sees the best opportunities in the heart of eurasia. tom cotton the central african republic rejects last ditch appeals to perspire and fund their election after attacks by armed groups. and given now this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up hopes for a turning point in the fight against covert 19 countries across the european union receive their 1st vaccines and get ready to begin mass immunization. at least in the u.s. city of nashville say they may have found human remains at the site of a powerful explosion there's still no clear motive for the attack. thousands of

course a marlins deported from the u.s. find conditions at home even worse than when they 1st left. we begin with the central african republic and a ruling from the constitutional court that sunday's election will go ahead despite rising violence by armed groups opposition parties want to depress found a cure is the president a vote for a king rebels also rejected the legitimacy of the government and threaten to march on the capital body 3 u.n. peacekeepers have been killed and rights groups are warning that violence could reach levels last seen in 2013 and thousands of civilians were killed catherine is always in the car with the latest. we have spoken to u.n. officials who say that 80 percent of the country is. for people to go to vote they say that all the process of the electoral process is going on smoothly in these

other parts of the country they said that the trouble areas are just few if you speak to the government spokesman and we spoke to him yes the day that he. expects is going to be a little. out but he hopes that they. are not is not going to be so low as to discredit the electoral process if you speak to opposition leaders and we've spoken to several of them they're saying that they're disappointed by the fall truly and death saying that there are a great many people likely great to come out to blow and particularly that the ones you mentioned then got into the other ones who filed this petition. to postpone the election particularly after one of them one of the presidential candidates with did it because of security issues but what is that in kim is that people are very afraid and not just in areas where they. are inflated like here in

the capital where i am speaking to central african who are saying that they will not go to the polling stations until absolutely sure that they will be safe. despite. that catherine mentioned there on the ground the u.n. is insisting the conditions are stable enough to ensure a free and an action that a special representative of the secretary general spoke to. she told my colleagues people are going to exercise their right to vote. distribution of the voter cards is ongoing and people elected this country 8 were registered to vote are coming in large numbers to collect their cards the population is determined in this country to vote tomorrow and we are determined they should reject this poor and international community to ensure that the bulk goes ahead i've just finished a meeting with all the regional representatives and the country and 80 percent of

the country the situation is progressing there are preparations are ongoing. so in most parts of the country people will be able to vote tomorrow in security yet in some parts there's instability which is good caused by the armed works but as you know we brought in be important yesterday from our mission in south sudan to reach the boat goes ahead and that the country can grow in security and our last estimate this morning is not there maybe about 4 percent of the electors not able to vote but it's absolutely not region why it's very specific communities and in those communities our blue helmets because you went to kurds have reinforced their presence to ensure that people can come so we are very determined the population is determined and pushed back on the armed groups who believe they can steal the election from the population in this country and international cannot deny this

country to be dragged back to the conflict and chaos of 2013 where innocent people were killed institutions were ended and total chaos was bring in this country that cannot be allowed and we can't allow them to leave the country back along this. we have a mandate from the security council of which we are responsible to protect the citizens of this country unfortunately very unfortunately and all of our people it says to the family and the country of the last yes but this is what we are here to do and the spite that parable was reinforced by our presence and many in this country ok long side of this current recently wrote as they want to do less than they have said they want. michael moore is a senior visiting fellow at the far as analogy center for africa at the london

school of economics and political science he says there are enough troops reinforcements to ensure a safe vote. quite a few recent thick forests you know portions of the country where rebel movements have been high in for quite a number of yes but generally when it comes to political control it's quite clear to citizeness not only gone beyond the civil war state and back there east and a few states apparently gotten a peace deal was signed i mean the country basically disappeared to move on and carry on with civic duties so i mean this election really is going to be like a test in. point where vice you know assistance can actually realize that politics can go on as usual and therefore it's quite essential that you know where the u.n. troops are another really fortunate from south sudan are actually our system to make sure that since how the liberty to go and vote in peace and and in security i

think the competing for interest as you know me has to do with you know where to preform and the russians there are systems of security there's some level of french presence there prost maybe 2000 troops we have a new start there as well over 10000 troops i imagine and obviously the president has basically tried to ensure that security is on the top of that gender because of this so many you know rebel movements that have been trying to disturb the peace they mean you can strand of coronavirus that calls travel chaos and lockdowns across britain is being detected around the world trade as they call it isis country to report the more transmissible there and it was picked up on a travel arriving from live u.k. elsewhere in europe nations are stepping up efforts to combat the virus if they had just received its 1st 10000 doses of the pfizer bond take back saying the past batch has also rounded spain that it's immunization campaign on sunday though says

it will be 1st administered to at a nursing home and in germany the health minister has. all for a major national effort to immunize as many people as possible as just hours before its vaccination program is set to begin for brennan is a nandan he says the virus is having a huge impact on a usually very busy reach out harriet. kernel virus really household out the high streets and none more so than here on london's famous oxford street perhaps the most famous shopping street in this country and over my shoulder you can see how few people there are we are in the highest level of restrictions here for so strictly speaking people should be staying at home unless they're out for essential exercise or to go to an essential shop such as a pharmacy and you can see lots of places are simply closed to unpick names to top shop over there is closed foot locker on my right hand side shots from mark on my

left side also shots it really has decimated the expectations of the retailers now i see want to estimate from the credit card company barclay card this morning and they expect boxing day people to spend around $3600000000.00 online but that's small consolation to the people with bricks and mortar buildings in places such as this and the restrictions on expanding today for the 1st time an extra $6000000.00 people under these tier 4 highest level restrictions meaning households cannot mix all essential shops have to close that brings to a total some $24000000.00 people in britain about 43 percent of the population who are now under these restrictions on the biggest difficulty over this christmas period has been how circumstance on the government have a sense of balance people around. donna cain joins me now live from berlin tell me what is the timeline for the rollout of the vaccine in your.

well the interesting thing here is the european union has made pretty clear that it wanted the 27th of december good to be the date at which the vaccine became available for immediate distribution right across the 27 member states but it's interesting that in some cases already some vaccination has taken place certainly here in germany we were expecting it to start tomorrow and yet a 101 year old lady in the state of saxony which is for east german states has been the 1st recipient of the vaccine that solves the outside the clinical testing period that took place for the bio on tech pfizer vaccine when it was in development stages this is something this is part of the campaign rollout of vaccinations which the federal health minister here young man has been in charge of he's been speaking today about what he sees as the plan going forward you're starting and we will start the immunization campaign on

a large scale $1300000.00 doses of vaccines will be delivered all over germany before the end of the year and then from january it will be even more each week almost 7 100000 doses every week in january more than 10000000 doses of violent tick in the 1st quarter and we anticipate that the approval of them a dirty vaccine will happen in the 1st days of january with a further 1500000 doses of madonna. and remember that this vaccination phase is coinciding with the return here in germany to heart lockdown this is a twin track approach the government here believes is the best way to flatten the curve to use the phrase that was in vogue during the 1st pandemic the interesting thing is that it's not just here in germany that lockdown has been beginning the german lockdown returns tomorrow but today already in austria we know that a hard lockdown has begun again and this is going to last for several weeks. ok with those long downs that have been in place how bad then is the situation in the

new and i'm also interested in haitian of the virus has it made its way from the u.k. into the european union well certainly the reporting about this new variant of the corona virus the one that was detected and has been being really affecting the united kingdom we know that several different member states have also reported individual cases of this new variant we know of sweden we know also here in germany that it is a case that a person had traveled from the united kingdom and discovered that they were positive with this new variant once having landed in in germany and being tested for it the clear hope amongst ministers amongst the european union institutions is that lead can be kept on it as it were that this particular variant can be kept at

bay remember also that the people who were behind the original the vaccine from biotech and pfizer have not said that they believe that this particular variant will be resistant to vaccines of the hope is that notwithstanding this new variant the vaccines will be resistant will be able to deal with whatever whatever variant makes its way to the european union ok thank you for that donna came a lot for us and then. still ahead on al-jazeera campaigning ends a new shares presidential elections where 30 candidates are competing for the top job. every resident in delaware the u.s. tank that was joe biden's political career.

however we've got some rain in the forecast for the middle east over the next couple of days you can see this line of cloud just coming out over and stretched across saudi arabia some what's the weather there just to the north of mecca we could see some wet weather there in mecca as well south of that it is looking generates rice a little the cool side riyadh around 70 celsius there in doha it does feel a little fresher than the flight temperature is higher than about 24 decrease on sunday as we go on into monday those temperatures 40 back to just 22 celsius establish also a few spots of rain across central parts of saudi arabia further north doesn't plushy dry and fine brisk winds from time to time up towards the black sea and the caspian sea a brisk enough wind say just around the whole of africa but again it's largely looking dry here jaci the shallows just around that so western side of kenya pushing across into democratic republic of congo pushing across the good parts of

welsh i was still in place there in angola mostly that shabby rain stretching its way down into namibia as we go on into the next couple of days showers to to the east of south africa may well have trouble cycling making its way across madagascar with the threat of flooding. but. when all that seems to matter is the headline there is always 2 sides to a story when narratives and counter narratives obscure reality the leader on the one hand the enemy is open neither on the other hand the listening post strips away the spin what kind of reporting if you can see it on the ground misinformation is right lays bare the body is a lot of people believe things because they want to believe that a done covers the uncomfortable truths do you think they did enough to scrutinize the case for war listening post on a. the.

the all. the watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour the central african republic will go ahead with sunday's presidential election as planned despite fears of the spread of violence the constitutional court ruled unanimously after a request by opposition candidates to respond the vote. sweden has become the latest country to test to detect the nation's a variant of covert 19 1st reported in the u.k. the more transmissible strand of the virus was found on a traveler from the u.k. . and it comes as european countries including spain italy and germany received their 1st vaccines the 1st doses of the pfizer bound takes shots are limited to

round $10000.00 in most countries with mass immunization expected to start in january. at least 35 people have been kidnapped in northeast nigeria armed men dressed in military uniforms set off a roadblock and abducted the travelers as they headed to my degree it's believed the incident could be linked to baku rom. 30 candidates have made their final pitches to vote is ahead of elections in the share the polls are historic and set the course for the 1st peaceful transition of power i met it just reports from the capital the army on how africa's 2nd coronavirus wave is having an impact. it's been a busy 3 weeks of campaigning for presidential candidate. any wave of corroborate his infractions forced the government to impose a limit on carbon emissions the last day. but the leading candidates i can for didn't put the right message discipline past to the protests. former fording and

interior minister. is the governing party's candidate in our candidate has visited all parts of the country even before the start of the campaign selling practical ideas to the people and to see how people live to understand their problems that helps us design a program to better people's lives were confident of winning in the 1st round one of the main rivals 3 time presidential candidate and former prime minister senor morrow says that one tavern. in my political experience it's impossible for anyone to win an election outright in the 1st round each of us would want to but it's impractical no one will it's very very difficult. a total of 30 candidates are running for president while some have complained hard most have been on the sidelines seeking to form alliances with stronger parties although much of the campaign focused on who becomes president voters will also choose 171

representatives to field a seat in this parliament some will later form the country's next cabinet as in previous elections analysts say end up with a coalition of one of the parties and other smaller ones. the decision on who gets to form the coalition depends on what 7500000 voters decide on sunday. a presidential candidate request 50 percent plus one of valid votes cast to win outright that has never happened in an election here if no candidate gets that voters will be called once again to choose among the 2 candidates with the highest number of votes. you see that. the u.s. city of nashville is under a curfew after a motorhome exploded on friday blew off a transmission bill the home christmas day after blaring a recorded warning as being communication outages across the state of tennessee of

a sense it's affected some phone lines and the school santas several buildings were damaged and 3 people suffered injuries authorities have not announced a motive we have found that we believe could be remains that were just. you know examined and they will be able to let you know from the darby was detonated so it was someone inside we have no idea it was such a large explosion but the investigation is continuing to matter all over the area down there and so we'll continue to examine it to see if it is human remains. let's go live now to john hendren who is there in nashville john so a bomb went off that was inside an r.v. which had been warning people to evacuate i mean there are so many questions here every have any more updates perhaps with some answers. the mystery surrounding this christmas morning bombing just continues to expand in the more we learn the more questions we have in the latest bit of information is

what you heard right there that human tissue apparently was found at the site of that explosion what we know is that it all began shortly before 6 30 am on christmas morning the r.v. was parked in this spot next to an a.t.m. t. transmission building there was a broadcast warning with an apparently computerized voice coming from that recreational vehicle warning people if they could hear that message to evacuate and then at 6 15 in the morning the message changed and said that there was a potential explosion a detonation coming within 15 minutes and then 15 minutes later that is exactly what happened in that blast destroyed 41 buildings downtown there are a number of people still displaced but it could have been much worse and that is because of the warnings there were also 6 police officers on the scene hearing those warnings evacuating people and getting them out of the area governor bill

leave tennessee just toured that site said the devastation was surprising and he said he's going to ask president donald trump for a disaster declaration that would free up money and resources in order to help this area but the big question we have right now that is an answer is what is the motive and was there someone inside that vehicle that explains that those human tissues that the authorities are still looking into that were hoping to get a news conference a little later today yesterday we had the mayor talking to reporters saying that this was a deliberate explosion and so far that's about all we know. that's all have free will come back to you when we know more from now thank you for that john hendren cross and national tennessee. at least 5 people have been killed in an attack by syrian regime forces the victims who were all farmers died in an artillery strike on a village their home in the north west one of the civilian was wounded the attack by bashar assad's forces violates the ceasefire was signed in march. and despite

a pail from leaders for a pause during the pandemic the united states continues to deport central americans back to their home countries this here a lot more than 20000 quantum aren't being sent back they found conditions there even worse than when they left for home it has. it's been a desperate homecoming for me gail said he was deported from the u.s. in september after 2 years of working illegally in miami. now he's back in his village ship in the guatemalan highlands to find the harvest has failed the young man 20000 guatemalans have been deported from the u.s. this year according to the country's migration institute and they're coming back to find the conditions they fled and now even worse the economy's projected to contract due to the pandemic and experts say the country's also increasingly

affected by climate change some of its regions are part of a dry belt spreading throughout central america and guatemala is also just been devastated by 2 november hurricanes they destroyed the crops in miguel's village and now food is scarce. and those natural disasters many of those deported also struggling to pay off debt. that's because people smugglers often charge migrants $10000.00 or more to take the north the idea is they'll pay back gradually once working in the states. but it's a gamble and those that are kicked out have to pay the money anyway as the parents of miguel and his cousin who was caught with him and now discovering it will be business legal because when my son arrived i feel glad that we still have this debt to pay for suffering it's $7700.00 now i'm trying to celebrate of land to pay it as a father i want to help my son but instead of getting ahead we only get poorer what healthy but in our hearts we have that pain what can we do what can we go. now we

have nobody to support to suit us. the guatemalan president has recently said the answer to the problem is to create prosperity in communities like ship you so that people don't have to leave in the 1st place. being coming by the ministration this place to spend $4000000000.00 on central america to do just that but it's tough to make sure the money gets to where it's needed past efforts so that it won't be a silver bullet to stop migration. john heilemann 0. us president elect joe biden often talks about his working class roots in pennsylvania but his political career was made representing the tiny state of delaware his election to the highest office makes him the 1st president from delaware the 1st state to ratify the u.s. constitution although there is christian so we takes a closer look at the place the next president calls home. delaware traces its

european roots back to the 1600s the city of new castle boasts many historic sites including the courthouse where the state 1st declared independence from great britain not to mention its more powerful neighbor pennsylvania this land marked example of the federal period architecture belonged to the son of george reid one of the signatories of the u.s. constitution like many in the state tour guide and murphy hopes the 1st state's 1st president will finally put delaware on the map i can remember traveling to california one time they asked me where i'm from and i said delaware and where's that even those who aren't huge fans of joe biden can see his election has benefits to bring more and more tourists i think that she would be king from it was here in new castle that joe biden won his 1st election 50 years ago taking a seat on the county council he hasn't lost an election since and many here see

a win for biden as a win for delaware the shipping industry has long since left the shores of this former british colony these days wilmington home to the biden transition team is better known as a tax haven for corporations those in the struggling hospitality business are happy the hotels are now full of news media and more than that george taylor is looking forward to the new administration he gives that message of hope and for most black people out of my such as myself i believe he's going to do such a great job you know making sure that we are all integrated we are all united in one america it was in fact delaware founding father george reid who pushed to create the u.s. senate and guarantee equal representation for smaller states turns out politics in delaware has always been personal when you have such a small place everyone has to get along in some way and i think the. it's the tradition that joe biden is certainly coming coming out of where your senator or

your representative or in this case your president is a next door neighbor he's just joey to a lot of people here the hope is joe biden will now speak for the entire nation particularly the under represented in keeping with local tradition christian salumi al jazeera new castle delaware. heavy rainfall has flooded homes and closed roads in central england where both parties wanting more bad weather is on the way the county of bedfordshire is one of the areas hardest hit a major river is close to breaking its banks evacuations there does have been set up to house those living close by it is currently under a state home order which bans households from mixing. dozens of people have been evacuated from their homes on the portuguese island of madeira after severe flooding roads were completely submerged rockslides damaged property and at least one house was destroyed no injuries have been reported. and

ancient fast food culture will soon be open again in italy that's to visit is archaeologists recently discovered as a pompei that have been busy uncovering it secrets have come across cooking utensils food containers into animal remains and pretty the skeleton of a small dog it's believed to have served or sorts of dishes from stove to by air it's the 1st such injury to be fully excavated and will be open from easter next year. literary fans are being treated to an online adaptation of charles dickens classic christmas performed inside the late author's home in london the specter of the listening for a moment joined in a mournful. floated out there on the. night. the tale of evan brought to life inside the rooms where dickens wrote the book the make 800 it's the 1st time the story has been adapted for an online audience the home which the

operates as a museum has been closed most of the year and make. much more on our web site the address for that is al-jazeera dot com. this is al-jazeera and these other top stories the central african republic will go ahead with sunday's presidential election as planned despite fears of the spread of violence the constitutional court ruled unanimously after a request by opposition candidates to perspire in the vote catherine so it has more from the capital. we have spoken to u.n. officials say that 80 percent of the country is safe enough for people to go to vote the day that all the processes the laptop processes have gone on in the other parts of the country they didn't try.