that's one of the biggest stains on the country as a whole. this is not religion this is a politics. an unholy alliance on al-jazeera. this new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further. the strain of corona virus suspected of fueling a spike in cases in south africa has now been detected in the u.k. . this is art 0 live from doha also coming up time is running out for breaks a trade deal but there are hints of progress. president trump vetoes the annual u.s. defense policy bill stepien up a showdown with congress. as shops close and people hurry home fearing more

violence ahead of central african republic election. we're going to start in ethiopia where more than $100.00 people have been killed in an attack in a western ethiopian region where ethnic tensions have been escalating that's according to the ethiopian human rights commission and amnesty international the attack took place in the region of it benny shanon. amnesty international says dozens of people are still unaccounted for this comes a day after prime minister abu ahmed visited the area calling for peace and unity following several deadly incidents in recent months and it's weak he said enemies are trying to divide ethiopia along ethnic and religious lines no group has claimed responsibility elsewhere in the country government troops have been fighting the 2 great people's liberation front in the north and to gray region since the beginning of november it's raised fears of a security vacuum in other areas of the country elections june next year have

further raise tensions over land and power this take all of this on we can speak not to must want to tease a who's a lawyer research or previously worked with the theatres attorney general's office on legal and justice reform efforts and joins us live by skype from new york 1st up what do you make of what's happened here and what's driving the violence in this region. well it's a really tragic you know latest incident in a series of attacks that we've been hearing and you have got that pretty clearly you mentioned well the region where that today's attack took place so we have heard it at least 100 but probably more people have died well gunshots and attacks by the local militia that we heard you know what exactly were castrated it but that had been climbing on for miles the camera over november with purpose and bench and

these attacks in bunch of all different all day from the deadly cold that goes into where federal troops have been redeployed do you think that redeployment in the old going conflict has left a security vacuum elsewhere like in any shuttle that is apparent to people how right now because that yoke and human rights commission what you just quoted is the one that came up with the most i guess comprehensive information on this today and it has stated that attack started when the federal troops that were stationed to guard the community. actually withdraw yesterday on tuesday so they would go to escort federal officials where their invention and date or prime minister and regional officials were there but they didn't exactly say with the prime minister that the army with as for things so it is the military that was girl and created this vacuum that led to the massacre that we just learned to write it is also fights in the area restive areas across the country are becoming more us develop

they how much of a problem is this be offered. it's a huge problem i mean you we've been hearing this for more than a month to grind but. had been bowling or more than 2 years now liberation movement and we know attacks. you know are going on and also parts of army out where it's an ethnic minority and in addition attacks against the so they're like conflict and he. says that and there has to be a you know comprehensive solution for all of that. they're not going to be contained by. like the government and. so the problem is this vision of national unity it is new but the a.t.f. the groups in the country vision just a hopeless case. i think if you have been always struggling to balance the

diversity and create sort of the federation that can compete by those others out the ethnic another diversity but i think in the past 3 years the bike and created as you know that condition that prime minister ali is leading was sort of when it's time to transition to a multi-party democracy with elections scheduled a lot of that's the phone because if that weren't invited so that really the issue right now is how do we create a consensus between a very polarized political group one not 6 to have a much more stronger unifying central government and one that doesn't really define itself by ethnic ethnic group and identity federation defined by god and then another group that wants to see more self-determination on the basis of the city and what to keep the current constitution not that it or even strengthen it when it comes to this nomination so it's a constant balance of the fighting about hopefully but there's no formal process so far to change what is right now the constitution also strikes

a new way forward so that we don't resolve our differences by the past like. fun times are good to get your in us on this important story the most so they say appreciate it very much thank you. now there being confrontations between police and frustrated truck driver stranded at the english port of dover several 1000 still waiting for coronavirus test to arrive many have no food water all access indeed to sanitation france lifted the blockaded imposed on arrivals from the u.k. 24 hours ago after a different corona virus strain was discovered and only those who tested negative all be allowed on the ferries brenna reports now from dover. facing a 4th night trapped in their vehicles and unable to depart for cal a. frustration and anger led one group of drivers to briefly blockade inbound freight arriving from france there was

a confrontation at the police tried to clear the road a demonstrator lay down in front of one of the lorries. speak to the drivers and time and again the lack of information is what's really causing tempest a flag i don't know what's going on the police will tell you what's going on all they want the most to move from around the ball to let these people follow them blindly no no no no no it. should be bustling now instead it is ghostly shut down by the impact of the new variant of covert in the u.k. the french ban on arrivals ended on wednesday morning but the condition of travel is possession of a negative kovi test and getting one of them while trapped in a queue like this is impossible testing is available at the temporary lorry pocket manston 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 at 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 of spending. 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 there are toilets but is a dirty not working. we have no food we have no water yesterday. or got food but it was just something. and we don't know when we. can get 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 drive is desperate the government says testing has begun manston but not enough we have today sitting here and then now they say yes we don't have to. because we're stuck on the way. yeah the car is stuck you. 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 meanwhile large parts of england are being put under even tougher restrictions from saturday is a more contagious variant of the virus spreads further infections have risen by 57 percent in the past week and more people occur in hospital than at any other point

since april the u.k. is also facing the threat of another covert 1000 meters from people who have arrived from south africa flights from that country have been cancelled. 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 is a close contact of someone who's been in south africa in the last fortnight must quarantine immediately richard little's is an infectious disease specialist at the university of kwazulu-natal and he says the current virus variant which is immersion is driving a surge in cases in south africa. we detected this new variant a few weeks ago through our judo makes surveillance networks actually quite similar

to what you've seen happen in the u.k. where they detect the new variant that's spreading there. and we shared the information very openly with the minister of health in south africa and then with the world health organization and through those channels those kind of been a lot of. cross learning between south africa and the u.k. and by these different variants that have emerged in the 2 countries the variant that we've detected here is it's concerning us because similarly to the u.k. it seems to be. finding it very easy to spread and it's spreading very efficiently and we're seeing a very rapid rise in cases in several parts of the country and south africa at the moment we don't see any evidence that it's causing more severe disease or

a different pattern of disease we're looking at the data very closely but it seems at the moment that it's causing very similar disease having said that the rapid rise in the number of cases is already overwhelming our healthcare system so we are starting to see that the health system is so stretched that obviously the outcomes are poor or we're starting to see high numbers of that. 9 months of negotiations are very real science the e.u. and the u.k. getting very close to agreeing on a piece brics a trade deal talks between the 2 sides continued late on wednesday as they try to hammer out the final details that he is following developments from london. well the negotiators were face to face in brussels on wednesday and as they continued there were. briefings anonymous briefings by e.u. officials to reporters saying that the talks were in their final stages although it

wasn't exactly clear how long it would take for the draft text to be looked at an approved by the political leaders of course boris johnson the prime minister and under law in the european commission president have actually taken over leadership of the process since monday they've been in constant telephone contact now what's being removed is that a draft text will be shown to the envoys of the member states in brussels and to the british cabinet as quickly as possible for them to have a look at and then to go through it and check that everything's ok legally as well so it could take a little bit of time if in fact a deal is reached no it just on wednesday a member of the u.k. cabinet was saying that there was still serious differences over not just fishing rights in terms of what percentage of the catch in british waters e.u. fleets should get and when that should change but also in terms he said of the

level playing field rules for ensuring fair competition which has proved a trickier issue fishing of course only represents a small fraction of the more than $600000000000.00. of goods traded between the e.u. and the u.k. every year so i think really both sides have been longing to avoid a no deal scenario and also the kind of disruption at ports that we've seen just in the last day or so so if there is a deal then it's clear that there has been compromise the french are saying the u.k. have given ground on fishing that's not clear that mace take some time to come out we're looking at probably provisional application of a deal that means that it will come into effect on the 1st of january pending ratification from the european parliament because this timescale now is simply too short for them. still ahead there are there are fire breaks out of the migrant camp

in bosnia that was set to be closed down because it's unsuitable conditions. and the positive side of the pandemic out travel restrictions have led to more sightings of an endangered dolphin in hong kong. but is colombia if all of western counties just dump a stone about half meter in places and it came from this cloud here which briefly gave basic conditions to the dakotas and further research minnesota that's probably where the worst of it is but you know so it's happening here woman the head of it was rain coming in behind when the to catch up with each other that turns quite stormy's a potential flash flooding through maybe a higher more likely face like tennessee kentucky and then virginia or west virginia which then sees the rain replaced by snow fairly rapid change that will be

so you go from 15 degrees to minus 6 in that short space of time as represented probably in new york by a forecast a city forecast for specifically says this certain degrees wet and windy start on friday down to near freezing in the cold breeze on saturday lasting into sunday as the fortunes of the east coast of the u.s. much quieter weather but regular showers i think throughout the greater and lesser antilles this is the cold front which you seen the effects of in the u.s. as it comes down through the gulf of mexico enhanced so showers over not just southern mexico but quite possibly places like guatemala and honduras where it's already flooded on the ground and we'll see a few showers as far south again as panama. had 3 jobs and now i only have one but i'm still provide. for my family. the 1st

time ours admitted to hospital i didn't show any signs of m.s. . but more that but at about my opinion women have become very past and stop thinking about the negative sides and. get on al-jazeera while he is living with and us in egypt. so again you know what you know does your mind about top stories this hour gunmen have attacked a town in western ethiopia reportedly killing more than a 100 people attack happened in the british angle goodness region amnesty international says dozens are still unaccounted for no group has claimed

responsibility. the u.k. is now facing the threat of to cave in 1000 variants after detecting another potentially more infectious strain in 2 people who travel from south africa has bought all flights from country. after 9 months of negotiations there are signs even the u.k. edging closer to agreeing on a piece breaks a trade deal talks between the 2 sides continued late on wednesday to try to sort out the final details. u.s. president donald trump has a veto of the country's annual defense spending bill with the house and the senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation which has so far been routinely passed every year joins you have or tansey is with us from washington d.c. and she had had flagged this would happen that. he telegraph this this is the last day on which he could have vetoed it and he did he had several objections he said 1st of all an amendment was put into the into the into the bill

which slowed to slow roll defectively the withdrawal of american troops in afghanistan which donald trump awarded and ordered secondly he had objected to the provision that would rename u.s. military bases that have been named after confederate generals and thirdly donald trump has long been calling for reform to section 230 of the communications decency act ratz the provision which gives internet companies like facebook and twitter legal protection if someone writes something on facebook which is which is inflammatory or legally problematic facebook won't actually get sued don't trouble joe biden and others have been calling for reform of this particular provision but for some reason don't trouble decided the national defense authorization act was a place to do it it's not in the n.d.a. so therefore he has vetoed it the house is going to meet on monday the house of representatives and they hope that they will have enough it seems like they will have enough. enough members to override the veto

a 2 thirds majority the senate says they will meet before to force to do the same still it seems even though some senior republicans say they will follow donald trump it may not be enough to to to mean that the defense establishment isn't isn't funded this should be overridden but things going to be strange indeed and meanwhile double trouble so issuing a stark warning to iran. this is a bit sudden really in some ways but one of them while he was on his way to florida he's actually in the air right now we think on his way to mar a lago he tweeted our embassy in baghdad got hit sunday by several rockets 3 rockets failed to launch guess where they were from capital letters iran now we hear chatter of additional attacks against americans in iraq some friendly health advice to iran if one american is killed i will hold iran responsible think it over so clearly a very menacing tweet for this is because there was no attack on the green zone on sunday initially of it had been thought that it was about 7 missiles there's now been a review it has been found that there were $21.00 missiles fired into the green zone

that's the biggest attack on the green zone since 2010 and u.s. suncom says iran backed militias responsible rogue militias although i don't know whether iran had anything to do with this attack necessarily however when you look at the what trump is actually saying that some friendly health advice to iran if one american is killed i will hold iran responsible he says actually restating what is american policy anyway that has been that is just policy from centcom and american presidents that if an american is home then they will be some kind of some kind of response but clearly in the context of the kind of chaotic post-election white house and the reports we get of doldrums erratic behavior the report we go to november about donald trump musing about bombing the natanz nuclear facility in iran it just adds to that sense of of on certainty about what's actually going on here i don't know whether trump is on purpose trying to get some kind of nixonian madman theory of foreign policy going here or something in the last days to keep everyone on their toes we certainly staying at the center of national and

international news cycles she had thanks very much as she ever tells you there in washington d.c. . now tensions are high in central african republic ahead of presidential and legislative elections on sunday your lines of groups called itself the patriots coalition for change has threatened to munge to the capital bangui the united nations mission says it's pushing back the rebels to prevent them from taking control of important supply routes in strategic towns reports now from. panic in the wide quickly spread that troubles could be making their way to the capital who are in the city center and suddenly everyone around us started running and traders were closing the shops many were here in 10 to 15 while the mostly muslim armed groups arrived in force and of us through the then president francois so no one wants to be caught unawares at this time at times out an incident in the

p.k. 12 suburb 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 a 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 a head 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 bungie. 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 the lines between decks present position in the 3 armed groups have attacked is up in this area in both and barely and this deputy head of the u.n. mission tells us the blue helmets are protecting main supply routes and towns the whole rest of the country 71 percent of the voter registration sites where the electoral cards are distributed are open and people are coming massively as they are in bangui which i saw myself yesterday to get their electoral card. most of the opposition presidential candidates have stopped their lection campaigns and want to

pour rescheduled the government however says that is not an option catherine saw it all just 0. hundreds of migrants have been left with nowhere to sleep or to fling a camp the court far in bosnia 6 black smoke poured from tents in the croatian border the camp has been strongly criticized by rights groups because of a lack of resources it was jews clothes police and u.n. officials blame people who lived for starting the fire the music reports from. well we can see it still does smoke behind my back i'm currently on the side where there is can play a part in northwestern bosnia we can still see the smoke rising above the dance on to one side and on the other side we can see several 100 refugees and migrants which are now basically left without a committee ation international organization for migration said they were we drove 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 is a clip is camp was set up in april and it was imagine only as a temporary side for a minor and 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 all these people you see behind my back oh dear a journalist might produce a in his now spent 4 years in egyptian detention without charge or trial hussein was arrested while visiting family in december 2016 a number of rights groups have joined al jazeera the money his immediate release his detention is in violation of both the gyptian and international law the turkish

journalist living in exile has been sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges of terrorism and espionage john dunbar was previously jailed in 2016 for publishing a video purporting to show turkish intelligence trucking weapons into syria he said to germany off to be released from prison on appeal on those lawyers have called the vote it's politically motivated well timed his government says the courts all independent. own kong's busy waterways have quietened but below the surface it is a different story coronavirus travel restrictions have led to increased sightings of the territories put dolphins the vicar pollen reports from hong kong. we join conservation teams to search for the endangered pink dolphin. with less traffic in these waters because of the current virus pandemic they're trying to find out the mammals are returning to their historic habitat around hong kong. he travelled 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 were called hydrophones so they are listening to the underwater sound skype and recording that in a pre-established. the low levels of sea traffic have given scientists a unique opportunity to understand the impact of noise from shipping and vessel. after a few hours we reach the coast of blantyre island developing rapidly yet a key ecosystem for the dolphins and we spot them. 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 this study scientists can also show the impact of underwater noise they hope their findings will push the government to take action and not saying we want the high speed ferries to stop we're saying that we would just like them to take account of this find a habitat area for example by just changing the course widely we're travelling more slowly it's estimated around 2000 of these dolphins are left in the wild around the world there have been more sightings of endangered animals due to the limited

movement of the human population and the lockdowns 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. al-jazeera hong kong. this is out there these are the top stories in government have attacked a town in western ethiopia reportedly killing more than 100 people attack happened in the penny shango gunas region international says dozens are still unaccounted for the group has claimed responsibility for the u.k. is now facing the threat of to create a virus fair in softer detecting and other potentially more infectious.