our key priority. invest in kazakstan seize the best opportunities in the heart of eurasia. this is al jazeera. hello i'm sam and this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes we do hope that we have we'll be able to tens of millions in the course of the next 3 months i can i can i can certainly give you right to the united kingdom prepares to roll out the country's 2nd approved covert 19 banks on monday. large crowds in iraq call for the removal of u.s. troops a year after the assassination of iranian general. the

cryptocurrency bitcoin breaks an all time record valued at above $33000.00 plus. a bride in south korea of the mountain town famous for its ice festival that has plenty of ice and no festival. and in sport in some milan have gone top of the table in its silly. martina's hat trick helping into to a 62 win over time. let's begin the news hour with the latest global efforts to combat the corona virus outbreak in the face of a rise in the number of new infections and deaths in the u.k. hospitals are preparing to roll out the oxford astra zeneca those jabs will start as soon as monday it's the country's 2nd approved coronavirus vaccine britain's

prime minister barak johnson is warning of tougher restrictions a new and more infectious covert $1000.00 strain appears to be leading to a record number of cases india has approved its 1st 2 vaccines for restricted emergency use meanwhile it's paving the way for one of the world's biggest inoculation campaigns and the us reported another record 270000 new infections more than 350000 people have died in the world's worst hit nation and brazil's health regulator has approved the import of 2000000 doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine nearly 200000 brazilians have died in the pandemic so far well in a moment will be live in bogota colombia with alexander m.p.'s but 1st let's talk to andrew simmons is live for us in london so andrew how much confidence is there in this promise of tens of millions of vaccinations being carried out. well

certainly the supply line looks as if it's good to be set to receive that sort of figure of vaccination doses but the actual despite dispensing these doses whether the the whole infrastructure of the logistical operation will allow it to happen in 3 months will that is seen as pretty as scott a skeptical viewpoint from many health care professionals and indeed it would appear we understand from medical scientists as well within the government that could be an overly optimistic one but the take no doubt about it that the u.k. has done quite well with vaccines so far in that there has a supply line that's better than europe it would seem because of the quicker approvals burdick can't afford to be complacent because of the figures there are now 5 days in a row we've had record numbers of of infection rate rises and we have a situation now where by the u.k.

is likely to overtake italy in being the worst hit country now in terms of the how all this logistical operation will work it's hoped that the move the controversial move the u.k. government has made in actually postponing the 2nd dose of the pfizer that summation that was the 1st one to be rolled out will allow more and more of availability of the vaccines for a large number of people that is controversial and health care professionals have been criticizing the government for not explaining the fur really the rationale in doing this but the situation has to be said is quite critical of the rollout on monday of a half a 1000000 doses supply starting to take place on monday is seen as a major hope for the future because that that vaccine is the oxford astra zeneca vaccine which is much easier to. dispence it's going to have

a lot of distribution points it seems although some cynicism about this because a recent survey suggests that only one in 4 people were needs that were near vaccination centers so that's got to be improved upon but we're now hearing that 2 high street pharmacy chains are offering their help now in the logistical operation to distribute vaccines and there has to be a lot more done the government is not ruling out bringing the army in to help out this whole operation amid those record infection rates you were just mentioning there andrew how confident are parents that it's safe for them to send kids back to school well that's a really really profound debate going on online and indeed in virtually every household in the country that has young children because teachers are saying that they will not return to school if they're ordered to on monday in primary schools

many of them though got the backing of their trade union and the government has done a u. turn already in london in closing schools for the near future primary schools i hasten to add that's the under 11 year olds and out of to about 4 or 5 years of age that's taken place now we've heard this from the u.k. prime minister saying that he is happy with some schools staying open schools are safe very very important to stress that the threat to the risk to the kids to young people is really very very very small indeed as the scientists continually attest to the risk to staff whose is very smooth. but the real issue a lot of people are saying a lot of medics are saying is the chain of transmission other children pass it on amongst each other this thing caught by teachers the children go home and it's passed on to parents grandparents and so on so this is

a really really very very controversial situation right now in the u.k. all right thanks so much chandra simmons there let's continue talking about this in the context of latin america let's go live now to alexander m.p. i think he's in the colombian capital bogota. alexandra how far will 2000000 vaccines go to meet the needs of a population of more than 200000000 people in brazil. well sammy obviously not very far but this is at the same time i wait for the brazilian government to show that there is some movement in the plan to vaccinate people in brazil a few weeks ago they also announced a possible import of another 6000000 doses from china that hasn't happened yet but is expected to happen in the coming weeks and the government there is also expecting these 2 vaccines to be approved by january and to at least

begin vaccines thing the 1st the people dose most at risk around. january but the real plan for the majority of the population is to produce the oxford saying the vaccine locally through a government. biomedical center planned there is to start having the 1st vaccines in place the ones produced locally at some point in february with the goal of having at least 100000000 doses in place by. 2021 what all this means though is that for brazilians the next months the best way to protect themselves will continue to be using masks to staying distance but that is quite controversial in brazil given the fact that starting with president

jacques here both so narrow he and many brazilians think that masks are unnecessary and new year's eve we saw president both and i are going to the beach and taking a swim in among a crowd of supporters obviously nobody was wearing masks they were embracing so what we're probably going to see is more infections and more deaths in brazil while this plan comes into place and there's a bit of a 2nd wave going on way you are in colombia any sign of a vaccination program there. yeah and numbers really going across latin america the government is expecting a rocky start the new year here in colombia we have seen. i.c.u. intensive care units close to capacity or at capacity in

a number of cities and now the minister of health fernando said that he expects a spike in the next couple of weeks as many traveled for the 1st time in fact a year to see family members in regions so far been spared high levels of infection so the fear is that the. coronavirus will be brought there by people travel to see people the family members that of also have been a number of big gatherings in cities the police has intervened new restrictions have been put in place throughout this holiday season curfews in major cities and also. on the days that people can go to shop and so forth but even with these kind of restrictions in place the numbers have been going up christmas day on the 25th actually was the highest. had the highest

rate of infection since the start depend and so the situation is quite complicated here and looking at a plan for vaccination the government is saying they might receive the 1st. vaccines that they bought at sound point in february but there's no plan and no logistics same place at least for now thanks so much i was on the. that's we mention india's for pairing to roll out the world's largest immunization campaign after approving 2 vaccines for emergency use his shell about us. outside there was a story heavy rain thunder and lightning lit up the delhi sky but india where the worst conditions in 2020 recorded more than 10000000 cases of covert 19 and around 150000 deaths inside at a news conference in delhi on sunday there was hope that storm may pass after

adequate examination. the 30 years your has decided to accept a common they found subject court committee and accordingly that scene 4. and brought up by it they are being approved for a stricter new was an emergency situation the nonce one was a formality the begins the world's biggest vaccination campaign against corona virus. one vaccine was developed by oxford astra zeneca and another by indian drug maker biotech both are cheaper and easier to distribute than other covered $900.00 vaccines although they both require 2 doses and must be stored between 2 and 8 degrees the ox with astra zeneca jab has an efficacy of 70 percent and movie distributed by the serum institute of india the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines its c.e.o. tweeted it would be ready to roll out in the coming weeks india's prime minister

narendra modi responded with congratulations tweeting a decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight it would make every indian proud that the 2 vaccines that have been given emergency use approval made in india. india hopes to vaccinate 300000000 people within the next 8 months a quarter of its population to do that it's been holding nationwide drools so far almost 100000 health workers have been trained to give the shots we expect but in demand will continue to be high and what. do you think troubles women face in the initial rollout stages should hopefully be tackled real time behind the united states india is the most covert infected nation these approvals give hope the developing nations won't be left behind in the fight against the virus shelob ellis al-jazeera. well it's been one year since iran's top general kasem soliman he was

killed in a u.s. drone strike in iraq the anniversary of the assassination has been marked by protests in several countries in the middle east in the iraqi capital baghdad thousands demonstrators gathered in tahrir square demanding the expulsion of u.s. troops the leader of iran backed popular mobilisation forces the hand this was also killed along with solo money iraq's prime minister mostafa and carver me says his country does not want any more conflict. i meant when the human over at the peak is months from day one in office i work towards defusing crises steering iraq away from looming regional and global war iraq has been suffering for long as a result of wars it has not found stability since the 1960 s. iraq is in no position to go to war as we have already lost many lives to wars therefore this government has been working hard to steer iraq away from the swirl of wars in lebanon iran backed all the iranian backed hezbollah has called for

revenge for solar manny's killing their members paid tribute to somani while standing on a hill overlooking the u.s. ally israel across the border tensions were running high between the u.s. and iran leading up to the anniversary with both sides threatening retaliation for any provocations well in a moment we'll talk to she have a tendency with the view from washington d.c. but 1st here's charles strafford who is at those protests in the iraqi capital. thousands of people have gathered here in tahrir square in central baghdad a square that has seen so many protests over the last year the message though today very clear. these people are demanding the fast withdrawal of all remaining u.s. military personnel from this country. and many of them still demanding refrain for the assassination of qassam psyllium ali that happened close to the airport in that u.s. drone strike a year ago. many of them are very angry not only with the u.s.

but they're angry with the leader of this country well i know you're. talking what i like the image of the iraqi government is the same as the american government here just working for am going into this parliament voted to expand u.s. forces from iraq in january but nothing has happened the family can still leave on their own accord we will force them to leave with our blood that. there are people i made a step or misled timetable for the full withdrawal. u.s. military personnel from this country the people here say he's not trying to take that off. there is no clear indication as to how the incoming flights in the administration in the u.s. will respond to the situation in this country one that many people are increasingly being dominated by neighboring iraq certainly the people in tahrir square should say the only way iraq's dignitary and sovereignty can be restored is it all u.s.

military personnel leave this country and say. all right now she has a chance he joins us live from washington d.c. and jab we haven't heard a lot of statements coming out of the u.s. about this anniversary today is it a case of no news is good news. because of the weeks leading up to today we've had all of these incredibly provocative moves by the u.s. putting deploying military hardware to the region buzzing at a relatively safe distance of the iranian coast with b. 52 bombers we've also heard donald trump has mused about striking than the town's nuclear facilities before before he leaves office we know that israel and saudi arabia have been lobbying the us for some sort of preemptive strike on on iran in order perhaps to scupper any chance of detente with that with the incoming biden

administration but then things seem to change towards the end of last week with the announcement from the acting defense secretary that he was ordering the redeployment of the u.s.s. nimitz the only u.s. aircraft carrier with enormous aircraft capabilities bombing capabilities you know away from the region back to the u.s. and apparently that was over the objections of the main u.s. commander in the middle east and it was specifically according to the new york times an effort to have a deescalate tree signal to iran that's got to be good news and since then we haven't really heard much from the administration about what they're planning to do other than these are the the general sense that if there is if iran was to do anything to retaliate for the assassination of general solo money then the u.s. would respond in fact the most recent thing we heard was actually from last week but that this morning in the washington post. there's

a count of donald trump telling people at mar-a lago his palm beach resort that he was leaving early before the new year's eve party and going back to washington because he was concerned about what may happen with iran over the weekend although there's lots of things to guests at laura locker but that was possibly the most recent thing we've heard from anyone really in d.c. other than that general sense of the u.s. would respond if iran retaliates for the assassination. or i will leave it there thanks so much you have returned see. plenty more on the news hour including more mass abductions by boko haram in nigeria we explore the security challenges the country is facing. libya devalues its currency to save its economy and in sports news the n.b.a. player exceeding expectations after his return from a 2 year injury layoff. now

in neighboring knees more than 70 people have been killed in 2 attacks on villages it happened in the tele barre region in the western area neighboring mali bikini fast and been in fighters from groups linked to on either and i saw crossed in and out via the poorest border live now to military seized capital in the army so i mean is it clear at this point why the villages were even attacked. said in the introduction has been active we've seen action there between militant military authorities and the attackers who regularly cross the border from monday or burkina faso to attack civilian and military targets there it's not clear

exactly why the attack is but an official told us that it could be the work of those armed groups crossing the border from money or booking a fossil however there is another suggestion that it could also be part of the long term conflict coming into a communal conflict in that area i don't mongers say that may have resulted in the escalation recently that we saw but to be clear officials here are saying that the accusing the armed groups in their bring money and broken apostle being responsible of carrying that attack carrying out that attack right now the defense minister has visited the area i was expected to make a statement and later this evening after his arrival from monger's a church also has a military base there one of the villages in fact attacked is just 20 kilometers

from a large military base in magazine and. how will this violence whoever is responsible for it whether it's ethnic or on groups across the border how's it going to impact the election plans. well it's difficult to say people were expecting something like that even before the elections and during the general elections that were conducted last sunday however nothing like that happened the election went on peacefully in most parts of nigeria of the election commission confirmed that the election couldn't hold in such an areas however the next round of election will be the 2nd round which will be in february next month a lot of people say they will come out to vote nothing is going to stop them from voting a lot of these some voter fatigue but many people insist that they will have to finish the job whether or not it will impact the results no but that is not clear

at the moment however the 2 candidates going into that election in fact has history in governance one of them was a former president of this country although it was peaceful during his time but the other is the leading kind of content days are actually a minister of foreign affairs and also a minister for internal affairs who's ministry had to deal with some of this crisis apart from the incursions from the fossil in that part of the country there are also issues with the book or around on the border with nigeria so they have experience in that and a lot of people hope that they will use their wealth of experience to tackle the rising insecurity in this country all right thanks so much ms reese there now the armed group boko haram has abducted dozens of people in a raid in northeastern nigeria the tank happened in borno state between the towns of made a goodly and damage to more than 50 people including a u.n.

aid worker has been kidnapped. on boko haram and other on groups have conducted the series of mass kidnappings in the region in recent years in 2014 more than 270 girls were abducted by boko haram fighters from the town of chibok 6 years later over $100.00 still missing last month more than $300.00 school boys were kidnapped from katsina city to government secure their release a week later they say no ransom was paid and just a few weeks ago more than 80 children were taken from the hooter village they were rescued after a gun battle with the kidnappers let's talk to him and he's a security analyst and journalist he joins us on skype from lagos good to have you with us so why are we seeing a step up 1st of all in these abductions. thank you very much.

the way the government passed the military has have this all fancy just about less than 24 hours before we saw the kidnap it would mean that for the very 1st time in a long while the military is taking the battle to the insurgents but saying here is that nigeria now has a very horrific culture of paying for ransom based more like an encouragement for the insurgents whether it is before and whether they are the bandits the thing is that no one is looking for. high profile personality again in nigeria because of the community life they live in nigeria so irrespective of who's being kidnapped some form of ransom is being taped. there was a time when when you had any kind of abduction or perhaps even violent incident in

that part of nigeria one would almost just assume it's boca hom is that still the case given what you've mentioned about how shall we say it's a bad word the lucrative the abduction of people has become and. i think some of the basis tactics now is that initially i highlight that. in times past now other smaller criminal groups have latched onto. the name specially saying that the military hasn't actually been able to take out this terror group completely. different. words used to qualify the battle between not your in the military forces and the insurgents what have they been technically defeated whether they've been pushed back but the same is that we have smaller groups and just recently president bush harvey has said that obviously that is for us to the extent that the military alone cannot police the bar that so

what this means is that we have. people who have made incursion into nigeria especially from the maghreb area and of course since after the crisis. leave how many and with life and small arms says niger is dealing with a whole lot of issues in that axis and some have also somehow made incursion into niger southwest as well as seen in the southwest state of oil where the governor has said that some people have tried to move in from mali to foment trouble so that's what we've been dealing with out of them and it's now the abductions a sign that in fact boko haram is strengthening far from being defeated as the thirty's at one point they claimed. abengoa looks like what x.'s have been saying that their strategies need to be changed and that if you've tried

as some people trip to a longer time and you're not getting the required results or lash out we've seen that with the security chiefs brad you should also excuse them and bring in new people to lead the fight against terror you know keep in mind babe been able to make some gains initially when the president came in in his 1st term in office but so far it's been more like they've been on a holiday since the terrible has changed picking people on the road picking people india farms killing people so it looks what form of gain they've recorded so far 4 years ago has been eroded by the activities of these terrorists. thank you very much so a leather iraq and sadly we were talking earlier about an attack on

2 villages in this year and that attack is just the latest in a region which has seen almost a decade of violence around $5000.00 french troops are deployed in western saddle to support local forces in the fight against various armed groups and that includes boko haram and others linked to i saw and al-qaeda mali and because facet of bin worst hit by violence but there's also been an increase in attacks in these air thousands of civilians have been killed and the un refugee agency says 2700000 people have been forced to flee their homes but the armed conflict is just one of many threats facing people in the region there's also food insecurity climate change and of course covert 19. as a lecturer at the university of aberdeen in scotland and author of inherent and contemporary challenges to african security he says the violence is partly filled

by local ethnic divisions this region that the attackers happened is where the core their tribe border region couldn't make enough money and where we also have a number of different ethnic groups and different communal groups that have between themselves issues to do with identity issues to do with land and all of that so they always many dynamics between this is these groups but most importantly here is the fact that elections are just a peon part taking place in jail and there is some sort of international attention so this kind of. approaching mystic activities get. a time when is don't hang around this kind of period so there's so many dynamics going on to justify this particular incident political insecurity in the whole

region is the main one of the key problems in. the states in the somehow i just capable of dealing with the problems that the they face for example need is one of the poorest countries on earth about 20 percent of the u.s. population depend on food aid so we're we're not talking about poverty we're talking about beyond poverty here so that the main challenges facing these deeds is simply incapable of dealing with. so i had on al jazeera because. one of portugal's most renowned singers has died. fast and fast that the world's the red planet and update on the progress of china's probe. but it's broadly healthy save that frustrated a team with their eyes on the top of the germany table.

how the weather to draw a cross the middle east at the moment some places the clout spinning outs of tech easing a little research in like to shower water into northern parts of iran not too much to speak of northern areas saudi arabia could also see a life sharrow to begin not too much to speak of here in qatar temperatures getting up to 2223 over the next few days further south of this generate dry might just see a shower or 2 just around the southern end of the red sea of it which a beauty might see a shower to here as well but for much of the horn of africa it stays fine and dry the shadows where they should be for the south plenty of them as well just around the rift valley showers there in suez zambia that eastern side of angola say some

heavy showers notice some rather wet weather there into namibia this is the remnants of our old tropical cyclone which made its way across madagascar through the mozambique channel just last week pushing across him by a boy all the way into. now nothing a little further south which is no longer a tropical soften of course but this intense area why pressure brings some rather heavy rain into a good part of south africa was to go through the next couple of days east in part saying some heavier rain this we go on through chews day by wettest a grassy make its way out into the open waters of the southern indian ocean. the. teach it strong man is ruling with an eye and faced and the silence from his allies is deafening the u.s. was perfectly happy to trade off the march for sea for security while western leaders turning a blind eye when even their own citizens have fallen victim to his repression executions torture or censorship is not acceptable and you won't hear such strong

words from let's say berlin or paris or london man in cairo on al-jazeera a policy imposed decades ago pregnant woman part but she could selectively goods and borders changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences for creating a poor socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system where people at every level will be get being given money money to agree to sterilize ation or money to get other people to me the services out there examines the politics of population control.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap our headlines now the u.k. prime minister bars johnson expects tens of millions will be vaccinated in 3 months he says over half a 1000000 doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine will be ready by monday. india's drug regulator has approved 2 coronavirus vaccines for emergency use there one is the oxford astra zeneca jab and the other is produced by indian drug maker biotech the world health organization says it's an important breakthrough. thousands gathered in the center of the iraqi capital to marcie years since the us assassination of iran's top general are some sort of money he was killed by a drone strike near baghdad's international airport the protesters demanded the expulsion of u.s.

troops. now if you have any bitcoin you're certainly having a good year so far at least the crypto currency is value continues to reach all time highs after passing $20000.00 u.s. dollars for the 1st time in december then $30000.00 on saturday it was the world's best performing asset last year it rose more than 300 percent more and more investors now consider it to be a safe bet as a reserve asset or even a future replacement for gold well there are more than 18 and a half 1000000 bitcoins out there collectively they're worth more than $600000000000.00 and rising. glen goodman is a u.k. based financial investor who specializes in crypto currency and is the author of the crypto trader who joins us by skype from london good to have you with us you

know whenever we talk about crypto currency is the question that you often get from people is it is a simple one i wonder if you can attempt to answer it and clarify in very simple terms what is a crypto currency. yeah that's the hardest question of all really isn't that it really is. it is it is i think the best way to describe it and the reason why young people tend to understand it more than old people is because they're used to dealing with online currencies for example my kids play a game called road robot what's it called road blocks sort of one of the world's biggest kids' games and it has in game currency called roebuck's and they're always asking for robots that were robots for christmas or holiday presents you know birthday presents that kind of thing and. a lot of games have these kind of in game currencies because it is very similar to that believe it or not it's

a piece of software effectively was invented that just start sort of churning out these. coins that don't exist in real life you can't touch them they're digital money they only exist as long as computers exist and networks exist but the difference between them in these in game currencies is the big question is decentralized nobody actually owns the system that runs it so you know with roadblocks if they decided to shut down tomorrow then all the robotics presumably would be worthless but with big corps in the system is not owned by anybody and it's not controlled by anybody and you can download the bit on to offline devices and got one with me so let's pretend it's imaginary but normally you go to sort of the physical device you know a u.s.b. stick something like that and you can download your coins on to that and keep them safe even if you're not connected to the internet all right well given what you

said there about old people not understanding i'm definitely going to have to claim that i fully understand it right so this question obviously is not for me but how how is the value then determine is it simply a matter of demand and supply and why can't anyone get in the system and create one out of thin air just like that. it's demand and supply really that's the beginning and the end of it you know people who are obsessed with bitcoin and believe in it sort of almost as a religion there are quite a lot of things people and they try and sort of impute true value into it they say you know it's truly valuable for this reason or that reason i don't hold with any of those explanations really i think it does come down to demand and supply which is why for many years lots of sort of top investors top wall streeters were saying look this thing could just disappear tomorrow because ultimately it's all just down to you know whether people believe that it's a thing that will continue to have

a valley now i would argue that's not actually really very different from gold because gold people say well that's a proper store of value in times of crisis when wall currencies are crashing gold will still have value because it's intrinsic it's not intrinsic ok it's a yellow lump of metal it has no intrinsic value so as a useful for anything it's just it looks pretty and people like it because it's fashionable and it just happens have been fashionable for thousands of years so obviously it's got a much better track record than because it has there's only existed retain years but nonetheless now the big wall streeters are getting on board it's getting harder and harder to imagine that because it will just cease to be at any point or let's go into the news line that we're talking about these days why is the value suddenly rising i mean ok has to do with with demand but why is demand picking up of people losing faith in other more traditional currencies and have

a stab if you worded the question of why can't somebody just go in there and create one on the system out of thin air rob them buying them. dressing your 1st question if the wall street as i just mentioned they're starting to believe that it's a proper thing worth investing in over the long term and there isn't that much of it as you've said there's only a certain number of coins and and so the demand. it's going up from all these in the financial institutions j.p. morgan the boss of which was calling it a fraud a few years ago now j.p. morgan are receiving notes advising the there's a possibility because it could go to this price or that price you know very very getting interested now and all of that demand is pushing the price up and up and up at the moment. and really this all comes from the narrative that because the u.s. government in particular the federal reserve and other central banks are printing a lot of money because of the coded 19 virus they decided to print money to

stimulate their economies this is pushing the value of the dollar down because there are all these new dollars being printed the dollar is going down and people a particular america are looking for safe havens to put their money into they're looking to gold they're looking to big calling and now finally i got to address your question of why can't someone create one out of thin air it's because the computer program doesn't let them write the code that loto the mysterious creator of bitcoin nobody knows who the guy really is he did it all anonymously but he created this beautiful bit of computer code and it says exactly how many because things can be created each day not many and you can't just create one out of thin air unless you're a big clean miner which is a special designation for a person who owns a special powerful computer and creates them under very specific conditions in a very small number i wish we had more time it's been a great interview and we could we could talk a lot more about the mining process not for us of course because where the young

people understand this but for the others here let's just put it that way. now the u.s. congress is set for some new faces with a new session set to start in a few hours the democrats kept control of the house of represent of the house of representatives in november the balance of power in the senate is set to be decided in runoff elections in georgia on tuesday scott lucas is a professor at birmingham university and co-founder of america unfiltered that's a news and analysis site on american politics and foreign policy and he thinks the u.s. politics is entering a turbulent week. today is just simply that the new members of the house and the senate will be sworn in to take their seats and there are quite a few of them from both parties but there really is nothing of substance today the fireworks start in the next 72 hours on tuesday we have these 2 vital run offs for

senate seats in georgia that will determine whether republicans or democrats have a slim majority in that upper chamber and then on wednesday what should be a straightforward process to confirm joe biden as president a lot is going to be turned into a spectacle by 12 republican senators by within 140 republican representatives who in effect are going to refuse to accept the november election are going to insist that there not be a certification of biden which of course will reinforce dolphins' ongoing attempt through descent from ation to claim that he was robbed of the vote that will have repercussions he won't change by being president that will still occur in january the 20th but it's pointing to a serious split in the republican party for the rest of 2021 i think the republican party is probably at its most critical point 0 month since the 1930 s. when it suffered a humility humiliating landslide defeat franklin roosevelt and the reason why i say that is is that you actually have 2 groups within the same party you have the

established republicans who they'll disagree on policy with democrats they'll try possibly to obstruct the by the ministration but they'll play within the rules they'll play within the system and then you have donald trump who of course doesn't play by the rules who trashes u.s. agencies who criticizes members of the republican party if they don't agree with him and now it's not just donald trump it's these republican senators and these representatives who whether it's for their own political futures whether it's because they want to join the trump a spectacle they have for what is in effect an insurgent faction. on the homes of the most senior politicians in the us mitchell mcconnell and nancy pelosi have been targeted by vandals angry about congress' failure to increase funding to help people struggling joining the pandemic the senate majority leader's home in kentucky was covered in spray paint with expletives and messages like where's my money pelosi is home in san francisco's also spray painted with graffiti and

a pig's head and fake blood were left at her front door now police in pakistan have arrested one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 mom by a tax man was lucky he was detained in the eastern city of lahore on saturday on charges of financing terrorism in a separate case he's long been suspected of planning the man by siege in which 166 people were killed last year was detained days afterwards but a pakistani court released him on bail in 2015 at least 11 coal miners have been shot dead after being kidnapped in pakistan's palazzi stan region armed militants took them from the market from the much coal field and opened fire several others were injured. an investigation is now on the way so far no one has claimed responsibility the miners belong to a community of minority shia muslims. a rising number of corona virus cases in

south korea is forcing many communities to cancel economically vital tourist events bride travel to watch young county in the mountains near the border with north korea to see how it's dealing with the loss of its and your ice festival children it's a special event to promote a particular type of river trout known as the sunshine or how to package it how to prepare it in every way imaginable and staged in a town that finds it has a lot of it $77.00 tons to be exact question county's annualize festival is its biggest event and ice fishing on the frozen river the biggest draw for which it starts breeding fish a year in advance but this year there is to be no festival and the town is left to figure out what to do with its fish. we have been putting our heads together to

research and develop ways that we can't sell our fish and deceased a result we're taking a crisis situation and turning it into an opportunity. realizing months ago the festival was unlikely to go ahead the county did cancel more than half the fish it all did from farms across the country from the north if we had a regular festival they would have made money on all that fish so i expect they took a considerable hit this year over. the town itself is hurting to the harsh winter in these mountains normally produces ice that is solid enough to support crowds of visitors and beneath it pristine waters that consists dane massive fish but this year no sign of any festival close to the border with north korea the town was already suffering from a ban on military personnel leaving nearby bases during the pandemic and restaurant owners like legion soon were counting on the influx of ice festival visitors who

won't now becoming. packing the double push him and it's been difficult for everyone small businesses and employees no one has been spared it's also hurting the other towns around here who supplies with produce. everyone here is hoping that by the time the ice breaks up and melts away their loss so be seeing an end to the pandemic rob mcbride al-jazeera watch on county south korea now china's space agency says it expects the mars probe when one to enter the red planet's orbit next month the probe has been in space for $163.00 days and traveled 400000000 kilometers so far after entering mars orbit for spend about 3 months checking out potential landing sites before touching down in may since its launch last july the mars probe has captured an image showing both earth and the moon as

well as taking several selfies. the probe is flying at a speed of about 23 kilometers per 2nd which is 2000000 kilometers per day its relative speed to the earth now is about 21 kilometers per 2nd bettors 1800000 kilometers per day it is flying about 200000 kilometers per day towards mars the probe is flying faster and faster as it gets away from the sun's gravity. one of portugal's most renowned singers has died at the age of 81 carlos the carmo was known as the sinatra of fadam music. who do. you go as declared monday and national day of mourning in 2014 the carmo was the 1st portuguese artist to receive a latin grammy lifetime achievement award he died of heart complications on new year's day while being treated in

a lisbon hospital. still ahead on al-jazeera in sports day one of the world's toughest off-road rally is underway andy's here with that story . and. what has been doing with the money that it's boring we bring you the stories and developments that are rapidly changing the world we live in argentina's congress is debating a bill seeking to raise billions of dollars from the super rich poor families hit hard by condemning counting the cost on al-jazeera. understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the wound is another matter when you. use in kind of trails that matter to you the last episode in the new series explores the imperial origins of the drug trade commerce was a good fire are always good for our so you section very much want to go and opiates

passage from the farm. released to europe and the united states. any money no new money in these mountains is over. drug trafficking politics and power the era of empires. or. the. riots catch up with the game here's andy thanks so much sammy well in some a lot of gone south of the table in italy a lot sorum are seen as hattrick helping him to a 62 win over could sorry the argentinians if it's helping him to 8 straight win in syria this game was poised it suits you

a half time before and martinez really took over after the break city rivals ac milan they could take top spot from them again they play ben of and so little lights are on now winning titles with stars which airport should say no stated aims the new head coach of her son jim brown the former club captain has replaced thomas tsuki as manager of the french champions tikal was fired just 4 months after taking piers g to the champions league final that is the title the club wants more than any other or sheets in a play for the french team in the early 2000 the argentinian west in charge of english or tottenham before leaving the club at the end of 2090. we are in a massive club like but essential men that is not only important to win is now is win but with a style and i thin well together 1st with a player though the most important goal remember for the c. o o afternoon playing football in for the bronze with our funds. yes. and

waiting through the fans come back to the to the pull of the brands and make the play you know fly on the beach abi leipzig of me top of the german league after a 10 when i was stood guard stood guard goalkeeper greg accountable doing his best to keep want to get by saving that penalty from i mean forsberg than i am or eventually got past him in the 2nd half point cleared by munich a take on mites and then later. look at this for a goal from bolivar cusins nothing a merry game is taking the lead away if i try frankfurt and a win would have taken on top of the sable but france for his back once went to one an own goal here from the king of facet offend everyone subsided giving them the victory. manchester city manager pep guardiola as hit back at comments made by premier league rivals evidence and everson were unhappy that last monday's game

against city was called off jeter 3 city prized testing positive for corona virus on the day the match a total of 5 city players are unavailable for the fixture at chelsea later on because of cover one thing but that game for now set to go ahead there claps making a statement complaining there were days when he just didn't care about the healthy when the u.k. is dying. like a lot of people every day him being contaminated area local of people so what can we say so the world is. there are lots of people working in chelsea within our bubble who have diabetes parents friends sisters brothers who have grandparents and they come here and go to work and then they go home and they obviously are in the environment where we were in another surge of car which seems to be more contagious just the right word than than we previously thought or is so i think safety and security is absolutely paramount john wallace continuing his

successful comeback to the n.b.a. he led the houston rockets to victory against the sacramento kings after spending the last 2 years and injuring 30 year old major woodson to action this week $28.00 points and 6 assists james harden sitting this came out he's going to injury the rockies in the kings want to see it in 94 for back to back wins against i meant. last year has been a lot for me not me a lot of adversity i don't know where. you're going to force your injuries. going to school. you are with a pen you make all those i read that into it i just put a lot of work into the case and try to get myself back to this day. so the new orleans public comes from out i'm stuck in a tight contest against a trial run so this is sounding grammar school $31.00 points for republicans well so on williamson out of $21.00 no but again all tied up it was eric bledsoe's 3

points are making sure of the way in which it is that he won 22116. new zealand have a shot so has the number one in the world test cricket rankings that's taking on pakistan in christchurch in the 2nd and final test of the series so far go how was making his test debut for pakistan with captain barbara's still ruled out with an injury pakistan just lost out in the 1st test of this series pakistan all out here for $297.00 on day one col jamieson taking 5 for its. unoffending champion color science has the lead off the stage one of the dakar rally 9 time world right champion sebastian low hitting trouble early on here the rally is taking place in saudi arabia for the 2nd time science finished the opening date just ahead of red bull teammate stephanie patz so. ok most sports throughout the day with we're looking for now. the bad save from me as time is to this news but i'll be back in

about with more of the day's news stay with us. the latest news as it breaks the measures introduced during this way rob resulted in the 20 percent drop in the amount the people are traveling with details coverage problems both one are talking all of belief in one us out of office. poverty rate increase and of soft clear from around the world the un has identified $56.00 countries most need assistance what's worrying them is that many of those have

a deteriorating situation take the worst possible material eurabia grind it into dust comparable to flour and make a whole lot of it and put it into a place where people live it is a colossal event. as well and for many people a fool here this is the file in cuba but doesn't make you feel nice you feel like a murderer we have created an enormous amount of mental disaster. and investigation south africa toxic city on al-jazeera across europe immigration is high on the agenda and in hungary it's presented as a pressing issue we didn't have immigrants at all 0 immigration but this is the one political topic anybody and everybody is discussing the far right is preparing for battle and their opponents or anyone who is different. prejudiced some pride in hungary on al-jazeera.

holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s. its role in the world on al-jazeera. we do hope that we will have we'll be able to use tens of millions in the course of the next 3 months i can i can i can certainly give you that. the united kingdom prepares to roll out the country's 2nd approved covert 19 bank scene on monday. prime sami's a band this is al jazeera live from coming up. large crowds in iraq call for the removal of u.s. troops one year after the assassination of iranian general hossam son.