sees the best opportunities in the heart of eurasia. flights and trains to the u.k. are banned from some european countries because of a new strain of corona virus. columcille raman you're watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha also coming up a 2nd vaccines on the move in the u.s. as the senate heads closer to a deal on a covert 19 relief package. and leaders of kenya and somalia agreed to talks about the resumption of diplomatic relations of the end of a summit of east african nations also security forces are on patrol after another

abducted in nigeria where ankle sprain about the threat from armed groups. welcome to the program with tough new coronavirus restrictions taking effect in the united kingdom other european countries are taking measures to protect themselves the netherlands belgium and italy have banned all flights from the u.k. and germany is also considering the same train services through the channel tunnel will also cease to the next few hours and the aim is to stop the spread of a new more contagious strain of the virus identified by the british government barbara has more from london. this is regent street in the heart of london and in the run up to christmas it will usually be full of shoppers well the people out and about a generally going for a walk or just looking at decorations because all nonessential stores have been ordered closed as part of these new tier 4 restrictions here in london in the

southeast in the east of england that's 18000000 people being told that at christmas they cannot meet up with any other household lots of people have had to cancel their plans they're very annoyed we've seen crowded scenes at train stations with people trying to get on board transport to other parts of the country at supermarkets there have been crowds as people try to get last minute provisions survey suggest people do support the tougher restrictions but do not like the way it's been handled just a few days ago the prime minister was saying that it would be inhuman to in his words cancel christmas now the government is insisting it's acted because in the last few days it's got information about a new variant of the corona virus which is responsible for the majority of cases in this area some people are questioning exactly when that evidence became clear what we do know is that it's causing a lot of concern the netherlands has now imposed an air travel ban to and from the u.k. and other nations might follow suit meanwhile here in the u.k.

the health secretary has warned that because of this new variant the restrictions the lockdown might have to actually continue well into the new year until the vaccine can reach more people it's being rolled out they hope to have reached half a 1000000 people by the end of sunday but of course that's nowhere near enough. to allow where a mass vaccination campaign is also underway with the government aiming to inoculate 60000 people a day but the national rollout excludes 2 and a half 1000000 palestinians living in the occupied west bank and gaza reports now from west jerusalem. idea of hope and celebration in israel as people here receive the 1st doses of the pfizer biotech vaccine. government ministers hospital managers and health care workers received the job in the early hours of sunday when the. prime minister netanyahu was the 1st israeli to

be inoculated so. it's a very big day for the state of israel we've been living for almost a year with the most difficult pandemic that humanity has seen for the last 100 years and now is the beginning of the way out millions of vaccines will arrive in our small state it's not trivial millions more up to come and everyone needs to get vaccinated but as the vaccination program rolls out in israel millions of palestinians in the occupied west bank and gaza are waiting to hear when they'll be vaccinated the palestinian authority says it's in talks with the world health organization and vaccine developers analysts and human rights groups say even if enough doses can be bought the palestinian authority will need international help to distribute them and we know that there will not be a bill you are. a lot of. hope there and you know i says those. countries or c their

partners they're worried her going to and there will be a secure as well. in gaza there's a record number of covert 19 cases w.h.o. is warning the health care system there may collapse israel is being. by human rights organizations to ensure all palestinians are also vaccinated in response the israeli government says it may donate doses left over after all israelis have had their us. so for now there are celebrations in israel but in the west bank and gaza there is no way of knowing when palestinians can feel the same sense of relief irene nasser al jazeera westerners on the other job is the director of the occupied palestinian territories of physicians for human rights she explains what's being done to secure a supply of vaccines. according to the pushes out 2 different

companies that says he has it with other companies they his talk to guard being. seen but no agreement has been. as well we know that a hope so good but it seems to us all a partnership was over which is a humanitarian organizations that will be providing cleavages scenes but only through 20 percent of the facility only few in sort of mission has been provided by israeli author says regarding you know supplies and assistance to. help and in a few fights it is it was ok you also know what litter refers to the israeli media coverage regarding delivering that option but seems that is about it for palestinians where we believe that this stands in concert vixens to move agreements

and you know the israeli minister of policy to guard them in forcing me the cases through the palestinian territories according to the press it get him in any case and to be imported and delivered to the dedicated to be approved by the israeli minister to help the recent book seen was not approved through israeli citizens. meanwhile in the united states as a contrast to sunday between the government's efforts to roll out vaccines as long as possible that struggle to pass legislation to help families and businesses hit hard by the pandemic a white house correspondent can we help get us more from washington d.c. . what the congress is trying to push through and they don't have much time to do it is 900000000000 in covidien relief that is help for small businesses as well as individuals and clue direct payments to americans who are struggling as a result of the increased lockdowns due to covert 19 but in addition tied to this

now is 1.4 trillion in money to keep the government open and just to give you some perspective on this this negotiation has been going on both of them in fact for months but now congress has just hours to resolve this if by midnight they don't get an agreement the government will start to shutdown and millions of americans will still not have cash in their pockets when they need it most so this is the sort of the that's going on right now between democrats and republicans we know that there are a series of votes that are expected by what we're being told that these votes could go very late into the night so if there's going to be a resolution all of this it may not happen until the 11th hour. somalia and kenya have agreed to hold talks to restore diplomatic ties off to east african leaders held an emergency summit in japan 80 somalia cut ties with kenya on choose to any

accusing it of violating its sovereignty a metal ring in the country's eternal if need is all the into governmental authority and to development oh i got his name put the disagreement on the top of his agenda i'm going to town is covering the events forced from djibouti. officials of the region organization a calling the summit a success they hailed as a breakthrough an agreement between the kenyan and somali lead us to hold talks and a result that disputes through dialogue the dispute between kenya and somalia dominate the talks of the summit and presidents milo mcginn of djibouti and the ethiopian prime minister ahmed us a bit of played out. crucial role 1st of all meeting the 2 leaders separately and then later on as the day went on bringing them together in the same room so they have face to face talks on its side it's there they agreed to commit to talks between them the chairperson of the african union most african hamad in his address

to the regional leaders said the dispute between kenya and somalia was undermining their efforts to fight al shabaab of the african peacekeeping mission in somalia. which kenya contributes files on soft troops kenya also plays host to hundreds of thousands of somali refugees and has been in efforts to find peace in somalia in the past kenya has always denied that it's interfering in the in tunnel matters of somalia and other issues that were discussed include the present war in ethiopia between the federal government and the to grow regional administration something that the government says it has now been up 100 and the leaders who are governed here in djibouti today pledged to assist the prime minister ahmet in dealing with the impact the humanitarian situation that resulted from the war. another group of

children who were abducted in northern nigeria have reportedly been rescued by vigilantes in the local community now the children had been returning from a religious gathering in one scene a state that comes just 2 days after hundreds of boys were reunited with their families and can't seen after they were kidnapped by so-called bandits and addresses in consuming he says the recent attacks are part of a much wider problem. you are having a crisis here and kept in a state in somewhat of a state in some point or and could understand scheduled up by the way it's 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 this is not only in the northwest for the nigerian

government and military it's embarrassing remembers 3 years ago the government declared war quite 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 activity here in the northwest of nigeria. well still ahead here on al-jazeera still no deal but to trade negotiations are at a crucial stage as the deadline drawls ever nearer. the brutal campaign against foreign truck drivers in south africa we look at why they're being targeted stay with us here on al-jazeera. the weather slushy set fair across a good part of the middle east we have got but some places a cloud just straddling saudi arabia close to us here in qatar you might just catch

a sports or 2 of light rain and nothing must speak of as we go through the next couple of days they've got maybe a few showers to the north of riyadh having said that showers continuing just around the caucasus might see the cloud just thick enough to produce a spot or 2 of light rain in iran and some showers there into that eastern side of turkey bike shoes they could catch a shower or 2 down the southern end of the red sea but again not too much to speak of as is the case to across somalia the seasonal rise they will continue quite nicely across the central and southern parts of africa some lively showers there around the rift valley just notice some wester weather just coming into botswana tumbling its way into one to maybe that will be pretty heavy at times and then it's going to just slide it's where little further south what's good parts of south africa will see some wet weather as we make our way into the middle part of the week some heavy rain at times as well and eventually out west the weather will move over towards the eastern cape as we go on through wednesday gradually sliding out

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of about kill what you have is there of me so romney a reminder of our top story news the u.k. government has announced a stay at home water after a new strain of corona virus was found belgium italy and the netherlands has now banned passenger flights and rail connections from the united kingdom. u.s. lawmakers are set to vote on a long delayed $900000000000.00 over $1000.00 relief package there could be a government shutdown if no deal is reached by congress on sunday night meanwhile shipments for the 2nd approved covert back to covert 19 vaccines have begun across the u.s. . somalia and kenya have agreed to hold talks to restore diplomatic ties after regional leaders held an emergency summit to discuss the crisis somalia could diplomatic ties with kenya on tuesday accusing it of violating its songs and. these chief backs it negotiator michel barnier says negotiations with the u.k.

are at a crucial point and will continue they're trying to agree a trade deal but at an impasse over fishing rights the european parliament have warned that unless a deal is done by sunday night politicians won't have time to ratify it before the end of the year when the u.k. exits a new deal breaks it would mean tariffs on goods crossing the border and possibly shortages of some foods and medicines in the u.k. chalons has more from london. where are they at 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 lorries and trucks backed up for kilometers. on the motorways

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 canceling a christmas it would be quite a double whammy for boris johnson wouldn't it to have cancel christmas and got no deal all in the space of one weekend does that mean that a deal is more likely i don't know but if i were him i would not want that on my political record david chaytor has more on the e.u. perspective in paris. it doesn't look like this european parliament deadline is going to stick i think you'd have did have to look far for the reasons why president macro 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 the next presidential election in about 18 months time here and so 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 fisherman to be repatriated to the british fisherman now boris johnson the fisherman there then 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 acceptable 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 offshore which boris johnson and the british don't

want any incursions on voting is underway in the bosnian city of last star in the 1st local election more than a decade in 2008 the constitutional court ordered the city to change its discriminant see electoral rules the bosniak and current parties disagreed on the process but europe's human rights court in june ruled against the stalemate muslims and christians fiercely fought over the city during the 1990 s. war is even part of it says in last hour with more on the significance of the vote . this city was the why did during the bloody war in 1925 years later is still reflects all the problems and political strained relations in the country for 10 years a special election rules for the city where you felt originally supposed to ensure that either cross or bosnians could not hold the majority in power in the city but the problem was that one of all seen one electoral unit in the city counted this 5 others in other electoral unit to sow constitutional court so the country 10 years

ago said that the new rules need to be adopted it took 10 years to get to a political compromise on that issue in a state by one until boston had to go in and it happened on only after european court for human rights ordered that election issues for the city needs to be solved in this. there was huge problems in the city the city infrastructure suffered to the economy weaken the people began to emigrate in huge numbers the city still heavily burdened by this thing called divisions between bosnia and crowds are so it's hard to expect to dramatically political changes in the city but still it's a kind of. a race for supremacy in the city however on the other side the civil society is getting stronger and that's very important so it is a huge step for the c.d.c. and for boston herzegovina that we do have these elections in mostar today it

happened after 10 years of waiting and that's a huge step. voting is underway in thailand's 1st local elections since the military crew of 2014 last year as general polled through accusations of manipulation sparking anti-government protests the provincial vote could indicate the effectiveness or otherwise of those demonstrations all tony reports now from the city of someone. once he was seen as the savior of thai politics a charismatic leader whose reform agenda captured a culture of the votes in last year's election since then his party future has been dissolved and he's been banned from politics for a decade but tenet on john wrong run 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

tens of. anti-government protests in bangkok and around the country that have played 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 a political reform. that 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. is running in the affluent province of chonburi his father convicted of corruption and 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. in fact even they myself my family have been in politics for a long time every time. time that we were given the chance to work in politics our position came from an election. and while the results of the election were unlikely to change much it could signify deep shifts in thai society thailand has been ruled by the rigid socio political hierarchy with the monarchy at the center that hall ruling regime now is being tested and the election this and this $11.00 small indicator but also one contests that reflects the broader struggle despite a pretty good showing here voted 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 at the ballot box which in recent years has preclude really been denied. some time at least 9 people have been killed in the afghan capital in a car bomb attack another 15 were wounded in the blast in kabul including m.p. carmen maguire look there's been no claim of responsibility last week the deputy governor of kabul was killed also by a car bomb. south african president zuma ram oppose a who is being urged to intervene in a violent campaign targeting foreign truck drivers around 30 trucks have been satellite and drive a shot in recent weeks at least 2 people have died homer tasa has more in johannesburg and we do warn you that this report contains images of burn victims that some may find disturbing. collins my sukhumi was on a routine delivery when

a car with 3 men inside blocked the road and forced him out of his truck he says he's lucky to be alive but he gave out and neither are any of us could do or do and i wonder if he i don't know if they are you annoyed as a day i mean if they come down. or been made or. when i put the male leg down just someone yes you can you are you oh. 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 literally over there would drop opportunity doesn't

include in their particular country but a continent should. be given to. their citizens about what to protect and 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 he even before the call of a 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 they've got 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. mco is marking the 21st anniversary of its return to china from portuguese control but unlike hong kong big gambling hub has embraced beijing's tightening grip to apologize but. 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. while 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 asked for it to. slap west a strong china. on to. 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. your child is there with me the whole rub the reminder of all top stories the u.k. government has announced a stay at home order after a new strain of corona virus was found belgium italy and the netherlands have now banned passenger flights and rail connections from the united kingdom but the barber has moved from london. we know that in the netherlands a variant of saws called to the virus which causes the illness has actually been detected while 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 this.