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tv   News  Al Jazeera  December 24, 2020 12:00pm-12:31pm +03

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elderly loved ones to thailand to live out the day on which is the. last minute negotiations between the e.u. and british leaders with reports of break the deal could be announced imminently. i'm sami's a that this is al jazeera live from also coming up a regional conflict in ethiopia's north and now reports dozens killed by security forces after an ethnic massacre troubles mount for the prime minister. more controversial pardons donald trump reverses sentences against his former campaign manager and jarrad cushions father plus. i'm scott harder in bangkok thailand is
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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 greed aversion to one. we begin with brags it and signed a trade agreement between the e.u. and u.k. might be imminent u.k. 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 you later on the lion 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 before britain leaves european trade rules on december 31st. i said bank joins us live from london so i said we've been talking about a trade deal perhaps being imminent where are things standing now.
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while we were expecting a press conference an hour ago no you understand that's been delayed a bit there trying to sort out the minute details of this deal the foreign minister irish foreign minister as we speak joris media now what he said is this still discussing some of the more intricate details of the fisheries now that this isn't something that's been a real sticking point in those negotiations because you member states have access to british waters now after brics it britain wants to reduce taxes and the quotas that those e.u. member states have in terms of how much fish that they cast but it's not just about how much fish that they catch it's about the coaches for the kinds of fish they catch and this is the some of the details that they're really getting bogged down with right now but if you look at the british papers this morning it's all about victory it's all about. chance and has managed to pull off this deal right at the
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11th hour of course they have until the 31st of december because the united kingdom has left the e.u. block but they've been abiding by e.u. rules now on the 31st of december there were leave the customs union and the internal european market but if this deal is clinched it is on christmas eve and boys johnson gets to come out and tell the british people that he's managed to get this deal all right so we're expecting to hear from barroso johnson we understand as you mentioned there are some last minute issues being sorted out what guarantees has been reported that france is looking for guarantees this is the last minute sort of hurdle do we know anything about that. so as i said the member states have access to british waters now fishing is a major issue for both france and the u.k. even if here in the u.k.
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in terms of the u.k. economy it makes up a fraction of the economy somewhere between 0 point one and 0.02 percent of the economy but it has a lot of political capital because running up to the brics it vote here the brics tears those that wanted to leave the e.u. talked of but talked about independence talked about sovereignty talked about control of british waters know what britain wants to do is make sure that they get a good deal for their fishing economy and so does france and even running up to that today both countries are saying that each other had made compromises and they're speaking to their electorates know what the details of what they're talking about is what quotas they will have what quotas from the french fisherman will have in terms of catching fish in british waters and when windows move those quotas come into force in terms of that transition period is it 3 years is it 5 years is 7 years and we understand that was some of the kind of wranglings and back and forth
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that was going on but far as johnson will probably possibly later on today sometime in the next few hours announce that a deal has been clinched all right thanks so much bang there from london. to bring in policy analysts here to play in brussels good to have a bank with us so it looks like we've got finally a deal coming together do we have any idea of what has been compromised on when it comes to the fishing rights which was the stumbling block for so long. well we haven't seen any detail but there were rumors that the e.u. would basically concede to give off 25 percent of the axes it currently has to bridgwater the loss of c n a way to detail the latest i heard was that both sides were still. deciding the sort of the specific quotas for fish for fish would be
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a tribute to each side and of course this that every time also trigger a discussion among you remember state because for example denmark has different interests here and then from spain. interesting they also a document has emerged that was leaked by the british government where it sets out where it according to the british government has secured a victory and we're not and the u.k. government claims to have obtained a victory over 40 percent of the of the issues. were us the e.u. with only half 3 according to the u.k. government over about 20 percent of the the issues so will there be enough time now to put any agreement into effect before this transition period then. the procedure that would be followed on the use side is the
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ricin procedure which should speed up things a lot it's not entirely clear witter i'm. a votes by new people will still take place here if not it's still possible for the european parliament to vote on this in 2021 which it would of course throw some uncertainty over it all even if it's actually very unlikely i think the european parliament would filter paedo such a deal on the u.k. side it is possible for the u.k. government to to to implement this deal without even holding part him and surprisingly enough the dust seems to be the case but nevertheless m.p.'s and woman will still get to get a say over a deal that counts 2000 pages all right thanks so much for your full time the mouse is home. if he or his prime minister abbott has deployed military forces to
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an area where gunmen killed a 100 people local media reporting the army killed 42 men in the western region many shingled moose prime minister had visited the area the day before the attacks he called for peace and unity following several deadly attacks between ethnic groups in recent months. well the attacks are separate from the conflict in ethiopia's northern region the u.n. says it remains concerned about ongoing fighting and the lack of humanitarian access the conflict has raised fears of a security vacuum in other parts of the country let's go live to malcolm would be to monitoring the story for us joins us now from nairobi with the very latest so mark. you heard me there saying not only about the 100 people killed by government but apparently reports that security forces have killed people what exactly do we know is going on there what we've heard is that the
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attack happened on wednesday and gunmen set people's homes on fire women children and men were shot dead as they were trying to run away survivors have told the rights group amnesty international that the attackers were are members of the good news ethnic group they're the majority in that area and that the victims belong to the mara romero and she nasha ethnic groups who are minorities in that area it is the latest succession of waves of ethnic violence that have been affecting that region since september malcolm how much concern is there now when you look across ethiopia of whether the whole ethnic cohesiveness of the country is beginning to creak. prime minister the prime minister came to power just over 2 and a half years ago and he was credited with bringing in democratic reforms that this
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followed nearly well many decades of hard to have or thora tarion is and it kept many of ethiopia's conflicts along ethnic lines so that kept a lid on in those those reforms that brought in this kind of open the lid on many of these simmering tensions its critics would say that some of his actions have actually inflamed some of these conflicts being thoughts on ethnic lines now the federal forces have been occupied fighting to grain people's liberation front to the north in the to gray region for the last 6 weeks that's also prompted concern that federal troops that were military resources are being used up in one conflict just at a time when other conflicts in other parts of the country along ethnic lines are just starting to brew up. or i will leave it there thanks so much malcolm webb. a pakistani court has ordered the release of the man convicted in connection with
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the killing of u.s. journalist daniel pearl in 2002 amid our most ha ha will be freed while an appeal is under way earlier this year the high court overturned his murder charge about was held up by an appeal from polls family that will be heard in early january u.s. president donald trump is issued another series of pardons he's granted clemency to $26.00 people including is 2016 campaign chairman paul maeder furred and was just stone his longtime adviser and friend he also pardoned charles the father of his son in law jared couche she habitats he explains 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
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russian government and quote but several in the trump campaigns all but were convicted as a result of their conduct during the investigation all for unrelated crimes that were dug up as part of the increased scrutiny both a true performer 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 murder 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 pardon 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
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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 but in the last days of his presidency told trump would pardon those he felt it showed him loyalty during the rush or 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 the. 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
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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. so ahead on al jazeera. angry drunk drivers protested the english polls of dover where thousands are still stranded on drug coated blockade. south korea implements its toughest ever measures to contain cope with 19.
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of. the stubble of concern in in cambodia and south coast that the winds might get up but the massive rain that was associated with tropical depression that's heading towards southern toms been about 30 min which is so far but potentially a lot more than that as it goes through leaving still quite a strong breeze that northeasterly monsoon so a fairly dry looking picture here proper passing shows a concentration of heavy rain looks like it's developing in the southern philippines parts of borneo sort of ways in down towards java less so in sumatra and that rain your notes that chemical sudden time this going across towards this isn't by a bang go away it might develop i think not we'll watch it all the same in australia summers been a funny bit so far such that this cloud slideshows the middle has been producing
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rain in places like alice springs the days on end keep the temp today have the coldest summer day for the 53 years was recorded not things are certainly warming up now 25 is the forecast on friday the orientation this frontal system has changed a bit so you've got rain tropical rain in tropical queensland less so in northern territory was tempted to say with this warming trend quite tight adelaide getting better in melbourne not a good city but hot in perth. a secret mass grave in arlon discovered at an institution run by catholic nuns. and mission shock to its core. people in power investigates a scandal that destroyed families cost thousands of lives and still raises profound questions about the ties between the catholic church and the irish state. arlin's
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mother and baby stand. on a 0. 00. 000000. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap headlines there are signs a trade agreement between the e.u. and u.k. is imminent u.k. prime minister barres johnson is reported to be finalizing details with the e.u. leader johnson is expected to hold a news conference in the coming hours. if the o.p.'s prime minister ahmed is deployed military forces to a western region where gunmen killed 100 people have be visited the area a day before the attacks urged peace and unity between ethnic groups. u.s.
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president donald trump has granted clemency to more of his allies the list of $26.00 pardons and commutations includes his former campaign chairman paul manifold jaric cushions father and roger stone his advisor and friend. now fears are growing of chaos on the border between the u.k. and before a break this agreement is in place thousands of truck drivers are already stranded in the english port of dover they're struggling to get coronavirus test so they can cross into france and get home by 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 callaway i frustration and anger led one group of drivers to briefly blockade inbound freight
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arriving from france there was a confrontation of the police trying to clear the road a demonstrator 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 a flare i don't know what's going on the police will tell you what's going on all the want to most of them 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 coded 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
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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 a hamburger some some some tapes and that's all and we don't know when we. can get
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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 stock 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 being put on the tougher covert 19 restrictions from saturday as
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a more contagious variant of the virus is spreading new infections have risen by 57 percent in the past week more people are in hospital 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 allowed by the mayor responds to new corona virus strains being discovered in the u.k. and south africa one teens will be monitored by sheriffs with heavy fines for those who break the rules. new restrictions are in place across south korea to contain covert 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 brought 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
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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 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
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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. carter has informed the un security council that bahraini fighter jets violated its airspace relates to an incident on december 9th bahrain is one of 4 nations along with saudi arabia egypt and the u.a.e. that have imposed a blockade on gaza since 2017 talks to resolve the crisis are reported to have made progress in recent weeks full of the world's largest e-commerce companies is under investigation by china beijing is accusing
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a barber of monopolistic behavior it's yet another blow for the company's founder jack maher is government regulators attempt to rein in his expanding business empire sarah clarke reports from hong kong he has a net worth of around $50000000000.00 and is china's 2nd richest man jack meyer is also the founder of the e-commerce giant alibaba which regulators have accused of using monopolistic tactics they have been signaling for quite some time changes are what they do not want and since control of market and be sure is filled by 8 percent when stock markets opened the investigation is part of a wider government crackdown on china's booming internet space it's also yet another setback for the alibaba group which planned a jewel listing of its and company last month regular has said it didn't meet disclosure requirements in the i.p.o. was shelved 2 days before its market debut. as we all know it's already the
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largest online payment service provider in 1000000 china and still have a lot room to grow most of the mainland part and they don't use cash anymore they simply use a cell phone to pay everything not only apparel not only that you know the fastest but even they buy a car they didn't use a mobile phone and group is the crown jewel in the early barber empire the listing was expected to raise as much as $37000000000.00 that would have made it the world's largest i.p.o. since all giant saudi aramco listed last december the largest i.p.o. today is i believe the saudi arabia oil company which is listed on a couple of years ago at 28000000000. and sister company alibaba went public in 2014 listing on the new york stock exchange in a $25000000000.00 flight this time the company chose the domestic market in china for its debut but the mega float is on hold for now this latest investigation is
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part of the government's escalating scrutiny of jack's expanding empire and represents heightened tensions between chinese president xi jinping and the billionaire in a statement the company says it will comply with the regulators requests it executives are expected to be summoned in coming days sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong the most high profile person jailed on the hong kong's controversial national security law is now out on bail jimmy lay's spent nearly 3 weeks in jail on charges that he colluded with foreign forces they will continue to remain under house arrest several pro-democracy activists have faced similar charges under the security law critics say beijing and posted on hong kong to silence dissent. thailand's capital is not tory's for traffic and pollution including on its waterways now the government is looking to make one popular method of transport greener. much quieter scott high blower reports from bangkok. fishing out his front
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door like he has for the last 40 years amarin need your mom lives in a 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 boats. on the back of the electric plants will generate less noise i won't bother people so much that. 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
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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 of course the biggest challenge is changing people's minds we have to encourage them to switch from private to public transportation boats are a good option because of the history 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's hope that the indigenous industry will expand so one day the vessels will be 100 percent thai i think even is a kind of steel. in the sea it the next step is to encourage people. even the government itself to the most seriously think about how the even electric vehicles because it's the it's the the next generation full full environmental
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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 could be getting some good news his can now 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 let's take you through some of the headlines here on al-jazeera there are signs the trade agreement between the e.u. and u.k. is imminent u.k. prime minister barak johnson is reported to be finalizing details on the phone with the e.u. leader sort of on the way and johnson is expected to hold a news conference in the coming hours that said bank has more from london we've been hearing from both sides that the other has made considerable pump.

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