the best. you're watching the news hour live from headquarters and. coming up in the next 60 minutes the border closures mounts as the u.k. looks for a way out of a travel crisis sparked by a variant strains of the current virus. another variant of the current virus surges in south africa leading many countries to suspend flights from there. the u.s. congress approves a $900000000000.00 coronavirus relief package as the country's total number of infections passes. and extreme poverty will look at whether china's

multi-billion dollar plan is working. with the schools football's governing body is a criminal case against former president. accusing him. welcome to the news hour as corona virus spreads around the globe there are new concerns over mutated versions prompting a growing list of countries to shut their doors on the u.k. the w.h.o. says it will meet to discuss ways to counter that variant british scientists say the strain is more contagious but doesn't appear more dangerous than the original yet more than 40 countries have banned travel to and from the u.k.

well that's causing chaos for trades with hundreds of strikes as you can see stuck on the u.k. side of the channel just days before christmas the british prime minister says he's in talks with france to resume freight transport and food and medicine supplies will be affected. it's very can 1st to stress these delays which are only occurring at dover only affect human handled freight which means the vast majority of food medicines and other supplies are coming and going as needed it's very very important. not just for the peoples of the role but it's also totally realistic we have every reason to be extremely hopeful about this country's ability to bounce back next year from cape it well another country facing isolation as south africa health officials say a resurgence is being driven by a different variants from the u.k.

one they situation is also worsening over an asia taiwan has reported its 1st locally transmitted case in 8 months that's ended what's believed to be the longest period without a domestic infection for any country over in thailand's a large cluster of markets prompted authorities to start testing 40000 people but there has been some good news in the world's worst hit country the u.s. congress has approved a 900000000000 dollar emergency stimulus package if the president signs it off then millions of americans could receive much needed relief payments from next week so we'll have more on all of that shortly but 1st to the u.k. where trucks carrying essential goods are stranded were a challenge sent this report from dover. the cold waters of the english channel have rarely seems more of a barrier. is usually one of the busiest ports in the world but the u.k. is now cut off from 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 wife. and 10 they may need me to cram for christmas christmas in poland is a very special holiday that's a. bind with religion and their. traditional. for polish people it's very hard to be away on christmas. so this situation. cost me. on the day of a sea front a line of vans with rumanians not knowing when they'll make it home we've been waiting on and we don't have the one need to spend money on things like we want

because we waiting we sleeping in the car you know we want everybody to be war right 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 largely so atomized with people cut off from each other and now with a new travel ban people cut off from much of the rest of the world and this is perhaps just a small force a star what might be coming if the united kingdom cannot reach a deal with its european 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 if goodstein start moving again soon or retellings al-jazeera. will be on the other side about border shortly

in paris with bernard smith but 1st let's stay in dover and get the latest from paul brown and paul what are you seeing right now in dover. but i'm still here at the gates of the pole to web police and security are letting some trucks through you can see this truck behind me but most are being turned away the ones that are going for the ones i'm told that have unaccompanied freight on them so the drivers will take those trailers in believe the trailers inside and they'll be taken onto a ship and transported away to be picked up by another drive on the other side it will be the same drive across the channel and on that way and that on that basis they get around the restrictions that the french have imposed that said that what we've seen this morning is a massive backlog 'd of trucks and lorries all around the kent area the government issued some statistics this morning talking about some 650 lorries popped up on the

m on the m 20 motorway and about 870 at a holding area manston affeldt say that those statistics do not include lorries that i saw with my own eyes driving down here on the way to the m 2 so the government estimates around 1500 lorries parked up i think is going to be worn by the reality of the situation here in jova there was a lot of congestion of the small and from where i'm looking now i can see that some of the congestion has eased and i understand the police have been moving some of the lorry drivers have been down here at the poles area away to holding areas trying to levy a the traffic congestion here in the city center were all waiting for word from the political sphere munden paris brussels as to exactly. when this blockade will end and on what basis yeah paul and specifically on those talks where do things stand right now because we know that officials from both sides have been holding discussions. yes. rumors that are

emerging appear to suggest that the french want to see testing as the cornerstone of any release of drivers back across to the other side that said that testing might not necessarily be p.c.r. testing the full mouth and those swaps sense away to a lab it could be that they could just be the last real flow test which is a swap dropped on to a kind of almost pregnancy test type of small device which gives a result in around 30 minutes i understand from reports from that side of the tunnel that there's been squabbling over exactly what what the preference for the testing is but essentially what is necessary is for a launch number of drivers i'm on that on that cargo to get across and we're just 3 days left to christmas that's a massive massive logistical challenge. all right paul brennan thank you very much paul is reporting from dover so that is what's happening on the english channel let's bring in bernard smith he's joining us from paris and bernard so far almost

every member state has now stopped travel from the u.k. do we expect to see a more coordinated or a united response and what are the french saying. there were talks on some sort of coordinated response as to how to react to this new very into the coronavirus coming from the u.k. there isn't warm from the european union yet generally throughout the generally throughout the coronavirus individual european countries about their own regulations someone coronavirus p.c.r. test before you arrive others don't enforce a quarantine and others don't on this particular issue the french we understand. we've been reading in local media are going to say that anybody coming from the u.k. french citizens and residents of france will have to have a p.c.r. test before they come to france but if you're not a french resident if you're not a french citizen then you won't be able to come this will particularly be aimed at

those lorry drivers stuck in kendall though how they'll be tested is another issue but of course they are the point to remember is that if you live in if you're french and you live in the u.k. in a tear for area which is the southeast of england you're already locked down your already not allowed to travel so you haven't been allowed to come if you want to come to france for christmas holiday with relatives or family you've already not been allowed to do that we're not allowed to leave home so this will mainly affects those people who cross the business reasons lorry drivers crossing from the u.k. into from it's all right bernard thank you very much for giving us that update from paris let's not speak to anna blakeney who's a research fellow at imperial college london she's also bio engineer working on the covert 1000 vaccine development team and she is joining us from london thanks very much for your time with us on the al-jazeera news hour so all of this travel chaos sparked by this new variant of the corona virus how concerning is this how

concerned are you by it it's. really you are right now in. the back are you. ready after the new strain so it's very likely that the back and. i'll just have to stop you there i do apologize because we are having some trouble hearing you will try and restore that connection and come back to a little later in the news hour but for now we will tell you about south africa because it's struggling to contain a surge in new cases. the latest from johannesburg. scientists say they still studying this new strain of the data collected so far suggests that it's spreading fast and they also say it could be responsible for the 2nd wave of the countries currently experiencing in the countries getting on average just under 10000 new infections a day is been identified in. the eastern cape province and the garden that's where

you get the cape town area for example where lots of tourists usually flock to at this time of year and this is another blow to the tourism industry you've got this new strain and then the flight bans and so that because tourism industry has survived pretty much to some of the people coming in from the u.k. europe middle east asia and other parts of the world so now these businesses are now feeling another pressure as well for example you go to. province you find in a place called st lucia a very popular tourist resort is saying that they have had more than 50 percent of cancellations because of this you go to durban a lot of the hotels are closed commuter jana's the mayor the big hotel chains are also shut lots of people are losing out of work as well and this is the time of the year when people are in the fist of mood many people come to their vehicle for tourism and now they're saying that people would who are hoping to make some kind of money this time around those hopes have not been dashed and will go back to

we've restored our audio connection here and i thanks for just hanging in there so let me ask you just once again i mean correct me if i'm wrong here but there have been several previous meeting mutations of covered 1000 so why is this one in particular so alarming. yes so as as you said there have been previous mutations and we're continuing to monitor this this one is you know getting some attention i think just because we are seeing it at a greater problem and circulating in the u.k. now so it's obviously something we need to keep an eye on what's really important is that we go back and actually do the experiments to see that if the vaccines that are already approved will be affective against a strain i think it's very likely that it will be effective against this strain as well it hasn't mutated that much that it would be you know completely ineffective but those tests are being done at this very great and what does that mean when you say do those experiments i mean what do those experiments actually look like because the c.e.o. of a bylane tech also said that he does expect the vaccine to work but he needs about

or the company needs about 2 weeks worth of data to find out if it actually works is that enough yet that's about how long it would take so the kind of clever way of doing this is that you take blood from people that have already been vaccinated so we have lots of those samples from the clinical trials you then take that new strain of the virus and see if the blood is able to neutralize the virus in the same way and prevent it from infecting cells so it's a quick test that we can do in the laboratory that will tell us conclusively whether or not the vaccine works on this new strain or not and why is it the the strain a 70 percent more infectious than the other strains of the virus so that's an estimate there's no hard data as of now as to how much more contagious it is than the others and i think that was an estimate based off of some of the at the epidemiological bottling that's been happening thus far but we're still looking at is it actually more transmissible and you know what are the properties of this new strain so it's

to be determined as of yet how has it gone from being nonexistent virtually to now being the most common form of the virus in parts of england than just in a matter a few weeks. yes so this is something that actually happens quite naturally in all of viruses so they mutate they mutate at different rates you know we actually already saw a different strain compared to the will heighten strain in europe this year so it's just something that happens nationally which is why we need to continue studying it and taking keeping track of all the different strains that we're seeing and i know that you yourself have been taking to take talk to reassure young people who are concerned about the safety of the vaccine because they say well they simply don't trust how fast this process has moved. yet so you know to talk i think it's a great way to you know target young people but really anybody in the general public and you know it's a very approachable way to explain in 15 seconds or a minute each new topic you know like the new strain of the coronavirus and really

be there to be able to answer people's questions which is my mission. all right we'll leave it there thank you thank you very much for speaking to us from london thanks for having me we're getting reports just now that the e.u. is recommending all its 27 members to discourage nonessential travel to and from the united kingdom and hong kong is one of the hubs imposing restrictions on flights from the u.k. people who spent more than 2 hours in britain in the past fortnight will be banned from boarding flights to hong kong that includes the city's residents south korea is banning gatherings of more than 5 people starting from christmas eve restrictions will be in place for at least 10 days as the country tries to contain a surge and infections about a 1000 new cases are being reported daily and ski resorts and other major tourist spots will also be shut rob mcbride reports from seoul. it was only monday that the authorities in the greater seoul area announced tougher restrictions home to around

half of south korea's population and choose day these tougher restrictions are going to be put in place across south korea and it comes as we've seen this let 3rd wave produce around up to 1000 new cases a day we've also had another grim milestone of setting a record for the number of deaths from covert 924 now these numbers might not seem large by comparison to other parts of the world but when you consider where south korea was even up to just a few weeks ago it seemed to be have this under control to have it beat so it is very concerning for the authorities there the worry is that when we get into this holiday period that they really want to try to deter people from having large gatherings so we are seeing a strong recommendation from the government that people do not meet in groups of private gatherings of 5 or more people now it's only a recommendation but it is a very strong one and in fact restaurants have been told they're not allowed to

take any bookings of groups of 5 or more also we're seeing restrictions on for example hotels are only allowed to have 50 percent occupancy possibly a bigger measure with a closure of ski resorts ski resorts are normally very busy at this time of year just getting into the winter season they have now been told to close again and we've also had to announce the national parks will also be closed at this time of year it is normal for families to go out and see sunsets and sunrises over the new year period well those 2 will be closed and all these measures in place through to the 1st week of january and as we mentioned earlier thailand's health authorities are racing to contain a cluster of infections that seem to have originated in a seafood market around 30 kilometers from bangkok so far more than a 1000 cases have been identified in what is thailand's largest single outbreak it's a major blow for the nation which. has been hailed for its success in combat in the virus tony toni chang reports from bangkok. but.

a mobile testing unit pulls into a market in the north of bangkok in 72 hours thailand's corona virus infection numbers have increased by 20 percent got mcafee came here for screening before and found out there are floating eye people who were in radio host one type and infected person from the market today we will collect samples of all of the traders inside word trade to scan a q.r. code to register with the health authority only the stallholders are eligible for testing today others who have coated concerns are being turned away. infections originating from the seafood market in cements a cone and now being discovered in bangkok and provinces even further away outside the unpleasant process begins but these people are not alone the thai government says it'll test 10000 people in an attempt to contain the outbreak on tuesday some

of those tests revealed 427 new infections a huge rise in a country that had seen 0 local transmission for months. teams of health officials are now screening traders in markets across the thai capital migrant workers have also been targeted as being a particular concern and the prime minister's said he might introduce a national lockdown the transmissions continue to rise. so much i local fishmonger says many customers are choosing to stay at home now he's worried about his health and keeping his business afloat. the beginning of the economy was picking up but we now are facing this and it makes us feel as if we are going back to the 1st outbreak traders in this market say that concern about the outbreak has caused business that drop by 70 or 80 percent overall thailand has made huge economic sacrifices to rid itself of the coronavirus this outbreak continues to grow all of

that will be for nothing. with the new year holiday approaching many thais thought normal life was almost within reach the latest outbreak appears to have some dreams tony ching al-jazeera bank or. the u.s. congress has voted to pass a massive spending bill that includes nearly a trillion dollars in covert $1000.00 economic stimulus and money to keep the federal government running through september the senate approved the measure in the past hour after an earlier vote by the house of representatives president trump is expected to sign it into law for millions of americans that help can't come soon enough how does a pastor has more. majority leader after months of partisan stalemate congress finally passed a code in $1000.00 really built totaling $900000000000.00 it includes direct payment of $600.00 to most americans unemployment benefits into march and food and

rental assistance it's far from perfect i've met perfect legislations it's coming to washington i wish we could have done even more but i'm pleased we have done as well as we could have done people like 79 year old harold valentine can expect to see government checks as early as next week he says you could use it for groceries but it's not enough for the christmas gifts he'd like to send his grandkids i'm not going to have that much pride to say i don't want it i need it. this is a definite that a need here. it is worse it is getting worse. more than $20000000.00 americans are receiving unemployment benefits with an additional $885000.00 applying for aid during the 1st week of december and then there are the $3.00 to $7000000.00 americans who lost jobs but never got unemployment benefits because of problems processing their applications researchers say some 8000000 people when

they do u.s. have fallen into poverty since may and half of all small business owners say if things continue as they are they'll be forced to close permanently within a year and general you know it's been very difficult to get a you know for us for our business as well as for our staff definitely starting to feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel this food pantry in washington has been delivering up to a 1000 bags of groceries a day to struggling families every little bit helps the communities we serve and so you know a $600.00 stimulus payment. for something and these people who go in this pandemic have actually lost relatives and they've had to use some of their own money for some of the barrel expenses as the number of kobe 900 cases in the u.s. surpasses 18000000 the government is racing to deliver 20000000 doses of vaccine by the 1st week of january to save lives and the economy about to receive its own

injection of stimulus to save livelihoods. castro al-jazeera washington scott lucas is the professor for american and canadian studies at the university of birmingham he says it doesn't go far enough. republicans and democrats acknowledge that it's only an interim measure and present like joe biden has said that one of the priorities when he takes office in january 20th is to get a broader measure the reason for that is that although this provides for the renewal of unemployment benefits it does solely for a short period of time although it provides for loans to small businesses it does only cover some businesses will be more as the economy tries to come out of the pandemic and it doesn't deal with important issues such as aid to states and communities who are facing budget true crises because they're having to spend quite a bit to deal with the crisis as well the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell arguably the most important person in washington right now said no aid to states no

aid to cities there's a trope much republicans that these democratic red states and cities they're to blame for all the problems and mcconnell was playing politics with so no wait in the interim measure on the other hand mcconnell wanted to provide liability protection for businesses who might face lawsuits from workers over be exposed to coronavirus and democrats said no you can't give businesses carte blanche of unity from being irresponsible he's backed down on that that was the key compromise excluding those 2 provisions but doesn't mention a moment ago i don't think you can go through 2021 and not do something to deal with the states and communities which of course is where the pandemic is being felt on a day to day basis in the u.s. state of california health officials say they're looking for thousands more medical staff as the region runs out of intensive care beds and people to manage them the state governor says there are no more intensive care beds in 2 regions including

los angeles county which is home to over 10000000 people at least 4 hospitals are facing the prospect of having to limit lifesaving care dr adam richards is a senior technical advisor at community partners international he says the virus is surging to very worrying levels. in the united states and around the world a little over 12000 cases today really the whole of the 630 almost 635002 begin and i 56 people died and i like today's lesson more than 2 gets you know every hour and then which is a racial and ethnic the spirit of this is you can connect with either tremendous fear so you're more likely. that if you're poor. poorest neighborhoods mortality rate is 4 times the folks in the wealthier you know. what is that look like you know here on the ground always there's very few i see you that you know they will

for anybody who says implications for their care other folks who come here and how we should have been you know otherwise made it up stairs and they. were going in the emergency room they're physically located and taken care of by the we're busy running. nurses and that in turn back to new patients we're trying to get in we're seeing it was waiting patiently some of your doctor seeing patients you know inside. what are really doing about. us president elect joe biden has received his 1st dose of the pfizer by in touch her and a virus vaccine he's one of a growing list of high profile people publicly being publicly vaccinated it's part of an effort to encourage confidence in covered 1000 back scenes biden says he wants to see at least a 100000000 doses administered during his 1st 100 days in office. i'm doing this to

demonstrate that people should be prepared want vailable 'd to take the vaccine there's nothing to worry about i'm looking forward to the 2nd shot so we still see senators earlier today and i hope people listen to all the experts and the doctor from t.'s on talking about the need to wear around us during this christmas and new year's holidays were mass socially distance and and if you don't have to travel don't travel cats are as 1st segment of the pfizer biotech coronavirus vaccine has arrived in the capital ready for distribution the elderly those with chronic illnesses and front line workers will be 1st in line once the roll out begins it's being described as the largest vaccination program ever launched in the country. time for a check on the weather with rob. rather cold has stopped the wind has changed

direction we've got rain showers and snow showers in holland sure the avalanche risk is going to be a hari considering has just happened the temps the risen elsewhere or will do during wednesday i should say for the far north of china the tree in place it's still cold enough to snow but the chill starts to return during certain the rain dissipates at a fuji which briefly came back in and the sun is out by day after a chill night in most of china the active weather in the south china seas has been this tropical depression now it's only that it won't strengthen but it's got the potential to drop $300.00 millimeters of rain in the facets of vietnam during wednesday and thursday and says in friday as towards some time under some law survive this time the it shouldn't be particularly wet and sudden thailand is not what atoll india now this opposite is true is bucking draw all foci i should say damp and foggy maybe and the cold wave which means temperatures on the low side by day and particularly by night in particular living side that cold wave warning extends down to

a dish of these overnight temperatures by day briefly the fog might break you get is sunshines of a couple of hours difference the low twenty's the cold wave or last through art i think for a couple of days then it goes from the folks to the delhi. still ahead on the. cool accusations on foreign troops find out what's behind rising tensions in the central african republic a bleak forecast from a top u.n. official on prospects for a 2 state solution for palestine and the new n.b.a. season starts later on tuesday with a coronavirus plan in place peter will tell you what it is in sports. we've never had a president who has literally for years repeatedly attacked our democracy. you know loosely related to i don't have a narrative i have

a question you're getting there where people are treated. even further join me richelle carey on up my guest from around the world take the hot seat and we debate the week's top stories in pressing issues here on al-jazeera. every year 50000000 tons of electronic waste is thrown away the majority is illegal in developing countries right now electronic waste is the most traded. with retracing the tech through the criminal organizations making big profits and asking why the west is turning a blind eye. on the trail on al-jazeera. the

top stories on the al-jazeera news hour. is recommending that all its member states discourage nonessential travel to and from the u.k. due to concerns over mutated strain of corona virus more than 40 countries have closed their borders to flights and travelers from the u.k. . u.s. congress has passed a 900000000000 dollars stimulus package to help businesses and families struggling during the pandemic it comes as the number of recorded coronavirus cases exceeds 18000000 health officials in south africa say a resurgence in cases there is being driven by a different problem 1000 variance from the strain that's emerged in the u.k. several countries have halted air travel to and from south africa. or brics a trade talks are continuing in brussels negotiators are struggling to get past differences over fishing rights european commission president under lion and the

british prime minister boris johnson spoke on the phone on monday evening in an effort to make some progress let's go to us a big joining us from london to find out whether any progress was made tell us about that conversation between johnson and. well conversation is a secret one but it's been reported so it's not so secret anymore and it took place between prime minister and the head of the e.u. commission. trying to reach some sort of compromise some sort of deal before the 31st deadline no the u.k. left the uk general 1st but they've been abiding by. the display. it has been known as a transition period now that comes to an end and if the u.k. doesn't get to deal with the e.u. that means that they will go to world trade organization rules so that means it could be tariffs and border checks between the u.k. and e.u.

which also could mean increasing costs of goods destruction and if we take into account what we've seen over the last few days that disruption could be quite significant especially that you need the infrastructure in place for those checks and those tires to take place but right now the british government is saying that they are miles apart in terms of talks and what is acceptable to the u.k. in those negotiations now opposition leaders here have the government on prime minister barak's johnson to ask for an extension of that transition period they feel that the country is dealing with this covert pandemic and ministers in the government should be concentrating on that and address the issue of brics it slightly later but so far promise to johnson has said that he's position remains unchanged and even if he wanted to that deadline to aust for that extension to that transition period has passed but there are people that feel that if the u.k. were to go to the e.u. considering the unprecedented circumstances the e.u. would accommodate any request to extend that transition period but right now the

sticking point still seems to be issues around the u.k.'s fishing industry and why is that saying. point during these negotiations. exactly why is it considering that the u.k. fishing industry only accounts for 0.02 percent of the u.k. economy but nevertheless it is an issue between the e.u. and the u.k. and part of that is because the e.u. wants access to british waters. currently for e.u. member states now they're trying to negotiate over 3 things which are a sticky point one is how much those coaches are reduced by pulse bricks it and access to those. waters in terms of how much the u.k. watches how much control the u.k. will have and also what reciprocal action the e.u. can take against the u.k. if those quotas a further reduced pull spritz it right now 60 percent of the u.k.

fish caught by british fishermen exported to the e.u. now the u.k. doesn't want tariffs put on those because it would affect the industry that doesn't want to quote is reduced because it will affect e.u. member states fishing industries so that's a sticking point but people here some people here do feel that this problem is a problem made entirely by the conservative party of the u.k. government because jury and the brits campaign this very idea of sovereignty independence taking back control of the heart of the argument argument the backbone of the argument was about british waters of was about the british fishing industry most people in the u.k. do actually know that it only makes up 0.02 percent of the u.k. economy so the conservative party and the government here who are the prince of party who are in power have backed themselves into a corner and they can't be seen to compromise on this issue of the fishing industry nevertheless chief negotiator you negotiator michel barnier sent to brief diplomats

of the strengths of an e.u. member states and also address european members of parliament with that deadline of 31st of december fast approaching all rights as a big thank you for reporting from london now the united nations refugee agency is calling for urgent funding to address what it calls a full scale humanitarian emergency in ethiopia is northern tigre a region it says it needs $156000000.00 so it can keep providing aid to the 10s of thousands left displaced since last month's military operation $52000.00 people have fled into neighboring sudan in the posix weeks and an estimated 100-6000 eritrean refugees were already integrated before the conflict. currently many refugees remain in overcrowded conditions without societies and there continues to be a shortage of money soon and now the supply we have seen a huge demand for family tracing and unification education and for child friendly

spaces and nutrition programs the u.n. says it's pushed back armed rebels in the central african republic who are looking to march on the capital ahead of sunday's election the president has criticized the violence in the run up to the vote the government has accused the rebels backed by the former president. of attempting a coup. his sense additional troops to the country to help deal with the fighting. with more. we've been speaking to officials from the un peacekeeping mission here in central african republic and that telling us that they have been able to push back this rebel movement remember this is a group that was formed over the weekend the calling themselves the patriots for change it's a group of 15 we are the country's main groups and they started going on to the copy told calling for among other things a conditional government without president. so that the u.n.

says that in the west where this is a rebellion has started they've been able to contain the situation in some towns and villages but in many other areas it remains very fluid indeed because we also have groups outside of this main. that are causing trouble so in the same area we also have other run troops we have a russian. as well also carrying out operations against this grouping they are this the russians and the london are not under the u.n. mandate that means that they are able to use more force. side the country. our government. to contain the situation to make sure that this election is not disrupted. the u.a.e. used to fact

a ruler and the private bank in luxembourg have been accused of trying to plot qatar's economic downfall bloomberg news correspondence between muhammad and bank that suggests a plan to assault qatar's financial markets and deplete its foreign exchange reserves the idea was reportedly after the u.a.e. and others imposed a blockade of qatar and 2017 bank denies the allegations. and is the director of policy analysis of the arab center for research and policy studies he says there had already been signs that united arab emirates was trying to sabotage qatar's economy. we all know that by fall 2017 actually the day i got him minutes was trying actually to put more pressure on cut up on order to borrow a tool. that the a team demands that had been put forward by the countries when actually resisted at the very beginning so the plan was to try and undermine

katanas economy and i also. and undermined because see that in fact 1000000000 of does thanks to some. so as i said it's not that big surprise for most of us here. that we have now been ops more like evidence by then heating it up by that they mean is it actually. and reported by bloomberg at the time they were willing to was all sorts of actions in order to force got the tucson data including military action in fact i was surprised to hear that a meal of kuwait that ate a meal 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 got out of so when that was going off that the countries maybe they

not out of it 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 canada has pledged to give $70000000.00 to the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees to help tackle its worst ever financial crisis the agency has been struggling to run operations after the u.s. cut contributions the money from canada will be distributed over 3 years it will go towards running schools and providing health services to more than 5000000 palestinians. well the un's outgoing special coordinator for the middle east as warning the prospect of a 2 state solution for palestine is fading nicholai mother of made the comment during his last briefing on monday saying the situation has gone from bad to worse chris a salumi reports from the un. but it was a 1st at the united nations

a moroccan ambassador celebrating hanukkah with his israeli counterpart morocco is one of 4 arab nations to reestablish diplomatic relations with israel the deal was brokered by the united states for decades the prevailing assumption was that the world would only see norm was normalized in international relations with israel following a resolution of the israeli palestinian dispute but we have proven this is sumption wrong while the u.s. took credit in the security council outgoing middle east special coordinator nickel i'm alive noted the situation has gone from bad to worse for most palestinians despite an 8 month pause in the building of illegal jewish settlements in the occupied territories israel's destruction of palestinian homes for lacking permits that are rarely granted escalated by 70 percent with plans to build in areas seen as crucial to a future palestinian state advancing i do believe it was that. although every day

we see a chance of. realization frankly i do believe that it is the possible and it is possible that we recognize the legitimacy of the story. writes both israelis and palestinians alike. and exchange from morocco normalizing ties with israel the united states recognize morocco sovereignty over the western sahara region and separatists there with whom the united nations had also been engaging in peace negotiations many here in the international community see these unilateral moves by the united states as undermining longstanding norms in international agreements it was 4 years ago that the security council passed resolution 2334 calling settlement expansion a flagrant violation of international law what was significant about it was that it was the 1st one and it was 10 years to do so the 1st one since $1008.00 it took about 7 months and the united states which chose such

a solutions abstained and that's what was significant about it but there is not the controversial new in the actual resolution while president elect joe biden has promised to return to international agreements many living under occupation have to wonder what difference if any at all it will make for them kristen salumi al jazeera the united nations tech giants microsoft and google have joined facebook's legal challenge against israeli cyber surveillance firm n.s.o. a brief by the companies to a u.s. court describes the firm's hacking tools as powerful and dangerous last year facebook sued n.s.o. over claims it exploited a loophole in whatsapp allowing it to spy on more than $1400.00 people worldwide it was revealed on sunday that spyware sold by n.s.o. was used to hack the phones of dozens of al jazeera journalists. the u.s. justice department has charged so a new suspect 32 years after

a bomb attack took down an airliner over lockerbie in scotland former libyan intelligence officer. is accused of making the bomb that blew up the pan am plane in 198-8278 people 270 people were killed most of them americans the u.s. is requesting mesereau would be extradited from libya where he's in custody. the united states has filed criminal charges against a 3rd conspirator. suit here. for his role in the bombing of pan am flight $103.00 let 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 prison doctors are among at least 5 people killed in an explosion in the afghan capital local police say 4 doctors and one

other person were killed when a bomb attached to the car they were traveling in detonated 7 others were injured in the blasts the indian government says it's ready for more talks with striking farmers protesters have blockaded highways into new delhi for weeks there are demanding the repeal of a new agricultural pricing law as they say will hurt their livelihoods and benefit large corporations the government and farmers unions have previously held talks but remained locked china's leaders say the country has eradicated extreme poverty over the past 5 years the communist party has spent billions of dollars and dispatched thousands of officials to help rural households but critics question the sustainability of the program and say millions of people are risk of falling back into hardship katrina you reports from the province. lawton county in china south is known for its mountains its rivers and its poverty

. it was among those one struggling to get by living in this dilapidated house she struggled to raise enough money to send her 2 children to school. but she says thanks to the chinese government her life has been transformed she's been given a new harmon town and left this old farmhouse behind this is how. to live in crumbling buildings built about 50 years ago without any water or electricity this area is also deep in the mountains and far away for many essential services including hospitals during the past 5 years millions of people in rural china have been relocated to apartment buildings in upgraded townships here almost everything is new including the roads and schools. in 2018. that he doesn't want to go back to the old house again it was dark and dirty and

had many rats they say our new home is clean and bright beijing has spent more than 20000000000 dollars this year to meet president xi jinping deadline of eradicating extreme poverty nationwide by the end of 2020 communist party officials say they've succeeded so. people used to have a few options. it was hard to find jobs outside of farming good health care and education. now they basically live in the same conditions as people in the quality of life has a improved but not everyone has benefited some have been an able to adjust to life in the towns others say they've been forced to relocate analysts have also question the sustainability of the program millions of risk falling back into prophecy poverty line. people. it's temporary is short term spells and those kinds of people have very different kinds of needs others are already as

a chronic. a policy implement the policy response to those different states needs to be different from. his life is better but not easier. by factory involves working 12 hours a day with only 2 days off. but the sacrifice she says is worth it she's making the most of the new opportunities in the heart children might have better ones. al-jazeera county china coming up on the news hour then i must say could set a new record later the details coming up right after the break. business leaders is to buy no brass power.

business leaders is to buy no brass power.

kind of like an transports and so peter thank you dearie football's governing body fever has filed a criminal complaint against its former president sepp blatter over the finances of its museum in direct. suspects criminal mismanagement the museum which was a pit project of batters opened in 2016 of the $140000000.00 was spent on refurbishing it that it had also signed a contract with the building's owners which requires favor to pay $360000000.00 in rent until 2045 the 84 year old is already a suspect into criminal proceedings in switzerland into how he spent the 1st money as president he's always maintained he is innocent. could make history later if the schools are barcelona. in lower league or the argentine star is on $643.00

golds for the catalan club one more and he will eclipse the record he holds the pele of most goals for one club for barcelona who set foot in the league 3rd win in 4 league games is also much needed the season now to a big game in the us the champions league final takes place in florida later with 2 teams battling to make history but analysts say if the will take on figure is in orlando they are the 1st major league soccer club to beat 3 mexican teams on route to the final and will hope to make that 4 later they could also be the 1st team from m.l.s. to lift the trophy if they win. it's just an excitement for being in a final for showing. people how we play football and for competing against the great team that's the only part we were thinking to go. you know when you're a player and you get a chance to be in a final special mexican opponents take us into their 4th champions league

final but never won the trophy either to us have scored the most goals of any team in this year's competition with 13 butts of a could be without 2 of the big players on great fusion yacoub the fiery injury and a king your has a muscle strain they missed monday's training session and face a late for post test on tuesday before a decision can be made on their inclusion in the team. turkey has delayed a limb pick games will cost almost $3000000000.00 more than originally expected ringback because of the coronavirus pandemic the games opposed phone for a year because of the outbreak on tuesday organizers announced a new budget office $15400000000.00 that's up 22 percent in the last year well the japanese government ordered have indicated the costs could be much higher at least $25000000000.00 so his games were already said to be the most expensive summer olympics on record the head of the committee says it's important that they do go

ahead. not create we have 7 months until the opening of the games. of the games was unprecedented and we have been working closely with all people who are involved we need to hold the olympics as a symbol of overcoming the coronavirus and to have the olympic flame that at the stadium that's the mission we need to fulfill. the new n.b.a. season tips off later on tuesday and will do so without a bio secure bubble last season was interrupted by the great of ours to the extent that the regular season has been completed at disneyworld and then the orlando venue hosted the entire playoff stage teams will be traveling between games this time around though and commissioner adam silver says the n.b.a. has an extensive safety plan in place. we need you know some changes to the scheduling to travel changes to help reduce the chances of an incident but you know we the answer is we have a lot of plans in the drawer and we'll just see you know we're we're going to go

we're going to go forward you know are we have as i said a very competent but i i don't know i want to make sure everyone understands that safety and health of our players and all just it's our number one priority and any time we feel that being jeopardized we will. le bron james and the defending champions los angeles lakers will be in action on the opening night they will be up against their l.a. rivals the clippers at 35 years of age james says he is mindful of taking care of his body to make sure he does not weigh himself out. this into my body but i would summarize that point. you know just to this was about. be very smart we are america. you know. we want to get better every day. on these me if i align our well i'll listen to my body. australia not only going to the 2nd cricket test against india in melbourne with a one nil series lead but they tossed is also

a little bit easier that's because the indians will be without the captain and star player of it at kohli for the remainder of the 4 match series kohli is on paternity leave and in another blow fast bowler mohammad shami has been ruled out of the 2nd test as well australia bowled india out for a record low $36.00 in the 1st test on sunday to win comfortably inside 3 days. i think it's important to keep moving forward. look at. yourself individually what you could have done better. which i think is important after any game with the bat well or you don't. you reflect and you say what you can do in the next game or the rest of the games for the series. to have an impact. i'll be here again a little bit later with another sports news update there thank you very much peter and thanks for watching the news hour on al-jazeera we're back in just a moment with much more of the day's news and all the latest headlines coming your

way see you tonight. the latest news as it breaks the measures introduced during this way resulted in the 20 percent drop in the amount that people are traveling with details coverage protocol for both long hot topping all of those in one us out of poverty rate increase and of fear from around the world the u.n. has identified $56.00 countries most need assistance what's worrying them is that many of those have a deteriorating situation and i have 3 jobs and now i only have one but i'm soo providing for my family. and the 1st time i was admitted to hospital i didn't show any signs of m.s. . at all that but at about my opinion i mean i have become very positive

and stop thinking about the negative sides of this to get on al-jazeera while he is from living with them and in egypt. the silence has been disturbed. 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. al-jazeera

. a call from the e.u. for for caution but also a loosening of the border closures that have hit the u.k. . you're watching all just 0 live from the headquarters in doha i'm dirty you know we're going to also coming up u.s. congress approves a $900000000000.00 coronavirus relief package as the country's total number of infections processes 18000000. another variant of the coronavirus surges in south africa leading many countries to suspend flights from their.