ah ah ah ah, b u. s. steps up its commitments in the fight against armstrong pledging over half a $1000000000.00 to aid groups. ah, i'm sam is a band. this is al jazeera alive from dell hall. so coming up, a surprise moved by the head of libby. as electoral commission raises doubts about where the friday's vote will go ahead. rebels and ethiopia say there withdrawing from some territory and call them the world to pressure the government. and turkeys

travel mirror re bound slightly off, the latest government moves to strengthen the currency. ah, let's begin with the latest on the pandemic. his cases of cov, it 9 teens on a cron variant surge rapidly across the world. the u. s. says it will provide the world health organization, the united nations children's fund, and 5 other global age groups, an additional $580000000.00 and funding. later on tuesday, president joe biden is expected to announce plans to provide 500000000 free, rapid home test kits for americans. it's part of an effort to increase support for hospitals, which have been overwhelmed. ami crohn case is now a count for nearly 3 quarters of all us cov it infections. let's bring in white house correspondent, kimberly how could so this is quite a change from the trump era's approach to the w h o. right?

kimberly yeah, you'll remember that jo biden's predecessor donald trump blamed the world health organization for he is said allegedly that it was covering up the origins of covet 19 and assisting china in doing so. and as a result. 4 withdrew from the world health organization, that's something that was rectified by joe biden on his 1st day in office. and he believed that it was instrumental in the global fight to combat cove at night t. now we're seeing sort of the next wave in terms of u. s. support in combating the disease. he has a now's $580000000.00 to groups like eunice half as well as the world health organization to assist in getting shots in arms. he'll recall that the u. s. is already given were the 330000000 doses to a 110 countries in order to try and combat as vaccine inequality as part of the

co vax program. but now the united states going a step further, knowing that it's not enough to supply the doses, but those doses need to be administered. so this is what some of that funding will work to combat. and as you're talking back, kimberly, as your point of view, as we're looking on the right side of the screen life pictures coming in from washington d. c. bow showing, some of the testing that's going on. and speaking of testing is going to be an issue that joe biden, we'll talk about later as a day, right. putting the focus on testing and vaccination rather than on restriction and locked out. it's a pillar of the president's winter strategy that he's updating as a result of the i'm a crime variant that is now counting for about 3 quarters of the cases in the united states. what the president will be doing is starting in january, there'll be a website that will allow americans to access about $500000000.00 rapid

tests. and the reason this is a big deal is that this will essentially the white house hopes, curved, the spread, if people know that they're a positive for covet 19, they won't go out that will reduce the infections. but the other reason this is a big deal is the fact that this is something that americans haven't really had access to prior to this. as i wrap it at home, tasks are expensive, they're hard to find. and now that is something that many argue will be a game changer, but it's not all the presidents going to be talking about at 1930 g m t. he's also going to be talking about is going to ramp up production for hospital so that they will have the test. they need also tapping in to the national stock pile. so that ventilators for some of those hard hit hospitals that they have the supplies they need. and finally, the u. s. president will also be announcing that there will be an employment of 1000 troops with medical skills to support the very much fatigue to medical

professionals. that are really finding that this is getting hard as we enter the 3rd year of this battle and, and the fact that they are seeing yet another search. all right, kimberly, how can back, thanks so much. well, scotlands canceling, it's new year's event, says 1st minister nicola sturgeon imposes new rules from the day after christmas they'll be new limits on the number of people allowed to mix indoors and outdoors. no, more than $500.00 people will be allowed. outdoor public events for 3 weeks. sturgeon says she's concerned about the increasing pressure on hospitals. we need to get cases coming down again to relieve that pressure and the pressure health pressure, but also the pressure that comes from staff absences in the week at quoted. there was an exemption from isolation for any no use. so that will help to some extent to alleviate that pressure. but the only way of properly alleviating that patient,

just nail service, but in the economy more generally is to get the number of cases, which is comes back to the reason for the difficult decisions i'm sitting on earlier, the british government. and now it's $1300000000.00, an extra support for businesses hit harvest by the rapid spread of on the kron chancellor ratio. so now also confirm more funding for theaters museums, as well as financial help for small businesses struggling with sick leave taken together. i'm confident that these measures will help hundreds of thousands of businesses and the millions of people that they employ, of course, will, i will always respond proportionately and appropriately to the situation that we face. people can have confidence in that, but where we are now, we've responded, i think, generously. today the grants that we've outlined up to 6000 pounds are comparable to the grants that we provided for hospitality businesses when they were completely closed. earlier this year, thailand has reimpose mandatory quarantined for incoming travelers due to the

spread of army kron. visitors will have to undergo hotel quarantine, which ranges between $7.00 to $10.00 days. last month, the country reopened to tourists ending almost 18 months of strict and free policies. thailand has so far recorded more than 60 cases of the on the con variant one was the local transmission. lockdown restrictions have been ruled out in australia even though code 19 infections are hitting rec, old daily highs. prime minister scott morrison says the country needs to move past what he describes as the heavy hand of government. instead, he says, the country should take a common sense approach to living with the virus. in libya, the head of the high national elections commission says these dissolving b electoral committees and ending their work. the presidential election is scheduled for december. the 24th oh trainer has more from tripoli, were just 3 days away from the scheduled 1st round of presidential elections. and

there hasn't been an official announcement by the high national elections committee that the vote has been delayed. or what we saw today was the elect elections commission decision to dissolve. the electoral committees are basically what that means is that it has stopped the work of the, of the workers, the temporary workers that are working in the polling stations across the country. the administrators of these points stations are as clear signs, a clear indicator that this election isn't happening. now we've spoken to various political leaders and political analysts, and here's what one of them had to say. oh la helene for the lad, the leader, the elections commission had no choice but to start the procedure dissolving these committees because it is clear that the election scheduled for december 24. this is not happening. therefore the committee cannot have these committees continued their work for an unknown period of time. so this administrative procedure is normal,

but it's an indication that libby will not see presidential or parliamentary elections in the near future hadn't yet. so i think the fear now for many libyans as that libya will now go back to square one. it took months and years for the un support mission to bring about this government of unity over at negotiations over break, trying to bring lawyers rival sized together. and, and the elections were supposed to bring, bring forth a government that, that has the legitimacy of the living people are so that the fear is now, or that the situation in libya will worsen. or that the, that libyans will not be able to vote for, for those they want to lead them in, at least in the near future. or the, the fear is that it may take a year or 2 and get back to the negotiating table. ah, which may takes a really long time or for an election to possible. but libyans want to

be able to vote for the leadership. they also want a constitution that identifies the rule, the governing system in libya and what kind of powers the president have. so we're going to have to wait and see how the political situation develops. in the coming weeks and months rebels from ethiopia to gray region say they've completely pulled back from honda and the fall regions in the north. the t ry people's liberation front says it's a strategic withdrawal and the piece i want the international community to put pressure on the government to hold its military operation into ry. frank up to reports. after weeks of making advances, a significant setback. one that could alter the course of a few years war. tiguan rebels say the retreating from harrow and afar regions in the north area said they had captured just months ago. which once put them within striking distance from the capital, addis ababa interested?

this not interested in squeezing out about again interested in security, just interested in ensuring that the seeds that was being pulled out is broken. ever since prime minister abi amen march to the front line to rally his troops against the rebels. the shift in the battlefield has been swift and a real offensive with chinese drones and morality weapons have destroyed to grind supply lines. the current, you know, noise with regards to whether it's a strategic retreat or not will inevitably reveal itself. we're still in the final stages of the latest operation. if you recall the operation for national unity in diversity, the aimless to infer that t p l a forces were cleared out of her and for regions. this is something that the still being undertaken because there's still some elements within certain pop

pockets that need to be fuller. fully cleared out. the us won't be pushing for thy fire and as imposed sanctions in response to human rights abuses during the conflicts. we've long urged in human rights abuse and violations and for negotiated resolution to the conflict. so in fact, if we do see a movement of grand forces back into to t great, that is something we would welcome. it's something we've called for. and we hope it opens the door to to broader diplomacy for millions of a few pins facing hunger unstyled ation. a diplomatic end to the conflict couldn't come soon enough. priyanka gupta, alt 0, or stella had on al jazeera christmas and occupy these jerusalem christian groups say that being driven out of the old city by jewish settlers. plus, i'm zebra, rob, eastern hermiston were earlier this year. the government seized control of one of the biggest and highest gold mining operations in the world.

ah hello, there will look to africa in a moment, but 1st to the middle east and unsettled weather continues to plague the levant. we've got wet and windy conditions linger, lingering around coastal areas of the eastern mediterranean, but the further east we move it is going to dry up this little bit of a wintering mix pushing into parts of iran. but for the south of this, it's a lot finer and dryer, with some cloud popping around northern areas of saudi arabia. we've got a bit of a brisk wind that's going to blow down the gulf, but it remains largely fine and dry. the further south we head now as we head across to north africa, it's still very wet and windy across coastal areas of egypt. the temperature in cairo is expected to go down in the days to come,

and it's looking more wet across the north, west and places like morocco. we could see some coastal flooding from the reins there now was we had further south central parts of africa. those seasonal rains have shifted further south, missing heavy rain effect areas such as zambia as well as zimbabwe, pulling into northern areas of mozambique and remains a very wet picture for south africa. we've got funder storms in johannesburg that's expected to last through to the weekend. and it will be cloudy and windy in cape town as to whether ah, with frank assessments, this gracious, are you continued to weaken a look. i shall go up even though perhaps he believes in the beginning that he will expect for informed opinions. i think politicians will now be under incredible pressure from their young people. that is one of the most hopeful things that come out of this critical debate. do you think it should be facilitated?

not sure. okay, it's a great. it's a really simple question. let's give samuel a child. wants that inside story on al jazeera lou. ah, welcome back here watching al jazeera talk. to recap the headlines view, i says it'll provide 7 global aid groups and additional $590000000.00 to $5.00 coven 19. later on choose day president joe biden will announce plans to provide 500000000 free rapid tests home kits for americans. ahead of the high national elections commission and libya says he's dissolving the electro committees and ending their work. presidential elections was scheduled for december. the 24th

rebels from ethiopia to grey region say they've completely pulled back from several northern territories to grind people's liberation front has been losing its foothold in the regions of aha. and the far turkeys lira has recovered some ground after the government introduced measures to ease the currency crisis. but be opposition says it's not enough that calling for immediate elections following the string of recent economic problems. president roger favour though an announced a series of steps, including a promise to compensate savers for losses from inflation. he says, exporters will also be protected. is another amazon won't cover like you took did us of our learnin if the deposit earnings of the turkish lira assets in our people's bank are higher than the exchange rate increase. they will get this return . however, if the exchange rate return exceeds the deposit earnings, the difference will be paid directly to our citizens. moreover,

this income will be exempted from tax. suppose al jazeera results out of them has more on how the turkish government is trying to rescue its currency. turkish lira has been losing value against a dollar dramatically over the past month. and people who were paid in the local currency were selling turkish euro and buy in dollar as saving to avoid the losses . so this was further weakening the turkish li, right, gas the u. s d and the government has attempted several times to stop this fellowship ation. and all the attempts so far, how failed, so the desperate times are call for desperate measures. president jeff, taper, avalon came up with a needy economy more though, and he got a bit of radical move. and he said that the losses are going to be compensated by the government. so it is given the a guarantee to the deposit, which means if someone has $100.00 lire in his bank account and at the end of the

month, if they're turkish, they're a loses a value by 15 percent. then the government is going to add 15 lira to that account to compensate the, the loss. so this move is aiming to give it an and to the ad bullet the de la position in the country, and also encourage people to save in turkish lira rather than the the, the, the u. s. d. so, but however many of the economists are seeing that these need economy model is not sustainable because eventually it will cause more losses, as it will require a new tremendous amount of turkish lira in their market. and also force the central bank to print more and more turkish lira, which will lead the losses of the well in turkish lira and also caused a high inflation. israel's foreign ministry is rejected allegations from church

leaders that christians are being driven out of occupied these 2 reasons. old city ahead of christmas, christian groups of accused jewish settlers of harassment. they also alleged that border closures as a result of covey. 19 a targeting only them. harry forces reports from the old city unoccupied. east. jerusalem will usually at this time of year, the square here in front of the church of the holy separate would be thronged with christian pilgrims in the run at christmas. the omicron search and the very strong travel restrictions imposed by the way the government had put paid to that in its stead. though in the run up to christmas, we have a route of rep proportions between the church leaders here and the old city and the israeli government. last week those leaders put out of statements in which they talked about what have been happening in recent years. they say pressure on christian communities throughout the whole land in the form of a tax on churches, desecration, a church property, intimidation of christian communities, the purchase of christian property here in the christian quarter by what they call

radical groups. a reference to the sort of sexual activity over the name it as such that we've seen in recent years. now they are careful in that statement to pay tribute to the israeli government's commitment to christian life to freedom of worship. nonetheless, there has been a very strong rebuttal coming from the very foreign ministry saying that these claims are baseless a distortion of the reality on the ground. they talk about that commitment to freedom of worship, and they say it's infuriating that these church does don't talk about pressure on christian communities elsewhere in the middle east. the strength of his response follows what we've seen published in the u. k. media in recent days. an article by the head of the latin patriarch it here in jerusalem. also by the archbishop of canterbury, the most senior figure in the anglican church in which he talks about a hot cry coming from christians in the holy land. the jury in the trial of a former police officer charge with killing a black motorist is considering its verdict kimberly potter pleaded not guilty to

manslaughter, sang. she went to use her taser, but drew her gun and shot dante wright instead of killing triggered nationwide protests. the jury and gallon knacks false sacks, trafficking trial is once again asked for the printed testimony of 3 of her accuses . it's the 2nd day of deliberations. british socialite maxwell pleaded not guilty to grooming teenagers for underage sex with her former boyfriend, jeffrey epstein. she faces up to 70 years in prison. if found guilty. thailand has announced its delaying the closure of bangkok, central station for a month. the station was due to shout on thursday to make way for a new high speed railway funded in part by chinese loans. tony chang reports from bangkok but more than a century while m pon station in bangkok has stood as a testament to tie independence in the face of colonial dominance. opened in 1916

at a time when thailand was threatened by british regional control. it says at the center of southeast asia, 1st railway network, but while and pong is due to close, to make way for new grand central station at the heart of a high speed rail network. that's caused considerable concern for many, particularly as china is the main investor. i have a little camera i'm, it's important to make sure that when china makes investment, how are we going to make people of this country or of this region get benefit from an investment? china has long held ambitions for a high speed rail network in to southeast asia. as part of the belt and road initiative designed to bring chinese investment to neighboring countries, laos opened its high speed rail line in december. but huge cost of the project laying, lying through difficult terrain, has left the la government with a debt to china. the critics say will be crippling. after the military coup in 2014,

thailand's ruling generals quickly signed up to a chinese high speed rail project. but ty, negotiators bulked at the high interest rates and plans to construct a network that ran the length of the country were curtailed. but when you go into the details, i would say that that i, bureaucrats are very good at tardy lane projects. when, as a terms and not favourable cause, civil servant government officer, i'm a government officer. we are, we have been taught from the beginning that we have to do everything to protect the interests of our country. those delays a clear to see while the project well underway, work has been slow, and thailand remains reliant on its old rolling stock. the elevated shack has been raised, but there is still more than 200 kilometers to go before the final destination on the gulf of thailand. and those delays go all the way down the line. and this is

bank got brand new grand central station, but no high speed trains arriving today. because the time government hasn't yet decided whether it's going to use china's high speed track. and the crowds arriving at the new station are coming to catch a train. this is now the ty, capital central cove, at 19 vaccination center, with delays and the vaccine roll out this year. that's a process. the government's far more interested in keeping on track tourney chang l to 0 banker. let's take a closer look at the proposed high speed rail way network connecting china to se asia, the line linking couldn't ming to laos, capital. the piano was just being completed at the cost of $6000000000.00. the segment to bangkok, which has yet to be built has been costed at $12500000000.00, bringing with hopeful cost to $18.00 and a half 1000000000. andrew collier is the managing director of orient capital research. he says, china's loan repayment too high for countries to benefit from the road and belt

initiative. basically, the chinese, for the most part, are lending the money to all these countries are not investing. they're not putting their money in to buy an asset. they're saying we'll give you some subsidized loans, and we'll provide our technology in the case of some countries like laos that are desperate for a some sort of involvement and to improve their economies. they've kind of gotten in over their heads. their debt is way too high to the chinese banks. they're paying pretty decent decently high interest rates. and are, they're probably it's questionable whether they really needed the railway in the 1st place. a thailand a little different because they're negotiating position has always been stronger. partly because of their geographical location, and also because the country is diplomatically stronger. so thailand is balked at the 2 and a half percent that the chinese wanted their work to asking for 2 percent of the chinese also wanted to manage the land adjacent to the railway,

which can be quite profitable for real estate projects. and they're trying to push their own equipment because they're desperate to keep the western westerners and the japanese out of the region. so it's an interesting little dance. and thailand has been pretty good about keeping. it's the chinese at arm's length. there's been some advantages because one of them is that if you get the of the rail, passengers trains through quickly. you can move more freight because the tracks are emptier. you can also do business at one part of the country to the other fairly easily in china. but at what cost, i mean that money is coming from other places like education that is not and is being spent instead on the train business. a day frank american priest has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for sank, chile, abusing young girls in east he mole a 4 year old richard, dash back, abused them at his shelter for orphans and impoverished children. he was the frogs by the catholic church in 2018. the government gets done is taking control of

a private gold mine saying you had concerns about safety and the environment. the canadian owners say the environmental concerns are a pretext for nationalization. i'll just here has been given unprecedented access to the mine. the throbbing has mall from the stands is so called region. the foothills of the tear and shown mountain range, dramatic terrain that stretches across 5 countries. its highest peak is in the central asian nation of kurdistan, where i do look landscape, hide the secret what the country's president described as an environmental disaster . for 30 years, a major industrial operation has scarred the land and been at the center of serious industrial accidents. earlier this year, following decades of public protest, the new government seized operational control of the contour goldmine from its canadian partners, centera gold standard. you're going to get away from those skinny. this was done

only with cool children because they damaged our vironment. they violated our laws, worked outside the law, or this was proven after we initiated a criminal. as for the come to mind, it is a very big organization. it's the organization that could decide kyrgyzstan is destiny about hang on for the past $2530.00 is. they worked only with corrupt practices that bob barrack lee of destroyed our environment. make a mega mama like a t engine. while negotiations are underway, about the future of mining operations at the site, new management is trying to lessen environmental impact and improve safety conditions, especially the monitoring of seismic activities. at bunker. as soon as temporary, external management was introduced, they brought attention to improving the safety of mountain mining operations. now we bought new radar systems install this a white stumps and earlier we didn't have them on dollars. we also bought turn you right as which now in australia and under going tasting and calibration come to

where is the biggest industrial operation in the country. the single biggest generator of revenue and the biggest private sector employer. everything here is just bigger than thank you over operation that the comb for gold. my new management has added a fleet of these giant done france having more moving power is being able to extract more goal more quickly. crudest arms economy depends on this gold mine. but pulling or from the ground and gold from the or is dirty work with great economic benefit comes inevitable ecological harm. at one of the communities closest to the mind, there is open support for nationalization, but worry for the mountains with the numbers. the other thing i think come towards the good for our economy. mm hm. but the same time, there are some damage the environment we're concerned about receiving glaciers.

there's also talk of billions of tons of waste. we have some concerns. dig for gold and grow the economy or preserve the natural environment. a question that is likely to keep coming up as long as there is gold in these hills. zane basra, b l g 0 at the come to our gold mine in eastern curtis spun. ah, let's have a look at those headlines here now. 0. now the us says it'll provide 7 global aid groups, an additional $580000000.00 to fight cove. at 19, later on tuesday, president joe biden will announce plans to provide 500000000 free rapid home test kits for americans. scotland is cancelling its new year's events as 1st minister nicola sturgeon imposes new rules from the day off. the christmas will be no. there'll be new limits rather on the number of people allowed to make.