with millions of fearful hoping next year will be different. well as we've been saying the pandemic has changed the way that people are gathering for the holidays this year to bring a little lightness to a tough situation the north american aerospace unit also known as norad has kept its tradition of following santa claus as he travels the globe the santa tracker has been updating children on the movements of father christmas for more than 60 is right now he is flying over north america and as you can see this year he's wearing a mask to stay say. i am mr with the day the headlines here on al-jazeera to months of tense talks and just 7 days before the deadline the european union and the u.k. have clinched a trade deal the agreement for a 0 tariff in 0 crucial relationship covers everything from energy to fisheries

mexico has started its coronavirus vaccination campaign and intensive care and received the fast approved argentina is preparing to roll out a russian made vaccine for monday while thousands of pfizer biotech doses have arrived at hospitals in chile south africa south korea i'm sorry has recorded its biggest daily increase in infections since the start of this pandemic and reported more than 1200 new cases and a large outbreak at a prison and seoul the country rolled out its toughest ever restrictions this week robert bryant has more from the capital. many people this christmas morning woke up to the depressing news that once again the country has set this record of well over 1200 new rig cases being recorded in a single day the news actually was broken by the country's prime minister at a meeting of the coronavirus task force here a lot of the this jump is being attributed to an outbreak at

a prison here in seoul some 288 cases recorded mostly inmates but also some staff there that's in addition to a couple of 100 other cases that had already been recorded that the u.n. security council has approved a temporary deployment of more troops to central african republic ahead of sunday's presidential election that earlier women marched to the headquarters of a un peacekeeping mission demanding a peaceful vote tensions have flared ahead of this poll millions of americans will have to wait until after christmas for relief as deadlock continues over a $900000000000.00 code the $1000.00 stimulus package at issue is whether individuals should receive a $600.00 or $2000.00 payment all those are the headlines they'll be more news here on al-jazeera after the bottom line to stay with us and i've had 3 jobs and now i only have one but i'm soo providing for my family. the

1st time i was admitted to hospital i didn't show any signs of m.s. . and all that but about my opinion of him have become very positive and stop thinking about the negative side of him. going on al-jazeera well he is from living with them in egypt. hi i'm steve clemons and i have a question is joe biden's foreign policy going to get captured by america's famous military industrial complex or is he somehow going to steer clear let's get to the bottom line. here's what president elect joe biden has already said he wants to do he was a think about global warming as if it's a national security threat and rejoin the paris accords he wants to reduce the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan and make a new nuclear deal with iran the biden doctrine is traditional and realistic engage with foreign leaders the good and the bad and make responsible deals with them but

american progressive's who played a very big role in getting him elected are worried that america will keep doing what it usually does embrace dictators promote oil over renewable energy accept israel's abandonment of a 2 state peace process with palestine and keep spending more on the military so what are biden's progressive critics hoping for the next 4 years and what would a progressive u.s. foreign policy look like we're talking today with the as we have a senior fellow at the center for international policy and senior policy counsel at demand progress where they've been working with a coalition of progressive grassroots movements all over the united states urging president elect biden to quote adopt a more principled foreign policy is me thank you so much for joining us today but start at the beginning you and your allies out there have gone out to identify $100.00 what you view as outstanding foreign policy thinkers national security policy practitioners and suggest to the biden kamel harris team that it ought to

bring a number of these people into the administration who are these people and why were they selected. yes absolutely well thank you so much. for the opportunity to speak with you today steve about some of the work that my colleagues and i have been doing to try to influence the buying her a team and ensuring that we get you know key progressive's and national security foreign policy positions and these are candidates that are forward thinking talented qualified diverse and you know they are committed to ensuring that the u.s. take we take a fundamental shift and u.s. foreign policy that we're committed to ending our endless wars and working to cut our bloated pentagon budget these are individuals that again collectively dozens and dozens of organizations came together to to support and recommend these

candidates and we feel very confident that you know the candidates that we put forth again have no you know revolving door issues or concerns they are free of corporate ties these are individuals that have again been you know active in the advocacy world or you know have been working on similar issues on on capitol hill and they would be phenomenal candidates for the bind team and you know the reason we put that forth was to simply show that there is this organizing coordinated effort by the left to put up an alternative list of talents head and forward thinking. you know. progress and candidates for keep positions in the administration. when i think of some of the names we know now like anthony blinken as the nominee for secretary of state or avril haynes for director

of national intelligence we have lloyd austin who is a bit different you know former general as secretary of defense. and jake sullivan is the national security advisor so how would you characterize the sig the gap of the difference between some of the candidates that you're putting forward and that cluster of appointees. so as you as you probably have seen that the vast majority of kind of the key. folks that have been nominated or appointed by the by in harris team to national security positions were pretty active and similar capacities in the obama administration and so they're what we call you know they've been part of kind of this national security establish ment apparatus and what we're really hoping to do is that you know vice president elect joe biden understands that this is a unique opportunity that were in it that he seizes on this moment to ensure

that you know the campaign promises that he made to progresses into the grassroots throughout the entire campaign that he lives up to he you know a number of our organizations had a regular engagement with with the biden team on foreign policy issues throughout the campaign and they were committed to not only supporting our efforts to to to finally end our endless wars they listened to our concerns about a host of other issues we spoke to them about about prioritizing human rights and our foreign policy again making sure that we're not aligning ourselves with countries that are systematically abusing you know the human rights violations that we're not providing arms or assistance to those countries and they also listen to our concerns about our personnel recommendations ringback and what we find you know unacceptable really and the sort of folks that they should be elevating in any administration. and as you know i remember when i was back at the new america

foundation many years ago and at the start of the obama administration. our foreign policy program at that time had 3 cores and we said look i'm going to push reset and send a different signals the world you know normalize you know to some degree relations with cuba. a credible israeli palestinian 2 state solution that was real and 3rd kick open that door with iran and negotiate a different direction and those so this was before it was commonplace to even think about some of those signs particularly in iran and so many of the people in your group or ones i work with but what i've realized over time is that the avent guard move can become the conventional one and many people in the obama biden administration became fans of doing in iran nuclear deal as i think many of your progressive groups are but how do you handle the shifts in what is conventional

versus and perhaps controlled by the military industrial complex that some of versus those that are in the square that progressives would generally support because i've seen with with time that those lines shift a bit. yeah so i think it is as you noted you know biden has made has made it very clear that he is committed to rejoining and that's one of the very key kind of i would say top 2 top 3 priorities for for progressives and you know in terms of all the you know you know commitments that we're trying to get from the current by the administration and is you know we're hoping that in the 1st 100 days we're hoping in addition to some of the keep writers that you mentioned in addition to rejoining to a secure way is that you know there's an immediate end to u.s. military support and weapons sells to countries are part of the saudi led military

intervention in yemen we are hoping that there's a clear indication that by the end well support a repeal of the $22002.00 a year masson that he would support or powers legislation that is going to be coming through congress to you know reaffirm congress is a day when you're not interrupted my just for my audience i want to just say that what you want to see was a repeal of the author if authorization for use of military force that was set up in 2001 i just want to is that correct correct both of them 2001 and 2. and you know in addition to supporting you know war powers reform legislation that we anticipate coming through congress and the next couple months we you know are calling on the by an administration to again as i've noted prioritize human rights in our foreign policy with a particular focus on countries that the u.s. has both leverage and a moral responsibility to try provision of military or economic aid and making sure

that there is an immediate year long moratorium on u.s. weapon cells and foreign military assistance to countries that don't meet that standard for you know for human rights and they're committing mass atrocities. and finally a key priority for organizations for for gosh for i don't know how long has been you know calling for the bloated defense budget to be cut so that this modest proposal that all of our were like the vast majority of organizations supported which as you probably know was championed by senator sanders and also representatives leopold can in the house was a provision that call for a 10 percent cut and that simply would bring our top line for the pentagon budget to what was previously in the obama administration i mean many of our organizations are are certainly calling for our greater cuts but that's something that we you know we are hoping that we can get some sort of commitment from the by an

administration and that's something that our organizations are heavily going to be advocating on as well can you articulate for us what your groups in your allies think about the israel israel palestine situation now because secretary of state mike pompei o has been. shining a spotlight of many traditional human rights watch organizations and non-profits there's already been a major impact on funding for instance dealing with palestine issues and under undermining essentially a lot of the traditional groups that have been watching the israeli occupation of palestinian territories where where is your group on what needs to happen to that i should say you know with the abraham accords and with normalization of relations between israel and many other arab states led by the u.a.e. i think part of the question is will there be any leverage down the road what would you like to see biden do down the road when it comes to palestine.

so you know that's a great question and it's something that many of our organizations and. it's a top priority for a lot of our organizations and when we're talking about the u.s. not you know providing assistance or arms to countries that are systematically violating human rights i think we obviously need to have israel in mind in terms of the asks that we've made of the by the administration i can tell you that this letter that i worked on when i was at demand progress that we sent to the biden team and met and we're doing some follow ups on that letter was and that was a lot or that was signed by over 50 national organizations and our ask wise that you know the u.s. should work to build a future in which all palestinians and israelis obviously live in full equality by

upholding again a foreign policy that centers human rights and dignity for all people and we specifically called on the biden administration to use a combination of pressure and incentives including leveraging the annual $3800000000.00 in u.s. military assistance that's provided to israel and to get all parties to come to an agreement that upholds u.n. security council resolutions and international law i mean specifically we called on . ending israel's military occupation disbanding israel's illegal settlements in the west bank and its east jerusalem ending the israeli military blockade of gaza and ending all attacks on civilians be they israeli or palestinian so that collectively has been our ask and you know it that's an issue that has been pretty challenging. you know to to get key commitments on and it's and it's an

issue that will continue to be part of the progressive foreign policy platform moving forward. yes i mean i admired you because i know how hard it is to essentially be the spokes person for a group of cats they may not all so quickly gather operate together see things together but you raise some interesting questions both you know about you know the classic conflict between interests and human rights and you have some real realists in the group paul cole our whom i've known for years on iran is not is someone i would say is not as classically organized around human rights concerns but he is a shrewd calculator of american interest so you've got different impulses essentially under one umbrella when it comes to countries like turkey and the leader there ed on when it comes to north korea which i read in your principles you give the trumpet ministration some credit for diplomatic progress there. i'm just sort of interested in how you manage those lines were somewhat like me saying i

haven't seen diplomatic progress with with north korea i've seen you know appeasement of a lot of bad behavior so how do you how do you square those lines in a way that you keep your coalition together but you also make progress in getting this viewpoint as you define it into the biden team. right and i think you know the way we've been able to do that was that was because of the underlying framework or theme that has been it at the core of whether it was the principles that are that you mentioned or even you know the personnel book that we organized and sent to the transition team has been. ensuring that we support principles that call for the u.s. to and are endless wars and support a fundamental shift in u.s. foreign policy and that means supporting more restraint and ensuring that again that we're prioritizing kind of domestic needs and meeting

the concerns of our community members as opposed to you know using a resource. to you know further kind of increases again the bloated defense budget that we keep talking about and i think the reason why we've been successful in being able to work with many we're going to say you know frankly don't consider themselves to be progressive right so the quinsy and stick to it as you've noted is a significant partner of ours and quincy gets funding from the right and the last but there she mission has been and they were a huge partner actually in the book the person person that we sent to the transition team and select and supported and recommend it several of their their own staff members for appointments and you know again the reason for that collaboration is because we all want the biden team to understand that.

we want them to to support you know this this vision of military restraint and and understand that the way we've been operating in the past few decades hasn't been serving our interests. store are our allies eyes so you know ensuring that those priorities are addressed with the administration ensuring that we have the folks that are going to be advancing those objectives is what we've been trying to do. i read john bolton's white house memoir recently in the room where it happened in that memoir to trump's national security advisor john bolton says that he's opposed to any longer to any general being appointed to the secretary of defense spot and he was referring in that case to gen mattis joe biden has come in and appointed a 4 star general lloyd austin do you share the concerns john bolton does about

military leadership in that traditionally civilian role. yeah i mean a lot of our organizations absolutely have concerns around that and you know right now many of our allies are drafting sample questions to send to. the senate and leading up to his confirmation hearing and my understanding is that we do have a number of key senators that have you know publicly have said that they would not support her writing that waiver to general austin and i think those are legitimate concerns and i you know there is kind of this. this you know difference of opinion you can say in terms of general stance at point meant because some saw it as you know being better than the alternatives right the alternatives were for floor noir which many of our organizations were. let's just say not to not happy

about that prospect and and a number of our allies see general austen's you know nomination as someone who well you know he has publicly exhibited in different scenarios where he has wanted to pull back u.s. troops and supported restraints i think that was kind of a a welcomed approach to some of our allies so what does success look for you look like the mean in the sense that we're i would wager we probably won't see someone from move on and secretary of defense right so i recognize they're going to come but you know i think that when you sort of look at it is the goal to be in the room and to be heard is the goal to impact policy have the folks that you've talked to the $100.00 you and you have an outstanding les paul paul are joe cirincione in one of the where countries great nuclear experts trita parsi

a great iran expert and others very very impressive group of people but i also one of the question is what if they're in the room and they get voted down you know that happens a lot in government that they're in the room they're heard the policy doesn't go their direction so what does success look like for you. and that's a a great example is we and we don't just want some some token pics where we don't want just maybe 2 or 3 of you know our pics to be appointed and put in you know different offices in the administration you're right and for their voices not to be heard and for them to be to be voted down and the idea is obviously to to try to get as many friendly and allied voices to gather and and to to get as as as many of them in the same room as possible for that reason.

is you know strength is in numbers and we do understand that you know what we put forth this is a pipeline is a talent pipeline and you know these are individuals that if they are appointed in the by an administration they will be in a great position to you know in 4 years to be nominated for potentially a cabinet position themselves so and that's been our kind of outlook in and putting this project together and we're hoping that by the administration understands that we will try to push to get as many forward looking and talented and diverse candidates. in these positions as possible. is mean however they've been responding to you i know that in the economic portfolio there's been some applause that they have brought in an economic progress or progressive on who their national economic advisory team have on who i admit is

a friend of mine has just been announced as a deputy in the office of personnel management and he's a real progressive out there leader so i guess my question is on the foreign policy national security front have they bugged at all. so. so so they knew the book was coming and they mean the transition team reached out why and they they saw the 1st kind of new story about it and. they've received the book right now they've from what i've gathered they've taken the recommendations seriously and will be following. up with them in the next couple weeks in terms of do we know right now if they are going to be nominating any of the recommendations it's unclear. but that's something for us to to follow up wes and the next couple weeks and. well i mean let me ask you the question

a lot of the folks that you have in your in your circuit were those that were hopeful of a bernie sanders or elizabeth warren someone from the progress or any of the party winning this nomination so joe biden wins you're trying to impact that but there's been a lot of criticism that that the biden team has not reached out more to the warren and sanders crowd before this and i know you're pushing that but i guess at a personal level because i know you're you're working hard on this i can feel that you're the one of the gurus behind the scenes on it are you disappointed or you hopeful. i mean i'm hopeful and that's because. you know i and i and matt does and i speak pretty frequently as you know and he's someone that we've also obviously recommended for the appointment and by an administration and i am mentioning i should mention that matt is the senior poll policy advisor for foreign affairs to senator bernie

sanders correct yes and you know throughout the campaign. the series of calls that we were having with 20 and the rest of the buying foreign policy team. so matt was was part of those efforts to ensure that the path biden team was reaching out to progress and that they were listening to our concerns right at a minimum what we appreciated was that that you know that platform was available to us that they had these kind of regular 6 week calls with a handful of groups and we were able to raise our concerns during those calls and were hopeful that you know now that they understand that we're going to be holding them accountable to to some of those you know campaign promises and commitments that. they made to progressives so i mean i'm i'm i'm hopeful but

yeah so we'll see how it goes well yes meantime a senior fellow at the center for national policy guru of the progressive 100 we'll call it i should say and i want my viewers to know that it is very hard in this town to find institutions to find think tanks to find non-profits to find positions of the pope that have not somehow become part of the military funding complex and so if nothing else it's impressive that you found $100.00 people alive not in the. thank you so much thought i asked today yes thanks a lot. thank you so what's the bottom line is america really standing at a crossroads is it time for a clean break with the past to rethink foes and friends based on human rights and in light national interest my guest is right that there should be people in government who are not afraid of thinking outside the box and saying so but my

guess is that biden will do what presidents are supposed to do get smart people from most if not all perspectives in the room and start to rebuild america's credibility and global influence after the destruction of america versus and that's the bottom line. a new perspective can change your world. for one chin izzy and what began as a hobby has grown into a passion a way of life. teaching the next generation to strive for a higher level. and ensoul installing in his country a sense of freedom and strength. new heights my chin is here on al-jazeera. a unique perspective on nigeria we have so much more we just don't snore so money's this much that we have. through the eyes

of a celebrated african photographer. on the tower enjoying a small up and still being us what it used to. but 3 years on and how has life changed. rewind ga 30 on al-jazeera. the health of humanity is at stake a global pandemic requires a global response. w.h.o. is the guardian of global health delivering lifesaving to lose supplies and training to help the world's most vulnerable people uniting across borders to speed up the development of tests treatments and of that seed keeping you up to date with what's happening on the ground in the ward and in the lab now more than ever the world needs w.-h.

on making the healthy a world for you. to everyone. already . hello there i'm a stand here today and at the headlines for you here on al-jazeera after months of tense talks and just 7 days before the deadline the european union and the u.k. have agreed to a trade deal the agreement of has 0 tariffs and 0 of course a relationship covers everything from energy to fisheries the e.u. one protection for a level playing field on regulation while the u.k. avoided a future role for the european court of justice i think this do you mean is a new stability and a new uncertainty in what has sometimes been a fractious and difficult relationship.