it is with compassion and generosity and compromise because that's the only way we can try to solve any of these problems together that's why al jazeera is so important we make connections. in his final hours as u.s. president donald trump issues 73 pardons among them former these bannan. i'm sam is a dan this is al jazeera live from coming up. to shine a light. for all. joe biden knows more than 400000 americans who've died in the

krona virus pandemic as he compares to take the oath as the 46 president of the us . just said for the transition of power unprecedented security lockdown for the inauguration. the u.s. state department accuses china's government of genocide against muslim we girls and other groups in. now we begin in the united states where joe biden is hours away from becoming the $46.00 president who will lead the country devastated by an unprecedented health and economic crisis but in the final hours of his presidency outgoing president donald trump has issued more than 140 pardons and commutations slewed former aide steve bannon along with rappers little blame kodak black and

a former mayor of detroit well earlier he delivered his farewell speech to the nation outlining his legacy. we restored american strength at home and american leadership abroad the world respects us 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 on the night before they take office biden and vice president-elect kemah how this paid tribute

to more than 400000 americans who died of covert 19 well biden says containing the pandemic is he's number one priority 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 but to shine the lights the darkness along the sink or pull of the reflection remember all we lost. and it'll be an inauguration ceremony like none in recent memory downtown washington d.c. virtually fortress right now more than 20000 national guard troops have been deployed there following this month's attack on the capitol and threats of more

violence let's go live now to natasha her name she joins us from washington d.c. so natasha let's start with this list of pardons coming late at night and including people like steve baron how controversial is that proving or will it proven people wake up. well clearly for even president donald trump this was a very difficult decision reportedly this is the reason these the last spate of pardons and commutations came so late because he was really wrestling with whether or not to pardon his former white house adviser who he had fallen out of favor with that directly they were allies in the among him for abandon and there were detractors who were urging president trump not to pardon or commute steve bannon and apparently steve bannon called and spoke directly to president trump now

president steve bannon has only been charged he has not been convicted but he was charged with defrauding supporters who donated to a private fund to help build the us mexico border wall as everyone should know by now that was a signature policy of president trump so again it appears this is probably not going to be surprising to a lot of people who have been tracking the pardons and commutations president trost and noted that there is a sizable chunk of people on there who are trump loyalists you mentioned others such as the rapper's little wayne and kodak little wayne was a very vocal supporter of president trump in the run up to the election both of these men are in trouble for gun related charges another pardon that is sure to attract a bit of attention is the one for former detroit mayor

a democrat kwame kilpatrick he was serving a 28 year sentence in federal prison for racketeering bribery and extortion so absent on this list is president trump and his family members there has been a lot of speculation. and chatter were guarding whether or not president trump would try to preemptively pardon himself or his family members and his attorney and former new york city mayor rudy giuliani but apparently the advice was generally that doing so would be a bad idea because it would admit to committing specific crimes we're not accusing president trump of committing any crime but just the thinking that may have gone into it and again there was really a lot of chatter sammy as to whether or not this would be an issue so i think a lot of americans are going to be waking up this morning with an answer to something that has been circulating for months in the media which was would

president drum try to pardon himself or his family members and here in the thick of it right now i know it's late there but we can see this cones behind you and i think if i'm not mistaken we can see over your right shoulder there may be some troops there to take us through the atmosphere right now must be very very different from any other inauguration. well and i think it's very different to be in a city that's in this kind of militarized zone lockdown state of emergency when we came in yesterday from delaware it's not often you see a sign on the highway saying stay out of d.c. and what you see throughout the city are national guard troops via kohl's barricades high fences streets extremely empty as a result lots of boarded up storefronts and you sort of get the feeling that there are more national guard soldiers about 25000 then there are people milling

about i really just saw a trickle of people throughout the day the big security news in the last couple of days has been that 12 national guard soldiers were removed from their mission to help safeguard the inauguration and sent home the national guard is saying 2 of those had sent generalized threats against lawmakers either posts on social media or task texts but there were no specific threats towards president elect joe biden or vice president elect come on the harris this comes as the pentagon is investigating whether or not there are any white supremacist or far right group members in its midst and its valley if there are to root them out or thanks so much potential and i mean that. well in the past few minutes theory me and president has some rouhani dismissed trump as a tyrant he called on the new administration to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal

joe biden's pick for secretary of state anthony blinken has been addressing little east policy in front of a senate committee on iran lincoln wants to consult with israel and gulf allies to return to the 2015 nuclear deal he wants a longer and stronger agreement. lincoln says he recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel and the u.s. embassy will stay there he says he also wants to build on recent u.s. brokered normalization deals between israel the united arab emirates bahrain moroc oh and sudan blinken also reiterated biden's campaign pledge to end the u.s. support for the saudi led coalition fighting in yemen for more on this we're joined by al jazeera analyst of our good to have you with us so so far let's start with the overall picture here is this a u.s. administration there is going to focus now more on multilateralism the exact thing

that the trumpet ministration tried to pull the u.s. away from. i think the biden administration has no choice but to change and do trump's approach to the clinton policy to the american putting policy in the global order and the global south but the challenge for the by the in the administration as far as i'm concerned is how to be imagined and medicare's for important to see in light of the imagination of the american soul that is happening within the united states by didn't build his presidency campaign and won the presidency on the masses in the uk you storing the american soil but the question is where is the american soil then american saw it has a good side and a bad side some might even say and even cite the good side in the national politics is the one that produced these incredible value is of it quick.

justice and dignity for everyone the garden missed of their race gender and original religion on the other side that that side of the american soil is the one that has produced slavery jim crow laws mass incarceration zip code and on the other have been on the international level and the good side of the american soul is the one that is the international just across the globe in order to have institutions and treaties like the un except or rather this is very important and medicare but it gives administration not only a need to undo it trumps policies but also he examine and we imagine his own policies when he was under the obama administration right and the answer is not out of generosity but out of necessity and out of

a comfortable it's all right now one of those places i guess that the u.s. soul and values as you put a gun to be tested is going to be in policy towards yemen we know anthony blinken has talked about changing course on yemen what does that mean in terms of support for the coalition for coalition powers like saudi arabia and the emirates particularly comes to weapons supplies. by the administration to do all this when one of the most important thing of changing its strategy in yemen and to do that it's needs to put the priority of it is storing the solid into of the yemeni state and saving that into going to the yemeni people and to do that by an administration 1st needs to end the war that festively then it's also nice and then it's led by saudi arabia and in merits it needs to push the horses to come back to the political negotiations as. to control

the political and go to the political process but to be part of it in part of the. politically and there and militarily and the other thing is that they need to address the humanitarian crisis and this should not come out of pity or generosity this has to come out of accountability and responsibility on the one hand and common shares and common threads on the other hand the u.s. has been and main activity in the yemenis send in the yemenis since the arab spring since the arab spring broke out which coincides that they didn't and it was city operative today with biden's inauguration or i was a. station needs to find a new on that in light of the new and that is they are doing it now by.

the allies in the united states to protect the american democracy the biden administration needs to help the young many people build their democracy that the roles are to find dealing with the arab scranton and medicare to be a biden said that he needs to leave the word by the. the power of the example of the american example instead of the example of the american public and the example of america is giving the world of today is the country that is struggling to protect its democracy right and medicare profits are was some how like the mountaintop ratified away by that that people wants to do to be nice but today it is in the badly struggling the same struggles that the many people are fighting against almost every day leaders. montevideo accountability and you money deal in crisis just like the covered 9000 crisis there

is a lot i mean how i was there for the by the administration passed a draw and thank you so much sir for come on that. biden will be entering the oval office at a time when the krona virus death rate is at its highest point since the pandemic began and when millions of americans are struggling to put food on the table out of official reports from the white house our rescue and recovery plan is a path forward with both seriousness of purpose and a clear plan. january 20th it's an important date in 2020 it was the day that the 1st covered case was confirmed in the u.s. the trumpet ministration has been criticized for sure sponsor over the past 12 months no on the 20th of january 2021 the problem becomes joe biden's. this horse is so far out of the bar there redirecting it is going to be hercules and

asked and we need to give the new administration and the new president i think a significant amount of leeway in trying to redirect the ship redirect this force biden has already indicated he wants a $1.00 trillion dollar relief bill more money for ordinary americans to get through the economic crisis more money for vaccinations he wants 100000000 vaccines administered in his 1st 100 days and much greater federal involvement in putting it all together this is one of the most challenging operational efforts we have ever undertaken as a nation will have to move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated to create more places for them to get vaccinated. i think it's a plan that doesn't come with a potential political fallout i think you're going to see more and more people dug in suggesting that somehow because you have an illegitimate president now

attempting to infringe upon our freedoms people are going to become increasingly dug in to through war what the policy changes this new this incoming president is going to try to implement joe biden has said is his number one priority insists the reaction will be driven by science not politics something welcomed by those on the medical front lines joe biden is going to look like a rock star by simply embracing what the best science says there are polls and experts that say if donald trump are taking coronavirus seriously from day one through an resources act rather than played it down he'd be about to start his 2nd term in office how the incoming administration martials the recovery will go a long way to deciding how history remembers president joe biden alan fischer al-jazeera at the white house. still ahead on al-jazeera the outgoing u.s. president comes under fire from the most senior republican voice in the senate over

his role in the capitol attack. they were provoked by the president and other powerful people. tighter restrictions and big standard long downs as new strains of the crime the virus spread to even more countries. we have mulder were pushing into western parts of europe i am pleased to say after a long cold spell of moderate does bring with it wet and windy weather that is coming in from the atlantic to see how the i suppose a lined up from west to east and it's that feed of model rather rolling across the continent as we go on through the next couple days unless she stays picture look at the coldest in place across eastern parts modest 13 in moscow well that represents

a something of a warming here we're getting up to highs of minus $21.00 just a few days ago so that is something of an improvement it stays dry and cold over towards the east but warmest still less culture we say but there's that model whether double figures london and paris wet weather that will linger across wells more than possible and we have weather warnings in force for the likelihood of flooding across many parts of england and wales over the next 24 to 48 hours that wetter weather will make its way through it'll push into the north sea tends to snow as it pushes into norway and sweden colder tucking in behind for celsius with some snow coming back into scotland by thursday wet weather will make its way in across a good passive france as we go on through thursday risk of flooding here and that's it has increasingly wet and windy for spain. frank assessments you've got colleagues on the ground in the canaries what is the

situation there's only one doctor and one nurse or $2200.00 people informed opinions how big does foreign policy figure in the early stages of a bi ministration he comes into office with a huge about foreign policy experience in-depth analysis of the day's global headlines how will a place like it live get a back seat when there's no money at all the rest of rich countries are fighting for an inside story on al-jazeera. come back time to recap the headlines now in the final hours of his presidency outgoing u.s. president don trump was issued more than $140.00 pardons and commutations slewed

former aide steve bannon along with rappers the wayne kodak black and the former mayor of detroit. u.s. president elect joe biden and vice president elect harris paid tribute to more than 400000 americans died from covert 19 biden says containing the pandemic is his number one priority. the most senior republican party member in congress has criticized president trump for the attack on capitol hill which prompted these security measures in washington d.c. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says misled and provoked a mob that attacks capitol hill 2 weeks ago hard to joe castro reports from washington d.c. . within a fortified u.s. capitol. the senate reconvene for the 1st time since a violent mob stormed the building on january 6th leading to 5 deaths and

republican leader mitch mcconnell once a close trump ally pointedly denounced the president on his last full day in office the mob. there were provoked by the president and other powerful people as plans for trump's upcoming impeachment trial take shape already senate committees are on to the next order of business the confirmation of joe biden's cabinet secretaries retired 4 star general lloyd austin is biden's nominee for secretary of defense who opened his remarks by valuing to address right wing extremism in the military the job of the department of defense is to keep america safe from our enemies but we can't do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks. if confirmed hill be the 1st african-american to lead the u.s. defense department widely respected for his 4 decades of military service austin

oversaw the u.s. withdrawal from iraq the general's confirmation is expected but because he recently served in uniform he'll need a congressional waiver allowing him to assume the civilian post of defense secretary in another hearing room secretary of state nominee antony blinken a career diplomat was deputy secretary of state under former president barack obama after his expected confirmation lincoln will be tested to rebuild the u.s. is diminished global leadership when we're not engaged when we're not leading then one of 2 things is likely to happen either some other country tries to take our place but not in a way that's likely to advance our interests and values or maybe just as bad no one does and then you have chaos besides immediately having the us reengineer the paris climate accord and the world health organization blinken will have to take on strained relations with iran russia and china as we look at china there is no

doubt that it poses the most a given challenge of any nation state to the united states biden will take office wednesday with few if any senate confirmed cabinet secretaries a democratic push to waive some senate rules to expedite the process has already met republican resistance then there's trump's impeachment trial still to be scheduled and urgently demanded the senate now looking to balance those priorities in coming days. castro al-jazeera washington. outgoing u.s. secretary of state on peo is accusing china of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against sweden muslims it's believed around a 1000000 have been imprisoned in camps in recent years mostly in jan region activists have documented atrocities including rape torture and the sterilize ation

of women china says the camps are centers for education and training on paper issued this statement after what he said was a cur full examination of the facts he also said. or i'm sorry i have the rest of what he said. to tell you about what joe biden mentioned earlier and did say though he will take the oath under the shadow of a pandemic that hit america hard health officials are investigating a mutated strain detected in california different from a highly contagious variant found in the u.k. and the galaxy explains 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 albeit too slowly but the u.s. is nowhere close to reaching herd immunity. however coverage of how they 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 what will eyes more medical teams to get shots in people's homes. increase supply in getting out. 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 covert 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 to gallacher al-jazeera miami florida or corona virus strain 1st detected in the u.k. is now being detected in at least 60 countries that 10 more countries than

a week ago according to the world health organization believes the new variant is up to 70 percent more infectious than the original strain w.h.o. also announced the south african strain has been reported in $23.00 countries russia's health watchdog has announced a 2nd coronavirus vaccine developed there is 100 percent effective russia began mass trials of corona in november it's made by siberia's vector institute the announcement comes as the european medicines agency begins reviewing the sputnik vive current virus vaccine which saw so produced in russia. italy's prime minister just epic content has survived a confidence vote in the country senate allowing him to remain in office it was triggered after former prime minister material don't see pulled his party from contest coalition last week over his handling of the corona virus pandemic.

what says it's transporting thousands of migrants back to the border with honduras after they were blocked on their way to the u.s. about 2000 people were cleared from a village in eastern watermelon on monday as they tried to advance towards the border with mexico police used tear gas and battens to stop the crowds moving forward some fled into the mountains to avoid boarding buses back home. iran's president has several highly is calling for joe biden the ministration to rejoin the nuclear deal which outgoing president trump withdrew from in 2018 is also called the outgoing administration's iran policy a complete failure to embryos that is immediate the ball is now in america's court and if they return and apply their commitments we will also conduct our commitment trumps political career is dead and the nuclear deal lives on its entire efforts

were put towards getting rid of the accord and he was unsuccessful. carter's foreign minister is calling on other gulf states to bridge relations with iran is a rainy and counterpart divide zarif has backed the efforts on twitter saying iran welcomes my brother foreign minister mohammad bin abdul rahman than just a marathon these call for inclusive dialogue in our region as we have consistently emphasized the solution to our challenges lies in collaboration to jointly form a strong nation a strong region rather peaceful stable prosperous and free from global or regional head to money.