100000000 people in 4 months. Germany is going into lockdown again as it imposes more covert 19 instructions after cutting measures fail to reduce infections. And fears over missing students after gunmen attacked a school in Northern Nigeria by the families blame the government. British an e. U. Leaders say braggs it talks are going to go on even though negotiators havent reached a deal sunday is supposed to be the deadline for the deal but both sides have been meeting again the head of the e. U. Commission most of all the lay in the says that osce told topics that deserve more discussion. Despite the exhaustion after almost one year of negotiations and despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we both think that it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile. We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the taffs and to see whether no reach an agreement can be reached even at this late stage while so far there have been several sticking points but the main ones include what access french fishing boats can have to british waters and the socalled level Playing Field for trade if the 2 sides dont reach an agreement border checks and taxes will be introduced for goods travelling between the u. K. And the e. U. By january the 1st now our correspondent john holl is in london were going to be speaking to him in a couple of minutes 1st lets go to paul brennan whos in brussels and that is where the talks are taking place from the outside paul it looks as though the ball is essentially in the e. U. s court that its got all the leverage but what exactly is it worried about in all of this. The e. U. From the outset has been worried that the that britain would essentially be a major competitor right on its doorstep and the way that britain was demanding access to the European Union market while at the same time wanting to divert from european regulations rules would give britain an unfair competitive advantage and the e. U. Countries germany france all the rest of them as well but many germany or france were particularly concerned that that should not be allowed to happen but were having at the moment is a crisis i think of understanding about what each side actually stands for because this issue of the level Playing Field has been clarified to a large degree i think in recent days on wednesday for example the british cabinet minister michael gove said that he could be happy to accept a known regression type of mechanism in britain would not backtrack on existing rules but wouldnt necessarily update its rules to stick closely parallel to the rules and in response to that on friday us live on the lens said they wouldnt expect britain to update its rules every time the European Union upgraded its she said but there would be tweaks to the way that britain access the markets. So it seems to me that the crux of all of this is how do you define whats unfair competition would be how do you process a trigger mechanism to have. An arbitration method of deciding how to correct unfair competition and how wide that outrage and how wide those sanctions might be for example a transgression in fisheries could lead to a retaliate by the e. U. On farming for example shouldnt just be kept to one sector we havent been getting a running commentary from the negotiations inside its been kind of anonymous briefings here and that very often that contradictory we know where theyre going to carry on talking. They havent even said its a new deadline for the torch its perhaps pointless to do so the only deadline we have of course is the 31st of december when the transition period ends paul thanks very much indeed thats paul brennan bringing us up to date from brussels. And lets bring in john holl hes talking to us form a westminster as paul was saying there it sounded as though there had been a certain amount of a clarification at least as far as trade was concerned so there was a move or suggestion that something might be moving forward but we had the u. K. Prime minister talking just a few hours ago and he certainly seemed to have the tone of preparing people for a no deal braggs it. Well hes maintained that certainly throughout the last week or so one has to wonder of course whether this isnt the sort of predictable perhaps inevitable moment of high drama at the end of these negotiations ultimately brinkmanship if you like before a deal is struck at the 11th hour it wouldnt be the 1st time and that is indeed possible but i think youd be a fool to bet on it and Boris Johnson seems very much to be putting the country on notice now to get ready for a no deal scenario at and telling people basically that everything will be fine but make no mistake during the course of the week he said these negotiations were very very likely to end in failure were told that there is a 5000000000. 00 Contingency Operation in effect at the moment largely it seems to try and smooth operations at the countrys ports where its expected there will be chaotic queues delays in the trade and transfer of goods and so on for business is this is an absolutely nail biting moment business is waiting to find out whether they will be subject to and their trade to World Trade Organization rules thats a system of tariffs and quotas over goods that will lead to delays at borders with much more rigorous checks required cost of production will go up that means the cost the prices of some goods will go up whole Industries Stand to be in peril potentially then they struggle to survive and on top of all of that the failure of these talks or no deal scenario could force in relations with the European Union potentially for years to come take a listen to what Boris Johnson had to say this afternoon. We are always happy to talk and to make progress where we can and i do think as i say there is a deal to be done if our partners want to do it but we remain very far apart on these key issues and you know what they are u. K. Cant be locked into the e. U. Use regulatory or bit weve obviously got to take back control of our fisheries full of years after people voted for it. I was just 18 days to go down to january the 1st with the public suddenly faced with the rather daunting reality that no deal is likely they have to balance their concerns against the government as a sort of throughout this process shrug their shoulders and go look everythings going to be absolutely fine weve sort of everything they say theyve got a playbook that maps out every conceivable circumstance its meant to be reassuring the fact is theyve given very little guidance about what is to happen what preparations are actually afoot and while Boris Johnson says theres nothing to worry about and the reality is that a lot of people are worried businesses people on the streets are worried people within his own party are worried and warning that a failure to reach a trade deal now would be a failure of statecraft by implication or is johnsons own failure john holl live for us in london john i thank you very much indeed. Well as coaches 19 vaccines start to receive emergency approvals the race is on to distribute them and a lot of the focus is on 3 western candidates those made by well donna and us a zeneca a set to be close to approval a vaccine developed by us from pfizer and japanese biotech has already been okayed by some countries the 1st patients get jobs in the u. K. On tuesday and vaccinations may begin in the u. S. On monday russia began handing out its sputnik vaccine several weeks ago many governments are wary because moscow hasnt shared much of the data about it 3 chinese vaccines are also said to be approved ones already being used in the u. A. E. But its uncertain how widely these are being distributed elsewhere so millions of doses have already been ordered by governments around the world but its not clear whos going to get them 1st and when or if put a hard hit countries can get the supplies that they need well the 1st doses of pfizers Coronavirus Vaccine in the u. S. Are on their way to be delivered the hope is to immunize 100000000 people by april pfizers using containers with dry ice in g. P. S. Enabled sensors to ensure each shipment remains at minus 70 celsius workers in michigan are preparing more containers for the next shipment the elderly and Health Care Workers are going to be the 1st to get the vaccine ok john hendren is joining us now from washington d. C. Hes been keeping across all of this john just bring us up to speed with the scale of the operation and the logistics that are involved in making this happen. This is an Immunization Program unlike any weve ever seen not just in our lifetimes but in the recent in the past century or so logistically it is challenging with the keeping everything its negative 70 degrees centigrade also just the massive scale of the distribution we heard today from an official from operation warp speed that is the program to develop vaccines here in the u. S. Who said they expect 40000000. 00 doses to be delivered by the end of the year and possibly 50 to 80000000 more doses in january joe biden the incoming president of the United States says he wants 100000000 doses delivered in this country of a little more than 300000000 in his 1st 100 days in office so you can understand why employees it finds are applauded when the 1st trucks left that facility went out to fed ex in u. P. S. Hubs in order to distribute the 1st doses of that vaccine 145 locations are expected to receive them on monday and by ones day 636 locations will have received them if everything goes to plan were talking about 3000000 doses in this initial tranche and remember everybody has to take 2 doses so you know 100000000 really serves 50000000 people but this is just a massive undertaking and some of the concerns with the logistics are perfectly legitimate thats why you have u. S. Marshals escorting all of these materials and thats why they have such precise protocols about how long those vaccines can be kept out of the boxes you can you can keep them in those boxes for 30 days if you replace the dry ice every 5 days but theres a very short window in. To do that in order to make sure it doesnt get colds and this is a a dramatic undertaking something that nobody in our lifetimes has seen and joan judging the effectiveness of this over the coming months is going to be key the data of course as it has been all the way through this is going to be absolutely vital but there is a risk isnt that there are going to be a lot of people in the u. S. Who dont want to take this vaccine for one reason or another and that of course might skew the results that the researchers are getting over the next few months. Thats right because this is something we have never seen on this kind of a scale youve got a lot of concern especially since this vaccine came out in less than a year that is the shortest time previously that any vaccine had been developed would was for months that took 4 years and that meant that you had a lot more data so there are skeptical people here in the u. S. Also the virus has been politicized youve got people denying that it exists that its a hoax and then you have the very legitimate concern about transporting a virus that needs to be kept in negative 70 degrees celsius and then of course there are the people who are not recommended to take it its only approved for people over 16 years of age its not approved for people who have had a history of severe allergic reactions in the past so there are a couple of options for those people there the other 2 vaccines by astra zeneca and modernity coming up possibly they could be given to those people also it is possible that herd immunity will simply develop so that not Everyone Needs to take this because the virus wont be so prevalent in the population but perhaps the biggest concern is that theres a significant portion of the American Public and possibly the public elsewhere who are skeptical about this vaccine and say they simply wont take it and thats why youve got Public Officials people like president s clinton and obama and george w. Bush saying theyre going to take this in public in order to instill confidence in the public that Something Like what Elvis Presley did in the fiftys with the polio vaccine so well just have to see if the public becomes persuaded that this is something they need to do john thank you very much indeed john hendren talking to us from washington d. C. For well how much money it is about all that just at Lancaster University explains the challenges of distributing the vaccine. If we look on to the vaccine efficacy of course the president made and they are close to 995 percent which is certainly beyond our expectation but when we go on to the next generation of vaccines for example talking about this final form in the u. S. That has 92 percent up to casey thats what they they proposed at least sputnik 5 is almost at the same level astra zeneca here to be 70 percent so once the 1st. Front runner vaccines will be taken up by most of the wealthy nations we were left out with the vaccine those are probably at least demand in the countries that would be causing another challenge to distribute because even for example if we reach to 50 percent of the population in the developing world for a vaccine that is 50 percent effective basically we are covering only 25 percent of the population which isnt sufficient enough to establish herd immunity it has been a certain level of vaccine as a tense even before the court 19th and damage but it has intensified because primarily the rumors and the speed of the Vaccine Development and probably more importantly the trust and this is even more penetrated into the black south asian minorities i mean if we talk about the u. K. Self i mean in london one of the survey indicated that only 40 percent of the black people will take the vaccine compared to 70 percent in the. English whites so that is really a big difference and that that is going to be one of the major challenges how to build trust and that has to be trained really by the government to bring all the stakeholders on board because until we dont really immunize 75 percent of the population we are not achieving the herd immunity and we wouldnt be breaking the transmission chain of this infection. The germans are going back into lockdown chancellor Angela Merkel has unveiled a new cover 19 restrictions to help spot its spread one governors warning that the situation is out of control chancellor merkel says action must be taken and that includes measures like Closing Stores and schools as well as limiting social contacts until the middle of january. We will be closing the shops from once day the 16th of december and will only keep open those that sell essential Baby Products we will also take care not to extend the sale of nonfood products in the shops that remain open and the steel fireworks will be prohibited before new years eve. Still ahead on aljazeera venezuelas opposition holds a symbolic vote asking if people want president Nicolas Maduro out. And why often wants christians in iraq saying they are being pushed away. If youve not yet felt winter in the Korean Peninsula or japan or northern china you are a bikes too theres a real cold wind blowing dancer here then theres been snow in seoul the maximum temperatures minus 48 degrees below normal for monday and masses the snow will form as the showers build up over the sea of japan the east sea and that means the western side of honshu is going to be covered in snow to cuba slopes same is true for corridor im also its not snowing further west very much of china its still going to feel pretty cold this potential start getting a long way sasa temperature in hong kong is going to drop so your highs about 16 degrees come tuesday and the wind is so bringing that snow is going to be some massive piles up in holzschuh i think. That there is no this is rainy season for malaysia and indonesia theres an increase in the shower likelihood the big ones over the philippines and the coast of vietnam because that is quite a cold north east monsoon the everywhere else the docks pretty much as it should whereas a something unusual going on in india coming to this coast himym near mumbai shouldnt really ready this time of the year to believe it is the average from mumbai could be rather more than that but its still foggy or smoggy in new delhi. He uses Performance Art to draw attention to the critical controversial issues facing china. When he speaks china. On aljazeera its 10 years since the arab spring shipped countries across the middle east a decade on from the 1st uprising well look at the legacy of the revolution. Join us as we assess the changes in the Political Landscape of the middle east and north africa. On aljazeera. Georgiades here a reminder of our top stories this hour british an e. U. Leaders have agreed to keep trade talks going as negotiators failed to break an impasse the head of the e. U. Commission says there are still unsolved issues and i was all parties to go the extra mile. The 1st doses of pfizers corona virus vaccine in the u. S. Are on the way to be delivered to all 50 states the hope is to immunize 100000000 people by april the elderly and Health Care Workers will be the 1st to get the vaccine. Germanys typing coronavirus restrictions as infections there continue to surge and supporting around 20000. 00 new cases a day schools and all but essential shops will be closed for the month beginning on whether state. All boarding schools in nigerias Northern State of kut seem to have been ordered closed after gunmen stormed a secondary school it happened in concoct a district on friday the attackers arrived on motorbikes and several students are still missing but on global reports. These are some of the boys relieved to be going home after the school raid in which many of their friends were taken hostage there leaving behind parents anxiously waiting for the return of their missing children. Sincerely speaking we here in Katsina State are in a terrifying condition we dont see the value of the government i have a younger brother and a child taken by the kidnappers im from dan jacques Katsina State and ive been here in the school since dawn and yet there is no update. Its not clear how many children have been abducted from the all Boys Boarding SchoolNigerian Police say they forced the gunmen to retreat after engaging them in a shootout for more than one hour but this anger that 6 years up to more than 270. 00 girls were kidnapped by the armed Group Boko Haram at chip uk Nigerian Security forces appear to have once again failed to keep School Children safe for rates to be that we have him a jaw tragedy off abduction of hundreds and hundreds of students once again in the country is an indication that we learned no lessons from the previous tragedy there is something called the Cisco Initiative this government should ask itself how seriously it has taken that initiative abductions have become increasingly common in nigeria just 2 days before the School Abduction a village elder along with 20 others was kidnapped in the same state the governor has ordered the immediate closure of all boarding schools while investigations are under way barbara and get her out as sarah. Supporters of pakistans opposition parties are protesting despite coronavirus restrictions theyre demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister theres anger about how a monk khan has handled the pandemic protesters also say khan has been incompetent they say the 2018 elections were manipulated by the military the opposition are planning even larger protests and them to march to the capital in 2021. Afghan police say 3 people have been killed in attacks in the capital a prosecutors been shot dead in the east of kabul in a separate attack 2 people have been killed in a bomb blast targeting a member of parliament no group has claimed responsibility. But as well as opposition says millions of people participated in a nonbinding poll called by Opposition Leader one quiet though voters were asked to support calls for president Nicolas Maduro to step down and hold new elections a poll was organized to counter last weeks parliamentary vote which the opposition boycotted calling it a fraud i love america at a tennessee newman reports. The fact that their votes would not be recognized as valid by the magruder government did not stop these venezuelans from casting ballots in an opposition organized referendum aimed at showing the International Community that they want president Nicolas Maduro out jacki and that is what were plagued by government violence there are armed groups everywhere we need the well to intervene one way or another to end this. Despite reports of armed gangs loyal to mother attacking some of the estimated 3000 makeshift polling stations Opposition Leader one by door said millions had voted online or in person you know they have a look at with this the illegitimate unconstitutional and fraudulent electoral process carried out last sunday by madeira has been defeated. Here in chile the turnout was very low the same in colombia home to the narges to venezuela an Expat Community thapar decision leader Leopoldo Lopez who escaped venezuela 2 months ago was in bogota to send a message that Stronger International sanctions and coordination are needed to obtain what he says is the main goal free and fair president ial elections what else can the International Community do short of an invasion to dislodge nicholas a little theres a lot more that can be done a lot more pressure diplomatic pressure the use of sanctions with Strategic Focus the political pressure the pressure to isolate my daughter what it is. Criminal and i can tell you something to say that we will continue to go forward we will continue to do whatever it takes in order to promote freedom and free elections in venezuela because we dont have another option and the other option is to surrender and we wont surrender. Perhaps not but more and more venezuelans are leaving the country rather than fighting for change at home and after nearly 2 years of failed attempts to force out rekindling faith in the current opposition strategy may take more than a symbolic referendum you see in human aljazeera santiago. Algerias president has made his 1st public appearance in nearly 2 months after testing positive for covert 19 of the much into born it has been receiving treatment in germany since october 28th rumors about his health have been widespread because there hasnt been much information about his condition the 75 year old said in a speech released on social media that he will spend another 3 weeks in germany to recover from the effects of the virus the u. S. Government has adopted a new map of morocco which includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara the decision to recognize about sovereignty over the region came as part of a washington brokered deal for morocco to normalize relations with israel Pro Independence political front and algerias Prime Minister have condemned the move pope francis will make his 1st ever papal visit to iraq in march the announcements being welcomed as a sign of hope for the countrys off adults Christian Community which has gone from 1000000 to around 300000 similar 14 reports from the christian town of bata. In iraqs town of the christian orthodox march many church has reopened its doors it was partly destroyed by eisel as the Group Launched its offensive in Northern Iraq in 2014 but there are few worshippers to fill its restored nave that with superman has been a pastor here for 24 years and has gradually watched his congregation shrink so. If this hard situation continues it will be difficult for christians to stay in iraq maybe we will persist but the next generation know we cannot force them to stay. But tell used to be a christian majority town but over the past 4 decades the number of muslims here has steadily grown in the 1980 s. Then president Saddam Hussein nationalized farmland belonging to christians and gave it to families of soldiers killed in the iran iraq war in 2014 eisel took over forcing the christian population to flee almost half emigrated abroad about a quarter have returned while another quarter remain in the semi autonomous kurdish region members of this family in that abuse christian quarter of say the reason they dont feel safe to go back is the Security Force that controls the town they want to remain anonymous for security reasons. Of course safety is the most important thing weve had enough of the infringements on our lands there is should be controlled by the sons of the area why did they bring strangers to rule the area. That group is the 30th brigade of the shia led Popular Mobilization forces which helped to retake but eisel the brigade is composed of ethnic shabab just like most of the Muslim Population that lives here last year its leader though was placed under u. S. Sanctions for alledged human rights abuses against christians other was forced to step down 2 months ago he denies the charges against him jani and out here. I believe theres no control of one function over another we should back on the christians have been residents of the area for a long time the christians are welcome to return back to live in their homes and we support these returns theres complete stability and security. The majority of the town is now shut buck many shopkeepers in this market who have bought or rented shops that used to be run by christians one of them mohammed who recently returned belief such changes are a Natural Development its the purchasing power that is ruling the situation the christians dont have money to buy but the muslims conboy. But many christians say they are being pushed out and that much of the construction in but tel is funded by people in power who want to accelerate the demographic change the vaticans announcement of pope francis visit to iraq has given many christians hope that what is left of their heritage can be preserved but the demographic changes here are so extensive that few believe they can be reversed simona felt in aljazeera but. This is all dizzy with these are the top stories british an e. U. Leaders have agreed to keep trade talks going as negotiators failed to break and then pass the head of the European UnionCommission Says there are still on the solved issues and is urging all parties to go the extra mile despite the exhaustion after almost one g. Of negotiations and despite the fact that that lines have been missed over and over we both think that it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile. We have accordingly mandated our negotiate