making healthy a world for you. is really. the 4th election in 2 years in israel after the fractious ruling coalition failed to get the budget approved by parliament. hello and o'clock this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up fronts to ease the u.k. travel ban allow e.u. citizens and residents with negative coronavirus tests and thousands of trucks are still stranded. this is all happened on donald trump's watch when he wasn't watching u.s. president elect joe biden warns there is no evidence

a massive cyber attack targeting government agencies is under control. rebels and central african republic reportedly sees a major city just days before elections as russia and the wind send forces to shore up the government. so that israel will be holding its 4th election in 2 years after and an easy coalition that briefly united long time prime minister benjamin netanyahu and rival benny gantz collapsed parliament was dissolved after failing to meet the deadline to pass the budget snap elections will be held in march next year yahoo's upcoming corruption trial he's at the center of the discord with guns as well as within his new party faced with a faction breaking away recently very not so joins us live now from west jerusalem and irene for elections in 2 years how did we get to this point. well it all

goes back to that power sharing agreement that you mentioned that was signed between prime minister and it's and yahoo and benny gantz under that agreement and yahoo and guns were supposed to rotate in the seat of prime minister but one thing that needed to happen was that for this budget to back to pass the guns would have taken over the seat of prime minister in november of 2021 but the only way for netanyahu to have held onto his seat as prime minister was to delay that vote as much as possible and as many have predicted that is exactly what has happened and israelis will have to go back to the polls in just a few months ari thanks for that let's take this on now with the man who's the director of the u.c.l.a. unison sort of civilian center for israeli studies joins us live by skype from los angeles welcome to the program so the snap election the 4th set of elections in the

say in 2 years does a suit benjamin netanyahu do you think. the time doesn't suit who he wanted to go to elections but he wanted to go to elections sometime next after the coronavirus come under control in his wallet and hopefully the israeli economy has recovered somewhat so the timing of this election most likely to take place not a march 23rd is something that wasn't seen and something that he was trying to avoid at all costs right because he's got these 3 criminal indictments over him so could he go on to win another term do you think or is this going to hurt his chances. well he's certainly very weak much weaker than he has been politically for a long time not only because he faces this looming corruption trial but also because israel is really widely believed he's mishandled the pandemic that suffering economically as a result of that and of course donald trump who no longer be in the white house by

that time so some of the factors that have allowed him to prevail in the past. in addition he also faces challenges from the right this time and so it's going to be harder for him to portray his allies his wife who is it's kind of leftists as he likes to do in the past what about benny gantz is he done and if so where do we look for potential contenders. dances absolutely dan i think he's really lost all his support to his party may not even pass the electoral threshold so the real rival this time around isn't going to come from the center left but while the from a number of challenges to the g.o.p. on the right particularly from get on form a memo who recently broke away and is popular could voters on the right in general and can challenge netanyahu from the right something that i think will be a real risk to entering this election is really politics is a mess isn't it al that come to this. well really it just comes down to prime

minister netanyahu i mean he is the one who has really been are willing to hand over power to benny gantz according to the queen when that was signed after the last election had to be willing to do that the government could have remained and that the budget would have been passed and the government would have remained so this is really all about netanyahu increasingly desperate to hold onto power because it is really best help from a thing out of prison so i mean look as long as netanyahu is determined to do that even at the risk of dragging israel into yet another election there's really very little prospect for political stability and it's on the rocks when great to get your perspective on this project that thank you thank you. so the european union member countries to end the blockade of u.k. freight to allow thousands of stranded truck drivers to cross the english channel

in time for christmas more than 40 countries banned arrivals from britain also the u.k. revealed a new highly contagious variant of covert $1000.00 which is spreading out of control from wednesday france will allow in citizens and residents of e.u. countries if they show a negative test and reports now from in southern england. along the main 82 road into dover the queue was continuous u.k. government estimated some 1500 lorries had been stranded but to drive around the approach roads to the port revealed many many more than that parked up and waiting for news use eventually came with the blockade would be lifted but only for those with proof of a negative code test that is no use at all to the thousands of drivers whose hopes of reaching home for christmas and now gone and now it's. this initial trauma here to go home for we have. almost 2 dozen miles it's

a row of this 45 hours to drive north of the. sliver just right. now we can make it. if covert testing is to be the precondition for reopening the border with france that presents an enormous logistical challenge for the u.k. or thora says there are now thousands of truck and van drivers parked up in labor eyes all across the county of kent and getting the testing to them or them to the testing is going to be an enormous task and all this just days before christmas this german businessman was just minutes away from boarding his ferry when the blockade came into force yes through a car for freedom so if i had been 10 minutes earlier i would be now on the other side and be safe and at home for christmas with my family he's resigned to the possibility that he'll spend christmas stuck in dover but he says the u.k. or thora t's have been totally inadequate down there their public toilets which are

not open for the drivers they should be open i think that's what you had the coffee or tea to the drivers immediately government short do something and they should do it immediately. the airfield at manston in kent has been made a temporary lorry park for the hundreds of vehicles here are again just a section of the true scale of the problem and a. scarcity of food in some a 3 facilities is also creating tensions the member of parliament for the denver bank fronts for this crisis i just think the way in which french government reacted was just really on helpful i mean that you can the french government the whole it industry the ferry industry they've what happened think a lot of the last few months since chance since the virus started to make sure that it's managed and i think that's what should have happened here. as night fell and over the rain iran and the driver staged a blockade of their own. many of these truckers and van drivers now facing the 3rd night stranded here tempers are clearly starting to fray they were occupied

the roundabout which is here at the entrance to the port behind me they've blocked the traffic there is a long snaking line of lorries in the direction the police are trying to restore order but for the moment they're not being successful. my children my. daughter is crying for me to go through reinforcements restore order the situation remains tense. al-jazeera over. u.s. president elect joe biden says he will ask congress to pass another coronavirus stimulus package when he takes office and he's urging americans to remain vigilant one thing i promise you but i'm leadership during this crisis i'm going to tell it straight when to tell you the truth and here's the simple truth our darkest days in the battle against covert or ahead of us not behind us.

in washington d.c. in haiti biden telling it he says like it is. that's right nic and this could not be more different than how president trump has addressed this pandemic as you know constantly downplaying the risk and this is set in the backdrop of american setting travel records since the beginning of the span demick for this holiday season which goes against the advice of health experts and biden delivering that sobering message to people saying that the worst is still to come and asking americans for their continued patients and cooperations with movement restrictions he also said he was considering once taking office opposing more travel restrictions from those leaving great britain only of course americans right now are allowed to fly back into the country however they may be subject to more

testing or a quarantine restrictions given that new strain of coronavirus biden also commending the u.s. congress for having passed that $900000000000.00 7 relief measure in the wee hours of yesterday biden saying though that that is still not enough americans will be getting checks of some $600.00 each starting next week but biden saying that is just a down payment with met with much needed resources still to come in the height it is doing issue is cyber it's hard see president it's been pretty pointed in his criticism. that's right of course this was the massive security breach that was just recently uncovered biden said that this is a continued grave risk and that the scope and the damage is still unknown and what we do know is that the attacker is likely russia that's according to secretary of

state. and that this attack began perhaps in march if not earlier and there were a vast number of federal agencies that were targeted and breached including homeland security and the treasury even nuclear labs and those that oversee the power grid president trump has not talked about this in public he's tweeted saying that the situation is fully under control and saying that perhaps there was a rush of a perhaps china biden drawing a stark contrast in his remarks today saying that this is a result of president trumps failing case of the federal government was caught unguarded and unprepared and that will change he says once biden takes office he noted that he is not receiving briefings from the pentagon on this subject but that once he takes office he'll be prepared to publicly name the attacker which again is believed to be russia and that this attack will not go unanswered nic thanks

a lot because true there. still ahead here on al-jazeera we look at why thailand is now facing a major corona virus outbreak merits capital. under attack a new report that shows the number of journalists being killed for their work is on the rise. in the immediate future got a bit of a warm dry up for the southern placed plain states for this here this is an arc of representing cold weather really snow in montana down towards colorado that live in chicago cross the plains states and move eastwards to come to because against this warm weather so eventually you get quite a concentration of quite severe weather potentially through tennessee and kentucky is 2 examples than the cold air that follows will bring snow initially just into

the midwest and following that it's just cold out the ranch's in some in the sky but if i take it a bit further east so you can see the development here that looks quite potentially stormy in warm weather and a southerly and then that tucks in the give a cold briefly snowy period and that's really showing up in the forecast for new york 14 degrees on thursday then it rains in the front goes through and then you get 0 as a high minus 4 and minus 6 overnight with winds chill. nothing quite so extreme for the science we have got a bit of increase in in the breeze the trade winds you got like he said 30 heavy showers in the bahamas and then increasingly i think the cloud will show so have costa rica and panama for some wet weather and the general she never liked rain right back into southern mexico. but. i was raised in france and

these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is mean. fighting both isis and us on. this 2nd of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihad team on al-jazeera. move. forward. but again you're watching out there are might of our top stories this hour israel will be holding its 4th election 2 years after its coalition collapsed parliament was dissolved after failing to meet the deadline to pass the budget step elections

will be held in march next year. the e.u. is urging member countries to end the blockade of u.k. freight to allow truck drivers to cross the english channel more than 40 countries banned arrivals from britain after a new highly contagious variant of covert 19 began spreading. the us president elect joe biden has criticized donald trump for failing to protect the country could cyber attacks biden alleges the recent hack of the us government is not yet under control and pleasure tough response against those responsible. the u.s. justice department is targeting born lots of billions of dollars in damages accusing it of helping to fuel the opioid crisis civil lawsuit accuses its pharmacists of acting illegally by supplying prescriptions for highly addictive painkillers knowing the orders were invalid almost a half a 1000000 people have died of overdoses from prescription drugs in the united states in the last 2 decades wal-mart is the country's largest retailer. rebel

groups in central african republic have reportedly seize bambara the country's 4th largest city as they continue their push towards the capital bangui tensions has been rising in the run up to the december 27th reminder and sent additional troops to the country to help deal with the financing the government has secured rebels parts by the former president from swan's bruiser overtimes catherine so he is in the capital bangui and has 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 calling themselves the patriots for change it's a group of 15 we are the country's main groups and they started seeing onto the copy told calling for among other things no government without president.

so as officials at 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 saying the same area we also have other. troops we have a russian. while also carrying out operations against this grouping they are the russians and the londons are not under the un mandate that means that they are able to use more force. signed the country. green meant. you know our government allowing them to use force and to contain the situation to make sure that this election is not disrupted in any way the police in uganda have arrested a leading human rights lawyer weeks before presidential elections. alice o.p.o.

previously represented bobby wine scene is the main challenge of its president was severely who's seeking to extend his 35 years in power a tweet from the winds it counts as up you had been investigating the killings of protesters last month at the beginning of the campaigning season police accuse of money laundering and other malicious that. south africa is struggling to contain a 2nd wave of covert 9000 infections health officials said it's been driven by a new and more infectious variant of the virus it's similar but not identical to the one in the u.k. several countries have halted air travel to and from south africa to leo the olivia is the director of the causal luna tell research innovation and sequencing platform and he explains how scientists are monitoring different of the virus. the 1st thing to make clear is that salt africa and u.k. has truth different yet both spreading very fast.

similarities between then why not then. why not that many mutations that that make that. white protein interact with that human cell receptor at their 2nd think we saw quite similar we saw that emerging. nelson mandela bay that's in that you stand cape and then south west very fast and that direction of cape town and not west and not east to quell saloon so it's quite similar in the u.k. but we see a common small origin but it's very fast spread across the country we haven't been surveying that virus since the beginning of that and then mick since february and we would have like 20 or 30 when that just costs that country and in the last month in the house we've seen that they've been taking off by one unique yet and this

lineage when we've got to a close look yet because we are what is the how one lineage with to be taking over and transmitting so fast this lynn that you had multiple mutations a multiple change in the spike protein of the divide us thailand's prime minister is blaming illegal migration for a cluster of more than 1000 kroner virus infections is because so far it's believed to have come from people working at a seafood market near bangkok it's a major blow for the nation that has been hailed for its success combating virus 20 train ports from by. far was a mobile testing unit pulls into a market in the north of bangkok in 72 hours thailand's corona virus infection numbers increased by 20 percent came here for screening the full. and found out there are floating i people who were in radio close contact with an infected person a phone that might get today with colic samples of all of the traders inside were

a trade to scan a q.r. code to register with the health authority only the stallholders are eligible for testing today others who have coded concerns of being turned away infections originating from the seafood market in some months a colon and now being discovered in bangkok and provinces even further away outside the unpleasant process begins these people are not alone the thai government says it will 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 in 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 said he might introduce a national lockdown of the transmissions continue to rise. so on child local

fishmonger says many customers are choosing to stay at home now he's worried about his health and keeping his business afloat. that they could make 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 is cause business that dropped by 70 or 80 percent and overall thailand has made huge economic sacrifices to rid itself of the corona virus this outbreak continues to grow all of that would 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. credit virus has now spread to every continent on the globe after the $36.00 cases were discovered at a chilean research station on the peninsula the country's army confirmed the infections which were among military personnel

a maintenance worker who says they have all been moved to chilling to isolate comes days after the navy confirmed 3 cases on a ship which had taken supplies to the station. that 36 men tested positive for carried 1926 were army personnel and 10 work civilians from a contract company who were taking scheduled maintenance work at the end top to compare east the number of journalists murdered worldwide has more than doubled this year at least 30 journalists were killed in 2020 according to the committee to protect journalists mexico's the deadliest country in the world for media journalists are routinely threatened in targeted by criminal groups or corrupt politicians afghanistan syria in the philippines are next on the list most of the killings have gone unpunished and politics was the most dangerous subject to cover while murders rose overall this year the number of journalists killed in a crossfire fell to its lowest level since 2000. the committee to

protect journalists in washington d.c. and she says it makes because government needs to do more to protect journalists. mexico is a democracy and yet there is a lot of violent crime and criminal gangs and drug cartels are routinely murdering journalists with impunity they even have a president they even have a journalist protection mechanism in mexico and yet there were journalists who were murdered while under the protection of that mechanism so it's clearly ineffectual and the fact that you know a democracy can year after year allow its journalists to be murder with impunity is not acceptable and should be a top priority for the over to our ministration to address one of the biggest and have to be seen as the responses that governments have made to the coronavirus pandemic which has included you know efforts that seem less designed to combat the

pandemic and more designed to combat independent reporting that may be critical of government efforts we've seen around the world that a slew of governments have adopted new legislation that is a sensibly aimed at stopping the spread of false news or public and sharing public health but in fact is used to retaliate against journalists who report on uncomfortable facts about how the government's doing in its response or about the coronavirus you know large we've seen that in china and iran in egypt and really all over the place including in some democratic countries so it's a really challenging year to be a journalist and i think that we're going to see a lot of these challenges continue because of course once you put in place legislation like that that criminalizes aspects of journalism it's going to stand place long after the pandemic in the u.k. and the e.u. is still trying to hammer out a deal trade deal in brussels the blocks negotiated has been briefing member states

on the latest progress several deadlines have already passed but the u.k. that if it takes effect to the end of this month the main obstacle to a trade deal centers around e.u. fishing quotas in british waters. even if. you feel relieved to see the market. continue to work. on sheep remember state by now hundreds of power i think you very much. the 1st right commercial flight from israel to morocco has landed in robot to seal a u.s. brokered normalization deal on board were israeli and voice and senior white house adviser gerard he's met to king mohammed the 6th to visit marks the latest u.s. brokered deal between israel and an arab country after the u.a.e. bahrain sudan or normalized ties i mean opposition supporters have set up a protest camp outside government headquarters as they step up their campaign against

the prime minister thousands of people also rallied in europe and demanding that nicole oppression you had resign which he's refused to do and go has grown since armenia last territory today we as a by john and a peace deal to end a 6 week conflict over the disputed we're going to occur back region. brazilian police arrested outgoing rio de janeiro a man more center in connection with the alleged bribery the evangelical pastor turned politician is scheduled to leave office on the 1st of january last month he lost the reelection bid despite support from president also norah denies any wrongdoing and says he's the target of political persecution in august the state governor was dismissed over suspected corruption. worker i fought against the unjust under legal tolling i took resources from the carnival and i negotiated the v.l.t. rail project my government fought the most against corruption and really it is an error so it has delayed games will cost almost $3000000000.00 more than expected

because of the coronavirus pandemic the event was postponed for a year on tuesday organizers and the new budget the $15400000000.00 which is up 22 percent japanese government indicated the costs could be much higher at least 25000000000 tokyo's games were already set to be the most expensive summer olympics on record the head of the committee says it's important that they do go ahead. 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 lit at the stadium that's the mission we need to for thoughts. thousands of spaniards have said nearly $3000000000.00 payday in the el gordo or fact one lottery.

tradition schoolchildren sang out the winning numbers brought some end of year hope to millions of people in one of the country's worst hit by the coronavirus of europe a lottery can have multiple winners of half a 1000000 dollars per ticket families friends and colleagues often band together to buy them. so this is out there these are the top stories and israel will be holding its 4th election in 2 years after its coalition that briefly united longtime prime minister benjamin netanyahu and rival benny gantz collapse parliament was dissolved off to failing to meet the deadline to pass the budget elections will be held next year. well it really all goes back to that power sharing agreement that you mentioned between netanyahu and got that agreement was signed after the latest and last election.