revealing eco friendly solutions to comeback threats to our planet on al-jazeera. 'd jarred coarseness father donald trump's former campaign manager paul man of force are among those getting presidential pardons and the latest list. of their i missed as you tell you this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up anger boils over in southern england thousands of truck drivers remain stranded and poor conditions as they wait to be able to cross and from. south korea implements its toughest ever measures to contain covert 19 forcing the closure of tourist sites across the country. and chinese regulators announce an anti monopoly

investigation of e-commerce giant ali baba. u.s. president donald trump has issued another way of pardons granting clemency to more of his allies he's pardoned 26 people including his 2016 campaign chairman paul metaphors and roger story in his long time adviser and friend he also pardoned charles kushner of the father of his son in north jarrad kushner it's the 2nd list of presidential pardons in as many days she has written he has more now from washington d.c. . the major attention is being given to those connected to the russia gate investigation and jarred kirshner doldrum son in law and senior advisors father paul manor for roger stone they will get pardons for their roles in the in the rush

to get investigation we should or always remember robert mueller didn't convict anyone nor was convicted of collusion with russia but plenty of people were convicted because of their conduct during the investigation both poor man afore and roger stone convicted of obstructing the investigation paul metaphor also very convicted of tax evasion bank fraud as a result all for the scrutiny that he got from investigators and they found all sorts of. criminality in his financial dealings when he was a political consultant for the ukrainian government before he joined the trump campaign surveys are getting a lot of scrutiny and then george bush's father this is a brother a notorious case in some circles at least jerry krishna's father was convicted. of various crimes including intimidating a witness which and that consisted off him hiring a prostitute to meet his brother in law recording the encounter and sending the tape to his sister in an attempt to prevent his sister from cooperating with prosecutors the sister just sent the tape to 2 prosecutors instead and cushions

father was done for so he did serve 24 months of that but now he's been officially officially pardoned well bill schneider is a public policy professor at george mason university and he says the president is within his rights to grant pardons to some people. pardons have been controversial in the past even president clinton pardons of people who will or a lot of thing people thought were unfair in this case though there's a long list of pardons and there are more yet to come he has another month in office the pardons are particularly controversial because some of them involve collusion with russia some of them involve a special counsel's investigation but in every case but almost every case he has pardoned someone who has been berry loyal to him he's rewarding the loyalty of his supporters it's an absolute power of any president to pardon anyone who has committed a crime against the united states that's a federal crime the president has total unlimited ability to pardon anyone

convicted of a federal crime the limit is he can pardon anyone who's convicted of a state crime like a financial misdoing or a. murder for instance it could be as a crime and a couple of the people he's pardoned of federal up and says are being accused of state crimes particularly by the state of new york in those prosecutions can continue he cannot pardon those people. more than 100 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 that attack took place in the region of benny xango gomers and amnesty says dozens of people are still unaccounted for this comes a day after prime minister met visited that area calling for peace and unity following several deadly incidents and recent months in a tweet he said enemies were trying to divide ethiopia along ethnic and religious

lines no group has claimed responsibility elsewhere in ethiopia though government troops have been fighting the t. great people's liberation front in the northern tier gray region out since the beginning of november that's raised fears of a security vacuum in other parts of the country elections due next year have further raised tensions over land and power a must while to d.c. as a lawyer and a researcher who previously worked with ethiopia's attorney general's office on legal and justice reform methods she says rest of parts of the country could experience fighting because of the redeployment of the military to the tikrit region. that is a fair amount of people have right now because that joke and human rights commission which you just quoted is the one that came up with the most i guess comprehensive information on this today and it has stayed that attack started when the federal troops that were stationed to guard the community. after you withdraw yesterday on tuesday so they would go to escort federal officials where their

invention will and date or prime minister and regional officials were there but they didn't exactly say it was the prime minister at the army with a sporting so if the military that was go and created this vacuum that led to the massacre that we just learned of it a huge problem i mean you we've been hearing this for more than a month now and to grind but. have been bowling tired or more than 2 years now the ration movement in reno attacks. you know are going on and also parts of army out where it's an ethnic minority of and in addition attacks against the government for the so there is a conflict the need to look at have been persistent and there has to be a you know conference of solution for all of that with being that they're not going to be contained by. like it's in the government and figure.

now thousands of truck drivers stranded and the ignition force of a struggling to get coronavirus test so they can cross into france and head home in time for christmas on wednesday french authorities eased a ban on arrivals from the u.k. where a more contagious variant of credit line has been spreading and as paul brennan reports from drivers they're all crying wolf. facing a 4th night trapped in their vehicles and unable to depart mccalla a. 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. speak to the drivers and time and again the lack of information is what's really causing tempest a flare and by the know what's going on the police will tell you what's going on all they want the most of the more from around the ball to let these people follow them blindly no 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 covert 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 pocket mountain airfield which now has nearly $4000.00 trucks and their drivers parked on these 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 of spending christmas. manston is the

government's primary huh. 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. or got food but it was just a hamburger something. that's all 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 drivers desperate the government says testing has begun at manston but not enough we have today sitting here and then now they say us we don't have to. 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.k. is also facing the threat of another coronavirus. people have arrived africa flights from that country have now been cancelled 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 any woman who is a close contact of someone who's been in south africa in the last fortnight must

quarantine immediately well tough new restrictions are also in case across south career to contain covert 19 they're missing gatherings that are just for people major tourist spots and national parks are also closed under those measures but in place to try to contain a recent surge south korea recorded one of its highest daily rises on tuesday almost 1100 cases and as robin wright reports from seoul it's not just the high numbers that have authorities worried. this is all attempts really to try to keep this 3rd wave under control the concern is for the authorities here that the 2nd and 1st waves of that were dealt with here and dealt with very effectively really focused on the particular groups or particular areas of the country the concern is that this is now so ubiquitous it's so widespread across the country and we're still seeing daily cases of new infection of running around about a 1000 per day which again compared to other parts of the world it does not seem

that serious a problem but compared with where south korea was at just a few weeks ago it is increasing concern here remember of course that south korea is often seen as the poster child of epidemiology and the way it is handled this pandemic seems to have done everything by the textbook and seems to have done it right and so one stage it did seem as though we had the luxury of waiting to see how rollouts of vaccines took place in other parts of the world before rushing into its own program here so we're not going to see the 1st vaccines arrive in south korea until the spring and then the government had set up this elaborate process of having waves of vaccines people being vaccinated throughout the whole of 2021 and now with this increase in the number of cases people are quite rightly saying where are the vaccine so the government is coming under increasing criticism for its overly cautious approach it has run around and try to secure millions of extra doses but of course it's doing that at

a time when every other developed country in the world is competing for a vaccine so we've having news that more vaccinations are on the way but they won't arrive until the spring well still ahead here on out is there signs of progress and a possible deal. down to the wire. subs clothes and people hurry home hearing more violence ahead of central african republic election. the last briefly wintry system is on its way through once again so the showers that follow in this sort of northerly north westerly breeze will make it cloudy and not particularly warm in northern egypt not through levant rain proper or snow is

likely on the iranian hills up in as a by jan and beyond eastern turkey is covered in snow now but the sun has come out of the top christmas dangerous will be an improvement on thursday the breeze drops so far in day when the wind picks up the light easterly on saturday and wind is the story down the gulf as well as picked up which is quite a strong normally would not make you feel cooler a similar but not a strong wind is going down the red sea which will i think help to develop showers around the eastern side of sudan western side of society and not just on the higher ground are the temperature wise could do better is not extreme but with the strong winds and a 90 degree the 19 degrees at best on saturday getting slightly warm as a wind drops sunday and monday in doha. the heavy rain is so dispersing now on its way through south africa into was sudden mozambique now it will be greatly welcome still in was a beacon zimbabwe but rather missed i think in southern botswana. i

was raised in france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is mean. fighting both itis and as of. this 2nd of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihad. on al-jazeera. the. the the in.

the again i must be attained let's remind you of our top stories this hour u.s. president donald trump has pardoned more of his allies the latest list of $26.00 includes his 2016 campaign chairman for about a 4th and roger stone his longtime adviser friend this is the 2nd wave of presidential pardons in as many days. gunmen have attacked a town and westmeath reported economy more than a 100 people have been to the beni shell goodness region but ethnic tensions have been escalating amnesty international says dozens they're all still unaccounted for . the u.k. is now facing the threat of 2 coronavirus variants after detecting another potentially more infectious strain and 2 people who travel to south africa or flights from there have now been suspended. now after 9 months of negotiations they all signs of the e.u. and the u.k. are edging closer to agreeing on a post rex

a trade deal talks between the 2 sides continued late on wednesday as they try to hammer out some of the final details well now god knows the director of the market margaret thatcher center for freedom and is also a bernard and barbara lois fellow at the heritage foundation he says if a deal is signed it will be a huge win for the u k. well all indications so far coming from london although the deal is imminent and. i expect that to we're likely to see the deal being signed or put forward actually to morrow morning and if that is indeed the case i think it's a huge breakthrough for the british government off to several months of extremely intense negotiations with brussels in negotiations we headed by lord frost but also in some cases by the prime minister himself this deal sort of i think will be seen as a big win for boris johnson after all i think the e.u.

according to the latest reports we have have made some significant concessions here and this deal will result in the united kingdom being given full access to the e.u. single market 0 tariffs in place in the u.k. of course retains will retain full control of its of its borders its laurels and also its own trade as well so i do think this is a significant. victory for for the prime minister if if the reports are correct but there have been some concessions well all. well company is. concerned about the financial fallout of the hardbacks it it will cost the dutch economy an estimation $21000000000.00 in lost exports and around $70000.00 jobs there are also fears that delay is a ports could become even longer sébastien reports now from russia. even without additional paperwork there are delays at the port in rotterdam due to stockpiling

of produce in the united kingdom leaving the not alliance has increased over the past few weeks authorities are expecting even longer queues in january after they found a 5th of companies are not prepared for bracks it. will be so much paperwork so much paperwork and i think this will lead to huge the lanes longer waiting times for loading and unloading our customers i don't know if this is such a smart decision. if the u.k. parts from the european union without a trade deal more forms will need to be filled in meaning people will need to spend more hours undergoing custom checks delays that could be disastrous for these dutch fruit exporters who fear their products might rot around a 1000 trucks leave for the u.k. every day shipping 40000000 tons of goods every year for decades this has all gone

smoothly and seamlessly after years of preparations and the final deadline rapidly approaching for many the new reality is slowly sinking in deal or no deal after breakfast on january 1st everyone traveling from the netherlands to the u.k. will have to bring their passports for drivers and passengers without proper documentation will be stopped without exception to sort out their paperwork without causing delays these lorry drivers are directed to free parking spaces at rotterdam ports up to $700.00 trucks can stay here for 24 hours until travel documents are in order. hundreds of drivers are expected to be stranded every day despite a government campaign warning these changes were coming this afternoon in 0 tolerance we have a 0 tolerance policy without documents you count on to the terminal this will be a tough lesson because time is money if you make this mistake once you'll make sure next time everything is in order we expect this problem to disappear within 6 weeks

a problem in the end it may happen but many experts say companies can hardly be blamed for a lack of preparedness if only a few days before the deadline for a deal it's still not clear how brax it will work out to many entrepreneurs that i have talked to over the best 2 years that said well we want to prepare for practices but what are we preparing for we don't know what it's going to look like so how can we do it and of course we companies try to do as well as possible with all the paperwork and stuff but still it's very difficult if you're not really sure what you're preparing for the worst case scenario for dutch and the panos will be if in case of no deal import duties are imposed so products will become too expensive to export and for $300.00 companies supplying parts to british common factors the future will then look especially bleak step fasten al-jazeera i married him. now china's regulator has launched an anti monopoly probe into the ali baba

group the economist giant and its flamboyant founded jack ma has faced increasing pressure from beijing over its expansion plans last month the initial public offering of ali baba's affiliates and group has unexpectedly suspended just 2 days before its jewel debut well it's not speak to an italian he's a chinese political analyst and he joins us now from beijing and i would like to start with the timing of this jack ma as i recall was pretty outspoken against beijing's government regulations in october then we saw these new anti monopoly regulations rolled out in november is what we're seeing now a reaction to some of the statements or has this been in the works for some time. well i think for jack ma he certainly salary and it was a very odd situation when he attended a basically a government work conference he was the 3rd speaker the 1st one was one shot and basically he made fun of everything that was saying he just would be

a little lingo all the efforts of the chinese government so at this this juncture the timing has been set a couple weeks ago the government started putting fines on 50000 us not a large amount but they did it for cases involving a couple companies both 10 cent and ali baba in gaul the cases from 201420172018 essence calling them notice that the days of unregulated. you know monopolistic practices are now officially over so this is the next step expect the chinese government to impose their kind of brand of socialist capitalism which means that they actually mean it they want a market that is competitive which is kind of strange because you'd think that they really wouldn't give me a narrative as always counter to that but they seem very very much in favor of that now what exactly is it that's gotten beijing so now this is this

a palace play here and should the rest of china's begins that companies be worried going forward. no not at all i mean there's a big behemoths in china that were in essence allowed to grow up both tense times and ali baba and they got to the point where they can literally raise massive amounts of money as we saw what jack ma was going to put up the largest i.p.o. ever $36000000000.00 and they use that money to create more but our police in essence buy up all the leading players and then put them under their banner and as a result they're just acquiring way way too much of our but in addition to the power they are in essence taxing you know the the clientele their customers because they are in this not listed position they don't have to be competitive still this is all very much a fine line to walk fashion thing in the party to say that china's done a good place to do business but also to hold on to control how do you assess that that's going well actually it's going very well it just this is actually something

that the international players are going to be looking at they've been basically for close from the market because of the powerful positions of the excess oweis and these homegrown entities like intensive now they will have a 3 shanika along with this this is not a sudden reversal or anything like that they have been signaling for quite some time that changes are afoot they do not want entities to have an essence control the market they really believe that the power of the capitalism is and having competition so yes this is actually a very very positive sign that china is normalizing its actions will not allow this kind of go so foreign foreign players should be very very much hopeful and just intends to watch the ajna tang in a tiny bit of analyst speaking to us from beijing always great to get your expertise here on out of there i know thanks for being with us. now

tensions are high in central african republic ahead of presidential and legislative elections there on sunday a new alliance of armed groups calling itself the patriots coalition for change has friend to march to the capital bangui the u.n. mission there says it's pushing back the rebels to prevent them from taking control of important supply routes and strategic towns our correspondent catherine who is on the ground there and reports now from. panic in the wide quickly spread that troubles could 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 hearing 213 with a mostly mostly armed group sell a car arrived in force and overthrew the then president francois so no one wants to be caught unawares at this time it turns 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 the 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. some of the country's main armed groups have joined forces calling themselves the patriots for change here they're threatening

to march to borghi 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 polls since last friday where the alliance between the next president visiting the 3 armed groups target is up in this area in both mbali 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 times where the electoral cards were distributed are open and people are coming massively as they are in bangui which i saw most of 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. 2 opposition protesters have been killed in zambia's capital a soccer outside police headquarters they were supporting opposition leader. who is being questioned by police there he lemme is the man rival to president and i don't know and next chance elections here's a here's a government of panting snipers to target his supporters. understand this. group. to the firm in. church. al jazeera journalist mark wood hussein has now spent 4 years and egyptian detention without charge nor a trial hussein was arrested while visiting his family in december 26th seen

a number of rights groups have joined al jazeera and demanding his immediate release his detention is in violation of both egyptian and international role although if you get you can always find much much more on our website including all the latest on those trump pardons as they seem to continue their dot com. that this is al-jazeera these are the headlines u.s. president donald trump has pardoned more of his allies the latest list of $26.00 includes his 2016 campaign chairman paul metaphors and roger starr and his longtime advisor and friend and it's the 2nd wave of presidential pardons in as many day. gunmen have attacked a town in western ethiopia reportedly killing more than 100 people there the attack happened in the region.