it's. our lives mother and baby sky. jared christian his father and donald trump's former campaign manager pull man a 4th are among those getting presidential couples in the latest best. hello again i'm to start the tape this is al jazeera life and also coming up. boils over in southern england thousands of truck drivers remain stranded in poor conditions as they wait to be able to cross into fronts. chinese regulators announce an anti monopoly investigation of e-commerce giant ali baba and. i'm scott

idler in bangkok thailand often described as the venice of the east many of the 10000000 people here use the waterways to get around but the boats are big polluters so the city is putting greener version of. the u.s. president donald trump has issued another series of granting clemency to more of his allies this is the 2nd wave of presidential pardons in as many days shepparton 0 ports now from washington d.c. . do you swear the testimony you are about to give should be the truth this set of pardons includes more figures swept up in the investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election robert muller and his own words quote did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the russian government and quote but several in the trump campaigns all but were convicted as

a result of their conduct during the investigation all $400.00 crimes that were dug up as part of the increased scrutiny of both the trooper former trunk campaign chairman paul man afore he was convicted of obstructing the russian investigation but also several counts of bank tax fraud related to his political consulting work for the ukrainian government before he joined the trump campaign. for some other force pardon confirms a suspicion they had during the russian meddling investigation democratic congressman adam schiff tweeting during the investigation trump's lawyer floated a patent amount of what amount of fault with drew his cooperation with prosecutors lied was convicted and then trump praised him for not ratting trump's public now completes the corrupt scheme nola's until the bitter end it was a witch hunt there's no question about that longtime political operative and friend of donald trump roger stone who was also convicted of lying to congress and to my ledger in the russian investigation his 40 month sentence had already been commuted by donald trump in july the father of don't trump son in law jarrett is also on the

list charles kushner was given a 2 year sentence for tax evasion witness tampering and illegal campaign contributions you notoriously filmed his brother in law with a prostitute and then sent the tape to his sister in an attempt to prevent her from cooperating with prosecutors had long been an expectation that in the last days of his presidency don't trump would pardon those he felt showed him loyalty during the rush for investigation it has nothing to do with the merits of the individuals who are being pardoned and everything to do with whether or not donald trump wants to show that. special favor based on whether or not they have been loyal to him or whether or not they have a special connection to him as in the case of jared kush nurse father it is being used as a political tool in this case which was precisely what it was never meant to be also as expected vetoed the national defense authorization act the 740000000000

dollars legislation passed by congress that funds defense spending. president trumpet objected to provisions designed to slow down the withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan and the renaming of u.s. military bases currently named off the confederate generals the president also called for the insertion of a provision removing legal protections for into that companies into the in the a however both the house and senate are expected to meet next week to override the presidential veto. washington 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. pugs 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 perfectly 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 very loyal to him he's rewarding the loyalty of his supporters it's an absolute power of any president to pardon anyone who is 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 and 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 many shango gormless and amnesty says dozens of people are still unaccounted for this comes a day after prime minister i'll be off that visit said that area calling for peace and unity following several deadly incidents in recent months in a tweet he said enemies were trying to divide ethiopia along ethnic and religious lines no group has yet claimed responsibility elsewhere in ethiopia though government troops have been fighting the t. great people's liberation front in the northern tier grey region since the beginning of november now that's raised fears of a security vacuum and other parts of the country elections due next year have further raised tensions over land and power what must go out to d.c. is 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 ethiopia could experience fighting because of the redeployment of military to the tikrit region.

that is a fair amount of people have right now because that europe 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 support thing so if the military it out with 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 the ball and tire or more than 2 years now deliberation 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 here in the government and figure. now thousands of truck drivers stranded at the english force of struggling to get coronavirus tests so they can cross into france and get home in time for christmas on wednesday french authorities eased a ban on arrivals from the u.k. where a more contagious form of covered 1000 has been spreading and as paul brennan reports from dr a dr as they are growing more frustration. facing a 4th night trapped in their vehicles and unable to depart mccullough 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. to speak to the drivers and time and again the lack of information is what's really causing tempest a flare and i don't know what's going on the police will tell you what's going on all they want to most of the morning from around the ball to get these people follow them blindly really no no no it's 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 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 mountain airfield which now has nearly 4000 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 home. 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 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 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. well the u.k. is also facing the threat of another coronavirus. people have arrived from south 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 italy is coronavirus death toll has now passed $70000.00 with italians also preparing for a new nationwide lockdown of a christmas story of families have now launched legal action against local and national authorities over this pandemic a group of around 500 relatives of cova $1000.00 victims say they're seeking $122000000.00 in damages they've launched that suit against prime minister decepticons say the health minister and the governor of long body. are still ahead here on algiers there are signs of progress and a possible deal as breck's

a trade negotiations go down to the wire. shops close and people hurry home hearing more violence ahead of central african republic selection. 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 azerbaijan 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 and 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 was i think helped to develop showers around the eastern side of sudan western side of society and not just on the higher ground are that temperature wise could do better is not extreme but with the strong winds in the 90 greet the 19 degrees at best on saturday getting slightly warm as a wind drops on sunday and monday in doha the heavy rain is so dispersing now on its way through south africa into was sudden mozambique now it'll be greatly welcome still in was a beacon zimbabwe but rather a mist i think in southern botswana. but. i was raised in france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is mean.

fighting both isis and as of. this 2nd of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihad. team on al-jazeera. the old. hello again i'm the stasi attainder let's remind you about top stories here the salary us president donald trump has pardoned more of his allies the latest list of 26 and periods his 2016 campaign chairman paul metaphors and roger stone and his

longtime adviser and friend this is the 2nd wave of presidential pardons in as many days. gunmen have attacked a town in western ethiopia reportedly killing more than 100 people the attack happened in the betty shantel goodness region where ethnic tensions have been escalating amnesty international says dozens are still unaccounted for. and the u.k. is now facing the threat of 2 coronavirus variants after detecting another potentially more infectious strain and 2 people who traveled from south africa all flights from there have now been suspended. after 9 months of negotiations there are signs the e.u. and the u.k. are edging ever closer to a agreeing on a postbox 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 for us from above them. 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 the final stages although it wasn't exactly clear how long it would take for the draft text to be looked at and approved by the political leaders of course boris johnson the prime minister and underlying 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 now 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. fleet 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. 2 opposition protesters have been killed in zambia's capital lusaka outside police headquarters they were supporting opposition leader in the heechee lemma who was being questioned by police as the main rival to present at next year's elections he's accuse the government of planting snipers to try to target his supporters. well 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 threatened to march on the capital bangui the united nations mission there says it's pushing back the rebels to prevent them from taking control of important supply routes and strategic towns are kathryn's was on the ground in reports now from. panic in. what 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 here in 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 hands 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 this new 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 wonky. 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 poor. since last friday where the lines between decks present position into 3 armed groups are . both emboli 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 folks where the electoral cards are distributed are open and people are coming massively as they are in bangui which are some of the to get their electoral card. most of the opposition presidential candidates have stopped their lection campaigns and want to the pool rescheduled the government however says that is not an option catherine all just 0. 0 journalist much more to say and has now spent 4 years in egyptian detention without charge nor a trial hussein was arrested while visiting family in december 26th seen a number of rights groups have now joined al jazeera and demanding his immediate release his detention is in violation of both egyptian and international law. the u.s. cyber security agency says a sprawling hacking campaign made public last week as having a broad impact on government didn't give further details but said federal state and

local government networks have been affected they were hacked using the tech companies solar winds which provides network management tools president elect joe biden has promised to find those responsible. well tough new restrictions are in place across south korea to contain coded 19 limiting gatherings there to just 4 people major tourist spots and national parks are also closed under these measures which have been put in place to contain a recent surge south korea recorded one of its highest daily rises on tuesday almost 1100 cases as run it by reports from seoul it's not just the high numbers that have the 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 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 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 at one stage it did seem as though it 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 trying 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. china's regulator has launched an anti monopoly probe into the ali baba group the e-commerce giant and its flamboyant founded jack ma has faced increasing pressure from beijing over its expansion plans last month the initial public offering of early bob as affiliate and group has unexpectedly suspended just 2 days before its said you will debut sarah clarke is following developments for us from hong kong. well it's a huge blow to the alibaba group as you mentioned state media made this announcement on thursday via the shin wa news agency that the tech giant would be investigated over allegations of monopolistic practices that shows the for the tensions between jack ma he's china 2nd richest man and also worth around has

a net worth of around $50000000000.00 and of course president xi jinping it comes after you mention the ad listing the shelves this was the jewel in the crown of the empire it was to be the largest i.p.o. on the stock market but as you mentioned it was shelved after its debut was meant to go ahead in november it was to have a jewel listing in shanghai and in hong kong jack ma decided to make the listing in the region as opposed to the united states due to what he described as geopolitical tensions on the regulated said this particular listing it didn't meet the disclosure requirements as a result by shoulder that was after a recent interview that the regulators had with jack ma and his executives so it certainly shows that china is now looking to tighten its controls over the tech sector across the mainland and clearly alibaba has become a target it also shows mounting moves will sort of mounting pressure on this particular company it's one of china's most influential tech giants all companies

are in the mainland china and the chinese state media release this all made this announcement with one line by the news i see so there's no detail as yet about what kind of penalties will be involved now the alibaba shiz they tumbled as markets opened in hong kong they fell by about 5 and a half percent at the latest analysis or the latest figures show it's now down around 8 percent so the aunt group has responded it said in a statement that it would comply with regulators and their request. well the highest profile person jailed on the hong kong's controversial national security or is now out on bail jimmy lies spent nearly 3 weeks in prison on charges that he could do did with foreign forces several pro-democracy activists have faced some of the charges under that security it'll critics say it's being used to silence dissent now thailand's capital has launched a green a inquest a form of transport to help tackle a diet pollution problem it's estimated that poor contributed to the deaths of more

than 9000 people in the city just this year scott hyla has this report from bangkok . fishing out his front door like he has for the last 40 years a marine that needs your lives in the community of houses built on stilts lining the edge of bangkok's busiest can now. while the fishing might be convenient the steady increase of commuter boats rushing by has become unbearable he says but there's some relief on the way a switch to electric boat. to back the electric parents will generate less noise i won't bother people so much but. bangkok was once described as the venice of the east and many of the 10000000 people here still use its waterways to get around. and the boats used to carry them are noisy big polluters putting toxins in the water and into the air. so the city government has launched a quieter and greener alternative a 3 month electric boat pilot program right in the center of the capital 8 boats to

start and so far they're carrying a 1000 passengers a day so while it takes 4 hours at the pier to fully charge the batteries to run the twin engines for the boat these solar panels provide the power for the instruments and the lights on the vessel called the biggest challenge is changing people's minds we have to encourage them to switch from private to coast public transportation boats are a good option because of the heavy street traffic so the introduction of electric boats can help both congestion and reduce pollution the boats and most of the components are manufactured here in thailand only the motors in the batteries are imported there is hope that the indigenous industry will expand so one day the vessels will be 100 percent thai i think evy is a kind of. initiate the next step is to encourage people. even the government itself to the most seriously think about how the even electric

vehicles because that is the next generation full full environmental friendly times but asian so while the government hopes that the program is successful and that the fossil fuel powered boats are on the way out a marine could be getting some good news his canal is set to be the next phase for the electric boats and that will allow him to fish in peace and relative quiet it's got harder al-jazeera bangkok. and that this is al jazeera and these are the headlines u.s. president on the trunk. and as its list of 26 and his 2016 campaign challenge pull not a false and raw just in his longtime advisor and friend this is the 2nd wave of presidential pardons in as many days gunmen have attacked a town in western ethiopia reported the key.