al jazeera. and. i use one of the fine. 11780. recordings of a phone call reveal donald trump pressured officials in georgia to find enough votes to overturn his election defeat the. old abuse of power by the president of the united states. certainly added to the outrage of the trump's attempts to discredit the election as allies plan a long shot attempt to stop congress certifying joe biden's victory.

santa maria here in doha with the world news from al-jazeera coronavirus news and china has begun vaccinating people who have a higher risk of infection will have a live update from beijing on that one also brazil gives the green light to import $2000000.00 doses of the coronavirus vaccine however there is frustration over how long it's taking to approve one another newsy u.k. court set to rule on whether to extradite the wiki leaks founder julian assange to the u.s. to face charges of a leaking military and diplomatic documents. so a recording has been leaked to the public in which we hear u.s. president donald trump telling the top election official in the state of georgia to quote find enough votes to overturn his election defeat there george are of course one of the battleground states that flipped in favor of president elect. joe biden

has an unprecedented move by a sitting president with just a few weeks to go before biden takes office trump still refuses to concede he's lost repeating unsubstantiated claims of fraud and fisher reports from atlanta georgia. from a president who insists evidence the election was stolen from him pressure on a tough election official to find votes to help form overturn a result the audio of the hour long call from the oval office to georgia's secretary of state was 1st obtained by the washington post and captures donald trump even warming of big legal consequences if you didn't do something i here's one of. $11780.00 loans which is one more that we have because we want to say. it's a move that may create legal problems for the president he's pressuring an elected official to change the result of an election already certified by the state

president trump claimed again without evidence he'd won georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes he didn't the state went for biden and he raised other conspiracy theories all dismissed by brad raffensperger well mr president the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong donald trump refused to accept the 2020 presidential election congress meets on wednesday to confirm the result although a number of republican senators plan to object he summoned election officials from various states to the white house and field in almost every legal effort to contest results one longtime washington observer says even for donald trump this call is remarkable it's an outrage it's the president of the united states putting pressure on a public official to lie to cheat possibly to steal votes so that he can win the state of georgia vice president elect harris has been in georgia for an election rally ahead of tuesday's senate runoff but the president's call was there hanging over

her comments was yes certainly the more i see desperation. most certainly than. and it was a. they all the abuse of power by the president and the united states even if donald trump did manage to flip georgia it doesn't matter joe biden won more than enough electoral college votes to secure the presidential election. will actually be in georgia later on monday he's here supporting 2 republican senators whose fate in a runoff election will decide the balance of power in washington a race which is no been overshadowed by the most controversial oval office tapes since nixon in the 1970 s. alan fischer al jazeera atlanta georgia has david to for you know an international lawyer and former adviser to the obama presidential campaign he says it's hard to know exactly what the legal implications will be. he said there are some laws on

point and it is a federal crime to interfere with election results or try to keep. to change election result results in a way that is not proper under the election rules and laws there are also crimes that could be relevant with respect to brought blackmail he certainly was trying to coerce this election official in the doing something that his state official responsibility suggest he should not do he followed his responsibility and now president trump is trying to get you to go outside of his fish hook in order to overturn the results and president trump had a veiled threat basically saying there could be criminal implications for you if you don't return this election so those are 2 laws that could be on point that could suggest this is illegal of course this could also be grounds for impeachment

it sounds strange to talk about impeachment when president trump only has 16 days left as president but the house could bring impeachment charges against him of course that wouldn't have time to go all the way through to the process of impeachment but if the house wanted to make a point they could do that will trump refusal to concede has led to speculation he may deploy the military to hold on to power that has prompted 10 former u.s. defense secretaries to warn against the use of the military in election disputes this is part of the open letter our elections have a code recounts an audit have been conducted appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts the time for questioning the results has past efforts to involve the u.s. armed forces in resolving election disputes and take us into dangerous unlawful and unconstitutional territory is lawrence korb former assistant secretary of defense is now a senior fellow at the center for american progress he explains the concerns of those former officials. i think they are concerned about what's happening to

our country and the potential for the military to get involved in dealing with this crisis i mean the majority of the people who signed that letter are republicans and they're saying you know trump lost the election we need to get on they're also concerned about the fact that they transition is not going well because they know where you get into the pentagon you've got to hit the ground running dealing with the crisis we have in afghanistan or iraq maybe a rand what's what's happening for example with the russians using cyber attacks on our secure. our security could still the days and programs and the whole concern about what china is doing in the pacific trump should declare martial law and order the military to get involved in domestic politics with the

military that obey the orders of the commander in chief or would they not obey him and that would create another crisis so the last thing they want is to have more actual law. well in the past few minutes the 1st dose of the oxford astra zeneca carone it's far better coronavirus vaccine has been administered this is 82 year old brian pink from oxford he's on dialysis for kidney disease and he's become the 1st person to receive this particular vaccine he said i'm so pleased to be getting the kind of vaccine today and really proud it's the one that was invented in oxford officials say around 530000 new doses of that same being made available. the modern united states the coronavirus death toll is now pos 350000 so far about 4200000 people there have received their 1st vaccine doses but that falls well behind the 20000000

president trump's administration promised by the end of last year. also japan's prime minister is considering declaring a state of emergency in tokyo following a rise in coven 1000 infections the country reported 4 and a half 1000 new cases under center 31st more than half of them in the capital there she had assumed says restaurants and karaoke bars there will have to close earlier japan has so far stayed away from harsh restrictions imposed in most other countries here's what mcbride who tells us japan's prime minister is coming under increasing pressure over his response to the coronavirus. it comes as we have seen this seasonal spike of more than 4500 new cases in one day being declared just before new year now around half of those cases worryingly have been around the tokyo metropolitan area with leaders around tokyo including the governor of tokyo really asking for the state of emergency to be declared to give them extra powers

to try to control control and contain this outbreak but the government has been very resistant to do that they did it back in may of last year for a month but it does know the impact on the economy an economy that was already struggling so it is resisting it seems until the last not to declare a state of emergency but also at the back of the japanese government mind is the knowledge that we are getting very close to these these delayed summer olympics of course they were delayed from summer 2020 by exactly one year they're meant to start in july 21 and we're getting very close now to the 6 month countdown to those games and of course declaring a state of emergency does not give the world much confidence that these games are going to go ahead in a substantive form which the government still wants but you're see those at a news conference monday still insisting that japan wants to go ahead with these

games reminding japan and also the world that 2021 is the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. japan overcame reminding the world the japan has done that it is going ahead and staging the games and also insisting that these games would be a sign that the world and humanity it seems has prevailed in the face of this pandemic china is also ramping up its covert $900.00 vaccinations now after starting its inoculation drive in beijing on friday people deemed to be at high risk of exposure to covert 19 are the 1st to get the shot that includes medical workers overseas students and port workers elderly people and those with underlying conditions will be next beijing's municipal government aims to vaccinate all 22000000 citizens by the 2nd week of february this is the vaccine made by the local company sign a farm more with katrina you in beijing about this mean we obviously remember china

as being where all of this started and now the people getting their chance at protection. that's right well not everyone yet so we know that this mass rollout program has begun in china in at least 16 cities across 9 provinces including in beijing but not everyone in beijing can access it so father only prioritizing 9 groups as you mentioned medical workers government workers those working at ports for example but what's interesting that is that in china so far the 1st batch of people receiving the vaccine a limited to the ages of between 18 and 59 the elderly population but instead china seems to prioritizing the working population so so far in beijing there have been about 220 centers set up and according to the chinese government each center can administer about $500.00 doses per day now in beijing as an individual you're not yet able to sign up for the vaccine but you can in other areas of china including

in and my province shanghai in from jan for example now this mass vaccination rollout has begun with the sign of that scene that is china's 1st approved vaccine which was given the thumbs up by chinese regulators last week they say that it has an efficacy rate of about 79 percent but we yet to receive any dasa from the company regarding final stage or stage 3. stage 3 trials but the chinese government seems to be confident it's moving forward with this and it said that they hope to give at least 15000000 people the 1st job of the 1st dose of the vaccine by general 15 and they hope to give those same 50000000 their 2nd dose by february 15th that is one month later and that's really key because in china february is when chinese new year takes place this main travel event where hundreds of millions of people make trips across the country but this year the chinese government is actually discouraging travel because they're afraid of any 2nd wave or any large resurgence

in the current virus outbreak here that is katrina year in beijing thank you for that updates. and there is more covert news coming in a moment we'll look at brazil which is importing millions of doses of a vaccine which it is actually yet to approve. the house will come to order. and the new u.s. congress is sworn in but just who will hold the senate majority is still up in the air. it's time for the perfect jenny. sponsored plan qatar airways they thundery down polls continue across central parts of europe at the moment particularly into the central med you see plenty of storms rumbling away here either side of a flavor close to areas of low pressure system really nasty weather continuing

further north things are a little quieter into scandinavia but here are rather area of high pressure we have to weigh in this coming in from a nice to a northeasterly direction always a cold direction particularly at this time of year i'm going to say that's a cold who had digging its way down across the northwest there 5 celsius in london just 3 degrees there full permission to follow that cold rolled away down into the ip and potentially madrid struggling to get to 5 or 6 degrees over the next couple of days that we go with ash i was just around the corsica pushing across into that western side of italy other side of the adriatic plenty of storms rumbling away through greece pushing for the race was they'll make their way into turkey as we go on into choose to notice further north quad an area of snow coming up across ukraine pushing up into poland in the baltic states the cold air that we have across central parts of mediterranean lapping onto the shores of north africa just about getting into the low teens say there's some wet weather for the canaries and

that's going to make its way across northern parts of iraq i. spoke to qatar airways the cross. 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 in the rest but this is the one political topic anybody and everybody is this knesset the far right is preparing for battle and their opponents or anyone who is different. prejudiced some pride in hungary on al-jazeera.

with al-jazeera these are the top stories this hour in order recording leaked to the public u.s. president donald trump has pressured georgia's top election official to overturn the election result they all seem to quote find more votes during an hour long conversation. 10 former u.s. defense secretaries of warned against the use of the military in an election dispute in an open letter they wrote such a move would push the u.s. into dangerous territory. and the 1st doses of the oxford astra zeneca corona virus vaccine just been administered in the u.k. the government says half a 1000000 doses are ready for use the 2nd vaccine to be approved. the court in the u.k. is expected to rule on whether wiki leaks founder julian assange should be extradited from britain to the united states he is wanted on espionage charges that could see him spend the rest of his life in prison and support from chalons in london. 2010 and what wiki leaks revealed to the world caused

a sensation on. u.s. military video kept classified for 3 years to the helicopter gunship attack in baghdad at least 12 iraqis were killed including the noise his patrol and his driver. the u.s. military said it was engaging in what it calls insurgent groups a claim that's contested to this day i believe that if those killings were lawful under the rules of engagement when the rules of engagement are wrong. deeply wrong . it was this another such show piece revelations that put judy innocent in the spotlight and through the intense hostility of the u.s. government later in 2010 percent his legal battles began after swedish prosecutors opened a rape and sexual assault investigation against him he was arrested in london some observers found wiki leaks increasingly problematic after the. rape allegations

where songs should go to sweet the site became more and more reckless and the songs became more and more reckless and latterly you know didn't actually you know hasn't been very careful with documents large amounts of data was put into the public domain which would have been done by we'd you most asians facing imminent extradition in 2012 he took refuge in london's ecuadorian embassy he didn't leave it for 7 years even after sweden temporarily abandoned its investigation in 2017 a much more serious threat emerged a sealed indictment in the us when ecuador finally let british police in to take a stand out of the embassy in 2019 the charges in the us were revealed. for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents he faces a maximum jail sentence of 175 years under the espionage act he's already spent 21

months in a u.k. prison it's a prosecution the concerns many who value a free press we got to be able. to investigate to reveal the truth without being threatened with going to spend the rest of one's life in a high security prison in the united states jeanne assam still have many backers who say he's been victimized by the publication of e-mails stolen from the democratic party in the u.s. just before the 2016 presidential election cost him support from the left in his report special counsel robert mueller concluded the documents came from russian state hackers that has caused to sound more friends a sexual predator a narcissistic self publicist a stooge of foreign intelligence a tireless campaigner for journalism and transparency these are just some of the views of julian assange on monday a judge at london's old bailey will decide whether he can be extradited to the united states but both sides can appeal

a decision that goes against them so either way julian assange is legal struggles are set to continue. al-jazeera london. we return to corona virus news now and brazil's health regulator has agreed to import 2000000 doses of that oxford astra zeneca vaccine we saw earlier even though it hasn't actually approved the shot for you and the 200000 brazilians have died from cove in 19 and there have been more than 7000000 recorded infections is more from allison. in bogota. well the brazilian government hopes that this announcement will show some progress when it comes to this issue at a time when other major latin american countries like mexico in argentina have already started their inoculation campaigns now even if the 1st 2000000 doses a arrive in brazil they have not been authorized yet the government hopes that will

happen by the end of january and vaccinating a 1000000 people in brazil will do very little to stamp depend dammy in a country of more than 200000000 people another 100000000 doses of the oxford astra saying the vaccine are expected to be produced locally but that will take many months at least 6 months for those vaccines to be ready in such large numbers and that's why we're seeing increasing criticism coming from medical associations in brazil and also major newspapers like for you know so follow probably the most respected paper in the country that accused also not on sunday in an editorial of what they called deadly incompetence this is also sparked a more political controversy in the country with the governor sao paulo trying to operate independently trying to import at least 6000000 doses of

a chinese vaccine. has been approved about also those vaccines the use of those back scenes has not been approved yet. school children in kenya are back in the classroom after a 10 month coronavirus shutdown but all extra curricular activities are still banned for another 90 days and teachers unions objected to the reopening they say schools don't have enough space to keep people safe the government's tightened other restrictions including extending a nighttime curfew 124 new daily cases have been confirmed. a malaysian coroner has ruled out the involvement of anyone else in the death of a french irish girl in 2019 the court said it is likely 15 year old nora and quinn died of misadventure indicating an accident she went missing during a family holiday and was found dead 10 days later naked in the jungle her mother

told the inquest she believed her daughter had been abducted. the armed group boko her arms abducted dozens of people in a raid in northeastern nigeria says in borno state between the towns of my degree and. more than 50 people including a un aid worker have been kidnapped for her arm and other armed groups of conduct to the number of these mass kidnappings in the region in recent years back in 2014 you may remember the more than 270 girls who were abducted by boko haram fighters from northeastern ship uk 6 years later over 100 still missing last month more than 300 schoolboys were kidnapped in the northern town of katsina the government secured their release a week later and then last month more than 80 children were taken from another part of katsina state they were rescued after a gun battle with the kidnappers so the other day is a security analyst and journalist who we spoke to about this he says kidnapping is becoming more widespread as other armed groups adopt the tactics of boko haram.

used to arrive. in times past now are the smaller criminal groups have latched onto. the name or i'm especially saying that the military hasn't actually been able to take out this terrible completely different view to where they used to qualify the battle between the nigerian military forces and the insurgents what are they have been technically defeated whether they've been pushed back by the same is that we have smaller groups and just recently president bihari has said that abare that is being is so for us to the extent that the military alone cannot police the bar that what this means is that we have you know people who have made incursion into nigeria especially from the maghreb area and of course since after the crisis was seen leaving culminating with life and small arms niger is dealing with

a whole lot of issues that exist an explosion of the fuel depo on the syrian lebanese border has injured at least 10 people lebanon's army says it happened at the warehouse on the syrian side of the border but in the lebanese town of el consulate local media are reporting the blast was caused by an electrical problem the u.s. is reversing its decision to bring home one of it then cross carries the u.s.s. nimitz from the gulf the acting u.s. defense secretary says it's in response to recent threats from iran against president donald trump and other u.s. government officials earlier this week u.s. and b. 52 bombers to fly over the gulf and deployed a nuclear submarine the region. the 117th u.s. congress is beginning its work democrats kept control of the house of representatives in november's election the balance of power in the senate though will be decided by 2 runoff elections in georgia on tuesday you have

a look at the numbers at the moment republicans have got 50 of the 100 senate seats democrats 48 which is what makes these 2 undecided seats in georgia so important republicans david per doing kelly loffler running against democratic candidates john ourself and raphael warnock if the democrats take both seats that makes it $5050.00 in the senate and so vice president would have the deciding vote effectively giving democrats control or republicans only need to win one of the seats to hold on to damage or a sea shepherd has more. the 117 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 defining majority leader mitch mcconnell we gavel in today like $160.00. 4 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 we have a unsustainable state of affairs in this country where we have tens of millions of people who do not view this you actually 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 there so that we can get to the bottom of what happened in these elections over 100 republicans in the house are also expected to challenge the certification on. wednesday while the law expected to succeed there 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 have returned to see al-jazeera washington just an update on

a earlier story and that is julian assange as the wiki leaks founder arriving in court today we are waiting to hear a verdict on whether he will be extradited to the united states from britain to face those espionage charges that were found julian assange is waiting for that is to come out of the court in the. meanwhile here's a run through of the other headlines in an audiotape recording linked to leaked to the public even here is president donald trump pressured georgia's top election official to overturn the election results they asked him to find more votes during an hour long conversation the people of your your egg with the people of the country and there's nothing wrong with saying that you know. 2 2 that you reach out well mr president determines that you have.