egged by violence and political instability could this bring the resolution that is desperately needed central african republic elections on al-jazeera. gunmen killed more than 100 people in western ethiopia just one day after prime minister i've made visited the region to urge calm over ethnic attacks. alone barbara sara this is al jazeera life from london also coming up shops close and people hurry home fearing more violence ahead of central african republic selection plus. this new very highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further the strain of corona virus

suspected of fueling cases in south africa has now been detected in the u.k. . 00. 0000000000000000 this is angry truck drivers protest at the english port of dover worth thousands are still stranded after a covert blockade. hello thank you for joining us we begin with reports of a brutal attack in western ethiopia gunmen are reported to have killed more than 100 people one farmer in the town of bouillon in the. region told the reuters news agency he counted 82 dead bodies in a field another man said he saw 20 bodies in another location the ethiopian human rights commission confirmed at least 100 died it's the latest deadly violence between rival ethnic groups in the region well the gunmen struck hours after the

ethiopian prime minister i've visited the region affirming his plans to stop the recurring violence there one of the recent deadly incidents in the area was an attack by gunmen on a bus last month which left so he 4 people dead. since the beginning of november the ethiopian military has been fighting the te great people's liberation front in the northern region that's raised fears of a security vacuum in restive areas elsewhere in the country elections due next year have further inflame the simmering tensions over land power and resources. tensions are high in central african republic before sunday's election a new alliance of armed groups calling itself the patriots coalition for change has threatened to march on the capital bangui the u.n. mission says it's pushing back the rebels to prevent them from taking control of strategic towns but fears of violence of prompted shops to shout and people to

hunker down in their homes from the capital bangui catherine soy has more. panic in the wild quickly spread that troubles to be making their way to the capital who were in the city center when suddenly everyone around us started running and traders were closing the shops many were here 13 or the mostly move on group arrived in force and overthrew the then president francois so no one wants to be caught unawares this time it comes out an incident in the p.k. 12 suburbs on the outskirts of the city treat that the commotion. memo says we have been told that government troops and trucks came speeding into the city people panicked and started running the soldiers fired into the year to contain the population but that only caused more panic. we went to p.k. 12 and found more of the same this man told us he is fed up and frustrated big.

trouble is always in c.r.y. i would like to know what all the international forces are doing here yet there is no peace he says it's an emotional time for everyone ahead of sunday's general election what's happening here just shows how much fear and tension there is ahead of the election people who've been talking to us saying that they're worried that the rebels could be advancing even if the fighting is going on in the countryside many kilometers away from. some of the country's main armed groups have joined forces calling themselves the patriots for change here they're threatening to march to bourg demanding the election be postponed and a transitional government formed state and u.n. officials have accused former president was easy of starting a rebellion in an attempt to overthrow the government and disrupt the ports. since last friday where there are lines between decks present position into 3 armed

groups attacked is up in this area in both them belly and down around this deputy head of the u.n. mission towels as the blue helmets are protecting main supply routes and towns the whole rest of the country 71 percent of the voter registration sides where the electoral cards are distributed are open and people are coming massively as they are in bangui which are some of the day to get their electoral card. most of the opposition presidential candidates have stopped the election campaigns and want to the pool rescheduled the government however says that is not an option catherine saw all just 0. the u.k. is now facing the threat of 2 covert 19 variance after detecting another potentially

more infectious strain in 2 people who traveled from south africa this comes as the u.k. reports its highest increase in cases since the pandemic began with 39237 new infections the government also recorded another 744 deaths on wednesday that's the highest death toll since april and it announced that another 6000000 people will be put under the highest level of coronavirus for sections from the center $26.00. we are quarantining cases and close contacts of cases found here in the u.k. 2nd 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 is a close contact of someone who's been in south africa in the last fortnight must

quarantine immediately how do with houses in johannesburg with more on the variant in south africa. clever confessional say they're alert to the u.k. about this new variant last week they say it seems to spread fast and they think it could be responsible for the 2nd wave of this country is currently experiencing the identified has been identified and calls do not tell province in the eastern cape and along the garden route that's the cape town area and currently is that africa has been recording just under an average of about $10000.00 new infections a day officials are now also worried about what to do next another currently preparing about what to do next to basically trying to make sure they have enough hospital beds available in both private and government hospitals so patients will consider stable being discharged to make way for covert 19 patients they're also trying to make sure that there's enough oxygen in i.c.u. beds in both the government and private hospitals in both urban and rural areas

they are also putting additional staff on standby in case they are needed should the number of infections arise they also talk about bringing in military doctors and nurses if that is indeed the case if it does come to that scenario that situation again also on the ground health officials are warning that because it is the thinnest of season and many people are currently traveling up and down the country visiting friends and family they saying that the number of infections could rise and they warn that this country could see a peak in infections in about 2 weeks time. meanwhile the 1st covert variant identified here in the u.k. continues to cause chaos at the border the english port of dover is a grid locked with several 1000 frustrated truck drivers still stranded that's this fight france lifting the blockade that it imposed on arrivals from the u.k. because of the new strain only those of tested negative of being allowed on to ferries attesting all the drivers will take some time as paul brennan reports from dover. facing

a 4th night trapped in their vehicles and unable to depart for callaway. frustration and anger led one group of drivers to briefly blockade inbound freight arriving from france there was a confrontation at the police trying to clear the road a demonstrator lay down in front of one of the lorries 0 speak to the drivers and time and again the lack of information is what's really causing tempest to flare and i don't know what's going on the police will tell you what's going on all they want the most from are on the ball let these people call them by line no no no no no no it. should be bustling now instead it is ghostly shut down by the impact of the new variant of code in the u.k. the french ban on arrivals and that on wednesday morning but the condition of travel is possession of a negative covert test and getting one of them while trapped in a queue like this is impossible testing is available at the temporary lorry park at

mountain airfield which now has nearly $4000.00 trucks and their drivers parked on the site is on a desolate windswept hilltop 20 miles away from the port to dover. the sound being carried on the wind is the sound of the drivers inside this field blowing their horns is an expression of frustration and misery this field is a truly desolate place to have the prospect. spending christmas. manston is the government's primary holding area it was designed to cope with any disruption that might have been caused by breck's it from the accounts of those parked here and now it is failing its 1st real test the toilet but is a dirty not working. we have no food we have no water yesterday.

organized food but it was just a hamburger something. that's all and we don't know when we. can get to home from from that airport here to there were confrontations with police 2 people detained as frustration led to scuffles again the lack of information and organization have left the drivers desperate the government says testing has begun of manston but not enough we have today sitting here and then now they say us we don't have this. because we're stuck on the way. yeah the car is lucky it's blocked they have one way here. and we don't know. the u.k. government says it will take a few days to clear the backlog of vehicles christmas for many here is going to be a deeply miserable experience paul brennan al-jazeera over.

the u.s. suffered its 2nd deadly stay of the coronavirus pandemic with more than 3400 deaths recorded there on tuesday johns hopkins university said there were also more than 195000 new cases the pharmaceutical giant pfizer has announced that will supply the u.s. with 100000000 more cope at 19 vaccine doses by july. well the united states faces the prospect of a year end government shutdown after president trump threatened not to sign a massive coronavirus relief bill in a twitter video trump called the bill a disgrace he said he's asking congress to raise its stimulus payments to individual americans from $600.00 to $2000.00 democrats support higher payments but many republicans oppose them $900000000000.00 relief bill was passed on monday after months of negotiations trump is also

a veto the $740000000000.00 defense bill this fight the bill having strong support in congress. and donald trump has been tweeting about the u.s. embassy being hit by rockets on sunday he says they came from iran he goes on to say that the u.s. was hearing chatter of additional attacks against americans in iraq then warned iran that if one american was killed the he would hold iran responsible so that's in one of the president's tweets a share of hands he joins us live now from washington d.c. was a lot of action from a man all he has a few weeks left in office. right this is in relation to the top of the cut on sunday as you know as you mention but it seems that the u.s. military have now done a review it initially had been thought to be about and 7 missiles attacking the green zone the u.s. military now says it was $21.00 missiles so that's they say is the largest attack

on the green zone since 2010 which apparently has now donald trump to release this this tweet interestingly the head of u.s. central command was talking to the wall street journal and he said i don't know the degree to which iran is is complicit we did not seek a war and i don't actually believe they seek one either the u.s. isn't sure whether these are this is the action of some rogue militia or whether it was directed by iran but they do say that they think that the actual missiles as donald trump mentioned in his tweet were supplied by iran and we had a meeting actually just today with secretary of state pompei out of the acting defense secretary the national defense defense advisor national security adviser had a meeting of on iran and militias and in the last few weeks we have a u.s. nuclear submarine as has gone into the gulf which is usually quite a secretive affair but the u.s. has been releasing photographs off it so that they're clearly trying to send some sort of message there was that meeting in november by the way which the new york

times talked about where you donald trump was supposed to been musing about ways to attack the iranian nuclear facility in the times before he left office so there's all that there was a disquiet when he started sort of mulling that over anyway the last few days actually there's been disquiet in the pentagon apparently about what donald trump might be up to so that there is it just leaves that sense of uncertainty that we have which is also been added to now by all trump saying he's going to he's not happy with the stimulus bill for helping people with covert payments he's keeping overall on that toes he's just left florida now we might expect some will pardons coming up in the next few hours as well what we're being told but generally don't trump is keeping in the headlines keeping both republicans and democrats and the u.s. as quote adversaries on the terms before he leaves apparently can see with the latest from washington champ thank you. still to come in this half hour the coronavirus vaccine lands in mexico immunization program is due to begin on christmas eve and

cries for justice in afghanistan and least 4 journalists killed in 2 months and now gunmen ambush on election monitoring at least. it is already before the year has ended the wettest year for 13 in new south wales and the rain that's falling is not as heavy as it was in its change its orientation to be still in northern territory and queen's liver not so much in new south wales a few showers around the edges in the future victoria with up onshore breeze but alice springs won't have a day of showers or it becomes generally find in temperatures start to rise to near the end or what 31 degrees and that interior warmth is being blown west into perth 40 degrees on thursday drop or down to the low thirty's by saturday as a card comes in and the wind direction changes the little bit it won't get anything

like that warmth further east got $29.00 adelaide but only $21.00 down in melbourne and tropical quince and looks particularly wet for the end of friday and saturday his purse now suddenly. going to change your fortunes for the winter weather in east asia as well that brief warm a spell and it's all relative brings rain to the rather unstable snow fields of western honshu once that's happened the day after on friday that onshore breeze another cold one another half to one meter of snow will come along all top avalanche risk seems to me very hard. long before the crisis broke the world was grappling with another global crisis the climate breakdown destruction of nature can lead to destruction all hail the lockdown examines links between these 2 crises and asks why it took

a pandemic to bring on changes that should have been made long ago all these things we were told. something they become connected the wake up call can't be ignored just. now a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera gunmen are reported to have killed more than 100 people in western ethiopia a farmer and they've been shot regent told reuters news agency he counted 82 dead bodies in one field tensions are high ahead of sunday's election in central african

republic a new alliance of armed groups has threatened to march on the capital bangui prompting shops to shut people to hide in their homes and the u.k. says it's the tech that a new potentially more infectious strain of covert 1002 people who've recently traveled from south africa it's also reported the highest increase in cases since the pandemic began with 39237 new infections. xico has just received its 1st a shipment of the finds or by on take vaccine is the 1st country in latin america to have a vaccine ready to roll out its battling a sharp rise in infections that's overwhelming hospitals in the past they the health ministry reported 897 deaths and more than 12000 new cases john homan reports from mexico city. it's what everyone in mexico wants for christmas. and the one from pfizer has now finally arrived.

as the phrase goes good things are vive in small quantities we have the privilege today of being one of the 1st countries in the world with a vaccine supply to be handed out next year and mexico is the 1st country in latin america to get the vaccine. but for many people it won't be available till the middle of next year and meanwhile the countries in big trouble. mexico city's hospitals rulebooks full with very few ventilators left. their queues outside shops selling oxygen tanks monika evillest travel from another city desperate to get one like many people she's taking care of an infected relative at home. we've come from to leak at there's no oxygen there we went to 2 places but they didn't have any till tomorrow and i need it for today

because my patient my dad can't go without oxygen. makes her never to go code the cases down after the 1st wave and now there's more than ever the crowds in mexico city center throughout december haven't helped. the government just reluctantly declared a red alert for the capital and its suburbs closing non-essential businesses but a lot of people think the authorities the clerk of the alert for the capital much through late there's been questions over their attitude towards a pandemic from the beginning the mets come president on the covert so really were mass and they've been accused repeatedly of not imposing timely and strict enough lockdowns ok. i don't know but the government has a powerful counter-argument mexico has more than 60000000 poor people stopping them from working could leave them destitute especially since federal authorities haven't brought out a comprehensive plan on szell plan to help them. but he garcia's selling face masks

in the street she says there's no way she could stay home was not. him of course not be ashamed to hold out my hand and say help me that's why i'm here i get $7.00 a day even if it's just to buy tortillas. instead the government's to try and make sure that when people do get sick there's always a bed for them. now for the 1st time it looks like that strategy could fail although there were no queues waiting outside at the 6 hospitals that our team visited emits crew city this week all of which were full health experts say that could change this january john home and how does it or mexico city. iraq's foreign ministry is urging president trying to reconsider a set of presidential pardons he granted clemency to 15 people including 4 military contractors serving long prison sentences for killing 14 civilians including

children in iraq in 2007 charles strafford in baghdad spoke to 2 men who were injured in the attack. to him was shot by an american could try to rob what has been described as one of the darkest days of u.s. involvement in iraq inside the ok i was on a bus when the shooting started heavy fire came towards us i felt the 1st bullet hit my leg as i scrambled off i kept running towards the bus station then i got hit again when i stopped i was hit a 3rd time i felt like the bones of my leg had exploded i fell down and started to crawl there was utter chaos people were terrified trying to save themselves from me this video was filmed after the attack 14 iraqis including 2 children were killed and at least 20 others injured when a heavily armed convoys of contractors with the american security company blackwater opened fire at a busy intersection in the capital baghdad. the company set up by a former u.s.

navy seal in the late 1990 s. sent hundreds of former soldiers to iraq in the often month of the 2003 u.s. led invasion blackwater was paid hundreds of millions of dollars by the u.s. state department to protect visiting dignitaries the company said its men started shooting during the 2007 incident in baghdad in self defense but that was eventually proven not to be the case in a u.s. court of law. for years many iraqis saw the events that unfolded here on this little square on september the 16th 2007 as an example of how america thought they could do what it wanted in iraq to never be called to account so they were relieved in 2014 when a u.s. federal court sentenced for blackwater employees to lindsay jail terms including one life sentence the pardoning of those 4 men the by president trump for the

victims at least means that justice has still not been done. but don't base lawyer hasan job and his son suffered multiple gunshot wounds as they crouched in a car both miraculously survived. to make it be it ok but damage to me and i when i heard about trump's decision i was shocked and disappointed we are the victims and those men are the murderers i thought the u.s. justice system was independent but it seems justice is affected by u.s. politics trumps decision is another example of his failures in his policy towards arabs and the middle east. abdulla me to him shares those thoughts he flicks through old pictures of himself in hospital after operations to save his leg. us with those men that shot me don't represent america trump doesn't represent all american people either he represents an x. for himself. what iraqis assessment of the u.s.

and its leadership from a man whose life was changed forever 13 years ago john strap around 0 baghdad. the british pound has gained against the dollar on hopes that negotiators from the e.u. and the u.k. may be close to agreeing a breck's a deal the sides have until the 31st of the 7 when the transition period ends at the about the his point i think for the 1st time you can say it's more than signs of optimism we've heard before that they're moving towards a deal but now there are anonymous officials being quoted in the press as saying that there is a draft on paper. agreements because of course this week as of underlying the president the european commission and boris johnson the prime minister have actually taken over the last stages in fact on wednesday e.u. officials been saying the talks are in the final stages so it's at the political level there but the negotiators are in a room in brussels that we believe is still going through the last details but

there's talk behind the scenes of yes a deal a text perhaps 2000 pages existing what then has to happen is it has to be gone through by lawyers it has to be shown to the u.k. cabinet it has to be shown to the member states of the european union so that there was a wednesday talk that it could be a few hours away but in fact it could slide a bit even if those areas of disagreement have been narrowed and still on wednesday the u.k. government was saying there was serious disagreement on fishing how much access the u. fleet should get to british waters but also on the level playing field the fair competition rules that could be more troublesome but yes lots of positive noises in brussels but also in london but of course there have been there has been sort of brinksmanship in the last few weeks so we need to be skeptical but things seem to have got closer. spanish coast guards have rescued 49 migrants from the atlantic ocean they've been transported to

a green on the grand canary island spanish figures a show more than 21000 migrants have arrived in the canary islands so far this year that's an 8 fold increase on the same time last year migrant arrivals in the islands has been on the rise since an increase in patrolling along the route from northern africa to spain's mediterranean coast began earlier this year hundreds of people in a migrant camp in bosnia herzegovina had to run for their lives as tense were destroyed by a massive fire earlier phillipa camping near the croatian border is home to about 1200 migrants aid workers wanted to shut it down this weekend because there wasn't any water or electricity some of the camps residents were upset that the situation to close it during winter. a prominent afghan activist who led an independent election monitoring organization has died after being ambushed by

gunmen in kabul mohammad that you suffer a she is the latest victim of a series of targeted killings in afghanistan the family and friends of an afghan journalist shot dead on monday called for justice as they attended his funeral more than $100.00 people paid their respects to rama to latin who was shot dead while leaving his home in the central city of he's at least the force journalist to be killed in 2 months and have worked for the associated press and al-jazeera the lovebird get a platform going to demand the government to investigate and bring the murderous to justice. as on the other. on the one hand they sit at the negotiation table to make peace but on the other hand they break the agreement and therefore we are witnessing the loss of our brilliant colleagues and personalities in different parts of the country every day but in my opinion this lead by the fighters shows the dishonesty and lack of commitment to peace negotiation. al jazeera journalists

will do the same has now spent 4 years in detention in egypt without charge or a trial hussein was arrested on the same for 23rd 2016 while visiting family a number of human rights organisers are going to say sions have joined al jazeera in demanding his immediate release is the tension is a violation of both the gyptian and the international. and other top stories on al-jazeera reports are coming in from western ethiopia that gunmen have killed more than 100 people one farmer in the town of bouillon in debian shang google news region told the reuters news agency he counted 82 dead bodies in a field the ethiopian human rights commission confirmed at least 100 dead store owners in the central african republic are shutting their doors or spanning.