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the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. york cy and this is bbc world news ameca. a panel of u.s. experts are deciding whether to authorize pfizer's coronaviru vaccine for emergency use. lujan in china marks one year since the first case of coronavirus was reported there. we report on how the city i feeling the lasting impact. d, the white house says morocco will become the fourth arab nation to normalize ties with israel. can saudi arab be next?

♪ welcome to world newsmerica on pbs and around the world. hope and despair are colliding in the act and states tonight chaire a top government advisory panel is considering grant emergency authorization for the first coronavirus vaccine. on wednesday, more tn 3100 americans died in covid-19, thet highest daily toll of the pandemic. if the vaccine clears today's hurdle, patients could receives the first do as early as monday. here is the food and drug administraon commissioner. career scientists say the vaccine is effective. i have confidence in that decision and i thian the amereople should as well. laa: joing us from providence is the dean of brown university's public school of health. could this be a hopeful moment

for america? >> thank you for having me on. i think this is very hopeful moment. what we sell today in prestation -- what we stalled today in presentation is compelling data tinugh pfizer vais safe and appears to be effective well beyond my personal expectations. i expect the fda to authorize this vaccine tonight o tomorrow and then i expect americans to start getting it. it is a very good moment. laa: but how much difference do you thi a can make before two thirds of the population actually gets access to it? >> so it is not going to make muchf a difference over the next month because we're not going to be able to vaccinate that many people. maybe three or five or at best 10% of people. on we start back sitting 15 or 20%, it will start making a population immunity is aber that combination of people have been fected and vaccinate if that number starts climbing above 35 or 40%, rt will not be

immunity that it will start making a difference. i am hopeful in the next six to ght weeks, we will see a impact. laura: what kind ofrm a public inion campaign do we need to make sure enough people take it? no, polls suggest 61% of theicans would ta vaccine.>> there are two parts . one par is hop as americans watch people getting vaccinated and doing well, that that will encourage other people who are feeling sitant to we definitely have to have a clear communication campaign and to share data and information openly with the american people. it may not work for everybody but i think the best majority of people will want to get vaccinated. laura: what kind of questions do get ecine first?ho is going to >> we have heard from the cdc some recommendations. states have a lot of flexibility.

obviously with health-care workers, they do need to be vaccinated immediately. i like the idea of nursing home staff and residents. there areue importantions about who is after that. who are the essential workers? a wh the high risk individuals? we are going to be in situations with limited vaccines for at least several months. laura: 3100 people, or than that, died here in the united states yesterday. i'll muc worse is this going to get in before we can all the get vex -- we can all get the vaccine? >> unfortunately, i think it can get much worse. 3100 deaths represent infections that happened three or four s ago. infections have gone up since then. stressed over time become more laura: sorry about that. we lost the doctor as we were talking to him. apologies for that.

it has been on first cases of coronavirus were discovered in china. wuhan, the initial epicenter of the pandemic isur trying to r to normal. for months, the city has not had any locally transmitted cases and the government is marking nicole's victory in the battle. how has wuhan changed? >> millions of people lived under strict lockdown shade nearly 4000 people lost their lives to the virus. six-months after the lockdownwa lifted, the local government has launched an exhibition to mark the fight against the covid-19 pandemic. >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >>bi the three mons exon hills the effort of the rsvernment, front-line wor and volunteers.

among the volunteers who fought against the pandemic by giving free haircuts. >> [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign ge] >> his volunteer work has had an unexpected impact on his business. >>e] [speaking foreign langu >> they recovs not been as smooth for everyone. >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >> a year sce the outbreak

began, wuhan strives to return to normality. the scars of the pandemic will run deep. for now, it's people are trying to move on. -- its people are trying to move on. h ura: israel and morocco have agreed to establplomatic relations in deal announced by the white house. president trump is hailing this as another historic breakthrough. the deal makes mocco the latest arab country to normalize relations with israel. how significant is this? >> in some ways, it was norta ularly hard-sell because morocco and israel have had not so secret relations for at least a decade. rocco had a large jewish population befe 1948. it is significant for president trump shared it is a -- for president trump. it is the fourth arab-israeli deal in four months.

this is another arab state willing to accept israel, to r establisations before there is a palestinian peace deal, which had bn the orthodoxy before. it is significant for hundreds of thousands of israeli j ews. agreement that the u.s. would recognize the claim of its sovereignty and that was something that was a big shift in u.s. policy. laura: what about saudi arabia? is t it possibre could be some kind of breakthrough there in terms of relations with israel? >> that is something the trump administration has been pushing. you had jared kushner who is the top man recently asking for that. theho answer is probably not

very soon. maybe eventually but there is a debate within saudi arabia about what to do.ow the prince is more eager to have a deal with israel. e king is less so. he carries the establishment with him. very much strongly saying first there needs to be in agreement with the palestinians. saudi arabians have a much more weighty position to dl with. they are also the custodians of the holy mosque and have to think about what the muslim world would say. laura: to what extent is the trump administration trying to box in the bidendmistration by focusing policy on israel and not mentioning the palestinians? >> that has been the whole approach of the trump administration over the past four years. they have very much challenged the orthodoxy that the

palestinians need to have a peace deal before anything else and they have pursued these deals. whether they are trying tbox biden in or not, they have taken some steps to do tt to these -- to do that. these agreements, mr. biden says he will build on them an with them but i think where he will have difficulty is the degree to which the israelis and the arab states have joined together in an anti-iran alliance. he wants to rejoin the iran nuclear deal. he will western sahara issue.e he will have to decide whether reverse it. laura: thanks so much for joining us. the vaccine cannot come soon enough for the u.s. economy. unemployment claims rose last week as jobs were lost because thevirus is ripping through

economy.as means of americans be increasingly desperate, coness is deadlocked on a stimulus package. what did the jobless numbers today tell us about the state of the economy? >> the number of americans filing for weekly unemployment claims was much higher than anyone anticipated. 853 thousand. that was the number who filed claims last weekers 730,000 economists were expecting. if you compare that to por week, it was 716,000 trade what we are seeing is not only that these figures remain elevated with the picture see be getting worse at a time when you have unemployment benefits, moratoriums on evictions all expected to run of the year.end laura: is there any sign of heli from washington, any sign of another stimulus package? >> the consensus is help is

needed, it is needed urgently and if you look at all the data that is coming out from the jobs market, it is confirming the need is there, that americans are really struggling. the monthly figures were not much better. you saw about 245 thousand jobs created in november. sharply down from at we saw in october as businesses, restaurants go into locown again as the coronavirus cases continue to increase. agnst this backdrop, there is a new sense of urgency in congress but the divisions you have the republicans who say we want a deal but we will not accept the democrats' key demand, which is for aid to go to states and cal government. unless you see a breakthrough on that, it is hard to see how you get said that stimulus aid -- how you get to that stimulus aid that is needed evermore so with

each passing day. laura: why is wall street soaring when so many americans are suffering? >> there is this strange discon tct at moment. just this week, we have seen two technology companies going public. doordash and airbnb. you have this sense of euphoria on the market. if you talk about airbnb, it is a proxy for the travel industry red this idea vaccines are coming and therehere is hope the economy will begin to start moving again that we will begin to travel again. the reality is for many americans, they have a huge amount of debt. for ma small businesses, they are behind on their rent. it will take a long time. st to remind people, at the employment picture, we are still looking athe level of claims seen since the height of the greaton reces in 2008. the whole we are in is very deep

even if wall street can see a light at the end of the tunnel. laur thank you. in other news from around the world, the europeanmi cion is published measures to ensure that planes and lares can continue moving between the e.u. and the u.k.. it follows wednesdays meeting in brussels between boris johnson and arts a love end line after which it was said that large gaps remain between the two sides. france has decided not to reopen cinemas and museums next week not falling as fast as they had hoped. other restrictions wilcome to an end but 8:00 p.m. curfew will be enforced. families have been told they can remain vigilant.stmas but must conservationists say decades of roefforts to save an bison are proving successful. more than 6000 of the large mammals are scattered across poland, belarus and ssia.

were almost wiped out a century ago, surviving only in zoos. you're watching bbc world news america. still to come on tonight's program, -- >> it is 12:30. laura: traveling a nursesoss the u.s. are racing to hospitals where coronavirus is rice. we will hear from one has been on the front lines from new york to arizona. azerbaijan staged a military parade to mark its victory over armenia should the work -- in armenia. the war between the two fmer soviet republics came to an end. turkey's president was in t attendance as gu honor. >> turkish village terry military personnel alsoturkish

march in this parade. the presence of president erdogan is almo kind of angm open acknowlt of the role turkey played in this war. azerbaijan won this war. it recaptured seven of its territories that were lost in the 1990's. a lot of military experts in the region agree. they are saying the success in the battlefield would not have been possible without turkey's support. ♪ laura: in the united states, the next person to be executed by the federal government. there were only three federal executions between 1988 and june 2020. legal team hasiled an emergency stay of execution with

the supre court. the bbc has more. >> for the last 20 years, brandon has been on death row. on wednesday, his lawyers were successful in last ditch appeal to stop his execution. tonight, he -- he could become the first of five prisoners to be executed during the presidential transitio >> if i would be able to go back in time, i would dinitely change a whole bunch of different scenarios. >> if i'll go ahead, donald trump will have overseen the deaths of 13 federal inmates whenic he leaves offe at the end of january. more than any century -- more than any president in a century. executions were rare. just three had taken place since then and nonein 2003. in july, the trump administration resumedhe practice after a 17 year hiatus. breddon's case has attrahe support of celebrities like kim

kardashian west. the reality star a prison reform activist has called on her followers to tweet donald trump to save him. tomorrow, and other federal execution is scheduled at the same penitentiary in indiana. these executis come weeksbe re jode biden takes office. he has sd he will seek to end the death penalty. the incumbent president would usually defer to his successor and let the president elect set the course but donaat trump's rney general says he is just following the law. he says he owes it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence. laura: the demand for travel nurses in the u.s. has soared in the pandemic. they are crucial in places ients.elmed with covid p one nurse from phoenix, arizona shared her story. >> my name is laura. i am a 3year-old nurse and i am traveling for the pandemic.

♪ in april oni easter sunday landed in new york city and took an icu position on a covid i see you. -- a covid icu. in arizona, the bandemic was not we had less total cases thanie people whod on the first day of my time in new york. the nurses were really overworked. ♪ travel nurses basically made it possible for hospitals to doing, which is providingwere patient care because they did not have the sta to open covid units. i did not go with a group of friends or a i am in a hotel room alonou

you not goin youds formed some amazing bon. but then you leave. ♪ when i came back to arizona, it was a little bit of a culture shock because people were not masking. there is not a mask mandate. i took another icu posin arizona. i did another couple months there. ♪ even driving up to green bay, i remember going through large parts of iowa, walking into gas stations and feeling very odd for wearing a mask. itd as been h convince some of these communities it is real. it is 12:30 and our er is full. our lobby is full. i do not know who is more tired.

me on the road with my kids away from my home or the people who i am gng to relieve who are working overtime. did you guys have a good thanksgiving? the single hardest thing is being away from my kids. and they do not know why either. ♪ now the stress that we face is, when will this end? e?ere do we go from h how does this look for the next year? laura: laura giving her all for all of us. an experimental rocket belonging to elon musk's spacex company has exploded while attempting to land on tround.

the starship rocket was being tested as part of theomny's plans to carry human and cargo to the moon and mars. no one was on board. >> it looks like a scene from a hollywood blockbuster. but this fiery spectacle was not plned. it is the crash landing of the lateste prototype of acex starship. >> 2, 1, 0. >> codenamed>> as an eight, it was the first attempt at a high lialtitudet test. early on, it was smooth sailing for the unaccrued mission. it lifted offheromacility in texas on a brief flight to justver 40,000 feet, achieving much of what it set out to do includ after a flip back intoal the vertosition for touchdown,

things went a little awry. it might not look like it, but according to spacex ceo elon musk, the flight was a success, congratulating his team, saying we got all the data we needed. his sights firmly set tweeting, mare we come. laura: luckily no one was on board. before we go, itas been quite the year of politics in washington with divissan and eement around every corner. there is one unifying force on capitol hill. music. ♪ this is republican senator lamar alexander playing christmas tunes on t piano in the rotunda of the russell senate building. this will be one of the last times he plays. cethe tennesseer terry --

the tennessee senathi is retiringyear. a bit of festive music and a reminder that sometimes there can be harmony on pitol hill. i'm laura trevelyan. thank you so much for watching bbc world news america. have a great night. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... language specits teaching spanish, french and more. raymond james. the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, gettinh vaccine-- a key decision on whether the u.s. will start getting shots next week, ass covid cad deaths rise relentlessly then, challenging the vote-- president trump and his allies' efforts to thwart democracy face rejection in the courts but are now asking the highest court for help. and, searching for justice-- our series continues with a look at how dr testing in alabama holds former prisoners back from creating a new life. all that and more on t's pbs newshour.