Engulfed in political and economic crisis, peru gets its third president in the span of a week. Al jazeera obtains recordings of one of the worlds most wanted men, trying to negotiate immunity from prosecution. With infections surging worldwide and governments struggling to respond, theres been another dose of hope in the battle against covid19. U. S. Pharmaceutical firm moderna says interim results from trials show its vaccine looks to be 94. 5 effective in preventing the virus. Its a really important milestone in the fight against the pandemic, because it demonstrates that our vaccine is able to prevent covid19 disease, including severe disease, and people who received it. Its just a milestone, though. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Knowing the vaccine is going to be effective is great news, but we still need to complete the regulatory process, which involves completing the study, generating more data, even some followup safety data. Then we need to get busy manufacturing. Fellow Drugmaker Pfizer reported similar results just a week ago, 90 effectiveness. Both plan to ask regulators for emergency approval within weeks. The World Health Organization says the news is encouraging, but Big Questions remain. It is warning more data is needed on potential side effects and how long the vaccinations offer protection. Lets get more on this. We can go live to our correspondent who is in washington. Given the explosion in covid we are seeing in america at the moment, this news from moderna will be welcome, wont it . Its a bit of good news in what has been a very black period for the United States, when you consider one million cases added in just six days. More than 1000 people have died over the last week or so. Many states are reintroducing lockdowns, bringing in restrictions on the number of people that can gather in bars and restaurants, some of them even closing schools. Remember, 245,000 people dead in the United States because of the coronavirus. Pfizer announcing they have a vaccine that is 90 effective, far more than many are addicted they would get. Now we have a Second Company saying they have a vaccine that they can get out to people probably 20 million doses by the end of the year, going to people who are frontline workers and those most at risk, with an effectiveness in the early tests of more than 94 . Its been difficult for many people to get through this period, but theres a glimmer of hope. There is still a long way to go, and people shouldnt be throwing away their masks just yet. Its going to be a while before the population as a whole gets the vaccine, and it will be a while before the risk of covid completely disappears, if it ever does. Of course, the other big impact of covid is the economy. Weve seen huge unemployment. President elect biden announced his economic plan today in order to curb that. Weve also heard comments from donald trump in the last few hours on twitter. A week ago when pfizer announced it had a vaccine, he suggested they had delayed the announcement till after the election, to damage him politically. A different tone from donald trump in the last couple hours. Saying historians should remember the vaccines were discovered on his watch. Joe biden is the president elect. He will take over on january 20. He will walk into what many people regard as a very difficult situation with covid and also with the economy. He wants to get the economy up and running again. He was talking about how there was a problem when he became Vice President 11 years ago. They walked into the white house at the time of the great recession. He and barack obama decided to work with whoever they could to make the situation across the United States much better, and he said he would do exactly the same again, but he also had a word of warning to the trump administration. Theyve been dragging their feet on dealing with any transition to the biting campaign. He said, the longer the the biden campaign. He said, the longer is goes on, the greater the risk. Mr. Biden more people may die. As my chief of staff, who handled ebola, a vaccine is important. Its of little use until you are vaccinated. How do we get the vaccine how do we get over 300 million americans vaccinated . Its a huge, huge, huge undertaking. Thats the thing to remember. While there is good news with these Covid Vaccine breakthroughs, there is no immediate relief for people and there is a risk in the days and weeks ahead that more and more people will die. 245,000 families have been deprived of a loved one since this virus started to get a grip in the United States at the beginning of the year. Many more will suffer before the vaccines start to be rolled out to the general population, so the warning is, please, be careful. Dont think this is over. The vaccine is good news, but it is still not here yet. Many thanks for that. Lets go to richard kennedy, codirector of the Vaccine Research group at the mayo clinic in the u. S. He joins us from rochester, minnesota. Many thanks for speaking to us on al jazeera. How encouraging have you found this news from moderna that it is 94. 5 effective, especially following on the news from pfizer last week . Is excellent news, its excellent news. It shows these rna vaccines will be a powerful tool, maybe not just for this virus, but other areas of medicine in the future. People watching or hearing this may wonder how safe this vaccine is, given the urgency of getting it out there. Will it go through the same safety protocol that any vaccine would normally go through . Yes. Thats the same process that its going through right now. What we have seen so far shows that this vaccine has side effects that are similar to many other vaccines. Of course, we need to wait until we get the full data from the phase three Clinical Trial to make any decisions regarding safety. What kind of side effects are those . Theyre typical. Pain at the injection site, fever, sometimes headache, sometimes muscle aches and pains. Theyre usually temporary. They usually only last a few days, and they are typically fairly mild. Looking at this vaccine over the Pfizer Vaccine, there are some advantages that it has, such as storage. Talk us through a bit more about that. Certainly. So, in order for the vaccine to be used worldwide, because there is global demand, theres going to be a massive problem with logistics and transportation and keeping it cold, keeping it safe, keeping it effective. This vaccine can be stored in normal refrigerators, normal freezers, whereas the Pfizer Vaccine requires ultracold freezers. Thats a definite advantage, and it opens up the possibility that countries in the developing world that have refrigeration in place can also use this vaccine. Both of these vaccines, moderna and pfizer, they are both rna vaccines. Tell us a bit more about this technology, because it is new. How significant is it that it is this rna method that has led to these results . It is fairly new. It looks, so far, from at least these two initial phase three Clinical Trials that it is working better than people predicted. That is good news. It also has a number of other advantages. You can massproduce doses quickly. Companies are running full speed ahead, producing doses, in the hopes that they can get approval and it will pass the safety testing, and they can start rolling it out to people as soon as possible. Doesnt bode well for other corona vaccines that are current does it bode well for other corona vaccines that are currently under development . Do they all use the same technology . No. We have about a dozen in Clinical Trials. Some of them are rnabased. Others have vehicles, adenovirus. We are waiting to get the efficacy data on the adenovirus vaccines, too. Hopefully, they will be just as effective. Really interesting to talk to you. Thank you. Donald Trumps National security advisor says he would like to see the blockade on qatar resolved within 70 days. Robert obrien was speaking at a Global Security forum, hosted in part by qatar. He suggested a first step would be for saudi arabia and bahrain to fully reopen their airspace to qatari aircraft. We would like to get that rift solved. We felt that making sure qatar air that qatar was able to fly over saudi or bahraini airspace is an important first step in solving that rift. If we end up leaving office, i would like to see that get done in the next 70 days. I think theres a possibility for it. The standoff is still where it was back in june 2017, when saudi arabia, the uae, bahrain, and egypt all cut diplomatic and economic ties with qatar. They also closed the land border and imposed an air and sea embargo. The blockading countries accuse qatar of supporting terrorism, which its government vehemently denies. We are hopeful that this this ends at any moment. What we need right now is to have a serious engagement in good faith with the other countries. This is what qatar is prepared to do. At any time, they will be ready for this. As i told you at the beginning, there is no winner out of this crisis and all of us are losing. If the crisis will end, all of us will be a winner and our people will be a winner. Still ahead on al jazeera. Israel gives another green light to build more illegal settler homes in the occupied west bank. And a mammoth discovery in mexico. Scientists on earth the largest collection to date. Scientists unearth the largest collection to date. Hello. The weather is set for japan over the next couple of days. Pleasant sunshine. Very different story for china. Weather weather coming into central parts. Still some heat in shanghai. Temperatures should be around the mid to highteens. Clouds and rain will be the main thing. Pushing their way further northward, toward the yellow sea, toward north korea. South korea seeing some whether whether. Wetter weather. 21 degrees celsius for tokyo, in the sunshine. Southeastern parts of china, at long last, looking fine and dry for a good part of vietnam, following on from a raft of tropical storms that have been rumbling through, typhoons as well. Not too bad into Northern Areas of the philippines. Wetter weather into central and southern parts of the philippines, joining up with heavy showers across malaysia. Some heat of the day showers filtering their way down into indonesia. Wet weather across southern parts of india. Chance of further flooding in sri lanka. For much of india, it is fine and dry. 20 years of chinas transformation told through one young girls journey. From birth to adulthood. Two decades following the development of her life and nation. Rewind returns to the story of the girl from one job from wenzhou on al jazeera. From guangzhou on al jazeera. You are watching al jazeera. Moderna says early results show its covid19 vaccine is 94. 5 effective in presenting preventing the virus. Earlier, pfizer announced its vaccine was 90 effective. U. S. President elect joe biden has laid out his plan to revive the u. S. Economy, but stressed that coronavirus must first be brought under control. He warned lives are at risk if donald trump continues to resist cooperation with the transition team. The u. S. National security advisor says he would like to see the blockade on qatar resolved within 70 days. Robert obrien said a first step would be for saudi arabia and bahrain to fully reopen their airspace to qatari aircraft. Former World Bank Official francisco sagacity has been chosen to be the new interim president of peru, the Third National leader in just a week. He assumed the presidency ahead of elections called for april. Men well Manuel Merino resigned. More on why politicians chose sagasti. He is from the purple party, a centrist party, which voted in a bloc against the impeachment of the former president , martin vizcarra. He will be sworn in as perus interim president on tuesday, because there are no Vice President s who have succeeded vizcarra and merino. It is precedent for them to take the interim presidency until after the general elections. Sagasti, even before having sworn in being sworn in as the new interim president , already gave a speech to mend the wounds of this past political week of political crisis. He gave a message to the young people, saying that he wants to gain their trust again. In a special sign of what he wants to do and be with them, he walked out of congress with security, but a lot of people surrounding him, and he crossed the police lines to get close to a group of protesters who were outside of congress, waiting to hear the news of who was going to be the next president of peru. He waved at them. They waved back. Its a sign that he is telling young people, i am with you. The u. S. Is expected to halve the number of troops in afghanistan by the middle of january, leaving about 2500. The order would stop short of outgoing president Donald Trumps goal to have all troops withdrawn by the end of the year, which military and diplomatic advisors have opposed. The number of personnel in iraq is set to come down to around 2500. Trump has expressed frustration with the continued presence of troops in war zones. Al jazeera has obtained recordings of one of the worlds most wanted men trying to negotiate immunity from prosecution. The billionaire financier is wanted for his role in malaysias multibilliondollar scandal. We have this exclusive report. A warning, it does contain some flash photography. He was once notorious for his decadent lifestyle, luxury real estate, and super yacht. Today, the malaysian financier is on the run, wanted by authorities in the United States and malaysia. In recordings obtained exclusively by al jazeera, jolo is heard for the first time jho low is heard for the first time, trying to make a deal. As far as im concerned, i just want to do whatever it takes to sort of move on. On the phone, he protested his innocence, but offers to return all the assets purchased with 1mdb funds. Basically, i will need malaysias undertaking the this is settled and there will be no future proceedings against me. I think he is delusional. A former fbi special agent worked on the an agencys initial 1mdb investigation. Who gets caught its like the bank robber who gets caught. If i return the money, i dont want to be charged for robbing the bank. In this case, you robbed the development fund. There is strong evidence he did, according to the man who led the fbis 1mdb investigation until recently. I think we were confident we will be able to prove his position in this game. In july, jho lows coconspirator was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in jail, subject to an appeal for crimes related to 1mdb. Back in 2018, jho low put all the blame on his coconspirator. I had no authority to make any decision. But bringing the fugitive to justice has proved challenging. Despite two interpol red notices against him and multiple passports canceled, he continues to evade authorities. The only way that can happen is through corruption and through the full resources of one or more governments. But according to the fugitive, life on the run is not easy. It quite stressful. We have our legal fees. Two years on, and hes still paying millions of dollars to lawyers and pr firms around the world. And the full program, jho low hunt for a fugitive, will air again on tuesday. If the opus ethiopias government is sending more troops to a region, despite calls for mediation. Hundreds have died in the conflict so far, which began around two weeks ago and has pulled in neighboring eritrea. The tigrays People Liberation front governs the region. The prime Ministers National government has refused calls for negotiations. Look conflict the conflict erupted after the tplf attacked a base. [speaking foreign language] translator we are now inside the military base. The attack here sparked current clashes between federal Government Forces and the tigray Peoples Liberation front. This military base, the largest in ethiopia, houses massive military gear, chiefly tanks, simply because it has been the epicenter of ethiopias war against eritrea. According to the federal army, tplf fighters launched an offensive in an attempt to seize the base, weaponry, and gear. They were met with fierce resistance. This base has recently witnessed ferocious fighting. [speaking foreign language] translator in the wake of these development, ethiopia has p. M. Ethiopias p. M. Has declared war. Northern military base, tigray province. Israels minister of housing has approved permits to build more settler homes in the occupied west bank. An unusual move by eu diplomats, designed to send a message to israels government. Driving a convoy to palestinian territory. A second group made it to the summit of what israel calls to a similar reception. Israel has long planned to build a settlement here in contravention of international law. It would connect other settlements between bethlehem and jerusalem and sever a vital future link for the palestinian state. The eu is demanding a reversal of israels decision. Prime minister netanyahu hosts the u. S. Secretary of state and bahrains foreign minister in just days. Uae and bahrain have signed an agreement in order to stop annexation. It was explicitly stated by the representatives of both countries. Were proceeding what we are seeing right now is a de facto annexation attempt, and that cannot go on. Weve come back to this patch of land. It is quieter. Why is it at the heart of this issue . If israel did build an illegal settlement, it would cut off bethlehem from the palestinian neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, just over this hill, entirely isolating it behind illegal israeli settlements. It would also separate bethlehem from the rest of occupied East Jerusalem beyond those buildings. Thats why the pa is arguing that it would jeopardize the territorial integrity of a future palestinian state. The other issue is the timing, coming just ahead of the inauguration of president elect joe biden in january. When he was here in 2010, there was a Major Incident when a new se