gather and transport this dangerous but precious cargo risking it. on al-jazeera. with coronavirus case is overwhelming the u.k.'s medical system the government's begun its rollout of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine. on come all santa maria here in doha with the world news from al-jazeera a court in the u.k. is set to rule on whether to extradite the wiki leaks founder julian assange to the u.s. to face charges of leaking military and diplomatic documents. i use one of the. 11780. recordings of

a phone call revealed donald trump pressured officials in georgia to find enough votes to overturn his election defeat. brazil gives the green light to import 2000000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine but there is frustration about how long it's taken to approve one. in the past hour the u.k. has started using the oxford astra zeneca corona virus vaccine and its public immunization campaign here we have 82 year old brian pink who became the 1st person in the world to receive the shot outside of a clinical trial british health officials say around $530000.00 doses of the new vaccine are being made available from monday that's after the country's health regular have made it the 2nd treatments to be approved after that of 5 andrew symonds reporting for us today on this one. the type of news which we need to see

the fact that there is another vaccine out there and that things can ramp up. arguably the most critical time in this pandemic certainly here in europe this vaccine is what's being one suit all along it is the only approved vaccine which is actually able to be administered anywhere effectively it can be stored. for each temperature which is the crucial aspect which means it is basically it's easy to administer as well so it is hoped that will be a much more rapid pick up in the rates of vaccinations this coming when the rates of infection is highest yet in the u.k. with a dramatic situation which the government is facing and warnings that there could be a full stall on top of the 4 levels of restrictions in the u.k.

right now now the flow of people here is quite small only a small number of hospitals rolling this vaccine out but it will end up with be thousands of centers by the end of the week i'm all beyond that but many questions about the logistics involved and you just stay with me for a 2nd i want to sort of underline some of what you've been talking about there as to the situation in the u.k. with some graphs for our viewers this is from. actually oxford university from our world and data this is how it sits at the moment remember we used to talk about flattening the curve it's just a straight uphill climb at the moment for the u.k. in this region around 50000 cases a day now in some context yes if we look at some other countries well below the united states which is up 220-0000 the u.k. much further down here but if we do a comparison in more of less of an apples and oranges this is per 1000000 people look at this up here the united kingdom is actually above the united states

when it comes to the number of new infections every day per 1000000 people and that underlines as i said just how critical the situation is in the u.k. and how important a a good vaccine rollout happens the way it's actually handled. yes i mean there are still questions to be said the situation in the u.k. right at the top area of europe in terms of its how hard the virus is hitting on this new strain of the virus has definitely made a very very negative effect on things now as far as the the the the the complications for the government of the 1st is really the whole of just broadening out the vaccine because it isn't just a case of of ordering the vaccines in the u.k. it is in a good position with the vaccines in the sense that it's got the pfizer job but it's also got the oxford astra zeneca now being rolled out that's very good but can

they get to putting out 2000000 inoculations a week for cost well some question marks over that and also the projection from prime minister boris johnson. saying that tens of millions of vaccinations will be taking place within 3 months again there are question marks over that because it isn't just the actual vaccines coming. it's the viles it's the transportation it's the actual syringe is a colossal number which has never been seen before in medical history in terms of the volume here in the u.k. furthermore there's the attitude of the public to wards the whole danger of this virus of the christmas holidays so people obviously gathering some people breaching a lot of people preaching guidelines many experts say that this relaxation because the virus is on the way people aren't taking the restrictions as seriously as they

were with the 1st outbreak of this pandemic and another complication is the government announcing that it can only use the 1st. round of injections of the pfizer and indeed this new virus at this new occupation would only use the 1st round and then the 2nd dosage would come a maximum something like 2 to 3 months afterwards that's causing some confusion even the suggestion that they can mix and match the 2 there is some confusion we spoke to a professor from a leading institution here in london and she had concerns this is what she had to say. i mean the communication around this is really got great confused and it is really very unfortunate because it should now risks to jeopardize the successful rule out of the program when it comes to the science i feel that the intervals in which he's not seen should be given should be led by the evidence that comes from

the clinical trials that have been conducted and that shows clearly that the pfizer vaccine should be given you know within the 2nd dose was given within the 1st 21 days where the answer is any come back we have some data that show if you delayed longer actually the production of the un team already in response to the 2nd dose is better. so a lot to take in for people right across the world because this is a global vaccine the rollout might be slower than some would hope but it is a positive start there are complications on the way and by no means can anybody in the u.k. 'd all the rest of europe or diggle over the rest easy over this pandemic quite right and to simmons in london thank you for that more developing news out of the u.k. today were a court is expected to rule on whether the wiki leaks founder julian assange on should be extradited from britain to the united states is wanted on espionage charges over the publication of secret american military documents it seems spend

the rest of his life in prison as on just spent the past 21 months in jail in britain his partners appeal to the outgoing u.s. president donald trump to grant a pardon to our sons before he leaves office on january 20. 5th support is from roy chalons. i pro 2010 and what wiki leaks reveal to the world caused a sensation my. u.s. military video kept classified for 3 years to a helicopter gunship attack in baghdad at least 12 iraqis were killed including a royce's petaca and his driver. the u.s. military said it was engaging what it calls insurgents armed groups that claim that's contested to this day i believe that if those killings were lawful under the rules of engagement than the rules of engagement are wrong. deeply wrong.

it was this another such showpiece revelations that put judy innocent in the spotlight and through the intense hostility of the u.s. government later in 2010 percent his legal battles began after swedish prosecutors opened a rape and sexual assault investigation against him he was arrested in london some observers found wiki leaks increasingly problematic after the. rape allegations where songs should have gold. the site became more and more reckless and the songs became more and more reckless and latterly you know didn't actually you know hasn't been very careful with documents large amounts of data was put into the public domain which would have been done by we'd you most asians facing imminent extradition in 2012 he took refuge in london's ecuadorian embassy he didn't leave it for 7 years even after sweden temporarily abandoned its investigation in 2017

a much more serious threat emerged a sealed indictment in the us when ecuador finally let british police in to take a stand out of the embassy in 2019 the charges in the us were revealed. for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents he faces a maximum jail sentence of 175 years under the espionage act he's already spent 21 months in a u.k. prison it's a prosecution the concerns many who value a free press. be able. to investigate to reveal the truth with. threatened with going to spend the rest of one's life in a high security prison in the united states jeanne assam still have many backers who say he's been victimized by the publication of e-mails stolen from the democratic party in the us just before the 2016 presidential election cost him support from the left in his report special counsel robert miller can. polluted the documents came from russian state hackers that has cost the sands more friends

a sexual predator a narcissistic self publicist a stooge of foreign intelligence a tireless campaigner for journalism and transparency these are just some of the views of julian assange on monday a judge at london's old bailey will decide whether he can be extradited to the united states but both sides can appeal a decision that goes against them so either way too early in a sand is legal struggles to set to continue or reach alan's down to 0 london let's get an update from the courts in london what's expected today and if. this is a critical moment because she's been resisting possible extradition to the united states for many many years now so about 45 minutes time the court hearing will begin and we'll know whether or not the court has granted that this exhibition will take place or whether or not it will say that it can't either way whether it's for

or against this result is very much likely to be appealed possibly at the high court and then the supremes court so whatever way they court decides do expect a long long legal challenge ahead of julian assange all of this happening at a time in which his supporters say his mental health is deteriorating rapidly whilst in prison in belmarsh in southeast london he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum as well and there are some deep concerns that he may not survive that's according to some australian m.p.'s the traveled over to the united kingdom to heavily lobby the government here to be more lenient when it comes to julian assange future versus say we wait to see what the court decides to work out exactly what astonishes next legal step will be and we'll talk to him again later in the when hopefully get some news from the court there in london thank you. in a moment we return to corona virus news brazil imports millions of doses of that

astra zeneca vaccine you saw earlier but it's actually get to a perfect and china is ramping up its vaccine effort same into an ok beijing's entire population by the middle of next month. we got more heavy showers pushing across the malay peninsula more big downpours are rolling through the south china sea making their way towards northern parts of malaysia pushing ivory towards the march $169.00 millimeters of rain here in 24 hours and there's more where that came from plenty of showers that just coming back into thailand pockets of heavy rain into borneo and we'll see some heavy showers too from time to time east on their way down through a good part of indonesia sunshine the showers there for the philippines through the

show is becoming less widespread as we go on through the course of this week we got some slightly quansah weather question making its way towards the northeast of australia but with tropical sidetone emission making landfall now we are looking at very wet weather coming in across the far north of queensland we've already seen some very heavy rain 249 millimeters of rainfall here some parts could see similar rainfall totals as we go on through the next couple of days right a 1000 people without power final warning has been issued for image and the winds of no great significance but that heavy rain that is set to continue as we go through the next couple of days some more very heavy showers coming in across northern areas of queensland there will also see some rather wet weather grassy pushing to new zealand. from fossil fuels to modern day renewable as society. has developed the energy demands increase requiring innovative solutions to meet such demands as

a global power development of investment company nebraska power is uniquely positioned to deliver against these demands we provide business growth promote social economic benefits and provide innovative safe and environmentally sound energy solutions for future generations no breastpin pioneering future energy. the world. the top stories this hour on al-jazeera the 1st doses of the oxford astra zeneca coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the u.k. the government says half a 1000000 doses are now ready for use the 2nd setback seemed to be. a course in the

u.k. is expected to rule on whether the wiki leaks founder julian assange should be extradited from britain to the united states is one of their own espionage charges over the publication of secret american military it's. well a recording has been leaked to the public which we hear u.s. president donald trump telling the top election official in the state of georgia to quote find enough votes in order to overturn his election defeat george or one of the battleground states that flipped in favor of president elect biden this is an unprecedented move by a sitting president to me just a few weeks to go before biden takes office trump still refuses to concede he's lost repeating unsubstantiated claims of ford alan fischer reports from atlanta georgia. from the president. evidence the election was stolen from him pressure on a tough election official to find votes to help form overturn a result the audio of the hour long call from the oval office to george's secretary

of state was 1st obtained by the washington post and captures donald trump even warning of big legal consequences if you didn't do something i use one of. $11780.00 loans which is one more that we have because we want to say. it's a move that may create legal problems for the president he's pressuring an elected official to change the result of an election already certified by the state president trump claimed again without evidence he'd won georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes he didn't the state went for biden and he raised other conspiracy theories all dismissed by brad raffensperger well mr president the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong donald trump refused to accept the 2020 presidential election congress meets on wednesday to confirm the result although a number of republican senators plan to object he summoned election officials from

various states to the white house and field in almost every legal effort to contest results one longtime washington observer says even for donald trump this call is remarkable it's an outrage it's the president of the united states putting pressure on a public official to lie to cheat possibly to steal votes so that he can win the state of georgia vice president elect harris has been in georgia for an election rally ahead of tuesday's senate runoff but the president's call was there hanging over her comments was yes certainly the more i see desperation most certainly than and it was my. although the use of power by the president and the united. even if donald trump did manage to flip georgia it doesn't matter joe biden won more than enough electoral college votes to secure the presidential election. will actually be in georgia

later on monday he's here supporting 2 republican senators whose fate in a runoff election will decide the balance of power in washington a race which is no been overshadowed by the most controversial oval office tapes since nixon in the 1970 s. alan fischer al-jazeera atlanta georgia. or trance refusal to concede has led to speculation he may even deploy the military to hold on to power it has prompted 10 former u.s. defense secretaries to warn against the use of the military in election disputes this is part of the open letter they wrote our elections have occurred recounts and order have been conducted appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts the time for questioning the results has passed efforts to involve the u.s. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous unlawful and unconstitutional territory or from gabriel elizondo. this letter is remarkable

on several levels but number one is these 10 former secretaries of defense are all from different political persuasions donald rumsfeld dick cheney both staunch republicans signed this letter as well as robert gates william cohen and leon panetta all former secretaries of states that were secretary of defense excuse me that work for democratic presidents and also jim mattis 5 star general signed on to this letter as well so it's remarkable that you get this. unity in a letter such as this and simply remarkable they felt that they even needed to put it out i will also say they also said in their letter this and it's very important they said acting defense secretary christopher miller and his subordinates are bound by law and precedents to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration and to do so wholeheartedly as they wrote there this is a direct response to criticism from the president elect joe biden and his advisors

who have said that the trump administration has not been helping in the transition period and saying that a lot of the trump officials have been making it more difficult for this transition to happen to the news than the number of people killed in attacks on 2 villages in western asia has now risen to about 100 the prime minister visited the area where it happened a region neighboring mali. and been in the support is from the. villagers in western asia gather to pray in the wake of one of the deadliest days in their nation's recent history these graves are just 2 days old the prime minister of malaysia air flew in to see the devastation for himself don't come up we came to provide moral support and present a condolences of the president of the republic the government and the entire nation of. ours interior minister says the villages were attacked on saturday after locals

killed 2 fighters from an unknown group but no one has claimed responsibility for these attacks and you feel a desire to better secure some credits on the situation is simply horrible committed by an identified individuals but the investigations will be conducted so that described as not go unpunished. has endured a series of attacks by groups including nigeria based boko haram i saw an al qaeda with thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced despite the presence of thousands of regional and international troops. while extremists in the region pose a growing threat the west african country is expected to see its 1st i'm a critic transition of power since 1960 following last month's elections according to results announced on saturday a 2nd round would be needed after none of the $28.00 candidates won a majority whoever the winner is will likely be dealing with more attacks like this

we're harding al-jazeera. we return to corona virus now and japan's prime minister is considering declaring a state of emergency in tokyo following a rise in covert 19 factions japan reported 4 and a half 1000 new cases on december 31st more than half of them in the capital. says restaurants and bars there will have to close japan has so far stayed away from the harsh restrictions imposed in most other countries more from rob mcbride now he says japan's prime minister is coming under increasing pressure over his response to the virus. it comes as we have seen this seasonal spike of more than 4500 new cases in one day being declared just before new year now around half of those cases worryingly have been around the tokyo metropolitan area with leaders around tokyo including the governor of tokyo really asking for the state of

emergency to be declared to give them extra powers to try to control control and contain this outbreak but the government has been very resistant to do that they did it back in may of last year for a month but it does know the impact on the economy an economy that was already struggling so it is resisting it seems until the last not to declare a state of emergency but also at the back of the japanese government mind is the knowledge that we are getting very close to these these delayed summer olympics of course they were delayed from summer 2020 by exactly one year they're meant to start in july 21 and we're getting very close now to the 6 month countdown to those games and of course declaring a state of emergency does not give the world much confidence that these games are going to go ahead in a substantive form which the government still wants but you're see those suga at a news conference monday still insisting that japan wants to go ahead with these

games reminding japan and also the world that 2021 is the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that japan overcame reminding the world that japan has done that it is going ahead and staging the games and also insisting that these games would be a sign that the world and humanity it seems has prevailed in the face of this pandemic. china is ramping up its covert 9000 vaccinations after starting an inoculation drive in beijing on friday people teams to be at high risk of exposure are the 1st to get the shot that will include medical workers overseas students port workers as well elderly people and those with underlying conditions will be next beijing's municipal government aims to vaccinate all 22000000 citizens by the 2nd week of february this vaccine made by the local company sign a farm here as katrina you in beijing. so far the 1st batch of people receiving the vaccine a limited to the ages of between 18 and 59 so not the elderly population but instead

china seems to prioritizing the working population so so far in beijing there have been about $220.00 centers set up and according to the chinese government each center can administer about $500.00 doses per day now in beijing as an individual you're not yet able to sign up for the vaccine but you can in other areas of china including in and my province shanghai in from g.n. for example now this mass vaccination rollout has begun with the sign of a vaccine that is china's 1st approved vaccine which was given the thumbs up by chinese regulators last week they say that it has an efficacy rate of about 79 percent but we yet to receive any dasa from the company regarding final stage or stage 3. stage 3 trials but the chinese government seems to be confident it's reaping forward with this and it said that they hope to give at least 50000000 people the 1st job of the 1st dose of the vaccine by general 15 and they hope to

give those same 50000000 their 2nd dose by february 15th that is one month later and that's really key because in china february is when chinese new year takes place this main travel event where hundreds of millions of people make trips across the country but this year the chinese government is actually discouraging travel because they're afraid of any 2nd wave or any large resurgence in the current virus outbreak here brazil's health regulators agreed to import $2000000.00 doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine even though it hasn't yet approved it for use in the 200000 brazilians have died from cove and 19 and there have been more than 7000000 recorded infections. as more from bogota. well the brazilian government hopes that this announcement will show some progress when it comes to this issue at a time when other major latin american countries like mexico in argentina have

already started their inoculation campaigns now even if the 1st 2000000 doses a arrive in brazil they have not been authorized yet the government hopes that will happen by the end of january and vaccinating a 1000000 people in brazil will do very little to stamp depend dammy in a country of more than 200000000 people another 100000000 doses of the oxford astra saying the vaccine are expected to be produced locally but that will take many months at least 6 months for those vaccines to be ready in such large numbers and that's why we're seeing increasing criticism coming from medical associations in brazil and also major newspapers like for you know so follow probably the most respected paper in the country that accused also not on sunday in the tauriel of what they called

a deadly incompetence this is also sparked a more political controversy in the country with the governor sao paulo trying to operate independently trying to import at least 6000000 doses of a chinese vaccine. has been approved about also those vaccines the use of those back scenes has not been approved yet and school children in kenya are back in the classroom after a 10 month coronavirus shutdown but all extra curricular activities are banned for another 90 days. some teachers unions objected to the reopening they say the schools don't have enough space to keep people safe the government's also tight and other restrictions. including extending and nighttime curfew 124 new delhi cases confirmed in kenya. funny residents in the west australian city of perth have been told to shelter inside

a bushfire threatens its southern suburbs 150 firefighters are trying to bring the fire under control residents have been told to stay indoors after rubbish contain a court fire and produce toxic fumes other smaller wildfires are also threatening the outer suburbs with 60 people evacuated from a retirement village. half past the hour here on al-jazeera these are the top stories the 1st doses of the oxford astra zeneca corona virus vaccine have been administered in the united kingdom the government says half a 1000000 doses are ready for use this is the 2nd vaccine to be approved for use more from our correspondent andrew symonds he is outside the hospital in london this coming when the rate of infection is highest yet in the u.k. with the dramatic situation.