this is something that is needed badly and he's standing by to sign it but 1st we have to have congress in both the house of representatives and the senate agree on the terms of this deal it looks like it's close but still this is something is taking a long time there are only hours left all right we'll have to watch the clock hafler thanks so much billy. and as we said earlier a mass vaccination campaign is underway in israel or in mosques or has more from west jerusalem. it's. late last night with prime minister netanyahu he was the 1st israeli to receive the jab today it'll be the president ministers heads of health care institutions and hospitals as well as health care workers as

we understand it tomorrow all of those over the age of 60 as well as those with preexisting conditions they will be receiving the vaccine appointments for those already rolled out late last week in the 2nd phase it will be people who come into high contact with others so it will include teachers social workers as well as some soldiers the government is expecting about $60000.00 people to be vaccinated per day but that really depends on how many of the vaccine doses will arrive they're expecting about $4000000.00 of the fives or vaccine before the end of the year and another $4000000.00 towards the beginning of next year they've also signed an agreement with madonna but those doses are not expected until early 2021 infection rates are really continuing to rise and to surge there is a special cabinet meeting that will be held today it's the coded cabinet meeting

and they're going to be discussing possible restriction measures including a possible lock down and closing of the port there is also the issue of who will not be vaccinated so there is about a 3rd of the population that will not be vaccinated and that includes pregnant women as well as children under the age of 16. a bra aim is in ramallah and jiggs planes that will be some time before a vaccination program can begin in the palestinian territory. well so far the plans for the palestinians seem to be just wait we've heard the palestinian prime minister and some of the stay you speak on thursday and said there's going to be taking a few months before palestinians get the vaccine the palestinian authority has been living a very deep financial crisis which is why they cannot it's cannot afford to vaccinate the whole population and they've said that they're relying on the w.h.o. program to vaccinate the people but even if such a program starts

a small expected to be vaccinating more than 20 percent of the population to palestinian health minister to make a to said that the health system is of ready in shambles it's already overstretched specifically in the gaza strip but you also pointed out that the palestinians do not have the resources to store some of the vaccinations being discussed specifically the parties or they only have wonderful official ration units which is not going to be enough that all human rights organizations say that israel is the occupying power and as such it has the need to add a humanitarian response ability to vaccinate the people in the occupied west bank and the gaza strip whether that will happen or not we'll have to wait and see. plenty ahead on the news hour including repeated violent incidents against foreign drunk drivers in south africa we look at why they're being targeted u.s. president downplays the impact of

a boss cyber security breach seems the worst in american history and features bass player lifts his team back to the top of the standings coming up as. leaders from east african countries are gathering from the summit to discuss the challenges facing the region. the regional bloc known as i gad will focus on the diplomatic standoff between somalia and kenya somalia cut diplomatic ties with kenya on tuesday accusing it of meddling in politics after president hu who took in the other hosted the leader of somaliland the bloc will also talk about the humanitarian crisis in ethiopia is northern region. joins us now from djibouti somehow it doesn't look like they're helping to resolve the problem

between kenya and somalia. yes i mean that's what diplomats are saying they say that they are on the verge of a breakthrough in talks between kenya and somalia the president of djibouti smiling again and the prime minister obvious you have. been instrumental in not only talk in talks not that hard to separate it with the kenyan leader and the somali leader but then they also brought them together at a certain point during the summit then had talks while they were present in the room and we're hearing now about they could be hardening agreement after all of that and all these emergencies some in somalia last week cut ties with kenya citing what it called sustained and almost didn't interference in its entirety all mutters something kenya house outrightly deny it says then the diplomats some of

the diplomats in kenya have been recalled back and kenya also. is somalia retarding home is not the 1st time this countries are facing such a diplomatic. problem they also have the money time dispute between them at the border of the seas on the sea board of kenya and somalia in front of the international court of arbitration in the hague but about the $3.00 gray situation any diplomatic progress on that conflict. a lot of what's being discussed at the summit right now they are in a closed session and they are discussing other issues. of go. it's importance in this region and particularly the to great you should they are doubts across the region whether this conflict is after all finished as the european

government says or whether the fighters of moved up into a guerrilla fighting unit which might put at 1st the entire regions security and that's what been discussed now as well as the corner on that mic which they want to come up with a common stunt in dealing with it all right thanks so much mohammed of. jeremy taylor is a regional advocacy advisor for east africa and yemen at the norwegian refugee council he joins us live from nairobi by skype good to have you with us so when you look at what the u.n. is talking about his expecting the number of refugees from the tigre a region to quadruple in terms of those going to sudan at least 220-0000 is the capacity then add to receive that kind of number of people

thank you very me 1st i would say not right now i think are all the aid agencies and led by the u.n. are scrambling to put in place the resources that we need that's financial resources as well as the various kind of logistical requirements that are needed to be able to host that that number of people at the moment the numbers are around 50000 have crossed but as a contingency planning they're aiming at around 200000 is expected what are people then facing especially as winter sets in. i think the needs are at the moment are very immediate what we're hearing from from those people who have crossed the border is that they are fleeing with with almost nothing so they arrive with the clothes on their back with very little in the in the way of. personal positions so we have to respond with immediate shelter food water. norwegian refugee council

we're running emergency schooling and we've set up some schools in the home of cooper camp where people who have crossed the border then being moved into a camp some distance away from the border but obviously we need to be thinking about longer term and how long will these people be here and how will these needs grow over time as the numbers grow and so essentially we will not be able to with our current capacity be able to respond and so we call for more funding and for greater sort of response from humanitarian agencies all around i read a report about people trying to cross the river with plastic boxes do even know how many people perish in the journey to try and get out of tinker a no we don't and i think this speaks to the biggest challenge that we face and that is essentially we know very little about what's going on into great in many

instances for us as humanitarians it's an unprecedented situation we're 6 weeks into the into the violence and the conflict that's taken place there but we know very little of what's going on there remains a telecommunications blackout there is a complete blockade of roads there's a no no no flights allowed in the banks are closed so we actually have no idea of the conditions within t. great of if i can jump in there as an organization has direct link do you still block i mean talk how much access have the authorities and not in ethiopia given your organization to get in there and help people. for our organization that's all they have been a few. convoys and i say very few have been able to access to grow but for the vast majority of organizations we're still unable to access the required permissions to get into tikrit and this is a an incredible frustration for us we are on standby we have supplies we we have.

start really to undertake assessments but we're just not able to enter and this is a growing concern for us because as the days and weeks pass our expectation of passive yet the humanitarian situation will be in too great it's just growing day by day is and the thank you so much for coming and explaining to us what a dealing with jerry taylor thank you another group of children who are abducted in northern nigeria have reportedly been rescued by vigilantes in the local community the children have been returning from a religious gathering in the hotel in katsina state comes just 2 days after hundreds of boys were reunited with their families and katsina after they were kidnapped by so-called bandits admitted reese is in katsina he says the recent attacks are part of a wider problem. you are having a crisis here and kept in a state in some form of state in support or and couldn't understand can go by the

way it is just less than 200 kilometers from the i'm in a stretch of capital of nigeria border and various hardly a week that passes without a major incident of kidnapping or attempt to kidnap passengers on the highway for a lot of people now have to resort to air transportation or trains and this is causing a lot of problems for embarrassment on the part of the government because this is a recurring problem and that's huge not only in the northwest for the nigerian government and military it's embarrassing remember 3 years ago the government declared the kwara technically defeated but we see continuously how boko haram continues to test the will of the nigerian government and its military in the north east of the country and we seeing more cities here in the northwest of nigeria. south african president siller cyril ramaphosa or is being urged to intervene in a violent campaign targeting foreign truck drivers around 30 trucks have been

satellite drivers have been shot in recent attacks at least 2 people have died. has more from johannesburg we should warn you the report contains images of burn victims some viewers might find disturbing cullen's massacre mia was on a routine delivery when a car with 3 men inside blocked the road and 4th came out of his truck he says he is lucky to be alive some of the 3 guys come out another on the us good girl again a guy and another honestly i don't know if the alula no act is a day my main. come down the term out open my door. when i put the male leg down just someone gave me are you one 0. oh. unions representing foreigners working in south africa say gasoline bombs have been thrown at trucks driven by non south africans and dozens of drivers have been shot

at stoned and even killed south african union leaders who have condemned the violence insist it is not xenophobia but they say they do want jobs to go to south africans 1st zimbabwe has been vocal what one has been vocal. has been vocal about . of their own citizens in fact littered with opportunity doesn't include in their particular country what a continent should. be given to. their citizens about what to do like i'm over the years competition for jobs in south africa has caused tensions between locals and those from other parts of the continent but africa economy was struggling even before the call of the 19 pandemic the unemployment rate is down more than 30 percent every year the african this gaping poverty and conflict come here looking for work and a better life economists say instability in the transport sector doesn't help matters the damage to the reputation not only of the particular company but is

affected by such violence in the country itself is very massive because then we begin not to be trusted it's not like we're the only people producing anything you know people all over the world but what options they can go to other countries as well president has been asked by unions and business leaders to intervene in what is seen as a growing crisis in south africa's trucking industry the fine drivers say they have no choice but to carry on working violence or nonviolence they have families to feed. it's time for the weather now here's evidence. hello there what i'm pleased to say we are starting to see the snowy weather clearing away from japan so things improving here is we go through the next couple of days not just yet though we still got the winds coming in from a northwesterly direction the i suppose the right wing up so the winds are starting to just ease off and they're just back off to move a westerly direction so unless colin malda direction then as we go on into monday

some rain stateless snow a possibility for monday going into choose day snow increasingly turning to rain at that stage still a little bit of wet weather there but it is an improving picture i promise she fired in try across the korean peninsula temperatures around 5 or 6 celsius for seoul and also for beijing much of china will be fine and 7 that is not too fine to settle across the philippines at the moment to see some rather nasty weather developing tropical depression coming through here it's not really intensified too much more that we're already seeing but wet and windy weather gradually pushing out into the south china seas gradually making its way towards the south of vietnam as we go on through monday then it will start to weaken but it's sink further southward and eventually will see just scraping its way along the far south of the knob pushing a little further west with it will head towards southern thailand along with the land peninsula. still ahead on al-jazeera a test for democracy todd and holds its 1st local elections after months of

protests against the government and. the asian casino capital macau mobs the 21st year of its return to china control we look at how it became model for beijing's one country 2 systems principles. and christiane a renowned helps you vendors to their biggest win of the season peter will be here with the action in sports. ok calm and make sure you're not hyping the situation be part of the debate my main characters are women when no topic is off the table there was in the last allow child marriage to happen legally these are basically archaic walls they are often the jet mines and legal one is pedophile. online jumping to the quick section and

the team to the discussion this stream on out is there. as a 2nd wave of covert 19 brings a surge in infections a few months ago there were dozens of cases a day now it reaches 2000 and countries and force new measures to curb contagion this is the 1st floor of a government a in of mass testing the entire population scientists are on the brink of releasing new vaccines to reduce the spread of the virus will it be enough to bring the global health crisis to an end the coronavirus pandemic special coverage on a. welcome

back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap our headlines the netherlands belgium and italy have banned all flights from the u.k. it's in a bid to stop the spread of a new more contagious strain of the virus england's health minister says the new strain is out of control to be hard to keep it in check till vaccines are rolled out to the wider population israel has begun its covert 19 vaccination campaign the government is aiming to inoculate 60000 people a day but that doesn't include palestinians living in the occupied west bank in gaza. leaders from 8 east african countries are gathering for an emergency summit to discuss challenges facing the region the regional bloc known as i gad will focus on the diplomatic standoff between somalia and kenya and cracow also talk about the humanitarian crisis in the few years northern regions. and so turn

to our top story now and several european countries banning flights and trains to the u.k. over the spread of a new strain of covert 19 well dr peter throwback is an infectious disease and global health expert at the university of oxford he joins us from oxford via skype good to have you with us so will these the vaccines still protect people if there's a new strain. thank you for having me we believe that the vaccine will still be effective we don't yet know for sure but according to what we know about these be a taste and sit shouldn't affect the vaccine targets and we anticipate that it will still be efficacious but studies are ongoing and time will tell what do we know about this new strain we understand we're told aids not mall deadly that's right now a lot of information is still coming in but we're told by the chief scientific

advisor is that they believe that this new strain could be as much as 70 percent more infectious or more transmissible than be the viruses that have largely been circulating so it means it passes more easily from person to person we do not believe at this time that there's any evidence that a person intersected with this new strain is more likely to get severe disease or more likely to die and that the subject of ongoing study and frankly because it takes some weeks after your 1st infected to develop severe disease we really need to wait and see a little bit but at this time it appears to be more infectious but not necessarily more virulent or more severe of even if it's simply more infectious and contagious with greater numbers of people potentially get things sake now because of a new strain can that mess up the expectations and calculations for when life might be able to return to something normal. yeah there's some real concern if the virus

is really able to spread that much more easily then if we were it to do everything the same as we're doing it right now the risk is that the reproductive number would increase and we would start to see even greater increases the number of cases that still means more hospitalizations and more deaths the other thing that it would affect is the percentage of the population that would need to have immune protection to give a so-called herd immunity and that means we might need to raise our estimates of the population that needs to be vaccinated in order to get this vaccine under control we've been thinking it's around 70 percent but that number could be higher as a result of a new strain like this if it really were to to gain a foothold and that's why i think that at least in the short term until we know more of the kinds of announcements we're seeing about temporary border closures prudence given what we know this taint about the rollout of vaccines is it possible i'm told to look into a crystal ball and say this spring this sama the percentage of population that needs to be vaccinated will probably be vaccinated if we stay on track.

i'm wary of making predictions you know this is the one of the largest and certainly the more complex mass vaccination campaigns that we've seen in our lifetimes in a lot of things have to go right in order for for that to happen we need to reach at least 70 percent of the population either with vaccine or those who have recovered from infection and i think it's unlikely to be done even ins wealthy countries by the spring we're probably looking more at a 6 months to a year trajectory and frankly if you look around the world particularly in the global south it may be even longer before we can really reach that critical threshold of vaccinations to really get things back to normal i do think that things will start to improve as we come out of the winter for a variety of reasons but we have to understand that while the there is light at the end of the tunnel we still have a long ways to go. all right thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and

experience with this thank you for having me now e.u. and u.k. negotiators are continuing last ditch talks in the hopes of striking a post briggs's trade deal there are at an impasse over fishing rights the european parliament has warned that unless a deal is done by sunday night politicians won't have time to ratify before the end of the year and no deal drugs it would mean tariffs on goods crossing the border and possibly shortages of some foods and medicine in the u.k. david chaytor is covering this for us from paris we'll speak to him shortly but 1st let's go to rory chalons in london rory i can't count the number of times we've talked about last minute last ditch talks and the impasse over fishing right i mean there's an important phone call full britain's prime minister today any indication

that something is going to happen so we stop talking about last ditch talks and fishing. yeah i think you're right to question whether this is really a deadline or not reminded of what the writer douglas adams said about deadlines he loved them love the wooshing noise they made as as they went past and i can count the number of times that a deadline of breaks a deadline has wished passed over the last few years yes the e.u. could perhaps agree a deal in principle as provisional and then ratify it later so don't be surprised if talks carry on after after sunday a where are they the moment well they are on the face of it deadlocked and both sides are digging their heels in over fishing rights and level playing field really knows what's going on behind those closed doors other than the people involved in the negotiations themselves i mean the u.k.

saying that is prepared to walk away without a deal but over the weekend there have been rather alarming pictures on british t.v. screens of blood lorries and trucks backed up for kilometers. on the motorway is leading into channel ports as companies stockpile in preparation for a possible no deal in january so that's quite alarming and then there's also what happens over the weekend as well with this effect of cancelling a christmas it would be quite a double whammy for boris johnson wouldn't it to have cancel christmas and go or no deal all in the space of one weekend does that mean that a deal is more likely by i don't know but if i were him i would not want that on my political record or i thanks to rory than love the let's get the e.u. perspective david chaytor is damaged by live for us in paris that must be pretty frustrated and the other side of the channel too with all of this any indication

from the e that they think something is going to work out in these talks. sami as you were discussing with rory there's no such thing as a deadline for a politician it's not the same for journalists of course we've had no word from present emanuel macron because he's fighting the virus himself retreating inside an apartment in the side just outside paris but one of his junior minister the minister of european affairs is a close ally of his did actually go on radio yesterday and said that essentially france was not going to be rushed into this deal he said that no sacrifices should be made because of a calendar so it doesn't look like this european parliament deadline is going to stick i think you have did have to look far for the reasons why president is doing this because much like for boris johnson the constituency at his back watching very

closely is of course the french fisherman vital for his chances for reelection in next presidential election in about 18 months time here. and he wants to make quite sure that talks will go on and on and on as long as they can because he wants to make sure there's a proper deal now they've offered the british something like 25 percent of the fish catch by the european fischman to be repacked treated to the british fisherman now boris johnson the fisherman the thing that's enough they want something like 60 percent so that's a huge gap to try and bridge but nevertheless as we approach christmas as we approach the new year i think that there will be a lot of maneuvering a lot of stretching around to try and find a deal that except to pull on fishing both to the british and to the e.u. but of course once again there's another sticking point there's that exclusive

between 6 miles and 12 miles off shore which boris johnson and the british. i want any incursions on but the belgians and the french fishermen to be in that area for centuries so a vast amount to do and president mackerel of course fighting off with 19 himself is not at his best but will be watching closely so we'll have to wait and see yet what's going to happen david sounds like all 3 of us may be back again talking about more last ditch talks for now thanks so much from paris. u.s. president donald trump has contradicted his secretary of state by saying china could be responsible for a cyber attack on 6 government departments mike pompei or whoever said it was pretty clear russia was behind behind its believed to be the worst american history russia for its part denies any involvement mara chowdhury 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 who said it was clear russia was involved. very significant effort. i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engage 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 compromised software updates which allowed hakas to spy on e-mail exchanges i think the damage is going to be. potentially more worse i suppose or no longer this was espionage it seems to be attackers are aiming to steal information it's not right they're not trying to block or. religious merinos it's 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 it is clean is for it to be bent down to the ground and rebuilt america 3. u.s. president elect joe biden has introduced key members of his environment an energy team ushering in some more government firsts the nominees include the 1st african-american man to head the environmental protection agency a renewable power and to lead the department of energy and the country's 1st ever native american cabinet secretary holland has been nominated for interior secretary she would be the 1st indigenous person to serve in that role that oversees tribal

lands chabris hansie has more from biden's hometown of wilmington delaware with this team he really he really can say this is historic moment particularly with harlem's nomination for interior we should not understate the interior problem we were suggesting that it was mainly to do with tribal land this is a federal all federal grant all u.s. federal and you know 100000 millions of acres of land in the natural resources we have mineral rights the fossil fuel rights the wildlife the water and this is such an important such an important nomination especially given the department of interior role in the destruction of native america within the interior department is the bureau of indian affairs which will serve responsible as that holland was suggesting there in the destruction of native american. in this case when biden

talks about identity and talks about how diverse his cabinet is it's really relevant when we decide when we think about the portfolio that he's handing out because the interior department and the balls identity it's just such an amazing combination to have a native american woman in charge of a large swathe of the north american continent finally. voting is underway in thailand's 1st local elections since the military coup in 2014 last year's general poll drew accusations of manipulations parking anti-government protests the provincial vote could indicate the effectiveness or otherwise of those demonstrations tony chang reports from some. once he was seen as the savior of thai politics a charismatic leader whose reform agenda captures a culture of the votes in last year's election since then his party future food has been dissolved and he's been banned from politics for a decade but tenet on jong un is not giving up his party has reformed under the

new bern a move forward and is bigger asli contesting local elections across time. for tons of. anti-government protests in bangkok and around the country the flared up for the past 5 months but giving the folk new impetus younger voters disenfranchised by the military coup in 2014 could turn to candidates bank by move forward and their agenda political reform. but they face stiff opposition local politics in thailand dominated by well established political families well known to world voters and with money to spend on their campaigns which. is running in the affluent province of chonburi his father convicted of corruption of murdering

a political rival held the position before him his brother who failed to win a seat as an m.p. is currently a cabinet minister and he vehemently denies he's part of a political dynasty. if in fact even they myself and my family have been in politics for a long time every time that we were given the chance to work in politics opposition came from an election. and while the results of the election will unlikely change much it could signify deep shifts in thai society thailand has been ruled by rich it. political hierarchy with the monarchy at the center. that whole ruling regime now is being tested and the election this and just $11.00 small indicator but also one contest that reflects the broader struggle despite a pretty good showing here voter turnout is not expected to be high so close to the

long new year holiday the election commission has warned that if voters don't cast their ballots they could well be disqualified in the next general election and even if voters do turn out in large numbers in reality these elections won't bring much change the government's paid little attention to the demands from the protest movement but this is a chance for ties to make their voice heard of the ballot box which in recent years has frequently been denied. some time. my cow is marking the 21st anniversary of its return to china from portuguese control but unlike hong kong the gambling harbors embraced beijing's tightening grip the vehicle pollen reports. 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 was little opposition in macau macau has a large population with very strong mainland chinese attachment emotion the only politically and culturally having said 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 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. do this let me west a strong china. i'm. china's leaders sheeting paying called macau a shining example of the one country 2 systems policy one that beijing says hong kong outspoken people could learn from difficult poland al-jazeera hong kong. still ahead on al-jazeera like father like son tiger woods is a proud dad off to his son in press is that bad latest tournament together. i was raised in france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents

and this is mean. fighting both isis and us on. this 2nd of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihads cartoon on al-jazeera. the silence has been just. beneath this. is one of scandinavia some largest iron ore deposits. and it's driving a wedge between those seeking wealth. and those defending their way of life. a witness documentary on a. it's

catch on in all the sports news with peter thank you very much sammy mexican boxing superstar solar arrays has become a unified super middleweight champion thanks to an impressive unanimous decision win over britain's callum smith on saturday in san antonio the man known as canelo outclassed smith with 2 of the judges giving alvarez 11 of the 12 rounds the mexican is now a 4 division world champion having won his 1st we'll title at welterweight in 2011 . 54th career win has already sparked rumors about a 3rd fight against another of the sports stars an article of can. you not everyone can really know their own record i don't run from anybody i've shown that i fight against the best of luck and wants the fight to take place and i will take it but

i've shown the world that i fight against the best. politicians probably use a reason to go fight to have a lot of pot stop i just take it could be the best way to be to fight for so that is what is the table i've already performed on is a better month and i. by munich and poland striker robert lewandowski has shown why he was named fi for best player of the year he lifted his team back to the top of the german bundesliga with 2 goals on saturday in tooting this dramatic injury time winner of a by a leverkusen a 21 win came from will come from behind victory puts by in 2 points ahead of leverkusen and extends the run beaten run to 19 matches. but there was an unsavory moment in british immersion bloodbaths game with hoffenheim as they stopped their markets to run with st office betting and half an arm stefan posh in their 21 loss coach has apologized on behalf of the whole club saying it went beyond the limit.

even though barcelona are struggling in the league of their star manlier now messi has added another accolade to his impressive list of achievements on saturday the argentine equal pele's record of scoring 643 goals for a single club pele did it with center or simply silver to 956974 despite mrs effort basso well to do at home by valencia which means their 6th in the standings 8 points behind leaders atletico madrid meanwhile bosses fierce rivals real madrid will be in action later on sunday they visit abel on the dance main of very much in contention for the league after beating leaders that lead to go 31 last week although rails cross-town rivals will have 2 games in hand after this fixture. over in italy has the honor another was on the score 3 twice as you venters thrashed parma 4 no on saturday in the city are you very are in their alternative orange kate here because of promises similar colors this is the biggest win of the league season so far for the to win club events are currently 3rd in the standings behind

leaders ac milan and into both have a game in hand and more in action on sunday 4 years after leaving as coach of paris and to man laurent blanc has ended his managerial exile he joined qatari side already on the frenchman who won the world cup as a player in 1988 signed an 18 month contract the club's 6 after one winning 5 league matches. lilian's will praise it one properly we should not forget that links between paris and strong and so the qatari league is not unknown to me and i won't hide the fact of the sporting adventure is interesting the conditions are interesting what interests me the most is to see where the me and my staff will be able to take back to the position it is meant to hold a live picture. has won her 2nd career world cup race the czech trying to the 1st super g. of the season. in france that it made history when she won gold in the super g.

and the snowball parallel giant slalom act on chang 28. light winds have played havoc with the final day of competitive sailing before the america's cup challenger series gets underway in new zealand next month only one of the foreshadowed races got underway in oakland on sunday before have to be abandoned champion's team new zealand and any other team u.k. failed to finish the opening race inside the 45 minute time limit to challenge a series is due to begin mid january before the winners take on t. new zealand just a day after the sydney to hobart yacht race was cancelled or brook around a virus outbreak in sydney questions are being asked about australia's 3rd test match against india the match is due to be played at the sydney cricket ground beginning on january the 7th and for now cricket australia says it won't be all the game but they'll continue to monitor the outbreak and finally it's not often that tiger woods fails to be the same tour of attention at a golf tournament but on saturday it was 11 year old son charlie woods on the right

stealing the show and look at the side by side comparison of the swings he's playing with these there at the annual father son p n c championship in florida the youngest player in the field it's some great shots and even picked up an eagle 360 competition across saturday and sunday and team woods are tied for 6th place hit. to some of the most angry credible golf shots i've said i've seen this you know all along. that jared as he's played in she said a lot of these smatter of it come stringing these out for. 3 and a half hours it will be interesting to see how he goes along with the following in korea with much interest so you get in in a couple of hours most pools need them thanks so much peter well that brings us to the end of this news hour i'm back in a moment with another foreign policy so do stay with us here on al-jazeera.

these men are survivors of covert 1946 year old is a limousine driver is the only one here who needed to go to hospital when he became bill in early march with. border will be on balance already november so deep is a 34 year old driver for kotori family and he tested positive my body is good it will be small but will you want to live the health officials say the rate of new infections has slowed the goal here is to conduct a broad serving to better understand transmission and asymptomatic cases which in turn could help policy decisions in the future so it would be easy for us to inform the decision making on what to do next the goal now is to increase testing and contact tracing. the government provides retesting and medical treatment for those

who need it while campaigns to raise awareness continue. reading the biological and chemical agents are pretty quick and honest throughout history a lot more frustrated it's head when a man started fighting man a developed nation state said there could be another tree that every child. now within reach of those seeking chaos compounding the most toxic substance in the little what would have been a manmade invisible threat on al jazeera the viruses can discriminate to get those living in poverty are far more vulnerable to the dangers of covert 90. mins the reasons for this disparity the social and economic inequalities that surround us for much deeper and much more problematic than we thought a dos whether lessons learned from the global pandemic could lead to positive

change the growth of the school or fix the him we all hail the lockdown exposer privilege on poverty during a crisis on a just. several european countries banned flights with the u.k. as its health minister says a new strain of current virus is out of control. i'm sammy say that this is al jazeera live from coming up israel begins vaccinating against cove with 19 but it's not known when millions of palestinians will be offered the job. modern or start shipping out covert 19 vaccinations across the u.s. as a.