al-jazeera. and. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm sammy's a and this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes the house will come to order. a new u.s. congress takes office marking the beginning of what could be a tumultuous week in washington featuring a fight to the presidential election. plus we do hope we have we'll be able to do 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 vaccine on monday. prepares for a presidential runoff vote attack has raised 2 villages killing more than 70 people . large crowds in iraq call for the removal of u.s. troops a year after the u.s. assassination of iranian general qassim so their money. have all the sports at outtara martinez's courses faster not trying to enter my mind as they rush to take me 6 to syria. a new u.s. congress is officially in session ahead of what looks set to be a tumultuous week in washington. the house will come to order the

previous congress officially ended this past hour famine kratz kept control of the house of representatives in the november election and the balance of power of the senate is said to be decided by 2 special elections in georgia on tuesday and on wednesday a group of republican senators are planning to challenge the victory of president elect joe biden they plan to object when electoral college results are tallied in congress it's being seen as a largely symbolic gesture that is unlikely to overturn the result alan fisher is in atlanta georgia with the latest on those all important senate races but 1st let's go live to havre tennessee he's in washington d.c. so she had walk away expect from a new congress. that is a question that i think would be impossible to i think what we can expect today is a very long drawn out process because of covert on the pandemic what was usually

a very fast of a fad with thousands of people on capitol hill and bars and restaurants around in the vicinity for parties and fundraisers is a rather subdued affair this time the number of guests each person was allowed to represent it was allowed before the senate was allowed for that for their swearing in was limited drastically right now on the house floor what is normally a relatively quick process is going to take perhaps a few hours as the house members are sworn in to make up a quorum and then they they they they elects the house speaker but it's all being done rather in a staggered manner to prevent this from becoming a super spreader a super spreader event beyond valve's what's very different this year is the enormous tension certainly in the senate now as you said because almost a quarter of senate republicans say they will challenge the certification offer the presidential election that is due to occur on wednesday that is in defiance of mitch mcconnell the majority leader in the senate so often you see such to finance

for majority leader there is the latest batch of republican senators who say they will object about 11 say they're doing so not because they necessarily have proof off allegations of the for the allegations of wrongdoing and forward in the presidential election they appeared on the on the sunday shows they couldn't produce any but they say that because there is such mistrust in the country that 39 percent of of people in the country according to the polls say they do not believe that the elections were free and fair and they should be reflected in the proceedings on wednesday but they they they seem to accept that they have no no chance of success in overturning the election you know frankly in having some sort of new commission which they calling for to look into irregularities because frankly they haven't even presented any. legislation that would put in place only and the election commission before the certification on wednesday so it all seems very symbolic driven as always by that fear of the trunk base to have such an

impact on the republican party now whom if you're facing reelection or thinking about presidential election and in the next few years well you certainly have to consider what they will say because they will ask what did you do. after the 2020 presidential elections are clearly there setting out their store that look at least we tried. to have returned see there as we said the balance of power in the u.s. senate will be decided in georgia there are special elections going on on tuesday they're trying decide that one and after the november election republicans emerge with 50 seats while democrats took 482 seats in georgia remain undecided though republican david perdue and kelly loffler running against democratic candidates john ourself and raphael warnock well if the democrats can take both the senate. democrats rather can take both seats the senate will be split

$5055.00 president kemah harris would be the deciding vote that would give democrats effective control of the senate. fisher is in atlanta georgia live for us to update us on what's going on there and i understand the big guns are going to georgia you're right tell us what's ahead for them there. well it's all about driving time no no on tuesday early voting is done here at record number of early votes cast 3000000 that's more than has ever been cast in a senate election here before so no it's all about tonight on tuesday night the republicans think they're behind in the alley or take most of the l.a. votes were cast in areas that would be democratically favored organized by groups that are democratically inclined so they really have to get a big turnout and they'll have done will trump on monday at a get out the vote in northeast georgia some of the rural areas is where they think

there is some potential to try and get more votes there but of course they've got donald trump who's already tweeted out over the weekend that he thinks the election in georgia is illegal standing up saying that he wants to make sure that people get out and vote so that the senate does not become republican eyes for the democrats well they are quietly confident that they're doing ok come the hottest will be in town in the next couple of others she is going to savannah in georgia for a rally there and then joe biden will be in georgia on monday again all about driving out tonneau they want to make sure as many people as vote as possible know if you look at the polls that suggest this is a very tight race but just a couple of days ago there was a very interesting poll which tends to skew towards the republican candidates it tends to feed but them more than anyone else and they suggest that both the democratic contenders and this race are slightly ahead by just one point and that's

well within the margin of error but the fact that this poll suggests a crowded side ahead. our apologies though seem to have lost our audio connection with an official let's take this now though to thomas skift he's the director at university college london center on u.s. politics joins us by skype from oxford good to have you with us so let's start with what's going on in georgia right now who do you think is going to be able to claim those remaining 2 seats well i think that it's going to be very tight historically republicans have had a competitive advantage in georgia and conventional wisdom for some time has been that it would be an uphill battle for democrats this year to win both senate seats georgia is a southern state it's quite culturally conservative and it's predominately voted for republican presidents although it did go for job biden this year but as we

approach election day the races look extremely close and according to recent by $38.00 data democrats john also and raphael warnock have had very narrow leads over the republican incumbents less than 2 percentage points separate the candidates in both races so i think it really could tip either way at this point more than 3000000 georgia citizens have already voted early and election day certainly promises an unusually good turnout still these races will most likely be determined by voter mobilization on the part of bases or and this is a clearly a very polarizing time in american politics country's very split if it does go the way you're leaning towards the republicans what will a split congress between the senate and the house of representatives mean for the biden administration. well more than likely it would mean policy gridlock and it would give republicans an opportunity to block much of the legislative agenda of joe biden on issues like climate change on issues like health care on issues like

tax policy and so on at the very least it would force joe biden in the house to compromise on bills that they want in active at the same time this doesn't mean that policymaking in washington would totally grind to a halt the president would have some authority for example on signing executive orders presidents also are much less constrained on foreign policy but certainly in terms of some of the big issues that democrats are hoping to get through the much more difficult if republicans do in fact keep at least one of those republican senate seats and talk about polarize ation and splits what's happening in the republican party right now whether to try and block the certification of the election results on all that's proving pretty divisive for the republican party all those sorts of splits going to disappear once we get into the biden administration all do you think the trump era polarization will continue. i think to

a large extent the trump era of polarization will continue to see no signs that we're going in a more attenuating direction in terms of some of this polarization now at this point i think the odds are essentially non that this challenge the electoral college result will effect joe biden's inauguration on january 20th but what we're seeing here one party trying to deal a get a minus or at least call into question the notion of a korean parallel in the united states is extremely divisive in and of itself and so even if this won't disturb the election outcome it sets a problematic precedent and will certainly further road think among some republicans in the democratic process all of that points to increasing more continue as ation and what does that mean for the republican party going forward given that splits in tone splits well it's really interesting because most of the establishment g.o.p. lawmakers including senator mitch mcconnell are opposed to this ploy because they

think it gammage is the republican brand and because they think that it lacks legitimacy by and large the republican senators who are supporting this challenge are doing so because they think that remaining loyal to trump advances their long term political ambitions so what we've seen for quite some time is a splintering within the republican party certainly they're going to try to close those gaps as they move into a joe biden administration and take much more of an antagonistic approach they're going to need all those 50 votes for example in the senate if they want to block the democratic agenda but certainly there are some big differences within the republican party between those on are established winning and those who are the supporters and i think that that's also a point to you into the sea of. stephanie going to be an interesting future for american politics thanks so much for your analysis tell us if the. thank you. plenty more ahead on the news hour including the cryptocurrency bit coin breaks an

all time record is now valued above $33000.00 plus. i robot royd in south korea at the. famous for its ice festival plenty of knives. and the new year just got a whole lot better for this england international places football coming up. let's talk now about the latest global efforts to combat the corona virus outbreak in the face of a rise in the number of the new infections and deaths in the u.k. hospitals for example they're preparing for the rollout of the oxford astra zeneca jabs as soon as monday is the country's 2nd approved coronavirus vaccine for prime minister abbas johnson has warned of tougher restrictions

a new and more infectious covert 19 strain appears to be leading to a record number of cases india has approved its 1st 2 vaccines for restricted emergency use it's paving the way for one of the world's biggest inoculation campaigns 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 this go live now to andrew symonds he joins us from the british capital london so this is this takes today andrew print paint another grim picture for the u.k. . yes fred certain other sad milestone reached 75000 more than 75000 deaths so far in the u.k.

and that effectual rate is now a standing offer sunday at 55000 if you compare that to a week ago when it was 30500 well work it out is on the way to doubling the number of infections so very sharp rise no doubt that the new variant of curve it is much is the major part of this but also a lot of health care professionals saying that the christmas holidays have a lot to do with it along with people getting more relaxed and not really taking all the precautions they should do perhaps because they know that or other there are these vaccines on the way and on that note boris johnson has been saying that he hopes that tens of millions of doses will be in place being used in the next 3 months that's seen to be

a very ambitious target or statement if you will but there is a a new break now with the with the virus with the new vaccine being launched tomorrow monday which will be the the oxford university. researched drug vaccine and that will be rolled out to the tune of something like half a 1000000 doses hundreds of new vaccination centers are on the way the key point to all of this is more the logistics of the operation than the supply chain of the vaccine and so that is is really critical and as this is going on there's more controversy now about the issue of education jurong the pandemic. because the schools are going back or they're jus to go back after the christmas holidays 1st

of all the primaries that's under 11 year olds and in london there's been a huge turn boris johnson has decided that because of the pressure from the teaching profession that occasional thought is he's going to keep primary schools closed in london and surrounding areas in the rest of the country there are many schools staying open that's infuriated the teaching profession largest union has said that the teachers should not attend schools in the interests of safety however the boris johnson boris johnson is pushing back on this this is what he had to say 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 test risk to start these is very small it's a fixed debate about the whole safety issue in schools but in short the parents want to see more transparency and many of them want more transparency from

the government about exactly what the science is on this and teachers are calling for that too but of course this could all be overtaken by a full lockdown which would close all school down schools down possibly and there are calls for that from the labor opposition leader kids starmer right now and boris johnson himself has said that there could be further measures taken to meet this dramatic rise in infection rates are thanks so much anderson is there let's take this live now to our $100.00 m.p.'s he is in the colombian capital bob atar so how soon are they going to get vaccines in places like brazil one of the hardest hit places in latin america they've they've authorized importing the vaccine but they haven't actually approved it right. yes i mean that's the case and most presidents would also like to know the government is saying that they're hoping that these vaccine will be authorized around made

january and that the roll out could start by the end of the this month the issue though is that as you were saying your introduction only $2000000.00 of these vaccines have been or will be imported as of now and the rest are expected to be produced locally but there is no clear announcement that yet on the timing just sticks out however the government is saying that they hope to start mass vaccination at some point in february and to have in place around 100000000 doses in the next 6 months we're going to have to see if that is the case however president. under increasing criticism for medical associations in the country and most

newspapers the major newspapers in the country are accusing the government. 'd particularly of what they're calling deadly incompetence or ineptitude especially considering that other major countries in latin america such as mexico or argentina have clearer plans and have already started their vaccination campaigns and while that's going on. we've also got the issue of a 2nd wave way you all in colombia any sign of when a vaccination program might be put together for their. well experts say that it's probably the worst off country and all of latin america together with. the government here and now that it is going to buy up to $40000000.00 doses but it's unclear when they will arrive or what logistics

will be the government to stalking possibly february probably the end of february to at least see the 1st doses arriving in the country uses not being. yet and this is worrying the doctors here very much because we are already seeing a spike in infections december 25th christmas day was the highest the day since the start of the pandemic the worst single day in the number of infections since march. use their intensive care units are at capacity in a number of cities but the situation is particularly worrisome for example in the city of the border with venezuela here in the capital where already around 80 percent capacity so the situation is quite worrisome and the minister of health

was quite blunt on saturday saying that the next 2 weeks could be even worse because they expect another spike following the hollywood holiday season when people got together or traveled back home so we could see this situation becoming even worse in colombia in the next couple of weeks the medical the internet medical association in colombia sculling for a return to a full lockdown the government is hoping not to do that in actually as also announced that schools could reopen but not before january 25th. and as we mentioned india is preparing to roll out the world's largest immunization campaign after approving 2 vaccines for emergency use is charlotte dallas. outside it was a story heavy rain thunder and lightning lit up the delhi sky but india with the

worst conditions in 2020 recorded more than 10000000 cases of coded 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 bothered by it there are being approved forest repaired 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 a 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 will be 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 bad 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. now in the chair more than 70 people have been killed in 2 attacks on villages it happened in the tele barre region in the west an area neighboring mali became a facet and then in fighters from groups there and i saw a cross in and out of the poorest border let's go live now to their dreams he's in these years kept in the army so talk us through the official reaction these attacks affronted. well some of the official reaction has been. muted or even suppressed at some point this attack happened since yesterday and there is no information no statement issued by the government what we're having information bits and pieces of information from security officials who don't want to be mentioned because they're not authorized to speak but we understand that the

minister of defense has visited the area and later on later today earlier today we heard also the prime minister has gone there they haven't issued a statement but we expect just ignorant from them any moment 'd from now the figures we are hearing about since yesterday it was between 50 and 70 however a mayor in the region where these attacks happened is talking to is talking about 100 people what is 171 village and 30 in another dozens of other people have been injured but the government has not issued a formal statement we expect them to talk about this any moment from now we understand that the minister of defense or the interior minister will address the country later on national television to explain the situation where the military's live from the army thanks so much the armed group boko haram has abducted dozens of people in

a raid in northeastern nigeria the attack happened in borno state between the towns of made a goodie and damage to more than 50 people including a u.n. aid worker have been kidnapped. on boko haram another armed groups have conducted a 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 $400.00 a still missing a last month more than $300.00 school boys were kidnapped from katsina city the government secured their release a week later they say no ransom was paid and just a few weeks ago more than 80 children were taken from a hotel village they were rescued after a gun battle with the kidnappers saw them and led there is a security analyst and journalist he says kidnapping is becoming more widespread as other armed groups adopt the tactics of baka haraam. used. 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 terrible completely different. words used to qualify the battle between the nigerian military forces and the insurgents where they've been technically defeated whether they've been pushed back but the same here is that we have smaller groups and just recently president bush ari has said that obviously there is for us to the extent that the military alone cannot release the bar that so what this means is that we have you know people who have made incursion into nigeria stressfully from the maghreb area and of course since after the crisis in libya coming in with light and small arms niger is dealing with

a whole lot of issues in that axis. well still ahead on al-jazeera because. who did. this one of portugal's most renowned saying is has died. and foster and foster towards the red planet an update on the progress of china's miles probably. one of the world's most grueling rallies is on the way details coming up in sports lines when the show you. hello the weather to draw you cross the middle east at the moment but some places the cloud spinning out sifts keys and a little further research might catch a shower 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 and consulates habit is 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 would see here as well but for much of the horn of africa these days 5 and dry the shot was 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 namibia now nothing a little further south which is no longer a tropical soften the coast but this intense area why pressure brings some rather heavy rain into a good pasta south africa was to go through the next couple of days eastern part seeing some heavier rain as we go on through chews day by wettest

a grassy make its way out into the open waters of the southern indian ocean. one of the last remaining ancient forests in southeast asia is a lifeline to hundreds of lumberjacks and drive as. we follow that treacherous journey as they walk through extreme conditions. to gather and transport this dangerous but precious cargo risking it all. on al-jazeera. for many young adults a coming of age brings greater responsibility. for this young man the responsibility of 800 years of family tradition weighs heavy on his shoulders.

the choice. but the decision must be made. by blood part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. come back you're watching out to syria time to recap our headlines now in the new congress is officially coming into session in the u.s. democrats won the house in november but the balance of power in the senate is said to be decided in 2 special elections in georgia your own choose day hospitals in the u.k. are preparing to roll out the oxford astra zeneca vaccine this soon as monday it's

the country's 2nd approved coronavirus vaccine by mr barr's johnson has warned of tougher restrictions that expects tens of millions of people will be immunized over the next 3 months a new and more infectious cope with 19 strain appears to be leading to a record number of cases. in the more than 70 people have been killed in 2 attacks on villages it happened in the to the bury region in the western area neighboring mali and burning in fighters from armed groups going to a nice old cross in and out of the poorest border. now it's been a year since iran's top general qassam soloman it 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 of demonstrators gathered in tahrir square they're monitoring the expulsion of american troops charles strafford reports. thousands of people

filled to tahrir square in central baghdad. we will not stop until we have our revenge they chant revenge for the killing of iranian revolutionary guard chief class i'm still in money and the deputy head of iraq's popular mobilization forces . hundreds like us drone strike near baghdad airport one year ago them assure the middle had the blood of the martyrs will not be wasted on the principle of a mom hussein this is a message for the world off the american spread language of sectarianism and killings our project will never end it's an islamic one we're here to remember the martyrs who were killed in the u.s. drone strikes and we demand that u.s. forces lead this country wherever they go they cause destruction. on january the 5th last year 2 days after saleman his assassination iraq's parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for the approximately 3200 american military

personnel to leave prime minister mustafa economy who took office in may promised a timetable for withdrawal but many iraqis accuse him of dragging his feet chowing to us to moms the iraqi prime minister. agrees with the thousands of people that have gathered here today that there must be a withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq but many people here accuse him of listening too much to washington and not seeing fast enough to assure that all american troops. are going to be here i mean the iraqi government is the same as the american government they are just working for american interests parliament voted to expel you. forces but nothing is happening with americans don't leave on their own accord we will force them to leave with our blood. going trumpet ministration has promised to withdraw all 500 u.s. military personnel from iraq by mid january that would leave around 2500 still in the country. it is unclear how the next u.s.

president joe biden will respond to the situation in iraq the country analysts being politically militarily and economically dominated by neighboring iran. but the message from these iraqis is clear. like the. police in pakistan ever arrested one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 mum by attacks. we was detained in the eastern city of lahore on saturday on charges of financing terrorism in a separate case has long been suspected of planning the man by sea in which 166 people were killed last 3 was detained days afterwards but pakistani court released him on bail in 2015 at least 11 coal miners have been shot dead after being kidnapped in pakistan's botches stan region armed militants took them from the coal field and opened fire several others were injured and investigation

is now underway so far no one has claimed responsibility the miners belong to a community of minority shareholder muslims at least 17 people have died after a roof collapse at a crime a tory in the years uttar pradesh state 21 people have been rescued from the rubble in the valley a bad according to a government official mourners had come to attend the man's last rites and took shelter in the building from heavy rain when the roof fell in a local official is calling for an inquiry into the incident. crowds in the hall are marching in support of the prime minister after several days of protests against him last month prime minister. ali dissolved parliament and called an early election people took to the streets to urge him to reverse the decision and submit his resignation nepal's supreme court is reviewing several petitions against the prime minister's actions. nearly $80000.00 exiled tibetans are voting in

a general election for their parliament the election is taking place in the years northern city of daraa massada is the seat of the tibetan government in exile it's also the base of their spiritual leader the dalai lama who fled china after a failed uprising against beijing's rule a 2nd vote is due in april. zimbabwe has entered its 2nd national lockdown for the next 30 days only essential locations like hospitals pharmacies and supermarkets will be open and overnight curfew is in force there's been a huge spike in infections over the holiday season in a country already struggling with a deepening economic crisis soaring inflation and high unemployment residents of sydney will face a $150.00 fine for failing to comply with new compulsory mask rules from midnight

on sunday face coverings will be mandatory in shopping centers places of worship transport and other public venues new south wales police say the fines will be a last resort for in forcing the rule the measures come as the state reports a new corona virus infections 5 linked to a cluster in western sydney. if you don't have a good excuse will you be found. we understand that there are people who for example may have been ill at home and have not been yet to buy a mask and they're on their way to for example a pharmacy or shop to buy a mask those are issues which are very good wells police members will take into account in the next few days. but at the end of the day it is no time for avoiding masks it is now a time for wearing masks please ensure you do eggs birds in the u.k. a warning the pandemic is taking its toll on mental health the stress of successive

lockdowns the economic fallout which is given rise to depression and anxiety and previously healthy people piling up the country's leading psychiatry's called it the biggest risk to mental health since world war 2 don dawson is a psychologist and a personal personality behavior expressionist she thinks it's important to take enough care of mental health. there are lots of different things that cause depression regulation of mood in the brain genetic susceptibility stress medical problems or you know other issues such as medications you might already be on so it in the future in an ideal world will have individualized medical treatment chemical treatment for each person at the moment it's a kind of hit and miss affair where we are trying out these antidepressants hoping that they will help and they will certainly help some people who are feeling suicidal and. i have given up on life but there are many people with moderate

depression who it won't help at all and that won't be. transparent or are apparent for a few months so you know it's not an overall panacea and it doesn't work for everybody and there are other things that we should be doing and yes talking therapy is one of the most important things there's also something else called cognitive behavioral therapy which is changing the way we look at the world so it's changing our attitudes in order to change our ways of thinking and the way we act and a lot of those things can be assessed online now thank goodness for the internet and for people who are feeling particularly low but may not want to go the antidepressant route you can ask your doctor if you can to access those online to see if you can't help yourself to start with however i mean i have to say for some people events a push them to the point where they will need a chemical boost for their nervous systems because they are so depressed. bring you

some breaking news now apparently a taper merging recording of the u.s. president making some controversial remarks let's go straight over to alan fischer he's live from lanta georgia allen tell us what we know about these remarks on the stand the related to vote counting in georgia right. well this was a call made on saturday by the president of the united states to the secretary of state of the state of georgia the person this century in charge of organizing the elections now on the call he was joined by mark meadows his chief of staff as well as a legal adviser to his campaign and during the hour long call the president ultimately but rick and slot to the secretary of state jim to find 11870 votes from somewhere said they could be 5 and and they should be looking for them with people who want to find them rather than people who are not this is quite

surprising that the president would quite directly make this call the fact that he claims that he has won the state of georgia of course it's been disproven in court he's taken several actions in the courts and they've been through and out and prince produced no evidence yet he again reiterated several conspiracy theories to the secretary of state among them that they had counted ballots for joe biden 3 times which was completely just proved that to many and who run the machines had removed the internal mechanism of some of those machines again that has been totally disproved and shot down by the president by advisors to the secretary of state and the president was essentially saying look we need to find these votes so that the secretary of state can say we recalculate it and georgette was won by donald trump it is a staggering piece of journalism by the washington post who broke this story but i've also obtained the audio and when you have the president making these claims it

is quite frankly jaw dropping that the president this late on would be making those claims but clearly he is leaving no stone unturned to try and get the election overturned but the reality is that the claims he's making here in georgia simply have. no basis in fact and that has been proven again and again and again so quite how this plays out over the next couple of days i'm not entirely sure we've seen people on social media well connected people on social media saying that they. should consider impeachment because of this not least because the president said that the secretary of state could face some risk if he didn't find these votes that it's an implied threat of some sort of legal action against him there is no legal action that could be taken against him from anyone's reading of this situation yet but there are others saying that surely this is the point where the republicans

abandon the president because he is going simply too far to try and overturn an election which was decided by more than 7000000 votes as i say it's a great piece of journalism by the washington post an incredible piece of audio given that they've managed to get a copy of this is coming from here in georgia rather than the white house the white house as far as i'm aware in the last few minutes how do you confirm the call had taken place but said that the president would be spending the weekend making calls for the benefit of the american people many people will argue that this was the president making a call for the benefit of themselves and his campaign. let's put this into perspective for viewers just joining us we're talking about the presidential election because we've got these this other issue going on in the state of georgia related to the senate seat but we're talking about now the president of the united states making a phone call saturday yesterday yesterday my time zone in which he's asking

for the secretary of state to try and find enough votes for the presidential election of november the result of that election to be changed now. you know most people watching this might think it's a bit of a long shot they're currently from wrong and didn't they have to recounts in the state of georgia and i think biden was called the winner 3 times there. i know his election of course has been set to fight by the state and the thing to remember here is that the president has put pressure on the secretary of state before to over time the result the secretary of state says he will follow the law and he's done exactly that and of course the president has attacked brian camp who is the governor here in georgia on the phone call he called himself a schmuck a derogatory or an india a fool for backing brian camp to become the governor here because the governor

again said all he could do is follow the law and set to fire the results as they came in and they gave joe biden a win here in georgia we knew that the race here in georgia was going to be close we knew that the republicans were hoping that the ghetto the vote organization democrats had put in place wouldn't be enough this time around to flip this state to the democrats but they were wrong and there was a big enough tonight 5000000 voters here in november and they voted for joe biden to be president and that set him well on the way to getting the electoral college victory that took him to the presidency and of course will take them to no curation in just 17 days time donald trump though has said that he is examining every avenue and this obviously now includes from this phone call calling the secretary of state here in georgia and demanding that he find the 11870 votes

plus one that he feels he needs he claims that he won georgia by millions of votes again i don't session highs no basis in fact he claims that. people dead people had voted in the election here in georgia the secretary of state admitted that they had looked into that and indeed dead people had voted here in georgia there were 2 of them not. the hundreds of thousands and of course the secretary of state also reiterated to the president that his or an attorney general william barr who was then had said just after the election there was no evidence of any widespread fraud that would change the result of the election something that donald trump simply hasn't been able to accept or understand because of course he didn't want to be branded a loser and there is the possibility that once he is out of office one he will become largely an irrelevancy and he's fighting to make sure that doesn't happen

but also while he was in the office of the presidency there were many things legally that couldn't take place now he has jeopardized what he is no longer the president of the united states alan there with us because i think what we've got now is we've got the actual audio clip of the washington post has reported on this is the conversation between the u.s. president donald trump and the secretary of state of georgia a brand. that's this now in 5 years one of. a level that has been $780.00 loans which is one more than we have because we want to say so so tell me greg what are we going to do we won the election and is not fair to taking away from us like yes and it's got to be very costly in many ways and i think you have to say you know you're

going to reexamine it and you can really damage it but but reserve it with people that want to find answers not people who don't want to find answers right now of call this tweens happening as well this is from the u.s. president donald trump saying sorry but the number of votes in the swing states. that we are talking about is ok hang on no it says i spoke to secretary of state brad raffensperger yesterday about fulton county and voter fraud in georgia he was unwilling or unable to answer questions such as the ballots under the table scan ballot destruction out of state voters dead voters and more he has no clue. so that's actually the tweet which i just read out there go back to our official atlanta georgia allen i understood what you said a moment ago the legal ramifications of this but it does it's going to very hard

for people to understand how this is not perceived as an attempt to try and pressure politically a figure into changing a result for political for purely political reasons. i think you would have to hear the whole phone call. so that you get the. you know . what he meant if you so. long. to be more nuanced. only on the face of it and from what we read in the washington post the president has tripped up in legal jeopardy oh i just called secretary of state in georgia and just again. all the claims that he is making in the full court have been tested in the courts not one of them was

successful in georgia all right we'll leave it there that we're going to come back to you later on this one thanks so much for now alan fischer there it's time for sport now here's jemma. thank you a similar and have gone back to the top with italy's assyria after beating better than say they've gone back above into who briefly overtook them earlier that was after they thrashed 62 out martinez scored his 1st hattrick fit into the game was poised to were at half time before in 10 martinez took control after the break the argentinians efforts helping his side to an 8th straight victory in syria. on tonight as it was just another museum to continue like this is important because we created a lot in a tank and we are also scoring a lot of goals disappointed with the 2 goals we conceded one from

a set piece where they took us by surprise. after beating some duryea 11 home at a jacko scoring the winner gets his 7th an ego of the season. napoli 2 points behind rim in full so they do have a game in hand. to go to great goes on aptly as they haven't accounted for one their opponents were reduced to 10 men in the 2nd half. in the english premier league at manchester city have put in one of the most impressive performances of the season to be chelsea 3 want to weigh. in and kevin de bruyne are on top of his city for callum hudson a dory pulled back in stoppage time for chelsea the win that mean city now 4 points behind the top 2 liverpool and manchester united but they do have a game in hand earlier on sunday less to the newcastle 21 to move back up to. athletic a madrid have returned to the top of spain's la liga they'd be out of as 2 on

a way to go 2 points clear of city rivals rio with 2 games in hand at lescott also received some good news about the defender kieren trippier his 10 week ban for breaching betting rules in england has been suspended by football's world governing body fifa to allow the spanish club to appeal the decision triffitt was punished by the english football association off the information linked to his me from tottenham in 2019 was used by associates for betting purposes new zealand have a chance to reach number one in the world test cricket rankings that taking on pakistan in christchurch in the 2nd and final match of the 2 test series was making his test debut for pakistan with caps in a still ruled out with injury and his side were all out for 297 on day one as the top scored with 93 while col jamieson took 5 wickets for new zealand pakistan need to win this match to level the series. sure i have made a measurable stop of the 2nd test against south africa and to have his book the

tories were dismissed for just 157 and rick no care in destructive form taking 6 wickets with south africa ending the day on $148.00 for one in response the proteas it lead to much series one nil next up for sure rancor off about tour of south africa is a 2 test series at home against england and their opponents have arrived in preparation the matches should have taken place in march but the top was abandoned due to the current virus being one team confirmed all players in support off a tested negative 19 prior to that a pasha john was continuing his successful comeback in the n.b.a. he led the houston rockets to victory against the sacramento kings often spending the last 2 years recovering from injury the 30 year old made his return this week and he scored 28 points and 6 assists as james harden sat out the game do so injury the rockets of beating the kings one or 2 at a 94 folks back to back wins again sacramento. last year is going to last me

a lot of birds of a long we're. losing. you know we're. going to school. you know what to make all those other days added to and i just put a lot of or we're going to the case and try to get myself back to. the new orleans public in the came out on top in a tight contacts are going to toronto raptors. scored 31 points to that because one is on williamson added 21 more games and tied up every bledsoe's 3.0. for the 120211663. defending champion of color science has the lead after stage one of the dakar rally 9 taiwan rally champion sebastian was hitting a bit of trouble early on the rallies taking place in saudi arabia for the 2nd time science finished the opening day just ahead of his red bull teammate stefan pet a handful. that's always what for now back to south. china's

space agency says it expects the mars probe and one to enter the red planet's orbit next month the probe has been in space for $163.00 days it's traveled 400000000 kilometers so far but after entering mars is orbit it was spent about 3 months checking out potential landing sites for actually touching down sometime in may. one of portugal's most renowned singers has died at the age of 80 while carlos was known as the sinatra of music. the one you. recall because monday a national day of mourning 2014 was the 1st for these artists to receive a latin grammy life on the chief mint award he died of heart complications on new year's day while being treated in the lisbon hospital that's it for this style of

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subscribe to you choose would slosh al-jazeera english. president trump is accused of pressurising georgia officials to recalculate the vote just days ahead of a crucial runoff in the state. hello i'm barbara sarah and this is al jazeera live from london also coming up. huge crowds gather in the iraqi capital baghdad to mark one year since the u.s. assassinated iranian general kasim so the money india a proves it.