country as a whole. is another religion this is the politics me and mark an unholy alliance on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. color and tone of his is the al-jazeera news hour live from london coming up. shutting the door in britain more countries close their borders to try to stop the new variant of the virus but the u.k. economy is set to suffer. to our international friends and. i would say sorry for you that we understand you. europe approves use of the fire as a vaccine the 1st doses could be given in a matter of days. u.s.

president elect joe biden gets the vaccine as congress prepares to vote on a $900000000000.00 bill for economic health. and once in every 400 years the close fast in space and its part in the christmas story. german ashur its borders one of india's top cricketers is ruled out of that sort of australia and in germany a person much in black but footballer marcus around is given a 6 game ban basing as an opponent's. a new and more contagious variant of corona virus that spreading across the united kingdom has now seen the country cut off from much of the rest of the world it comes as the medicines regulator approved the pfizer biotech vaccine for use across the 27 member states with

a 1st dose is set to be given out on sunday the us president elect joe biden has shown his support for the coronavirus vaccine getting his shot live on television on monday congress is voting now on a stimulus bill meanwhile south korea has banned gatherings of more than 4 people in the capital seoul as woman tries to control what it is described as an. explosive surge in infections and back here in the u.k. prime minister boris johnson says about half a 1000000 people have not been vaccinated but 25 of the 27 e.u. nations have introduced travel bans from the u.k. johnson saying he's working with france to resolve the border closures said baik report. fears a food shortage is prompting many to stock up on supplies u.k. flights banned from dozens of countries. but prime minister blair is johnson is trying to reassure everyone that everything is under control hoping to have the situation resolved after speak to france's president emmanuel background it's very

very important. not just for the peoples of iraq but it's also totally realistic we have a reason to be extremely hopeful about this country's ability to bounce back next year from. it outside on the streets on the borders with a very different picture or anything to be hopeful about britain has never faced such a challenge the announcement by the government of a new more transmissible strain of the covert virus has concerned france europe and many other countries the new variant was identified in the u.k. in september and by last week it accounted for more than 60 percent of coverage 1000 cases in london thought to be about 40 to 70 percent more transmissible but scientists say it doesn't appear to be more deadly and there's no evidence to suggest that the new vaccine will be less effective against it variants of the virus have also been identified in spain belgium a strain here italy the netherlands and south africa instead of infecting one or 2

people when you're talking or breathing near them like infecting 3 or 4 ok so this seems to be how the virus is spreading further and faster so it's not spreading a different way it's just as more of it spreading to more people who are nearby. johnson says he hopes free transport issues will be resolved soon and he's working with his european partners to find a solution yet the only 10 days left for the u.k. deadline to leave europe totally this still no trade deal the disruption the u.k. is experiencing now a possible a prelude of what's to come if they leave europe without a deal i said big al-jazeera london the u.k. is finding itself increasingly isolated from the rest of the world take a look at which countries have banned travel in the past 24 hours in europe that includes the u.k.'s nearest neighbor france which has banned all travel from the u.k. except unaccompanied freight germany switzerland belgium spain and more in asia

india and hong kong have banned flights while in the americas canada argentina and colombia all among the countries to spit suspend u.k. flights in the middle east and north africa israel is preventing entry to all foreign citizens from the u.k. along with denmark and south africa turkey has banned flights from those 3 countries plus the netherlands and kuwait amman and saudi arabia have now closed their borders completely. were brought in by france in particular has brought much of the u.k.'s cargo trade to a halt it's led to scenes like these mile after mile of tailbacks as trucks carrying essential goods and produce to and from france become stranded at closed ferry ports and tunnels or a chance reports from the end of that queue but port of dover. the cold waters of the english channel have rarely seen more of

a barrier. is usually one of the busiest ports in the world but the u.k. is now cut off for much of its country scared by the u.k.'s infectious new coded strain have imposed travel bans france has also banned the transport of accompanied freight this is the result kilometer after kilometer of stranded lorries and drivers not knowing when they'll make it home i have 3 children and wife. and they may need me to him for his medicine christmas in poland is a very special holiday that's. fine for the region and. for the chanels. for polish people it's very hard to be away on christmas. so this situation. cost me. on the day of the sea front

a line of vans with rumanians not knowing when they'll make it home we've been waiting on we don't have in all one needs will it's been long you know one things like that we want because we waiting we sleeping in the car you know we want everybody to be war i did for the british this compounds the sense of unease already brought on by tough new coronavirus restrictions and the effect of cancellation of family christmas celebrations for millions in recent memory the u.k. has never felt so isolated sided lonely so rats and mice with people cut off from each other and now with a new travel ban people cut off from much of the rest of the worlds and this is perhaps just a small 4 say so what might be coming if the united kingdom cannot reach a deal with this year of being partners by the end of the year the government says . food and medicine supplies are sufficient for now but there are warnings from the

food industry that some fresh products might run out in days is good start start moving again soon will reach islands al-jazeera. still to come on the news hour south korea's explosive coronavirus surge a drastic action being taken to prevent its health system collapsing. returning to the table parties to the iran nuclear deal get ready to welcome back a biden lead united states. and its support action from a european kiteboarding championship in spain. a human the states are preparing to roll out the pfizer biotech coronavirus vaccine after it was given the green light by regulators approval by the european medicines agency follows similar moves by both britain and the us countries including france germany and italy say they'll begin mass vaccinations as soon as sunday we know

a lot more about this disease now than we knew 10 months ago even more than we knew that 3 months ago but we're still there is still new information coming in and this needs to be fully assess back seems alone will not be the silver bullet that will allow us to return to normal life but the authorize ation of this 1st vaccine is definitely a major step in the right direction and an indication but 2021 can be brighter than 21027000 has more from amsterdam on how the vaccination program will work. there was a lot of pressure for 450000000 people here in the european union to get this vaccine as soon as possible but despite the pressure on this by the fact that they actually moved this meeting 8 days forward on the pressure from germany they sat the whole the station was based on science there was no political considerations

that's why all the 27 member states have waited for this approval what happens next is that in the next few days possibly by wednesday there will be this so-called marketing authorization coming from the european commission which means that the rollout can start then the vaccine will travel to all the countries in the european union but some are way ahead of us in the appropriateness of for example germany has put up these large vaccination times already they want to start on sunday already france has the same planning but other countries like the netherlands they don't have to infrastructure nor are there i in order because this needs to be properly prepared everyone needs to vaccine so everyone needs to be registered and followed very carefully so it needs a lot of preparations and some countries templi haven't done that yet so it will be a huge operation 1st the medical personnel will be inoculated that elderly people that some a common strategy here in the whole of europe out of people like the healthy people

will only be inoculated probably only by may june july so this whole operation will would at least take my 8 months or even more. here's president elect joe biden has received his 1st dose of the pfizer file and take coronavirus vaccine he joins a growing list of high profile figures being vaccinated publicly in an effort to develop public confidence he says he wants to see at least 100000000 vaccine doses given during the 1st 100 days of his administration. i'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared 'd once a variable 'd to take the vaccine there's nothing to worry about i'm looking forward to the 2nd structure with g.o.p. senators. i hope people listen to all the experts from your doctor from the keys are talking about the need to wear a morass during this christmas and new year's holidays were mass socially distance

. and if you don't have to travel don't travel one of the most visible faces of the white house coronavirus response has been criticized for breaking her own guidance dr deborah backs traveled to a vacation property with members of her family from 2 other households on the day after thanksgiving she advised americans to remain vigilant and celebrate the holiday only within the immediate households she insists the visit to her property was to prepare it for sale not to celebrate thanksgiving. millions of americans could start receiving pandemic relief payments from the beginning of next week it's off to congressional leaders approved a $900000000000.00 relief bill that still needs to be voted on your pastor joins us live from washington d.c. so can we expect the money to come through. well that is what the leaders of congress are promising but this is a slow and tedious process we're talking about one of the longest bills as far as

how many pages it contains in the history of the u.s. congress with 5593 pages that lawmakers are combing through at this moment when they have until midnight which is. in a few hours time from here to get this legislation passed in order to avert a government shutdown on top of all this but the leaders of congress are promising that in the 11th hour there will be a vote and they're expecting this legislation to pass both houses of congress now what does it contain well it's that $600.00 check to most americans it's extending unemployment benefits through the middle of march as well as relief for local governments and more of a meant a rental even action moratorium and rental assistance this is all things that cannot come soon enough for the millions of americans who are not only dealing with

the health aspects of this pandemic but also of course dealing with unemployment possible even actions and suffering the economic consequences as well more i mean is there a likelihood that it will be brought well at this point though the administration's to treasury secretary is saying that these checks will arrive to americans by next week and it looks like everything is set in place for this to pass there are no obstacles foreseen it's just a simply a matter of getting through all those pages getting things in writing and voted on rushing into the white house of course for president trump's signature making it into law but all sides are saying that will happen if not at least at the very last minute lauren thank you very much indeed. tough new restrictions have been imposed in the south korean capital seoul and neighboring provinces to

try to contain surging coronavirus cases gatherings of more than 4 people have been banned over the end of year holiday period health officials say the country is in the middle of its 3rd wave of the virus with about a fountain a new cases per day well the bribe reports. the new restrictions will limit private gatherings to just 4 people and they're being introduced ahead of the year end holiday season. to know we will not be able to overcome the crisis unless we reduce cluster infections being spread through private gatherings of family members colleagues and friends often praised for its handling of the coronavirus the government is worried about pandemic fatigue setting in unlike previous waves which were concentrated in specific areas or groups this is happening across the country with hospitals becoming stretched and. at the moment our medical response in providing extra beds and assigning patients efficiently it's

a slow compared to the increasing numbers of patients we are dealing with temporary centers i've also been set up offering free testing which tens of thousands of people have taken up being increased testing has been running for a week and is due to go on into the new year it's already turned up several 100 people who didn't know they were infected and didn't have a connection with any known cases it's hoped these measures will avoid a complete shutdown of businesses with the government's vaccination campaign not starting until the spring that time table decided upon when the infection rate was much lower now being widely criticized the bride al-jazeera sole. the european union's medicine regulator has given its final approval for the pfizer biotech vaccine that means it's cleared for use across the 27 member nations other countries that have already allowed its use include the u.k. u.s. switzerland and catarrh and it's not the only inoculation being approved the u.s.

has signed off on another vaccine made by the drug firm medina russia has approved its nuclear made sputnik the vaccine and now the british company astra zeneca has signed a legal document with its makers to test it along with the job it's developing itself and in china a total of 4 vaccines have been approved including one specifically for the military one of the chinese candidates has also been approved by bahrain professor jeff lazarus is a research at the barcelona institute for global health and a former senior technical officer at the world health organization who joins us live from barcelona by skype thanks very much for being with us so in terms of progress of dealing with the coronavirus the fact that there's a rollout now or possibly from europe within the next few days and we've got progress in the states and elsewhere where does that put put us in terms of actually progress on dealing with the crown of ours. well it's really great news and purchasing good shape with 2 vaccines and one or 2 on the way it means we can

really start to deploy the vaccine quickly across all the european union across the united kingdom and other countries where it's now been approved by the new variant should the u.k. is said to spread more easily how much of a setback is that at this stage at this stage it's not a setback it's not a surprise it's common for viruses to mutate we've known about this variant since september so it's well it's not welcome it's not yet a setback and it looks like the current back that seems will work but time will tell and how likely is it that the variant might already be elsewhere in the world . it's quite likely so we know it's been identified in australia in denmark today it was a dent a fight in italy so it's likely that it's already spread through much of the european union or that we need to wait to hear back from the surveillance centers in each country and what about the the kind of the monitoring of the variance i mean is it that a lot of countries are monitoring and they've not found anything that's been a serious is this in the past always it that the monitoring perhaps hasn't picked

things up well what what's your assessment of how much the variance can be more damaging him than we might think i think it's probably a combination so the u.k. has done a good job in identifying the variant and making it known now other countries are aware of it and they'll be looking more carefully to that to see if that variant is in those countries one of the concerns about this variant is that it's thought it might be more transmissible if that's the case then we have to take extra precautions to prevent the spread of that $1000.00 in terms of to go back to the vaccine rollout plans what's your assessment of how far they've gone so far and what you know what the kind of challenges are at this stage. well they really only just started so we're in the planning phase it's been rolled out to an elder care homes it's starting to go to some hospitals for health care professionals so it's going quite slowly as expected but i think through january we're going to see it

really pick up speed and then through february we should see it take off and we'll see extensive deployments across across the countries that have approved it and is that if there is such a race against time in terms of if the vet vaccine if the vaccines are rolled out and then. mutates in a way that to try surveyed the vaccines is that is is the expectation that will happen anyway and it will need to change that scene so do you think that the what you've seen so far of of corona virus and how it mutates that actually that isn't too much well. it's certainly a worry all eyes are focused on that extra attention is being paid but i think we're we're still in time but it means that we have really no time to lose so we need to quickly roll out the vaccine particularly to the most vulnerable populations and be vigilant about this very and the any other variants that may that may occur thank you very much indeed i suggest lazarus thank you thank you.

well that's his 1st shipment to the pfizer biotech corner a speck scene has arrived in the capital doha ready for distribution the elderly those with chronic illnesses and front line workers will be the 1st in line once the roll out begins. well so far there is still. the 1st bunch of shipment has arrived in the state of qatar as manufactured by pfizer beyond take into hammered international airport is the 1st of a series of shipments that will follow in the coming weeks and months the 1st branch will be administered to senior citizens and people with chronic and acute diseases and front line workers fighting the pandemic this will also include workers in elderly homes and other facilities. the u.a.e. is defacto ruler and a private bank in luxembourg have been accused of trying to plot cutters economic downfall bloomberg news says it seen e-mails documents and legal filings between mohammed bin zayed and bank havilland it suggests a plan to attack katter's financial markets including depleting its foreign

exchange reserves the idea was reportedly hatched shortly after the u.a.e. saudi arabia egypt and bahrain imposed a blockade on katter aunt caroline denies the allegations. one cup alan is the director of policy analysis at the arab center for research and policy studies he joins us now from doha via skype what do you make of these allegations an e-mail and it will be specific nation imagines in these e-mails. but actually i'm not surprised to hear that we all know that by fall of 2017 actually then i got him and it was trying actually to put more pressure on qatar on order to borrow to. that the 15 demands that had been put forward by the blockading countries when actually resisted at the very beginning so the plan was to try and undermine qatar as economy and try also. and undermine

the cause see that in fact billions of dollars going to support. the qatari so as i said it's not a big surprise for most of us here. that we have now been ops more like evidence by the leaking of the by the image is actually. reported by bloomberg and i want to what was there something that jumped out at you that that surprise you at all. it wasn't as i said it wasn't really a surprise because the plan at the time as a said was to try and force the top 2. to sunder and there was also at that time they were willing to use all sorts of actions in order to force got the 2 sunda including method action and craft i was surprised to hear at that time a meal of kuwait that it

a middle of kuwait during the famous. conference with president drum in september of 2017 he said that we managed to actually took that event that military action against against the tide of so when the news came after that that the book at the country's many they not out of it but it was like actually to put more pressure on the economy i mean it wasn't really a big a big big surprise for anybody here to me what are the prospects at the moment of a blockade coming to an end what actually over the past few weeks we have been hearing. like i mean. especially from the going to mediators because you know kuwait has been trying to mediate to end this crisis from the very beginning that there are signs very good sides actually that this crisis might at the end actually eventually come to an end especially between qatar saudi arabia. we all are domestic here actually that we might be seeing.

a light at the end of the time and maybe when the g.c.c. summit convene hendrie are on. next month actually on january 5th so we are hopeful for that most of the issue is between qatar and saudi arabia have been discussed and maybe we are well close to ending this crisis between the 2 countries and how do you think biden ministration affects any likelihood of reparations. well i'm not sure the buy that mr chalabi having died actually thinking about the g.c.c. guys i don't think that this would be covered on the agenda of this administration they have so much actually to be with inside the united states and outside they have covert 19 they have the economic crisis they have got attention and we need also to i mean to end with this transition and in washington.

basically before we talk about any sort of interest by they not assistance or dissolving into the crisis between the between the g.c.c. countries. we believe that we are hopeful that the said that we might actually seeing a like of them before that problem actually leaves office because it seems that atomic visitation is more like willing to play a. very active role in solving this crisis because it started with that drop administration because you know that. the locating countries funding and president up and bought tickets at a pretty supportive was issued at the very beginning so that was actually the trigger of the crisis and we all hope actually to see the end of the crisis before president trump leaves office next month thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thank you there are many parties to the iran nuclear deal say they're

preparing for the u.s. to join them under president elect joe biden and eventual meeting there are many signature is committed to work towards full implementation a deal to lift sanctions in exchange for limits to iran's nuclear program unraveled in 2018 after donald trump withdrew the u.s. incoming president joe biden says he will rejoin if iran strict compliance of ari has more from the iranian capital tehran. the foreign ministers met virtually and held the meeting for just over an hour this is the 1st time that the remaining signatories to the nuclear agreement of 2015 that their foreign ministers have met since september of 2018 there's a lot to discuss since the united states was true from the deal in may of 2013 and since iran started reducing its compliance to the nuclear agreement the communique that was issued after this meeting as stated that all parties remain committed to it and they want to do everything they can to preserve it and that they are open

and remain positive to the possibility of the united states returning to the nuclear agreement there is hope that the incoming biden administration will return to this deal and there is preparations be ongoing for that possibility there's also a bi annual meeting at the united nations security council on choose they were they will discuss compliance to the nuclear deal all parties maintain that they are committed to preserving this deal this is the news from london still ahead the unexpected u.s. coronavirus success story how the cherokee nation has kept the pandemic in check. and india's cricket has received some bad news before the 2nd test against australia that story coming up in sport in general.

it's about to get mild wet and windy again for northern europe yet another finger quite a wide finger is in cities from the atlantic it's going to be this area here where temperatures rise quite rapidly from low single figures to the teens in some places pretty mild this time the there is still cold air around evens glasgow new 6 degrees and you'll probably find the outside quite cold but to be honest is a bit of a mild sparrow and it carries on in that vein with rain significant i think for parts of france the low countries and a swirl of cloud the or swirl of wind suggesting an area of low precious or temporarily stormy but vienna represents that models for which disappears by friday christmas day could be me some snow in vienna and this not very likely in london but temperatures do drop down to around the 5 mark with the sunlight during friday just 2 examples now we have had story where the in the med recently it's just a bit sharing on the central med certainly there's

a warning out for parts of southern italy 3 matty rain well that might happen in libya come tuesday or you know mines today as a church for the say otherwise looking fine not particularly warm in cairo at 20 or 21 degrees with on shore breeze but funnily enough that is average and for about an average 90. an award winning investigation i mean a worker's room right behind it has ring factory when we operate for less and we buy for less we can pass those savings all of our customers into the supply chains that produce cheap clothing. with little regard for workers' lives the remains of the fire are still everywhere rewinds made in bangladesh on al-jazeera. setting the discussions millions of americans feel disaffected by both political

parties examining the headlines this group of activists and relatives are marching band clinton right now where they're calling for morning edition and then also explore enough abundance of world class programming designed to inform why is child the only solution for a child as young as 10 months of 8 am densify you see the world from a different perspective on al-jazeera. from one of the top stories here not just here the u.k. is being increasingly cut off from the rest of the world over a highly contagious variant of the corona virus is spreading here

a growing list of countries that impose travel bans or restrictions including almost all of the e.u. . the e.u. member states are preparing to roll out the pfizer biotech coronavirus vaccine after it was given the green light by regulators countries including germany austria and italy say they'll begin inoculations as soon as sunday. millions of americans could start receiving pandemic relief payments from the beginning of next week question leaders have approved a 900000000000 dollars stimulus package and it's expected to be voted on by the house shortly. one u.s. community has had remarkable success at keeping the pandemic in check the cherokee native american nation in the state of oklahoma has 140000 residents but just 55 coronavirus deaths reynolds looks at how it's responded to the outbreak. in fighting the worst public health crisis in a century how did a relatively small self-governing native american nation with limited resources

succeed so well while the wealthiest most technologically advanced nation on earth failed so miserably there's no simple answer rather a series of timely decisions we started early on with a task force and we actually started meeting in march to develop a multi-disciplinary plan to how we were going to take care of our citizens and. and to those that depend on us for health care the oklahoma based tribes health care system marshalled resources and coordinated with other tribal departments to focus on cove it gave us the ability to be a little more proactive and start working on problems before those problems became became crisis unlike the us as a whole the cherokees spent decades investing in high quality health care for all their citizens that we have a philosophy of the cherokee nation that people just ought to have access to

healthcare unlike president donald trump cherokee principle chief chuck hoskin relied on scientific advisors and didn't try to downplay the pandemic i think it's important for political leadership to be honest and straightforward with people tell people what the dangers are you don't get anywhere by trying to quote avoid panic by not telling people how serious an infectious diseases tribal government worker derek van became ill in june when i got to the clinic they were ready and willing to give me a test right there on the spot you have me he tested positive as he quarantined at home health care workers constantly monitored vans condition i trusted that they knew everything about my case then has now fully recovered other native american nations like the navajo have fared far worse and have lost many lives to coven. oh the turkey mission medical staff was excellent i think it was

a plus care that sense of trust is key with us modeling those examples i think that's created a level of trust that's been able to get those things accomplished in a very easy manner chief hoskin wore a mask and stressed the need for social distancing even this statue of cherokee national hero sequoia was fitted with a mask meanwhile the governor of oklahoma tweeted a picture of himself and his kids dining masculists in a crowded restaurant the state of oklahoma still can't get its act together with a mass mandate we've been here since may with the mask and the cherokee people and their leaders have set an example for the nation it's about competence and caring and it works robert oulds al jazeera. in the slums of rio de janeiro their current pandemic is making an already bad situation worse unemployment is at record levels and some essential goods have tripled in price but as monica and if reports one

activist isn't working to ensure hundreds of children still get to celebrate christmas. in the middle of the couvade 19 pandemic when the national parks were closed mochas in rio de janeiro started looking for hidden trails far from the crowded beaches. he discovered mountain paths overlooking some of real's most breathtaking sights. the entry to the forest is to the bob good morning a slum named after the last hanging gardens of the ancient city of not alone. activist silva so this is an opportunity to help people living you're facing poverty recession and record 14 percent unemployment ok look in the phone join. when hundreds of people suddenly started showing up looking for our secluded trails we decided to train local guides to steer visitors from adventure but it's not just

about getting lost it's about taking the wrong way and walking into a shoe talk between drug dealers fighting for territory. now a video and was hoping santa claus find his way to the neighborhood giving 200 children the chance of celebrating a christmas their families cannot afford. like many years sabrina lost her job during the pandemic she says she's lucky to be working as a guide for a booming slum tour business and also as one of his santa's helpers that have been taking the size and employment there's inflation prices have stable goods have doubled or tripled we have to fight a new battle each day with. sponsors help by the food in presence of children were divided in 3 color coded groups to avoid overcrowding but keeping them socially distant proved to be almost impossible. to get up we almost canceled the party but

then thought it over in the midst of so much death and misery is a chance for young ones to celebrate life. it is she in the used to work in a restaurant by the beach which has reopened but she's staying at home because her one year old son has chronic bronchitis her only source of income is the government's monthly $60.00 financially and that will probably end long before the vaccine runs the market my mum if the government cancels the handouts at the end of the year i'll have no choice but to get a job any job no matter the risk brazil has the world's 2nd largest number of cove in 1000. laded dance and thanks are once again spiky especially in rio de janeiro people you see the whole the vaccine will reach the babilonia before next year's christmas but they're also realistic they say pharmaceutical companies are much like santa claus will start distributing vaccines in the richer countries of the

north and take a very long time before reaching the point neighborhoods of south america. all just sirrah rio de janeiro. 32 years after a bomb brought down a jet over the scottish town of lockerbie the u.s. justice department has charged a new suspect. mohammed mustard is accused of making the bomb that blew up the pan american plane in 198-8270 people were killed most of them americans the u.s. is requesting must be extradited from libya where he lives the united states as far criminal charges against a 3rd conspirator. masood keer. for his role in the bombing of pan am flight one o 3 but there be no mistake no amount of time or distance will stop the

united states and our scottish partners from pursuing justice in this case 2 men have been found guilty over the deaths of 39 vietnamese migrants whose bodies were found in the back of a lorry near london last year both the driver and a man described as the smuggling gangs ring leader were convicted of manslaughter vietnamese men women and children suffocated in the sealed container as they were being smuggled into britain. one of thailand's most well known actresses is facing charges for allegedly defaming the country's powerful monarchy interior cero and poor a better known by her nickname side has been open about supporting and funding a student led pro-democracy movement one of their goals is to reform the monarchy thailand has strict laws against criticism of the king and queen the penalty of up to 15 years in prison. stargazers are being treated to

a once in a lifetime celestial event as jupiter and saturn make their closest alignment since the 17th century our solar system's 2 largest planets of the moon moving closer together since september culminating in what's known as the great conjunction and event thought to have produced the biblical star bethlehem 20 chang joined us traumas on the outskirts of the capital bangkok. gathering on a bridge on the outskirts of bangkok gazing at the sky but it's not the sunset people have come to see these amateur astronomers want to catch a glimpse of the great conjunction a celestial event that happens approximately only every 20 years. we will see very bright stars jupiter is originally very bright but when saturn is near they will be even brighter together. this year however is extra special the 2 planets are coming even closer together than usual the last time this happened was in $1623.00 but

trying to see it is hard bangkok like most cities suffers from significant light pollution the light of the glimmering stars is blocked out by the glare of the bustling city. that's why the stargazers as they're known on social media have set up an exhibition of the stars at night as seen from thailand spectacular views and seen by most city dwellers and pong certain things that after the trials of 2020 there may be a message written in the skies. we have suffered sadness distress worry and tension from current virus since the beginning of the year but at the end of this year we look up and see a bright sky and it will give us hope that can keep us moving forward astronomers believe that the star of bethlehem or christmas star is actually the great conjunction that occurred in the year 7 b.c. and when it was lost this bright galileo the man considered to be the father of astronomy was still alive although he makes no record of having seen it before the

astronomers of today it presents a unique opportunity. this time the great conjunction happened true or 3 months after saturn and jupiter came close to the earth so that makes them look brighter you'll be able to see the great conjunction until the night of the 23rd and if you miss it it will come around again in 2040 if you want to see it this. right we're going to have to wait another 400 years with everyone on this planet trying to stay socially distant because a coronavirus all the planets are managing to get closer together tony channing touch on some tile and. steam rita is a computational astrophysicist at the university of exeter he joins us via skype thanks for being with us sir did you manage to see it. fortunately i did not today but yesterday and the day before and tell us what it's like and why this phenomenon is so rare. well it is rare because the orbits of saturn and jupiter are well

don't orbit in the same amount of time you get your takes about 12 years to make one round around the sun. thinks about 30 years so you need to be read of 20 years before they are at the same space in their orbit and that we can see them disclosed together so it's very rare that we can see them discussed together and what is the best way to see it and i gather you as you can see it with a naked eye but can you look at it through binoculars what's the kind of the best way of doing it yes with binoculars it's actually a great sight if you have these barren oculus you can even see the moons of jupiter and if you have a large pair of binoculars you could maybe even see a moon of saturn so that's a great way of seeing them of course if you have a telescope and that is even better you can even magnify a little bit more you can see the demo moons of saturn maybe so that's a great way of seeing them and the fact that this is something that can be seen

almost kind of it without a telescope or anything else that did you think this is something that helps to raise interest in your field and the whole area of what's up there above us. absolutely so we as a restaurant astronomers in exeter we actually did a live event yesterday. because you would try you can to do it as close as possible to the actual date of the conjunction which was today but we saw that the weather forecast wasn't really good and so we did that yesterday and we were actually streaming life what we were seeing from the university through a telescope. people want to see that we actually made a whole website around at. that time to go look what tennyson said about the conjunction itself when it does it tell us anything new is there something scientifically what do you get from seeing this. well not that much extra actually so we get we can always see jupiter and saturn from with telescopes. well if

they're visible in the sky at all. and in that sense this doesn't really tell us anything new it is just a coincidence that we can see them this close together. they're actually disclosed as close together now as as they've been mean you know over 400 years. well about 400 years. that time of course there were no dentist go so that special thing about this money is it's the 1st time ever that we can look through a dentist go up and see these bennis disclosed together and basically see both of them in the same in same glance so it's very special stephen rea to thank you very much indeed really appreciate you talking to us thank you. back here on earth of ok no on hawaii's big island has erupted shooting a cloud of steam and ash thousands of meters into the air it's didn't last did an hour and was triggered by a new novel flow interacting with a pool of water inside it away

a volcano 180000 people live on the island which experienced a magnitude 4.4 earthquake an hour after the eruption. from next year china will allow international researches to use its radio telescope near any instrument of its kind in the world the 500 meter wide facility searches for signals from stars galaxies and other life forms it took 5 years to construct and cost almost $170000000.00 denmark has banned the breeding of mink until 2022 because of a mutated form of the corona virus found on farms and as for research ports in denmark the impact on farmers could last longer than the ban. prices up what's likely to be one of the last shipments of mink pelts to leave the farm his father started nearly 40 years ago the rest of their herds are among the millions of minks that the danish government ordered to be slaughtered after

a mutation of covert $98.00 was found in the animals it could mean the country's main industry the largest in the world disappears altogether. so apartment. farming is a lifestyle they made in march you get kids in april and then you watch them grow and get this beautiful fur here that's hard for me to live without but i'll have to learn it farmers began the cull of the country $17000000.00 strong mink population last month when a strain of corona virus called cluster 5 spread from the animals to humans they were told to continue even when it was found that the mutation had probably died out weeks earlier and that the government had lacked the legal authority to order the cole in the 1st place 2 months ago this farm had more than 25000 minks housed in these buildings now like in more than a 1000 other farms across denmark it's totally. on monday the government finally passed its order into law and the banned mink farming until december 2021 but

undress and peta say it's already too late to save the industry which until now accounted for 40 percent of the world's milk production denmark's mink was also the most expensive bringing in an estimated $1000000000.00 a year i don't see any future for farming and because all the dead now of course are. saying that. we don't have this industry anymore. how is that. industry will move. china. russia where they don't have this. we haven't europe that's all. the seems to be happening with chinese make farmers saying they are ramping up production to take advantage of a surge in milk prices caused by the danish crisis animal welfare groups don't believe that's a reason to protect the industry if. it oduya some in

a 2 only one who makes our posters that live completely alone in the kitchen with a large territory it's not ok for me to live in poor conditions here just because they could be worse off somewhere else you don't think there should be minks and then one of the crisis that the danes have labeled the mink saga doesn't end here some of the animals buried in mass graves after the cold started have risen to the surface due to the effects of decomposition and all 30 spare groundwater and lakes could have been contaminated by the rotting bodies as a commission looks into the handling of the affair farmers are demanding up to $4000000000.00 in compensation saying that businesses were buried along with the banks. al-jazeera jutland denmark. still to come when i was 01 of action from the ski cross or world cup is going up coming up in sport the champ.

the all. the sport on gemma joins me thank you lauren let's start in germany where gladbach footballer marcus to ram has been given a 6 game ban the 1st space saying this is the incident which got him sent off in saturday's game against hoffenheim spot in the face of stefan posh around is also being fined $150000.00 he'll miss a glass box next. 5 matches with the 1st one gave balance to spend it on condition of good behavior until december next year chris down and out i has added yet another on earth to his collection the event is forward picked up the golden 1st award that's a lifetime achievement accolade created in 2003 voted for by fans of via the

internet interestingly a little messy has never won the prize but now they are joining the ranks of previous witnesses such as roberta baji a runner dean and samuel eto and is hard to argue against his spot among them as it well is a good man or it's something that i suspect so when one day. you know this award it's if you see the easter of this awards the legends out there received this awards they are very important so i'm glad. to receive this awards that it's the 1st one in my. mind was the i'm and i'm so happy arsenal manager. is calling on his players to be fighters not victims if they want to turn the season around arsenal haven't won any of their last 7 premier league games and losing 5 and drawing 2 is that worse start to a season for 46 years and they've scored just 12 goals only 3 teams have scored

less saturday's it's he won defeated davidson that leaves them 15th in the table just 4 points above the bottom 3 and with just 4 wins out of 14 games and knows his side need to improve quickly or face being dragged into a relegation fight when you are in this position. we have the boys that we have under more men you have to look and be careful because if we haven't been in this position at the last year when i came in we were no very soon in our position and the same joke was around the place is normal because we knew just how big you know points and then forget about it. cricket now and india's star fast bowler mohammed shami will miss the rest of that sort of australia he fractured his forearm while batting on day 3 of the 1st test in adelaide which the aussies went on to win and fast by 8 wickets shanley's absence is a massive blow to india's the tourists who already be without captain breck kohli will miss the rest of the season on paternity leave the 2nd of the 4 match series

begins on saturday in melbourne there's also some bad news for pakistan fans a captain barbarism is ruled out of the 1st test against new zealand which begins on boxing day number 5 test batsman has a fractured right. women's world number one goal for only played 4 events in the united states this year but he still managed to end the season top of the p.g.a. tour's money list spent much of 2020 in her native south korea due to the current virus pandemic the victory of the c.m.e. group tore championship on sunday so how walk away with the $1100000.00 price she shot a final round at 6 under par 66 to finish 5 clear of hannah green and say young kim also a 7th win on the tour and she plans to buy a house in texas with her winnings now to the ski cross world cup circuit and proof that you should never give up on your dreams austrian catrin or for that raced more than 120 times without a victory but today it finally happened involves

a round in france she led from start to finish and managed to avoid crashing at the last one when the 2nd place clipped the back of her skis off and has been racing for 13 seasons and couldn't hide her excitement at finally crossing the line 1st it was a really long time. to be on the top of the of the podium and thanks to all who supported my long life. i know it wasn't always easy but it was totally worth it. the world returned after a year disrupted by current virus travel restrictions australia tyler riots won the 1st women's competition to ever be out famous pipeline break this event with me from its original venue at mary's honolulu bay because of a fatal shock attack on a recreational rights been battling chronic fatigue syndrome for 2 seasons but this win back to world number one we got this opportunity. you know.

so what i say thank you. for giving us the opportunity. to make history you know i definitely don't take this. from surfing and why it's a kiteboarding in spain very it was the venue for the current for life and european championships strong winds house the competitors reach speeds of nearly 75 kilometers per hour francis cole won the men's open division i wrote. the women's when i was britain's. boarding will be included at the olympic games in 2024 in paris that is all your sport from alex i got from the notice of the lovely pictures only thanks to them. and that's it for me but you can always catch up on our web site the address for that is. dot com and i'll be back in just a few minutes with another full run of thanks so much for watching the news hour by .

a new perspective can change your world. for one chin is ian what began as a hobby has grown into a passion a way of life. teaching the next generation to strive for a higher level. and in so instilling in his country a sense of freedom and strength. new heights my chin is here on al-jazeera. a lot of the stories that we cover are hardly conflicts so it's very

important that we make them as on the standard well as we care as al-jazeera correspondent stress will be strike to do. this case city has become a major global issue the demand is going straight up and the supply is going straight down turning an essential natural resource into a commodity traded to the profit just because it's life doesn't mean it's going to be priced what about the guy that can afford it guys teles water. al-jazeera examines the social financial and environmental impact of war to privatized loads of water on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. where after the. shutting the door on britain more countries close their borders to try to stop a new variant of the virus but the u.k. economy is set to suffer to our international friends and partners i want to say of very frankly that we understand your concern. and our intelligence is our desire a live from london also coming up europe approves use of the pfizer vaccine the 1st doses could be given in a matter of days.