passage from the far east to europe and the united states. the money in the mountains. drug trafficking politics of the era. in washington the congress prepares to confirm joe biden's victory donald trump and his supporters say the fight is not over you're looking at live pictures from outside the white house. this is al jazeera life from the novel gates also coming up the washington drama comes as democrats are on the verge of taking control of the u.s. senate they've long one georgia seat and hold a narrow lead in the other. a 2nd coat in 1000 vaccine will soon be rolled out

across the e.u. after health regulators give the green light. also coming up we can leaks founder julian assange just denied bail a judge rules he'll remain in a british person as the u.s. pursues his extradition. thanks for joining us what's normally a routine political ceremony has become the latest sign of america's deep divisions a joint session of the u.s. congress is about to meet to count the electoral votes and formally certify joe biden's election as the 46th u.s. president's donald trump is still trying to reverse his defeats his supporters as you can see are rallying right now outside the white house and overnight trump's republican party lost one election seat for one election for a seat in the u.s. senate and a 2nd seat is still too close to call but the democrat

a head in that race too and that lead holds that republicans will lose their senate majority as well. let's speak to political hay and she's standing by for us to capitol hill where a routine dayo ceremony is poised to become a bitter partisan fight will bring her in in just a moment but 1st let's go to john hendren he's in washington d.c. where protesters are gathering john and the crowds are grow growing john can you hear us. yes the crowds are here and they're just getting bigger and bigger as you can see we are here in the what would be the shadow of the washington monument if we had a bit more sunshine in the chilly january day and foundations of born thousands of people. speakers which is in front of the white house and there are a number of different groups with him in for america 1st mothers for america. they've all got slightly different agendas for the same thing. as the

next president of the united states that is going on in capitol far away but this is a massive show of support all of the hotels. flights are very expensive largely unavailable in order to get here so people have come here from different states across america and they're all here. to a president and i must say having covered several of them. this kind of commitment joe biden certainly has dedicated. fans. is really something to be hold there filling the streets of washington in later on tonight we expect to have some. people from other. groups and that's when things get dicey here because. it can be as

significant clash so we have all over washington there's a line of horses police officers all getting ready trying to that from happening right now it's a peaceful protest and a huge one here is that. their enthusiasm. but do they believe that anything. could. we are hearing people in the crowd saying that when rudy giuliani was on the stage . he was talking about stopping the festive vote and about how some people in some of these. states were in charge of the voting process would be going to jail. there were big crowds of people who heard it you can hear some of the enthusiasm right behind me some of them really do believe that there is

a shot at verging the certification by we all know the chances are that are slim there's not really a constitutional right to do that but this crowd seems to believe whatever the president said it's all right john thank you very much for that update from my approach from crowley in washington d.c. let's now cross over to capitol hill where is joining us from so it's meant to be a ceremonial procedure. these sorts of occasion of the election results but things might get tense in the next few hours what do we expect to see. well 1st let me set the scene for you here this is highly unusual most people don't even know when the congress is certifying the election because nobody really pays attention to it right now just to give you a sense regular people can't get in the capitol you don't have a pass you can't get in security is incredibly tight in this building and media is packed in here which is why forcible in this mask but what's going to happen here

it's supposed to be a routine process the vice president comes to joint session of congress basically in a very ceremonial sense. that the states have sent in with the sort of doors and they go through enough of article order but now there's more than 100 house republicans and at least 12 republican senators who said they are going to demand an immediate audit of the election even though we've had more than about 60 court cases and not one judge has found any evidence of widespread voter fraud still they say they want another audit even though there's been plenty of recounts and if they don't get that they're going to jack to certain states so what does that mean it doesn't mean really anything that doesn't look like they have the votes to actually change the outcome to throw out any a locked doors but they can. really slowed down the process so we'll know pretty quickly when they get to arizona i think that's number 3 they object to that and then what happens is they go back to their individual chambers they get to debate for 2 hours then they're going to vote on this he's very long time because of

covert protocols so we think that they're going to do this with at least 3 states possibly as many as 6 which means these members of congress are going to be here for a very long time the president thinks the vice president can do something about it it's unlikely that he can the best analogy is he's kind of like the guy at the oscars who reads the winner he can read the winner but he can't decide who won and yeah that's a thing i mean speaking of the vice president. trying to increase pressure on pence to actually reject the results. expect to do. we think will try to walk that fine line to appease the president to get make false and baseless allegations of fraud but in the end he does not have the power even if you was to try and reject it seems they have the majority of senators in the house of representatives to say no you can't do that so even though the president sees this as his final last ditch effort to try to stay in power it doesn't look like he has the votes to even consider doing that it's just going to make it

a very long day but not necessarily one with the outcome the president wants to see . right patty thank you very much for that update from capitol hill well on tuesday runoff elections were held to fill both of georgia senate seats in one race democrat raphael warnock beat incumbent republican kelly loffler and the other race and john also currently leads by about 18000 votes but the counting is still underway posted a video early wednesday claiming victory. georgia thank you so much for the confidence that you've placed in me i am honored honored by your support by your confidence by your trust and i will look forward 'd to serving you in the united states senate with integrity with humility with honor and getting things done for the people of georgia thank you so much that's also going to aim has this update from atlanta democratic senate candidate john yes he has claimed victory it is not

official at last count he was leading the incumbent david perdue by about 16000 votes it appears that there are thousands of votes left to be counted in dekalb county that's part of the atlanta metro area and it is a democratic heavy area standard or former senator produce his term and did release a statement earlier this morning saying that he believed he would be victorious and that his campaign would exhaust every resource and legal measure necessary to ensure all votes have been counted but it's looking in from the democrat perspective as though years of intense voter mobilization efforts targeting african-americans have paid off with a democratic showing in these a senate runoff following biden carrying the state as a democratic presidential candidate for the 1st time in 20 years they were really keen to show that the biden win was not

a one off and really this victory is also about what i would call the c.c. abram's a fact and a victory for the army of grassroots organizing organizers who worked for as i said years targeting african-americans it was estimated there were about 200000 african-americans years ago who were not participating in elections steve clemons is the editor at large for the hill and he's also the host of al-jazeera is the bottom line he says trump's overt pressure on mike pence shows how desperate he's become. no loyal follower has been less abused and mike pence is mike pence has chosen it every course never to embarrass the president always to stand by him even when i have to tell you it's really tough i mean mike pence was a member of the house of representatives he was a distinguished governor of the state of indiana he knows how the system works and i think he's at the proverbial fork in the road where no matter what he chooses it's going to be consequential for him and protect and but potentially people but

look what i think is happening right now some of us are speculating i think we're seeing the break up of the republican party as we've known it right now and that you're beginning to see the split and divide among republicans and republican hopefuls for the 2024 presidential race i think mike pence will be among those who want to run and he has to decide as he's watching donald trump's power begin to slip as he got overridden by the united states senate and house of representatives on an important vote and he sees the republicans divide it not together whether he wants to join a sinking ship or whether he wants to go on his own and we don't know how that will go because it won't make a substantive difference in the outcome all it does is make a subset it makes a. you know age difference and in you know looking appearance of where mike pence is is he loyal to the end or do mitch mcconnell senator mcconnell and vice president mike pence are they the ones that finally bring down donald trump or you

know are caesar today and try and save their party and and in a sense the republic. that your medicines regulator has approved them and they're not vaccines to be used across the region european union nations started vaccinations on december the 27th they're trying to catch up with countries including the u.s. and israel where large numbers of people have already received the inoculation there's been strong criticism of the slow pace of vaccinations across europe though a step on explains from amsterdam. well all these important decisions if effect seen as safe enough to be used by europeans are taken here in amsterdam at the headquarters of the european medicine agency and they have been taking their time if you look at the united states for example of the modern i mean has been administered there for weeks already on monday this week a had delayed a decision that they were taking on this vaccine because i needed more information

but now they have finally given this so-called conditional marketing authorization for europeans to be using this vaccine we have to wait for the european commission approval also that will be expected within the next 2 days and then this vaccine can travel to all the tried to soften member states within the european union and everyone was really waiting for the has been pressure coming from germany because they have been using only this one vaccine price so buy intact for the last 2 weeks and they have been vaccinated very quickly so they were running out of facts seen and they were waiting for this new vaccine to come to the market as soon as possible and it's quite a lot of experts were complaining that they said it's frustrating that the fairy well organized country it's supposed to be the nat'l and is doing so slow and making so many mistakes in this vaccination program the government has come under

huge criticism they have to defend themselves and fallen on tuesday they barely escaped resignation the main issue here was mismanaged basically and miscalculation on the where this vaccine should be distributed to. in the united states california has confirmed 4 new cases of the more contagious strain of covert 19 the state recorded a single day high of 74000 of all coronavirus infections on monday and the number of patients in i.c.u. wards has now quadrupled since november the head of health services in los angeles says hospitals are so overcrowded patients are being left in hallways and ambulances church services have been held in greece in spite of coronavirus lockdown measures including a ban on public gatherings and a rare show of defiance greek orthodox leaders warned the government they were pressing ahead with epiphanies services what would limit the number of people

allowed inside each church at the finney is one of the most important days on the orthodox calendar and it commemorates the baptism of jesus christ senegal is imposing curfews in 2 regions work over 1000 cases are on the rise people in the car and thius will have to stay home between the hours of 9 pm and 5 am from wednesday facemasks will be mandatory and large gatherings banned president make it makee south says the region's accounts for more than 90 percent of infections in the west african country cases rose by $192.00 on tuesday taking the total to just over $900900.00. here with al-jazeera coming up in a moment a sweeping crackdown in hong kong why 50 pro-democracy activists and former politicians were rounded up and arrested plus a rare admission a north korean leader kim jong apologise that his economic policies have failed.

it's time for the perfect gentleman who went sponsored point qatar airways is turning into a particularly harsh winter in east asia particularly noles in china and if you want to count snow japan this time we got wind to add to surfer honshu it's wind and snow i think blizzard certainly up in the high a grand to support roe persistence there and certainly is windy but look at the temperature regime we are running night time temperatures by day and going well below the average overnight and it's been a consistent story for the last couple of weeks it carries on into friday some of that snow will still be caught on the edges of the islands in south korea even parts of northeastern china but more obviously it's the temperature by day the highs ministry in beijing is about 0 in shanghai and it's 13 hong kong's everywhere is suppressed temperature wise and some of that cold has picked up boosted the big

showers that run through in this northeast monsoon season so we've had flooding as you probably know in the malaysian peninsula the interior lazy that's going to continue the showers are still big for the next couple of days and some usually wet from the get through go towards mumbai in the next day or so rain so therefore for southern india in the north that there has been more rain around but it hasn't disturbed the fog which is still in the forecast. sponsored poll qatar airways. one of the last remaining. forests in southeast asia is a lifeline to hundreds of lumberjacks driving this. treacherous journey as they walk through extreme conditions. and transport this dangerous but precious cargo. on al-jazeera.

hello again the top stories on al-jazeera donald trump supporters are gathering in washington d.c. right now the demonstrators the president's unproven claims they november poll was fraudulent trump has promised to appear later at the so-called march to save america. a joint session of congress is meeting in the coming hours to formally certify joe biden as the next u.s. president dozens of republicans are valid to challenge the results though their efforts are likely to fail. and democrats are poised to take control of the u.s.

senate raphael warnock has already flipped a seat in georgia senate runoff race and john also has a narrow lead in the other. a u.k. judge has denied bail for a week and leaks founder julian a song. and danger in lives by publishing hundreds of thousands of confidential documents on monday a judge rejected a request by u.s. prosecutors to extradite songs on accounts of his mental health hold on and has more from the court house and london. this bail hearing had been expected to last something up to 3 hours but in fact it took less than off that time for the judge to come to her decision 1st though she heard from both sides and initially it was the u.s. prosecution or the u.s. lawyer clad dobin who gave her reasons why she felt just julian assange should not be granted bail she said that julian assange has in the past a chernin so willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid the justice saying this

truly extraordinary background of mr has always attempts to resist extradition found the gulf of mexico asylum increased the risk of standing in reply to that it was this general jussi who is to be an ass always just said there was no significant incentive for mr assange was to have strong south songs wishes to live a sheltered life with his family and any residual concerns of the court will be met with stringent bail conditions well there was a 10 minute recess before final arguments and then the judge came back with the reasoning if it essentially denying bail and keeping judge judy in the house always in custody the reasons given was followed with julian as sergeant fled before despite stringent bail conditions and the judge said i am satisfied that he would fail to surrender he is willing to flout the order to hold this court stringent conditions did nothing to stop him last time so julian asaad will remain in belmarsh prison that high security prison in the south east of london while we

await the appeal hearing against monday's decision not to extradite him to the u.s. the u.s. appealing that decision not to extradite to. the u.s. sounds so don have signed a pact that will grant hard to him access to more than a $1000000000.00 in loans u.s. treasury secretary steven noachian is in sudan's capital for the day prime minister abdullah hand-off has been pushing for washington to lift its crippling sanctions sudan's finance minister says the agreements will enable them to clear other debts and attract foreign investment and trumpet ministration recently removed khartoum from the state sponsors of terrorism list after a normalized relations with israel. police in hong kong have arrested more than 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists and early morning raids it's the biggest crackdown so far under the controversial national security law once china imposed last year those detained are accused the subversion by taking part in an official

election primaries in july adrian brown reports from hong kong. former legislator lam choking didn't seem surprised when police came knocking at his front door early on wednesday morning they tell him he's suspected of violating the new national security law a scene played out of more than 50 other addresses in hong kong the drama was recorded by an unidentified person inside lamb's home i'm later posted on his facebook page before he was taken away al-jazeera had interviewed him several weeks ago just after he resigned as a pro-democracy politician along with almost the entire opposition cound i will keep fighting for democracy of hong kong knew their version of enda and the guy that was in response to the disqualification of full fellow legislators following a ruling by china's highest political body police say wednesday's operation involve more than a 1000 offices and involve raids on 3 media outlets as well as

a moor office where a solicitor who is also a us citizen was arrested we have a rest of the free press is already all francis office of person under the. p.b.s. the national security law the detentions were linked to an unofficial primary vote held last july to select candidates for the legislative elections due 2 months later a poll that was eventually canceled with the hong kong government citing co that 19 now all those involved in organizing a primary are suspected of subversion which carries a maximum sentence. of life imprisonment a further sign of the tightening or thora tarion grip here says one analyst it seems to me this is the chinese communist party trying to change the political culture of its imposing lenin is why did they arrest these

people because they demonstrated capacity to organize the us president elect joe biden has said that china will be at the center of his foreign policy so it's possible hong kong will be an early point of friction with china's president xi jinping who has said the campaign against ascent here is justified in the name of safeguarding national security adrian brown al jazeera hong kong earlier we spoke to sonny chang a pro-democracy activist who fled hong kong and august he stressed the urgent need for an international response. freedom distaste opportunities will be really limited on the ground and therefore we do to help the international community as a foreseeable future we can no longer access a pace there will be any large scale social code has in hong kong due to the

repression and those also the cult like teen and the same time when most of the politician activists are arrested due to sit ins and that's nice i will hope democracy can. be a eradicated by the big government and that's why the help from the international community we should not abandon the holy and freedom of the home console society the congress party can actually call norm mcdonald is try to impart to me and to to us not to all the about humans white issue in china and this is not just about hong kong was also about people who currently suffer bats and shin chan and that's why we urge the especially near should stop and stop signing. as soon as step step back.

at the other crosses in the coming months. north korea's leader has made a rare admission of failure speaking during the country's largest political event said its economic plan had failed significantly and acknowledged painful lessons have been learned bride reports from seoul and south korea. are rarely held event it is normally the propaganda set piece for the ruling workers' party of korea to trumpet its achievements but in his opening address north korea's leader kim jong un admitted his country has failed economically going through what he called the worst of the worst. the country's 5 year economic development plan finished last year and we fell short of our goal significantly in almost every sector already facing international sanctions the country has virtually sealed

itself off from the outside world during the global pandemic it suffered further during typhoons and flooding over the summer that damaged infrastructure and crops . and the end of the trumpet ministration means the end of the road for the unprecedented period of summit diplomacy with the united states in october north korea put on an impressive show of strength at the 75th anniversary of the ruling party's founding but kim seem to be suffering the strains of recent setbacks kim jong un must be really really frustrated even saw disappointed are barred lack of any progress you specially on the front of economic development since the breakdown of the summit meeting with the u.s. president on trial in a noisy so north korean leadership has been basically flailing trying this and that

without any well coordinated strategy north korea watchers will be looking in the coming days of this congress for any clues about kim's likely approach to the new administration of u.s. president elect joe biden and whether they'll be a return to more traditional arm's length diplomacy. the 1st test could come soon with a possible announcement of resumed military exercises between u.s. and south korean forces in the spring which had been largely suspended during trump's term you have a very narrow window of opportunity very limited amount for biden or the musicians to. strike a conversation and dialogue with north korean regime so close to the inauguration north korea's position for now seems to be a cautious wait and see. bright al-jazeera soul. and german style burstein is

a long resident fellow at the stinson center an editor of the website north korean economy watch he says coronavirus restrictions have made the food shortage situation even more dire. well so in fact kids are going to have been relatively forthcoming about the problems of the economy over the past few years he's frequently criticized officials for reform and then apologized several times for people suffering so it's not that unusual really but i mean what's the situation or 3 is there now is extremely dire ways sanctions and to the border closure by the north korean authorities do to cope with one team so they are in a very very tight spot for sure and there's very little that can turn and can do but really admit that i mean in the short run what the government could do is loosen up some of the very very stark regulations that they essentially any imports from coming through the border you know from china right now. but that the status very paranoid about the virus entering the country and they're even i mean even when things like food supplies and goods like that like even their fate of space

contamination and things like that so it's given the situation and given the choices that the regime has made there is very very little to do and i will be very interesting to see what kim jong un will propose or what he'll announce because they are scheduled to announce a new 5 year plan and given the current situation the they're going to be very creative create anything as often as them through the. headlines on al-jazeera donald trump supporters are gathering right now in washington d.c. the demonstrators back the president's unproven claims the november poll was fraudulent trump has praised the protests and promised to appear later at the so-called march to save america meanwhile a joint session of congress is meeting in the coming hours to formally certify joe biden as the next u.s. president dozens of republicans have.