round again the paternity leave it comes back again we need to constantly changing listening and continues to analyze how the discovered. to kill it the most intense election campaigns the us since sept 20th you're right it's the 6th of. january on al-jazeera. the arab. have around 50 opposition figures are rounded up in hong kong in the biggest mass arrests since china imposed a controversial national security law. and are you watching al-jazeera live from doha with me fully bad people also coming up . extremely pleased with having been able to achieve this very important

breakthrough. the saudi foreign minister says the kingdom and its arab allies are restoring full diplomatic ties with qatar. a rare admission north korean leader kim jong il him speaks of policy failures while addressing his ruling party for the 1st time in 5 years and vote counting is underway in georgia in a crucial runoff election that will determine the balance of power in the u.s. congress. hong kong police have reportedly arrested at least 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists in its biggest crackdown against the opposition since china imposed a national security not on the city last year they're accused of subversion for taking pride in unofficial election primaries in july china declared the polls illegal and warned. the 600000 people cast ballots had broken the law critics say

beijing is using the security law to silence dissent following months of anti-government protests and 29000 that speak to adrian brown who's in hong kong for a so agent tell us 1st about the significance of these arrests and what more we do we know about. fully it's very significant because this as you point out is the largest mass arrests we've seen in hong kong of political activists since the imposition of the new national security law in july last year now according to local media at least more than 20 formal lawmakers and activists have been detained but activists groups themselves as well as spokespeople for the various political parties in here in hong kong say of fact more than 50 people have been detained the police have yet to confirm the arrests although that is expected to happen during the day now this new national security

law of course covers a wide range of things slowly things like succession subversion colluding with foreign powers and terrorism we understand that most of those who've been detained on wednesday morning have been detained in relation to subversion but of course they have yet to be charged so far only 4 people have been charged under the new law they include of course the media mogul jimmy lai who appeared in court last week when he was denied bail after earlier being granted bail by a lower court so potentially what sort of jail terms are they facing if convicted. well potentially given the seriousness of the charges they could face they could face anything up to you know life in jail it really is that serious and of course it comes at a time really that you know 2021 has got off to

a very busy start in hong kong just yesterday george meagher the chief justice retired chief justice here in hong kong addressed the media when he reiterated once more that he had come under no pressure from beijing or the local government when it came to court cases he was involved in here in hong kong this followed really remorseless criticism by state controlled media of a number of rulings by judges in various number of cases here in hong kong and to many observers that looks like you know an assault on the independence of the judiciary and of course the judiciary at the moment really will be under the microscope once more given these latest arrests adrian brown in hong kong thank you adrian for that update. in other world news saudi arabia and its allies have a great to restore full diplomatic ties with qatar ending their illegal 3 and a half year blockade of the country leaders from across the gulf region have signed

a declaration calling for solidarity and stability at a summit aimed at resolving the disputed amount and child reports. 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 hiding qatar's emir shift i mean been some of that funny as the

letter touched down in the saudi city of 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 since 2017 in his opening remarks to follow leaders crown prince mohammed bin solomon 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 gerard questioner 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 quits had been exerting its efforts to solve the disputes with its fleet a mere ship's a bottle of medicine successfully preventing the military invasion of qatar it was no surprise then that the summit 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 protect the gulf region can now begin a new chapter one that its leaders say will be written by all of them together. the. north korea's ruling party congress is underway for the 1st time in 5 years in his opening address leader kim jong un said north korea had significantly failed in its 5 year economic plan the congress is the most important political

event in a country and is rarely held the last convention was in 2016 and before that in the 1980 s. as bring in rob mcbride who is in seoul south korea for us so of course there's always a lot of speculation that this these events this event anyway will be setting out the agenda for north korea in the middle of tamil just times tell us more about what the north korean leader has had to say. these are very rare events and it is usually the propaganda set piece the chance to sing the praises of the ruling workers' party of career to illustrate the infallibility of the leadership and so on certainly we have seen some of that we have heard about the achievements of north korea but in an incredible opening address by kim jong un he has made admissions that in nearly every aspect of economic policy the 5 current 5 year plan basically has fallen short has basically failed saying that north korea

has been through the worst of the worst which is a pretty incredible admission and it does illustrate just of the economic dire economic. position that north korea finds itself in at the moment you've had this the normal sanctions that it faces from the international community compounded by the whole pandemic of the past year where basically north korea has pretty much sealed itself off from the outside world which is seen devastating impact on its economy and then of course over the past summer you have had these devastating storms 2 typhoons back to back to rancho rains with the impacted agriculture and also infrastructure so it has been admission of just the the problems that north korea faces at the moment what we're also waiting to see is this as this party gathering proceeds over the next few days is the policy that north korea will now adopt to the united states because the end of the trump era means the end of this

remarkable policy of summit meetings which ended in failure in hanoi in 2019 and the big question now is with joe biden what replaces that will the united states build upon this incredible precedent of the leader of the united states meeting on a regular basis with the leader of north korea which until a few years ago was unheard of or do we see a return to the acrimony of the old days so we are waiting to. to see just what takes place and it does seem as though north korea is waiting to see what the transition will bring there has been a lot of speculation that ahead of the transition in the united states that it might put on some display some shows strength even a missile launch but we've had no indication of that as yet north korea it seems is adopting a more guarded cautious policy of waiting and seeing what the end of january brings rob mcbride in seoul thank you and to the us now way vote counting is underway in

the state of georgia after a special runoff election that could have an impact on job as president more than 3000000 early ballots were cast ahead of the vote to choose the state's 2 senate members this will decide the balance of power in congress the 2 democratic candidates are leading with more than a 3rd of counted so far and the runoff in georgia pit the 2 republican senators david perdue and kelly laughter against democratic challengers john also often raphael warnock the vote will determine who controls the u.s. senate democrats need to win both seeds to deny the republicans a majority that they could use to block notch parts of joe biden's legislative agenda if the democrats secure both cedes the senate would be split down the middle the vice president coming to harris would then get to cast the tie breaking vote alan fisher is following this election for us from georgia state capital atlanta so 2 races very close tell us about the early indications and the turnout what what

has it been like. well certainly what we can gather from the moment just over 60 percent of the votes have been counted the gap between the 2 candidates in both races is a boat 101-2000 so these are very very close races indeed the devout democrats are ahead in both races obviously the tonneau is interesting because the democrats are doing much better in the areas that they did well and in the race in november the republicans are seeing the turnout in the it is that they needed really to tar note with on the day voting on tuesday not doing quite as well let's take one example david produced in his whole media is about 51 percent no according to republicans he really had to be about 5560 percent not all the votes are counted but it's clear that he's lagging behind where they hoped he would be no according to the out in ca

have been speaking to someone who's is pretty well connected there they are saying of course it's still too early to make a decision and they're watching the results with interest but there is some concern that both the republicans might lose here still a long way to go still a lot of votes to count there is every possibility we won't get a result at some point in the next couple of hours this may well mean counting going on into whedon's day that's to be understood because of course these races are incredibly tight there could be requests for recounts in certain counties that could absolutely happen when joe biden flipped the state to become a democrat back in the presidential election in november his margin of victory was only 2 tenths of a percent and of course it took 8 days for him to be declared the winner it seems as if the process is working very well indeed certainly the secretary of state and the person in charge of the elections here in georgia says that there have been no real issues few problems early in the morning but they got them sorted out very

quickly. and they're hoping that of course they'll get those tallies from the counties pretty soon what was interesting 3100000 early votes they can start being counted as well and it looks as if the turnout here in georgia might be getting close to presidential levels back in november 5 1000000 people cast their vote that would be a record for a senate election here so that it's very tight it's very interesting and of course it's not just georgia that's watching the whole of the united states and there's a lot riding on this election allan thank you allan. and still ahead on al-jazeera nicolas maduro tightens his great bond venezuela as the new national assembly is so named. a city in against violence pakistans has our community demands action after 10 coal miners 2nd.

it's time for the perfect gentlemen. sponsored point qatar airways however we've got a real cold blast setting in across northern parts of china through the korean peninsula and it means more snow to come for japan over the next couple of days little weather system pulling out of the way here i said started to open now when it's turning a little lighter for a time but signs of what's to come with some snow starting to fade in across the sea of japan that sea effect snow becoming more widespread across that western side of japan as we go on through thursday eventually making its way further east on the other side of the mountains clear a cold weather coming in behind in seoul with a top temperature of minus 11 celsius in the heat of the day there's that crisp sunshine across northern parts of china a little more cloud down towards the south it should be a lousy dry here now far from dry across southeast asia malaysia we have seen some

very heavy rainfall recently this is very close to kuala lumpur further heavy showers drifting in or the northeast the monsoon here big downpours coming in and the usual rash of showers across malaysia indonesia sunshine and showers there for the philippines schellas tour across southern parts of india becoming a little more widespread over the next few days some very wet weather lingering on here wet and wintry weather still controlling further north but turning drier for pakistan. the british iraqi journalist who's visualizing complex statistics in a simple. i think your office are some really exciting opportunities to break apart from most systems of power and to collect data in a way that paints a represents a different community challenging mainstream misconceptions and the quite crates and control ministrations doesn't alienate people just like people who would like

i'm not smart enough to understand this truth is that any way on. a recap of our top stories on al-jazeera hong kong police have arrested at least 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists in its biggest crackdown against the opposition since china imposed a national security law on the city last year. and for taking part in unofficial election primaries in july gulf leaders have signed a declaration to restore full diplomatic ties with qatar and end it 3 and a half year emotion calling for solidarity and stability was agreed at

a summit in saudi arabia attended by the emir of qatar and north korea's ruling party is holding its 1st congress in 5 years in his opening address leader kim jong un said north korea had significantly failed in its 5 year economic plan last convention was in 2016 and before that in the 1980 s. . police officer shot a black man 77 times in the us state of us constant in august will not face criminal charges that you know chicago and a district attorney office have arrests in cesky of any crime he shot take a break in the back leaving him paralyzed from the waist down the incident spot to mass protests in canal shack and several american cities isaac bryan is executive director of the u.c.l.a. black policy project he says his reaction to the news is mixed. i've got to feelings in terms of being surprised on the one hand i'm not surprised because we have over a 400 year history of not holding folks accountable when it comes to lethally

taking black life or even moving black lives like we have in this case but i'm also a little bit surprised because last year we had the largest civic and rests in america's history we demanded for reimagined policing structure and we demanded accountability here less than one week into 2021 we have neither i mean ultimately it comes down to the history and the protection of certain classes of people that the civic institutions were designed to protect for example our criminal legal system the same legal system we're hoping holds officers accountable is the legal system that justifies the protection of property at the time when black folks were considered property in this country and so now 400 years later we're all rights of personhood and protection under the law should be afforded to everyone we're seeing black folks in this country still do not have that and so we have. area now what we need courageous district attorneys to step up and enforce the law equally for everybody in this specially those that we authorize with lethal force to enforce

safety in our communities and even more broadly we need to question those civic is just infrastructures in our legal system that allow for these outcomes to perpetuate and happen over and over and over again. the u.k. has reported more than 60000 coronavirus cases in a day for the 1st time on monday the government announced a new national law down in england in some parts of england an estimated one in 50 people now has coronavirus or someone in the sign painters who are out at dawn reaffirming the rules the spread of coronavirus 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 turn the tide when the number of patients in hospitals in england is not 40 percent higher the 1st peak in april i think obviously everybody you want to be sure that we in government. i'm 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 plan r.t. 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 at here it's 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 the 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 target 713000000 vulnerable people by the middle of february this is now a critical race between the virus and the vaccine needs park out london. california has reached a new single day record for corona virus cases with 74000 confirmed on monday the number of call the 900 patients in intensive care ward has quadrupled in the u.s. state since november. health services says hospitals are so overcrowded that

patients are being left in hallways and ambulances more than 15000000 vaccine doses have been sent to us states but missed in a 3rd of those have been administered. the number of coronavirus tests has passed 1000 in south korea where there is growing disquiet about strikes new rules a number of jame owners say they'll stay open in protest such social distancing guidelines south korea is struggling to stop its biggest cases after successfully keeping the virus at bane last year with aggressive testing and tracing. now to pakistan where mourners in the southwest are blocking a road with the bodies of 10 coal miners killed by ice all they are refusing to go ahead with burials will end this sit in until prime minister imran khan agrees to meet them. as a story. so this major road on the outskirts of quests or is being blocked by this close knit has are a community that includes children and the elderly who are up. and they're refusing

to end their sit in chair ben ok 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. ethnic cazares make up most of the shia population inquests are the capital of baluchistan. and it's 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 won't be the last time that they will be tough. so to hide it. at least 4 people have been killed in a flash flooding in bolivia torrential rain and hail hit the city or so cray on

monday washing away kiosks and their homes the city's largest farmers' market was in the worst affected area residents say drains blocked by rubbish made the flooding worse. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has tied in his grip on power with the swearing in of a national assembly controlled by his socialist party it marks the end of control by the opposition who boycotted last month's election because they said it was neither free nor fat traceable reports. the pictures of latin america's independence hero. and lead president to go chavis i return to venice way less national assembly a symbolic act by the ruling socialist party to let the world know model is now in control of the legislative body. i tell you this without any rhetoric that we cannot fail we cannot but succeed this time we have to repair what has been damaged we have to rebuild what has been destroyed to rebuild what has been damaged by

hatred betrayal and violence but he took what critics say was a fraudulent election last month for my little to take power in the assembly. opposition has been in control since 2016 and since then has been in constant confrontation with the government denouncing what it called dictatorial ways 2 years ago the president of the body one proclaimed himself president claiming mother was elected the country's leader in a fragile involved why the last monday in the assembly expired on tuesday but members of the opposition have extended for another year not as leader of the assembly but of a parallel body to challenge models legitimacy. of this effort and the sacrifice it's worth that this need for. change and the scream for freedom it's worth it the parliament is worth it this resistance by each venezuelan it's worth it this country is worth it yes it's worth it the sacrifice the determination respecting

our constitution it's worth it to fight for men and women who are giving everything for venezuela but with the assembly now in my daughter's hands analysts wonder what will happen to why though on the opposition now that model has taken control of what many see as venezuela's last democratic institution. his capacity to mobilize people has deteriorated the opposition is divided the confidence that they can remove from office is small but he still has a stock for a political fight the united states will continue to recognize him continue to support him even with biden and power canada japan and other countries recognize them to controlling the national assembly gives my lula the legal tools he lacked in the past and the appearance of legitimacy in front of international law. with the sma duro from a legal point of view he can validate the national assembly in front of his allies like russia china and turkey to sign agreements or concessions that legally need to

be done by the assembly aside from their madeira from a real point of view already controlled every institution. grip on power remains strong despite why those efforts as he has failed to turn the bolivarian armed forces against him. but disenchantment with the economic and political situation in the country is significant and growing and that's why the confrontation with the opposition is unlikely to end anytime soon. and. hello again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera hong kong police have arrested at least 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists in its biggest crackdown against the opposition since china imposed a national security law on the city last year they're. taking part in unofficial

election primaries in july adrian brown has the latest from hong kong according to local media.