so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can do as many people as possible no matter how much they know about a given crisis or issue all of the thoughts of suicide if this is the spell objectives of the past as al-jazeera correspondent stress will be strong to do. to heal we must remember. joe biden pays tribute to the victims of the pandemic as the u.s. records more than 400000 deaths the day before we assumed office. by money inside this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up i stand before you

truly proud of what we have achieved together donald trump flown says achievements in his final address deflects blame on china for the massive damage caused by the corona virus outbreak. it's always prime minister survives a crucial vote of confidence in the upper house as he grapples with a pandemic at an economic freefall. and a record sentence a thai woman is ordered to spend more than 4 decades in prison for insulting the king. on the eve of joe biden's inauguration the number of coronavirus deaths in the united states the past 400000 biden says his number one priority is containing the pandemic he spoke at a summit memorial for those it passed away to heal we must remember. it's hard sometimes to remember but

that's how we hear. it's important to do that as a nation that's why we're here today between sundown and dusk. to shine the lights the dark deuce along the scent could pull of the reflection remember all we lost. we've also heard from donald trump the saving he's given his farewell speech celebrating achievements at home and abroad he blamed china for unleashing a virus roberts the economy we imposed historic and monumental tariffs on china made a great new deal with china but before the ink was even dry we and the whole world got hit with the china virus our trade relationship was rapidly changing billions and billions of dollars were pouring into the us but the virus forced us

to go in a different direction the whole world suffered but america outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy that we built trump went on to condemn the storming of capitol hill calling on his supporters to show restraint 25000 national guard soldiers on high alert some washington d.c. to prevent a repeat of the attack which we saw 2 weeks ago. well we have 2 correspondents in the u.s. capitol keeping track of all the developments heidi to castro i will talk about the 1st confirmation hearings for biden's incoming administration and we have john hendren who will tell us more about biden's tribute to the victims of the pandemic but let's begin our coverage with andy gallagher in miami who reports on the u.s. crossing that grim milestone 400000 deaths due to coronavirus. california

in the time of the coronavirus a state hit so hard that bodies are being moved to temporary storage containers. newly confirmed cases arising at a dizzying rate despite lockdown restrictions now health experts are warning that a more contagious variant 1st discovered in the u.k. could fuel another wrenching surge of cases and deaths could and likely will get worse in the next couple of weeks or at least maintain this very terribly high level of infections and deaths that we're seeing vaccinations are rolling out albeit too slowly that the u.s. is nowhere close to reaching herd immunity. however covergirl told the doctor about the fake news coverage covered president donald trump continually play down the pandemic politicize the wearing of masks and blame states for moving too slowly now with his presidency in its final days it's trump who is being blamed for failing to

act and allow the virus to spread so fast in may the u.s. recorded 100000 deaths by september that figure doubled now it's doubled again with the new administration promising to ramp up vaccinations to a level it is so far come nowhere near close to what was promised work our plan is as clear as it is for get more people vaccinated for free create more places for them to get facts mobilized more medical teams to get shots in people's homes. increase supply and get it out the door as soon as possible. for many 2021 was a year that would bring reduced hope stead new cases threaten to cripple already overwhelmed hospitals claymore lives and leave many wondering when this nation will turn the corner according to the journal of the american medical association covered 19 is now a leading cause of death in the u.s.

outpacing both cancer and heart disease one leading epidemiologist says the u.s. will be coated but only after it's been through hell with vaccines on the horizon the end may be in sight but for many it will be too late to gallacher all jazeera miami florida that's got its own hands on his lawn for us than most in d.c. in a very poignant today for those 400000 people have lost their lives to that in the us. that's right we are just hours away from joe biden being inaugurated as a $46.00 president of the united states and on the eve of that historic event we had one of the most dramatic split screen moments perhaps in presidential inaugural history on the one hand you had donald trump in a video that he could completely control not answering questions from the press about being the 2nd president the 1st president in history ever to be impeached twice and then we had that somber scene with joe biden in

a flag festoon national mall reflecting on the deaths of 400000 americans from covert 19 and that really speaks to the difference between these 2 administrations donald trump on the one hand always downplaying the virus it one point saying that it would just disappear and joe biden wearing his 2 masks as opposed to trump's none. and saying that he wants to spend more money on covert 1000 relief vaccinations he wants 100000000 of those shots in his 1st 100 days and he wants to spend more money on covert 1000 relief. it's about as dramatic a difference as you could get in and biden at that very brief ceremony spoke his sentiments were brief but deep talking about the loss to america of those people and i think that something we're going to see that's a major change in emphasis from the top administration to the biden administration

biden is going to be talking likely about the tough times still to come not presenting the rosy scenario that we constantly heard from president trump about how things are going to get better. and i think that is going to be the theme for the 1st days of this administration and. the. video give us a bit more detail about what he said. it was an epically trumpy in speech one in which he expressed no regret for the deaths from covert 19 or from his administration's handling of it. and then went on to congratulate himself on one issue after another he talked about the medical miracle that the administration had come through with with the vaccinations and he does deserve credit for the speed with which those vaccinations came forth but i think

his critics would deny him credit for really getting that 1000 epidemic pandemic under control because we are seeing still 911 size numbers every day in terms of death here about 3000 or more from covert 19 he went on to congratulate himself for making huge economic progress all true up to the point when covert 1000 came into the picture and then most of those gains have been retrenched at one point we had more than 30000000 people out of work that is nearly 10 percent of the american population and he congratulated himself for pushing back on china in terms of trade policy he said that the administration had done everything it sought to achieve and more and then he went on in a classic trumpy in line to say. nobody thought we could achieve as much as we did i think his critics would certainly disagree with that any ended that whole speech saying that the movement that he had started is only just beginning and vatten

might be an ominous note from the biden administration because it means a likely will have an ex-president sniping at his side and not doing the traditional thing which is to remain silent for at least a couple of years into the next administration if you are the previous president so it looks like joe biden is going to have to continue to contend with donald trump even as he starts as the 46th president john hendren there for us live in washington d.c. many thanks. well senate leader mitch mcconnell says misled provoked a mold that attacks capitol hill 2 weeks ago it's a rare criticism from the senior republican he was speaking ahead of a session to confirm joe biden's incoming administration let's go live to heidi castro in washington d.c. what do you make of these comments from the senate's of the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. certainly this is not what trump would have

liked to hear from one of his closest allies in the senate mitch mcconnell the majority leader of the republican party who has long defended tromp particularly in the last impeachment when mcconnell famously said that he was going to work with the white house to all but assured that trump was acquitted which he was but this time mcconnell reconvene the senate for a full session the 1st time since january 6th that of course was the day when congress certify the election results certifying joe biden's win as the next president and also of course the day that the violent mob descended upon the u.s. capitol building killing leading to the deaths of 5 people and mcconnell today on the senate floor rather than defend trump as he has so often done in the last 4 years today was different he laid much of the blame squarely at trump's feet

us on the senate convened we are just reclaim the capital from violent criminals. are doing our duty the mob was. they were provoked by the president and other powerful people and they tried to use fear and violence as the ship appreciating the 1st branch of the federal government which they did not like but we pressed on. we should together and sharing a mob but not get the job power over the rule of law in our nation. we've had a number of confirmation hearings today can you talk us through the highlights of those. right and this is really a symbol of how do all personalities are going to see the senate in the next few weeks mylene partially focused on the upcoming impeachment trial of trump and partially unfulfilling biden's agenda and that's why we saw 5 of biden's picks for

his cabinet all on capitol hill testifying today among them 2 who will most directly have a hand in u.s. foreign policy of course that's the secretaries of state and defense tony blinken is biden's pick to lead the state department this is a career diplomat well known in washington and on capitol hill where he was a staff member of the very committee which in which he testified today he served as the deputy secretary of state under obama and his confirmation is very it's predicted to have been pretty easily however it may take some time. blinken telling members of the committee today that among his his priorities once he is confirmed is to reestablish u.s. dominance in a role of leadership on the global stage to rebuild some of the losses lost in

reputation and faith that the u.s. has suffered internationally during trumps years lincoln also said china was the most the pose the greatest challenge of any nation state to the u.s. and he said the u.s. would withdraw its support from the saudi led war in yemen then as far as the department of defense general lloyd austin retired general say he is a 4 star general who is widely celebrated for his 4 decades serving the u.s. military rising to become the leader of the u.s. central command overseeing the withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq and if confirmed as he is predicted to be confirmed he would become the 1st. african-american to lead the department of defense along with its 40 percent of active military troops are people of color and austin valid to make the the military more representative of the diversity of the united states and also

to root out extremism among the rank and file members he also though would have to have a congressional waiver in order to be confirmed why because he so recently retired from the military not he retired about 3 years ago not the 7 required in order to assume the civilian post of secretary of defense but austin telling committee members that he would see those 2 roles very differently his role in uniform and now the civilian role of secretary of defense. many thanks for that castro for us in washington d.c. still ahead on the count is there. security is as an unprecedented high in washington d.c. alison before joe biden's in the latest. on the biggest bribe in history russia's opposition make new allegations against president vladimir putin.

for the perfect gentleman. with sponsored play qatar airways. we are losing the snow across japan as we go through the next couple of days still a few wintry flowers into northern parts of honshu n.c. were caught over there in the process of pulling out of the way bright skies coming in behind 7 celsius the photo here and a similar value that ensue so as we go inside stay wet a weather will move through the yellow sea towards the korean peninsula some snow one the northern flank of that from north korea so want to see snow flurries just pulling away from a kind of a from much shelf japan at a state it will be try and find it temperatures creeping back up into double figures the central and southern parts of china could see some sherry but nothing too much to speak of the plenty of right now moving towards the philippines we have

what may well develop into a tropical storm over the next couple of days some very heavy downpours pushing towards lose on as we go on into thursday that wet weather lingering there started to push its way across northern parts of borneo the usual rash of showers across much of southeast asia through malaysia down into indonesia some showers 2 inches flag have been there on and off for the past few days and we'll see more showers as we go on through wednesday i'm not also saying some shabby rain for time want to see showers into bangladesh and some wintry weather there for bhutan. to qatar airways. second episode of the series exposed the rise of the major drug cartels and then rain if you. send it's a mexican government little tool the traffickers we have to produce the body because they knew it was the. america's public enemy number one is drug abuse

and then known the international on drugs drug trafficking politics and power to drug lords on al jazeera. you know. you're watching al-jazeera mind top stories this hour the number of coronavirus deaths in the u.s. house the past 400000 only eve of president elect joe biden's inauguration he's attended the memorial and says he's number one priority is containing the pandemic . outgoing u.s. president donald trump has delivered his farewell speech celebrating the chief went home on a board he took credit for vaccine development and once again blame china on leashing

the coronavirus on the world. senate leader mitch mcconnell said strong missiles provoked a multitude of tax capitol hill 2 weeks ago he spoke ahead of a session to confirm joe biden's incoming administration. security drills underway in the u.s. capitol as the head of the presidential inauguration ceremony national guard units a practicing emergency procedures ahmed vehicles and 25000 troops have been deployed. and the pentagon says 12 national guard members have been relieved of duty for the integration off to an intensified vetting procedure. we have 2 individuals that identified had made inappropriate comments or texts those 2 individuals were removed one of those was flagged by 5 within the command and then we have a other group of individuals that have been flagged in the vetting process for

a number of different reasons like i said unrelated to the events here in the concerned. run. director of the center for management homeland security aurizon a state university he says he's confident that the integration will go smoothly. i think we can. say that we're not going to see a repeat of the january 6 right at the at the capitol the. situations are much different there was clearly under preparedness a series of command failures on january 6th the current. planning situation planning environment is is under the direction of the u.s. secret service and they've taken a much different approach so i think we're not going to see anything approaching a repeat of a of

a mass riot or any anything of that nature there is there is an issue of of. a growth over over the last administration a significant increase in. extremist movements particularly white nationalist movements in the u.s. . some of that has affected law enforcement in the military so a series of vetting procedures about the backgrounds of individual national guardsman for instance in this case that are deployed to washington d.c. . that goes on on a routine basis it's accelerated because of the inauguration and the unique circumstances but the there are well defined processes that. f.b.i. and other other agencies follow to sort out what kind of connections to groups extremist groups or or other sort of pronouncements of disloyalty or or

hostility to the federal government. the unprecedented security arrangements in the pandemic make joe biden's integration very different from those in the suburbs hansen reports from washington d.c. . joe biden is calling on the public to stay away from him nor girl events a request he'd already made due to the pandemic but one that's taken on added emphasis since the riots of january the 6 nonetheless seats have been installed on the west side of the capitol where biden will take the oath of office at noon on january the 20th it's clear that the president elect felt it was important that the entire inauguration not to be virtual i have not heard. i say here in your inauguration 6. afghans. america stand up stand up. enough enough enough but instead of some 200000 tickets just $1070.00

will be issued for members of congress and one guest along with v.i.p.'s that this year will include all living presidents except for 96 year old jimmy carter vice president mike pence says he will attend donald trump says he will not follow the ceremony and a military review biden will travel to all into national cemetery with the former presidents to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier before being escorted to the white house by the military government instead of the usual inaugural parade a televised and live streamed virtual parade will be broadcast that will be similar to this summer's virtual democratic national convention featuring diverse voices and musical performances authorities say the security perimeter in downtown d.c. is larger than previous or gratian and will be in place for longer far more national guard members have been deployed on the national mall where in the past the public has gathered to watch proceedings on large screens. dc's matters are

asked for all permits for gatherings to be declined but inaugurations are traditionally times for political protest. and it's clear that since police were overrun by trump supporters on capitol hill authorities already have a different posture towards demonstrations this protest attracted barely 50 people protesting against the republicans who supported donald trump and yet a very very quickly masses of police appeared followed by the national guard not far behind. at least some plans for protests by progressives on inauguration day intended to pressure joe biden to the left have been cancelled our reprimand for people that are all. corrupt about our own good. right wing white supremacy actors quited out with this before they have created this problem they need to deal with it i'm not recommending personally that anyone take a risk free and in any way. put themselves at risk as for the future they may

deem block and others fear that even the authorities had existing laws and military equipment to clamp down on the violent capitol hill protesters the result will be even more restrictions and repression of legal dissent against those in power in the coming years she every time see al-jazeera washington it's a prime minister just epic on to a house survived a confidence vote in the country's senate allowing him to hold on to power it was triggered off a former prime minister material renzi pulled his policy from qantas coalition last week over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic conte appealed to senators ahead of the vote defending his leadership through the crisis a sprawling a state on russia's black sea coast is the subject of a new report by the team of detained opposition figures alexina valmy the property allegedly belongs to the russian president vladimir putin but the kremlin has

denied this vollies team say the properties a bribe given to police and for favors he did for powerful people xander called for it has. it involves the amongst other things allegation that putting a villa on the black sea and that this be allowed though it's not on his name has been financed by his friends that are heading the state owned oil companies spanning back to the ninety's when the put in the return from theirs that as then he was then k.g.b. officer and started working in some petersburg department for international trade it alleges that he for bribes in care enabled his close friends a licenses that in essence made them rich by embezzling of the natural resources of russia it goes further to say that to return disfavor and other favors that followed this friends some of the most prominent in the richest businessmen's of

russia then basically financed this in the black sea on which they spend off the state money at least $11300000000.00 now. they are saying that the these are must belong to putin although it is not on his name a because it is a no fly zone it for instance has its own port even its own boss port control you cannot approach it by the sea there is a tunnel built in this sort of port also bring some new details like the layout of the claim they were provided with furniture there actually by b. so would the amount of that never josh and could buy for himself an apartment. as foreign minister is calling on all the gulf states to bridge relations with iran his iranian counterpart to add serif as back the efforts on twitter saying iran

welcomes my brother foreign minister mohammad bin of the ramadan and just call for a close of dialogue in our region as we have consistently emphasized the solution to our challenges lies in collaboration to jointly form a strong region just peaceful stable prosperous and free from global regional has many we are hopeful that this this should happen and we still believe that this should happen and i think this is also. a desire that being shared among the other you see countries there is a differences between the countries on the way how to approach such a dodo also from the on side they have expressed their willingness several times to engage with with you see countries and i believe that the time should come where when they do see will sit on the table it will be on. reach a common understanding between the countries that we we have to live with each other we cannot change are going to feel a tie courses handed

a record 43 year jail sentence to a woman for insulting the king the former civil servant was found guilty on $29.00 counts of violating thailand's strict laws against criticizing them on the case rights groups say she posted offending audio clips on social media well before being sentenced a woman known only as i said she now understood the gravity of what she'd done. so i didn't really think it through and was too confident and not being careful enough to realize it at the time that it wasn't appropriate this is a big lesson for me. is in bangkok and explains a likely reason for such a heavy sentance. well looks like they're making an example of her yet 43 years the longest sentence for these of oil defamation laws here very very strict the strictest in the world and what's interesting is that there's

a pattern to this usually when they're they go through this fairly lengthy court process this is been going on for about 6 years now usually toward the end when there's a sentencing there's negotiations on a term a sentence and then a girl guilty plea is submitted and usually that sentences have been that's what we've been seeing here 43 years the longest term sentence i should say before this was 35 years so yes that's what he's she's going to serve if she serves that entire time that to be left to be determined we know that sometimes there will be some clemency and that they will be released early but right now it's clear that they're making they the establishment both the monarchy and the government here is making a sending a message by the sentencing today. this is all just there are these all the top stories a number of coronavirus deaths in the united states has the past 400001 the eve of

president elect joe biden's integration memorials have been held across the country and says it's important to remember the painful lessons of the posse.