clients decreasing stream whether it's killing their stock forcing some to abandon tradition to. investigate on which is iraq. iran says that it's resumed reaching the arabian up to 20 percent in a significant shift from the 2015 nuclear deal. hello i'm adrian for the get this is al jazeera live from joe also coming up it is no exaggeration to see that i am more concerned. than i have been at any time since march last year lockdown in scotland and more restrictions likely in other parts of the u.k. soon after a new covert 19 variant leads to

a record number of infections. 3 julian. the press. 3 us all. the u.k. court rejects extradition to the u.s. for leaking leaks founder julian assange on mental health problems. i use one of the i. doubt 780. and we look at the fallout from recordings of a phone call with donald trump pressuring officials to find enough votes to overturn his election defeat. iran says that it's taken the initial steps to stop the process of enriching uranium up to 20 percent of an underground nuclear facility to iran's move is likely to escalate the already heightened tension with the united states. in the

last few weeks of donald trump's presidency the level of uranium enrichment is a significant step away from the limits outlined in the 2015 iran nuclear deal but well below the 90 percent required to build a nuclear weapon the european union has described it as quote a considerable departure from the 2015 deal and israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says that terror ron is trying to develop nuclear weapons and that his country will not allow that to happen well iran's foreign minister has tweeted saying quote we resume 20 percent enrichment as legislated by our parliament the i.a.e.a. has been duly notified our remedial action conforms fully with para 36 of j c p o a after years of noncompliance by several other. participants all measures of fully reversible upon full compliance by all al-jazeera sorry for cities in west jerusalem to talk us through the israeli reaction and heidi joe castro is live for

us in washington d.c. but 1st. reports now from iran's capital. well it's certainly important given the current political climate iran finds itself in mainly the rhetoric that's been coming out of tehran towards washington and their behavior in the region as iran puts it it's seriously significant because it shows that iran is actually fed up with this nuclear deal and there was supposed to be a grace period of 2 months from early december until early february when this law was passed in parliament demanding that iran's atomic energy agency resume 20 percent enrichment levels as a result of the united states leaving the nuclear deal and imposing sanctions on iran this bill was called sanctions relief bill so since that hasn't happened the problem and terence who are very conservative voice in the country had said that iran needs to take further steps president hassan rouhani did completely agree with

it but it appears now he has actually decided to go ahead with this because legally he's bound to but the iranians have told the i am december 30th that he intended to do this but they hadn't given the time we understood it to mean that iran was giving the incoming u.s. administration of president elect joe biden a grace period to see what he would do in terms of returning to the nuclear deal of 2015 before they took this step now it's important to note that iran was enriching at this level prior to that 2015 nuclear deal so let's talk to ari for sort of his end west jerusalem what has promised to netanyahu been saying about this. well yes he reacted pretty swiftly to this announcement coming from iran saying that iran's actions could not be explained in any other way than the further realisation of its plans to develop a military nuclear program and of course this is something that benjamin netanyahu has been warning of for many years both domestically and internationally warning of

the need to prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon again he said that on monday saying israel will not allow iran to produce nuclear weapons now of course he very strongly lobbied the trump administration to leave the j c p o e the iran nuclear deal which indeed it did in 2018 there were also a series of explosions in iran last year in the summer of last year the biggest of which coming at the natanz nuclear site targeting the centrifuge facility there doing extensive damage is wrong of it claims to have carried that out or admitted responsibility but senior ministers did talk about iran not being able to continue with impunity hinting at something in that region and then of course in november there was the assassination of the head of the iranian nuclear program or sent factories a day which iran blames on israel now if these were actions designed to try to

do material damage to or deter iran from carrying on with its nuclear program in the short term at least what appears to be the result is this resumption of 20 percent enrichment. and that is something that presents netanyahu with a change a challenge to try to determine how israel proceeds from here on out and indeed of course for the biden ministration as it comes to power as well as harry force that they live in west jerusalem very many thanks indeed let's go to washington then how does your castro has that forests any response from the trumpet ministration and what are the implications of this for president elect biden. no official response from u.s. officials at this point adrian president trump on twitter still talking about trying to overturn the election results. for the biden administration that's incoming be sworn into office in 16 days of course this presents an even bigger

hurdle to biden's commitment to get the u.s. back into the nuclear core with iran he has said that the u.s. would return to the deal only if you ron does so as well and yesterday his incoming national security adviser said that ballistic missiles would also have to be on the table these are nonstarters for tehran as far as the immediate response of course in the waning days of the trumpet ministration there is some concern about the president's erratic behavior most of it's directed toward domestic politics but the concern is what if it also colors into the way that he responds to iran we know that yesterday the pentagon ordered the u.s.s. battleship nimitz to remain in the region that was a reversal after 3 days earlier having ordered the ship to return to the u.s. the rationale there given that a runs increased threats against president robin other u.s.

officials without citing what those specific threats were now we know that president trump in november after firing his defense secretary he had asked for military strike options against any ronnie a nuclear facility he was talked out of that saying that it would create chaos in the last few weeks of his administration but now the concern is that given all the heat that he is facing domestically perhaps he is looking for a distraction we know that something he's gravitated to in the past and the concern is a response to this that would escalate tensions even further i was there as hard as jocasta reporting live from washington heidi many thanks to you. in a separate development show for career. to moderate the release of one of its oil tankers that's been seized by iran the coke kemi was intercepted by iran's revolutionary guards in gulf waters but its crew arrested iran says the tanker was breaking maritime environmental laws and carrying over 7000 tons of oil chemical

products solar sent one of its empty piracy ships to the gulf the united kingdom has reported another record number of new corona virus infections for the 58000 cases confirmed on monday from mr boris johnson is expected to announce further restrictions in the coming hours a new variant is read to has led to rapidly rising infections with more than $50000.00 new cases reported every day the 7 straight days now scotland's 1st minister has already announced a national lockdown there beginning at midnight tonight let's go live now to work and her servants who's in london. promised boris johnson expected to make a media appearance in a couple of hours that andrew what are we expecting him to say. well before we go to that just bring you up to date with those to systems you refer to there showing the same pattern as they have done for the past 6 days as you pointed out in the

5000s we're now up to $58.00. 59000 beyond that now 4000 more than on sunday boris johnson is under pressure pressure from his scientific advisers pressure from his medical advisers to go full out with the biggest restrictions since march there's no doubt about that politically he's in a different position so we're not sure right at this moment as to what he's going to announce in his t.v. address to the u.k. this is about england but he's addressing the u.k. 20 g.m.t. it is likely that he will move into a much tougher regime on the tier 4 there are 4 separate levels of restriction in the u.k. the toughest is the for 4th and he may just scrap the whole to say

a system altogether and go for a national lockdown which is similar to march now one of the key issues is the opening of schools whether he does that or whether he doesn't this was meant to be a day of celebration if you will certainly of fanfare for the rollout of the vaccine from oxford university manufactured by astra zeneca which is a cheaper more efficient and transportable vaccine half a 1000000 doses of that rolling out this week however this situation with this rapid rise of the of the infection rate much much now a steeper curve now going on than the start of the peak of the pandemic in march april and now or that curve long time the government's been behind the curve this time it's really really serious and so there is a demand for action. and in scotland the country going into lockdown for at

least a month. yes ahead of the the announcement that boris johnson was going to take some action he had been hinting about the action all of monday a bit ahead of any movement from downing street nicholas sturgeon from from edinburgh she recalled the scottish parliament to devolve parliament and made this announcement we have to say to introduce from midnight tonight for the g.d. of the january a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes this is similar to the lockdown of march last year yes so there you have the announcement of a full lockdown right the way through january it could be extended and different to england she has closed all schools they haven't returned to school from the christmas holidays yet whereas in england some schools have returned on monday from

those holidays controversially whether or not but as johnson will close schools remains to be seen but certainly in scotland all those court schools are closed university as a jew to return will that happen or not that's another issue which we'll find out about on monday evening our series under 7 reporting live from london andrew many thanks indeed. we'll get a weather update next here on how syria then rebel fighters in the central african republic advance towards the capital before initial presidential election results. but after decades a decades long ban women in washington finally allowed to drive subway train. how the weather remains pretty quiet across the middle east at the moment if

a little on the chilly side one or 2 spots of rain to come but nothing much to speak of the cloud might be thick enough from time to time across northern parts of saudi arabia to produce some rain but for the most part it is dry and with light waves we may see some early morning mist and fall here in doha 24 celsius on shoes day morning similar value as we go on into wednesday pap's a tad colder but as i said early morning mist in folk to watch out for further south it is generally dry might just catch the ot shower just around the southern end of the red sea but again nothing too much to speak of here plenty of showers maymont into central parts of africa more wet weather rolling through we got some wetter weather into that eastern side of angola running down across the maybe end of maybe a still seeing some rather wet weather and we have still got some showers into the heart of south africa so central and eastern parts of south africa seeing some of the rather nasty weather as we go on through the next couple of days come way to stay the wetter weather looks like it's

a move out into the open waters but just notice a pocket for every heavy rain pushing up towards the northeast of the country that will gradually not a little further north which as we go on through thursday 20 increasingly wet across most ampeg but also zimbabwe. frank assessments you've got colleagues on the ground in the canaries what is the situation there's only one doctor and one nurse for $2200.00 people informed opinions how big does foreign policy figure in the early stages of a bomb in the situation he comes into office with a huge amount of foreign policy experience in-depth analysis of the day global headlines how will a place like it live get a back seat when there's no money and all the rest of rich countries are fighting for an inside story on al-jazeera.

this is al jazeera the made news this hour iran's foreign minister says the country has resumed the process of enriching uranium to 20 percent of its a reef says the measure is fully reversible but only if all the sick the trees the 2050 nuclear deal comply with the agreement. britain's prime minister boris johnson is expected to announce more measures to control the spread of covert 190 for a new variant has led to a record number of infections scotland's 1st minister has announced a mock town in the country. mexico says that it's ready to offer asylum to julian a song as president andres manuel lopez obrador says that he supports a decision by a u.k. court to extradite the wiki leaks founder to the u.s.

and that he'd give him protection. his supporters celebrated the ruling outside the british court of songes wanted on espionage charges for publishing thousands of secret american military documents and 201011 u.s. authorities are expected to appeal the decision the judge denied the request of a concerns about a soldier's mental health and suicide risk of zeros muddled up a visit live for us in mexico city with more on the president's offer but 1st it's a pretty neat baka who's been following the court proceedings in london so leave the extradition request was denied not on legal grounds but on health grounds. yeah that's right undoubtedly of course supporters of julian assange job did lighted that he's not going to be extradited at least now to the united states he

had been indicted for a range of possible crimes there including espionage of the misuse of computers if he was found guilty on those charges he could end up spending the rest of his life behind bars possibly in a maximum security prison of course this is a moment for celebration but not for the grounds that the defense had hoped for they'd always claim that this was a political case that it was about journalism and that it was about freedom of speech and while there remains of course the very real prospect of an appeal by the united states there is still very much an uphill struggle ahead of julian assange and those who have led to their support a over the years including his partner stella barrios who was formerly a member of his legal counsel now his fiance and also the mother of 2 of his sons the julian assange what also fathered whilst in the ecuadorian embassy here's what 7 morris had to say i call on the president of the united states to end this now.

mr president tear down these prison walls. that our little boys have their father. free julian. free the press is free us all. so you know that appeal is very likely to be lodged very soon by the united states their prosecution is run through the crown prosecution service here in the united kingdom we also know crucially that julian us on his defense team are going to appeal for him to be released all of bail a hearing will start at 10 o'clock g.m.t. or wednesday if that is of course granted that he could get that 1st taste of freedom temporary freedom in a very long time which is there is a park a life in london let's talk to manuel rapala then who's live in mexico city what's

the connection between june and mexico. mexico's president under this model lopez will get a lot of said during his early morning daily morning press conference that he has now instructed mexico's foreign secretary to file the necessary paperwork with the united kingdom to formally offer political asylum to julian assad as the mexican president called that decision by the british court not to extradite julian a songe to the united states a quote triumph of justice and as you can imagine the reaction here in mexico to this decision to this announcement by the mexican mexican president has been quite divided some people calling it an extravagant gesture by the mexican president to be offering asylum at a time where the country is still struggling to curb contagion arguably seeing the worst days of the kovac 1000 outbreak here in the country others criticizing the cut criticizing the president for hypocrisy saying that he's showing a willingness to embrace. controversial international political figures like julian

assad but also pointing to. the former bolivian president who was welcomed here in mexico in 2900 following the political crisis in his country but the mexican president made it very clear during his morning address and actually many here in the country especially on social media or pointing to a simple fact that mexico has a long tradition of having an open door policy to international political asylum seekers a tradition that dates back to the days of the spanish civil war nonetheless many here anxious to see exactly how this will all play out i was there a small upload a ported live from back soko city and i think some date. of the central african republic where we're awaiting preliminary results from last month's presidential election think cumbered played up. to a dead is seeking another term but just before they're released rebels aligned with former president francois busy become advancing on the capital they attacked the

town of brega su on saturday of the u.n. mission says that the now in control. russian fighters who've been deployed to the area of failed to push back the assault of the rebels are now around 20 kilometers from the capital and in the past ah prosecutors in the central african republic have said they're investigating the former president because he's a 4 rebellion nicholas hawk is following developments for us from senegal its capital dhaka. we've really seen an uptick of violence just hours before the official or the provisional official results of these election and these attacks that happened in benghazi was a real blow to president on twitter on who went ahead with this election despite calls from the opposition and some international actors to postpone this election saying that this situation isn't stable enough to hold these elections now in benghazi which is one of the major towns in central african republic we've seen sporadic attacks until now the rebel forces that calling themselves the coalition

for patriotic change have taken over the town itself despite the central african forces the u.n. forces and their support of russian fighters on the ground despite all this while they've lost that town and we now know that these rebel groups which is made up of a coalition of on forces that were once fighting each other each other that are now united against president. well they're just 20 kilometers away from the capital president ouattara is announced to be the favorite in this race and if he does win then he'll be in charge of a country that has very happy that he has very little control over most of the country right now is in the hands of these armed rebel groups so a tense situation just hours before the presidential election results are announced in a recording that's been leaked to the public u.s. president donald trump told the top election official in the state of georgia to find enough in order to overturn his election defeat that georgia was one of the

battleground states that slipped in favor of president elect joe biden it's an unprecedented move by a sitting president some with just a few weeks to go before biden takes office trump still refuses to concede repeating baseless claims of fraud alan fischer reports from atlanta georgia. from a president with evidence the election was stolen from him. pressure on a tough election officials 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 warning of big legal consequences if you didn't do something i here's one of what i. love and 1780. 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 determines 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 is the person in 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 1st desperation most certainly than. and it was. a bold 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 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 atlanta georgia returning now to the corona virus pandemic in thailand

the government there is typing restrictions after a spike in infections the country's been viewed as a success story in the way it's contained the virus but now it's contending with a 2nd stronger wave scott hi-lo reports from bangkok it's not the way thailand wanted to start the new year since mid january the country has seen a steady increase in new locally transmitted covert cases evolving into a full fledged 2nd wave this after no new local cases for months but on monday a milestone was reached the highest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic more than $740.00. as the last few weeks most of the cases are tied to an outbreak in some province it's believed to have been brought in by migrant workers in the large seafood industry in the province while thailand was the 1st country outside china to register a locally transmitted covert case it has been successful in preventing a major outbreak heavy restrictions on foreign arrivals and mandatory to eat corn

teen help that the 2nd wave has the government concerned responding quickly with restrictions and a system of color coding areas with rising cases. compared to other countries the measures in thailand are acceptable but we can't let our guard down the government has the authority and i support it we have to suffer for a while to bring down the new cases we have to work together $28.00 provinces designated as red zones are facing the most severe restrictions schools are closed and mass gatherings prohibited restaurants have to limit the number of dine in customers in hours bars and clubs are shut malls and supermarkets remain open but have to measure people's temperatures and set up track and tracing systems the government has stopped short of calling this a lockdown as the people here have been living in relative normality since july the 2nd wave is a bitter pill to swallow also officials are encouraging businesses and companies to explore remote working options maturo to now runs an open air hotpot restaurant on

the outskirts of bangkok these new restrictions cut deep and she is still recovering from the lockdown last year let her not that i don't want as a citizen i understand the situation and will try to cooperate but as a mother how can i support my family my kid has to eat and go to school what about my staff they have to pay bills and support their families everyone has their burdens. the thai government is planning to inoculate more than half of its $70000000.00 people over the next several months the 1st round of jabs could come as early as the end of february the vaccine from chinese scene of a biotech going to health care workers 1st and then it will look to locally produced the oxford astra zeneca vaccine with the capacity of up to $200000000.00 doses a year it's got harder al-jazeera bangkok. south korea's population has fallen for the 1st time in its history resulting in the looming demographic crisis there were around 20000 more deaths than births this past year the birth rates been falling

steadily in part due to the rising cost of living despite government schemes to encourage bigger families south korea's population is expected to drop by more than 20 percent over the next 5 decades russia has lifted up ban on hundreds of professions that restricted women from working among the metro driver for decades women was allowed to drive trains because russia considered it a difficult job with harmful or dangerous conditions 12 female drivers are now working on the moscow metro for the 1st time. it's good to have you with us hello adrian for the good here in doha the headlines on al-jazeera iran's foreign minister says the country has resumed the process of enriching uranium to 20 percent of its serif says the measure is fully reversible but only if other signatories to the 2015 uclear deal comply with.