parities the cultures across the world so not only take it we'll bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. saudi arabia and its allies agree to end their 3 year blockade and restore full timers with kata just so much in the kingdom. i'm in taylor says al jazeera live from london also coming up georgia votes in a crucial runoff election that will determine who controls the u.s. senate. the number of daily coded infections in the u.k. reaches 60000 with another 830 deaths as britons are told to stay at home. and a supporters of central african republic president celebrate his reelection opposition

figures brand his victory costs. low saudi arabia and its allies have agreed to restore full diplomatic ties with qatar ending their illegal 3 year blockade of the country leaders from across the gulf region a signed a declaration calling for a solidarity and stability at a summit aimed at resolving the dispute got as emir shake to meet him in how mount a phony was welcomed with an embrace by saudi crown prince mohammed bin sound man as he arrived for the summit this a day after the announcement that saudi arabia will reopen its air sea and land borders to qatar a declaration aimed at resolving the dispute was signed which will enable member states to combat any threats to gulf security and also ensure no interference in each other's internal affairs but full reconciliation could still be

a way off the u.a.e. egypt and bahrain did not send the heads of state to the summit even though the agreement calls for the restoring of gulf cooperation and brotherly ties to reports from doha. after 3 and a half years of a crisis that threatened the very core of the gulf region g.c.c. leaders have agreed to end divisions and in a new era of cooperation the olympic relation is that has achieved a settlement of all issues outstanding in a way that is entirely satisfied factory to all nations involved all the countries involved we are extremely pleased with having been able to achieve this very important breakthrough that we believe will contribute very much to the stability security of all our nations in the region and yes all the outstanding. whether it's turning of diplomatic relations flights etc all of that will now go

back to normal earlier the summit's had got off to a promising starts when saudi crown prince mohammed bin said a man insisted on hugging qatar's emir shift i mean going from it and funny as the letter touched down in the saudi city over lolla the clearest indication yet that both countries were on the way to mending relations the qatari leader confirmed his attendance at the 41st street summits of the 11th hour only after saudi arabia agreed to lift the land air and sea blockade it had been imposing on doha since 2017 in his opening remarks to follow leaders crown prince mohammed bin simon emphasized the importance of cooperation and unity between the g.c.c. member states and i'm with you. today we are in a dire need to stand united in the face of the challenges namely iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and other agendas adopted by its respected in the region which undermine the stability of the region this demands that we dovetail our efforts with the international community to cement the stability and security of

the region also in attendance at the summit was senior white house adviser on president donald trump's son in law jarrett christian or it was off to his visits to doha and riyadh late last year that's a breakthrough in negotiations that had been led by coates was. reached since the start of the crisis courts had been exerting its efforts to solve the disputes with its late amir chefs a bottle of medicine successfully preventing the military invasion of qatar it was no surprise then that a lawless summits was named after together with the late senator over a man who also passed away in 2020 with all 4 blockading countries now agreeing to open their land air and sea borders to put out the gulf region can now begin a new chapter one that its leaders say will be written by all of them together. al jazeera the. actors are senior political analyst mel a mission joins us live from doha now on how important is the resolution of this dispute for the region and beyond. well look it's important for cut

that he's for saudis and for the people in in the gulf region for sure i mean this was 3 and a half years of waste suffering for no good reason whatsoever they're off and they're out of familiar there are close relative commercial and also civilizations between these people and they were really victim of this crisis so this is definitely a good thing for the people in the region but in terms of the leadership and it them as of gulf stability. and security that's a whole other ball game and i think the proof will be in the put a meeting how this would progress further and whether they will all learn to agree to disagree when there are issues that do or do not concern them immediately but can start the region on the outside world that they can actually tolerate differences like for example the turks and the russians could tolerate their

differences so that for the question of stability and and security in the gulf this is an important 4th step but it cannot be the last meaning there are some important bilateral relations that have to be cemented and there's some issues that may be resolved notably notably ending the war in yemen because that's that's an attorney a gulf security issue and then there is the. to reach it what about the relations with iran and could they really reduce the tensions with iran what about the relations with turkey and the it true relations but their. eyes tried to do the last several months because coming up next will be the dossier of iran iran's role in the region iran's autumn and iran's nuclear project iran a list that myside program of so so forth and the absence notably the gulf is would need to be united in order to get on the table with the americans and others who are concerned the europeans are so forth about the future security in the region

and they couldn't do that if they were divided it's important for the gulf an arab parties to be part and parcel of whatever the next conflagration security and otherwise would without iran are because they are a primary party interested in whatever comes up next and in terms of timing how they manage to do this now how much is it to do with the plan as positioning for a new by administration in the u.s. . you know sometimes when you look at it you can just scratch your head about how this crisis the duration of this crisis basically did that the ration of the top administration it's been 44 months and you know this opened this issue up 4 to 8 months not even so really all in all this has been i wouldn't dare say the making of but this certainly has been associated with. faulty policies when you 1st came to the region back in may 2016 i was 17 and so

really it is important that this thing ends today and i think it's important for them together to be able to deal with an incoming obama administration that already has a clear agenda notably. getting back into the nuclear deal with iran and negotiating better terms and dems of iran's role in the region and as i was saying earlier. arabs are the most interested party in this the iraqis the kuwaitis the saudis are all interested certainly the yemenis and so forth they are even more interested than the united states and us all remember the united states has 2 options await but but these are right across the gulf you know the states in the gulf region so this is going to be important as a 1st step but as i said it's only a 1st step and there have to be some you know some troops from the prize you would

say in london is in the pudding it's in the implementation of this thing and how it will evolve further and to my mind because i think this is just so important and the human level ending of the war in yemen it is a key also in terms of dealing with iran because you know as we all know iran has expanded its influence from yemen to lebanon to syria to iraq and so on so forth so all these dossiers are going to be on that they will and it's going to be important to end the war because we need to end the suffering of they haven't hit people and we need to actually bring good real solidity it because sort of that has been mentioned a lot today it in the gulf summit and a real sort of that if you will mean that the suffering in yemen stops the more stability and more respect for human rights in the gulf begins to shine thank you very much.

birches in the u.s. state of georgia making a choice that could have a crucial impact on joe biden's powers as president a special runoff election to choose the state's 2 senate members or to sign the balance of power in congress for the entire country although 3000000 votes were cast ahead of polling day a record that represents almost 40 percent of the state's registered voters georgia voted for biden as president ending in a 3 decade republican streak and ensuring frantic campaigning for the senate seat. of an office in georgia picked the 2 republican senators david perdue and kelly lefler against democratic challengers john also off and raphael warnock the vote will determine who controls the u.s. senate democrats would need to win both seats to deny the republicans a majority they could use to block large parts of joe biden's legislative agenda if the democrats secure both seats for senate would be split down the middle the vice president coming to harris would then get to cast the tie breaking vote. let's go

live to natasha the name in the city of columbus in georgia so what's the turnout like where you are. well throughout the day it looks like it's been a steady stream but certainly there have not been long lines throughout the state there have been wait times of less than 10 minutes we spoke to an attorney who is a kind of election monitor if you will on standby here in this county to assist if there are any legal issues tied to voting and he says it's been very quiet it's a bit expected that there would not have been packed polls because of that record runoff early runoff voting period turnout that turnout tended it's believed to buoy the democrats because the turnout was quite heavy in areas with a high concentration of democrats blacks and young voters republicans were really this is the thinking hoping for

a high turnout specifically on election day but due to president trump's unfounded and continued claims of the vote in georgia being rigged there was a real concern that he would depress voter turnout one of the republican senators is a rip about incumbent his name is david produce said he did not think trump's comments would have any bearing on the turnout i will tell you that speaking to a professor at emory university she predicts that due to the shifting demographics and the very affective voter mobilization efforts on the part of grassroots organizations we will see a close race much like what we saw in november and there actually has become as you mention a bit of a referendum on the president how has that changed it. president trump has absolutely overshadowed this race the 2 incumbent republican senators perdue and leffler made it very clear they were trump loyalists and they use very

similar terminology that trump used during his attempts to get reelection the senator said that they were told georgians they needed to help fend off quote radical democrats and socialists both of these incumbents are wealthy and former business executives and they told voters that they would use their business accu men to help revive the economy but they spent a lot of time wallpapering the airwaves with negative attack ads attack ads by the way in one case that prompted more than 100 clergy members to criticize lefler for what she said was an attack or for what they said was an attack on reverend raphael warnock and an attack on the black church the democrats on the other hand have stuck to their messaging of trying to create more financial opportunities for people expand health care for the needy to implement what they said would be a more effective response to the pandemic implementing criminal justice reform we

have tended to rally attended by president elect joe biden yesterday and listen to the words that he used to support john f. and reverend raphael warnock the democratic candidates he said they were quote qualified decent honorable men who would fight for georgians and would be loyal to georgians and not trump no matter what the outcome of the senate runoff it will officially end the 2020 a lecture in cycle and it would be reasonable to think that both the democratic and republican parties will now sort of have a period of reexamination reexamining their priorities and their messaging in a post president trump universe thank you very much indeed and i am that. so to come this half hour a citizen against extremist violence against guns has our a community demands action after 10 coal mine is

a killed plus i'm very disappointed with this news the head of the w.h.o. says china still hasn't authorized entry for its team some of whom are already on their way to investigate the origins of the cave a pandemic. some proper wintry weather across much of europe now that includes central parts of the mediterranean still plenty a storm a rumbling away here what a nasty area of low pressure this one is sport a fair bit of snow to northern parts of italy nother area of low pressure is bringing a fair bit of snow towards the crane pushing a little further north which will see snow up around the baltic states into scandinavia germany denmark sweden all seeing some snow over the next couple days and some rather heavy snow could see maybe as much as

a meter of snow coming across parts of the alps over the next day old say cold enough across western areas for 5 celsius for london and paris but to get up to 6 degrees in madrid and falling you might be struggling to reach 3 celsius in madrid on thursday and by thursday a fair bit of snow coming in across the spanish plain as well so certainly something to watch out for there noticed some very wet weather also moving through the straits of gibraltar so southern areas of spain pushing across into northern parts of morocco seeing some very wet weather wet weather continue into central parts of the med where it's at wintry weather there which was that eastern side of here but for much of northern africa to the northeast it's fun to drive go some warmth around in cabra temperatures here at $24.00 celsius with more of those showers clinging on to any cost. al jazeera world peers into the murky world of state sponsored spy ware. and the discovery by al jazeera journalists that syria like technology that smartphones.

system. is this the new frontier as again i should. think about the sophistication of exports to britain before this is as good as it gets. the spy. on al-jazeera. and one of the top stories here on araa zira shelf leaders have signed a declaration to restore full ties with carter and end their 3 and a half year blockade emotion calling for solidarity and stability was agreed at a summit in saudi arabia attended by the emir of qatar. and votes in the u.s.

state of georgia boccia ships are in your state of georgia elected 2 senators in a vote with national importance the runoff will decide the balance of power in congress. the u.k. has reported more than $60000.00 corona virus cases in a day for the 1st time a day after the government announced a new national lockdown in england in some parts of england an estimated one in 50 people now has coronavirus with levels of the new strain growing rapidly in the capital the fokker ports rwanda. the sign painters went out at dawn reaffirming the rules the spread of corona virus in the u.k. is spiraling out of control after months of confusing on and off restrictions for many of the new total lockdown lore in england from wednesday is a wearisome next step but the new variant of the virus 50 percent more transmissible than the 1st threatens to wreak havoc on the nation's health system

in a downing street briefing the prime minister called for one last major national effort to stem the virus before massive vaccinations term the tide when the number of patients in hospitals in england is now 40 percent higher than the 1st peak in april i think obviously everybody you all want to be sure that we in government are now using every 2nd of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccination only a few days ago the government was urging parents to get ready to send their children back to school after the holidays but now under the new restrictions they're close to virtually all people must work from home and all hospitality and non-essential shops shut and there are fines for rule breakers scotland wales and northern ireland have imposed similar measures it is almost

a mirror image of the 1st national lockdown 10 months ago we're very familiar concerns about the impact on businesses in the economy which is why the british government says it will release extra billions to help soften the blow the streets in central london are quiet and empty but after days of government indecision other areas seem slower to catch on. the majority of people packed the latest lock down but rather than the owner simply being on people to follow the rules and expose the rule breakers experts are calling for greater government clarity and support in many ways the problem doesn't lie with people's resilience with their psychology with their willingness to do things it lies with government policy so if you look at the areas where there is low adherents low compliance like for instance of isolation in the u.k. it's very much to do with the fact that we give people precious little support to do something that is difficult for instance it's very difficult if you live in

a multiple captaincy house to isolate from from others so we could as they do for instance in a number of countries we could give people who tell of accommodation to support people people are also more likely to follow the rules if the measures are working their fear is that the tactic employed in earlier waves won't be enough alone to contain the new variant this remains one of the country's best hopes the rollout of the oxford astra zeneca jab began on monday the government sets numbers just targets of inoculating 13000000 vulnerable people by the middle of february this is now a critical race between the virus and the vaccine the park out london. i don't know about their set with anderson and so another news conference today what was the message that the government was trying to hammer home today well boris johnson didn't really have to justify his actions when you see those figures 61000 new infections on choose a number of deaths up to 830 the 7th day running that we've had these record

figures exceed the peak of the 1st phase so he went into a dialogue that wasn't quite stefansson but he was pushed on the point of how long it took to take this decision to go into for lock down because it was december the 18th when this new. strain was identified that was much more powerful than the 1st one so that's a fair amount of time he said that he was pushing on the the whole 4 tears system thinking that the 4th tier in which he extended and it affects millions of people he was hoping that that would make have an effect but it wasn't having an effect a minor one and so therefore i think what happened next was that the body that controls assessing risks throughout the country then put into a red alert phase the fact that the n.h.s. was facing being overwhelmed that's when he pressed the button for this to happen

so we have a situation where he didn't really answer the question but he was pushed on the point that one day he was talking about keeping schools open the next day with 36 hours he was closing them in this lockdown and in the meantime watch the the progress so far on nations well the whole strategy of the government is to is to push the vaccine roll out in the hope that it will basically make the lives safer for something like 14000000 people that includes over 70 is sick or disabled front line medical staff carers now that's the strategy but will they achieve 2000000 doses a week of 2 vaccines the one you've heard it mentioned in that report the astra zeneca oxford university one but the other one finds a drug as a controversy about that which i need to mention because there's a gap between both of these both of these vaccines have a gap insisted upon by the government to have michelle a there was a there was

a one month between the 2 now they're broadening that they're giving up the to the 2nd dose in order to give the 1st dose to 2 to more people so you're doubling the number of people receiving the vaccine and the 2nd those can come later but there's a problem with the pfizer drug because. the vaccine because the world health organization while this news conference was going on word came from geneva the head of the immunization section saying they had to stick to the 28 days between the 2 doses that some resolved you hear more on this it is can control anderson thank you very much indeed now south africa's president has called for an urgent coronavirus meeting as the total number of deaths there past 30000 level 3 measures were due to expire next week and there's uncertainty around the reopening of schools this month there are new concerns about or a variant spreading rapidly in the country but the w.h.o.

and experts in south africa say there's no indication it's more transmissible than the one identified in the u.k. nor will it negate the effectiveness of vaccines. the head of the world health organization says he's disappointed china still hasn't authorized entry for a team of global experts a set a visit to investigate the origins of code 19 well done here after it was 1st reported i am very disappointed with this news given that 2 members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute but i have been in contact with senior chinese officials and i have once again made it made it clear that the mission is a priority for doubly joe and the international team i have been assured that china is speeding up the internal procedure for the earliest possible deployment we're going to get the mission underway as soon as possible mourners in

southwest pakistan are blocking a road by protesting with the bodies of 10 coal miners killed by ice so they're refusing to go ahead with burials or end their sit in until prime minister in one current agrees to meet them so hire at has this report. so this major road on the outskirts of quests or is being blocked by this close knit hazaar a community that includes children and the elderly who are up. and they're refusing to end their sit in or made. 6 sisters and one of the victims was our only brother the only person who worked to look after us they brutally slaughtered him and our family alone they slaughtered 5 people including my nephew and 3 cousins i saw has claimed responsibility for the killing of a group of coal miners from the muslim shia minority the extremist group in pakistan has often targeted the has are in the past. we are tired of burying our people we no longer have courage to bury anymore bodies give us justice we want

justice. pakistan's interior minister she arrived in quite a to tell the has are is that the government is doing all it can be as a member of congress. i came with instructions from prime minister in iraq on who asked me to take this plane and to assure all the hazara shia muslims that we will arrest these murderers at any cost and justice will prevail i have also asked the military here to help the government find the killers oh the protesters don't think it's enough they blame the government for failing to protect their people and despite islamic tradition requiring rapid burial they're refusing to bury the victims until prime minister imre han visits himself. as nick has hours make up most of the shia population in quotes or the capital of baluchistan. and is pakistan's largest and poorest region suffering ethnic

sectarian and even separatists insurgencies. has are often ostracized by others including eisel because of their faith and their ethnicity. and the community of miners here believe this would be the last time that they will be target. start a fight at al-jazeera. at least 22 people have been killed with machetes and guns in a raid on a village in democratic republic of congo local officials said the attack in the south east village of wend was carried out by the allied democratic forces a militia blamed for hundreds of killings in the past year is the 2nd mass killing in a week in the east india r.c. 25 civilians were killed on new year's eve opposition figures in central african republic say president for star shores 20 hours victory in last week's election is a farce final results showed 2 idaho reelected with 53 percent of last week's vote

that means he won't need to face a runoff but opposition figures argue that half the population is on able to vote because of violence from rebel from. cancelling the result is one solution holding a 2nd round is another but no matter what the results announced yesterday cannot be accepted and israel as president nicolas maduro has tightened his grip on the country and its institutions with the swearing in of a national assembly controlled by his socialist party it marks the end of control by the opposition boycotted last month's election because they said it wasn't free or fair on god or who is recognized by several nations as the country's interim leader instead lead a virtual opposition congress session. at least 4 people have been killed in a flash flooding in bolivia to rental rain and hail hit the city of supriya on monday the 30 minutes turning the city's streets into fast flowing rivers the

larger the city's largest farmers' market was in the worst affected area presents a drains blocked by rubbish made the flooding worse. if it was kept up with our website address that his al-jazeera dot com and you can also watch us live by taking on the orange live icon outers era dot com. my. one of the top stories when i was there a declaration aimed at ending the 3 year blockade on qatar has been signed by gulf leaders a motion calling for solidarity and stability was agreed at a summit attended by catalyst emir who was greeted by saudi arabia's crown prince with an embrace saudi has agreed to reopen it at sea and land borders to qatar but full reconciliation could be a long way off with the u.a.e. egypt and bahrain all sending low level representatives not.