on. we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter what you see al-jazeera will bring you the needs and current affairs that matter to you. al-jazeera. board. president trump is accused of pressurising georgia officials to recalculate the presidential vote just days before a crucial senate runoff in the state. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london also coming out. the . crowds gather in the iraqi capital baghdad to mark one year since the

u.s. assassinated raney and general kasim silliman india approved to vaccines for emergency use the government says it into immunize 300000000 people by august last. i robot royd in south korea at the mountain town famous for its ice festival that has plenty of ice and the festival. to start the program with some breaking news out of the united states u.s. media outlets have obtained an audiotape of an hour long phone call between president donald trump and the georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger in the recording trump is heard pressuring the georgian politician to recalculate the presidential election in his favor let's listen to an excerpt of this extraordinary

conversation the people of georgia angry and these numbers are going to be repeated on monday night along with others that we're going to have by that and which are much more substantial even and the people of yours you're angry the people of the country are a very and there's nothing wrong with saying that you know. 2 2 2 that you've recalculated well mr president determines that you have is the data you have is what you should want to have an accurate on action and your republican. we believe that we do have an active election no i do you know you don't have you don't have not even plus you got you're off by hundreds of thousands of votes you know what they did and you're not reporting it that's a you know that's a criminal that's a criminal offense and you know you can't let that happen that's that's a big risk to you and to ryan your lawyers that's

a big risk but they are shredding ballots in my opinion based on what i've 2 heard and they are removing machinery. and then moving it as fast as they can both of which are criminal funds and you can't let it happen and you are letting it happen you know i mean i'm notifying you that you're letting it happen so all i want to do is this i just want to find. $11780.00 lugs which is one more that we have because we won the say so so tell me brick what are we going to do we won the election and it's not fair to take it away from us like this and it's going to be very costly in many ways and i think you have to say that you're going to reexamine it and you can re-examine it but but resented it was people that want to find answers not people that don't want to find answers. i'm fisher joins us live now

from atlanta in georgia where 2 special elections are due to think place on tuesday which will decide the balance of power in the united states that it is so allan it was going to be an interesting time anyway in american politics because of the election in georgia where you are how do you think this phone call changes things. it's a remarkable piece of audio and remarkable piece of journalism by the washington post who 1st broke the story and released the audio here you have the president of the united states calling from the oval office with his chief of staff an illegal advisor by his side an elected official in georgia suggesting this somehow he find votes from somewhere of an election that has already been certified by the state and by the government and decided that donald trump won the election through the phone call donald trump ties to billy to could jaw to praise anything he can use to get the secretary of state to change the result but the secretary of state really

shows real strength of character to say mr president what you're seeing is wrong no donald trump quoted several conspiracy theories that have been dismissed he quoted several theories that have been tested in court every single one of them have lost and he went on to claim that he won the state by hundreds of thousands of votes he didn't he lost the state to joe biden joe biden won here and even if he did manage to overturn georgia he would still only get 16 electoral college votes so that's not enough to even challenge joe biden's lead in the electoral college which should be certified by congress on wednesday so of course comes the question that if he did this and was caught on tape with the secretary of state of georgia we know he's spoken to politicians from michigan and wisconsin where the other phone calls like this as well but certainly there's

a question mark over the legality whether the president is actually interfering with the process of an election by making this phone call and allen as we were mentioning here in georgia because of this other senate race all in tears they are raised that the president himself mentioned during that phone call it's take a listen. but a lawyer is not allowed to give faulty election results ok you're not allowed to do that and that's what you've done this is a faulty election result and honestly this should go very fast you should be tomorrow because you have a visualization election coming up and because of what you've done to the president you know the people of georgia know that this was a scam and because of what you guys are the president a lot of people are going to have to vote and a lot of republicans are going to go negative because they hate what you did to the president ok they hated and they're going to hurt and you would be respected really respected if this thing could be straightened out before the election you

have a big election coming up on tuesday. alan i find the wording there really strong they hate the people of georgia hate where you've done to the president that's what he told brad raffensperger i mean what do you make of the language that has been used here by donald trump for me as was the question is do you think it could be considered illegal. i think that you need election lawyer to tantalize that and of course you've got to listen to the entire conversation that are there was on pablo which is considered to be the right wing alternative to torture her suggesting that the president is somehow playing 3 dimensional chess when he's 123 steps ahead of his opponents by suggesting that the secretary of state look into these votes other people suggesting that donald trump couldn't even play checkers. it would take a whole look at the law and what the president said and whether there was any

direct interference but. certainly by talking about the president in the 3rd person is awed by seeing that. that republicans will vote negative in the election i'm not entirely sure what a negative vote will be you're going to be able to cast a vote for either the republican or the democrat and of course he's going to be in this state in what 24 hours when he arrives here for a get out the vote rally to an election that he's already described as illegal in a tweet over the weekend and know we have this phone call what he says that it's going to be rigged against the republicans anyway so that could well suppress the vote for his site though there's been 3000000 early votes in georgia that's a record no they won't be able to be counted till the polls close at 7 pm on tuesday but certainly looking at the geographical spread we see that most of those came from democratic areas so the republicans have

a big job to win those 2 senate seats and of course they're very important because if the republicans win them then they have the majority in the senate if the democrats win both the senate suddenly because it comes tight 5050 with the casting vote to the vice president who from the 20th of january will become the hottest and of course that makes it much easier for joe biden to get his legislative. legislative agenda through both houses of congress but with the latest from atlanta in georgia for us alan for the moment thank you that through all of this president has continued tweeting here's one of them sorry but the number of votes in the swing states that we are talking about is very large and totally outcome determinative only bid them a kratz and some rhinos that's republicans in name only would there dispute this even though they know that it is true gabriel is under joins us live now from washington d.c. so gabe speed

a couple of hours now since that phone call the recording that was released what's the reaction been like. well i think official washington is still very much in shock in many ways we have heard from several democrats prominent ones and everyone in between there we just heard from hank johnson he's a democrat representative from the state of georgia in congress and he is saying that he says president trump should in his words resign now and representative johnson also said that on monday he will put forth a resolution in congress to censure president donald trump what is that that's essentially a public reprimand that congress would vote on a sign of disapproval of the president's words and or actions that he said he will introduce that to congress on monday but clearly there's no legal ramifications to

that a potential censure but we have heard from other prominent democrats as well primarily adam schiff democrat from california tweeting out trump's contempt for democracy is laid bare once again on tape another flagrant abuse of power by a corrupt man who would be a despot if we allowed him to be we will not and we also heard from chuck schumer the minority leader of the senate and he was tweeting at ted cruz a prominent republican who supports donald trump saying ted cruz if you want to investigate election fraud just start with this and then he linked to the audio tape of donald trump so clearly democrats are saying this is just another example in their view of donald trump. acting out of form and in really in a way that shocked so many people in this town that has indeed not just how many

they think around the world gabriel is on there with the latest from washington d.c. gabe thank you. steve clemons is the host of al-jazeera is the bottom line and the washington editor at large of the hill he says the president's actions that being have compromise the integrity of the us democratic system. i think that many people in the country will consider what he did to pressure tactics the efforts to threaten to overturn an election david frum has been now actually tweeting the legal code that would specify that that kind of act would be considered illegal but the president of the united states can get away with a lot and he is near the end of his term so who knows what will really happen i think the era of american us exceptionalism this this notion that america is the beacon on the hill you know the gold label of democracy is over i think that we've

been coming apart in other ways before this i think the 20082009 financial crisis which harmed lots of the rest of the world not only middle class americans was a time when american financial markets looked highly corrupt and they were supposed to be the best in the world now we're seeing the wheels come off american governance itself and off you know the american style democracy we look as if we need you know election monitors from other parts of the world to come watch our elections this is ridiculous and people are appalled and offended by it both domestically and i think they're frightened by it because it really undermines the ability of the united states to be at the forefront of trying to comment about democratic practice else where. well we're going to take a look at the rest of the day's news and next including. the house will come to order. a new u.s. congress is sworn in but how will the georgia runoff votes shake it out.

no chinese spacecraft has gone that before one that prepares that he wanted hans. hello we have a tropical cycle now affecting australia this is tropical cyclone image and developed the typical low strengthens in the gulf of carpentaria and now it's throwing some very heavy rain across northern parts of queensland around the cape york peninsula as it goes through the next 24 hours or so damaging winds gusting to around 75 kilometers per hour some very heavy rain the rain i suspect will be the significant feature widespread flooding is likely over towards kansas that system

drifts a little further east was funny a shot was stand the thought of all right across that eastern side of new south wales eastern parts of victoria of aggression somewhat to weather also making its way into new zealand's further west this fine in trough of perth a very different story warm sunshine here temperatures around 36 degrees now it's cold crisp sunshine across a good parts of northern china and it's getting colder still lost the clear skies here temperatures in beijing struggling to get to around freezing not too great there in south korea as well we will see some snow coming in across the korean peninsula and yet we're back in the snow there 400 sure and also for more of that as we go on into choose day by choose day central as the china cools they catch one of 2 right cellists. one of the last remaining ancient forests in southeast asia is

a lifeline to hundreds of lumberjacks and drivers. we follow the treacherous journey as they walk through extreme conditions. together and transport this dangerous but precious cargo risking it all. on al-jazeera. the. welcome back is a reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera u.s. media outlets have obtained an audiotape of an extraordinary hour long phone call between president donald trump and the georgia secretary of state brad

raffensperger where he is allegedly pressuring him to recalculate the presidential election in his favor. but the u.s. congress is sworn in lawmakers as republicans continue their allegations of electoral fraud as we've noted power in the senate still hangs in the balance with 2 crucial runoff elections in georgia on tuesday and a shipwreck can see now reports coronavirus restrictions added to the mix of irregularities. so it will come to order the $117.00 congress was gaveled in at noon on the 3rd day of january as required by the constitution but it was clear that this was 2021 members of the house was sworn in in batches and was strictly limited in the number of guests they could bring and attempt at preventing this from becoming a super spreader event meanwhile in the senate the vice president who's also president of the senate oversaw opening proceedings as he will on wednesday for the

certification of the presidential election but always a quarter of republican senators have now said they will challenge that certification defying majority leader mitch mcconnell we gavel in today like a 116 prior senate them before us. with plenty of disagreements on policy differences among our ranks the latest a group of 11 that by ted cruz they say they want the concerns of the 39 percent of the american people who told pollsters that they feel the election may have been rigged to be reflected in congress but on the sunday talk shows they failed once again to produce any evidence of wrongdoing instead they say they want another investigation into the allegations that are circulating heavy unsustainable state of affairs in this country where we have tens of millions of people who do not view this election result as legitimate we just come off of 4 years where the other side refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of president trump and here we are again and what we're saying is we need transparency there are still 2 senate runoff races in

georgia that have yet to be determined they will decide whether the republicans maintain control of the senate and that was notable that one of the candidates a key trump supporter was careful not explicitly to commit to challenging the presidential election results in a state that voted for joe biden i number one objective right now has to be winning on january 5th so that we can get to the bottom of what happened in these elections over $100.00 republicans in the house are also expected to challenge the certification on wednesday and while they all expected to succeed their interventions may well drag on proceedings for many many hours added to all of that is the old certainty of what will be happening outside congress donald trump urging his supporters to gather in washington for what he says will be a wild protest she had her town see al-jazeera washington. it's been a year since iran's top general kassim silly money 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 crowds demanded the expulsion of american troops charles stratford reports. thousands of people filled to tahrir square in central baghdad. we will not stop until we have all revenge they chant revenge for the killing of iranian revolutionary guard chief. and the deputy head of iraq's popular mobilization forces. hundreds like us drone strike near baghdad airport one year ago them assure that america 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 leave this country wherever they go they cause destruction. on january the 5th last year 2 days off the 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 mostafa called him a agrees with the files 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 force them to assure that all american troops. are going to be here many the iraqi government is the same as the american. government there are just working for american interests parliament voted to expel us forces

but nothing is happening that americans don't leave on their own accord we will force them to leave with our blood the outgoing 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 say is being politically militarily and economically dominated by neighboring iraq. but the message from these iraqis is clear. that al-jazeera baghdad. india's drug regulator has approved to covert $9000.00 vaccines and is preparing to roll out the world's largest immunization campaign both the oxford astra zeneca vaccine and the other made by indian drug maker but at the biotech have been approved for emergency shelob ellis reports. outside it

was a storm heavy rain thunder and lightning listen to the delhi sky but india with it worse conditions and 2020 recorded more than 10000000 cases of covered 19 and around 150000 deaths inside at a news conference in delhi on sunday there was hope that storm might pass after our grid examination. the 30 years your has decided to accept that a common they found subject court committee and accordingly that scene 4. and brought up by a are being uprooted forest repaired used an emergency situation the announcement 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 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. 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 that developing nations won't be left behind in the fight against the virus china ballasts al-jazeera. the shares government says that at least 100 people are now known to have been killed in 2 deadly attacks in the west of the country armed groups raided 2 villages in the team a very region this is a part of me share that has been unstable for years fighters linked to al qaeda and i so regularly stage attacks in the region which borders mali and work in a fossil a mini dress has this update from the capital me. prime minister bruges address the nation late sunday evening confirming that about 100 people have been killed in the attacks on the 2 villages now this is one of the worst massacres in the history of this country since these attacks began now the mayor of the local commune said the

attackers came on about 100 motorcycles and in 2 columns attacking the 2 villages simultaneously sources say there has been some form of looting by the local community killing 2 armed men just days or days before and some believe that this could be a prize a little by the groups who continue to launch attacks on civilian and military targets across the border with mali and then retreat into the ungoverned spaces in these 2 countries now the north launches have sent mostly in force mint in the area and to beef up security for the protection of local communities now the local community is facing a very difficult situation cooperating with the military will mean crossing the armed groups that have been invading their communities and also cooperating with the armed groups will mean treason or even breaking the law with the civilian or military authorities in egypt so that's

a very difficult situation for them and on the board in the border with nigeria and here is also having to do with attacks by boko haram. every year a south korean county breeds about $77.00 tons of fish for an ice festival in january well this year they have the fish but due to the pandemic they have no festival pride visited county near the border with north korea to see what organizers plan to do with all that extra fish. children it's a special event to promote a particular type of river trout known as the sunshine know 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 annual ice 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 sell our fish and deceased a result we're taking a crisis situation and turning it into an opportunity and. 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. 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. the town itself is hurting to the harsh winter in these mountains normally produces ice that is solid enough to support crowds of visitors but need it pristine waters that can for the day in 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 jewelry in the pandemic and restaurant owners. like lead you'll soon see all the influx of bestival visitors who won't know becoming. package that will 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 a year who supplies with produce. everyone here is hoping that by the time the ice breaks up and melts away they'll also be seeing an end to the pandemic rob mcbride al-jazeera watch on county south korea china's space agency says it expects the mars probe plan when one to enter the red planet's orbit next month the probe is been in space for $163.00 days and traveled 400000000 kilometers so far after entering the orbit of mars it will spend about 3 months checking out potential

landing sites before touching down in may since its launch in july the mars probe has captured an image showing both earth and the moon as well as taking several selfies are sent me to each as i write about 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. and now a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera us media outlets have obtained an audiotape of an extraordinary hour long phone call between president trouble and the georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger in the recording truck allegedly

pressure is the georgian politician to recalculate the presidential election in the president's favor.