elements that are rapidly changing the world we live in argentina's congress is debating a bill seeking to raise billions of dollars for the super rich families. that would come to. no 0. the. it really is a disgrace. us president donald trump's lanza $900000000000.00 coronavirus stimulus bill passed by congress and threatens not to sign it. and trouble also issues 15 more pardons including 4 private military contractors convicted of shooting dead a 14 civilians in baghdad in 2007. there on the saudi attain this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up cars are big and that's mass about summation program against the coronavirus after receiving

its 1st batch of pfizer doses. and a 4th election in 2 years in israel after the fractious ruling coalition fails to get its budget approved by parliament. oh now us president donald trump is suggesting he will not sign a massive coronavirus relief bill unless it's amended by congress he's called the $900000000000.00 stimulus package a disgrace it was passed by the house and the senate on monday after months of negotiations how does a castro reports from washington d.c. . a day earlier the white house had said president trump would support the covert relief package passed by congress on monday but things change rapidly within this residence and less than 24 hours later this wrench of the video was uploaded to trump's twitter feed effectively ending congress's victory lap stride the bill they

are now planning to send back to my desk is much different that it dissipated it really is a disgrace for example of them the more than $5000.00 pages in this bill which nobody in congress has read because of its length and complexity it's called the covert relief bill but it has almost nothing to do with go of the fill it is indeed massive besides the $100000000000.00 allocated to covert relief it includes money for foreign aid the arts wildlife management and of course keeping the federal government open until september trump is demanding that congress amend the legislation to remove the unnecessary items but to add money to the cove in $1000.00 relief portion the current bill gives $600.00 checks to most americans trump wants that increased to 2000 send me

a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covert relief package and maybe that administrator shouldn will be me it won't despite trump's continued refusal to concede the election joe biden will be sworn in as u.s. president on january 20th one thing i promise you but my leadership during this crisis i'm going to tell it to you straight i'm going to tell you the truth speaking earlier in the day biden commended congress on passage of the covert relief bill while pledging his administration would indeed ask for more money. our darkest days in the battle against covert are ahead of us not behind us she need to prepare or show to steal our spines as fresh state is this year it's going to take patients were patients that what americans have been told just

a day earlier by trump's own treasury secretary who had promised people would begin receiving those $600.00 checks approved by congress next week now the plan is in limbo congress had passed the bipartisan measure with veto proof super majorities but trump's demands may give republicans cover to switch their votes or it could give democrats ammo to insist on the bigger checks for americans that the party had wanted all along it had taken months of negotiations to achieve this so briefly celebrated progress in congress and now the only certainty is trump's insistence on leaving a mark during his last days in office. castro al-jazeera washington. who just before donald trump made that declaration on the stimulus bill the white house also announced presidential pardons for 15 more people now they include george papadopoulos and alex band as one who pleaded guilty during the investigation into

russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections also on that list 2 former republican congressman sentenced for corruption who were the earliest to endorse trump's candidacy back in 2016 and 4 others on that list were contractors who work for the controversial private security firm for me known as blackwater they were serving long prison sentences after being convicted for 2007 shooting in baghdad more than a dozen iraqi civilians were killed including 2 children that incident caused international outrage over the use of private security personnel in a war zone let's head straight over to baghdad and get some reaction from their child for joins me now from the iraqi capital charles how is all of this going. well it certainly is an indication is given by they would person that we spoke to the smalling victim somebody who suffered serious injuries in that attack on the 16th of september 2007. if its reaction is anything to go by then there's going to

be quite a lot of anger here at this presidential pardon by donald trump all those 4 contractors as you say 14 people were killed in square sort in a source square on that day the man we spoke to a man called hudson jabar he is a lawyer he was traveling through the square at the time with his son who was in his twenty's at the time they were both shot in the chest they suffered serious injuries his son's injuries were severe enough for him to have lost a long and in his words he described this decision by president trump to pardon these men as a complete betrayal of human rights a total disaster he said that he was utterly shocked he said that throughout all these years he'd had face in the american judicial system he said that this decision means that that faith has now completely disappeared. and as i say is very

shocked at this decision now we haven't heard from any of the other victims or families of those victims but we can we can expect that similar reaction will be given. as we go ahead today but yes shock and disbelief certainly from the victim that we spoke to that tells us that 10 years now but this was a a major turning point in the way of the world view private security in conflicts can you remind us out while our viewers have some of the context. yeah this incident happened what is fair to say was one of the worst times in the calle so the aftermath of the the us led invasion of 2003 there was a lot of sectarian violence there were various different militias fighting each other. allied forces were coming out of daily attacked by people like al qaida there was a lot of panic. and chaos in the capital in or around iraq at the time but this

private security company blackwater was notorious anyway way before this incident happened it had been accused of. causing unprovoked attacks opening fire without being provoked sorry on numerous occasions before that in. a convoy of blackwater vehicles have been going through in this of square in the center of baghdad it was a crowded area and according to them they were approached by a vehicle that they feared was a suicide bomber. they opened fire and as you say 14 people were killed and at least 20 injured and the incident highlighted the very controversial use of private contractors now but we're being hired by the state department they done work for the cia as well so this incident which got them banned in iraq basically forced a lot of focus on the use of these contractors and it's fair to say that america's

image in iraq has suffered hugely as a result of that image and many people say that the insurgency was further fueled by that incident anger increased and attacks against americans against. allied forces and against iraq he's increased substantially after that attack by blackwater. for us in baghdad stan cross that reaction for us and how continue to do that charles thanks. cats are has begun a mass covert 19 vaccination campaign elderly people and health workers all the fast to receive the pfizer vial and take jabs a shipment of those stories as arrived on monday people with chronic illnesses will also be among those being prioritized for that inoculation while our correspondent a number of aid is at a clinic in doha where those vaccines are being rolled out as some hasn't been busy there this morning. well health officials are calling

this a milestone in the fight against coal good because this vaccine the pfizer buying time jobs have been given to the 1st patients here in the clinic with us to discuss that further is a doctor the head of vaccinations at the ministry of public health thank you very much for being with us tell us this vaccine have 95 percent difficulty and 70 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated for it to work properly how hopeful are you and what's the timeline that you work 1st of all thank you for this invitation and i hope that we can give the public some information that will relieve some of the fears or questions that they have about their covered 19 vaccine i would like to 1st explain what 90 or 95 percent effectiveness means it's means that out of those who took the vaccine about 90 to 95 percent of them develop sufficient antibodies to protect them from the infection which is

a great record and it's something that gives us hope and makes us optimistic about hopefully soon we'll see life going back to normal as you mentioned we need about 70 to 75 percent of the population to be vaccinated to develop sufficient immunity in order to develop what's called herd immunity and to break the chain of infection and this will take time today it was the launch of the biggest specks the nation campaign in the state of the 3rd and against the covered $1000.00 virus and it will be in phases this phase is targeting certain categories and as we expand and as the phases move on we'll expand these categories further it probably will take us up till the summer of 2021 to reach this target. there are a lot of people who are skeptical about the vaccine as well how effective it is what kind of side effects it might have what work has been done to assure the public that it is safe and people can take it will you be taking it yourself. i'll

answer the 2nd question 1st and say yes i will be taking the vaccine and i think i'll be taking it today. and that's might personal trust and one of the companies that is very much well known to develop vaccines and medications they have been working in this industry for so many years and they have an excellent record and safety and effectiveness not just with vaccines with general medications as well and they have been very transparent with the scientific data and the information as they were progressing step by step in the phases of developing the vaccine we were with them step with by step we have seen all of their data and scientific information there was no skipping of any steps necessary in manufacturing the vaccine people are wondering why is it so fast but it's fast not because they sidestepped some of the measures it's because one usually it's one step or after the other to develop

a vaccine but with the covered $1000.00 vaccine to speed up they did some steps in parallel so that's a time number 2 vaccine manufacturing require requires backup and funding from governments and industrious and for the 1st time the entire world came together to develop the covered $1000.00 and gave the necessary necessary support for these companies and the 3rd thing is that in the trials there were thousands of people who participated and there were no major side effects some minor side effects and even those who had developed signs and symptoms that required hospital admission they were only some severe allergies and this allergist can happen to any reason it could be because some ship of peanuts or got to know. perfect that didn't suit you so it's no different than what happens and natural life and as we speak about a 1000000 people got vaccinated in the u.k. and the u.s. with nor major side effects to be mentioned so all of this assures us of the safety

and effectiveness of the vaccine. very quickly this is the new strain of the virus coming up if this vaccine going to be effective against them as well based on the information we have so far about the new strain that's been circulating in some countries and europe it's not the different virus it's just that it's infectivity is a little bit faster and so far the manufacturing companies have reassured us and shown us the data that at this stage the vaccine will also cover the new strain of software thank you very much for speaking directly you have it sir directly from the head of vaccinations at the ministry of public health here in qatar is the launch of the largest vaccination campaign in this country ever and they're hopeful that by the summer of 2021 they will achieve a target of 70 percent population being vaccinated against covered 90 i sound engineer that live for us and are watching these vaccines being rolled out thanks

so much as i'm. still ahead here on al-jazeera reclaiming their habitat khana waters see the return of a rescue thousands of dolphins to hong kong. well we're just going past the winter solstice so we injecting warm air relative to the time of year across a good part of central europe is that massive cloud that it will bring a lot of platter of rain with it will affect the british isles france germany the warm push to go a long way east on its eastern flank where it comes of against this drive and cold and cold i would see some snow reaching into ukraine as for the baltic states and into western russia there's obviously a change in wind direction afterwards and that'll be noticed in vienna it gets time

by friday but you go to warm pretty warm couple days certainly wednesday looks pretty high but as attention changes so the weather type changes the clouds sought to clear the sun comes out of course a long night snack even though just compasses salsas so you're going to get out to frost levels that happens in london by the end of thursday cold north wind by day frosty overnight front of christmas day washing the ground sun in the sky signs of all this puff in a few showers in libya and they are just a few showers it's a fairly quiet picture that onshore breeze will make norton egypt quite cloudy possibly but still quite warm in the sahara all $36.00 about 3 above normal and there's still showers around the gulf of guinea. and move.

on. hello again i'm a strong let's remind you about top stories here this hour u.s. president donald trump is suggesting he will not sign a massive coronavirus relief bill unless it's amended by congress he says he wants congress to raise stimulus payments to individual americans from $600.00 to $2000.00. and president trump has announced pardons for 15 people may include military contractors convicted in the shooting of more than a dozen civilians in iraq in 20072 men tied to russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections what was her party. and castro has begun its mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus elderly people and health workers all fast to receive the pfizer biotech jobs and people with chronic illnesses will also

be prioritised to get their injections. while israel will be holding its 4th election in 2 years after the collapse of the government coalition polman it was dissolved after failing to meet the deadline to pass the budget a snap election will now be held in march next year the upcoming corruption trial of prime minister benjamin netanyahu is at the center of the discord with penny counts when we can speak to dalia shines and she is a political strategist and a public opinion analyst joining us now from tel aviv dalia i'm gathering you're not particularly surprised here. nobody's surprised in fact when this government was formed after the previous elections that were held in march of this year it was a shock to the voters especially the voters of the party running at the time as the opposition blue and white they went into a coalition they broke up and went into a coalition with the tenuous we couldn't under the terms of

a coalition agreement that seemed a little bit implausible so most people didn't really believe it would be a sustainable government it was generally considered a matter of time in august that government failed to pass a budget they should've triggered elections right away but they came to some sort of a compromise and by then everybody knew that when the compromise ran out which was today there would most likely be new elections and that's what we're seeing now tony they're still angry about how the current vice pandemics and handle than israel we've seen these mass protests outside netanyahu his house alan much of this is about his corruption trial. the protests are primarily about his corruption trials and in general his leadership which is you know the claim of the demonstrators that he has consolidated power is ruling through some sort of corrupt you know sense of. just taking total control for himself and he's been in power too long and he's populist and he incites the population against one another i would say the corona crisis has been more than exacerbating factor for the protests and

the perception that he's attempting to use the crisis in order to further consolidate powers stifle the right to protest and allow you know the citizens to be dissenters of course as you mentioned the beginning the general sense that a prime minister who is under indictment who is trial has begun will be opening reopening in its argument phase. presumably in the beginning of the year as opposed to in january february many people feel this is an unacceptable situation for the marker see and that's really fueling the protests along with additional communities that have been hurt economically by the closures and so the cut the sum total is an environment of protest but i would not interpret that as a serious weakening of the tenuous position because most of those people the majority of them i would say were people who voted for other parties to begin with and wildly while his his ruling likud party is and you know who's ruling likud

party has seen some decline in the surveys relative to their strength from the march election they're still the number one party and it's there's there's just not enough clarity about the other parties to say if they will if they will really suffer from those protests at dolly have very very briefly you mentioned it could that we've seen a breakaway from nicko just in the last few weeks how far could all of this move israel to the rise. well israel is already tilted to the right in terms of the public but the interesting thing is that the public is roughly 50 to 52 percent self defined right wing when i test this in surveys however right now the current party system with the new challenger that you mentioned who broke away from likud is shifting the party system to the right to the point where the main offerings are almost entirely right wing parties there's really only one zionist left who are jewish left wing party on the offering and the palestinian citizens of israel have

a party got the joint list which includes jews as well but they're very small and there's a long menu of right wing parties which makes the current calling look like the right is overwhelming in israeli society of course both of those feed off of one another and we'll have to see if any significant challengers remain on the center or on the left i mean the center tends to think in israel a little more like the left on many issues but the center party that was holding down that position in the israeli political map blue and white has been so roundly criticized for its decisions that right now it's collapsing in the surveys and we don't know if anything will take its place if there are only right wing parties our offer then there will be an overwhelming right wing result in the elections are buried in the existing. reflect which will be watching him very closely and out of their dollar signs and their political strategist speaking to us from tel aviv thanks for sharing your expertise with us here on out of there don thank you for having a gunman is on the run in central france after 3 police officers were shot dead and

a 4th was where ended they were responding to reports of domestic violence against a woman in a village in the point to die i mean when they arrived at the scene a man opened fire then felt the house alight the woman sought refuge on the roof of the building and is safe. well france has eased border restrictions now with the u.k. ending a ban aimed at stopping the spread of a variant strain of the corinna virus much of europe has closed its borders to the u.k. this week during travel and cargo transport into chaos thousands of truck drivers have been stranded in southern england as paul brennan reports from the port of dover. along the main 82 road into dover the queue was continuous the u.k. government estimated some 1500 lorries had been stranded but to drive around the approach roads to the porter 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 myers if it's above the $45.00 followers to drive north of the no 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 forces 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 forty'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 3 facilities is also creating tensions the member of parliament for the denver branch 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 agenda st the ferry industry they've worked handing glove over the last few months since trance since the virus started to make sure

that it's managed and i think that's what should have happened here. as night fell over the rain iraq to drive a 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 throw their 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 and not 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. well the current virus has now spread to every continent on the globe after $36.00 cases were discovered as a chilean research station on the antarctic peninsula and forces said the

infections were among military personnel and civilian maintenance workers they all know and isolation so it comes days after the chilean navy confirms 3 cases on a ship which had taken supplies to that station. above water hong kong's busy waterways of quiescent but below the surface it's a different story coronavirus travel restrictions have led to increased sightings of the territory's picked dolphins and it's given scientists a unique opportunity to research that rest that's also facing extinction pollen reports from hong kong. we join conservation teams to search for the endangered pink dolphin. with less traffic in these waters because of the current virus pandemic they're trying to find out the mammals are returning to their historic habitat around hong kong. he traveled through areas where high speed ferries used to crisscross taking passengers from

the city to macau and mainland china there are few vessels in sight due to the travel restrictions it's been like this for months in a network of locations throughout this region we've got what what are called hydrophone so they listening to the underwater sound skype and recording that in a pre-established. the low levels of sea traffic have given scientists a unique opportunity to understand the impact of noise from shipping and vessel. after a few hours we reach the coast of blantyre island developing rapidly yet a key ecosystem for the dolphins and we spot them. i mean. they are officially known here as the chinese white dolphins but they turn pink when their blood pumps through the vessels near the surface of their skin to say we saw about 68 dolphins and we saw a mix of young and old individuals and they were engaging in

a very variety of behavior so not just feeding not just traveling they did everything they were socializing they were jumping up in the air it shows they are not stressed and so more likely to breed it gives weight to claims that there have been more sightings since the pandemic it's a glimmer of hope the population of the dolphins has dropped by more than 80 percent in the past 15 years. one of the main reasons major infrastructure and reclamation projects like hong kong airports 3rd runway and now with the study scientists can also show the impact of underwater noise they hope their findings will push the government to take. action and not saying we want the high speed ferries to stall we're saying that we would just like them to take account of this point habitat area for example by just changing the course slightly or travelling more slowly it's estimated around 2000 of these dolphins are left in the wild around the world there have been more sightings of endangered animals due to the

limited movement of the human population and the markdowns imposed by the pandemic it's a stark reminder of the impact we have on nature and also shows that there still is a lot more we can do to protect the planet and help the environment recover pollen al-jazeera hong kong. that this is al jazeera and these are the headlines u.s. president donald trump is suggesting he will not sign a massive coronavirus when he fell unless it's amended by congress he says he wants congress to raise stimulus payments to individual americans from $600.00 to $2000.00 i'm also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covert relief package.