Trials so its jobs to be nearly 90 percent effective against covert 19. A dutch Court Orders Oil giant shell to pay compensation for contaminating communities in nigeria. And china says it will no longer recognize a special british passport issued to people in hong kong and accuses the u. K. Of political interference. With a small 12. 00 to 14. 00 days of quarantine the wools took to the stalls are back on cooled him astray and firms were allowed to. Welcome to the news hour the European Union is expected to give astra zeneca covert 1000 Vaccine Limited emergency approval in the coming hours thats despite a growing dispute between the block and the company about a shortage of supply so the e. U. Has released a redacted copy of a contract which it says proves the vaccine maker is obliged to meet its promise supply it was expecting at least 80000000. 00 doses by the end of march but astra zeneca cut supply a week ago blaming manufacturing issues now on thursday brussels warned that it may have to ban exports of vaccines produced on the continent to protect stock and its questioned why it appears that the u. K. Supply has been unaffected and theres another potential help for the global inoculation dr thats the novaks vaccine its produced by an American Firm but has been tested in the u. K. And elsewhere and its shown to be around 90 percent effective well get more on the situation in the u. K. Shortly with paul brennan hell join us from london stepped in as in the netherlands to tell us more about the expected approval of astra zeneca vaccine for emergency use but 1st well bring in dominic came in from berlin because dominic we now know that the contract has been published between the European Commission and astra zeneca tell us more about what were learning about the contract and how it all fits into this route between the e. U. And the company. The contract has been published heavily redacted but big big chunks of it blacked out so that we cant see what was in part of the agreement but there are several sections which are particularly interesting and speak to this rally thats developed between the 2 science of the European Union the European Commission and astra zeneca remember astra zeneca as c. E. O. Mr sorry a couple of days ago sent that the agreement between his company and the e. U. Involved astra zeneca agreeing to carry out its best efforts to produce the doses that it said it would produce under the terms of the contract by a certain time so that meant tens of millions of doses by the end of march i have a few pages from the contract here and this is the 2nd phase where its make that youll see the parts of the blacked out redacted but this particular refers to the best reasonable efforts that the e. U. Can expect that astra zeneca will provide its a phrase that appears several times here also where it talks about the number of doses it will be prepared to provide and in what timeframe which coincides with what weve already known about the up to the end of the 1st quarter of this year and then for the rest of the year and the amount of money that will be supplied upfront by the e. U. But theres one final area which seems to back up the European Unions some of its arguments and thats lower down where astra zeneca represents warrants and covenants in other words attests that this is the case that it has not engaged in any other obligation contractually or otherwise with another person or a 3rd party which would in keyed the complete fulfillment of this agreement of this contract all of these hundreds of millions of doses that were going to be provided by astra zeneca to the e. U. So you can see in this contract there are different clauses which seem to back up the 2 different sides here certainly its in black and white that astra zeneca said it would promise its best. Reasonable efforts but equally promise that it had no obligation to anybody else contractually that would make it harder that would make it impossible for it to deliver what it was promising the e. U. And its on the basis of that that you see the round playing out the way it has been so far over the course of this week all right dominic thank you very much for that update from berlin lets now bring in sebastian she is joining us from amsterdam so as that route takes place there but we know that the e. U. Medicines agency right behind you is expected to be to give astra zeneca emergency approval for use do we expect any surprises there. Well in an hour or so the European Medicines Agency will get approval to put that in perspective thats nearly one month after the u. K. Has already been vaccinated people with the astra zeneca vaccine the main question here is though will there be an age limit 65 or a bar because the german Vaccine Committee has already said that theres not enough Data Available in that age group from the effects seen trials so gifted vaccine to people are really people 65 or above but of course that would be a serious setback for the elderly in the European Union who of course are more vulnerable for covert 19 and this cancer t. Of the other vaccines as well so the main question here is will that be a follow the german advice which was announced yesterday and that would be a serious limitation for the availability of the vaccine but it also could be some kind of face saving operation abidi European Union because simply they dont need that many vaccines if the 65 last group is not allowed to get the. Right stuff thank you so much for that update from amsterdam lets cross over to london and speak to paul brennan hes joining us from there paul tell us about this novaks vaccine what were learning about its safety and efficacy against coke in 1000. Gets the announcement made by novaks in the us relating to the phase 3 large scale trials which have been taking place since september because here in the u. K. And in south africa and the results extremely exciting according to both the epidemiologists and the politicians in the u. K. The effectiveness of the novaks vaccine that some 89. 3 percent according to the company. The effectiveness against the new u. K. Variant is around 85 percent so thats 6 string the encouraging bearing in mind that the new variants. Of coronaviruses covert 19 have been causing some serious concern that they might actually circumvent the original vaccine process now what happens now well the u. K. Regulates at the m h a is not going to engage in a kind of a rolling assessments all of the ongoing work thats going on with novaks to get the data for some several weeks away from the vaccine actually submitting a final dossier a final folder of data for to the regulators for final approval for use that said what theyre going to hopefully have if the shuttle pans out as they hope it will is use approval by the 1st quarter of 2021 now cast your mind back not so many months ago Drug Companies were worried that they might not be a vaccine for curve at 19 now we already have 3 approved in the u. K. And one in the pipeline you can see why politicians and the public are rather excited about this development all right paul thank you so much paul brennan reporting from london and in some breaking news out of the us the drug firm johnson and johnson is now saying that its one dose vaccine appears to be at least 66 percent effective in preventing cover 19 the company is expected to apply for emergency use authorization in the u. S. Next week well jeff lazaridis as they head of Health System at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and he explains how the de lays are affecting the vaccine campaign. If we dont have the supply it was expected that the nation slows down and that thats really devastating right now were still in the winter months were seeing cases increasing high levels of mortality so we need to be vaccinated as quickly as possible and importantly weve told the population weve convinced them you need to get vaccinated the majority of europeans are willing to get vaccinated now were telling them that are though we had contracts in place we dont have the expected supply so im not its hard to know if it will escalate im glad to see that the European Commission and astra zeneca officials are meeting they need to do Everything Possible to to ramp up production to resolve the matter we know theres 2 plants in the u. K. Theres plants in belgium and the netherlands we also need to remember that right now the e. U. Hasnt even approved. Yesterday and it makes you know thats expected to come right about now so sort all of this has been going on to get ready for them all out for expected. Approval so i think the u. K. Government the e. U. The asters an official see to sit down look at the supply make the numbers more transparent so we know whats going on and also look importantly where else we can increase production so we have the astra zeneca plants but i mean this is were talking about 27 e. U. Countries so what other opportunities are there to produce the next. Experts from the World Health Organization have met chinese scientists in more han as they continue their investigation into the origins of covert 19 the team is that were expected to conduct its 1st field visits in the city the w. H. O. Said researchers would visit hospitals labs and the food markets that have been linked to the earliest cases of the virus. Thailands government is facing criticism about its vaccine rollout after its switch Companies Just 2 weeks out from its 1st phase thailand had originally chosen the chinese job but is now moving forward with the one produced by oxford. That vaccine is set to be produced locally later in the year by a firm own by the thai king scott highlight reports from bangkok. Protesters gathered outside the offices of bio science in bangkok this week accusing the government of being swayed by royal influence over its covert 19 Vaccine Program the company is owned by the king and now holds the exclusive contract to manufacture the Oxford Astra Zeneca jab in thailand so far the only certified vaccine that prompted the main opposition figure who was banned from Holding Political office for 10 years by court last year to go public with what he saw as a flawed process of a question is better disclaim gave too much benefit to one company on a royal defamation complaint has been filed against hannah torn for his criticism but hes undeterred and says his concern is more than just possible collusion during contract negotiations if anything were to go wrong with the vaccine manufacturing the governments hands are tied you have legal immunity because it used to stand but as it been done to the government contract shes the author of this committee and if things go wrong the government cannot. Do or know become. The minister of Public Health says theres no room for politics when it comes to vaccines i fully believe strongly. Choir is the best. The most proper. People make sure that there will be the. Priority of privilege symbiosis science will ultimately manufacture the Oxford Astra Zeneca japara thailand and the region up to 200000000. 00 doses a year to receive 20000000. 00 in Government Funds to upgrade its facilities part of a pandemic grant system the job will be free to all thais and will run as a nonprofit operation but c. M. Bio science stands to substantially boost its revenue once the pandemic is over busy times at this buddhist temple here and bangkoks chinatown as people come out to pray for good fortune ahead of the Lunar New Year while recognizing the government success in containing kobe 1000. 00 some are concerned about the vaccine rollout and the politics surrounding it. I think that the vaccine plan is not clear we still do not know if the vaccine is safe enough to use and thats what we want but let me stop no one like you are we are not i dont know what the future holds i think that this is a very early phase and we wont find out the results of the vaccine immediately. What the year of the ox will hold for the people of thailand depends on controlling the virus and the success of its vaccine and many people here praying for just that its got harder aljazeera bangkok. Plenty more ahead on the aljazeera news hour including this street fights erupt in new delhi after farmers protesting are attacked by government supporters. Why the free trading that allowed small time investors to get rich under fire. And back to winning ways well have action from liverpools victory in the premier coming up. But 1st china says it will no longer recognize the British National overseas pos word available to 3000000 hong kong residents beijing made the move after the u. K. Launched a visa scheme that allows these passport holders to apply for british citizenship its in response to the National Security law imposed on hong kong by china u. K. Government says its standing up for freedom nathan laws a prodemocracy activist who fled to london from hong kong he says he doesnt expect beijings decision to harm holders right to immigrate to the u k. For now we dont have much information about how the transcript will carry out notion of the statement basically 100 people get into Mainland China we dont use your passport we use it and when we leave hong kong if Hong Kong Government is going to apply these. These statement to the way that they have brought the control maybe we need to use the home possible to leave the border and when we arrive in the u. K. We are getting with all the and all possible. Actions you announced by the Chinese Government i dont see it. Really creating a lot of tables in terms of getting people moving into the u. K. Or in the daily lives. It has clarified themselves online they dont they have not reached any part of the. Sun the british on decoration yes they are just awful in a roots to for people assume a great to the u. K. And not changing the status of the you know and the identity of the people under that. And of course we can see the side reach. The 1st bite of the National Security law and destroying the freedom in hong kong so i think it is right for a response from the u. K. Government. In the netherlands the court of appeals has ordered Oil Giant Shell to pay compensation to a group of nigerian farmers they accuse the company of destroying their fishing villages as a result of 3 or all spells its the 1st time a Dutch Company has been held liable for actions by its foreign subsidiary amid the dresses following proceedings from a butcher so what is the reaction to this. Ecstatic the people in the niger delta especially communities affected by oil spills over the last 50 is not really happy about the verdict of the appeal court in the netherlands a lot of them are saying that this case the way for them to raise issues of contamination issues of reaper ration issues of human rights abuses in the niger delta following years of exploration by or by Old Companies and were looking at probably only a fraction of those all steel works or that most people damage thats being treated right now by both shell and the Nigerian Government does it have visited a go any especially the border creeks and other neighboring communities to look at how the was pills over the years have impacted on the environment and what the company as well as the government i doing to do to remedy the situation. What case you take anything but to flush out the truck or inboard a creek. As it all comes to the surface a boom truss the sludge for you back to a ship its a job the contractors hired by all john child must quickly accomplish before the tight returns the clean up is due to litigation against the company pulling a Massive Oil Spill in the court in 2009 is a couple of days walkies jewel really did. Pollute the board of creek. After the next phase will be to restore a shunt revegetation out among groups and a monitoring so far is a 1000. 00 hectares. While shellings contract to say they have done a lot to subsides the Nigerian Government led decontamination effort jointly funded by the Shell Company is off to a slow start. Heavy machinery is now deployed farther inland to excavate and treat contaminated soil we take it for what we had planned but were trying to see what we can do to catch up theres still a lot of work to do to catch up i mean to take. An assessment by the United NationsEnvironment Program 1st published in 2011 shows that pollution from more than half a century of Oil Production was worse than all regionally thought the report recommended a 1000000000. 00 fund to clean up alone an area covering 1000 square kilometers the work which began success later could take at least 25 years to complete much of a is a wasteland this is dead fish and crustaceans no longer spawn here farmlands fish ponds and even underground Water Supplies have been polluted by hydrocarbons leaking from old pipelines we could buy some activists in the region are less impressed with the work so far. Is one. And how many years. And thats not the only concern significant amount of all 3rd continues in the region further complicating the process of reversing the environmental damage experts believe 15 to 20000 square kilometers more of nigerias Oil Producing region require the attention is currently receiving. But they fear that the liste