and they see them because somebody used to form even the society fending for themselves. to give me such a function. it really is a disgrace. us president donald trump slams a $900000000000.00 coronavirus stimulus bill passed by congress and threatens not to sign and. also issues 15 more pardons including former private military contractors convicted of shooting dead 14 civilians in baghdad and 2007. there in the stasi a table says al jazeera life and are also coming up cattle begins its mass coronavirus that's a nation program after receiving its 1st batch of pfizer towson's and

a 4th election in 2 years and israel after the fractious ruling coalition fails to get its budget approved by parliament. now u.s. president donald trump is suggesting he will not sign a massive coroner virus relief bill unless it's amended by congress has called the $900000000000.00 stimulus package a disgrace it was passed by the house and the senate on monday off to months of negotiations to reports now 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 pledging to send back to my desk is much different that it dissipated it really is a disgrace for example among 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 goal of the bill 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 covered relief package and maybe that it ministration will be me it won't despite thrums 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 it's frustrating to hear. 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 well just before donald trump made that declaration on the stimulus bill the white house also announced presidential pardons for 15 more people they included george papadopoulos and alex and as one who pleaded guilty joining the investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections also on the list are 2 former

republican congressman sentenced for corruption who were the earliest to endorse trump's candidacy back in 26 team 4 others on that list were contractors who worked for the controversial private security firm formerly known as blackwater they were serving long prison sentences often being convicted of shooting dead 14 iraqi civilians including 2 children and baghdad in 2007 that incident caused international outrage over the use of private security personnel in a war zone well our correspondent charles stratford is in baghdad for us and a spoken to one of the victims injured in that 2007 attack. if it's 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 the source square on that day the man we spoke to a man called house and your bar 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 is now completely disappeared. and as i say it 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 yeah shock and disbelief certainly from the victim that we spoke to. all scuffles have broken out between

police and angry trucks drive as you've been stranded outside the english port of dover some of them shouting demands to be less and to france the french government has not eased border restrictions with the u.k. of a news agency strain of the coronavirus but thousands of drivers a still stuck at the border on many of them will also miss spending christmas with their families as our correspondent paul brennan reports now from dr. along the main 82 road into dover the queue was continuous the u.k. government estimated some 1500 lorries had been stranded on a 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 or have. almost 2 dozen myers if it's above the $45.00 followers to drive north of the no sleep yesterday. they 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 far 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 i 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 of 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 haulage industry the ferry industry they've worked handing glove over the last few months since trans 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 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 dover. now council has begun a mass covert 19 vaccination campaign elderly people and health care workers all the faster a save the pfizer biotech jobs a shipment of those drugs has arrived on monday people with chronic illnesses will also be among prioritized for the an occupation not just her alibi as the head of vaccinations and the castree ministry of health she says the goal is to inoculate

more than 70 percent of the population by this coming summer. 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 to date was the launch of the biggest vaccination campaign in the state of the 3rd and against the covered 19 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 the stock it will be taking the vaccine and i think i'll be taking it to date. and that's my personal trust and one of the companies that is very much well known to develop vaccines and medications about

a 1000000 people got vaccinated in the u.k. and the u.s. with no major side effects to be mentioned so all of this assures us of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine based on the information we have so far about the new strain that's been circulating in some countries in 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 well still ahead here on al-jazeera u.n. investigators say they found evidence of war crimes committed by armed groups and security forces in mali. covered 1000 reaches one of the most remote parts in the wild after the 1st cases are recorded in antarctica.

howlers hard to track the circulation that was once trayvon but it's still a massive cloud now most the rain has stayed off the mainland just catching small islands during thursday that same potential which is up to 300 millimeters goes into southern thailand the far south as thailand and that could certainly brings from flooding the showers further assessment to clean his knees are pretty well space but there are some pretty big ones moving slowly as you might expect for the rainy season maybe not quite as wet as it was a week ago and the next batch is just developing into the southern philippines by which time we'll see much dry weather in vietnam possibly in southern thailand as well for australia to a step back what's been a very wet time in fact new south wales just reported the wettest wettest december in about 13 years wettest year actually and still more rain to come but not much

but it's now focused up in queensland some more to come i think in northern territory further south the sun is not very warm melbourne still a 4 or 5 degrees below average where is perth when up to 40 knots a wreck or body about 4 degrees off the heat stays in the west the showers develop in tropical queensland and they get slightly warmer than in melbourne. and new perspectives can change a wild. the one chin is ian what began as a hobby has grown into a passion a way of life. teaching the next generation to strive for a higher level. and in so instilling in his country a sense of freedom and strength. new heights my chin is on al-jazeera.

the. again i'm the star let's remind you of our top stories 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 trump has also announced presidential pardons for 15 people may include food in minutes he contractors convicted of shooting dead 15 iraqi civilians in baghdad in 2007 and 2 men tied to russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections were also pardoned. has begun its mass coronavirus

vaccination campaign elderly people and health workers on the fast receive the pfizer biotech jabs and people with chronic illnesses will also be prioritised to get their injections adding. israel is to hold its 4th election in 2 years after its parliament failed to pass a budget and then dissolved it ends what's been a fractious coalition that briefly united prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his rival penny counts reports. this was the moment when the speaker of israel's parliament the knesset announced that last ditch efforts to pass the budget had failed there was no way forward for the fragile reeling alliance. of unfortunately we were unable to find enough common ground to prevent another round of elections and enable the 23rd can assert and its members to exercise the mandate given to us we are all going to face a difficult and looking campaign and i call on each and every one of us and each

and every israeli citizen to refrain from exacerbating tensions prime minister benjamin netanyahu his popularity has sank over the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic he's also facing a corruption case which fuel divisions with netanyahu his coalition partner as well as within his party a faction recently breakaway but if it's an inconvenient time for the governing coalition to collapse netanyahu didn't show it and we are against elections the wrong decision by the party but if an election is forced upon us i promise you that we will vent analysts say prime minister netanyahu may be confident as the political landscape has changed in the past 3 years he is 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 has mishandled the pandemic. economically

as a result of that and of course. no longer be in the white house by that type so some of the factors that have allowed him to go in the past are israeli politicians will be entering the new year in campaign mode for the elections in march although polls suggest that le could could still the merge as the largest party it may need alliances to reach a 61 seat majority to form a government barbara and al-jazeera well let's get more on this now with irene nasser she is in leicester assam for us i mean was this much of a surprise. well not really this this coalition government that was mentioned that was formed between her and dance in may was really quite weak from the beginning the power sharing agreement under the power sharing agreement netanyahu and guns were supposed to rotate in and out of the prime minister with guns taking over in nov 2021 but that really could only happen with this budget passing and the only

way the 10 yahoo could really hold onto that seat as prime minister was to delay that vote as much as possible and that is basically exactly what has just happened in the meantime though over the past year netanyahu has really worked hard on destroying the political and public image of guns and setting himself up in a much better position going into this new election in march and irene get and now the election in israel can you talk us through the political landscape then what's changed since the last one. well as barbara just mentioned in her package netanyahu is numbers are the lowest that they have been in months he's facing a lot of critics criticism over the handling of the pandemic he's also facing some corruption charges and protests that have come as a result of that but recent polls that were released just last night show that his party the likud is still in 1st place and he made some comments last night and

boasted about some of his achievements over the past few months including bringing bringing the vaccine to israel which rolled out earlier this week and also signing normalization ties which for arab countries which could bring some economic ties and economic deals into the country. does have some political contenders though there is no benefit of the immuno party his party is currently 3rd in place but he's really only strong in the polls his biggest contender is who just this month broke away from the coup would and formed a new government cold new hope and his party is currently 2nd in all of these parties though it and yahoo's likud bennett cmu now and. new hope are really in be israeli right so we're going into this new election really to see

a battle within the israeli right very interesting to keep an eye on that i mean there with the latest for us from west or east and thanks ira. now united nations investigators have handed the security council evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity in mali groups and security forces and decay said in that report which documents crimes allegedly committed between 20122018 that's when separatists in northern mali now watched an offense of their ethnic rivalries and violence and since bread to other regions including neighboring mccain a faster and. christian thing is at the u.n. with more details from that report. it contains many disturbing accounts in its $338.00 pages about what has happened in mali since that insurgency was launched by the tar eggs in 2012 covers a lot of ground the investigation was launched as part of a peace process in 2015 and it found

a litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity by all of the main parties in this conflict the work climbs by mali and defense and security forces include violent attacks on those who are suspected of cooperating with armed groups outside of a combat situation and for the various armed groups there's just a litany of crimes against humanity it's really many disturbing details everything from murder maiming rape attacking humanitarian groups including the united nations their sexual violence rape. just a whole list of things and one example that they give that was particularly disturbing happened in central mali in 2017 when one armed group affiliated with the dogan people in retaliation for the death of one of their members launched attacks on villages and killed

a number of people 39 people including several children so a lot to wade through in this. report. police in uganda have arrested a leading human rights lawyer just weeks before presidential elections nicolas appear previously represented bobby one who is seen as the main challenger to president yoweri miss 70 a tweet from one's account says appear had been investigating the killings of protesters last month police there accuse him of money laundering and related malicious acts a gunman suspected of killing $3.00 police officers in central france has been found dead he'd fled after opening fire on the offices they were responding to a report of domestic violence against a woman in a village in the pre during a 4th officer was also wounded in that shooting the woman sort refuge on the roof of the house without incident took place and is safe hong kong course has granted bail to media tycoon and pro-democracy activist jimmy lie but the hong kong

government is appealing that decision to allow his release he's the highest profile individual there to face charges under a controversial national security law beijing imposed on the city in july in response to last year's unrest human rights groups say it's a tool to crush political descends. now a coalition of indian administered kashmir as best known leaders have won the most seats and local elections basing prime minister narendra modi's party their action is the 1st in that region since the indian government revoked its autonomy last year the winning coalition wants autonomy to be reinstated and the report's. salmond saga celebrates with his supporters the former marriage srinagar one to constituencies in kashmir as capital he stood as a candidate for the anti modi opposition coalition car alliance this is the 1st election i have we were not allowed to campaign we were not allowed to meet people we were not allowed to talk to people we were not doing proper security missions to

hold rallies. these local elections with the 1st since new delhi strip the autonomy of indian administered kashmir last year effectively an exciting parts of the disputed territory india's decision to revoke self rule in the majority muslim populated region caused anger and many kashmiris say they use these elections to make their voices heard the good car alliance 110 of the 290 contested seats. but members of india's governing hindu nationalist b j p say that also celebrating the party won 74 seats making it the single largest winner. of the. this is a victory for the b j p i believe it is because of the popularity of prime minister narendra modi in our towns and villages the people have faith in our prime minister and i believe in

the future we will witness development the people who wanted to spread communism have failed. but the good car alliance says the election results show majority of people want the region special status to be restored the b j p says the results vindicate the 2019 constitutional changes. they discovered has said uniformity in rules and governance will bring development but many kashmiris insist the region must have its autonomy and right to determine its future victoria gate and al-jazeera. well returning to the pandemic and the corona virus has spread to every continent on the globe after $36.00 cases were discovered at a chilean research station on the antarctic peninsula chile's own forces said the infections were among military personnel and civilian maintenance workers they're all now in isolation the chilean navy recently confirmed 3 cases on a ship which had taken supplies to the station. apiece you are to show that 36 men

tasted positive for cave 1926 were army personnel and 10 work civilians from a contractor company who were doing scheduled maintenance work at the top to compare east now above water hong kong's busy waterways of quietened but below the surface it's a very different story coronavirus travel restrictions have led to increased sightings of the territories pink dolphins and it's given scientists a unique opportunity to research the rest is that also facing extinction devika pollen reports now 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 are 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 they say we saw about 68 dolphins and we saw a mix of young and old individuals and they were engaging in a very for rioted 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 a. i'm 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 likely we're 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 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 allergies 0 hong kong. and atlantis is out is there and these are the headlines u.s. president all trump is suggesting he will not sign a massive crowd of virus 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 trump has also announced presidential pardons for 15 people they include full military contractors convicted of shooting dead 14 civilians in iraq in 2007.