critical vaccines now offer hope of protection from the virus but how long will it take for the world to recover the corona virus and then the special coverage on a. jubilation in argentina as the senate votes to legalize abortion in a decision that could echo across latin america. i'm not about this and this is obviously a live from doha also coming up you can regulators greenlight the oxford astra zeneca vaccine in a move the health minister says could provide a path out of the pandemic. for the long feared war the effort to distribute the ministry of vaccine progression is sure us president elect joe biden criticizes the

slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines and once the darkest days of the pandemic lie ahead. and a chinese court sentences pro-democracy activists to up to 3 years in jail for trying to flee the crackdown in hong kong. we've got 2 breaking stories this hour we're going to start with a historic victory for women's rights in latin america where senators in argentina have voted to legalize abortion after a marathon session $38.00 senators voted for legalizing tema nations of up to 14 weeks while $29.00 senators voted against up 252-0000 women sought illegal abortions in argentina each year 40000 of them ended up in hospital after complications during the procedure 3 supposed joining us from one of sarah's stories in the last hour or so we've been seeing jubilant scenes from the

supporters of the bill but a very dejected scene from those opposed to it. well that's correct it's a very divisive issue in this most city catholic country where here people have started to leave now because they've been here for it's at least 12 hours that's how long the debate in the senate lasted they were celebrating singing crying women who have been struggling for what they say is a right in this country and us you just said half a 1000000 abortions are carried out every year that end up in many cases with complications mostly affecting women well with no resources that's why women who are just a few minutes ago here were saying that this was a matter of social justice because women with no resources and up in the hospital afraid of going there because of ocean is illegal in the country and they could be reported to the police but on the other side of this plaza where we are right in

front of congress there was a completely different atmosphere and that's most fear a somber i have more fear again people crying because this is that they were saying that this is the worst day in argentina's history basically say that. should remain illegal what women who are here for for telling us is that i was sure it's already happening in the country and that in the past the catholic church pope francis has been personally lobbying against this law they have opposed the law of divorce in this country same sex marriage you know anti-abortion and that it's time to change and that's why this law is historic and it's who show to save women's lives the reason i think argentina if i'm right in thinking this is the 1st country in latin america to make a decision like this what are the ramifications for the rest. of the countries across latin america. well it has this sets

a huge precedent so argentina is not the 1st country you why tiny your why was the 1st country in the region to legalize abortion cuba is another country where abortion is legal but argentina is the 1st large country in the region where our fortune becomes legal where many in argentina from now on will be able to go to a hospital 1 and request an abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy so this is important because in many cases argentina has been an example in other issues like divorce like same sex marriage and now abortion we were talking just human rights groups and they're saying that countries like brazil like colombia like the rule i looking at argentina how this bill was treated how the women rights groups who have been on the streets wearing this green handkerchief that have become known not only in argentina but throughout latin america how they have handled this campaign and they're definitely taking a close look and they're definitely going to continue the struggle that legalized

abortion in this country and that many hope will spread throughout the region there is a thank you very much indeed to support talking to us from london said. ok let's go to our other top story this hour the u.k. health of regulator has approved the oxford us to zeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use the government's already preordered 100000000 doses that paves the way for a huge expansion of the government's inoculation program it's got implications around the world because it's by far the cheapest vaccine to buy of those approved so far and it's easier to distribute than the pfizer biotech schaub and u.k. prime minister boris johnson's welcomed the announcement calling it a triumph for british science he's added but the u.k. is now going to move to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible let's speak to rory chalons in london rory this has obviously been a significant step ahead but the question is of course is it going to be enough to be able to deal with the numbers of people who are infected in the u.k.

. you know a 100000000 doses assuming that that is actually what is deliver goods is enough to cover 50000000 people it's said to dose medicine so you need one shot in the arm and then you wait 12 weeks and then you get another injection with your 2nd dose so 50000000 people that's a big chunk of the population which i think is about 60000000 something like that so it's a huge step forward and it couldn't have come at a better time really because the situation in the u.k. is the worsening significantly over the last few days for 2 days running we've had . record numbers of new infections we had 53000 new injection new infections yesterday but we had in excess of 40000 new infections the day before we have more people in the hospital at the moment in excess of 20000 with coded than there were at that the peak of the 1st wave so things are getting significantly

worse here the government we understand is today going to extend the that system of restrictions on lockdown essentially reasonal lockdowns around the country so good news is needed and this is very good news and it's good news because this injection is much more easy to use much more easy to transport and administer than the vaccine that's being used at the moment which is the fines are biotech that both they both work and that by safe they would have been authorized otherwise but this one is cheaper it's more easy to use and therefore it's can meet vaccinate more people more quickly and obviously a lot of people in their care going to be pinning their hopes on this because the u.k. you and i were talking about this just a couple of days ago is facing the prospect of possibly yet another log down into the new year as well. so the that the the concerning information that's coming out

of the moment is that this new variance of the virus has spread so widely and so fast. medical experts or some medical experts are warning that 2000 sorry 2021 could be worse than 2020 in terms of hospitalizations and deaths and that level of vaccination that's going on at the moment which is about $200000.00 people a week is just not fast enough to be able to combat that and also that the restrictions that the country is under i just not tough enough so there is still a likelihood a high likelihood is that even with this vaccine be authorized for immediate rollout that. there will need to be tougher measures taken when it comes to restrictions on people's lives and i think what people are most worried about

particularly is this ghouls are going to be closed again we don't know that for sure but that is the way the wind is blowing that as this new variants of the the virus affects younger people more than the older version did it seems prudent to at least but some restrictions on people's mingling in schools move people's out of classrooms back into their homes and do online or home schooling again parents will groan at that but that's the way it's likely to go rory thank you very much indeed rory charles bringing us up to date from london. u.s. president elect joe biden has criticized the trump administration for falling behind in the rollout of its covered 19 vaccines is one of the rollout continues at its current pace it could take years before the populations for being vaccinated should have a chance he reports from washington d.c. . the president elect delivered a grim message from his base in wilmington delaware as i long feared in war the

effort to distributed administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should a few weeks ago trump administration suggested 20000000 americans could be vaccinated by the end of december with only a few days left in december we've only vaccinate a few 1000000 so far in the face of vaccine the vaccination program is moving now as it if you continue to move it is now it's going to take years not months to vaccinate the american people but joe biden repeated that he had a comprehensive plan he would invoke the defense production acts to mandate the production of vaccines and personal protective equipment all the u.s. is manufacturing priorities he will for mobile vaccination units that would travel to isolated areas of the country and embark on a public education program to combat vaccine denial the goal will be 100000000 shots administered in 100 days and for the american people to wear their mosques

for the duration off the president's 1st 100 days. current president meanwhile was golfing in florida but also in gauging in political debate on twitter once again urging the senate to agree to higher stimulus checks for low and middle income americans than the $600.00 already passed by congress is their objection to the modification. objection is here and the senate majority leader blocked vote on the bill that passed the house of representatives on monday mandating $2000.00 payments instead he introduced his own bill that would mandate $2000.00 payments but also the formation of a commission to investigate allegations of fraud in the presidential election and end legal protections for social media companies democrats will not vote for such a package the polls show overwhelming support for 2000 dollars checks now it seems that republican senators including the 2 facing a tough runoff election in georgia next week that will decide control of the senate

will be able to say they did vote for more help with no chance of the money ever reaching those in need she ever attends the al-jazeera washington united states has reported its 1st case of a more contagious variant of the corona virus that was originally discovered in the u.k. a man in colorado is confirmed to have the strain and though he's got no recent travel history it adds further urgency to reference to vaccinate americans and stamp out uncontrolled outbreaks hospitals across the u.s. are struggling with the high number of infections medical centers in alabama so they're facing a crisis with many intensive care units running at capacity or above california has extended stay at home orders in some areas as it fights record numbers of new infections dr jessica awesome and is an emergency medicine physician in los angeles california she says the worst is yet to come. we are really just being slammed with patients at this point pretty much every hospital in los angeles is actually closed

to ambulance traffic at this point. and we have converted some of our yard space into inpatient wards and we're moving our your patients out to tents outside in the parking lot we actually have hospitals in l.a. that are treating patients in their gift shops in their lobbies so everyone is really hurting with kind of the onslaught of patients that we're seeing at the beginning of the pandemic we saw a lot of elderly patients from nursing homes and now the bulk of the patients that we're seeing are actually probably 40 to 60 year olds and sometimes even younger that are very sick so it's definitely taking a mental call cool to see these patients go through kind of the terrible pieces of this illness and sometimes expire here in the e.r. we've seen the worst quite yet even looking at our numbers before thanksgiving we've pretty much quadrupled in the number of patients that are in patients right now from the thanksgiving holiday and so we can really only anticipate that it's going to get even worse after the christmas holiday and millions of americans kind

of traveling all over so i think the worst that will see is going to be in late january and potentially into february so had an al-jazeera of more tremors in croatia after a powerful earthquake causes widespread damage and kills at least 7 people. why some central africans are concerned about the recent election and the motives behind the use of foreign forces in that country. it's looking at and feeling very much like winter now across most not quite all of europe this cloud of your admittedly this area of low pressure but they're all sitting within morty's cold air so usually when the cat gets sick enough it snows rather the rains because there are exceptions the last picture of the british isles and over england beautiful and typically wintry and it will be repeated threat

front in germany i mean serve the outer northern spine of the temperatures 7 in madrid 3 in zurich 5 in vienna accept for this bottom right hand corner where the suddenly breeze confirms it's still quite warm 15 is the forecast for we're 18 for athens and then that junction between this warmish and coldish air over montenegro has prompted a warning of heavy rain for today so when since thursday is wet likely in montenegro to clipart reach and then it proves on friday there is still movement from the atlantic and so eastwards who we are edging the warmth a little bit further east and therefore there will be significant rain and snow coming out of that area but i think france and spain will notice the biggest change to the landscape is watchword water was just on bowl it's so warm it should be as beautiful spring here despite the fact even rains on friday.

but. if you look at the history of morphine if you look at the edge of knowing if you look at the u.k. these things do not enter the world as evil underworld drugs they enter the world as medicine. a new 3 part documentary series looks at the history and geopolitics of drug trafficking and its impact on the well today drug trafficking politics and power coming soon on al-jazeera. all. you want you know to see a reminder of our top stories this hour a historic victory for women's rights in latin america for senators in argentina of

pasta bill legalizing abortion after a marathon session $38.00 senators voted to allow terminations up to 14 weeks while 29 senators voted against. the u.k. health regulator has approved the oxford astra zeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use the government has already preordered 100000000 doze it paves the way for a huge expansion of the government's inoculation program. us president elect joe biden has criticised the trumpet ministration for falling behind in its vaccination program he's warned of the rollout continues at its current pace it could take years before the population is fully vaccinated. health officials in latin america are worried that people getting together in the holiday season could mean a spike in infections in the weeks ahead intensive care units are under growing strain as countries across the continent see daily deaths and case numbers reach new records. reports from the colombian capital bogota. openly

flouting social distancing rules thousands of football supporters gathered in the streets to celebrate the locals championships final. it was the latest infringement of restrictions in the colombian capital just as the mayor said the city has officially entered a 2nd wave of $1000.00 infections whether to same time announcing new measures for the end of the year. i need to insist to bogota knows there will be no public parties no selling and consuming alcohol on december 31st and january 1st if you get together with family please only the closest. these are also concerned that the intensive care units are again at capacity in a number of regions and doctors are sounding the alarm especially since the country will not starbucks the nation's before the end of february there is an issue of the

government improvising we are at the tail end in latin america with guatemala we will start with the pfizer vaccines but will only be able to do the vaccination in a major centers like bogota. not in remote areas and we haven't gotten off track scenes. but other countries are moving faster on tuesday argentina started back its health care workers with the 1st 300000 doses of the russian sputnik vaccine this by critics questioning its efficacy. of us who work on the front line of care with critical patients this in advance i understand there are different positions and opinions in every community as there are a. health care and science communities but personally i feel vindicated by the data reported by the camel a research route which is who created the vaccine. in brazil presume just brought some clarity to the roll out at the end of a charity football match saying vaccines will be available 5 days after being

approved by the country's federal health regulators on january 15th but in the meantime the city of rio de janeiro announced its fabled beaches will be closed to the public on new year's eve vaccinations are also under way in chilling costa rica probably the 2 best place countries in the region and many others still have to present a clear rollout plan and there are growing concerns of delays which ensures most people will have to wait many more months before being inoculated and that there will be unfortunately many more cases deaths i listened to. turkey has received its 1st shipment of corona virus vaccines from china 3000000 those of the side of that vaccine arrives in ankara before being moved to storage facilities officials in turkey are planning to test the vaccines over 2 weeks before beginning public immunizations health workers and the elderly will be

prioritized. an outbreak of corona virus and certainly has forced officials to tighten restrictions again the head of new year's eve celebrations household gatherings across the city have been limited to just 5 people while public get togethers have been kept at 3018 new covert 1000 cases were detected on wednesday part of a cluster that's grown to more than 100 during the past week. 10 hong kong pro-democracy activists who tried to flee the territory by speedboat have been handed jail terms by a chinese course the sentences ranged between 7 months and 3 years part of a group of 12 caught trying to escape to taiwan in august out of fear of being politically prosecuted to our miners who've been sent back to authorities in hong kong police there say they'll face serious charges activists have been flying home constance beijing imposed a security law on the territory allowing political dissidents to be prosecuted it in brown has more from hong kong. no sympathy as you might expect from the hong

kong police and they wanted to remind the public that those 10 activists who are now beginning jail sentences ranging from 7 months to 3 years worth a sing serious charges here in hong kong connected to last year's protests before they try to obscure arms to taiwan one of the 10 has in fact been held on suspicion of violating the national security law so the police wanted to remind people generally that this group were facing very serious charges indeed and of course you know they have simply swapped one detention center for another that the 2 who have been brought back from hong kong were immediately placed into detention and of course their cases will now continue over the days and weeks ahead because they are charged with leaving hong kong illegally from the perspective of chinese government from china's government the sentences they received today will be seen

as being pretty lenient because who when they were apprehended by the chinese coast guard back in august chinese government officials referred to the group as being separatists now that could have led to them getting a much harsher sentence indeed so i think from the in the eyes of china's government they have been treated leniently. rescue workers are continuing to search for survivors in central croatia a day after an earthquake killed at least 7 people the 6.4 magnitude quake struck near the town of petunia 50 kilometers from the capital's are going to the worst damage was centered in and around the town many people are afraid to return to their homes after several aftershocks the local mayor says hof the tongue has been destroyed and. has more from petunia. very unsettling morning crazy today there were 3 more quite significant skitt in petrina in past 2 hours of magnitude 4.90.60 after

a sleepless night here in patria because many of the people would not leave their homes couldn't stay in them so many of them sleep tonight in their backyards covered with blankets and with flyers outside. today the. rescue operations are still underway but most of them have already checked the most critical areas here in the town of in the surrounding villages and fortunately 7 people together have been confirmed dead since the late last night humanitarian response has been huge increase of people are sending help sending groceries and sending. anything that they think that might help people who stayed here emergency services are coming with volunteers who want to help clear the rubble who want to help the people to start gathering their lives together. hundreds of

refugees and migrants in bosnia are still without proper shelter after being transported from a camp destroyed by fire last week they collected their belongings from the remains of the campaign leapt on their croatia's border then they stayed on buses overnight mostly authorities say they hope to relocate them on wednesday the camp and been heavily criticized by aid groups for providing inadequate shelter. people had to be go live this didn't. have too much cord and not have life here is good. and not have food not want to not to me. but i don't know also scared i don't know . an american who spent 13 years in the u.s. prison for spying has arrived in israel jonathan pollard was greeted by prime minister benjamin netanyahu at the airport the former u.s. navy intelligence analyst sold military secrets to israel or working at the pentagon in the 1980 s. last month paulo it's a 5 year parole ended and that meant he could leave the u.s.

russia has opened a new criminal case against opposition figure alexina volley investigators accuse him of mishandling millions of dollars in donations to his anti corruption foundation and other organizations has been recovering in germany from a poisoning in august he blames it on the kremlin that denies being involved is dismissed the latest accusations against him as a sign of hysterics from the russian president. central african republic government is insisting sunday's general election was legitimate and credible that's despite election officials saying hundreds of polling stations didn't open after being attacked by armed groups some people say competition between foreign forces deployed in the country also threaten security as catherine saw reports from bungie . this is president. at a reasoned political rally in bondi he's armed guards are russia run the central

african and also members of a un peacekeeping force randa recently sent troops and russia says it has deployed hundreds of military structures to help fight for control of much of the country is also a big presence of private security contractors from the russian based group a supplier of mosques in the east this makes begins to explain the country's complex geopolitics central african republic is a fraud giant country. it have never been alone to. exploit. all of the resources. that we have. and that make. you know for a drive. to make goods in the situation where we need to have partners. some central africans are worried about

the motive behind the increasing power play between russia and colonize affronts on one hand and round against other regional countries like chard on the other. russia is reconquering areas we lost at the end of the cold war randa is a small country but deploying troops not only as part of un but also all in the context of bilateral agreements gives it diplomatic weight france has been losing ground. the battle between france and russia and the republic is now playing out online facebook was written. down many automated by branding misinformation from both countries. platforms seem to have taken. our is reaching goal and. another natural resources yet it's one of the poorest and

most unstable countries in the wild this president you want an end to violence they say they need the international help but also want to feel they're in charge of their country's political affairs and go off kathy 0. boeing 737 max plane has made its 1st commercial flight in the u.s. after almost 2 years the american airlines service took about 100 passengers from miami to new york the plane was grounded worldwide after crashes in ethiopia and indonesia killed $346.00 people u.s. regulators cleared the aircraft to resume operations last month after changes were made to an in-flight control system implicated in both crashes. with the 737 max this is the air this is an aircraft that has been more highly scrutinized than any ever before we're very confident this aircraft is the safest in the skies and we're confident putting it back in the air. customers and getting people back to where

they want to go and you've got a lot more on our website the address for that is 0 dot com let's call. this is al jazeera these are the top stories a historic victory for women's rights in latin america where senators in argentina have pasta bill legalizing abortion after a marathon session 38 senators voted to allow tommy nations up to 14 weeks while 29 senators voted against 3 simple has this update from want to say. they were celebrating crying women who have been struggling for what they say is a right in this country just said i have. carried out every year. many cases with complications mostly affecting women.