al jazeera. that. more than 20 people are killed in suspected twin suicide blasts at a market in the iraqi capital baghdad and. the rommany watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha also coming up u.s. president joe biden signs a series of executive orders reversing doubletons controversial policies on climate change immigration and the fight against covert 19. also the u.s.

says it will now join of the world health organizations kovacs project to deploy covert 19 vaccines around the world. and twitter the chinese embassy in the u.s. so what it called a dehumanizing post on chin jang and the week is. welcome to the program more than 20 people have now been killed and injured in the suspected twin suicide blast in iraq's capital police say it happened in a market in baghdad's a tyrian square the death toll is expected to rise some of the wounded are in a critical condition suicide bombings have become a rare occurrence in the iraqi capital the last one was in 2019 some in filton joins me now on the telephone west of baghdad and similar the blast took place in what you said earlier was a big. market area of the capitol those the pictures that we are seeing the images

of the blast too gruesome perhaps for our viewers. but there is no thought of you might say the consequences of this blast by those who committed it. you know so far nobody has claimed responsibility for this what seems to be a double suicide attack although it does bear the hallmarks of attacks by eisel that we saw years ago in the capital from what we understand what happened is that the 1st 2 side bomber while he was in the market area feigned sickness to attract people to come and help him which is that the which is the point at which the 1st bomb was detonated and of course these kind of double blasts are unfortunately a common tactic with suicide bombings in an effort to to cause the maximum number of casualties so after the 1st bomb detonated and more people flock to seem to help

the wounded that's when the 2nd suicide bomber and his resulting in and quite a significant that's death toll that we we haven't really seen in the in the capital for years now of course this area is in central baghdad and there is usually quite a bit of a security presence there especially lately by anti-riot police because we have seen quite a bit of the most haitians going on in the capital over the past year or so but there are no real at checkpoints of searches going on to to really prevent such attacks because the capital has been relative stability over the past years especially since the deceived the territorial dispute as i saw in 2017 we haven't really had bees explosions although they have been some incidents and again in the same location empire on square which is this is the commercial area it's one of the one of the biggest wholesale markets in baghdad so you'll have a lot of activity going on there a lot of people doing their shopping at that time of the day which of course is

probably one of the reasons why they would have been the target of snow there or to other to move to the moving parts say because here in alice it's all money that happened in the last few days one is the. inauguration obviously of joe biden the strained relationship between the u.s. and iraq. right now and also the iraqi government has postponed general elections until october of 2021 could these be my say the issues perhaps behind the bombings could this be part of the knesset is being sent out to those that perpetrated this crime well i mean it's certainly possible but it's way too early to go to town because we don't really have a claim of responsibility at the moment of course eiseley is not the only armed group operating in iraq there are many others that have in the past. carried out not similar attacks but also in iraq attacks or other kind of efforts to try to destabilize the country or to stir the tensions but at this point since we don't

know for sure who is responsible it's difficult to talk about possible motivations behind it but it is certain that this i still remains a spread in iraq even though the group has been territorial defeated they still do have sleeper cells is especially in remote rural areas the group was really forced to retreat deep into the mountains into remote areas where they can hide and were to try to to regroup and recover after after their official defeat in 2017 now they have really not succeeded in staging any major urban attacks over the past few years what they have resorted to is kind of guerrilla war where warfare in rural areas attacking remote checkpoints or villages so this would be quite turns out that it is i suppose it could be an effort to try to send a message that they are still present that there are still a spread in iraq but that we really do have to wait and see what the

investigations into this incident really old into it and we shall see what happens in the coming hours meant a whole team now reporter just west of baghdad where that blast occurred earlier in the day. zeid on economics is a political analyst in research on iraq and the middle east he says there are many groups that could be behind the attack. iraq has been going through very challenging times since the outbreak of the anti-government protest and uprisings since of tobar 2019 there was a lot of skill ations on between iran and the us that took advantage of the escalations between the protesters and the government by protesting or performing their very own cold war 'd on the iraqi soil especially during the killing of soleimani there are a lot of interest groups within iraq and beyond iraq that would benefit from

escalating force and sense of finding the security situation in iraq it could be very easy to point fingers at isis or any other terrorist group we're waiting for them to condemn prism to claim that they have done this attack at the same time we have to keep in mind as political analysts and as people who watch iraqi politics regularly that there are a lot of interest groups that are politically or number or the governments of the or non-governmental affiliated that could benefit from such attacks will have noticed especially with then whenever there's a u.s. military withdrawal or a talk about and u.s. military drills there is a specific or major event that would happen a good example would be the killing on sunday money or the confrontations that were happening with the call iran militia groups within the pm of forces and the u.s. on the on the syrian iraqi borders or the ones that happened at a kook around the time of the killing of so they money we are seeing that such an attack might be related to. an in direct pressure to

a bite in administration we don't know what the type of pressure is are they trying to convince a new u.s. administration to increase the pressure on iran or to realize that hearing and influence is very prominent in iraq however we don't have the evidence of who is exactly behind this this is still purely observations and analysis on who are the parties and who are the interest groups that would benefit benefit from attacking civilians or escalating things in iraq. the 46th president of the united states has begun his term of the oval office after one of the most basic contested and chaotic elections in american history i spent the 1st few hours of his presidency undoing some of the most controversial actions of his predecessor donald trump my kind of has more from washington d.c. . the 46th president of the united states arrives that is new residence and he kept his word and went immediately to work. his 1st action in the oval office

was to sign a series of executive orders striking at the heart of his precesses policy legacy the mask in the oval another striking departure in the 1st order. to. have authority. from. the front of property promising center also among the orders the return of the united states to the paris climate accord a reversal of the decision to leave the world health organization the lifting of the ban on travel from some muslim majority countries and an immediate cancellation of the state of emergency that donald trump proclaimed in order to begin building a wall on the mexican border these are actions done at the stroke of

a pen but other fundamental changes such as a new coronavirus relief bill and immigration reform will require the cooperation and participation of congress please raise your way hand and in the senate the new vice president's war in 3 new democrat senators in a chamber now is split $5050.00 it's the 49th vice president who will have the casting vote as the new senate majority leader takes over. today the threat to our democracy from the presidency itself has ended but the challenges we face as a nation remain in the wake of violence into the asian hatred mistruth and from the republican leader warm words for joe biden who came to this chamber as senator for delaware 49 years ago so i can grow droit my friend from delaware look forward to working with him as our new president wherever possible and as it gets to work the

senate approves the 1st of the new cabinet appointments every haynes is confirmed as director of national intelligence by 84 votes to 10 marking a bipartisan start to the new senate then the renewal of an old tradition that had fallen into disuse in recent months the 1st of what i intended to be daily briefings by the new press secretary under this guidance from the president his objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government to share the truth even when it's hard to hear and that's something that i hope to deliver on in this role as well president biden and the 1st lady arrived at the lincoln memorial for the final event of this inauguration day a day that took place in the shadow of a pandemic and the threat of political violence.

but which ended in the celebration of what the new president promises is the beginning of a better and kind here a. mike hammer out to sea or washington. or by to bring some normality back to the white house his inauguration was anything but physical home reports on the ceremony to meet her turning point in u.s. history. they climbed the steps were just 2 weeks ago rioters stormed the capitol walked the halls where they spread fear ladies and gentlemen the president elect of the united states joseph robinette biden jr and dr jill biden and took the oath of office where they try to overturn democracy the riot now forgotten in this us presidential inauguration like no other 2 weeks ago when an angry violent mob stage an insurrection and desecrated this temple of our democracy it awakened us to

our responsibilities as americans protected by tens of thousands of soldiers and police a pandemic raging in the thousands of usual spectators replaced by flags the dignitaries spaced out history was made the 1st african-american of south asian descent and the 1st woman to become vice president to. protect and then just before noon joe biden became the new president of the united states so help me god congratulations mr president the on. the chaos of what happened here remembered just days after riders mom thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people to stop the work of our democracy to drive a strong new sacred ground. it did not happen and it will never happen not

today not tomorrow not ever mixing hope with the dark reality of this moment he pledged to be honest with the american people and he laid out a challenging agenda the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. a cry for survival of planet itself a cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear now a rise of political extremism white supremacy domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat this was a rebuke of the last 4 years of president donald trump not mentioned by name trump was also not in the audience peppered with past presidents only the 4th president to refuse to attend but the very 1st to refuse to concede he left washington with only a small group to see him leave impeached twice and facing a trial in the senate for the riot he inspired he's reportedly talking about

creating his own political party to mount a political comeback so just. a goodbye we love you we will be back in some form a true sign of how much has changed the biggest celebrities who shun trump's inaugural. returned to washington. was to celebrate a new president bush. the pandemic and security concerns meant traditions needed to be changed after the ceremony the new president and vice president flanked by their predecessors laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at arlington national cemetery and the parade was more of a televised motorcade. but the traditional walk still happened down pennsylvania avenue and into the white house. their new home and now his

oval office paddock line al-jazeera let's take you back to our top story in the suspected twin suicide blasts in iraq's capital for our sister channel al jazeera arabic fire joins me now from the capital good to have you with us just tell us exactly where you are in relation to the blast site and water people there telling you about what happened. a standing exactly in the very spot to where the tool bombings took place this morning if that camera man pans to the left. and see exactly what happened as you can see. the road is where as the several defense crews were here minutes ago they cleared the debris and they

washed away the bloods from the road. for 2 hours dozens were killed and others dozens injured according to the latest statistics of. reports 28 were killed 73 injured the injured were rushed to the surrounding. hospitals. and other. reports suggest that the number of fatalities will rise especially that the large number of the injured and a very political condition as you can see life is almost back to normal as if nothing had happened the movement is this the marketplace is busy the vehicles are moving freely and even people are moving as normal as if nothing has happened this is. barking plays it is located between

their vacation square and that the head of the square the epicenter of their ministrations are a few 100 meters they way and as you note that in the square is the place where massive demonstrations took place calling for reforms this is a very busy marketplace especially in the hours of the morning and particularly today because it is really a sign of the. and this winter time before hours this entire area was cordoned off with security personnel and civil defense and medical crews now we can see no scion of their security personnel their civil defense crews or even their medical crews everything is back to normal the marketplace is busy movement is normal and as they said life is almost back

to normal busy marketplace and this is really surprising as if nothing had happened and as if nothing took place 2 massive suicide bombings took place a few hours place in the heart of that capital. gains are under way in order to find out the circumstances and the causes especially that of security. officials spoke to us that the d.n.a. of the suicide bombers are being. analyzed in order to find. the who are behind this attack at the same time many. responses are being heard from. political parties and. political figures including the human rights are going to stations which claimed the security

apparatus for the bombings that shocked the capital this morning for the update thanks very much abdel fattah fires from our sister channel al jazeera arabic thank you. well in other news the trumpet ministrations controversial legacy. of iris is about to end and to the fact she has announced that the u.s. will return to the world health organization infectious disease expert says that america will help fight disease at home and abroad. i am honored to announce that the united states will remain a member of the world health 'd organization yesterday president biden signed the letters retracting the previous administration's announcement to withdraw from the organization the united states stands ready to work in partnership and solidarity to support the international covert 'd 1000

response dr anthony fauci speaking there let's just bring in our official correspondent in washington d.c. i mean dr anthony fauci of the very pleased about that announcement i'm sure internally because obviously he perhaps felt sidelined during the trumpet ministration of the end of the trip administration his his thought processes his advice being ignored. well we're not entirely sure that's the case and he was there not just through the trump administration but through others certainly he seems more pleased with the decision that joe biden has made which is to reengage with the world health organization don't try to cut funding there and decided pillow because he believed that the world health organization had essentially helped china cover up the source of covert 19 what the vice minister ation is saying is that by joining the w.h.o. they will be much stronger they'll be able to keep america much safer because they'll be involved in the global process of this they're also going to join kovacs

which is the system where richer countries also help provide the vaccination for poorer countries so a significant step change in the approach to covert but then this is going to be a week of concentrating on covert but particularly today for the bite than ministration just before the inauguration alan you know we you have got the news that the president himself the president elect as he was then was going to be signing a whole raft of executive actions he did do that on his 1st you might say full day's work any surprises. now today is the 1st field day because of course yesterday he had his inauguration no real surprises in the 17 executive orders that he signed all along the lines of what we were told he's turning attention to today as i say took over the 10 executive actions going to be saying there he's going to unveil his national plan for dealing with covert among

that steps that he's going to take increased funding for vaccinations increased funding for personal protection equipment so that people can make sure that those vaccinations caddy don't need to make school safer and to get them back sooner and also an executive order are doing all the government departments to use the defense production act he said where they can produce let them produce but if there's a shortfall if there is a problem then they will use the defense production act to up production as quickly as possible joe biden is going to make remarks as well he's going to meet with this corporate 19 task force but the reporting here in the u.s. in the last couple of hours that when the biden team went to see what the national vaccination plan was there was no next national vaccination plot in fact trumpet ministration had left it largely done to the states and hadn't put upon in place the biden transition team or seeing a couple of weeks ago look we're having problems getting details here and no

appears the reason they were having problems getting details of these reports are true is because there were no details to be hired and there was no plan in place that might cause a problem for joe biden he wants to get 100000000 vaccinations out in the 1st 100 days he's going to have to essentially build a plan from scratch and eventually get more as the day progresses for the moment allan thank you. now china's foreign ministry is accusing the trump and ministration officials of undermining relations between the 2 sides and says it welcomes the chance to repair ties under president biden on the gamble in your net benda the 2 sides should show courage and wisdom we need to heed and listen to each other with respect this is the joint responsibility of our 2 countries and also the aspiration of the international community we believe the better angels in china's u.s. relations push surely defeat the evil forces that china has expressed concern over twitter's decision to lock the account of its u.s.

embassy the social media giant blocked the account after it made a post defending its policies towards we good muslims in this young german region the embassy tweeted that we're women we're no longer baby machines bones to government policies to eradicate extremism twitter says this violates its policy on dehumanization china's been accused by rights groups of forcing we get women to have sterilizations and take birth control china denies the accusations adrian brown has more from hong kong on the controversy surrounding china's tweet fritter has now or blocked the account of the chinese embassy now this is in response to a tweet that the chinese embassy put out a century defending its policies in sion going and saying that we go women were no longer baby making machines and that they had been emancipated well that was clearly a step too far from twitter twitter so they are blocked that account and of course it was just a few weeks ago they blocked the account of president the former president donald

trump it is a reminder that it remains an extremely sensitive issue and it's an issue of course that's going to i think become a potential flashpoint an early flashpoint between china and the united states because mr biden has said that human rights are going to be at the core of his foreign policy with china which means inevitably there is going to be an early clash. rescuers in china are drilling new shots into a gold mine hoping to reach workers who've been trapped for 11 days they've been stuck deep below ground since an explosion in the hooshang mine in chiang dong rescuers have been in contact with the leaven workers but the fate of 10 others remain uncertain at least one miner has died from his injuries. at least 100000 people have been forced from their homes after rebel attacks in central african republic during last month's disputed elections opposition politicians say the vote was rigged and the rebel coalition outside the capital says president fasting to

dera and his government moscow has more from a where civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. mores were banged hoped digging for gold would pay for his education he worked at a mine in the bush here in the central african republic he bought a new motorbike to get there on his way home he says militia held him up stole it and then told him to lie face down on the ground he refused. and told them if you want to kill me to my face as we were talking he shot me in one leg i started screaming esau i could still walk 3 should the other then i couldn't walk anymore. the bones in mori's legace shattered with it his plan to study. it was a passer by who grew moist this hospital in the capital. it's run by the charity

doctors without borders. the manager says many others so lucky the armed groups who want to overthrow the government control most of the country or wondered if maybe some hundreds or even 1000 people we do not have any right to burst and during this kind of because playlist where everybody is more in the bush and are not able to stay in those villages i think that all the kind of care is limited. the violence escalated before during and after elections held last month political opposition say they were rigged un peacekeepers russian mercenaries and wenden troops support the government. and a bit of territory around it is one of the few parts of the country that's firmly under the control of the foreign. forces that support the government the city sits on the banks of the river. more than a 10th of central africans have fled the violence the neighboring countries most of them across the river to the democratic republic of congo on the other side inside

the country more than half of its 5000000 people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes. natalie is one of them she told us nothing is more terrifying than waking up to find yourself in the middle of a battle when you're 7 months pregnant now she staying here at a relative's house. at 5 in the morning i was woken up by the sound of heavy weapons they were shooting rockets he did my room traumatised i didn't know what to do with the situation. i took my children and walked for 6 hours to get to a hospital. the current crisis here began 8 years ago when armed groups overthrew the government of the time that's when these people fled their homes they've been living on the plastic sheeting ever since the conflict has continued for as long and so has its devastating effect on people's lives malcolm web al jazeera bongi

central african republic. means a whole run a reminder of our top stories more than 20 people are being killed and dozens wounded in a suspected twin suicide attack in iraq's capital now the explosions happened in a baghdad market suicide attacks have become a rare thing in the city the last one happened in 2019. hours after being sworn in as the 46th president of the united states joe biden has signed 17 executive orders and actions dismantling some of donald trump's contentious policies they include a rollback of the immigration ban targeting muslims and having the u.s. rejoined the paris climate accord. and those executive actions. are broken promises were made.