interesting nigel the collapse. of money that is unexplained to africa on some sets and publishable seems up people don't want to publish even if it doesn't add up to the oscar truth is it anyway on al-jazeera. to shock the lights. the darkness along. should remember all we lost words of comfort for a grieving nation joe biden on those more than 400000 americans who died in the coronavirus and demick as he prepares to take oath as the 46 president of the united states. now as i prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on wednesday i want you know that the movement we started is only just beginning a defiant donald trump delivers his farewell speech but for the 1st time in modern

history the outgoing president will skip wednesday's inauguration. but i'm down in jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the heart of the u.s. capitol turns into a fortress setting the stage for an unconventional inauguration and unprecedented security. in the last full day of trump's presidency the u.s. state department declares that the chinese government has committed genocide against we goes and other minorities in jena jack. we begin in the united states where joe biden is hours away from becoming the 46 president he will lead a country devastated by an unprecedented to health and economic crisis as well as facing multiple security challenges well a day before his inauguration biden and vice president elect harris pay tribute to

more than 400000 americans who have now died of coburg 19 he says containing the pandemic is his number one priority to heal we must remember it's hard sometimes to remember but that's how we. it's important to do that as a nation that's why we're here today. between sundown and dusk. to shine a light the darkness along the sink full reflection for all we lost and as biden gets ready to start a new chapter donald trump's tumultuous presidency comes to an end he delivered his farewell speech to the nation outlining his legacy we re stored american strength at home and america's leadership abroad the world respects says again we built the

greatest political movement in the history of our country we also built the greatest economy in the history of the world we revitalize our alliances and rallied the nations of the world to stand up to china like never before as a result of our bold diplomacy and principled real ism we achieved a series of historic peace deals in the middle east nobody believed it could happen it is the dawn of a new middle east and we are bringing our soldiers home i am especially proud to be the 1st president in decades who has started no new wars and it will be an inauguration like no other in recent memory downtown washington d.c. is virtually a fortress moment 20000 national guard troops have been deployed there following this month attack on congress and threats of more violence. well the toxic a name is on the streets of washington d.c. monitoring the security situation then john hendren is live to take us through the

final hours of the trump presidency john let's come 1st to you and talk about president trump's declassification of f.b.i. documents from bad investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election what more can you tell us. during the troubled ministration ends as it began with president trump fighting against the suggestion that he colluded with russia to steal the election 4 years ago and he hopes to do that by releasing a series of documents that have been declassified at his request by the f.b.i. there are some redactions we are told and we don't know what's in there but the president clearly hopes that it will uphold his suggestion throughout these 4 years that the russian investigators was a hoax and it was an investigation with long legs that led into the moeller probe it led into the ultimate lee the finding that he had pressured ukraine. do him

a favor in order to combat joe biden in this election so the president is clearly trying to get the information out there to suggest to people that the investigation that has so tainted his presidency over these 4 years was in fact not a legitimate suggestion you'll remember that robert muller in his investigation of the president could not conclude that there was actual collusion between russia and the president's campaign even though it said there was a lot of overlap and some very bad decisions in terms of donald trump jr and other members of the family in a campaign being in contact with officials in russia so this is donald trump's outgoing effort to legitimize his original election 4 years ago john and we've been hearing all week about trump possibly granting dozens of pardons before he leaves office what's the. well that's what we know so far we know that he has been willing to use pardons in the past in order to help his friends in allies

he has either commuted the sentences of or pardon people like roger stone like joe beneforti people who have been convicted of crimes for aiding the president and some of those who have been related to russia is well so this is another effort by the president to try to legitimize his presidency by trying to free these people and who knows who he is going to pardon at this point but we are told on sources that the white house does not intend to seek a pardon for donald trump himself or members of his family but that comes with a caution and that caution is you never really know what's going to happen with this president and with just hours to go before he leaves the white house without doing a handover with joe biden that is still all we know about this series of pardons although we've been told there could be as many as 100 of them and joe biden won't

be able to say in person anything about that to donald trump because he's leaving without the usual ceremony here at the capitol behind me there will be no handshake no handover the closest the 2 will get to that is by sharing the night on pennsylvania avenue this evening with donald trump in the white house joe biden across the street in a place called blair house it's really a metaphor for 2 administrations with very little overlap. to natasha going to him she's on the streets of washington d.c. even atocha so a huge national guard presence on those streets and has been a big effort to security vet them ahead of the north. absolutely imagine having to vet the largest security presence ever before and inauguration more than 25000 national guard soldiers i want to give you a sense of where we are we're about 4 blocks away from the white house in standing

in the middle of k. street it's a major street here in the capitol as you can see behind me a storefront after store front boarded up but for the sound of that generator lighting this checkpoint very very quiet and empty metro stop and over here what you see throughout the city says can see some national guard soldiers right here on the other side of this massive barricade we have these barricades not only at intersections this is preventing people from going in to sit on benches in farragut square it's been like this throughout the city not just near the capitol and the white house but in intersections every so often you will see checkpoints and troops it's just not something that americans are used to seeing the biggest news though because of the security presence it's been quite calm in d.c. in the days and hours leading up to what americans hope will be a peaceful swearing in of president elect joe biden the biggest news today though

was that 12 national guard soldiers had been removed from their mission to help ensure a safe and auger ration and were sent home. and we have 2 individuals identified had made inappropriate comments or text those 2 individuals were removed one of those was flagged by 5 within the command and then we have a another 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. now the a.p. is reporting it's. what the national guard is saying publicly but the a.p. is reporting that all of those national guard soldiers were removed from duty because of concerns social media posts or texts that there may have been some extremist views or links to far right militia groups again that's what the a.p.

is reporting all of this comes as multiple agencies are now investigating the preparation and response to the capitol attack as well as the pentagon taking a very close look at the military and any possible folks within its ranks either having ties to the rioters or again having extremist links or links to far right groups or right in the taj going to live for us there on the streets of washington d.c. a tough shot thank you and as mentioned earlier joe biden will take the oath under the shadow of a pandemic that's hit america hard health officials are investigating a new tainted strain detected in california different from a highly contagious variant found in the u.k. on the gallic i reports now from miami. california in the time of the corona virus 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 to slowly but the u.s. is nowhere close to reaching herd immunity i have recovered from all the talk about the fake discovered 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 of

a so far come nowhere near close to what was promised work our plan is as clear as it is bought 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 in getting out the door issues fast. for many 2021 was a year that would bring reduced hope state 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 covert 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 at the gallacher

al-jazeera miami florida let's bring in dennis nash is the executive director of the city university of new york's institute for implementation science in population the help he joins us via skype from new york dennis so 400000 deaths across the u.s. as the country as you know with the most number of infections and deaths how would you sum up where the outgoing administration has failed in its handling of this pandemic. well you know from a population health standpoint know this death toll is of course a direct result of our country's inability to adequately control community spread but but been given that we also have high levels of community spread unfortunately in the u.s. that corner case death toll specifically has a lot to do with our inability to protect our elderly population in nursing homes long term care facility in other congregate settings as well as are essential workers during pandemics i think in the u.s. at least the settings are just not equipped to detect or squelch outbreaks during a pandemic especially when there's no vaccine for the pathogen so there's no

credible plan to ensure you know workplace safety and the lack of any credible or effective response by the trumpet trump administration including one that protects these populations is a huge part of why we have a high death rate in the us i had today and it absolutely didn't have to be this high yeah denison president elect joe biden says his number one priority is the pandemic what are the main challenges facing the new by demonstration of the public health point of the. well i think you know there's a lot that we've seen that has gone wrong in the past administration i think one of the you know the need to turn the tide on this current pandemic and i fully expect to see you know considered science and form strategies for prevention and mitigation of spread and in the community and in workplaces in addition to the vaccine plan the vaccine plan it's very important but as we've heard you know there's also ongoing to unity spread that is going to be even faster while the vaccine is rolling out and so you know supporting health care workers to provide

the best available treatment patients and effective implementation strategies for rapid and i hope equitable rule out of all these available vaccines that are coming down the pipeline informative public health messaging leadership by example leveraging technology and you know not preclude you know you could not make interest over the more fundamental priorities yeah and we're hearing that health officials in california are investigating a mutated strain of co that 19 which may be different to others found around the world is this likely to make the right of infection much worse do you think it's certainly a theoretical and very concerning possibility and you know this is why i think you know we need to really prioritize both prevention and mitigation of spread and speed up the vaccine roll out as soon as possible and yes all right dennis nash thanks very much indeed for the thoughts thank you for talking to al jazeera thank

you. time for a short break here now to say about when we come back. we will revitalize american diplomacy. as the senate grills biden's nominee for u.s. secretary of state we'll hear where anthony blinken plans to make changes and where he agrees with his predecessor. if in his prime minister clings on to his position as he grapples with a pandemic and an economic freefall that stay with us. hello the weather has set fire looking pretty calm and quiet across much of the u.s. for inauguration day at the moment we have got a little area of high pressure just across that eastern side of the country but some pieces of cloud and gray down towards the deep south but that's that they say is going to be a cool one crisp sunshine coming through brighton breezy sunny intervals

temperatures no hiding around 3 degrees celsius the say they will be largely try an astronomy to warmer still as we go on into thursday some wet weather moving across the southern plains we got some wintry weather there into that eastern side of kind of that with some snow and some snow just around the pacific northwest but notice some wetter weather there down towards new mexico southern parts of arizona pushing into mexico itself and we got a lot of cloud and rain moving across the caribbean just easing its way across cuba jamaica could see some shabby rain for a time the wetter weather will be across the a western side of the caribbean so into central america just about anywhere here well the caribbean coast in particular could see some sharp showers some wetter whether they're just coming into panama and also into costa rica further east it's looking good for the east and warm sunshine coming through town with a top temperature of 26.

make a change. change your life for the part of the country challenge the accepted truth you want to create something you push to break it continually mold to turn the status quo and fight injustice all months to. witness personal documentaries not potent deception on al-jazeera. oh. welcome back a quick amount of our top stories here on al-jazeera the number of people have died from covert 19 in the united states as

a past 400000 the staggering toll was confirmed on the eve of president elect joe biden's inauguration he's led nationwide memorials in his farewell speech outgoing us president donald trump took credit for vaccination development and once again blamed china for the pandemic. and security has been heightened to unprecedented levels in the u.s. capital ahead of the no gration ceremony for this month's attack on the capital 12 national guard members have been relieved of duty for the ceremony after an intensified vetting procedure. now the most senior republican in congress has criticized president trump for the attack senate leader mitch mcconnell says trump misled and provoked a mob that attacked capitol hill 2 weeks ago asked on the senate convene we're just reclaim the capital from violent crime rules to try to stop congress from doing our duty. the mob was. they were provoked by the president

and other powerful people and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the 1st branch of the federal government which they did not like but we pressed on we should together and should are angry mob would not get the job over the rule of law in our nation. reports now from washington d.c. 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. u.s. secretary of state might pompei was accusing china of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against wigan muslims it's believed around a 1000000 been imprisoned in camps in recent years mostly in the shin chung region activists of documented atrocities including rape torture and the sterilization of women china denies all such accusations and says people are being educated and trained in special centers. of the statement after what he said was a careful examination of the facts he also said i believe this genocide is ongoing and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy we goes by the chinese

party state and the incoming biden administration seems to agree with pompei assessment secretary of state nominee anthony blinken echoed pompei a statement at his senate confirmation hearing secretary pump aoe designated the chinese communist party as having engaged in general regarding the weaker my muslim population do you agree with that that would be my judgment as well you do agree yes so let's bring in ana tangan he's a china political analyst and joins us live now via skype from beijing i know this is clearly the strongest statement yet coming from any western government might pompei or they're describing it as an ongoing genocide against the way goes in xinjiang this is a significant condemnation of beijing isn't it. well yes but i mean you have to look at this from a dual tracks 1st off this is pump a 0 setting out his own presidential hopeful run in 2024.

is taking a very cautious you toward china they want to change tactics but as lincoln said many times during is a confirmation questioning he basically agrees with the goals of the trump administration but not the tactics as i say i am of the incoming nominee for u.s. secretary of state and the blinken says he agrees with the genocide declaration how much does this then set the tone for u.s. china relations over beijing's treatment of the week as. well there's 2 separate issues the treatment of the readers is something that you know it within the international press it's pretty much well settled. to sleep beijing disagrees they think that they're trying to provide opportunities to a group who have been in essence sidelined because of their own willingness to educate their children and to learn a language which would give them economic opportunities if they had ignored that

then the situation would be different but you know let's keep this in perspective you know look look at palmdale pompei o has said that if you're a practicing he has blamed. blue slips as not inherently being somehow unpatriotic he's aligned with a group called a c t which has said he's a longstanding ally and things like that where he's basically just said he's that you cannot be a muslim and a patriotic american he blamed the boston bombings on them this is not this is his statement is quite different let me let me just jump in there because it's because of because i want to out of time i mean it is worth pointing out that china's embassy in washington last week said it rejected the congressional report that said beijing had committed crimes against humanity and possibly genocide but this genocide declaration is an important issue because it would ensure a difficult start with the by the ministration went it. oh absolutely and there was

interest. within beijing circles that this was going to happen as you recall there was no no one in beijing was saying that they favored biden they understood the situation is as it was stated that the goals remain the same crap the tactics will be different switching from unilateral to multilateral ok on a just a just a final thought to you i mean an independent u.n. human rights panel said back in 2018 that it had received these credible reports that least a 1000000. other muslim minorities have been detained in xinjiang i mean china doesn't deny that but how long can beijing continue to deny what's happening inside the camps even under growing international pressure but what's happening inside the camps is a different perspective from the chinese perspective they're providing vocational training and language courses that the they believe these people need there's no question that there could have been there have been abuses in there where individuals overzealous trying to please beijing or are not following through the

instructions but the idea that china is deliberately alienating the entire rear population and making them open to you know being recruited into kind of terrorist organizations is wrong they're simply trying to correct something that has been wrong within the society and that is that people consider themselves readers 1st and chinese 2nd they want to reverse that they want people to have a common identity and to walk away from this extreme islam yeah well well much of the international community i know would disagree with that but anyway thank you for your thoughts and it's not in beijing thank you. if you it is prime minister i just have to come to you has survived a confidence vote in the country's senate allowing him to hold on to power it was triggered off the former prime minister matteo renzi his party from come to his coalition last week of his handling of the corona virus pandemic come to appeal to senators ahead of the vote defending his leadership through the crisis. schools and

businesses will stay shut in germany until at least mid february after the chancellor angela merkel and state premiers agreed to extend 1000 restrictions they also agreed to mandate the wearing of medical mosques rather than simple cut the ones on public transport and in shops the number of new cases has been falling but although it is fear the situation could deteriorate. it's been one year since south korea reported its 1st case of coronavirus the country's been battling a 3rd way but there are signs it's on the control since a record $1200.00 cases were reported on christmas eve the number of new infections has been steadily dropping from abroad reports from seoul. one time south korea was the worst affected country outside china when the fear of this new and relatively unknown virus was very real owed everyone to restrain themselves from group of interactivity not on the indoor places but also outdoor places. drawing on experience from previous epidemics and with close cooperation between government

agencies and the private sector the country got to work it quickly pioneered innovations like drive through testing centers and then mass testing and tracing to avoid the shutdowns being experienced by other countries subsequent outbreaks pose new challenges such as a cluster centered on night clubs used by the gay community requiring a tactful response. to that were when we cooperated with the l g b t community and explained the situation was grave and introduced anonymous testing which just required a fine number and the number of people getting testing increased 8 fold. the authorities also faced outbreaks in church congregations and among political groups holding super spreader demonstrations in a society that cherishes free speech steve gian opened his gym right at the beginning of the pandemic managing to survive and adapt to

a new reality i don't believe in god i think people will lean towards having more personal space that is well defined rather than coming together in big groups like soul city itself looking ahead to life after the pandemic. or even when it's over it would be difficult to go back to the old normal with arrived at a new age where we have to adept. one year on south korea is just getting over its 3rd wave and the lines of people waiting for their free tests and now mostly gone starting out on a 2nd year of this pandemic here as elsewhere there is pandemic fatigue the difference seems to be while some people in other countries got fed up and gave up people here are still largely prepared to put up broad al-jazeera so in the u.s. the deaths of more than 4 $100000.00 people were mourned at ceremonies across the nation an american nurse whose rendition of amazing grace was widely shared online

last year sung to him for the country and on a lives lost on the front line workers who are fighting to save them. zeke in green east. it's. time for a quick check of the headlines here on ars they are the number of people have died from coburg 19 in the united states has surpassed 400000 memorials have been held across the country deaths and cases have been rising the staggering toll was confirmed on.