cause of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. this is al jazeera. hello and welcome i'm peter w. watching the news our live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 60 minutes gulf leaders sign a declaration to reaffirm ties of a summit to help resolve a 3 year disputes with cattle. voting is underway in the u.s. state of georgia where to run off races will determine which party gets control of the senate. england and scotland go into another lockdown to contain coded

19 us hospital struggle to cope with the surge and infections. also this hour a change of plan the new york stock exchange decides not to remove the shares of 3 chinese telecoms companies. i'm joining us just covered the sport as catching a drive n.f.l. a team makes it 2 wins in a row at the dot com rally 2nd in the general classification after stage 3. ok let's get going let's begin this news hour in saudi arabia where gulf leaders are marking one of the most important diplomatic moments in recent years at a summit in a declaration aimed at resolving the 3 year long dispute with castle has now been signed the leaders calling it a solidarity and stability deal and it's focused on reaffirming the unity of the

g.c.c. thing that i'm able to bring to an end up half hour block has been built on the basis of our shared roots and common traditions with the aim of serving the interests of our respective people therefore we should all work together towards achieving the goals on the basis of which this block was formed. i mean bin hamad al thani attended the summits. was greeted by the saudi crown prince mohammed bin selma with an embrace it follows the announcement that saudi arabia will reopen its sea and land borders to cata while kuwait played a pivotal role as mediator u.s. president donald trump's son in law jared push now was also involved and he was at the signing ceremony too but full reconciliation is a long way off the u.a.e. was reportedly against ending the blockade and the u.a.e. egypt and bahrain all sent lower level representatives not their heads of state we have multiple correspondents on the story which are castro's in washington she will

have the latest on the u.s. role in easing tensions were meant vow as only cattery saudi border will be speaking to them in just a few minutes 1st let's bring in our correspondent tracking the story jamal sheil jamal why now. well sir good question i mean everyone will give you some sort of analysis through it but let's speak to the fact there has been a change in dynamics both regionally and internationally most notably is the fact that there will not be a 2nd term for u.s. president donald trump it was his administration that was seen to be the instigator of this rift or at least welcomed the rift in the beginning in fact donald trump in the early days of the crisis back in 2017 tried to take credit during the press conference for the blockade on qatar of the new administration under president elect joe biden is seemed to want to take a different approach to the g.c.c. has already been very vocal with regards to what it saw as very problematic

policies pushed by the saudi crown prince mohammed bin sort of man and therefore for to try and maybe kick off that relationship with the new administration in better terms it's had to clear its plate so to speak of some of the issues that their hearts of which was the g.c.c. crisis so that is one of the main reasons obviously another thing is that you look at the economic impact that the covert pandemic has had on all countries particularly saudi arabia and others the blockade itself was not something that was beneficial to saudi arabia and therefore we establish ties we've already seen has had a positive impact on oil prices and ellen g. and other natural and natural resources on the markets over the past 12 hours or so have rocketed in terms of value and therefore there is also that incentive as well what was the problem for the u.a.e. people when it comes to sending a high level delegation to what's going on in surrey arabia and why were they kind of reluctant to get on the bus. well the united arab emirates

position. is a lot more ideological than saudi arabia for example both countries pursue different policies when it comes to the region qatar has always been a lot more poor listicle in its approach a lot more willing to discuss and to engage with different actors and that's was extremely evidence following the 2011 uprising so the arab spring as it was called the united arab emirates has been much more in favor of pursuing dictators or say or for tarion regimes and that was evidence in their support for. egypt of their propping up of renegade general khalifa haftar and so forth some people will tell you that the u.a.e. usually sends their prime minister mohammed bin rashid to summits like this however it's has in the past also sent the de facto ruler crown prince mohammed bin zayed but the reality is is that there is a reluctancy from abu dhabi there is

a very clear difference in messaging but it's come out from riyadh is a view what's come out from abu dhabi and even manama and to some extent cairo but also the reality is that saudi arabia is the biggest of the 3 the the other true gulf countries obviously not bigger than egypt but egypt isn't a full member of the g.c. isn't a member rather of the g.c.c. and therefore if saudi arabia has decided that the blockade must and then ultimately even if it is begrudgingly the united arab emirates and behind will follow suit jamal thanks very much we'll talk later i'm sure let's go live now to the cats our border correspondent mohammed vall is there so how long until the border gets back to what it should be. well what we know so far peter is that there is some activity around me you may not see it behind me this is the border crossing but around us there is a lot of activity by the police security however nobody has crossed yet we've been

here since the morning nothing of that sort has happened we have asked the security personnel here they told us they are waiting for instructions but they said technically the border is open and we have seen them we know. inside the booths behind me. dusting off the desks and cameras and so on so there is preparation going on but there is no crossing yet it's very crucial to see people crossing here because this is the physical aspect of this blockade on qatar this is the only land border that qatar has with the outside world and it is linking it with saudi arabia it is a lifeline for many people who have been. dealing in business and so on the 2 countries or so for families across the across the region remember the gulf region is a very socially connected area with tribes on both sides of the border with families here and there and they have been separated that that disruption the social fabric

has been very painful over the last 3 years and many people are waiting for that situation to end so the expectation is that as the days go by and more after tomorrow 'd maybe in 3 days from now this border crossing will return to normal well thank you very much live now to washington i did to castro following that end of this developing story for us hi there heidi jericho is he there representing father in law or is he there as a friend of mohammed bin salma. well peter cushing or is getting a lot of credit as the official u.s. actor who helped mediate this deal so he's very much going in an official capacity the reports are from the white house sources have confirmed that the the principles behind this deal were really worked out and questioners last visit to the region about a month ago when he and 2 senior aides were in both saudi arabia and qatar negotiating

the terms of this deal on the phone with both parties there are some reports of there were some last minute miscommunications that had threatened to derail the deal before it was announced but that questioner himself got on the phone worked that out was able to salvage the deal and then he got on the plane and was present at the signing ceremony as we saw so cushier is taking a lot of credit for not only this diplomatic achievement but also the string of deals signed between israel and arab states normalizing diplomatic relations but of course his father donald trump is ministration is also getting a share of criticism for having fanned the divisions in this region namely by giving cover to saudi arabia and its crown prince not condemning outright the assassination of journalist jamal khashoggi nor condemning saudi arabia and its

role in yemen's civil war despite republicans in congress having passed measures doing just that so to to see this now this blockade ending in the waning days of the troubled ministration is fitting in terms that it began in the early days of the trumpet astray ssion and now we're seeing this sort of as a book and as saudi arabia is rethinking its relationship to the u.s. particularly as we heard from our colleagues with president elect joe biden now prepared to be sworn. and in just 2 weeks time in a very different dynamic expected that free pass that the u.s. has been giving to saudi arabia under trump will no longer be the norm interesting heidi there you talk about the whole israel dynamic israel normalizing or going forward to a situation of having allegedly good relations with several countries in the middle east at that point so what 23 months ago that was deliberately spun as being

something that it wasn't actually because you can't normalize relations if you've never had been or more relations with neighboring countries but it was spun as peace in our time do we expect or is there a chance in your mind that this will be not spawn deliberately mendaciously but interpreted as being something a lot bigger and a lot more significant than it is if only because of the relationship between jericho and m.b.'s and the fact you mentioned it there you know soon to be we're going to talk about the incumbent being mr biden. well it's interesting that i'm actually a little bit struck that president trump has not said anything in response to this deal jarrett question has really been taking the lead here but this is a big diplomatic win and it's not being spun as such a departure from the celebrations really that we saw the white house following those deals with israel and arab nations so it's interesting many people are saying

with with trump 15 days left in office he is consumed with his obsession to overturn his presidential defeat at the ballot box and that's that's really taking up all of his energy it seems that he has yet to respond to this maybe that will change in the coming days particularly after this pivotal election in georgia occurs this evening but as far as forecasting further into the future this certainly with this deal in place with the normalization as it's characterized between israel and those arab nations it is a more stable middle east that is being handed to the incoming biden in this situation something that certainly will make the many challenges he otherwise faces a little bit less daunting heidi thank you very much let's talk again to sultan but a cut he's director at the center for conflict and humanitarian studies at the doha institute for graduate studies he joins us on skype from doha sultan welcome back

to the news out who gets what from since. well everyone is not benefiting from this this particular conflict has been one of the most senseless conflict of objectives the region have ever seen the. blockading countries they spend no more than 3 years and until now they could not provide any evidence of the claims they made against qatar the conditions that they laid out were proven to be totally unrealistic irrational conditions and although they came demanding 13 of them should have been met within 10 days of the start of the blockade but i was able to break them down into 3 or 4 groups of important issues a lot of them is really an issue that should have led to the situation we found ourselves in for example they demanded terminations of relationship or reduction of

relationship with both iran and turkey and that is for qatar were seen as very much a foreign policy independent foreign policy issue that touches of its own sovereignty they made claims about terrorism and support of terrorism and that was interpreted again as them they've not defined what do they mean by terrorist and terrorism exactly because in the wake of the blockade they've lumped in millions of people who either support or are friendly to political movements in the arab or muslim world and songs all the demands including the demand to close al-jazeera and to suppress other open media outlets all of these were run against the current not only in qatar but in the in the globe as a whole. just for a 2nd if i can please seltsam it's maybe worth remembering when the blockade started it was very tense across the region and this is possibly very very good

news for. real people because it was almost as if when donald trump kind of green lit what m.b.a.'s wanted to do mohammed bin some man wanted to do when he wanted to drive the blockade it was almost as if washington didn't understand this region at all in as much as the diaspora people you know so you had this ridiculous situation where fiances couldn't go and see each other if one of them lived in doha and the other one lived in cat our people had to go through hoops to fly home or to go and see friends and family because of the air blockade and cattle then went through quite a long process of talking to the relevant governing bodies or literally talking to the higher ups in washington and new york to try and get the whole thing either deflated or got rid of and that didn't go any place at all either. sure i mean

it was clear i think from the beginning that trump got everything confused and his knowledge of the of the region at the time was very limited and he made statements that he and his administration regretted later on and they reversed it they reversed a lot of these issues and this is one of the things that really forced the hand of the saudis to accept the condition or fact the only response qatar has has given right from the beginning that is we're willing to it's all but we're not going to accept those searching conditions we're willing to talk but without any preconditions that we we meet any of those totally irrational demands and in fact and as a result of it to force qatar did not just lay down and take the blockade they've done a lot of effort to try and work around the blockade they found of tentative routes to connect to the world to get supplies and so on but most importantly i think they stuck to the low and they pursued this with

a great deal of dignity and recognition of the fact that states are made by what they did national makes makes of them and to what degree they respect that international law so by the end of 2020 there were at least 4 or 5 cases that that that has won against the book a tin can treat all very important landmark cases to do with human rights well trade organization aviation egg case all of these would have naturally ended the blockade had we just continued to this because the rest of the world record night is that what these book aiding in these were doing was absolutely illegal in addition to this i think the qatari smartly invested in their relationships with the rest of the world and even the countries that at the beginning blockaded and or withdrew their ambassadors like jordan did for example or many taney and others they all made a u. turn. over the last few years because they saw that and understand that the context

of this is there are no bases when people talk about this as a deep conflict that has deep roots a suggester i personally do not buy into this this is one of the conflict that has the shallowest roots ever this the blockade itself and you can see this in the way the people in the streets are now celebrating people have extended families they have businesses across the border and on all sides are very willing and to reconnect and i think the very few small minority relatively speaking amongst the population that is there and by social media and maybe within certain quarters within the united arab emirates taylor. those are the people who really poison the atmosphere with a lot of degrading commands and and separate issue of what was going on and it was really appropriate and i think history will probably record this to cut or the fact

that they refused to address any degrading comments to the king of saudi arabia they realize from the very beginning that these conflicts can only be resolved under his tent and that has helped save save face and this is the the main reason why this gulf meeting was meant to happen in bahrain and it was moved to saudi arabia to be result to be addressed and i think as a result of this initial agreement we hope that they will go back to maybe establishing committees to address those issues but whatever comes out of it is very unlikely that the gulf or the g.c.c. will remain the same ok now i think just. but maybe all man and group will be dividing a slightly different arrangement ok we have to leave it there. thank you very much good to talk yourself. thank you peter thank you very much lots more still to come for you here on the news hour including president is reelected in central african republic while the opposition is refusing to accept the outcome. virus fears

millions of children return to school in kenya despite conditions being far from ideal. and scottish football champion some to the person is travelling to by training as the country goes into lockdown details in sport in about 30 minutes. putting is under way in 2 crucial senate races in georgia that will determine whether president elect joe biden's democratic party will have a majority in the upper chamber more than $3000000.00 people had already cast their ballots in early voting and unprecedented figure for polls outside presidential elections the final day of campaigning saw rallies from both outgoing president will trump and mr biden and a recording published by u.s. media in which mr trump pressures the top state election official to overturn his loss has caused controversy ok let's look at the numbers right now republicans have

50 of the 100 senate seats and democrats have 48 so this is what makes these 2 undecided seats in georgia so important republicans david per 2 and kelly loffler are running against democratic candidates john also off and rachel warner if the democrats take both seats the senate will be split $5050.00 as vice president kamel harris would be the deciding vote giving democrats control while republicans only need to win one of the seats to hold their majority live now to the city of columbus in georgia and our news correspondent natasha gunn i am so natasha it literally couldn't be any closer. and a professor at emory university i interviewed expects this race will be tight that's given the shifting demographics here in georgia and years of robust voter

mobilization efforts georgians head to the polls after 2 months of an intense and often caustic campaign they also head to the polls in a climate of and precedented threats against election officials one election official in fulton county that is where atlanta is said he received death threats that's due to president trump making unfounded claims questioning the electoral integrity the integrity of the entire process here in georgia and verbal e attacking both the republican governor and the secretary of state but so far across the state things seem to be moving pretty smoothly at polling places like this one behind me and wait times are under 10 minutes that's not entirely unexpected given the very high voter turnout in the early voting period and it's believed that in the early voting period that that buoyed the democrats because

there was a high turnout in areas with a heavy concentration of democrats african-americans and young voters so the thinking is among republicans that more republicans would tend to show up on election day and they will be looking for a high turnout today there is a concern that president trumps baseless claims and spread of dissent from ation might depress voter turnout but nonetheless he was here in georgia on monday campaigning for senators perdue and leffler urging people to get out the vote is it your sense natasha the big turnout will go for the democrats and against the republicans and is it also your sense that the president of the united states phoning an election official and could chilling him for one hour on a telephone we've heard the recording of it saying in effect give me the numbers and he kind of went through and he annotated these are the numbers i need this is the number i need to win the state will that play against the republicans.

officially senator perdue has said he doesn't think it will have any bearing on the turnout he said that president trump merely stated on that call what he's been stating for the last several months but republicans behind closed doors have expressed grave concern that the base is demoralized and as his professor at emory university told me republicans in this environment can no longer count on comfortable majorities they can no longer assume that they will win at the ballot box the race between the democrats and the republicans were rather stark you have the democrats who are have an eye toward history it's been 20 years since a democratic senator has been elected in georgia and with john asa one of the candidates democratic candidates if he was elected he'd become the youngest member of the senate with reverend raphael warnock he could become if elected the 1st the

state's 1st black senator they talked about issues affecting every day americans in that campaign expanding health care to the needy promoting and improving criminal justice reform promoting clean energy creating a livable wage while the republican senators leffler and perdue seem to focus their messaging on attacking the democrats saying that they are going to protect georgians from quote radical democrats and socialism both of those senators are have an extensive background in business they're quite wealthy they said that they in their experience they'd be able to vote on policies that would improve the economy but again most of their messaging also rested with showing georgians that they were troubled loyalists they have now joined that group of republican senators that come wednesday a plan to oppose what should be a routine certification of president elect joe biden's win so what i think is

interesting is what we'll see no matter what we'll see during the senate runoff in georgia. is perhaps a pivot point with both parties looking ahead to the future trying to refashion their identities and perhaps their messages in a post trump presidency where the messaging doesn't focus on this by unary choice of support or opposition to president trump and sasha thank you so much well police in the u.s. have arrested the leader of the far right group called the proud boys enrico tadeo was detained at the pro trump rally in washington on monday he's been charged with destruction of property for taking part and burning a black lives matter bound in december taddeo is also facing a firearms offense being in possession of 2 high capacity ammunition magazines at the time of his arrest. the u.k. prime minister boris johnson has canceled a trip to india to deal with the covert 19 crisis mr johnson has ordered people in england to stay at home for at least 7 weeks as part of

a new nationwide locked live to london correspondent following the ongoing story of covert in the u.k. andrew symonds andrew this is lock down number 3 people must be sick and tired of it by now. yes there's really a southerner except once rather cross england scotland northern ireland and wales right now that life is not going to be right for some considerable time it's grim and there is also a feeling nevertheless that that with the vaccine there is some hope there is some possible light at the end of the tunnel and that really is behind the government's policy on this target is to roll out a vaccine that was happening on the 1st working day of the new year on monday that rolled out the astra zeneca oxford university vaccine was that the big world 1st for britain and that we found fair was tarnished very much by the sudden and early

hours later announcement by boris johnson on monday evening that this big lockdown would be taking place right away now the this strategy is aimed at the vulnerable being protected within a matter of weeks and we're talking about 14000000 people here we're talking about the over 70 years we're talking about frontline care workers health workers residential homes start and old people within them and all over seventy's that's pretty ambac ambitious it needs to be 2000000 vaccines a week effectively to actually get to that stage and people are wondering what will that happen it has to happen now before the government is prepared to pull back and start weakening its measures but behind all of this is this rapid rise of the infection rate and that shocked so many people in that it was known about a good few days this this pattern was was 7 days old before this clampdown came and

indeed the new variant of covert was not about well ahead of that does that 7 day period that you're talking about mean that mr johnson probably. will be or perhaps is being today in real time criticised in the same way that he's been criticized before for reacting a little bit too late because clearly i mean he's been listening to the scientists on this and the modeling must be telling him if you don't do something now or you maybe should have done it 7 days ago but if you don't do something today now it will be worse than it was last year last march april time. well yes peter they are stance that there will be questions made to the prime minister he will respond when seen in a news conference which is taking place later on tuesday now the national joint bio security center has put its highest warning out yet that the n.h.s.

the national health service is going to be overrun within days unless something dramatic is done now when was that warning given that's that's one question he'll be arsed furthermore we've got a situation whereby this new variant has caused such a problem because of its speed of its of its increase in the infection rate but there are some different variations on the science of this on on how potent it is that's another area that needs to be examined and also. there's more than doubt about the speed at which are as johnson works it's fair to say that the public are really concerned about government messaging confusions contradictions between departments and one example of that is that 36 hours before this announcement boris johnson was making it quite clear that he was happy for most of england schools to be open to open reopen after the christmas break he's done a u.

turn in london he was closing some schools darman opening others now the education ministry had been threatening to sue some schools that were refusing to open teachers' unions said all teachers should really refuse to go to school because it wasn't safe johnson said the schools were safe for children teachers needed to go back that there had to be a return to school then 36 hours later he was closing all the schools and describing the school children as a vector for infection taking home infection to their parents which is precisely what teachers were saying in their appeals. not in the school so those are areas of great derision amongst the public it would seem however there is this star wars british attitude that they will stick by what the government does but they want a little bit more assurance and a feeling of confidence in where they're going to talk to you thank you very much

anderson as our correspondent there in london. 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 be chancellor angela merkel later today tuesday the shutdown includes schools and non-essential stores the country began vaccinating people last month across the border france promising to speed up $1000.00 vaccinations after critics accuse the government's rollout as being scandalously slow and inept the country has had one of the slowest roll outs anywhere in europe now that announcement comes as the new highly contagious strain of covert 19 has been found in france as well the health ministers there are around 10 cases france has seen a sharp rise in people being treated in hospital still to come here on the news for you. a pillar of the lebanese

music scene has died at the age of 83 we'll look back on his life. and in sports with joe the shaggy picture vader who's now got a happy end to his tale. the weather maze pretty quiet across the middle east it's nice and settled now but some pieces of cloud into northern parts of saudi arabia you might just catch a spot or 2 of light rain but nothing much to speak of a chance they want to see showers up towards the black sea but otherwise as you can see it's largely dry and fine maybe a shower just a across the southern end of the red sea highs here in doha of around 21 celsius with some pleasant sunshine coming through as the winds for a light the sunshine extends down across the whole of africa plenty of showers

there into the heart of africa more wet weather coming back towards the gulf of guinea showers there into was becoming more wise by these heat of the day showers of course very wet weather though still continues into central and eastern parts of south africa that wetter weather will not a little further north woods as we go on through thursday garage pushing up into mozambique there be some showers all say coming into zimbabwe botswana also seeing some showers and longer spells of right but nothing too much to speak of notice things do improve across the south africa as we go on into friday temperatures getting up into the mid twenty's for cape town and to port elizabeth not too bad into his berg as well from madagascar that's a case of sunshine and showers and 10 in a reef a 29 degrees. al-jazeera is into the mucky weld of state sponsored spyware. and the discovery by al jazeera

journalists in syria that technology and smartphones every system. is this the new frontier as again i. think about the sophistication of exports to break into phones this is as good as it gets. the spy on your phone on al-jazeera. a policy imposed decades ago no pregnant woman thought that she could selectively goods and had only boys changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences for creating a pool of socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system where people at every level will be get being given money money to agree distro zation or money to get other people to agree the services out there examines the politics of population control. war.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera my name's peter dhabi go top stories here today leaders from across the gulf region have signed a declaration aimed to resolving the 3 year dispute with cattle cars a major summit in saudi arabia that follows a move by saudi arabia to open its sea and land borders with cattle. poles are underway in the us state of georgia where people are voting in 2 senate runoff elections that will decide the balance of power in congress. and the u.k. prime minister boris johnson has canceled a trip to india to deal with the cold with 19 crisis mr johnson has ordered people that are going to stay at home for at least 7 weeks as part of a new nationwide lockdown. the president of central african republic has been

reelected for a 2nd term the electoral commission says 1st in our congress to a better one with more than 53 percent of the vote but critics have called the election a fast saying many people were unable to cast their ballots because of attacks by rebel groups and many fear the violence will continue kushal a purse for the gun explains. reelected to a 2nd term president fox star conch to tara says he can unite a divided central african republic it's an ambitious goal at a fragile time of course for good results monitored by the electoral commission show he received an absolute majority in an election marked by violence and the challenges are many central african republic is still recovering from a civil war. the president 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. and rest has persisted before and after the election attacks by armed fighters aligned with rival politicians kept thousands of posters 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 wanda. 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 when the election may be over but many people in the country are bracing for the possibility of more violence. most of the young al-jazeera

al-jazeera is correspondent has been tracking developments from senegal he joins us live nic why hasn't come out to celebrate despite what the election commission's been saying. well peter he's been under pressure from the international community and they came out in a joint statement the african union the united nations and the european european union urging for the population and the candidates to wait for the official confirmation from the constitutional court and that will come in 2 weeks time there's also pressure from the candidates themselves 9 of the candidates have appealed to complain to the election commission saying that twitter has not won the popular vote their argument basically is you know with the country mostly in the hands of armed groups half of the electorate 900000 people were unable to vote 2000 ballot stations or polling stations were open given those circumstances they

say this vote or this election is illegitimate going even further the 2nd in this race and that most closest to to to a 1st. in the percentage race and he says he wants to look good in a press conference said that perhaps there needs to be a new election all together take a listen to what he has to say. not. cancelling the result is one solution holding a 2nd round is another but no matter what the results are announced yesterday cannot be accepted given the results are not being accepted by the political opposition and the armed groups there at the capital's doorstep i guess how likely is this election is going to end will bring an end to the ongoing crisis. well i think it seems to me peter that it's the beginning of the crisis rather than the end of the crisis and just moments ago before we went to air

a spokesperson for the coalition for patriotic change that these are the armed groups that were once fighting to get against each other and to solve and $39.00 have joined arms together and there are 20 kilometers away from the capital well they came out in this statement saying that they're ready to take over the country altogether they're equipped and they're just 20 kilometers away from the capital having said that the spokesperson also said that he's open that they are open for dialogue with the government their issue is they're saying that the president and his government has failed to put in place the peace agreement that was signed by 14 armed groups back in sunni down 2 years ago where they want basically is more positions in places of government and also more more money in order to influence this area at stake here peter is a country that's the size of france are rich in mineral and in gold and this is where we've seen 300 at least russian fighters there's been 300 russian

officers that were just sent during the election as well as helicopters sent by the russian state we've seen rwanda saying troops are sending troops over in what used to be a former french colony where france has had a strong influence and intervened in 2013 so it's become a place where we see the west and the russia in africa fighting over territory and caught in the middle of this of course peter are the millions of people from the central african republic and most of them living in poverty dependent on humanitarian aid and many of them that are continuing to be displaced by the ongoing fighting between armed groups and the government despite the presence of 12000 u.n. peacekeepers. nick thank you very much nicholas reporting live the news from senegal. the new york stock exchange says it no longer plans to delist 3 major chinese telecoms companies the about turn comes less than

a week after it would remove the listings to comply with an executive order signed by president trump in november katrina you has this report from beijing. an unexpected backflip by the new york stock exchange reversing a decision to delist chinese telecommunications companies china mobile china telecom and china unicom just days after it was announced the new century as the 3 companies surging on the hong kong stock exchange on choose day but analysts say any celebrations unlikely to be short lived and the longer term i thing the tendency or the situation will not change at all because most of the old chinese companies are now this thing in the u.s. there was sick for for a 2nd or a listing opportunity maybe in hong kong or maybe in shanghai starboard because those chinese company will face more and more pressure from the record later the decision to delist followed the side of an executive order by u.s.

president trump in november banning americans been investing in companies linked to china's military the new york stock exchange says it made that decision after consulting u.s. regulators beijing has accused the trumpet ministration of politicizing trade in arbitrarily suppressing chinese companies with a certain to surely some political forces in the united states have continuously suppressed florrie listed companies for no reason reflecting the also today of their system but its impact on chinese companies is limited we hope they can respect the rule of law and the markets the chinese telecommunications companies say any u.s. trade that would have little impact on daily operations it's instead seen here as symbolic donald trump has targeted a number of chinese technology companies and grounds of national security then are waiting to see if the incoming biden administration will take a less hostile to do business with china but many believe trade disputes between

beijing and washington are set to continue it's based upon you know saying as an as an enemy to us of the u.s. and as a threat to the u.s. now clearly it. as a competitor without a question of a doubt you know it's it's going to be soon the world's largest economy it's growing very fast it's recovered from the covered 90 outbreak very well and there are also human rights issues that not just america but the whole world is going to be concerned about and rightly so but this may not be the best way of putting pressure on china and while the u. 10 seems to be a lull in tensions between the 2 countries it's certainly not the end of it. al jazeera beijing. the former head of one of china's biggest asset management firms has been sentenced to death for bribery and corruption lies ya min was convicted for taking more than $260000000.00 in bribes the court inch engines as punishment was because he'd been quote lawless and greedy in the extreme president xi jinping

was anti corruption campaign and seen hundreds of officials arrested since it was launched in 2012. south korea is demanding the release of one of its tankers seized by iran iran says the ship is causing oil pollution in gulf waters south korea has deployed a naval destroyer to the straits of hormuz the seizure comes ahead of a visit by the south korean vice foreign minister. schools have reopened in kenya many parents are happy to see their children back in classrooms but worried too about the lingering risk of covert 19 mamma though reports now from nairobi. students at nairobi's jani primary school line up to see face musts given out by the government 18000000 students have a ton to school across the country after 9 months disruption caused by the covered 1000 pandemic but many say conditions of the schools are far from ideal we are ready for. what

a boy. and their work you can see that up to someone it was the one i know you think you want whatever they are if not to you without more dust or classrooms the children have to sit shoulder to shoulder 3 at a desk just like they did before the pandemic features are warning of the often overcrowded and underfunded schools ill prepared for the opening in the face of the ongoing pandemic they say there been no new probations to issue a very social distancing in the classroom. patents to a concern at the moment we have got a lot of areas because we don't know if other children in school are having having they. even if they teach us having the latest or even the support stuff in school or having the latest so we have that fear but we really hope for the best and we we shall keep on praying for kids to be safe covered 1000 cases in kenya began side

you know unpicked in november i'm going to 1972 cases but they according to the health ministry despite a limit to testing for cope with 19 the country house recorded 1695 deaths and almost 100000 cases. many are now would have the opening of schools might lead to another such and the number of infections mama dodwell jazzy to nairobi kenya. lebanon is mourning the loss of the legendary composer and cultural i called bonnie has died at the age of 82 of the battle with coke at 19 he was known for a unique music blending styles from different parts of the world and chappelle looks back on his life. when i saw him 1st lays eyes on the side 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 u.n. 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. thank you carlos are you just the little high year old who fill up for the on the in your. posts the so for you. he composed hundreds of songs and the soundtracks for dozens 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. body is 82 years old.

still to come here on the news hour sumos grand champion grappling with the run of life sure we'll have all the details in sport.

for. the all. time for international sports news peter thank you very much in the last hour the premier league has announced a new record of 40 current virus cases in the last week that's more than double the record set the week before the latest figures come as in and is called to begin new

lock downs with cases on the rise around the country's elite sport is allowed to continue over 4 premier league matches have been postponed in recent weeks because of outbreaks the premier league has once again reiterated that it's not planning on shutting down play. scotland's government has warned football clubs there not to abuse their privileges after the league champions celtic jetted off to dubai the team left on saturday for their warm weather training camp just before the country went into full lockdown the public asked not to travel internationally the scottish government is urging its football association to investigate the trip and could stop other teams from going abroad for matches if travel exemptions are abused. still the football action continues with tottenham facing brantford late in the english league cup semifinals for much see night and city do battle in their semi tomorrow wednesday's darby game is a rematch of last season's encounter in the last 4 which city one on their way to clinching the trophy for a 3rd successive year when she night as manager has led his team to 3 semi final

since taking charge but has suffered defeat in all 3 and says this time failure is not an option. it's always a good question of how important is it and then then i can answer that very. the next game is always important of course a semifinal is a chance to get to get to the final to get your hands on a trophy in the next round it's not just learning to win we all saw. it to feel that we can go all the way with our performances we are confident we go into the game in good form. there's no excuses cattery drivin ass alex here has one stage 3 of the tackle rally in saudi arabia it's here to drive a clinched his 2nd stage in a row to go 2nd in the general classification pending champion carlos site is also close the gap on overall leader stefan peds hansell a frenchman had to stop in today's special stage to fix a puncture but still tops the standings by more than 5 minutes.

today really we. never gave. everything working very well you know what we need done. i'm really happy with their peers because. something. south africa's cricketers have completed a 2 nothing series when after winning the 2nd test by 10 wickets shanking captain timothy made 103 but his team were all out for 211 on day 3. took 4 wickets south africa's openers then knocks off the $67.00 run target to win the match and the series. and in christchurch new zealand are in a dominant position the 2nd test against pakistan the kiwis declaring on 659 percent 6 thanks to 238 from captain kane williamson just as well as tons from

henry nichols and dayrell mitchell pakistan with 8 for one it stumps on day 3. and b. 18 the brooklyn nets are set to be without their star man kevin durant for tuesday's game against the utah jazz duranty is reportedly in quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for corona virus the league's rules must now sit out for 7 days may not win all durance old team the golden state warriors improved to a record of 4 wins and 3 defeats on monday spearheaded by steph curry the warriors beat the sacramento kings 137-2106 currie scoring 30 points just one minute after scoring a career high 62 the 32 year old missed most of last season through injury back to his best elsewhere the indiana pacers beat the new orleans pelicans in dramatic fashion on monday malcolm brockton scored 21 points for indiana but he chose his moment to shine with just 1.7 seconds left on the clock in overtime the pacers

winning 118216. another sport was grappling to control current viruses sumo the sport's governing body in japan says its grand champion has also tested positive how cool ho was tested after losing his sense of smell and his sumo stablemates will also be checked and mongolian born wrestler has won a record 44 top division titles was training for the new year grand sumo tournament which begins in tokyo on sunday. let's end with the shaggy dog story shall we you might remember this pop who invaded a bolivian a football match on christmas eve cheering on a play as well the pitch was taken to a shelter has now been adopted by the player who removed him from the game i think you'll agree every dog deserves a happy end to the tale i know you're going to like that one pizza that's a doha special that one isn't ok doing so talk to your i said. that's it for this news do stay with us on the other side of the break we'll have 30 minutes of

al-jazeera world news we will see you very soon. it's the u.k.'s biggest hospital with the eventual capacity for 4000 covert 19 patients built inside a london conference center it took just 9 days to construct with the help of army engineers dramatically expanding the critical care bed count and other similar sites on the way the actual london numbers could be much higher than advertised researches say that huge gaps in testing capacity that the government is now trying

to close extrapolate that across the country and the spread of corona virus appears far wider than anyone thought. teach it strongman is ruling with an iron fist and the silence from his allies is deafening the u.s. was perfectly happy to trade off the mark for c. for security while western leaders turning a blind eye when even the citizens have fought and baked into his repression execution. this torture or censorship is not acceptable and you won't hear such strong words from let's say berlin or paris or london or man in cairo on al-jazeera to scarcity has become a major global issue the demand is going rate up and the supply is going straight down turning an essential natural resource into a commodity traded to the profit just because. it's cannot be priced what about the guy that can afford it tele's water. al-jazeera examines the social

financial and environmental impact of the war to privatisation loads of water on al-jazeera. gulf leaders sign a declaration to reaffirm their ties to the summit to help resolve a 3 year disputes with qatar. peter w. watching al-jazeera live from doha also coming up voting is underway in the u.s. state of georgia where 21 off races will determine if the democrats can claim control of the senate. england and scotland go into another lockdown to contain this hospital struggle to cope with a surge in infection.