the cause. of the pause. al-jazeera. you're watching the news hour live from headquarters and. coming up in the next 60 minutes it really is a disgrace us president donald trump slams a $900000000000.00 coronavirus stimulus bill passed by congress and threatens not to sign it and trump issues 15 more pardons including 4 private military contractors convicted of shooting dead 14 civilians in baghdad in 2007.

we can make it anger at the u.k. france border among truck drivers stranded ahead of the holidays. qatar begins its mass coronavirus vaccination program after receiving its 1st batch of pfizer doses . higher as with all the sports breaks out for the most goals a single copy to $644.00 strike for barcelona. welcome to the news hour we begin in the u.s. where hopes had risen of a massive relief bill for those struggling during the pandemic and now president donald trump says he won't sign it 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. 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 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 gov 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 administrator should 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 so we need to prepare ourselves to steal our spines as fresh state is that here it's going to take patience. more patients than 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 dawn the made declaration on the stimulus bill the white house announced presidential pardons for 15 more people they include george papadopoulos and alexander is one who pleaded guilty during the investigation into the russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections also on the lists to former republican congressman sentence for corruption who were the earliest to endorse trump's candidacy in 20164 others on that list were contractors' who worked for the controversial private security firm formerly known as blackwater in iraq they were serving long prison sentences after being convicted of shooting dead 14 civilians including 2 children in baghdad in 2007 the killings caused international outrage over the use of private security personnel in

a war zone control struck for it is in baghdad and has spoken to one of the victims injured in the 2007 attack. if he'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 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 yeah shock and disbelief certainly from the victim that we spoke to let's speak to natasha lynn's that who's a professor of u.s. government at the university of essex she is also a specialist an authoritarian regimes and joining us from culture star by skype thanks very much for your time with us on the al-jazeera news hour or so of course along with the blackwater pardons the president pardoned 2 congressmen who were accused of fraud and this is a president who ran a campaign on draining the swamp and effectively cleaning up washington are you surprised by these pardons and what do you make of them. no surprise by these pardons this is very in line with trump's entire presidential administration and

the way he has led in a very corrupt manner and a very authoritarian manner seen the u.s. democracy backsliding in terms of the way it's been rained on. by democratic indices just because of this i mean this is been a total abuse of the pardon power and only any president has done anywhere near this type of damage with this is bypassing. the justice department review process and it was really an abuse of this idea in the from the founders that you were going to have some sort of constitutional safeguard against injustices in the criminal justice system instead he's using it just to serve his own personal interests and whims or to help those that are close to them close to him a harvard study found that even before these 15 pardons had been announced 80 percent of the pardons that he had done were to serve his own interests completely

so we see that he's harming people who are corrupt in congress and also pardoning people in the military or private security companies who have killed innocent civilians here's the thing u.s. presidents do have a history of assuming pardons just talk us through how the pardon system is supposed to work and how broad our presidential power is when it comes to pardoning . well it's supposed to as i mentioned just be there in case there's been some injustice and you're right in the past there have been presidents who have had questionable pardons and you have bush sr who pardoned caspar weinberger you have bush jr who pardon scooter libby you had or. who who pardon nixon and are prepared to nixon you had clinton who pardoned marc rich a friend of his and rich finance year and so there's always the news incidents here and there of someone being pardoned that really didn't deserve it but i like to

give the example of obama part and 1700 people who were facing life in prison or at least a 3rd i think we're facing life in prison term drug charges and nonviolent crimes and they were pardoned because of some of the regularities injustices in the criminal justice system but none of these cases that we've mentioned bill i mean we're talking about people who have lied to the f.b.i. or who have been charged with corruption or people who have killed innocent civilians with the block water cases so this really signifies to me abuse of that presidential power do you expect the president to issue more pardons before he leaves office yet seems to be signaling that particular with the people involved in the russian investigation he wants to tarnish the legacy of the miller investigation until there will be more card and stick of those people who are involved in that that's what he seems to be signaling with some of these pardons

that it already happened such papadopoulos and course you know already part of michael flynn can he actually pardon himself. that's been the big question that we don't completely know the answer to i mean it could be another constitutional crisis that this presents you know in one constant constitutional crisis after another so it's possible that he could pardon himself i've seen legal experts weigh in differently but he's not going to be able to part of himself on the state level charges that there's investigations going into corruption tried tax evasion at the state level he's not going to be able to escape those types of charges so possibly partner himself about some things that in fact at the national level but he can't escape the reality of some of the charges facing the state right natasha ones that we thank you very much for giving us your time and speaking to us from the u.k. thanks for having me on to more head on the al-jazeera news hour including this the

central african republic is just days away from a presidential election but the security situation is deteriorating with reports of a city falling to rebels leaders of an opposition coalition sweet to factor in indian administered kashmir as 1st election since it lost autonomy we'll hear their demands coming up in sport a result that will send shock waves throughout italian football authorities coming up and much more a little later in sports. but 1st scuffles have broken out between police and angry truck drivers stranded at the english port of dover some of them are demanding to be let into france the french government has eased border restrictions with the u.k. over a mutated strain of coronavirus but thousands of drivers are still stuck at that border many of them will miss spending christmas with their families paul brown and

reports. 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. 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 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 castle 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 of 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's happening to love 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 in dover the rain a rocket on 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 and not direction the police are trying to restore order but for the moment they're not being successful i think. my my

children my song. my. daughter is crying for me to go through reinforcements restore order the situation remains tense. so that was paul filing his report from dover and we can now get a live update from paul he's joining us from there paul so even though these restrictions have been ease which mean the u.k. and france how high do tensions remain. about 5 miles outside of there a police blockades on the roads heading into the border town of the moment you can see over my shoulder there are lorries popped up on the approach roads all around this roundabout which i'm on a different roundabout to the one that where i was during that report i've seen drivers strikers coming here asking the police for information the police are very little information not spoken to them myself all they're doing is basically traffic control it's always advice as to where to get these tests these lateral flow tests

that the drivers have been instructed to get before they can actually cross the english. police have no information to offer on balance so well by having as a steady procession of think recently desperate motorists wanting to get back to their families for christmas and frankly not being given the relevant information that they need it's a pretty desperate situation down here and as you can see the rain that arrived last night is making it even more miserable so basically no clarity at all whatsoever at this point in time about how that testing process is going to work. very little i mean there's a government minister who has been doing the robot general he's the communities minister who's been doing the rounds of the t.v. studios this morning and he's been saying the bats the testing will be run by the national health services test and trace personnel supported by military personnel and the place where it has which has been mentioned those disagreements that have failed but i feel that you saw in my report that also mention of all the locations

but no details as to read those all the locations whether the drivers have to get to them whether those locations are actually out there of a pulitzer the tests are being essentially brought to the drivers rather than the drivers having to go to the tests. that there's a real lack of joined up thinking it seems here on the ground as far as exactly how this situation is going to be resolved. thankfully from the driver's point of view the last will flow test these 30 minute tests will appear to be sufficient for the french authorities to allow the most of the drivers to pass without said guessing those lateral flow tests is proving intensely difficult and the lack of information being given to the drive is that there are no people walking around from the county council all from governments giving the drivers information and that is really leading to increasing tensions so confrontations in my reports would be more confrontation storming down at the entrance of the port to get tempers are really

starting to fright all right paul thank you very much for reporting from dover. cats are has begun a mask over the 1000 vaccination campaign elderly people and health workers are the 1st to receive the pfizer bio and tag jobs and a shipment of doses arrived on monday where people with chronic illnesses will also be among those being prioritized for inoculation let's get an update from osama bin clinic in doha where the vaccines are being given out so what sort of timeline asama is qatar looking at to vaccinate all who want to be vaccinated. well there in the ministry of public health has been telling us that they have a very optimistic target that by the summer of 2021 they want to achieve 70 percent or more of the population inoculated with this pfizer biotech vaccine we

saw people trickling into this health center one of 7 people according to those 3 categories you mentioned the elderly those with chronic diseases as well as health care workers are going to be inoculated 1st and this is the 1st day so just like the cutter has rolled out it's restrictions being eased in phases the vaccine is going to be rolled out in phases where the ministry of health officials say they have ordered enough so that the whole population of 2500000 people can be vaccinated but it is a voluntary vaccine people have been coming in and there have been some skepticism about the vaccine as well and this is this is something that the ministry officials have told us is not true but they're trying to allay those fears people who we've been speaking to say that they are getting those vaccines themselves and people should come out and get this this vaccine as soon as the name is called out because this is going to be shortened for them to go back to the normal routine if enough people in the country get vaccinated they will be able to go back to lifting of the

restrictions completely if it is worth stating here that qatar has one of the laws the death rates in the region with 243 people who have been killed by the pandemic since it began over $140000.00 people have tested positive for covered but it is also tested 44 percent of its population as well so officials feel quite confident that they've got the situation under control but they're saying that the pandemic isn't over yet and people shouldn't become complacent about their safety and security measures osama bin jarhead thank you very much for that update from. well in an effort to be covert $1000.00 chinese develop vaccines have already made their way abroad brazil has partnered with beijing based pharmaceutical companies cinematic and is expected soon to announce the effectiveness of its phase 3 trials and as katrina new reports from beijing those questioning the efficacy of china's vaccines will be watching closely. shipments of chinese that seems arriving in

egypt many factories have struck deals to supply 400000000 doses to countries around the world despite having not yet released final stage test results more than 1000000 people in china have received doses under the government's emergency program beijing insists they're effective. there have been some adverse reactions but none a serious more than 60000 people have travelled to a high risk areas outside the country and so far there is no serious infection this proves our vaccines are protective. in a race to secure $1000.00 jobs nations like indonesia turkey and morocco have signed agreements with manufacturers sign of sign or farm and can see no biologics but some have questioned the safety of chinese vaccines including brazilian president. despite some paula state governor doria already ordering millions of

side of the doses cambodian leader when sen says he won't allow vaccines not recognized by the world health organization to be tested their previous vaccine scandals in china have led to concerns that manufacturers may be cutting corners. in the past there were businesses that broke the rules for example that store fridges due to lack of transparency international reputation has to be undermined stricter regulations in the u.s. u.k. and europe have required western vaccine companies to release trial data in stages chinese companies have not been subject to the same standards times readers are depending on the success of its vaccines to improve its international image we just saw that since the beginning of the outbreak banking has dismissed concerns about policy saying it's simply doing its part to ensure developing nations have access to a cause of 1000 vaccine but experts say it has all the motives. i

think the most ethical thing will be able to use that as a springboard into other areas of medical or misstate them beyond being zoo perhaps trade or social cultural connections and eventually from there it's. a dictate it will be able to manufacture it to believe that means by the end of next year katrina you out of their aging. a coalition of indian administered kashmir is best known leaders has won the most seats in local elections beating prime minister narendra modi's party the election is the 1st since the indian government revoked the region's autonomy last year the winning coalition wants autonomy to be reinstated as victoria and the reports. 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. we

were not allowed to campaign we were not allowed to meet people we were not allowed to talk to people we were not even 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 to 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. do you believe. 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 didn't have meant had said uniformity in rules and governance will bring development but many kashmiris in 5th the region must have it to tommy and right to determine its future victoria gate and be algis their time for a check on the weather here's rob. where you've had the relief it's cold again is always reliably cold up in the fall on the walls of china this is the construction due to open on january the 5th of the annual ice festival it will be our city and

the temperatures are coming down again as harbinger minus 12 is max anyway but we have seen a woman did not now on thursday that cold air crosses the sea of japan the e.c. if you like and produces yet more snow or anything up to a meter is possible in a central part of honshu the high ground half meter is getting more typical webster hawk-eye to once more that's on unstable ground this is going to be a pretty big avalanche risk but if you're not in japan it's still quiet whether it's cold by night it's ok by day but up to 21 down in hong kong there's a bit of a change slowly to meet slowly in the northern plains of india where it's completely foggy for most of the day and still a cold way the cold wave is going so not tempted to come in a little bit though we don't see much in the way forecasts showers or even cloud that start in sri lanka in the forecast for new delhi there is also the possibility of a thunderstorm now it's 40 beautiful and it becomes for ya afterwards but you might get a day off on saturday. still ahead on the al jazeera news hour

a 4th election in 2 years in israel after the fact just a struggling coalition fails to get its budget approved by parliament thus reclaiming their habitat calmer waters see the return of the rarest species of dolphin to hong kong and things didn't go according to plan for the n.b.a. champions and their season opener basketball action coming up in sports. players. city has become a major global issue the demand is going straight up and the supply is going straight down turning an essential natural resource into a commodity traded to the profit just because lloyd doesn't mean it's come o.b. price what about the guy that can afford it and in that case tell these water. al-jazeera examines the social financial and environmental impact of water

privatized loads of water on al-jazeera and. mass protests forcing the government's hand but are we seeing the picture didn't just trying to page 330 s. we follow journalists on the front line restraint free press committed to reporting the facts police officers pointing guns at journalists saying don't go home calm fact and fiction the truth is it anyway on al-jazeera. following on the top stories on the al-jazeera news 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. presidential pardons for 15 people that include 4 military contractors convicted of shooting dead 14 civilians in iraq in 20072 men tied to russian meddling in the 16 presidential elections were also pardoned scuffles have broken out between police and angry truck drivers stranded at the english port of dover the french government has border restrictions with the u.k. over a mutated strain of corona virus but thousands of drivers are still. eyewitnesses have told al jazeera that rebels in the central african republic have seized a major town they say the new alliance calling itself the patriots coalition for change took over bum bari after fighting with government troops but the u.n.

mission insists the town has not fallen to the rebels the latest violence comes just days before the country's presidential election. very conflicting information. about 400 kilometers from the copy where i am now we've been talking to eyewitnesses who are saying that this is now in the hands of this. change this is a movement that. is comprised of groups who joined forces over the weekend and have been threatening to march on. and this is now been controlled by this rebel movement but we have also. the u.n. peacekeeping mission. and they are saying that that is not true in fact there has

not fall into that. grouping they say that there has been. fighting. this morning. but the city is not. being controlled by this. is a very big city because. that connects to mining areas than to other neighboring countries like sudan and also where the producing producing factory and the only area in ca are the produce is rice controlled. controlled controlled area that's why. so important but here bunky everyone is quite worried about the security situation the election if they can't do it for sunday opposition leaders think that this election needs to be postponed because of the security issues but government officials the

top 2 are saying that that is not an option and that let's bring in denise brown who's the deputy special representative of the secretary general of the un's peacekeeping mission miniscule she's joining us from buying itself thanks very much denise brown for your time with us on the al-jazeera news hour so since our colleague and our reporter catherine soy filed that report can you just clarify whether there has been a change in the situation and in banbury because as we as we've been reporting eyewitnesses have told i was 0 that the rebel alliance has taken over the city something minister denies well i don't think it's a question of denying we have hundreds of little how many on the ground. as well as cool east. peace keeping mission as well as civilians and you agents there are hundreds of international you and your community and there was an entire u.s. . but there is no takeover of the town. and

that comes from the hundreds of stars that. there wasn't a type of guy. on combatants in here but. not. ok thank you for that clarification what about the situation in the capital bangui where you are speaking to us from because we are hearing reports of unrest in the capital can you confirm this or tell us what you've been seeing or hearing. right so i just done a trip across the city from the airport to my office which takes about 3 minutes and there wasn't shooting earlier today at the outskirts of town but what happens in a place like this is when people hear shots there is a panic reaction and we can't reaction this is the capitol which was going all. jews up and there was a lot of violence and people are still traumatized and there is

a lot of nervousness right now so and rumors that contribute to making an impact of some should which is to ponder on we are concerned about but it could be compilable coming back to us now because most of our combat. lucian's will radio and work because of the close monitoring situation of only elections on sunday and the timing of all this really doesn't bode well as you're saying just days before a national elections how concerned are you that the situation escalates and also how woman iscar ensure the security of the electoral process. we have $12500.00 troops on the ground and we have a mandate on the security council to see action and we have 5 months in advance so what we're seeing now is my review on groups and we. are

trying to mobilize to the election it is a challenging situation in a way in particular working on the troops that we have in place in the rest of the country the situation in the background and. all that's up and the population is coming to collect their cars they're going to see the position of the united nations very clear that we will not allow the rebels do you to steal from the population there's a right to vote and so recording all experts behind these election we need to clearly base the population you know that they can go and vote and we and we are doing absolutely everything to ensure that happened and what can you tell us about the humanitarian situation on the ground. right so in the western part of the

country people have been moving out of fear of what. ex-president was using are trying to do and we're monitoring that close need to but. this is a projection crisis one of the humanitarian crisis. lies we're working nicely in missions not to go only. really humanitarian crisis in this kind. heart went populations i salute. rocking the. years of. denise brown we thank you very much for giving us your time and speaking to us from bungie thank you thank you. israel will be holding its 4th election in 2 years after the collapse of the government coalition parliament was dissolved when it failed to meet a deadline to pass the budget a snap election without being held in march next year and the upcoming corruption

trial of the prime minister benjamin netanyahu is at the center of the discord with benny gantz the former opposition leader and now alternate prime minister. and yet against elections that wrong decision by the u.n. by party but if an election is forced upon us i promise you that the event of let's get an update and bring in irene nasser she's joining us from west to resell them so was this expected at all irene. well i mean it really wasn't quite a surprise the coalition government that was formed between netanyahu and benny gantz was really quite weak from the beginning that power sharing agreement that was signed in may and are that agreement netanyahu and guns were supposed to rotate prime ministers with guns taking over in may in november scuse me up 2021 but that really all depended on this budget passing and the only way for an attorney to hold onto his seat as prime minister was really to delay that vote as much as

possible and as many people expected that is exactly what happened what he has done the 10 yahoo though in the meantime was really destroyed the political image it's setting himself up for a much much better position ahead of the upcoming election in iran it's yet another election in israel it's the 4th one in 2 years what does the landscape look like today and has anything actually changed since the last one. well and it's you know those numbers over the past few months has been quite low he's been criticized for how he's handled the pandemic he's also facing some corruption charges as well as protests that have been ongoing but polls that were released just last night still show his party the likud party as 1st in place he also made some remarks last night and boasted about some of his achievements including bringing the covert vaccine to

israel which rolled out just this week and signing normalization tie agreements with 4 arab countries over the past 4 months opening the opportunity for economic investment he is in a much better position than guns who's really plummeted in the polls. he's basically being seen as the last man standing in his party. who does have some political contenders though he's got enough benefit of the amino party he is currently in a position in the ranks in the polls but he's really only strong in the polls netanyahu is biggest contender is good who broke away from the likud party earlier this month and started his own party new hope he's currently that party is in 2nd place all of these parties though the likud media now and in new hope are really part of the israeli right so what we're going to see in these elections coming up

is really a battle within the israeli right all right i mean also thank you for that update from western lucilla. well the e.u. says it's willing to continue bret's that trade negotiations with the u.k. office or the end of the transition period on december 31st the blocks bricks at negotiator has briefed member states on the latest progress as the u.k. and e.u. continue efforts to hammer out a deal the main obstacle to an agreement is e.u. fishing in british waters there is a set big says behind the issue of fishing rights are a number of concerns time is running the fishing industry seems to be a major sticking point that's because currently e.u. member states have access to british waters now fabrics in the u.k. wants to change that you can't just change the quote to that the e.u. countries get the debate is where the about the number that quote what figure it

should be but also it's about the transition period before changes come in they don't seem to be agreeing on those but the final point that's really seems to be a sticking point is any retaliatory action from the e.u. so if in future in the future the u.k. changes those fishing quotas they don't want any retaliatory action from the e.u. in the fishing industry or otherwise to complicate matters further the majority of fish caught by british fishermen exported to the new and the majority of fish consumed by people in britain are imported so both the u.k. and the e.u. are trying to protect the fishing industry in the u.s. justice department is suing supermarket giant wal-mart for billions of dollars in damages accusing it of helping to fuel america's opioid crisis the civil lawsuit accuses wal-mart's pharmacist of selling addictive painkillers while ignoring invalid and suspicious prescriptions william solomon is the chief executive officer at the accreditation counselor for counsel for medical affairs he thinks wal-mart

has been trying to avoid responsibility for its role in the crisis. wal-mart itself had actually filed against the o.j. reactively before they were sued by the ministration and you know there are arguments like look this should be really something that the v.a. should be handling this is something bad it's really the responsibility of the physicians who are licensed to prescribe these products so you know it's a question of you know who really here is willing to take accountability right it's it's one group tossing the the responsibility to the next and i think it has to stop i think ultimately we need to ask ourselves whether it's wal-mart whether it's pharmaceutical companies one of the processes that please do ensure that the information i goes out to patients to health care providers is accurate is ethical isn't checked wal-mart is just one player in this game right the physicians definitely clear will pharmaceutical companies play

a role and we saw that the chairman of doing the settlement last week with the government right they settled for $8000000000.00 they admitted that they could have done things better but it that they had misled the public and you know when you think about the size of a company like her do her size of wal-mart have right 5000 pharmacies in the west it's a huge impact i mean it's you talking hundreds and thousands and millions of lives affected in the u.s. and abroad and it's just it's preposterous to think that for all these years they've been undercut in system of the process and no one was aware no one was aware. the number of journalists murdered worldwide has more than doubled this year a report by the committee to protect journalists says at least 30 were killed and 2020 mexico's the deadliest country for media workers journalists are routinely threatened and targeted by criminal groups or corrupt politicians afghanistan syria

on the philippines are next on the list most killers have gone on punished with politics being the most dangerous subject to cover while murders rose overall the sear the number of journalists killed in crossfire fell to its lowest level since 2000 courtney ranch is with the committee to protect journalists in washington she says mexico's government needs to do more to protect reporters. 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

impact we've seen is the responses that governments have made to the coronavirus pandemic which is included you know efforts that seem less designed to combat the pen demick 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 in 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 stay in

place long after the pandemic above water hong kong's busy waterways have quite below the surface it's a different story coronavirus travel restrictions have led to increased sightings of the territory's pink dolphins typical pollen reports from hong kong. we join conservation teams to search for the endangered. tall thing. 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 land towel 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 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 action 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 problem habitat area for example by just changing the course lightly 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 lock downs 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 are a hong kong. coming up on the al-jazeera news hour the sports news and this football legend loses his claim to a long standing record stories coming up and much more in just a moment it's. i'm

going time for the sports news here sir thanks a lot during we start with barcelona stalin el messi that's because he's broken a record held by one of football's greatest ever players pele for more than 40 years now and she's they racked up his 644th goal for basso breaking the brazilian legends record for the most goals at one club messi historical achievement came in

barcelona's 313 nil rather win over valladolid now let's take a look at how goal scoring records of both greats compare baster and santos respectively so as i just mentioned earlier messi has 644 goals so barcelona that's one more than pele scored for brazilian club santos interesting lee though it's taken the argentinian more matches that $649.00 to be precise to reach his total by getting his $643.00 goals in $665.00 competitive matches but here's the thing messi baguettes his goals in fewer seasons 17 compared to pele's 19 between 19561974 messi is goals which have mostly come in the league or have seen him win the spanish league with barcelona 10 times compared to pele's 6 brazilian league titles with santos. to start with i see leo happy

he's working world and he's crucial for our attacking game thanks to his creativity obviously it helps if he has very good players playing with him any team would need him especially for how dangerous he can be for us in the tank. event to suffer the shock to feet on cheese day the italian champions who played most again with 10 men after a play was sent off went down 3 no against fiorentina was their 1st me defeat of the season and leaves in force in syria 7 points behind leaders ac milan now also boss macao arteta admitted his cops are in big trouble after suffering another major setback on cheese day the gunners were dumped out of the league cup after being thrashed $41.00 by manchester city in the quarter finals austin's elimination comes at the club dwelling in 15th place in the prem yet leak well straight is nathan leon expects him to it's come out fighting in the 2nd test which begins on

boxing day his comments follow the aussies thrashing india in this series opener a match that saw the tourists wreck or their low record rather than lowest of innings total in test cricket 36 runs they got some absolute walk last why throughout the whole war those one of the days where nothing went wrong with them and everything went wrong for us we've all had a. gun cricket no doubt there i think they're trying right now as we speak so now they are absolutely trying to house that kerry muck everyone else would for every other guy and we're expecting them to come out for him and not have any scars from the other day. now the day for the take care lympics has caused much this ruction to thousands of athletes around the walls they've been forced to drop their training methods and in some cases prolong their careers as davis says reports assessing the been the case for the u.s. men's team. back on the water for another hard day's work the u.s.

men's rowing team is training in the oakland estuary in northern california when the tokyo olympics was despondent march because of coronavirus every single member of the squad signed up for another year for us for us really just kind of back to work you know it's it's not just the same we have a kind of precautionary up taking up a change or. you know fundamentally it's just get back to work we've got several months here to kind of buckle down and get our speed back to where we want to be some of these athletes compete in an 8 man boat but right now to keep safe they're only being sent out to training fours and twos and those he previously tested positive for cave in 19 are working on their own having only just returned from current team it's a gruelling routine for these amateur athletes who all have real day jobs training starts at 6 am followed by work and then more training in the evening. but they've

had to put their real lives on hold for a year longer than expected with one member of the team having to change his wedding plans there are some upsides. it gives us a little bit of help because we have a young team so it gives us a bit more time to develop so i think it's challenging for some of the older guys like myself who are only playing to be on the team so for years and i'm kind of get on with the rest of our normal lives but i figured out it's helpful for us in a way in that we have some young guys and it gives us more time to develop with it . for safety is paramount for coach michael tetchy who himself wrote it 3 olympics when the pandemic struck he immediately took his teams off the water set them up with rowing machines at home and sent them on line workouts their back. saw it now but he admits he still has reservations about them competing in tokyo i don't have a crystal ball but and it does seem kind of hairy you have people coming from 125 different countries but i do think that the japanese will do

a great job and i think they'll figure something out look we have looks like there may be a vaccine and you know i'm sure that i'm sure the work it out so that everyone say . after a break for christmas the team will go into a bio security bubble before competing in february 22 row is vying for 14 seats on the plane to tokyo all of them willing to make sacrifices to achieve their olympic dreams david stokes al-jazeera. well there are any n.b.a. champions that i like his assaults of the title defense with a defeat for facing city rivals the clippers on opening day or bron james and seem have been celebrating their final victory from october those celebrations were halted by paul george the school of 33 points on tuesday with un and chipping in with 266 winning 81162109. lots more useful from a fanatic but more for me right ok then we'll see you later thank you very much sir and thanks for watching the news hour. and a saucer taze with you in just

a minute with more news thanks for watching about. 3 jobs and now i only have one but i'm soo providing for my family. the 1st time i was admitted to hospital that i didn't show any signs of m.s. . a lot but at about my opinion i mean i have become very positive and stop thinking about the negative side so from. al jazeera. he is from living with them in egypt. an invitation to bear witness to all that

life office. the highs the lows the trials and tribulations. and everyday miracles the injustices the defiance the tests of character and the person to witness documentaries with a delicate touch on al-jazeera. it's the u.k.'s biggest hospital with eventual capacity for 4000 covered 19 patients built inside a london conference center it took just 9 days to construct with the help of army engineers dramatically expanding the critical care bed count and other similar sites are underway the actual longer numbers could be much higher than advertised researches say that huge gaps in testing capacity that the government is now trying

to close extrapolate that across the country under spread of coronavirus appears far wider than anyone thought. it really is a disgrace us president on trial slams a $900000000000.00 coronavirus stimulus bill passed by congress and threatens not to science. and trouble also issues a 15 pardons and rating for private military contractors convicted of shooting dead 14 civilians in baghdad in 2007. there are no stars it hey this is al jazeera live also coming up. no sleep just great.