ground there is what is the situation there is only one doctor and one nurse for 2200 people and in-depth analysis of the day's global headlines. inside story on al jazeera. this is al jazeera. hello i'm still robin you're watching the al-jazeera news our live from doha coming up here in the next 60 minutes. last night. but it is really nothing truck drivers and police face off in the u.k. where anger is growing over delays at the border brought on by fears of the coronavirus. also donald trump makes another controversial round of presidential pardons and doesn't you turn on the coronavirus stimulus bill. and

a fire breaks out as a migrant camp in bosnia that was sent to be closed because of its unsuitable conditions. on the positive side of the pandemic our travel restrictions have led to more sightings of an endangered dolphin in hong kong. and i'm sad to highlight i have all the sports greats pele's record for most goals at single copy to 644th street for barcelona. could have become a welcome to the news we begin in the british port city of dover where stranded truck drivers are starting to be tested for corona virus but officials are warning of severe delays in clearing the backlog freight has been stuck for days after european nations hold to travel with the u.k. to try to contain the mutated strand of. 19 thousands of drivers waiting with

little access to facilities and poor communication what happens next well what does happen paul brennan is in that port city of dover hopefully has an ounce of all his poll tensions were boiling over throughout the day the situation is tense how would you describe it now. people are very miserable and fed up and upset and it started on tuesday with a lack of information i have to say that just wasn't anything filtering through to those drivers who at that point had been stranded for that. you can hear people just blowing their horns out of sheer frustration misery it was gridlock in the town of itself that means local people are being caught up in all of this lorry drivers who are trying to get down that road where the police blocking blockages behind me that's the main road to the ports are being diverted away the having to

turn around and go back in the direction that they came from. it's all around unhappiness frankly the weather isn't helping where it's 36 hours away from christmas day so you know you can you can imagine that the drivers here who hoped to be home with their families after delivering the goods on the loads and sound back in time for christmas is not going to happen for so for thousands of them indeed i mean what news of the attempt to try and get these drivers tested for coronavirus and get the system moving what sort of numbers of the authorities are there is there anybody actually in charge to give information to these stranded guys and ladies and gentlemen. that's a great question and frankly we don't know the answer it's been really very very frustrating this morning trying to get from the office or it is a straight answer as to exactly what is going on to alleviate the pressure on the traffic and also to. those drivers stranded on to those ferries with

a test hopefully a negative coronavirus test i spoke to kent county council this morning off the regional authority for this area they said no it's not us it's the department for health department for health turned around and said no no it's not us it's the partner for transport the depart for transport have a ravine haven't revealed anything apart from the very basic statistics of how many trucks are stuck on the. m 20 motorway on that mountain air field they said testing has started but they haven't given us how many revelation of how many tests they've actually managed to complete or how many people have managed to be put on to the ferries it's all it's i hesitate to use the word but shambolic frankly and there is a lot of criticism coming down upon the heads of the ministers of government responsible for this and you know it's not good we've got drivers coming to us asking for information many of them for whom english is not their 1st language and we've got no information to pass on to the ball of course so we came back to you

throughout the day to find out what situation is like in david thanks very much paul brennan our correspondent. well the british health secretary might hang his due to hold a briefing shortly we will be getting that live but 1st we can join us at bag who is our correspondent in london of course we are expecting the british health secretary to give us more information about this current strain this mutant strain of covert 19 and how it's affecting specific areas of the u.k. . the stand that ministers have been discussing whether the current measures are tough enough now in the u.k. we have a tiered system to want to tear for now with tier 4 being the most strictest the toughest conditions that's london and the southeast where non-essential businesses are closed people are told to stay at home and work from home unless they absolutely have to travel and people are not allowed to travel from tier 4 areas to

. the tears now that was born borton after the government said that this new strain of covered $9000.00 it was more transmissible and they were concerned about that so the boat interior for now what also the government had done is that initially they had said that they would give a 5 day easing easing of these restrictions from christmas now the government went back and so on for there would be no easing of those restrictions people cannot celebrate christmas with other households that can only do within their own household and support people in tears 123 they can do it on christmas day but with the bubble of 3 households so they change that once this they were alerted to this new strain now what they're looking at in particular is this our number that there are number is how many people an infected person the virus goes on to infect now currently before it was 1.121.2 and we believe it's increased from 1 point one to 1.3 and the increase of infections now yesterday then we recorded 37000 new

infections that's the highest the country has seen is believed it may have been higher earlier on in the year but testing for coverage was as widespread now some of the parts of the country such as east anglia and london that are rating is 1.2 to 1.5 and to give you an idea of that so if 10 people are infected they will go on to infect a further 12 to 15 people now when just going to have to reintroduce. just for a moment has actually taken to the let's let's listen to what the british health secretary has to say public health england and n.h.s. trust and trace. we all know that 2020 has been a hard year and it's ending in this festive period which is going to be very different after all the efforts that we've gone through to control this virus and in many parts of the country this viruses under control just as

we've got a tit system in place that was able to control this virus we've discovered a new more contagious virus a variant that is spreading at a dangerous rate and i know that the vast majority of people watching today and across the country understand what we need to do together to get through this. and so today we're announcing further action within the tiering system and also some further progress on vaccines and on testing and i just want to say this before i set out the details of what we're going to have to put in place i know that these actions have consequences i know how difficult it is but i also know that it is right to take the action that's necessary to control this virus across

the country cases have risen 57 percent in the last week the average covert hospital admissions are 1909 a day that's the highest figure since mid april there are 18943 people in hospital with corona virus right now that's almost as many as the word of the peak and yesterday there were $691.00 deaths reported. that's 691 people who have died just before christmas and our hearts go out to their families their loved ones as with all who've died from this horrible disease i know the pain that this causes so against this backdrop of rising infections rising hospitalizations and rising numbers of people dying from coronavirus it is absolutely vital that we act we simply cannot have the

kind of christmas that we all yearn for. of course it's the social contact that makes christmas so special but it's that social contact that the virus thrives on and that's how the virus is spread from one person to another so it's important that we all minimize our social contact as much as is possible this christmas and that will help protect ourselves our loved ones and the whole country we've got to keep our resolve we've got to keep going through this and this 4 areas that i want to update you on today a very specifically the 1st of those tiering decisions that i just mentioned we know that the 3 to system worked to control the old variant and is working now in large parts of the country especially in northern england but we also know that to

3 is not enough to control the new variant this is not a hypothesis it is a fact and we've seen it on the ground we've seen case rates rise in some of the places close to where the current to 4 restrictions are in places like east anglia where we've seen a significant number of the new variant and we've seen case races rates rise sharply. it is therefore necessary to put more of the east and southeast of england into tears for. we're also taking action in parts of the southwest where there are some early signs of the new variant and where cases are rising even though the case rates in some of these areas are not as high as they are in in the areas badly affected in london for instance and in kent the direction is clear and in many cases quite stop the doubling times are short and we've learnt we have

learnt that when it comes to being a matter of when not if we take action it is better to act sooner. so from one minute past midnight on boxing day sussex oxfordshire suffolk norfolk and cambridge are those parts of essex not yet into 4 waverley in sorry and hampshire including portsmouth and southampton but with the exception of the new forest will all be escalated to tear for bristol gloucestershire somerset including the north somerset council area swindon the isle of wight the new forest and northamptonshire as well as cheshire and warrington will be escalated to 3 and i'm afraid that call and herefordshire have seen sharply rising rates and need to be escalated to 2 this is not news that anybody wants to deliver

and i am truly sorry for the disruption that it causes but i think people know how important it is that we take decisions like this to keep people safe and to protect the n.h.s. the 2nd piece of news i want to tell you about is some developments about another new strain of this virus. of course the fight against the virus is a global effort and we're constantly vigilant and looking around the world and as part of our surveillance and thanks to the impressive genomics capability of the south africans we've detected 2 cases of another new variant of corona virus here in the u.k. both cases both of contacts of cases who have traveled from south africa over the past few weeks the chief scientific advisor and the chief medical officer and others met their south african counterparts over the last day and we are incredibly

grateful to the south african government for the rigor of their science and the openness and the transparency with which they have rightly acted as we did when we discovered a new variant here this new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new varying there's been discovered in the u.k. we've taken the following action 1st we are quarantining cases and close contacts of cases found here in the u.k. 2nd we're placing immediate restrictions on travel from south africa and finally and most importantly anyone in the u.k. who has been in south africa in the past fortnight and anyone who has a close contact of someone who's been in south africa in the last fortnight must quarantine immediately by quarantine i mean they must restrict all contact with

any other person whatsoever. will be changing the law to get this legal effect imminently. now these measures are temporary while we investigate further this new strain which is shortly to be analyzed at porton down and i want to thank everyone involved for the seriousness with which i know that they will take these new instructions i'd like now to move on to some more positive developments 3rd the 3rd thing i want to talk about is an update on testing as you know we continue rapidly to expand the testing capability here in the u.k. we are expanding community testing yet further in areas where the rate of infection is highest so we can identify people and especially identify the around one in 3 people who carry the virus without displaying any symptoms at all $116.00 local

areas have now signed up for this community testing and we're in discussion with more and these rapid turnaround tests are proving to be extremely effective at finding cases where we are otherwise wouldn't and i am today publishing an assessment of the liverpool community testing project which shows how effective this can be i do anyone who has the opportunity to take part to protect their local area and at the same time we're boosting rapid testing in care homes with a further 149000000 pounds to support that effort so all those who work in care homes in england will receive 2 rapid tests a week in addition to their weekly p.c.r. to us finally. amid all of this difficulty the great hope for 2021 is of course the vaccine the vaccine is our group out of all this. and however tough this christmas and this winter is going to be we know that the

transforming force of science is helping to find a way through i'm delighted to be able to tell you that the oxford astra zeneca vaccine developed here in the u.k. has submitted its full data package to the m h r a for approval this is the next step towards a decision on the deployment of the vaccine which is already being manufactured including here in the u.k. we are of course continuing to deploy the pfizer beyond tech vaccine which is being delivered now from over $500.00 sites all across the u.k. and we're adding more all the time and accelerating the rollout and also delighted to be able to announce that we have begun vaccination in cat homes we know that people who live in care homes are amongst the most vulnerable to this disease and i'm delighted that we're able to do this it again it's another enormous logistical

challenge and i'm very very grateful to colleagues in the n.h.s. and in the social care sector who've worked together so hard to make this happen. this afternoon it gives me great joy to tell you that the chelsea pensioners will be vaccinated along with care home residents right across the country i think we all need a bit of good news and the reality is this vaccine program is the way we're going to get through this because every time somebody is vaccinated our country becomes a little bit safer they become a little bit safer and we get a little bit closer to the life that we all want to get back to. i sincerely hope that this is my last press conference before christmas and i want to just take a moment firstly to thank you and everybody watching for all that you have done and the sacrifices that you've made. and i also want to thank my whole team who've done so much including that including those here susan and jenny but including the

huge team in the n.h.s. in the department and right across the board and as a country we've been faced with these enormous challenges and it's been very tough but i specially want to thank those who helped this country to become the 1st in the world to roll out a clinically approved vaccine i want to thank all those who've helped us build a bigger capacity engine or make testing than anywhere else in the world and of course the biggest overall testing capacity in europe i want to thank our scientists who've discovered the 1st proven treatment for corona virus and i want to thank everybody working in the n.h.s. and in social care for the work that they've done this year and also for the work that's going to carry on this winter and especially to colleagues who are working over christmas which of course is so important in the n.h.s.

and in social care look i know how hard 2020 has been for everybody and after delivering some really difficult news if i if i may i want to end on a reflection of where we are as a country this christmas and the start of 2021 is going to be tough the new variant makes everything much harder because it spreads so much faster. but we mustn't give up now we know that we can control this virus we know we can get through this together we're going to get through it by suppressing the virus until a vaccine can make us safe and that's been our strategy and that's what we must do we're not going to give up now especially after so much sacrifice and i know that some of these decisions are tough but i believe in that everybody making the right decisions and i believe that everybody will do what is needed to keep themselves

and others safe especially this christmas and i know from the bottom of my heart that there are a brighter skies ahead and i'm now going to hand over to jenny to give us an update on the data especially on this impact of this new very mad tank up there the british health secretary addressing the nation to tell them exactly what's going to happen at midnight on wednesday let's bring in our correspondents of beggars also listening in to what was said and i said before we talk about what he said about the new strain let's talk about the tears system because from what i understand it seems that large swathes of the east of england to the south of england way over to the southwest and now go to join their northern cousins in tear 3 major disruption now just before christmas. yes that's right so what we've been seeing is an increased rate of infection over the last few days yesterday the country recorded nearly 37000 new infections that's the that's the most the country has seen now

what. is saying he said that is look we understand that this is a difficult time of year but the figures show that the country that the government must act so we already have london and the southeast interior for that in the east of the country will come in also community or for that means that the non-essential businesses are closed people are told to stay at home and to work from home unless they absolutely have to travel and they're not allowed to travel from tier 4 areas into the areas now in tier 3 areas what would happen there are on wednesday is that the business is us to stay open as long as they observe covert restrictions but what people will ask is that this is coming in the day after christmas those tears 3 where those households are allowed to socialize with a bubble of 3 households so if on christmas day they're allowed to mix and although

the government is saying that there should be some restraint these restrictions come in a day after if it is so concerning if the infection rate is so high why not what why not cancel that kind of a levy ation of those restrictions why not just bring in that tier system the tear for a bit earlier to stop the infection rate increasing now the government has done that they probably don't want to cancel christmas as there have been in london and the southeast and they want to act a bit later because they think that the figures that this scene right now doesn't warrant in their opinion to bring it in sooner but those questions will remain in the their world of course also mentioning the new variant strain of covert 19 that's been identified in south africa we were speaking to our correspond. and. how rumor tass are just what 24 hours ago talking about the strain that's been found between durban and cape town across the south southern areas of southern africa 2

cases i believe now what much hunt will say in the u.k. that will be of concern yes he seems to be very concerned about he is said to co cases there are linked to south africa he said that this strain is more contagious see it contagious it seems to have mutated further than the new strain that was discovered in the u.k. and now what the government here is saying is that if you have been in contact with somebody that has recently come back from south africa for like 2 weeks you must isolate if you try if you have traveled back from south africa in the last 2 weeks you must isolate and they want to put this into law and i think you really were stressing how dangerous the government thinks this is and how seriously they are taking this now you also praised the south african authorities about the information sharing with them but they would be really keen not to have this spread further and that's why the ordering people that they must must isolate if they have

been in contact with anyone that's returned from south africa or if they themselves have returned from south africa. as a bloke in london thanks very much for that input cause we'll be coming back to you with any more updates. war criminals perjurers fraudsters and murderers are amongst the 15 people who have been pardoned by u.s. president donald trump as he reaches the end of his term now there are 4 military contractors' from a security company convicted of a 2007 shooting in baghdad 14 iraqi civilians were killed including 2 children political allies have also been pardoned 2 people who lived in a congressional probe over russian election meddling have been granted clemency and the president has dashed hopes of an urgent lee needed coronavirus relief bill despite having bipartisan support he says he'll reject it unless it's amended well for more on the presidential pardons that speak to how to do it castro joins me now from washington d.c.

and heidi now that people had time to digest exactly the content of those pardons what's the reaction. right well there has been outrage here in the u.s. because as you said these are individuals who had direct personal interests linked to that of president trump if you break them down we have those 2 aides to trump's campaign who were caught up in the russian investigation by the special counsel robert muller they were among the 1st 2 convictions secured in the investigation both pleading guilty to lying to federal officers they are among those pardoned then we have the 3 former republican congress members one of which is serving a 10 year stint in prison for fraud and for money laundering while $1.00 of those congress men were the 1st to endorse trump in his 20 secs 2016 campaign and then

finally of course we have these 4 convicted murderers the blackwater security guards now they were convicted after a hard fought conviction during the president obama administration of murder of manslaughter for the massacre of innocent iraqi civilians well what is their connection to trump blackwater is owned by an ardent trump supporter erik prince who happens to be also the brother of trump's education secretary so if you look at what all of these people have in common it's not so much that they may deserve clemency the rather they play a role in trumps political interests and that's why people are looking at this and saying the legal the president has the power to issue these pardons it certainly appears to be an abuse of power so he certainly has the right to do that it's how people react to it it could be a little difficult is it not for republicans to support and justify the way that

the president is acting in these final days before he leaves office. that's right and of course we have that whole other mess with the relief bill which was a shock to both republicans and democrats in congress trying had declined to participate in the months of negotiations to get that massive bill passed through congress on monday and so it really came out of nowhere when he announced on twitter that he wanted checks of $2000.00 rather than the $600.00 as economic stimulus to americans but democrats are playing along their leaders in congress have said ok they're going to bring up a plan to increase the quantity of those checks to the house floor tomorrow christmas eve for unanimous consent but it would indeed take a christmas miracle for unanimous consent to be given in both chambers for that plan given republican opposition to further spending. the real pressure now is

on the republican leaders mitch mcconnell the senate majority leader who has thus far been silent on this he may just be waiting it out perhaps believing that trump is bluffing that may be the case knowing that this is a president who is acting out in the waning days of his dying presidency budget constraints. so will she do so. trampas called the covert relief package a disgrace saying it has nothing to do with the virus and its congress as we heard from to remove wasteful and unnecessary items from the bill so what's in it while it includes $286000000000.00 in direct assistance $600.00 to americans less making less than $75000.00 a year now small businesses will get $2325000000000.00 pardon me dollars in new aid in the form of a loan and congress also wants $1.00 trillion dollars to fund the government known

as the spill that was nearly $700000000000.00 for the defense department including a 3 percent pay rise for the military 35000000000 for clean energy research and development but achieving consensus in congress means unusual additions including penalties for illegal streaming and anti doping programs for horse racing and a statement against beijing's interference in the appointment of the next dalai lama claudia sam is the founder of stay at home market consulting and a former u.s. federal reserve economist joins me now live on skype from washington d.c. good to have you with us it was a difficult negotiated bill and one that both democrats and republicans have had to compromise on yet the president wants to append it can he with sort of both houses voting categorically for it. thank you for having me here

yesterday i sure do think that we celebrated president tramp signing the relief package and yet what we got instead was him saying that he disagreed with. the retina decided unless there was another $2000.00 of those were the payments to households the senate and the house had enough of those that they can override his veto but this mess it should have gotten out to people weeks ago and it hasn't is the money that's being offered in this bill enough considering many will have a crude quite a lot of debt and they're going to find that very hard to pay off in the coming months they relieve packages $900000000000.00 it is good whether it's good enough it is hard to tell at this point and it's not going to be good or good enough for millions of families you're absolutely right this crisis has gone on for months and months and people are going to be there hurt right now and it's going to

take a long time to clean it up but we need that relief package to pass jobless workers in the united states who are getting extra weeks of benefits extra eligibility they will get their last check from the federal government on december 26th the day after christmas break it is unconscionable that these these relief efforts have not been extended and they are not getting extended now it with the people that you may be talking to how will these delays in administering the bill and the funds affect . the grassroots level what type of effect does it have on if i dare say the ordinary americans. well so for those individuals who are getting these jobless benefits there will be weeks of disruption even if they pass this bill on christmas eve it will be weeks before they get their benefits reinstated every day that congress delays cost people their direct payments this $600.00 or 2000 whatever it

ends up being if they prove that it will be adequate within a week to people's bank accounts but they keep delaying and people who need that money so that delay cost it increases the burden it is absolutely taking the joy out of the holiday season and what little there is left and it's just it's irresponsible that the bill makes the assumption that it has for those that need it most in the country and that it's in a country that will be free of covert 19 come the summer spring summer of next year what happens if covert continues and the crisis continues well 1st of all the relief package that they are considering right now assumes that by the spring we are vaccinated we have code that under control but a lot of the money in it to relieve runs out in march and these direct payments are one time right so the assumption is that the vaccine that are public out of their

scientists that they come to the rescue and they do it fast and what is really problematic about this is that might not happen and it's certainly not going to get everybody back on their feet that quickly and then we're back to square one in terms of congress trying to hash out another relief package and that frankly does not look likely at all photoshop it's been good to get your insight thanks so much for joining us from washington d.c. . thank you. 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 now the election is the since the indian government revoked the region's autonomy last year the winning coalition wants autonomy to be reinstated victoria. 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 coraline's 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 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. 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 to be j.p. says the results vindicate the 2019 constitutional changes. they discover mint 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 al-jazeera. but as a freelance journalist and full madison of india's mail today nice paper joins me now from the capital new delhi get tough with us on the program i just begin with how important these results already full that. this coalition of opposition groups

in the kashmir region and for the opposition groups have already said that this is going to be a referendum on the. creation of a special status of jammu and kashmir by them with the government in this country 19 and holding on to that because in. 'd most areas of german people have all been against these fucking in essence it is that referendum people have wanted the defeat against governments broad policy in question however that sort of people have both sort of wouldn't because there was no mediation between the people and the state when you have governments who so they need in a people setting to do something also come out to what because they needed somebody who would give them access to the administration. that we have received that it has made inroads into. day one pct one very

small martin. you know that one ingredient is no longer but that's insignificant. if that's the case and how do these results translate into the impact that they will have full local people on the ground. well you see there are going districts in jammu region of your industry and in. this segment to bring down says a new set of what new mood level of governance that we created by this government and the level of districts these are administered in bodies that were considered part of their financial they don't have legislative powers so in general it looks as if the b j p will form will come to power in 6 of that been district development councils in the manner he in one so 14. or thereabouts to melbourne councils the city development council go to the opposition camp so it's not a big deep but we get the job more as long as we are here to region but even even

day when the parties have won seats the congress has won seats so we have beacon you don't being number of votes a number of seats you don't like and the question is how many decisions do you control if you did not be able to control all then 6 to 7 this city to the districts development councils they have no legislative powers in terms of representatives going to delhi and arguing in public in parliament but yet what wonders how this is going to filter down in terms of development the public welfare because the basic needs of health water road transport haitian and just the safety aspect of being able to travel around the area and water is highly militarized part of the world. well on safety issues i don't know whether to sit development councils have any role at all because safety. is determined by the level of militancy and the level of presence

of. military which the district development constance knew that right now our support they don't support militancy and their model with the arm so see if even the safety will go up it's a moot question as soon as. the issues develop and we should consent yes now there will be a district development council district planning more and they will have these people have a lab some role in how to spend the money that's allocated for developing roads or a primary had centers or schools so in that sense they didn't do that experience has opened up a bit in your more english mean but it's not opened up as it should in a democracy because normally state departments we ever be devoted to disfigure have been canceled or that he would need at least a difference and is sitting on selections by in the sky it's not mostly what

happens certainly in how this all transpired in the months ahead for the moment thanks for joining us from new delhi said thanks for your time thank you very much . al-jazeera journalist mahmud the same has now spent 4 years in the gyptian detention center without charge or trial hussein was arrested while visiting family in december 26th seen a number of human rights organizations have joined al jazeera and demanded his immediate release his detention is in violation of both the gyptian and international law. there is an executive director of the international center for human rights and joins me now from toronto in canada good to have you with us on the program so what's the legal basis for holding me to say in detention just for international viewers who will not be aware of the full story. well you don't need to rely on the legal basis to challenge the education government of

course it's against international law even shuns on chips or luck. taining turn ensuring and pretend journalist and actor is in jail is not acceptable this is a while a shot he migrates every human being has the right to really express himself very solid and it said journalists right to publish news and stories what is the point is admitting in a ship is against the law of course but it's a massive human race why elation and the government's a start this. is a high profile case but how many people like him journalists human rights advocates civil society a languishing in jail similar to that of egypt what's your understanding of the global numbers. well. educated almost bogged down shot on hundreds or $600.00

web sites news outlets boxes social media. applications and he has applications it's not just in newspapers and the present magazines they massively trying to shut down all kind of. activities against a governments and the egyptian government is one of the top journalists jailers. i believe it's among the top 5 besides countries like iran islamic republic of iran and this isn't the last aiding number and has to be a start no charges have been brought against saddam hussein and no court date set as we mentioned at the top of this program not even a trial how does an organized an organization like yours for example begin to talk to governments if you can to process and negotiate a better conditions or contact or communication with those that have been

incarcerated. well 1st of all we point out that there is a what is happening this against education law it pretty pretentious pretrial detention kept the or were true 2 years and. he is in jail for about 4 years now and at the same time it's against their international and international norms against the freedom of expression it's a human race while lation can put journalists in jail for crilly expressing insults and simply just for reporting so we're not preaching european union we're out perching international or community united nation he migrate so counsel and we are working closely to secure mr mounts a sense of release it's good to have your input thanks very much for the update of the share that as our day from the center for human international center for human

rights in toronto thank you and the hundreds of people have fled a migrant camp in bosnia after a massive fire thick black smoke poured from tents in nippur camp which is home to around $1200.00 people in the croatian border the international organization for migration which oversees the facility had planned to shut it down this weekend and says bosnian authorities have failed to provide basic services including water and electricity. as him of speech is at the camp. well we can see still do smoke behind my back i'm currently on the side where there is camp in northwestern bosnia we can still see the smoke rising above the tents on the one side and on the other side we can see several 100 refugees and migrants which are now basically left without a limitation international organization for migration said they would withdraw from

the camp because the camp is not suitable for the winter and because the government in bosnia and herzegovina hasn't provided a not their temporary shelter for refugees and migrants basically this camp was set up in april and it was imagine only as a temporary side for my grandson and refugees and it was supposed to shut down a few months ago the government has only a few days ago decided to set up an official camp here but now months are needed before it is prepared for a permanent stave off refugees and migrants meanwhile there is no solution for old these people you see behind my back oh before hong kong's busy waterways have quietened but below the surface it's a different story coronavirus travel restrictions have led to increased scientists in the territories pink dolphins to be. 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 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 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 right to 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

find the habitat area for example by just changing the course widely traveling 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. 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 planets and help the environment recover. well still ahead here in these are in this football legend loses his claim to a long standing record that story coming up in just a moment. you're

the formula with the old.

quarterback tough spot on his side thanks a lot for how we're starting with barcelona start leon on messi that's because he's broken a record held by one of football's greatest ever players pele for more than 40 years on she's day he racked up his 644th goal for bossa breaking a brazilian legends record for most goals at one club messi historical achievement came in barcelona 30 win over valladolid now let's take a look at how the goal scoring records of both greats compare it's balsa and santos respectively so as i just mentioned messi has $644.00 goals for barcelona that's one more than pele scored for brazilian club santos interesting me though it's taken the argentinian more matches to reach his title pele getting his goals are

not far from a goal a game but here's the thing because messi bagged his goals in fewer seasons 17 compared to pele's 19 between 19561974 messi as goals which have mostly come in la liga have seen him win the spanish league with barcelona 10 times compared to pele 6 prison in the titles with some toss. content draw to start but i see leo happy he's working well 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 attack. athletico madrid defended care and pierre has received a 10 week worldwide ban from football being an international is being punished for breaching the english football associations betting rules he's been charged in

relation to bets made surrounding his me from tottenham to athletica in 29 c. now as for the f.a. use rules players are prohibited from placing bets all providing confidential information to people that can gamble on the matter. and even to suffer the shock defeat on cheese say the italian champions you played most of the game with 10 men after a player were sent off went down 3 nil against fiorentina it was their 1st league defeat of the season and lisa in 4th and sorry all 7 points behind leaders ac milan . australians nathan leon expects india to come out fighting in the 2nd test which begins on boxing day his comments follow the aussies thrashing india in the series opener a match that saw the tourists record their lowest ever innings total in test cricket $36.00 runs they got some of us well 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 actually trying to house that kerry look everyone else would for every other guy and we're expecting them to come out for it and not have any draws from the other day now that's a day that's how you carry lympics has caused must much destruction to thousands of athletes around the world they've been forced to adopt their training methods and in some cases prolong their career is now as david stokes reports that's certainly the case for us men's rowing 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 precautions we have to take my pertains or. you know fundamentally it's kind of just get back to work and 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 fools 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 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 had only planned 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. more 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 there back outside 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 if you have people coming from 125 different countries but i do think there. 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 though 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 take all of them willing to make sacrifices to achieve their olympic

dreams david stokes al-jazeera. for a n.b.a. champions l.a. lakers assaulted the title defense with a defeat before facing city rivals the clippers all night playing dana bron james and he had been celebrating their final victory from october although celebrations were halted by paul george he scored 33 points on tuesday with ko why you landed chipping in with 26 clips winning 81162109. this game while our stats were literally going to go through now aren't those of who just returned got to go on the. roll in or are our success this year so we look forward to watching. well that sawyer sport for now more lights thanks very much. and of course i'll have more news on the other side of the break and full updates all full of the global headlines including what's going on in terms of the

current virus in the u.k. samsara that's off on the news on saying thanks very much for watching. and. we've never had a president who has literally for 4 or 5 years repeatedly attacked our democracy. you know lucy lerner to financially i don't have a narrative i have a question you're hitting there where you're treated. or even further join me richelle carey and up front as my guest i'm around the world take the hot seat and we debate the week's top stories in pressing issues here on out is there

a. new day to take advantage of the relatively clean air after weeks of toxic small stopped people from venturing outside institutions including harvard say air pollution is leading to more severe cases of the coronavirus and more deaths from it and nowhere in india is a situation worse than a daddy the number of records and whether a desperate situation of the indian government set up a new commission to monitor sources of pollution across 5 north of the state's health experts and bob mentioned it's been wanting for months that the easing of the lockdown would lead to an increase in pollution and the impact that would have on those the cause of 19. mass protests forcing the governments but are we seeing the. just trying to understand we follow journalists on the frontline. fishtank free press committed to a reporting the fact police officers pointing guns at journalists the same can make

up hong kong fact and fiction the most truth is it anyway on al-jazeera. a warning from the u.k. health secretary that more than one new coronavirus mutation is breading in the country. as the whole robin what you're after a life my headquarters here in doha also coming up. the last 4 nights. but it is one that has been nothing truck drivers and please stay soften the u.k. where anger is growing over delays at the border brought on by fears of covert 19. and time is running out for a brics a trade deal but there.