6 cities on al-jazeera. be the hero in the world needs. washing. an explosion at 8 in the international airport as members of the new yemeni government arrive from saudi arabia. are about this and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up u.k. regulators greenlight to the oxford astra zeneca vaccine in a move the health minister says could provide a path out of the pandemic. but as i long feared in war the effort to distribute administer the vaccine is not progress she is should u.s. president elect joe biden criticizes the slogan for lots of coronavirus vaccines

and warns the darkest days of the pandemic will lie ahead. to. jubilation in argentina as the senate votes to legalize abortion in a decision that could echo across the uk in america. ok let's begin with some breaking news there's been an explosion in southern yemen at aden international airport several people are said to have been killed and injured in the blast which happened as members of the new yemeni government arrived we're going to have more on that story we're going to bring it to you later in the program. meanwhile the battle against corona virus has taken another leap forward after health regulators in the u.k. approved the vaccine developed by oxford university scientists and pharmaceutical

company astra zeneca it's the 3rd vaccine to be approved in the west and it joins those manufactured by pfizer biotech and madonna russia and china are also distributing shots but they haven't completed mass testing the oxford astra zeneca vaccine has some advantages over the other 2 it's much cheaper to buy and it can be kept in a regular fridge unlike the pfizer shot which requires ultra cold storage even as approval was being announced in the u.k. orders for tens of millions of doses were confirmed by both taiwan and indonesia as many as 3000000000 those are expected to be produced worldwide but the end of next year well the approval came on the heels of the news that the u.k. had had its biggest day of cases this year it's currently battling a fast spreading wave of infections driven by a new variant british health secretary matt tank uk says the oxford vaccine will make a huge difference. enough of this vaccine. to vaccinate the whole population

you know we've got a 100000000 doses on the order add that to the 30000000 doses of pfizer and that's enough for 2 doses for the entire population so i can now say with confidence that we can vaccinate everyone except of course for children because this vaccine has not been child on children in any way children and much much less likely to have to have symptoms from the disease ok let's bring to rory chalons who's at the royal london hospital in white chapel this is a significant moment isn't it for this approval. it is this is a big step forward just one small correction i'm outside guys hospital actually not the royal hospital this is a vaccination center that i'm standing outside of here. gives you an idea really of the kind of infrastructure that is needed to administer the fires that fire on tech vaccines at the moment you can hear the generators humming behind me people have to

be kept warm the vaccine has to be kept super chills this is a hospital setting the advantage of the astra zeneca oxford vaccine is the not of this will really be necessary you can basically give it to g.p.'s general practitioner doctors you can give to nurses you can give it to. anyone with a normal fridge a senshi who can go out into the community set up a little mobile sites and get that vaccine into as many people as possible as quickly as possible to the task is a huge one the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine said that there would need to be something like 2000000 doses of vaccine being administered all week to have any hope really of tensing the margin of this new strain of corona virus this ripping its way to. through the u.k. at the moment we know that. hospitals are being put under increasing

pressure as be a major incident reports it's in the county of essex where hospitals are essential saying that they are being overwhelmed that's a sign of what's happening in one of the country at the moment there are only 200 vaccines being a week in the u.k. compare that to the 2000000 that some schools of medical thought think it necessary you can see why this hoax of vaccine is such a big step change the hoping that they can get this started it's starting to be rolled out on the for the generator not a moment to see rory thanks very much indeed rory chung's talking to us from outside guys hospital in london thank you. ok let's go back to our top story that explosion at the airport and aden in yemen several people are said to being killed and injured in the blast which happened as members of the new yemeni government arrived mohammed is joining us now on the phone from sana what more do we know

about this attack ahmed. this will be a rival of the new from the government to aden plus. there were a powerful explosions have been heard in the studio aden. according to some sources that the number of casualties also the what many people have been killed and injured not yet being considered and. is considered according to. the sit back to go to riyadh to agree with these fly by car to meet the. the 7 comes this council and also the yemeni government many people hope that this agreement would be to meant that in order to move to put an end to the. political disagreement between that both sides. mohamed i know it's very early into this incident but the

obvious question is is there any speculation about who might have caused it. nobody knows who those behind. and some some tendency to point to the. united arab emirates because the people do not move on to the 1 months and also the southern half of 2 to agree on a united government. some interest for both parties especially for the 2 as according to these 2 observers not to make this agreement a success there is going to be there are going to questions on the mohammed about the level of safety in yemen generally but in aden particularly given the fact that this was supposed to be the day that the new government was setting up shop there if you like there are going to be questions about how safe it can be in aden.

the agreement would be prevented and of the president is expected to arrive by the . thursday of this coming 2021. this explosions these explosions and also confrontations there. could make this a grim it. could cause a setback to. many rules as the result of this issue and also containing the calends consultations another 2 people away for the new government to come menu cage's the government to try. to aid in and. governance there 1 actually we have met so many setbacks this is maybe the. time that the government tries to reach aid and mohammed thank you very much indeed

i know we're going to be checking in with you as this story develops but for now mohamed al assad talking to us on the phone from sun i thank you very much indeed. more on the coronavirus on the u.k.'s approval of a vaccine develops jointly by oxford university and the pharma company astra zeneca india is also expected to roll out that vaccine on a massive scale companies there have been reproducing it for months it is about food on them is following developments from new delhi. we've heard from the c.e.o. of the serum institute of india that is the world's largest vaccine maker and they have been testing and manufacture in the oxford astra zeneca vaccine here and dia and the c.e.o. other point a lot of has said that the u.k. approval is great and encouraging news and they will now wait for emergency approval by indian regulators he said a few days ago that they had 50000000 doses of the vaccine ready that they are going to be manufacturing $50.00 to $60000000.00 every month they're going to scale that up to $100000000.00 a month by the end of march but he has always maintained that they're going to put

aside half of the doors for use in india and other developing countries and also because the world health organization has to approve the use of the vaccine in the exports rather off the vaccine into other countries from india which can take up to a month he said that india will be the 1st beneficiary of the vaccine and right off the u.k. regulators gave approval we heard from india's regulatory body which said that it's going to be holding a meeting later on wednesday to decide on its approval now the indian government is hoping to begin its vaccination drive in january the oxford astra zeneca is one of 3 vaccine candidates along with. and with another indian company by the name of god at the biotech and the indian government wants to vaccinate 300000000 people in the 1st half of 2021 even though it's the country with the

biggest vaccination program in the world jeff lanza rosa's head of the health systems research group at the barcelona institute for global health is a development is positive not attention needs to be turned to her country will storm. we need to ensure that as many people around the well get that 1st dose viruses mutate we've already seen that sars cover to cover 1000 is mutating we have the newbery incidental there's likely to be further mutations and we need to get as many people that's needed as quickly as possible and at the same time i think this is going to be one of the major challenges as well as to continue the pandemic measures that we've been tearing out now face masks hand washing no large gatherings to avoid further transmission and we've seen year over the winter holiday that cases are rising in many countries for a long time into 2021 and i expect there to continue to be travel restrictions between countries probably within some countries and as as you mentioned some

countries will go quite quickly the u.k. parts of europe canada the us etc in other countries will go slower there is a global mechanism led by gobby the world health organization and others called kovacs which is trying to ensure that scene availability in low resource settings but we've also heard that countries that can have already been putting in their orders. still ahead on al-jazeera the u.k. parliament begins a special session to approve prime minister abbas johnson's brags that agreement with the e.u. . more tremors in croatia after a powerful earthquake causes widespread damage and kills at least 7 people will be in one of the affected villages. it has been particularly cold couple of days ago in parts of among the northwest

a child out about minus 47 i know that cold prompted this exodus is real freezing air across the open waters which produce a lot of snow and is still producing a snow homeshare in her card some of it caught south korea as well just south of the capital and it's also in the forecast with steph behind as don't quite as cold in the sunshine sports up to near 0 by the way in beijing only 12 in hong kong but there's an improvement to cover up to 3 engine and 14 in hong kong that beijing stays cold by friday and this still snow falling in japan and the east a good part of japan and the cold wave as you probably know is enhanced in this northwestern part of india in northern pakistan because the snow fell in the foothills of the himalayas so these and nighttime temperatures down to low single figures there is fog developing particularly in this general area which breaks for time during the day is jenny paul cause he was already answered all in india at the moment partners few hours until the day when you get temp is just about fresh in

the 20 mark but given it's cold up there has been harm from the showers intel on the other and in sri lanka for the next couple of days. from fossil fuels to modern day renewable as a side. he's developed the energy demands increase requiring innovative solutions to meet such to as a global power developing to the investment company nebraska power is uniquely positioned to deliver against the state we provide business growth promote social economic benefits and provide innovative safe and in fire mentally sound energy solutions for future generation the british pioneering future energy.

you want your own jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour several people have been killed off an explosion in the southern yemeni city of aden the blast happened as members of the new yemeni government arrived at the airport. the u.k. health regulator has approved the oxford astra zeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use and government already preordered 100000000 doses paves the way for a huge expansion of the government's inoculation program. the united states has reported its 1st case of a more contagious variant of the corona virus which was originally discovered in the u.k. a man in colorado was confirmed to have the strain though he has no recent travel history at odds further urgency to reference to vaccinate americans and stamp out uncontrolled outbreaks across the country hospitals across the country are

struggling with a high number of infections medical centers in alabama say they're at a crisis point with many intensive care units at all or above capacity well california has extended stay at home orders in parts of the state as it battles record numbers of new infections. u.s. president elect joe biden has criticized the trump administration for falling behind in its rollout of covert 19 vaccines he's warned of the rollout continues at its current pace it could take years before the population is fully vaccinated shihab rattansi reports from washington d.c. the president elect delivered a grim message from his base in wilmington delaware as i long feared 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 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 that 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 there jackson to the

modification. objection inserted 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 $2000.00 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. but as members of parliament i mean for an extraordinary session to vote on the

e.u. trade deal negotiated last week and it's expected to pass comfortably with the main opposition labor party supporting the agreement scottish national party m.p.'s are opposing the deal calling it a disaster the vote comes just a day before the u.k. automatically leaves the e.u. single market. in the heart of this bill is one of the biggest free trade agreements in the world as we've discussed in this chamber many times mr speaker a comprehensive canada style deal worth over 660000000000 pounds which if anything should allow companies to do even more business with our european friends safeguarding millions of jobs and livelihoods in our u.k. and across the continent in less than 48 hours we will leave the e.u. single market and the customs union as we promised and yet british exporters will not face a sudden thicket of trade barriers but rather for the 1st time in the history of e.u. agreements 0 tariffs and 0 quotas of paul brown is live for us in london he's been

following this paul obviously boris johnson being very bullish about this deal the e.u. signing it and letting it go through the process but basically as far as i can understand it people in the u.k. basically just have to sit back and wait to see how they're going to be affected by this. well yes because although the prime minister as you say very bullish talking about the comprehensive nature in his view of this deal there are dissenters the labor party for example says this is a very thin deal and they're voting in favor of it farther rather reluctantly because the only alternative to this deal is no deal there would be tariffs and there would be quotas imposed on the world trade organization rules that said though this is not some kind of utopian best of both worlds type of arrangement there will be differences in some cases big differences when the u.k.

and the european union start this new trading relationship after midnight on thursday and couple of bulletin points for example from jenner the 1st there because those declarations they'll be rules of origin checks that the product safety is difficult that are required to be food inspections. plants live animals some foods will also need special licenses and certificates others will have to be labeled in specific ways so and that's all from day one for u.k. businesses wanting to send their products into the european union coming the other way there will be a 6 month hiatus a 6 month delay the u.k. has decided to waive those rules for inbound goods for another 6 months but nevertheless big differences and profound differences it will also affect tourists and travelers passports will finish the european health insurance card will expire once your existing card runs out of date there are talk about alternatives to the

erasmus education scheme for example so there are so many ways that the relationship between the the the block and the u.k. are going to be impacted and as you say so late in the day as this deal arrived many businesses are still struggling to grasp exactly what it means specifically for their business and for their futures paul thanks very much indeed paul brennan live for us in london. historic victory for women's rights in latin america 4 senators in argentina passed a bill legalizing abortion after a marathon session 38 senators voted to allow terminations up to 14 weeks up 252-0000 women seek illegal abortions in argentina each year that is about reports from one a service. was historic decision ending the criminalization of abortion in this mostly catholic country. after

a long debate women outside congress waited anxiously for the vote to happen was and when he did there was pure joy among those campaigning for that result was we are friends affected because there are no legal and safe abortion and it's a dead that we have as a society the state needs to deal with this issue we couldn't just continue ignoring it i'm so happy. you know what is the debate lasted for about 12 hours and the bill was turned into law with $38.00 votes for and $29.00 against you can be. the be legalized abortion in argentina after 14 weeks into pregnancy it allows women to get a free abortion in a public hospital and will end the fears of women have been reported to the police if they try to terminate a pregnancy. women in argentina have been campaigning for years to legalize abortion in this country for this women it's a matter of public health because already around half

a 1000000 abortions are carried out every year and many of them end up with complications thousands of women end up in hospital because of those complications so for this women legalizing abortion it's crucial to save lives. but not everyone celebrated on wednesday and the i couldn't help crying when asked about the possibility of legalizing abortion i don't know much we're going to cry a lot there are a lot of lies that want to sell something that is not true that abortions happen everywhere we poor women do not want to have abortions we love our children. the catholic church is a powerful body here pope francis is argentinean and has been lobbying against the law. he says the church needs to lead up to current times he said let there be are . they going to try to. i think they said before the attacks

they are. not by because they meet on the day they are totally cool then they hide in latin america that will come that we don't let our son who then are running around the next day i mean one of the but he doesn't tolerate them or finding that in america so i think you need to know some reflection about. the vote in argentina sets a precedent in a region that has some of the toughest loss against abortion in the world but this movement of women's groups has spread throughout the region and has become a force for change. and to see when a site is. an american who spent 30 years in a 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 while working at the pentagon in the 1980 s. last month followed 5 year parole term ended allowing him to leave the us. there

have been several aftershocks in central croatia a day after a 6.4 magnitude quake killed at least 7 people it struck near the town of protein yes 50 kilometers from the capital going to the local mayor says half the town has been destroyed many people spent the night in tents afraid to return to their homes tanya nowak is in the village of prickle park near that epicenter with more on how residents are coping in the aftermath of the quake. it can see behind me some of them have nowhere to return to there are several houses that were completely flooded with earth during the earthquake the other houses in this small village of only about 100 houses maybe look a little bit better from the outside but from the inside they are not safe to go into because their construction has been completely damaged so a lot of people from here this is a rural farming area decided to stay overnight they didn't want to go into their

houses so they made the make up sea of tents and spend the night outside they say that they don't want to leave their homes they have livestock here they don't want to leave their animals and they basically are afraid of possible looting even though we didn't get any of visual confirmation that this was happening obviously the fear is much greater than just the earthquake and the ground is still shaking and they are fearful of even checking out on how their property is at the moment hundreds of refugees and migrants in bosnia are still without proper shelter after being transported from a competent stride by far last week they collected their belongings from port remained of the camp in lippa near croatia's border and stayed on buses overnight bus and authorities say they hope to relocate them on wednesday accounted been heavily criticized by aid groups for providing inadequate shelter they say the far left people stranded in freezing and squalid conditions with little food. people have to be go live this didn't. have too much gold and not have life is good.

and not have food not want to. but i don't know lloyd also scared i don't know. 10 hong kong activists who tried to flee the territory by speedboats have been handed jail terms by a chinese course they are part of a group of 12 courts trying to escape to taiwan in august after beijing impose its sweeping national security law on hong kong the thing youngest of them had been sent back to authorities in hong kong adrian brown reports. a day of drama both inside and outside court the 2 youngest defendants age 16 and 17 when they absconded were driven across the border to hong kong shortly after being freed by mainland police both were hooded they've swapped one detention for another as they now face serious charges in hong kong related to last year's protests as well as leaving hong kong illegally young why need i mean nancy and because these 2 males

are also subjected to a 14 day compulsory quarantine we will file a request to the court for a 14 day delay in handling their cases we will bring them to the courts for their hearing after they have finished according to. the 2 free teenagers leave behind 10 other activists now beginning jail terms that between 7 months to 3 years the campaign for their release continues the group fled hong kong by speedboat 4 months ago hoping to seek asylum in democratic taiwan before their vessel was intercepted by the chinese coast guard their detention drew international attention but diplomats as well as foreign journalists would deny permission to attend the trial it's rare for a trial to be wrapped up so quickly in china especially as the 12 had initially been branded as separatists by china's government and then there's the timing of it

all coming on the very day that china is due to conclude a major trade deal with the european union that's been calling on china to free all the activists to both the hong kong and center. governments though this case will serve as a warning to others facing charges over last year's unrest who may also try to abscond adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. this is al jazeera these are the top stories several people have been killed after an explosion in the southern yemeni city of aden the last happened as members of the new yemeni government arrived at the airport or hama to a lot of the gives us more details by phone from yemen's capital sana'a. there were books had been had. been. according to some sources that the now.