countries the most need assistance what's worrying them is that many of those have a deteriorating situation. last minute negotiations between the e.u. and british leaders with reports of bragg's deal could be imminent. i'm sam is a than this is a live from doha so coming up more controversial pardons donald trump reversed the sentences against his former campaign manager jared questionis father. a bloody regional conflict in ethiopia's north and now $100.00 dead in ethnic violence troubles mount for the prime minister. and south korea implements its toughest ever

measures to contain cope with 19 limiting gatherings to just. begin with breaks it and signs a trade agreement between the e.u. and the u.k. may finally be imminent u.k.'s prime minister barak's johnson is expected to speak in the next few hours from downing street he's reportedly finalizing details on the phone with the leader on the lam britain's chief negotiator david frost was in talks with the e.u. counterparts in brussels late into the night and the deal need to be ratified by both parliament for britain leaves european trade rules on december 31st as a joins us now live from london so i said as i said we're expecting the prime minister there in the u.k. to speak shortly what are we expecting him to announce. well

we're hearing that there's been a deal that's very close to being sealed so we understand that there were some phone calls between prime minister barak's johnson and e.u. commission chief our 7 delenn but right now we don't know what the details of that deal of we understand that negotiate just have been working very hard we understand that it was in its final phase and they were giving it a real try to try to clinch this deal because the united kingdom left the e.u. block earlier this year on january the 31st but they've been abiding by e.u. rules not the end of this year on the 31st of december they would leave the customs union and the internal e.u. market now if no deal was achieved or no deal is achieved that would mean that they would resort to world trade organization terms that could mean a tiresome border checks on goods between the u.k. and the e.u. resulting in an increase of prices and considerable destruction but we understand

they're close to reaching a deal now some of the sticking points were the fisheries the fishing industry although it is a small part of the u.k. economy somewhere between no point one and no point no 2 percent of the u.k. economy it does have a lot of political capital in the sense that a lot of people that campaigned for the u.k. to neve europe they wanted to take back control of british water as a spoke about sovereignty is a spoke about independence breaking away from europe and the fishing industry was at the heart of that and that's about the fact that the e.u. member states have access to british water water has and be human but states have quotas of how much fish they can catch from british waters now as we were running up to today to these possible announcement we've been hearing from both sides that the other has made considerable compromises we've heard from the u.k. sources from the u.k. saying. the europeans have made compromises we've heard from france that the u.k.

has made compromises and that's because each of those countries wants to show to their electorate that they have one that they've got the best possible deal for their country and if you read the papers here in the u.k. today it's very much talking about that this is some sort of victory that prime minister barak's johnson has managed to pull this off even before anyone has even seen this deal you understand it's about 2000 pages long alright so as hewing dead a deal 'd has been reached there is going to be announce what happens next it's been a very long and painful process hasn't it. absolutely so the brics it vote happened 5 years ago over 17000000 people in this country voted to leave europe the previous prime minister trees in may had the deal as you put it to parliament and she failed several times to get that passed now what will happen now is in london the u.k.

side prime minister barak's johnston have to recall parliament and they will have to vote on it to ratify it before december 31st but so far if this deal is done it's a provisional yes it will then go to the lawyers and then the e.u. will ratify it later on in the year but as far as prime minister barak's johnson is concerned yes there's always a sense of drama and theatricals around him and it's only befitting that right at this last minute this 11th hour and on christmas eve that he comes out and he tells the u.k. that he has clinched this deal right before christmas all right thanks so much as a bank there let's bring in the e.u. policy analyst here to clap he joins us now from brussels good to have you with us so is this finally it a break deal that will actually be implemented. yes this is finally end of the stuff for pretty much everybody who is aware of the negotiations

seems to confirm at the moment both sides are still high on the details when it comes to fish or its access we don't actually know much about it but it looks like the e.u. will have to lose 25 percent of the oxygen currents it's currently hans to the u.k. fishing waters but there's all kinds of traditional arrangements there is the question to what extent. you can punish do you a if the u. k. . diverged regulation in other areas we have to wait to see all the details. what what is being reported now is that france is seeking some last minute guarantees concerning fisheries do we know what is going on in the last minute conversations that are taking place between boss johnson and sort of on the line

well i think it's according to the reports here in brussels there they're looking at the specific. kinds of fish that the e.u. would be able to catch and you know every time a concession is made for example by the british scientists this is done has to be. basically consulted on the other side you countries want to children have to decide what they were given return because interest for example for denmark are very different than the interest for bronze for spain when it comes to fisheries so i suspect that spoil it also dragging all the bit longer than people would have hoped for is there now time to put in agreement into a factor for britain at least the e.u. . well that's a major question and frankly i think it will not be done in

a legally clean way. according to reports there would be some kind of written procedure been implemented that you would offer which is a very speedy procedure to implement free trade arrangements and other treaties the question is to what extent things can be implemented would be implemented provisionally would that mean that for example in 2021 only the european parliament which has a veto over this in any case will still be able to veto it which would in theory trow a little uncertainty over to the even if you would expect the european parliament to repeat oh the deal where the european parliament perhaps still be able to vote on this before the end of the air on the u.k. side it's clear that the government alone is apparently able to. do the sides this this trade deal even if i suspect it will get if parliament also

a say even if legally it apparently would not be necessary to do that all right thanks so much for you all for sand analysis on that path of class. value as president don't trump has issued another series of pardons he's granted clemency to 26 people including his 2016 campaign chairman paul manifold and his longtime adviser and friend roger stone he also pardon charles the father of his son in law jared couchman habitat's who reports from washington d.c. . do you swear the testimony you're 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 miller 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 pub not 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 old truck 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 them. 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 $740000000000.00

passed by congress the farm's defense spending. president from could object to provisions designed to slow down the withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan and the renaming of u.s. military bases currently named after confederate generals the president also called for the insertion of a provision removing legal protections for into that companies into the in the area however both the house and senate are expected to meet next week to override the presidential veto. washington if he of his prime minister abu ahmed has deployed military forces to a western region a day off the gunman killed 100 people the attack was carried out in benish angle good news amnesty international says dozens of people are unaccounted for the prime minister has visited the area the day before and called for peace and unity following several deadly attacks in recent months he said in

a tweet enemies were trying to divide the theory of here along ethnic and religious lines no group has claimed responsibility the attacks are separate from the conflict in ethiopia's 'd northern tigre a region the un says it remains concerned about ongoing fighting and the lack of humanitarian access the conflict has raised fears of a security vacuum in other areas of the country must say is a lawyer and researcher who previously worked for ethiopia's attorney general office she says restive parts of ethiopia could experience fighting because of the redeployment of the military to the t agree region. that is a fair amount of people how right now because that yoke 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. actually 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 supporting so it is the military that would go and created this vacuum that led to the massacre that we just learned it's a huge problem i mean you we've been hearing this for more than a month now and to grind but have the ball a tire or more than 2 years now gratian 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 so there ethnic conflict and he took out. persist and there has to be a you know a conference of the ocean for all of that would be they're not going to be contained by a man who looks like he's in the government and i think. still ahead on al jazeera

no more delays the 1st shipment of the pfizer buying takeover the 19 banks seen arrives in latin america. chinese regulators announce an anti monopoly investigation into e-commerce giant and the baba. the generation of woman that came across it from the atlantic pretty quickly through center europe is being squashed sas would squeezed out by a northerly wind which makes things pretty snow if in many places it looks like this that's the heart of it all and that's the warm bit that will be clearly he's going to see high temperatures rose if to the average this on the and rain but this cold when that comes in quickly would change things quite dramatically blue is rain

white snow up to about half a meter i think of the out and even maybe on lower ground as this whole of his pursuit of the still snow on the forward edge of the baltic states and running into western russia as well so belgrade represents that squeeze of warm air friday will be a warm $117.00 degrees and raining on christmas day for belgrade that it gets colder it starts to snow on sunday now it starts to stay for an awful lot of people during friday actually is a cold when keeps going south look at these single thing that temperatures start on the ground in many places sticking on the high ground of misty and then it sort of gets stuck somewhere trust's the adriatic but the snow starts to fall pretty heavily over the balkans and you're exhausted as a storm system tries to evolve and yet there's no storm system appear it warms up it gets wet and windy quite stormy on saturday in the u.k. . but.

we've never had a president who has literally for 45 years repeatedly attacked our democracy. you know goes through larry dignan financially i don't have a narrative i have a question here hitting the brain where people can't get treated and tests will show even further join me richelle carey and up front as my guests from around the world take the hot seat and they debate the week's top stories in pressing issues here on al-jazeera. move. the old. folks back you're watching out 0 time to recap the headlines now there are signs the trade agreement between the e.u. and u.k. is imminent u.k.

prime minister abbas johnson is reported to be finalizing details on the phone with the e.u. leader johnson is expected to hold a news conference in the coming hours u.s. president all trump has granted clemency to more of his allies in this $26.00 pardons and commutations includes his former campaign chairman paul manifold jaric knows father and his advisor and friend for just. if you go here's prime minister ahmed has deployed a military force to a western region where gunmen killed 100 people abby visited the area the day before the attacks to urge peace and unity between ethnic groups. fears a growing of chaos on the border between the u.k. and e.u. before a break this agreement is in place thousands of truck drivers are already stranded

in the english port of dover struggling to get coronavirus test so they can cross into france and get home for christmas and as paul brennan reports from dover drivers are becoming more frustrated. facing a 4th night trapped in their vehicles and unable to depart for kalik. frustration and anger led one group of drivers to briefly blockade inbound freight arriving from france there was confrontation as the police tried to clear the road to demonstrate a lay down in front of one of the lorries oh 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 to most of the former on the ball to let these people follow them blindly 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 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 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 of 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 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 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. large parts of england are being put on the tougher covert 19 restrictions from saturday that says more contagious a more contagious variant of the virus is spreading new infections have risen by 57 percent for the past week more people are in hospital than at any time since april . international travelers arriving in new york will be forced to quarantine for up to 2 weeks that's under the new rules announced by the mayor in response to new corona virus strains being discovered in the u.k. and south africa quarantines will be monitored by sheriffs with heavy fines for those who break the rules. mexico has received its 1st shipment of the 5 is

a biotech vaccine it's the 1st country in latin america to have a vaccine ready to roll out but it's battling a sharp rise in infections that's overwhelming hospitals john home and 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 i mexico is the 1st country in latin america to get the vaccine. but for many people it won't be available to the middle of next year and meanwhile the country's in big trouble. cities hospitals rule with very few ventilators left. their queues outside short selling

oxygen tanks monica avalanche trouble 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 lead care 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 koby cases down after the 1st wave and now there's more than ever the crowd to miscarry 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 for the cup so much through like there's been questions over their attitude towards a pandemic from the beginning. it's comprise a dent in the covert so really wear masks 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 mention a plan to help them. but do you see is selling face masks in the street she says there's no way she could stay home was not. of course not i'd 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 opted 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. new restrictions are in place across south korea to contain coded 19 limiting gatherings to just 4 people major tourist spots and national parks are also closed under the measures south korea recorded one of its highest daily rises on tuesday almost 1100 cases mcbride reports from seoul. 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 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 a 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 alibaba group the commerce giant 10 it's found the jack ma have faced increasing pressure from beijing over expansion plans last month the initial public offering a value barbour's affiliate and group was unexpectedly suspended just 2 days before its scheduled debut sarah plant is following developments for us from hong kong. well look it's a huge blow to the alibaba group as you mentioned state media made this announcement on thursday by the news agency that the tech giant would be investigated over allegations of monopolistic practices are it 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 and 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 are the regulators said this particular listing it didn't meet the disclosure requirements as a result they shelved it and 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 also the 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 shares they tumbled as markets opened in hong kong they fell by about 5 and a half percent at the latest analysis or so in 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. for a 2nd look at some of the headlines here and al-jazeera now there are signs a trade agreement between the e.u. and the u.k. is imminent u.k. prime minister abbas johnson is reported to be finalizing details on the phone with you later sort of on the way and johnson is expected to hold a news conference in the coming hours as has more.