bringing. current. matter to the. al-jazeera 'd. dozens of activists and opposition politicians are arrested in hong kong in the biggest crackdown since china imposed controversial national security you know. out of there on a cloud this is out 0 life and home also coming up. we are 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 the. folk canting underway in georgia in a crucial runoff election that will determine the balance of power in the u.s.

called. rare admission north korean leader kim jong un speaks of policy failures while addressing his ruling party for the 1st time in 5 years. or. so hong kong police have reportedly arrested at least 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists and it is because crackdown against the opposition since china imposed a national security law in the city last year this video shows a former democratic party politician being taken from his home by offices of the group or accused of subversion for taking part in an official election primaries in july china declared the polls illegal and warned the 600000 people who cast ballots that they had broken the law for more on this let's cross live today jim brown in hong kong adrian how significant are these arrests potentially.

well nick i think it's pretty significant i think to many people it will raise concerns that hong kong is taking an increasingly or thorough tarion turn now we don't know why these arrests of happened now the timing for these arrests but they include former legislators as well as political activists there their crime seems to have been to have been involved in a poll a primary that was held before the legislative elections that were due to happen in september this primary happened in july and basically it was a way of determining who should be candidates for the pro-democracy camp in that election of course that election was eventually canceled by carrying around the chief executive citing concerns over coded 19 now at least 2 of those people who've been detained al-jazeera has actually interviewed during the past few weeks i think it's fair to assume they knew what was coming because back in july the

government had branded this primary illegal and subversive so i think it's possible they had been anticipating being detained but perhaps not being detained under the national security law and if convicted what sort of jail terms might they face. well potentially you know they could go to life in jail i mean the national security law which was imposed on hong kong on july the 1st last year covers things like secession subversion terrorism and colluding with foreign powers now this is a law that china's leaders continue to justify indeed in recent months president xi jinping has reaffirmed his hardline policies not just here in hong kong but also in the western region of shin jang where human rights groups say up to a 1000000 ethnic muslim weekers are now being held in internment camps and of

course all this nick comes just days before the new u.s. president elect joe biden is due to move into the white house and i think it's fair to assume that given he said that china is going to be a foreign policy priority that hong kong could prove to be an early friction point between president xi jinping and joe biden and i think if the new administration was hoping for some goodwill from china. over human rights i think it's a question of you know dream on ry they said he said the other story of the agent thanks for your brother saudi arabia and its allies have agreed to restore full diplomatic ties with cutter 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 summer day and it resulted in the dispute if you will a shell as for. after 3 and a half years of a crisis that threaten the very core of the gulf region g.c.c.

leaders have agreed to end divisions and usher 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 the united nations 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 salomon 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 courts had been exerting its efforts to solve the disputes with

its late i mean your ship. successfully preventing the military invasion of qatar it was no surprise then that a lawless summits was named after together with the late senator of 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. votes being counted in the u.s. state of georgia after a special runoff election that could have a crucial impact on joe biden's powers as president more than $3000000.00 early ballots were cast ahead of the vote to choose the state's 2 senate members it will decide the balance of power in congress with more than 2 thirds votes counted the result is still too close to call or the run offs in georgia the 2 republican senators david kelly and offer against the democratic challenges john are soft and

raphael warnock the vote will determine who controls the u.s. senate democrats need to win both seats to deny the republicans a majority that they could use to block large parts of joe biden's instant of agenda if the democrats secure both seats the senate would be split down the middle the vice president going to harris would then get to cast the tie breaking vote listening to alan fisher joins us live now from georgia's couple of atlanta and alan so 2 races pretty tight turn out been in all we can even pression of which way it's ninny. at the moment if you look at the results and there's about 7879 percent of the votes and the republicans are leading in both races but a number of counties have still got to complete their voting currents some of them are republican counties in the north of the state but they are very sparsely populated the majority of the vote still to be counted are counties in or own and they tend to vote democratic so

a lot of the people who analyze these things are telling is that it looks about 75 percent likely that the democrats are going to win both seats now been speaking to someone at the end see they see it's still too early to make any predictions but privately he said that they are looking at the results at the r n c with some trepidation they're not entirely convinced that they're going to win both the seats the tonneau pretty high just one example. 4th floor and david producer that the republican candidates are doing better than donald trump was doing in some of the areas where they have to do well but not quite as well as they need to do whereas the likes of john or soft. if you start taking in sin small numbers he needed to do point 9 percent better than he did in november he's actually running at 1.31.4 percent better so you can see that he's lifting the total that he had in november and that's exactly what he needs will we

get a result tonight that is the slight possibility that might happen but given that the races are sore tight it's likely some counties may well be arsed to recount the votes and those in charge of the election here in georgia say that's simply not going to happen tonight that a lot of the people who are at the voting stations have been there since early this morning they've had a very long day and they're not about to inflict essentially an all nighter on them so they will come by. refresh in the morning and make that coat but obviously joe biden will be watching this result very carefully and at the moment he'll be thinking that this is good news for him because of course it will mean that there is a tie in the senate and with come the hottest casting the deciding vote it will mean that joe biden has a much better chance of getting these agenda through things like climate change and racial justice all of those things suddenly become very achievable in the 1st year

of joe biden's presidency all right that's the latest on that crucial senate race there in atlanta georgia thank you north korea's ruling party congress is underway for the 1st time in 5 years in its opening address leader kim jong un said that north korea had significantly failed in its 5 year economic plan the congress is the most important political event in the country and is rarely held the last convention was in 2016 and before that in the 1980 s. overbroad joins us live from seoul now and a lot of speculation that this event will be setting out the agenda for north korea in the middle of tumultuous times when we heard from the north korean leader. absolutely this is normally a party congress like this is the classic propaganda set piece a chance to sing the praises of the ruling workers' party of career to illustrate

the infallibility of the leadership and yet we have seen in the opening address by kim jong un a very rare admission of failings by the leadership that the current economic plan basically has fallen short in almost all aspects saying that the country has been through the worst of the worst of course north korea. bitterly faces these international sanctions and the past year has really seen its problems compounded by the impact of the global pandemic it is has virtually cut itself off from the outside world over the past year there has been some trade across its border with china but virtually all people traffic has stopped in and out which has had a devastating impact on the economy and then in addition to that through last summer we saw these devastating storms 2 typhoons back to back with flooding which caused damage to crops and to infrastructure so it has been through a very bad time and north korea or kim jong un has been. shown

a lot of humility in admitting that the country has suffered and this comes of course in addition to the failing of the policy of some way to engage with the united states because of course with the end of the trump era is the end of this remarkable period of face to face meetings between the leader of north korea and the leader of the united states and the big question now which everybody is looking at this congress unfolds over the next couple of days we may get some hint about what north korea is attitude will be to continuing this policy and whether the biden administration will want to build upon this precedent that's been set by donald trump so we're waiting to see whether that will come into being but whether we're going to see. a return by the united states maybe to more of the arm's length diplomatic approach maybe return to some of the acrimony of old we are soon going to get a test of that because of course in the spring that's traditionally when the united

states and south korean forces hold their large scale military exercises they've been suspended the last few years under donald trump that will be a test of which way relations might go there's been a lot of speculation that north korea may stage some show of strength some some sort of missile launch we haven't had any indication of that it does seem that north korea is holding a policy of waiting to see until the transition. so that robert. thank you. still ahead here down to 0 nicolas maduro tightens his grip on venezuela as a near assembly and sworn in. hello there the weather squatting down nicely now across the eastern side of the u.s. but we have got more lively weather in the forecast will see wetter weather making

its way through the plains some heavy downpours for the deep south snow on the northern flank of that then more wet and wintry weather coming in across the pacific northwest northern parts of california see the mix of rain sleet the snow could see maybe as much as 30 centimeters of snow across the cascades over the next couple of days and that will continue to make its way across the mountain states war wet and windy windy weather making its way into the pacific northwest western parts of canada for the latter part of this week by thursday showers longer spells of rain down towards the southeast showers also lingering across parts of the caribbean pushing up across cuba western areas seeing wanted to shout out for the main island this is really not looking too bad few showers coming into the wind was from time to time but nothing too much to speak of are nothing like the kind of wet weather that we have seen in bolivia recently to rancho downpours huge thunder here and he lasted about 30 minutes but you can see the kind of damage that is left in

central parts of bolivia that wet weather will continue as we go on through the next couple of days showers and longer spells of fright all the way down to southeast brazil. an invitation to bear witness to all that life office. the highways the learners the trials and tribulations. and soon movements and everyday miracles the injustices the defiance the tests of character and the person they trace the witness documentaries with a delicate touch on al-jazeera. the arab.

i don't get you watching al jazeera much of our top stories this hour and hong kong police have reportedly arrested at least 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists and it's because crackdown against the opposition to china imposed a national security law in the city last year the recused of subversion for taking part in unofficial election primaries back in july. gulf leaders have signed a declaration to restore full diplomatic ties with the gutter and end their 3 and a half the a blockade motion calling for solidarity and stability was agreed at a summit in saudi arabia attended by the american. voters are being counted in the u.s. state of georgia or after a special runoff election that could have a crucial impact on joe biden's pounces president election to choose the state's 2 senate members will decide the balance of power in congress. a police officer who

shot a black man 7 times in the u.s. state of wisconsin in august will not face criminal charges the commission county district attorney cleared officer rest in the scheme of any crime mass protests after he shot jacob blake 7 times in the back leaving him paralyzed from the waist down gabriel and is under its roof. in america the latest incident of a black man shot by police and the officer who pulled the trigger getting away with it in august a police officer in ocean wisconsin shot jacob blake 7 times in the back as he was walking to his vehicle his kids were inside blake was left paralyzed from the waist down. the shooting brought can osha to a standstill as protests broke out by people angry and calling for justice lawyers for the officer claimed the shooting was justified because blake was acting radically allegedly armed with

a knife and officers on the scene said they thought blake was trying to kidnap his children during a custody dispute on tuesday afternoon district attorney said after an extensive investigation there was no legal foundation for charging the officer and in this situation an exhaustive investigation was done there's more to more than 40 hours of squad video there's hundreds of pages of electronic information there are 'd almost $200.00 separate law enforcement reports and almost $1500.00 individual pages of police reports so this was clearly a dramatically exhaustive investigation and it was an expeditious they got it to noble re the independent use of force expert on this case by i believe october 8th 2020 and ultimately to the district attorney's office as well blake's family was left frustrated and saddened by the decision there's no justification what we've

done 2 months. because your story was you were free that much sun was going to kidnap his children if he was fearful of that why did he fire into the car so would the children in the car so is he going to beat you not flip flop. this is not how much scotch this is not. this is my son. my son cannot walk right now. blake's attorney said the video of his client being shot should have been enough for the officer to be charged with the crime we believe that obviously the district attorney's office somehow believes that as we roll in the 2021 that all of a sudden we're the country legally blind or something we think that the 22nd video is very clear we don't need it so our explanation for what our eyes can see.

activists are trying to make sense of the decision from can osha becomes on the heels of a summer in which millions of people took to the streets across the country to protest police brutality and injustice in the wake of several high profile killings of unarmed black people 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 wounding black life like we have in this case but i'm also a little bit surprised because last year we had the largest civic on record in america's history we demanded for reimagined policing structure and we demanded accountability here less than one week into 2021 we have neither the department of justice says the federal civil rights investigation into the shooting is ongoing gabriels on doe al-jazeera washington. california has reached a new single day record for crowd of

r s cases with $74000.00 confirmed on monday that's one new case every 6 seconds the death toll is also soaring across the u.s. with a new record of 3900 people dying on tuesday rob reynolds reports now from los angeles . california has entered the darkest days of the pandemic so far a record 74000 new cases of covert 19 were recorded on monday we're likely to experience the worst conditions in january that we face the entire pandemic and that's hard to imagine and the worst is yet to come with many more cases anticipated due to travel and people getting together over the winter holidays but we are entering in to now this what we anticipate will we anticipate the surge on top of a surge it's going to put a lot of pressure on hospitals and i see is coming out of the holidays well sanjay county ambulance crews are under orders not to transport patients with little

chance of recovery to overburdened hospitals they've also been told to ration oxygen providing it only to the sickest patients oxygen tanks are in short supply in hospitals as well exhausted doctors nurses and hospital staff are buckling under the strain we haven't yet seen a post december surge if we do on top of where we are now we will go under the health care system will collapse. public health officials say the virus is everywhere there is no safe place outside of one's own home maybe if somebody had a grocery store and you're on iraq for just a few minutes i'm on thousands of people waited to get tested at dodger stadium the largest testing site in the u.s. one person is infected every 6 seconds in los angeles according to the city's mayor

while widespread vaccine distribution is seen as the light at the end of the tunnel so far the rollout nationwide has been slow and sometimes chaotic just 4500000 people have received doses of vaccine a far cry from the outgoing trump administration's pledge of 20000000 by the end of 2020 the trump administration has refused to come up with a nationwide plan for vaccination dumping that responsibility on the states some states like florida and tennessee opted to make vaccines available to all seniors on a 1st come 1st serve basis that led to long lines of people in their seventy's and eighty's waiting for hours to get shots only to be told supplies had run out nationwide $356000.00 people have perished from cope and 19 the centers for disease control estimates more than 400000 will die by late january

rob reynolds al-jazeera los angeles where the number of creative eyes death has passed a 1000 in the south korea where there's growing to squat about strict new rules a number of jimena say they will stay open in protest at social distancing guidelines south korea is struggling to stop its biggest search in cases of successfully keeping the virus a bay last year with aggressive testing and tracing. the israeli military says a security officer shot and killed a palestinian man who allegedly tried to carry out a stabbing in the occupied west bank the army says the officer and an israeli soldier fired warning shots into the air when they saw the man approaching a junction the suspect threw a knife at the security officer he responded by shooting him opposition figures in central african republic one last month's election and because of what they're calling numerous irregularities president from stern are challenging to our data

was related with more than 53 percent of the vote the opposition says half of the population were unable to cast ballots because of violence from rebel groups at least 4 people have been killed in flash flooding in bolivia drenching rain and hail hit the city of supriya on monday washing away kiosks in vehicles the city's largest farmer's market was in the worst affected area residents a drain blocked by rubbish and the flooding. from israel is president nicolas maduro has tightened his grip on power with the swearing in of a national assembly controlled by his socialist party that marks the end of control by the opposition boycotted last month's election because they said it was neither free will for this war. the pictures of latin america's independence heroes. and laid precedent to go chavis i return to venice way less national assembly a symbolic act by the ruling socialist party to let the world know my little 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 venezuela's opposition has been in control since 2016 and since then has been in constant confrontation with a government denouncing what it called dictatorial ways 2 years ago the president of the body white who proclaimed himself press and claiming mother was elected the country's leader in a fragile involved why the last mandate in the assembly expired on tuesday but members of the opposition have extended for another year not as a leader of the assembly but of a parallel body to challenge models legitimacy of. this effort and this sacrifice

it's worth it this need for change and this 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 and. 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 madeira from office is small but he still has a stock for a political fight the united states will continue to recognize and more 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 oil concessions that legally need to be done by the assembly aside from their madeira from a real point of view already controlled every institution. group 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. no way has become the 1st country in the world where electric cars make up most new vehicle sales new figures show that 54 percent of all vehicles purchased last year

were electric tax exemptions have made the market more competitive as part of the norwegian government's goal to end the sale of petrol diesel cars by 2025 a decade ago just one in every 100 new cars a little bit. so this is out there these are the top stories and hong kong police have reportedly arrested at least 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists and it's because crackdown against the opposition since china imposed a national security law in the city last year they're accused of subversion for taking part in unofficial election primaries in july agent brought in its latest now from hong kong according to local media at least more than 20 lawmakers and activists have been detained but activist groups themselves as well as so.