yes but precious cargo risking it all. on al-jazeera. saudi arabia agrees to open its sea and land borders with chatter after a 3 year long gulf dispute. the rommany what you want is there are a lot of my headquarters here in doha also coming up eglinton scotland go into another lockdown to contain covert 90 in a hospital struggle to cope with the surge and infections. we're going to fight like hell i'll tell you i. feel full control of the u.s. senate republicans and democrats rally the vote in georgia in

a runoff that will decide the balance of power in congress. also a change of plan the new york stock exchange decides not to remove the shares of 3 chinese telecommunication companies. that have you with us welcome to the program it's being called a breakthrough saudi arabia is reopening its land and sea borders with cattle in what's been seen as a big step forward to resolve a 3 and a half year diplomatic crisis the announcement came just hours before a gulf cooperation council summit qatar's amir is amongst the leaders meeting in the saudi city of with hopes of resolving the dispute reports now from doha. more than 3 years after saudi arabia u.a.e. behind and egypt imposed a blockade on qatar finally a breakthrough that the military fuck up an agreement was reached open the land and

maritime borders between the kingdom of saudi arabia and the state of qatar starting tonight this statement from the kuwaitis on the eve of a g.c.c. summit in saudi arabia was not a surprise since the crisis began they've been mediating between the deeply divided members of the gulf cooperation council the united states has also been urging gulf countries to resolve the dispute in order to maintain the stability and security of the region. for decades rivalry and differences in foreign policy have divided gulf states but when that worsened in 2017 few expected the region would be thrown into crisis and the land air and sea blockade imposed on qatar saudi arabia had shut only land border cutting imports and its food and medicine supply chain bahrain the u.a.e. saudi arabia and egypt closed their airspace to qatari aircrafts grounding hundreds of qatar airways planes the blockading countries also shut their embassies in doha

and expelled qatari diplomats they issued a list of 13 demands they said doha must meet including shutting down the al-jazeera news channel the positive aspect of it this as far as cutter is concerned has been a greater degree of resilience over the last few years the thais have managed to lead to labor the blockade and that has helped really help them discover better ways of living and more efficient ways of sustaining their economy that expenditure managing their affairs and resulted in an extremely resilient contrary that has now demonstrated this so in the lifting of the blockade without them having to address the totally irrational 13 conditions the impact the crisis has had on the gulf cooperation council is unquestionable and whilst differences remain the hope is that moving forward they will be resolved through dialogue. let's get more on this and speak to our correspondent. here in doha of course i'm

sure it's by no means the completely lifting of the blockade but a significant step taken by saudi alone i mean what does this mean for the blockade between these 2 specific countries so here this is quite a significant step forward because now that this the decision to lift the blockade comes from saudi arabia it is the most powerful country in the g.c.c. the most powerful country within the blockading countries he has the final say so either the blockading countries are not unanimous about how to move forward when it comes to the blockade or at least the saudis are determined we have to move forward we have to mend fences with the qataris and we have to turn the chapter and in the near future it will be up to us to convince all the other blockading countries that it's about time to move forward and i think this is exactly what is going to happen and this explains why the qatari is if you remember over the last few weeks they were saying that they are confident about

a breakthrough and that they are hopeful that having this track with the studies they will be able to settle the difference today is quite significant because this is exactly what is going to happen today. they were signed the agreement but then they will decide when to meet again and talk about the core issues who we are as g.c.c. countries where do we stand how to move forward how to deal with iran how to deal with turkey how to deal with problems in syria problems in libya if there's a consensus that this time the can build a united stance you will see some significant positive progress in the near future if that doesn't happen i think the likelihood of seeing tension in the near future could happen once again you talk about consensus among the g.c.c. busboys we need to focus again about consensus within saudi arabia because if qatar hasn't moved on its principal issues which it says you know steadfast we're not going to move from here because we haven't done anything wrong movement has come

from saudi as you've suggested who from the king or the crown prince because they have different perspectives on issues that have dogged and beleaguered saudi arabia in terms of its international reputation on on women's rights and certainly the shoghi murder which is tarnished that they need to sort out their problems in house to start with and i think this explains why they are moving forward with solving the crisis because this is going to have far reaching consequences on every aspect of the geo political sphere as in the g.c.c. and this is going to give the saudis a chance to look internally and see how to move forward accomplish what had been said man is the man who has been. having a bigger say in saudi arabia since 2000. and 17 and he's likely to further expand his influence he is the crown prince and ultimately one day he's going to become the king of saudi arabia so you will definitely see him today

during the summit and you will see him more often in the near future trying to shape the agenda this explains why he should a statement yesterday saying that summit is going to be an opportunity to build a united stance among the g.c.c. head is the quite interesting aspect about what happened yesterday. this provides a unique chance for the qataris because they have very good relations with iran can go to the saudis and say you know what i think we have an answer we can mediate fences we can build now the differences between you and with iran is turkey is an extremely important regional power we have very good relations with the turks less use that and let's help you saudis build bridges with the turks if we do that it will be having a knock on effect on syria and libya and if we mend fences when it comes to those regional issues is this is going to be good news not only for the qataris but also for saudi arabia and in particular for crown prince mohammed bin so much i see and then turn which is starting to build up in this region for what happened yesterday

we have to be cautious and see what happens because sometimes the devil lies in the details indeed it will continue to unpick this throughout the day thanks very much hashem our brother our senior correspondent. people in england have been ordered to stay at home as part of a new nationwide lockdown and a highly transmissible very into covert 1000 are still to search and infections and the prime minister boris johnson says restrictions will last for at least 7 weeks and to simmons has more from london boris johnson had started monday at the rollout of the oxford university astra zeneca vaccine world 1st easy to store and distribute but any fanfare was lost replaced by a realisation that the spread of covert in the u.k. is out of control by the end of the day came this announcement government is once again instructing you to stay at home. you may only leave home for limited reasons

permitted in law such as to shop for essential zz to work if you absolutely cannot work from home to exercise to seek medical assistance johnson had said he hoped the rollout of vaccines could protect the most vulnerable people care homes carers medical staff and people over 70 by mid february he said all schools and colleges would have to close the weeks ahead will be the hardest yet but i really do believe that we're entering the last phase of the struggle because with every jab the goes into our arms we are tilting the odds against coated and in favor of the british people and thanks to the miracle of science not only is the end in sight. but we know exactly how we will get there earlier scotland's 1st minister was on her feet at a record session of her devolved parliament with a similar announcement we have to say to introduce from midnight tonight for the

generation of the january a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential part the seas this is similar to the lockdown of march last year and there's another worrying development a u.k. government side to have a good visor is reported as saying that he's concerned the vaccines won't be as effective against a south african variant of covert furthermore matt henkel the u.k. health secretary says he is concerned because the south african variance seems to be more infectious than the u.k. strain the u.k.'s plan straight into this lockdown with no delay on the country's coded alert level has switched to 5 meaning hospitals are now at material risk of being overwhelmed the u.k. finds itself at its most critical state since the 1st wave in the spring andrew simmons al-jazeera london. and germany is expected to extend its lockdown measures

until the end of january regional leaders signaled they would agree to prolong the restrictions after seeing record numbers of cases and deaths last week meeting with chancellor angela merkel later on tuesday now the shutdown includes schools and non-essential stalls the country began vaccinating people last month now u.s. president joe biden elected president all trump have relied rally pardon me in the state of georgia of 2 crucial senate runoff elections the republicans need to win at least one of those seats in order to retain control of the senate and a vicious as the latest from dalton in georgia. the last push from a president whose power might be waning but his influence with the base of his party remains undiminished he came in their thousands for the rally in rural georgia the ghetto the vote effort for a crucial senate runoff but from a president who want except last november's election a list of unproven grievances and complaint it was no way and i just want to thank

you you know i've had 2 elections i won both. his attention to the senate race. publican majority limiting the new president's agenda your vote tomorrow will decide which party controls the united states senate the radical democrats are trying to capture georgia's senate seat so they can wield unchecked unrestrained absolute power over every aspect of your lives. oh. the battle in georgia also drew the attention of the president elect he held his rally earlier in the day the message though was the same as his rival get out and vote in america as their opposition friends are finding now all power. flows from the people from the people. that's our history the president still believes the embers election was stolen from

him an assertion he made in a controversial phone call to georgia's top election official at the weekend but with no hard evidence the secretary of state said it simply the president was wrong i'm very confident in the results we have here in georgia and that's the cold hard truth is present trump did not carry the state of georgia with honest and fair elections here the senate runoff gave joe biden the best chance of a clear run of his legislative agenda if the democrats win both seats the republicans they have to maximize turnout in areas like this if they are to have a chance and victory secures the senate but will also fuel donald trump's on the phone did claims that he did much better in this state in november alan fischer al-jazeera dalton georgia. the new york stock exchange says it's no longer planning to delist 3 major chinese tell a commission communication companies the about turn comes less than a week after it said it would remove the listings to comply with an executive order

signed by president trump in november between e.u. has moved in beijing. these 3 companies are stage are in that the biggest chinese telecom companies in the country and they play a very significant role in china's economy so when the decision was 1st made to deal with them from the your new york stock exchange beijing really saw that as an attack on china they said that the trumpet ministration was politicizing trade and they said it was an unfair move that would harm the markets in general that being said though this move to delist was also lovely perceived as a symbolic one as these 3 telecom companies trade relatively few shares on the new york stock exchange so they maintain that were that this was not going to impact market operations in general that was largely seen as symbolic a way to shake confidence a way to put american that investors off having any involvement in chinese companies and really a move to accelerate decoupling between china and the u.s.

so this move this reversal will definitely be perceived as a positive thing beijing is likely to see this as maybe a move in good faith by the biden administration as a sign that they're not really keen on decoupling as the trumpet ministration was and that they're willing really still to continue doing business with china well still ahead here on al-jazeera the presidential election maybe a. public one some fear the violence will continue. along as rabbani the lebanese music scene dies at the age of 3.

hello there it's been a stormy start to the new year for central parts of the mediterranean and there's no sign of that letting up anytime soon more thundery showers just around to flee and the balkans little bit of fermoy still a bit more warm is being pushed up across that eastern side of here but as soon as we take it that warm moist wrap pushing into the colder air quite releasing a fair bit of snow they'll be some snow all the way up into powdered into the baltic states temperatures struggling and area of high pressure over scandinavia northeasterly wind so no higher than around 3 or 4 celsius for glasgow london and even for paris you can follow that cold air all the way down across spain as well madrid getting no higher than round i've celsius could see some snow over the peyronie's could even see some snow into madrid as we go on into the next couple of days is certainly something to watch out for that wintry mix will continue across central parts of italy certainly seeing some rain sleet and snow will possibly in particular a snowy weather sliding across c.-h. we are sick well way across into parts of grace more wet windy and wintry weather

coming in here and it is see how flurries of snow will continue up to as germany and the low countries cold enough across northern parts of africa as well just 10 celsius in repat on tuesday with wetter weather from the outer area. frank assessments you've got colleagues on the ground and in the canaries what is the situation there is only one doctor and one nurse or $1.00 to $200.00 people informed opinions how big does foreign policy they get in the early stages of a bi ministration he comes into office with a huge amount of foreign policy experience in-depth analysis of the day's global headlines how will a place like it live get the vaccine when there's no money and all the rest of rich countries are fighting for an inside story on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera with me as a whole robin a reminder of our top story is qatar's amir is joining other gulf leaders for the g.c.c. summit inside the arabia that's up to the kingdom said it would open its bag sea and land borders to qatar and what's seen as a major step towards resolving the 3 year rift also president donald trump and president elect joe biden have rallied in the state of georgia ahead of tuesday's senate runoff elections republicans need to win one of the 2 seats in order to retain control of the u.s. senate. and the new york stock exchange says it no longer plans to delist 3 major state own chinese telecommunications companies becomes days after the exchange said

it would remove the listings in response to an executive order trump signed in november. the president of the central african republic has been reelected for a 2nd term the electoral commission says faustino shows today are won with more than 53 percent of the vote attacks by rebel groups before and after the election and many fear the violence will go on until lopez hollande reports. reelected to a 2nd term president foster our conch to tara says he can unite a divided central african republic it's an ambitious goal at a fragile time of course because we're getting results monitored by the electoral commission show he received an absolute majority in an election marked by violence and for the challenges are many central african republic is still recovering from a civil war. the president's supporters are hopeful he can bring peace and

stability. people don't need weapons to take power we have suffered so much the president has done his best to bring the country forward in 5 years that's why central african voted for him. unrest has persisted before and after the election attacks by armed fighters aligned with rival politicians kept thousands of voters from going to the polls they seized the city of benghazi you and threatened to take over more and attempt to take control of the capital was stopped by soldiers u.n. peacekeepers in reinforcements from russia and rwanda. i support another party i'm with the l.p.c. opposition group but if the president won it's because he deserves it he's a man who's fought for this. now prosecutors are launching an investigation into a former president francois posies he's accused of plotting a coup which the election may be over but many people in the country are bracing

for the possibility of more violence. most of the young how does their. iran has been showing off its drone technology amid tension with the united states state media has shown hundreds of drones already to launch from the country's central and sam nunn the province are reportedly being deployed in 2 days of trials . south korea is demanding the release of all of its tankers seized by iran iran says the ship was causing oil pollution in gulf waters south korea's now deployed a naval destroyer to the strait of hormuz the seizure comes ahead of a planned visit by the south korean vice foreign minister to discuss iranian funds frozen in banks as part of u.s. sanctions but macbride has moved from seoul. south korea does have a naval vessel in that area as part of the international and t. piracy effort that vessel has now been deployed or redeployed to the waters where

this tanker was seized but is not likely or expected to be doing much but monitoring the situation and seeing how this develops the iranians have accused me of environmental pollution the operators of the vessel here in south korea deny that and say that this vessel was in international waters it is thought that this is part of an ongoing much wider dispute between iran and south korea over seas to funds here in south korea this is $7000000000.00 worth of funds which are owed for oil products imported from iran into south korea which since the imposition of much tighter sanctions by the united states south korea has frozen has not given access to iran to these funds if it did do so then it would risk being sanctioned itself by the united states so these monies are the on the subject of ongoing negotiations

and the dispute between tehran and seoul and there is a meeting coming up an anticipated meeting a visit by a vice foreign minister from south korea to take a. iran where obviously this will appear on the agenda a run is desperate for any funds it can get at the moment given its economic circumstances so it is an expected and is thought to the this happening right now the seizure of this vessel ahead of this anticipated meeting is more than a mere coincidence. australia's prime minister says julian assange is welcome to return home once his legal challenges are resolved he's wanted by the u.s. on a spin on charges for publishing thousands of secret american military documents that we can xander has also been awarded a song offered asylum by mexico after decision by a u.k. court not struck not to extradite him to the us i was only supposed to celebrated the ruling outside the court in

london the judge denied the request something concerns over songes mental health the u.s. is expected to appeal against the decision. from outside the court. it is for now at least the result julian assange and his supporters had wanted. was the wiki leaks founder will not be extradited to the u.s. to face espionage charges for the publishing of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010 and 11 the u.s. claims the leaks broke the law and endangered lives and will appeal the ruling. outside the court songes fiance joined by the new editor in chief of wiki leaks welcome the news that said the fight isn't over. let's not forget the indictment in the u.s. has not been dropped. very extremely concerned that the u.s. government has decided to appeal this decision and. it continues to want to punish

julian. and make him disappear into the deepest darkest hole of the u.s. prison system there should be a call out and pressure on the u.s. sides to drop the appeal to say enough is enough we've heard enough of this we have a plan to deal with in this new year. but not this. arrived at court from london's belmarsh prison where he's been held since april 29th teen his defense team has always insisted the case was politically motivated powered by u.s. president donald trump's administration but one by one the judge rejected the defense's claims including concerns a son wouldn't get a fair trial in the u.s. refusing extradition soli over fears he could take his own life if he ended up in a u.s. maximum security jail the judge said he suffered from severe depression and had

been diagnosed with autism after a razor had been found in his cell and he told medical staff about suicidal thoughts. it was footage like this if u.s. forces killing civilians and journalists in iraq in 2007 the true intends for still a t. from the us government and after swedish prosecutors opened a rape and sexual assault investigation against him he was arrested in london facing imminent extradition 2012 he took refuge in london's ecuadorian embassy and didn't leave it for 7 years. when i could or finally let british police in to haul a sound out the us allegations were finally revealed for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents a maximum 175 year sentence under the espionage act the prosecution has cost wiki leaks is a criminal enterprise responsible for encouraging its supporters to hack into government computers and steal sensitive information but julian assange his

supporters say that he is a defender of freedom of speech and the right for journalists to hold the powerful to account. a someone just lawyers will now ask for his release on bail at a hearing on wednesday if granted he could be given a taste of freedom within days of barker al-jazeera london. more than $200.00 employees of google and its parent company alphabet have formed a union now the membership represents a fraction of the company's work falls but it's a rare foothold for the labor movement in the tech industry those who signed up saying they want more of a voice on wages benefits and protections against discrimination google says it won't negotiate directly with the new union. lebanon is mourning the loss of legendary composer and cultural icon elias for bonnie he was known for a unique genre of music blending styles from different parts of the world under

looks back on his life. when a song 1st lays eyes on the hood in the 1973 film my blood tears and smile the audience is introduced to a melody that manages to capture true love and utter heartbreak at the same time. decades later this and other songs composed by in the us right bonnie are timeless classics the soundtrack for so many other moments. born in 1938 he was the youngest boy in a family full of talent with older brothers months or an aussie who married singer faith in the 1950 s. . she and the ronnie brothers shaped an entire genre of music born in lebanon distinctly different from anything else blending western and middle eastern styles with lebanese folklore politics and audiences loved it. during lebanon's civil war

and the us wrote songs for her that helped to cross the factional divides and became a source of pride for all lebanese. songs that you just wrote for his children during the war continue to help others today. the un's children's agency unicef uses them and psychosocial support programs for syrian children using music to teach them about social harmony and reconstruction for him an immense source of pride. for most i've just been the little bit of how you hope to fill up on the ignore them you had. a few. also for you. he composed hundreds of songs and the soundtracks productions of films over his long career songs that continue to be played by people across generations lebanese

music as we know it and viewed with the romanticism of a golden age would not exist without. the tutors are. there with the whole roman in doha a reminder of our top global news stories cattles amir is joining other gulf leaders for the g.c.c. summit in saudi arabia the meeting comes just hours after the kingdom said that it would open its sea and land borders to cattle it was being seen as a big step forward to resolve the 3 rift has more from doha the decision to lift the blockade comes from saudi arabia it is the most powerful country in the g.c.c. the most powerful country.