the time. [speaking in french] >> you're watching "france 24" live from paris. here are the stories making world headlines. e.u. member countries are demanding answers after pfizer announces a delay in deliveries of its covid voirks. the effort u. chief is trying to calm nerves saying the c.e.o. has ms proed to meet the bloc's order for the first quarter of the year. our correspondent in brusslings with the latest. votes are being counted in a hotly contested presidential election in you ganleda. reports of violence and the main opposition candidate says his

home is under siege by the military. angela merkel's c.d.u. party is meeting this weekend to pick its choice as her successor. our correspondent in berlin is standing by with that story. ♪ >> hello, everyone. -- thanks for joining us. some. u. countries are demanding answers after pfizer announced a delay in distributing its covid vaccine. health men stirs from six letters have win many -- written a letter to the farm suit al-- pharmaceutical country to express their concern. pfizer said it expects to slow vaccine deliveries beginning later this month in order to

prepare for increased production later on. the effort u. chief said she had spoken to the company's c.e.o. >> i got, like many of you, the news today that pfizer announced delays. i immediately called the c.e.o. of pfizer and he explained that there is a production delay in the next weeks but he reassured me that all guaranteed doses of the first quarter will be delivered in the first quarter. he's personally on the case on reducing the delayed period and to make sure that they will catch up as soon as possible. that was very important to convey the message to him that we urgent lip need the guaranteed doses within first quarter. >>for more we're joined by our correspondent in brewsles, dave

keating. despite those assurances, e.u. health ministers remain concerned. why is that? >> because this is really the only tool they have in their tool box at the moment because fileser is the only vaccine that has been approved for a while in the e.u. although the ministers aren't mad at the commission. they're mad at pfizer because they just suddenly got this notification this morning with the company essentially saying we have good news and bad news. the good news is we found way to sfl the production bottleneck problems and the bad news is to fix it is going to require upgrading our facility in belgium, which is going to delay the deliver of the vaccine over the next couple of weeks and we're not going to be able to give you all we told you we were. this could throw a spinner in the works for vaccination. the problem is this facility

here in bell jim -- belgium is doing a lot. it provides the vaccine for the entire world except the united states, where filingser is based this slowdown will not only effect e.u. countries. it will affect the u.k. and also, believe it or not, canada. canada is geeth getting its vaccines from pfizer here rather than the u.s. it does make people worry, particularly because pfizer is a vaccine that needs two doses three weeks apart so if someone is getting the pfizer vaccine right now as we speak and they need the second dose in three weeks, that's right at the time when those doses might not be available. >> so fileser isn't the only vaccine on the markets. are there others the effort u. could rely upon? >> yeah, the effort u. did approve the mo derna vaccine

next week. that's still ramping up to be dibted. the issue is moderna doesn't have much production capacity in europe. u.k. didn't approve it until a couple of days after e.u. they have approved the astrozen vaccine. for some will be, astrazeneca didn't apply until three days ago but i think this slowdown of the pfizer delivery is really going to put pressure on the effort u. medicine's agency to peed up its approval, particularly of the astrozen vaccine. it is a british-swedism company and this is a position the effort u. didn't want to be in, to be relying on just one vaccine from one production company. the whole idea was to spread out

orders over a wunsch of company. i think over the coming weeks we'll see a bick big, big push to get approvals happening faster. >> thank you so much. to the u.s. where joe biden has just announced his administration's plans to administer cove covid across the country. biden has accused the trump administration of bundleding the rollout. so far about 30 million shots have been distributed but only 11 million people have received their first doses. biden is promising better communication and coordinate nation with the states. a new variant of the coronavirus has been identified in brazil. the news comes after two other mutation of the virus were discovered in the u.k. and in south africa. the three separate variants don't appear to make you more sick but they all appear to be more contagious and they're

raising concerns about the efficacy of vaccines. meanwhile the worldwide coronavirus depth toll has surpassed two million. we have a report. reporter: identified as the v.o.c. 201202 variant, the new u.k. strain is believed to be up to 50% more infectious. it's now been reported in at least 50 is uns, according to the world health organization. >> we believe it is more infectious because it sticks to ourselves better and we are also getting evidence that people who have in new variant produce much more virus. their viral load is much higher. >> the variant now accounts for more than 60% of positive tests in the london area. it's caused hospitalizations to surge past the previous spring peak and it's believed to spread more ed -- easily in children.

but health experts say it won't make the vaccine less effective. they've reached a similar conclusion about a new strain in brazil. it's behind a spike in kays in brazil's northern state, where the health community has reached a breaking point. it's considered more infectious but unlikely to impact the vaccine. when it comes to a new south africa strain, however, health experts are more concerned. the variant, also thought to be more contagious, has spread to at least 20 countries, according to the who. >> the south african varnt is a bit more worrying because it has more changes in the spike gene that encodes e protn that we know is really important for enhancing the infectivety of the virus. the worry there is that a few

more changes may make the current vaccines less effective against the south african variants. reporter: there's no evidence so far, however, that these new strains are more fatal. the best fenses against them remain social distancing, mask wearing and free agent hand washing. >> now to you ganleda where votes are being counted in a hotly contested election. musivinna against the singer turned politician bobi wine. there's been intimidation, arrests and violence from authorities under the government's control and bobi wine says his home is under siege by the military. reporter: hours after he claimed thursday's poll was rigged. opposition presidential candidate bobi wine says he's been placed under house arrest

and his life is in danger. he accuses security forces of illegal little entering his prompt. >> when i asked them what they are doing inside my compound, they told me to take my question to the -- person of the i know that they're targeting my life. i know that they're trying to nolings -- normalize such actions. reporter: a military spokesperson told journalists, the security forces were there to protect him. the country's lek toirm commission says his opponent, the incumbent president, has the lead in sunday's poll. he's been in power for 36 years and is running for a sixth term. he vowed to accept the election's results.

[indiscernible] >> officials say the election took place with few incidence but security personnel were out in force. residents say fear that is kept people off the street. >> i think nothing is going to happen because people are scarered, of course. >> violence broke out during the campaign. pro testors were arrested and dozens were feared. final results are expected on saturday. >> palestinian are the mahmud abbas has announced plans for the first election in more than 15 years. legislative elections will happen on january 22nd and a second presidential election on july 31st. the last election saw abbas replacing yasser arafat.

german chancellor's angela merkel's party is choosing a new leader. he has steered the country through a series of crises since she took office in -- joining us now is our correspondents in berlin, nick spicer. the person who replaces merkel will have big shoes to fill. who are the main candidates? reporter: there are three of them in this rather change virtual party congress, twice postponed. only eight petitions in the giant berlin congress hall. i n't cover it because nobody else is allowed in. watching and will vote online and will continue to do to tomorrow. the first one is a right winger,

a fiscal conservative. he got into trouble with merkel and ended up leaving parliament. he is seen as somebody who wants them to have a stronger volleys. there's a governor of one of the biggest regions of germany who is said to be merkel's favorite. she hasn't tipped her hand but her chief of staff has. and finally, there's a former environment minister. he's younger, savvier, more on social media and connected with young people so it's between those three men and it's impossible to protect -- predict what the outcome is. it's 1,001 delegates. there are a lot of machine nations and the voting will take place tomorrow at the three candidates speak to the delegates virtually once again. >> typically the person who

becomes head of the party also runs for chancellor. is that also the case this time around, nick? >> no, it's a bit curious. there is a logic to being head of the party and chancellor because when you want to get legislation passed, you can tell your party to vote a certain way. and this time around, largely because of covid, the three candidates are not the most liked in germany and they've been thrust at the forefront of the stag because of the cone cone -- coronavirus pandemic. the first is the health minister, on tv all the time. people think me -- he might be a good chancellor and the preferred candidate of most from the beginning of the righ pandemic for harsh measures, that more needs to be done and, of course, he turned out to be

right so those two men are actually candidates, in one sense, nondeclared to be chance lore. they both say they're not interested but those kind of promises can be in political life pretty much anywhere but it will depend on the votes tomorrow by the delegate and then how popular that winner is. >> thank you so much for your report. after nearly a decade in power, dutch prime minister mark ruta has stepped down. his resignation is connected to the government's failure to convict thousands of people from wrosm accusations of tax fraud. scandal left financial ruin for thousands of families. here he is earlier today. >> today the question of political responsibility was poseds. we are unanimous. when the whole system has

responsibility. this has led us to the decision to hand the resignation of the whole cabinet to the king. after this press conference, i will return to the palace to provide further details to the king. >> we remind you of our top stories. e.u. member countries are demanding answers after fileser announces a delay in deliveries of it covid vaccine. the effort u. chief is trying to calm nerves saying they've promised to moment the bloc's order through the first quarter of the year. votes are being counted in the hotly contested presidential election in you ganleda. the main opposition candidate says his home is under siege by the military. as y just heard, angela merkel's c.d.u. matter is -- party is meeting this weekend to

pick her successor. time now for the late nest business and we have katherine bennett here from our business desk. good to see you. news in about the social media platform weas app. there was a huge bash lack against these measures. is that why the company is having second thoughts? >> absolutely. they're under huge amount of pressure because they'vers toed the company to remove this planned update. users would have to agree to share their data with instagram and facebook. -- they've been engaged in damage control, trying to reassure users how they collect and use personal data. they're rolling back the eighth of february deadline for

accepting changes to it change in service and now that won't happen until the 15. of theday may. the company demilt they need to do much more about security on theplasm. >> companies have been suspending political donations following the attack on the alcohol of the sixth of january. in the u.s., parties use action parts. either stopped donations all together or been more targeted in their approach. suspending donation to the 147 rents in congress who voted against the certification of electoral college votes. hallmark cards has even asked republican senators roger marshall and josh hawley to return donations that the company gave them over the last two years totaling $12,000.

a look at the markets now. wall street ended with a selloff at investors bolted at biden's key man. markets down. so ended the week downbeat, closing in the red. down 1% and the -- and dax both dropped over 1.5%. the u.k. government says that probst brexit treeled between mainland and northern ireland is flowing smoothly but supply chains are said to be just days away from collapsing. urgent intervention was asked for earlier in the week. reporter: supermarket shoppers in northern ireland have been left with a bitter taste in

their mouths as the shelves lie bare as a result of covid. >> our companies are taking order and we can't deliver that until further notice. >> northern ireland is aligned to avoid a hardboarder with the relick of ireland but that means that british goods arriving in the territory are subject to checks in case they're then imported into the effort u. many companies are struggling to advance. the checks are set to become even more complicated. fading supermarkets have written to the government asking for a long temple solution ahead of that deligse. >> i've never seen disruption on the scale we're seeing now. i've talked to others and 40% are coming back from g.b. --

that's something to hallish could not have dreamed of. >> the british prime minister admitted there are teevepting problems. >> and finally, we all now hoe ow -- annoying it is when you forget a password fromine line service. but imagine in that password give you access to millions of dollars. that's the case of a man in the u.s., who only has two guesses yet to get into bit coin. 20% of built danny in the world are stranded behind a forgotten password. bit coin prices have skyrocketed in the past few months but this week stabilized after hitting a peak last week. that wraps up the business from me. >> thanks a lot, katherine. time for our focus report. tonight we take you to a small village in iceland which was

home to french ferbermen in the 1930's. many of them died in difficult conditions but today members of the village still remembers them. >> the last of the scooners levitt this part of iceland long ago but there remains the memories of a different time. soldiers wrote a little-known history. they haimed from varying small towns and traveled here to fish cod. for four centuries and until 1935, french fishermen would stop by here, in this village in the east of ice land, a place now known as the small french village among locals.

reporter: joyful memories, even though reality was very different, especially far they would spend eight months at sea working 20-hour zay days, all the while facing the pobaltsd of disease, and homesickness. some 4,000 are believed to have died, many lost at sea but also some in the city grave yard. the building is now a museum, a tribute to those who made it possible. >> see the fishermen. they were ver inneed to meet a doctor. this is a young man, maybe 12, 1 or something. always one young man and he was making coach and -- 1

>> those children are barely the same age but one day they will be responsibleor keeping the memory of these men alive. >> i would be too scared. >> they were doing have this oh, just for their -- that's great. >> they learned about this history and they also comein here every spring to visit this museum. and everybody here in this village wants to lift the story up. reporter: almost each ye, french men and women, some of them descentents of the fishermen, come here to learn more about how they they would fed their country. this parrishen couple is traveling along the icelandic coast but they'dnever heard of the history of this country until they will got here.

reporter: throughout world war i, the number of french ships stopping here began to drop. in 1935, the last one left and never returned. ice lands happened gun protecting its territorial waters and french crews had had enough of these sometimes deadly trips. >> that's all for us here. stay tuned for more on "france 24."

01/15/21 01/15/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> what is concerned about the potential per violence at multiple rallies planned here and it is he and around the country, could bring armed individuals within close proximity to the government buildings and officials. amy: the head of the fbi speaks publicly for the first time more than a week after the attack o