>> the white house piles the pressure on the f.d.a. to prove pfizer's conavirus vaccine for emergency use across the united states. this is the world news from al-jazeera. president-elect joe biden unveiled more top picks for cabinet posts. just 40 days to go until he's sworn into office. >> we will reduce emissions by at least 5 a%.

by 2030. >> the european union taking the lead on battling climate change. an ambitious target to fight global warming. and this year's success amidst the pandemic. >> approval for the u.s. rollout of the pfizer biontech coronavirus vaccine appears imminent. the white house is piling the pressure on the f.d.a. with president trump's chief of staff urging the head of the group, dr. steven harve, approve it. look at that number, more than 2,700 deaths recorded on thursday and a top u.s. health official expects that pace to continue for the next two or three months which means you're looking at daily death tolls

equivalent to events like 9/11 and pearl harbor, dratraumatic events that reshape the u.s. for decades. the haas has recorded more than 210,000 cases a day just this past week. in europe, calls for growing for some tougher lockdown measure -germany as it reports increases in infections an death, switzerland is forcing restaurants and bars to close early, wales might go back into lockdown after christmas as well. we'll talk more about europe later, we start with the u.s. mark hannah in washington, d.c. i mentioned the pressure being put on the f.d.a. apparently in jest, a jibe that you should prepare your resignation if you don't hurry up, but nothing is completely in jest these days. >> basically it's shattering the firewall that traditionally exists between politic and the f.d.a. and its deliberations.

the white house taking a direct intervention by attempting to bring pressure to bear on the f.d.a. to announce the emergency use authority. now the f.d.a. held the meeting with the independent experts on thursday. they voted that the vaccine should be approved. we expect approval at any moment either later on tonight or tomorrow. once that happen, pfizer says it's got 20 million doses ready to roll out to various parts of the united states. in new york state, for example, the governor there says he expects to get some 180,000 doses by sunday ormond. that would be enough to vaccinate some 90,000 people. but the logistics of getting the vaccine to the various areas of the united states very, very complicated. given that the federal government is not play anything role in the distribution. what is happening is it's being

left gth governor of each state as to how it'll be distributed and who will get it first. the c.d.c. recommended the first doses be administered to frontline health care workers followed by those living in assisted living environments. after that it will be essential workers. that particular category has some 18 million people so certainly there's going to be a shortage of the vaccine for a long period of time. pfizer saying 20 million doses will roll out immediately. moderna which is expecting emergency use authority in the next seven days also says it will have 20 million doses to roll out immediately. but the logistics of this are going to be incredibly difficult. nonetheless in the next 24 hours, it is expected the emergency use will be allowed and the vaccine finally will begin to roll out after an unprecedented pace of development.

>> it is extraordinary. let's pick up on some of the that now with judy fisher, associate research professor of microbiology and immunology at georgetown university. joining us from washington. just to pick up on what mike was saying about what -- what mike was say, you've got federal pressure, get it approved. but it goes to the states after that that's the way a lot of things work in the united states but is that a risk putting it out to the states an then having different levels of rollouts, different ideas of who are essential workers in each state? those sorts of things? >> i wouldn't call it so much a risk as just reflection of the way that the federal and state system works in the united states. what it will mean is the speed of rollout and the efficiency of getting that vaccine to the frontline health workers will depend on the planning and the resources at each state level. some states have done an excellent job and as soon as

those vaccine doses reach these states they'll hit the ground running. others have a little farther to go an perhaps some gaps in their plans of how to reach the most vulnerable populations. >> the pace of the rollout is quite extraordinary, that we are nine month into a pandemic an got to a vaccine stage already and now this push to get it approved. could this have happened any faster or are we lucky about how this is gone? >> i would say we are lucky and we are seeing incredibly fast prgress, faster than anyone predibbed, based on decades of solid research behind it. we've seen that the willingness to invest and cooperate internationally. we're seeing the vaccine trials simultaneously rather than in sequence over a period of time is paying off in the ability to look at the safety and efficacy

of the vaccines in a very accelerated timeline. this is an exciting development. >> once f.d.a. approval does come through and they depli the first 20 million doses, i'm wondering how quickly vaccines can be made after that we see this the little viles an think that's the december there, but the scale and pace is like nothing we've seen before. >> absolutely. and it's -- we have to reach every person in the entire world by the end of this vaccine rollout. we know they'll be providing doses at a measured pace they can only scale up so quibblingly. the pfizer vaccine, because it's going to require two doses, those 20 million doses get cut in after in terms of the number of people who can be reached.

we'll see the rollout and then we'll see doses being provided in batches over the summer. to the u.s. and countries around the world. so is -- >> so timeline? i know, how long is a piece of string at the moment but what are your thoughts? just if you look at the united states first of all how much more of 2020 -- of 2021 do you think will be taken up with just the immunization? >> i think what we should expect is to see the doses roll out for people at highest risk, first the pfizer vaccine and there are others waiting to be reviewed and approved for safety and efficacy. we'll see the first wave of vack nations the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021. and then there's going to be a bit of a ramp up time unfortunately. there'll be some vaccinations really revving up an beginning over the summer. i think the hope is that by the fall, by the late summer and fall, we'll start to see the

vaccines reach everyone and not just those highest priority populations. obviously it's all very dependent on the vaccine companies rolling these doses out, the agreements made with governments and the ability of the state and local health care providers to get them to the population all across the country. i think we really, honestly, people should prepare themselves to keeping disciplined about distancing, mask wearing and other measures we can use to slow the spread of the virus through at least the beginning and middle of summer. >> great to talk to you, thank you for your time. >> thank you so much. >> britain's astrazeneca will start testing a combination of its experimental vaccine with russia's sputnik v shot. trials are to begin by the end the year. >> across the united states, they're getting ready to vaccinate people against

covid-19. it's a matter of urgency with the daily death toll reaching 3,000 this week and hospitals struggling. they food and drug administration is set to approve emergency use of the pfizer-biontec h-vac seen in the next few days. >> as we vaccinate more and more people, maybe by mid year, neck year, achieve herd immunity, perhaps 75% of people vaccinated to shut dun and end the pandemic. hopefully in 2021. >> in another big move, russian and u.k. scientists teaming up. they're giving both the sputnik v vack seep, reported to be 92% effective and the ast a rah -- astrazeneca vaccine with efficacy around 70%. >> it's like cross training in athletics where two different

sports can make you a better athlete. so maybe rather than giving the first dose and booster doses, giving two different vaccine mace give you a stronger or more durable immune response. >> there are new setbacks too. france's sinofy and britain's glacksse smith klein said their vaccines won't be ready until next year. they were set to provide almost 30% of covax doses. australia has canceled production of a tchestic vaccine after trials showed it could lead to false positive test for h.i.v. fixing the problem could take another year. this was one of four vaccines the government there has ordered. it's still planning to start vaccinations next march. insisting its skessdz in stopping coronavirus spreading means it doesn't need to rush. >> we're aware of what's happening in other states an other nations around the world. we have a front row seat, frankly, as they go through

that. and we're through any potential issues that may arise. >> in europe, the u.k. has a head start. this 91-year-old became the first person anywhere to get the biontech vaccination as part of a massive rollout. it was manufactured in belgium. other nations are set to follow once there's a green light from the crurepeen union. >> whether that will happen within the same hour with 27 member state, the needle is injected everywhere at the same time i'm not sure but we want to do this in a coordinated fashion and show that everyone has the same kind of access. >> meanwhile, health experts and campaigners are urging wealthy nations to make sure the world's poorest citizens have access to vaccines if and when they're ready. >> u.s. president-elect joe biden unveil nud picks for his administration, many familiar

names with close ties to former president barack obama's cabinet. heidi is in delaware to tell us more. is there something to the fact that joe biden is sort of going back in time? >> i think if you ask some progressives that may have been hoping for new blood here but that is not what president-elect joe biden is going for. he is showing definitely a trend of selecting people who he has close relationships with, who he has worked with in the past. today he announced susan rice, another person he's bringing back from the obama administration. rice was obama's ambassador to the u.n., later his national security advisor. but the roll that she's been asked to do now is actually a different one. perhaps a little bit unexpected. biden is appointing her to be director of the domestic policy council.

she'll be in charge of liasing with federal agencies on policies as diverse as health care, to education, to civil rights. not something jerez may my support but president biden saying today that rice has his full confidence and she knows the government inside an out. on the same trend of selecting people who are familiar names from obama's time, biden also announced the secretary of agriculture to have a repeat stint as well as a ba ma's chief of staff, dennys mctun now to come back this time as secretary of veteran affairs. >> heidi joe castro with the latest news from the biden transition. in the news ahead a u.n. backed court sentences a his boll low member to life in prison. the 2005 assassination of former prime minister ariri.

why hong kong's media tycoon jimmy lai has been charged under china's controversial national security law. ♪ >> we've got some pretty wet weather across the central plains of the u.s. massive cloud here. some very heavy rain across the great lains over toward the appalachians. maybe some significant snowfall on the northern flank of this system. as it rubs over toward the lakes. another system that rolls back in as we go through saturday, not just further east, on sunday. starting a little further south, down toward oklahoma and some very heavy rain as that warm air gets pulled back in from the gulf of mexico. by this stage it should be

somewhat dryer and brighter over toward the corner but heavy snow there across the eastern side of canada. could see heavy snow on the western side of canada as well. dry across a good part they have caribbean. some showers still in place there just around costa rica pushing up toward nicaragua. sunshine and showers for the eastern islands, more sunshine than showers. should brighten up in jamaica through sunday, a top temperature in kingston of 27 degrees celsius. ♪ >> i was raised in france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents. this is me.

fighting both isis and say asaud. >> the first of a two-part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father, the son, and the jihad. part one. on al-jazeera. ♪ >> these are our top stories. the united states is set to rl out the pfizer-biontech coronavirus vaccine they have white house is putting pressure on the top drug thord, the f.d.a. americans could be getting the vaccine within days. britain's astrazeneca is planning to test the

effectiveness of its covid-19 vaccine and whether it can be boosted if combined with russia's sputnik v. trials are expected to start there in the coming weeks. and u.s. president-elect joe biden's unveiled five new picks for his incoming administration. many of them familiar names. with close ties to the cabinet of former president barack obama. new evidence in the case of an italian student tortured and murdered in egypt could further implication security officials there. video clips obtained by al-jazeera from italian sources indicate that the 28-year-old researchers was being monitored while in egypt. on thursday, italian prosecutors announced they plan to charge four senior members of the egypt's security services. the state of the union's body was found in a ditch outside of cairo in 2016. here's some audio calling a high level colonel after having made a visit to the apartment.

>> we have human watch right's e.u. officer on skype, the evidence clearly mounting up now and the italians made that decision earlier in the week to charge four people. where could it actually all lead? i can't imagine there'll be must have much if any cooperation from the egyptians. >> yes, indeed. in a joint statement released earlier this week by prosecutors from both sides they basically say they just agree to disagree the egyptians question the credible of the evidence presented by the italians.

however, the italians are determined to proceed with the trial which will most likely be held in absentia and will start in a few weeks. >> this story goes back four years now. maybe not everyone exactly remembers it. now that we hear the news that he was being monitored while in egypt, can you explain why he would have been monitored and why he was seen as a threat? >> well, the fact is, what happened what he went through is ordinary for thousands of people in egypt. it's been nearly five years, he has become a symbol, a symbol of hope, but it's the national security in egypt is quite

notorious. we documented rampant torture, disappearances in the country and how the judiciary is effectively in service of the system of repression in the country. he happened to be from italy and maybe they didn't believe he was italian but we cannot forget the thousand others as we speak who are in jails. >> huh would you suggest that pressure could be put on egypt? as we said and the first question that's likely to be very little cooperation from the egyptians. what can italy, other european nations, any part of the international community do? >> well, i can't believe i'm saying this but a very welcome first step could be to stop decorating egypt. earlier this week, president mack ron in france gave sisi the highest honor of the french public. but in general i would say that

the attitude and the approach by the western countries toward egypt has been one that has emboldened his brutal rule. western diplomacy has been extremely week. -- weak. just a few weeks ago, egypt was under the spotlight for the arrest of three senior staff from the eipr, one of the few remaining human rights organization -egyp. it's been hard to have even some weak statements from the west which is even occurrence. there's been no action whatsoever in the u.n. human rights council. western countries keep sending arms to egypt. the e.u. with global sanctions regime they should seriously think about some egyptian officials. >> claudio, from human rights watch, thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> the trump administration is pushing ahead with a planned $1

billion arms sale to morocco. if approved by the u.s. congress the deal will provide provision -- precision guided weapons an dropes. this is just a day after the white house announced a deal brokered by the u.s. for morocco to normalize relations with israel. they agreed to recognize morocco's claim of the western part of sahara as part of that agreement. they are returning refugees to camp, they fled to the capital, addis ababba in fight tweeng local forces and federal government soldiers. the u.n. says their run to tigray so soon is unacceptable but ethiopia insists they'll be safe. there are 96,000 refugees registered in egypt, most live in tigray which border eritrea. and announced killing of four workers, one staff was killed at a refugee camp, danish refee

council had three workers killed last month. your peen union lead verse reached a deal to try to slow climate change and tack they will most pressing issue of our times. the block has agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade, 2030. it comes ahead of a climate summit marking five years since the landmark paris climate agreement, that was 2015, when world leaders reached a legally binding treaty to limit global warming well below two degrees celsius. friday's agreement is fraught with challenges. a global federation of trade unions estimates the transition to this net zero emissions would actually pull 11 million jobs at risk, mostly in eastern europe. climate groups they the e.u. target falls far short of tackling the real global climate emergency. paul brennan has more on this from buss else. >> the e.u. would prioritize sorting out the seven-year

budget so they punned the negotiations over the climate deal into the evening. and as a result it went way into the night. in fact, it was around 6:00 a.m. when they finally decided to agree a deal largely because angela merkel, the chance already of germany, holding the presidency of the european council for this six-month period, said it would be a daster if they couldn't come to an agreement on the 15th anniversary of the paris agreement. what basically happened is poland fell into line. the polish economy is heavily reliant on coal. so. their quartersest of the electricity generated in poland is from burning coal and the industry employees around 100,000 strongly unionized workers. i'm hearing that the polish prime minister said you've got to give me a deal to protect our economy otherwise i'm going to lose my job when i go back to warsaw. and although the president of the european council didn't say what kind -- what the exact

concessions were, i can tell you what poland was looking for and that is for economic concessions, economic protections, and also for the level of emissions cuts to be associated with the g.d.p. of each country. so although the european union is going to go for 55% as a block, it's clear that some countries will probably not need 55% and others will have to exceed 55% if they're to reach that 55% average. as i say, poland relieved and happy a deal was done. it's -- as i said, they were rethreaved deal wiz done. >> one of the men found guilty of murdering lebanon's prime minister sentenced to five lirme terms. he was tried and sentenced in absentia, found to have played a leading role in the bombing that killed hariri and 21 other -2005. his sentence was handed down by the special tribunal for lebanon

based in the netherlands. hong kong's jimmy lai will appear in court on sunday after being charged under a controversial security law. the allegations include he colluded with foreign forces. lai, who also has british citizenship, is already in prison after being denied bail over a separate charge. now cuba has announced a five-fold increase in the minimum wage from january 1. part of a package of economic reforms. the basic wage will go from 17 to 87 dollars a month. the government will also unify its two official currencies. you've got the convertible peso paid to the u.s. dollar, that will be phased out over six months, leaving only the regular peso which is worth 24 times less. the country has been suffering from tougher u.s. sanctions and a drop in tourism. such a long list of industries that suffered through this pandemic, the video game business isn't one of them.

it's thriving. most people locked up at home, sales have skyrocketed. the successful year has been celebrated with the annual game awards. >> it's one of the biggest nights on the gaming calendar and this year the game awards went digital, live streaming new games and recognizing the year's best. it's been a big year for the sector. with millions stuck at home, searching for new forms of entertainment, gaming is seeing record revenue, record engagement, and record numbers of new players. the global market is estimated to generate nearly $160 billion in revenue in 2020, a 9.3% growth from this time last year. >> there are so many genres, such a wide variety of just like stories being told through gaming, that's the major appeal.

you can find something for anyone. >> before the pandemic hit, the industry was already thriving. games are now easy to access on mobile devices and evolving into immersive, graphically striking forms of entertainment. but for many can compete, gaming will be a category at tribecca film fest ral in new york and for the first time a composer was nominated far major australian music award far video game sound track. >> i think it's a vote of confidence in the games industry to be out of -- to be able to provide venues for musicians to do creative and exciting things. >> as vaccines are rolled out and other industries reopen many experts are confident the gaming sector will continue to grow, especially with more governments supporting it with subsidies and incentives. >> it's part of a movement that's recognizing that games are a maturing medium that has

an enormous amount to offer and isn't just something that we need to be afraid of through traditional media like a video game addiction. >> 2.6 billion people around the world are estimated to play video games. gaming giants microsoft and sony are hoping to further benefit from people spend manager time at home. both releasing new consoles. ♪ >> half past the hour, these are the headlines. the united states is set to follow the u.k. in rolling out the pfizer-biontec h-vac seen. the white house is piling pressure on the top drug authority, the f.d.a., for approval. americans could be getting the vaccine within a few days. here's mike with more from washington. >> the white house taking a direct intervention by attempting to bring pressure to bear on the f.d.a. to announce

the emergency use authority. now the f.d.a. held a meeting with the independent experts on thursday, they voted that the vaccine should be approved. we expect approval at any moment either later on tonight or tomorrow. now once that happens, pfizer says it's got 20 million doses ready to roll out to the various parts of the united states. >> also britain's astrazeneca plans to test whether the effectiveness of its covid-19 vaccine can be boosted when combined with russia's sputnik v. trials are expected to start in the coming weeks. u.s. president-elect joe biden's unveiled five top picks for his incoming administration, many of them familiar names with close ties to the cabinet of former president barack obama. new evidence in the case of an italian student tortured and murdered in egypt could further implication security official there is. video clips obtained by al-jazeera from italian sources

indicate that the researcher was being monitored while in egypt. italian prosecutors say they plan to charge four senior members of egypt's security services. the trump administration is pushing ahead with a planned $1 billion arms sale to morocco. if approved by the u.s. congress, the deal will provide precision guided weapons an drones. this deal, just a day after the white house announced a deal brokered by the u.s. for morocco to normalize its relations with israel. washington agreed to recognize morocco's claim of the disputed western sahara region as part of the agreement. the british government has expressed concern after hong kong's pro-democracy activist and media tie kohn jimmy lai was charged under a controversial security law. he will appear in court on sunday. allegations include that lai co-lewded with foreign forces. you're up to date with the headlines on al-jazeera. coming up, witness.

>> you've got colleagues on the ground in the canaries. what's the situation. >> informed opinions. >> how big does foreign policy figure in the early stages of the biden administration? >> he comes into the office with a huge amount of foreign policy experience. >> in depth analysis of the day's headlines. >> how will a place like idlib get the vaccine when there's no money and rich countries are fighting for it? >> we understand the differences in cultures across the world. we brick y news that matters toou.

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