entry. al-jazeera. hello i'm rob matheson and this is the news our live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes at least 32 people are killed in twin suicide blasts at a market in the iraqi capital baghdad. u.s.

president joe biden is expected to sign 10 executive orders on curbing the coronavirus pandemic 24 hours after being sworn in. aid agencies are struggling to cope with a new wave of people forced from their homes in central african republic following rebel attacks and earthquake survivors in indonesia say they're running out of essential supplies as authorities struggle to get aid to them. and joining with the sports is the limbic chief in face they take it games will go ahead and there is no plan b. . at least 32 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in twin suicide bombings in the iraqi capital that happened in a market in central baghdad it's the most violent incident there in 3 years no one's claimed responsibility for the attack but the government is blaming alexy

abroad reports. the marquez in baghdad's tyrone square was packed with people making the most of a sunny winter's day. and we were there by the stands one man came to the ground started complaining my stomach is hurting he pressed the detonator in his hand exploded immediately people were torn to pieces a lot of people died and were injured. the interior ministry says that as more people flocked around the victims the 2nd bomb went off. it's the deadliest attack in central baghdad since january 28th saying it also happened in tire and square similar bombings were commonplace in the capital in the early 2000 after the us led invasion and later as isis influence group across the country but after the government declared eisel defeated in 2017 such attacks became rare you need to bring you. into an enormous bill bring

a new idea. and you are rationally present in the many important. what were your rights you know are we eventually or how. moment. was just a few blocks from thailand is tahrir square the same turf more than a year of anti-government protests demanding better security more opportunities and less foreign interference the protesters also want elections which have been postponed to october analysts say several groups could benefit from thursday's bombings we witnessed a continuous and a very prominent rhetoric from a lot of politicians and a lot of militia leaders that continues the war in iraq in one way or another and directly in this movement that the government will only be 2 nations that would remind us who the isis. the blasts come just a week after the u.s.

confirmed it had cut its troop levels in iraq to just $2500.00 the lowest levels in nearly 2 decades but just this week iraq sent extra soldiers to its border with syria and a town north of baghdad where i sill still has a presence. security now also stepped up in baghdad to prevent any more attacks brian al jazeera. and also one of all things been following events in baghdad. we're here at the side of the incident in baghdad central square disses the market where the bombs went off earlier on thursday on the floor we can see burnt pieces of clothing there is also quite a bit of blood that is still spilled which we're not showing you because it may be too graphic and people here are still very much in shock they can't believe that science such incidents could once again return to baghdad which has been relatively

stable and peaceful since 2017 since eisel was officially defeated now many believe although there is not official claim of responsibility it is that these a tag bears the hallmarks of i saw what appears to have happened is that the 1st suicide bomber fame sickness to attract people to wards him to help him and after the 1st bomb went off and people gathered to help the wounded that's when the 2nd suicide bomber heads now you can see right now that many of the shops here are closed security forces have told people to stay home to disperse in case there would be further attacks but normally this area will be extremely busy it will be bustling with people doing their shopping at this time of the day and many people that i've spoken to they are very fearful that this incident could

perhaps mark the return of such suicide bombings to talk about the return of instability it's only been a few years since life has really returned to normal in the capital with people once again going about their daily lives about having to worry about explosion we've seen concrete walls that surrounded buildings to protect them from from such blasts come down again revealing really the city and some of its architectural heritage so there there is quite a lot of shock there is quite a lot of fear about what this incident means for the broader stability of the city but of course we have to wait. and see what the investigations will reveal and we have to still wait for the official claim of responsibility. for us president joe biden the vice president come in a horace are about to begin their 1st full day in office before that they're taking part in a virtual presidential inaugural prayer be hosted by the washington national cathedral is a live pictures from there joe biden began his time at the oval office after one of

the most bitterly contested and chaotic elections in american history is spent the 1st few hours of his presidency undoing some of the most controversial actions of his predecessor donald trump mike hanna 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 previous policy legacy the mosque in the oval another striking departure the 1st order. to. write or have authority. ask for. property interstate commerce and 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 listing 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 right hand and in the senate the new vice presidents wall in 3 new democrat senators in a chamber now are split 5050 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 and division 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 congratulate 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 everal haynes is confirmed as director of national intelligence by 84 votes to 10 marking a bipartisan start with a new senate then the renewal of an old tradition that had fallen into disuse in recent months. the 1st of what are 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 person lévy 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 era. mike hanna out to sea or washington. the top u.s. infectious disease expert on too far too says america's return to the w.h.o. the world health organization 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 organization yesterday president biden

signed a letter is 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 coal 'd group 19 response. well. in washington d.c. really more proof as if proof were needed that the by the mr asian is absolutely determined that it regards covered as a priority. while we know that there are going to be 10 days of themed messaging from the white house and today is all about covert in how they deal with it there's going to be a meeting of the covert action team that joe biden has put together and he's going to issue a national plan among the things he's going to do is sign 10 executive orders which will mean more money for personal protection gear and also things like syringes so

that they can get the 100000000 doses of vaccine into people's arms in the 1st 100 days as he's promised he's also issuing an order across all federal government departments saying look if there is a way we can produce the things we need great if not use the defense procurement act it's an old act but he wants it brought in to force if it means getting the stuff that they need to get the vaccine out into the country that it's also going to be more money for schools to make sure that they can reopen as well joe biden will make some called comments after meeting his covert vaccine team he's actually in the oval office at the moment for the prayer service kind of the hottest joined him there she's also going to be part of that briefing with the covert team there will be an intelligence briefing at some point over the next couple of hours as well but then it's going to be covert covert covert all day as they try to get a grip on the crisis made it more difficult because the fact is they bite and ministrations says they have walked in to find there was no plan to distribute the

vaccine a tall know it had the operation more speed we had to but don't trump claiming success for getting the vaccine produced quickly which he could well claim some success for but partly there's no plan to get the vaccine out into the country the military and stand by but no concrete plan to get it done well joe biden has in the last week or so i did a couple of logistic. experts to that coronavirus task force and he's hoping that could make all the difference knowing how he handles cove it will go a long way to decide how the history remembers the presidency of joe biden and of course the other good big global issue is the climate where understand that u.s. special climate envoy john kerry has been talking about climate issues during an online meeting what more do we know about that. former secretary of state getting right into the job essential a climate czar here in the united states he says there is a problem there that the colonies have to realize that they have to get away from coal 5 times faster than they thought but he holds the idea that green economies

will create a lot of jobs and in developing countries as well he says that banks and financial institutions have to realize that there has to be a significant change or the world isn't going to get to 0 global emissions by 2050 and he's also issued a warning about the big climate change conference to take place in glasgow in scotland later this year he says there has to be a solution from that failure says join kerry simply isn't an option alan thanks very much indeed that's alan fischer talking to us from washington d.c. well as we reported earlier one of joe biden's 1st actions as president was to overturn one of don't trump 1st major immigration policies what came to be known as the muslim travel ban was signed in 2017 it suspended entry into the united states for travelers from majority muslim countries including iran libya somalia syria and

yemen spunk nationwide and global outrage that saw thousands protest outside airports resistance to the ban continued with several legal challenges for the country's top court up held it in 2018. soccer as it is is director of the center for security race and wright said what because law school she's joining us by skype from newark new jersey thank you very much indeed for being with us as i was just mentioning there was a big pushback against this from within the united states as well what kind of message does this latest reversal send to those who spend all their time campaigning i think it's a very positive development not only for the advocates in the communities that were muslim and not muslim who are pushing to reverse this clearly religiously bigoted travel ban but it shows a coming of age mainstreaming and a political development within muslim american communities that now they are able

to influence policy at the highest level the fact that by one reverse the muslim bam is very 1st day is significant politically because he could have waited a month 6 months but this was a signal to the muslim american communities and their supporters that i take you seriously i take your grievances seriously and hopefully it's an indication of what's to come in terms of incorporating muslim americans into his administration and into his policy making circles i would imagine that this isn't going to change things overnight though is that there is still a certain amount of unpicking that's going to be done and that means that families who have been separated for 4 years or so are still possibly going to have to wait until they get a chance to actually meet up again. yes i mean in terms of the practicalities it's like any bureaucratic administrative process especially american immigration it's going to take time for people to be able to come but at least they can come and that allows people to start their lives again and to be able to continue with

their plans in the future rather than have everything on hold because their spouses or their family members or students or professionals were not able to come to the united states a complete what they had planned to fulfill their their life's goals but more importantly there's a lot of work to be done by by him to ensure that this is not simply a token. political move for muslims in america in other words just because he reversed the travel ban doesn't mean that he doesn't need to change for example national security policies that have for the last 20 years selectively been targeting muslim american communities and jeopardizing the liberty of hundreds of muslim men in sting operations meanwhile you have the right wing extremists who have been openly planning insurgencies and seizures of the capital so that's just one example of other policies that need to change there are various um afloat and a danger to american democracy in the aftermath of donald trump making that decision back in 2017 we were starting to report on stories about muslims in

america who were saying people's attitudes towards them change there was a this seemed to be a distinct change in perception towards muslims both inside america and outside how much work do you think needs to be done to turn that around how can that be turned around if some of those opinions are by now fairly deeply ingrained. well islamophobia is an existential political problems for muslims in the united states i would compare it to anti semitism the early 1900 s. in europe in so far as the entire experience of muslim americans for the last 20 years has been shaped through their securitization whether it was bush's policies whether it was obama it was rather a question that is some of our but but whose policies more is some of a bit and now trouble was both policy and rhetorical anti muslim so starting in 2015 you had 8 open acceptable anti muslim racist rhetoric

coming from the highest powers elected officials presidential candidates and then the white house that's going to take years to reverse in what i think by needs to do or be serious about civil rights and he's serious about combating religious bigotry is he needs to be very intentional and purposeful and changing of culture within american society that's deeply entrenched that suspects muslims it is to appoint muslims to his administration it is to change national security policies you need to visit a mosque just as his visit you will likely visit a synagogue a church a cathedral at the temple no american president in the last 20 years except for president bush has visited a must not obama and certainly in our truck so i think biden has a lot of work to do to reverse the deeply entrenched cultural and he was owned by us and the advocates are that you will fulfill that promise so has really got to get your thoughts on this thank you very much indeed for joining us on al-jazeera thank you. timer ahead on the news hour including twitter locks out the chinese

embassy in the u.s. for what it calls a dehumanizing post on scene jang and the way he goes. petition for freedom under house arrest uganda's opposition leader waits to hear a court decision that could seal his fate. and in sports we'll tell you why not everyone agrees that to see an overnighter is the top goal scorer in football choice can have the details coming up. at least a 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 a rebel coalition outside the capital says president fasting twice the government must go back on web reports from benghazi where civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence. movies were bang 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. them if you want to kill me to my face as we were talking he shot me in one leg i started screaming esau could still walk softly shoot 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 wanted these men.

some hundreds or even 1000 people we do not have any right person and dream discount of because. 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 to. the violence escalated before during and after elections held last month political opposition say they were rigged un peacekeepers russian mercenaries and when the 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. sandrine 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 also 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 when the situation got come i took my children and walked for 6 hours to get to hospital. the current crisis here began 8 years ago when armed groups overthrew the government of the time. 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 central african republic. well the u.n. security council is meeting to discuss the central african republic on rust on

monday to u.n. peacekeepers were killed in the south of the country after their convoy was ambushed by a coalition of groups christensen is joining us live from the united nations kristen what are the security concerns about. well the council has been very concerned about the violence surrounding the elections in the central african republic this is the 2nd time they've met on the situation there in in just over a week they're worried that armed groups are attempting to block the capital of bongi and attacks on supply convoys by some of these armed groups are limiting medical supplies food and other essential items from getting into the capital as you mentioned 2 peacekeepers died recently 7 in total have been killed in the central african republic all of this of course big concern just

a week. just in all this a big concern for the council as i said they met just over a week ago for the situation there and the u.n. is saying that now they're seeing some 120000 people displaced as a result of the violence about half of them have fled to places within the country about half have fled over the border so the international community is now hearing from the head of news the peacekeeping mission there about the situation very concerned that the president who has been recently announced victor in the december elections maintain his position as the internationally recognized leader of the country as you mentioned there is a peacekeeping force there apart from putting forward these reports is there any indication that the u.n. might be suggesting more action on the ground up. well one of the things that the head of news corps and i has requested from the

security council is more support for his troops he says they're just overwhelmed the country is too big and there aren't enough of them to cover it some 15000 personnel are authorized for the mission there just last week the cat just before the elections rather the council did authorize 2 military units and 2 helicopters to transition from the mission in south sudan to the central african republic and they did indicate that they would be willing to provide more support we heard a formal request for that from the united nations mission there today another concern is the government's ability to fight rebels they've been working government forces have been working hand in hand with un forces there but the government forces. say that they are not prepared there's an arms embargo on the country they've been pushing to have that arms embargo lifted that's been

a contentious issue in the council russia and china have shown some support for that other council members have worried that this should be an incentive to greater democratic reforms in the country that the country isn't quite ready for that yet we don't expect any concrete action on that today but definitely could see some reinforcements being sent to the central african republic in the near future christine thanks very much indeed those kristen so let me talking to us from the united nations. still ahead on al-jazeera europe makes plans to phase out fuel burning cars box can ever attain its technological independence. action from the premier league as manchester united reclaim the top spots and that's coming up with joe in this quarter.

however we're seeing some rather wet sand windy at a time when she weather pushing across northern parts of the middle east recently we've had since snow pushing across the balance easing across northern parts of syria iraq pushing across iran now making its way towards afghanistan through turkmenistan dry weather coming back in behind to the south that will see temperatures here into struggling over the next couple of days 2021 celsius with that came blowing through the gulf lifted dust and sand so visibility problems you can expect that until we get into the 2nd half of the weekend south of that generate dry plenty of sunshine coming through that sunshine stretches across the whole of africa we got the showers a rumbling away across the rift valley central parts of africa i mrs showers heavy spells of rain pushing across northern parts of madagascar recently tropical cyclone elouise has brought some flooding into the north of madagascar and it's now gathering strength once again the winds picking up as it pushes through the warm

waters of the channel as we go through friday central parts of mozambique and expect to see some very heavy rainfall coming through that wet weather will slide its way further south which as we go on through sas they made into sunday gradually pushing into the far north east of south africa. criminal drug dealing have to take place is beyond the reach of. there are many people in afghan government when forced into drug trade guerilla wars in colombia. and mexico where the cartels have been responsible for a mass in a spiral of violence. the final episode of drug trafficking politics in our territories and just era. when all that seems to matter is the headline there is always 2 sides to a story when narratives and counter narratives obscure reality the leader on the

one hand the enemy is all believe they're on the other hand the listening post strips away the spin what kind of reporting if you can see on the ground misinformation is right lays bare the bias a lot of people believe things because they want to believe they are done covers the uncomfortable truths do you think they did enough to scrutinize the case for war the listing posts on a. ruling . you want to go to see it a reminder of our top stories this hour at least 32 people have been killed and dozens wounded in twin suicide attacks in iraq's capital explosions happened in a central baghdad market suicide attacks have become rare in the city the last one

happened in 2900. u.s. president joe biden set to announce another 10 executive orders on wednesday that are focused on the coronavirus pandemic but not biden and vice president come on the hottest taking part in a virtual presidential inaugural prayer being hosted by the washington national cathedral. the u.n. security council is meeting to discuss growing unrest in the central african republic on monday to u.n. peacekeepers were killed in the south of the country after their convoy was ambushed by coalition on groups. lawyers of ugandan opposition leader bobby why no waiting to hear the outcome of a petition challenging his house arrest after last week's disputed election well the wind has been prevented from leaving his home after declaring victory in a vote the opposition says was marred by widespread fraud and violence electoral authority says longtime president you ready most of any one a 6 term in office with almost 59 percent of the vote will be one secured just 35

percent catherine so i has this update from i get it close to bobby one's home. well the winds lawyers have finally been allowed to go and see him but for us journalists this is the end of the road we have been prevented from going farther he leaves about 500 meters from this area and he has said that he's under house arrest he's been confined to his home since friday not been allowed to have visitors journalists have been blocked in the u.s. ambassador here natalie brown has also been denied access to him she says and she just wanted to see how he's doing how he's health is but security officials are spoken to have been very careful with that word arrest they have said that he is not under house arrest where they have provided as a cover a a for his protection and to because of national security threats and that is the basis that his lawyers went to court today to ask the judge to compel security

forces to produce him to court if he is not on the house arrest they say that that he is the confinement is not justified it is indefinite and that he's confinement is he's being confined at a place that is not does that add by low it's his home it's not a prison facility now the prosecution on the other hand says that this case lacks merit because he is not under police custody and the police cannot be compelled to produce even if he is not under their custody the judge say that he's going to make his ruling on monday. everybody is hampering efforts to get aid to survivors of a powerful earthquake in indonesia the ways the islands thousands of cities and marzia among those who are displaced but people in effect of villages say help has been concentrated in the city's center and those on the outskirts are struggling

just to go washington has more from jakarta. on these an island assume these villages the trying to shelter under simple top poland's after their homes were destroyed but $6.00 magnitude earthquake and the sri is worried they running out of essential to survive that's why we need milk and baby food you see the conditions the poor children these are not conditions for children makeshift camps like this one have sprung up around westaway see that authorities are struggling to get aid to all of them. closer to the city center evacuation centers are better resourced president joko widodo visited one this week and pledged support for the affected areas. as for the collapsed houses the government will provide help for those that were heavily damaged. but some were not reassured by the president's words rebuilding the city is not the priority for many as they

scramble for food and clean water and some of the other we are lacking clean water diapers milk and blankets it is so cold here during the night local n.g.o.s and workers from government agencies say the heavy rain and challenging geography of the area makes it difficult to access some communities from the city center. first we need more tents for them the weather is so unpredictable sometimes it rains sometimes it's really hot and at night the wind is so strong and cold. indonesia's disaster management agency is working with hundreds of military personnel and volunteers to reach these makeshift shelters. in remote areas army. or together with the police and military we are delivering aid to those isolated places with helicopters to the places we haven't reached yet we are using heavy machinery to open access to deliver the aid takes time but we are trying our best

and covert 19 travel restrictions have only added to complications on the ground with fewer volunteers a bailable to help out just 2 weeks into 2021 in tunisia is battling multiple natural disasters across the country meteorologists warned the extreme weather could last until the end of february and has the potential to rain even more having just the washington al-jazeera jakarta. all returning to joe biden taking office as president of the united states on the campaign trail biden made it clear his formal plan for dealing with iran would start with a simple step of rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal but things have drastically changed since then and now that step might be more difficult than ever it also is about a reports from tehran a heavily choreographed video released by iran's revolutionary guard shows a new underground missile facility near the strait of hormuz the message to the

united states and israel is clear iran continues to boost its defensive capabilities the spite all the obstacles it's facing at the same time the saudi defense ministry released this video of a joint military drill with u.s. air force in the gulf aimed at showing the cooperation between the 2 air forces to maintain what the saudis described as security and stability in the region iran's ballistic missile program has been one of the most contentious issues with western powers. it is not part of the 2050 nuclear agreement and iran's commander in chief says it will never be. there for our deterrence capability today is in a position where iran's missiles can shoot down aggressor american aircrafts or even target base or deterrence should prevent enemies and force them to think twice before launching an aggression we shouldn't leave the country defenseless.

conservative politicians in iran successfully passed the bill which was very restrictive time constraints on us president elect joe biden to remove sanctions or iran's atomic energy agency will accelerate its production of enriched uranium and limit access of u.n. nuclear inspectors biden has until late february to respond but the most disruptive events recently was the assassination of a top iranian nuclear scientists in november by unknown gunmen widely believed to be israeli operatives inside iran. there was a physicist in iran's military nuclear program before it was formally disbanded in 2003 many believe the killing was an attempt to sabotage the nuclear deal but it only seemed to strengthen iran's resolve as the government tripled the defense ministries budget overnight foreign minister jihad zarif has been in the forefront

of negotiations and with incoming president biden there is a glimmer of hope among the shows it's more than 30 years that i've known mr biden i've been following his career and also when i was the ambassador to the u.n. we met several times he was the chairman of the foreign policy committee of the u.s. he's an experienced person in the field of foreign policy he's not a newcomer is expected by wiser policies but we should wait and see. 2020 had begun with another assassination that of major general hossam still in money considered the 2nd most powerful man in iran he died in baghdad after the convoy he was traveling in was hit by a u.s. drone the 2 targeted killings have drastically increased tensions between iran and the united states and the new us president is seen here as the last hope to salvage what is left of this battered relationship it seems that the upcoming administration and the united states led by joined by the will return to the

nuclear. short time 8. rather they will this cause further issues with iran before rejoining to be alone it doesn't seem much like the president has done rouhani has less than 6 months left in office his legacy could be at stake as his administration has overseen some of the worst economic times in iran since the iran iraq war. while joe biden has vowed an unshakable commitment to preventing iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon he's also offering a credible path back to diplomacy and officials here are now waiting to see if they will be disappointed yet again by another u.s. president or if he will be able to make good on his words. dorsett pari al jazeera to iran. 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 weaker muslims in the jang region and the

embassy tweeted that we go woman we're no longer baby machines thanks to government policies to eradicate extremism twitter says this violates his policy on dehumanization china has been accused by rights groups of forcing weaker women to have sterilizations and take birth control china denies the accusations they turn brown has more from hong kong on the controversy surrounding china's tweet fritter has now been locked 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 and shouldn't during and saying that we go women we're no longer baby making machines and that they had been immense a pedo that was clearly a step too far from twitter twitter so they've now been locked 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 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 or michael castors the asia digital program manager for the human rights organization article 19 he says social media companies need to have a clear understanding on violations of human rights principles. the position from article 19 and other human rights organizations is that online content moderation should be guided by human rights law and in particular with cases such as this the incitement to violence or discrimination against ethnic religious and racial minority groups should be prohibited at all costs the question here is whether we might agree with individual decisions that companies like twitter or facebook make

to regulate politics to regulate content that violates international principles this cannot be done on an ad hoc basis and the companies need to be guiding all such decisions based on international norms applied equally and in particular transparently it's certainly an offensive tweet and what is a bigger issue is the campaign for dissent from ation behind and beneath the tweet this was coming also from a report from china daily and other chinese state media that has been positioned very much so as it just information campaign around clearly documented acts of genocide and crimes against humanity in since young and what we need is a much larger discussion about counterweights and pushing back against china's ability to influence the narrative and spread disinformation and such extremely critical gross human rights violations and these 5 people have died in india after

a fire broke out of the world's largest vaccine manufacture the building was under construction and being erected to boost manufacturing a profit 19 vaccines serum institute of india says production won't be affected because of the fire was not immediately clear the company's been contracted to manufacture a 1000000000 doses of the us to zeneca oxford university vaccine. some e.u. leaders are suggesting a vaccine passports should be considered the proposal would allow travel within the e.u. for those who've been immunized but it's a divisive issue and not all agree it's the right solution to tell us about the reports from potus. the town hall in paris's 15th district a new batch of covert vaccines arrives inside a doctor measures are doses ready for use elderly people are being prioritized for immunization those here are hopeful that life may soon return to normal but not in reality i'm just desperate to do things again i feel like i've been stagnating and

that couldn't wait to have the specs and. the goals that everyone is vaccinated as fast as possible so the virus recedes as the number of people vaccinated against covidien frauds grows so does talk of a vaccine passport to travel this french politician says such a document could also be used to visit restaurants or theatres. those who are vaccinated should be able to resume activities a vaccination passport would show that a person is no longer in danger themselves and no longer a danger to others. supporters of a vaccine passport say could help revive vital economic sectors like tourism paris is usually one of the world's most visited cities but in the past year few people have come to admire its more new mints will enjoy attractions like this cruise the owner of this boat talk company on the river said says he would welcome a vaccine paul sports if would encourage international travelers to return to the

city because without them it will be a challenge to keep the business afloat any solutions that can help us live normally again would be good there already countries that require vaccinations to enter to a vaccine possible is a good idea if you can help everyone work again the opinion polls suggest that a majority of people in france support a vaccine possible for travel access to certain services but the french government says it's far too early to consider such a measure that it would be divisive because not enough people have been immunized and many don't wish to be it would be unfair especially in france where we have. you know this. very well attached to the equality principle so exactly could be the reaction could be ok or only the 1st people to be vaccinated will have those rights and not ourselves and we have to queue we have to wait for a while before getting vaccinated so it's unfair e.u. leaders will discuss the idea of a vaccine passport during

a meeting thursday the issue divides member states it's clear though that opening up economies and offering some freedoms won't be easy or the e.u. still navigates in its worst ever health emergency it's al-jazeera paris the demand for electric vehicles is booming worldwide governments in europe are making plans to phase out fuel burning cars but there are warnings that the continent's economy risks falling behind if it allows asia to dominate the development and sale of batteries always reports from gothenburg. further faster cheaper and greener demand for electric cars is rising and so are the demands placed on the the swedish chinese pollstar to is one of the latest vehicles trying to tempt drivers away from petrol diesel why is this a cyclic time for the electric cars because it's finally happening because we are finally not nice anymore the other aspect whole can you still at all think that the

combustion engine oriented car is a future proof business pole star is a joint european asian vehicle made by volvo and their chinese owners but the emerging electric industry is about intense intercontinental competition as well as collaboration. cars like this are developing extremely rapidly as engineers try to match the speed and range of petrol driven very coals and whoever makes the biggest leap forward now is likely to win the race to dominate the transport industry of the future. in europe without races being run from here the laboratory in uppsala north of stockholm because when it comes to electric cars the advantage is all about the battery like this the lab is the standard bearer for the battery 2030 plus project the constant speed to take back some of asia's dominance in the development and sale of electric batteries the europe wide group is led by

chemistry professor christina edstrom we need to see very defining a new much here's a new back to calls to help europe in the hard competition with asia they're good in asia they're doing new exciting factories if we want to have industry in europe we need to catch up. there is a lot of catching up to do you factories for the current generation of lithium ion batteries are being built in sweden and germany but europe makes just 3 percent of car batteries globally while asia led by china japan and south korea produces 85 percent to change that europe needs to find a battery that provides great to mileage charges faster and relies less on the damaging effect of mining from mineral such as cobalt the problem with the fact is today that they don't hold enough energy in that container and we want to make it back to something future and we need to understand what's going on really the fundamental mistake level that could be the ace up europe sleeve the world's most

powerful neutron source a kind of x. ray for atoms is also nearing completion in sweden in time to join the hunt for a new car battery a breakthrough will be needed to stop asia putting the rest of the world in its rear view mirror for good polar east al-jazeera gothenburg sweden. still ahead on al-jazeera flying down the mountain we get a new perspective on one of schemes most dangerous courses that's coming up joe in sport.

the all.

time for sport here's joe rob thank you very much the head of the international committee thomas bach insists the take your games will go ahead as planned this year public support for the games is falling in japan with much of the country in a state of emergency because of coping 191-5000 athletes are expected to travel to tokyo for the olympics and paralympics which have already been delayed by one year not to mention media and fans says there is no plan b. and he's fully committed to hosting a safe and successful event starting july 23rd. but with just over 6 months to go one virus expert at coby university believes hosting may be too big a gamble. we're going to drop the sport there this is al jazeera and this is us house speaker nancy pelosi speaking in a weekly press conference but this is the 1st she's held since a joe biden became president of the united states let's listen in. but the manner in which it happened america united you know i've said again and again that the

arts will bring us together and we laugh together we cry together we're inspired together we find a common ground more easily and that was certainly given proof yesterday when amanda gorman made her recite it her beautiful presented her beautiful poem about unity and about coming together optimistic. and it was of course the complete theme of the inauguration but also. pres. president and he was president when he made his beautiful and. about unity i was mad the day began the inauguration again at the end of the day. was the end of the. celebrations. you know the president always loves to quote the

irish poets seamus heaney being one of his favorites so the end of the day to see miranda reciting seamus. heaney's poem and then at the end of the poem joe biden and seamus heaney coming together saying the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history can rhyme it's about trust it's about hope to them that's what the. inauguration i was about. when the president said today is america's day to day is democracy's day that was really true that inauguration was a breath of fresh air for our country you know the ration of president.

as vice president of the united states with all of the newness of that that cresent it the woman 1st african-american woman 1st asian american woman the best not just about. democracy but. leadership. so now with the. biden harris administration in place a democratic majority that occurred later and the day yesterday when chuck schumer became had the majority leader of the senate. with the swearing in of 3 members who are very proud of senator byrd the of california just. had that the 2 senators from georgia. ask 3 new senators

a new democratic majority now we can recover from the pandemic and get the work to build back better. today our nation marks the passing of 400000 people that was yesterday 400 people died but today marks one year since our 1st knowledge of this pandemic and what did we learn this morning we learned this morning that the ministration had no real plan for the production and distribution of the vaccine just another in a series of their terrible. approach to it from the start and. distortion calling it a hoax. they didn't even have

a plan as we go forward we see immediately the. president has put forth a plan to. you know what that is yesterday he. spent it in his. executive actions when he talked about wearing masks distancing science based approaches today he'll sign further orders my understanding is to use the defense production act to speed up p p p p p e delivery to expand testing treatment at public health. workforce that we need and watch a vaccination campaign of this to more safely open up schools and businesses employ . something that there were just a race from any bill addressing the. disparity in

treatment and therefore and testing and therefore the disparity in incidence of code 19 and communities of color as we salute these actions we are getting ready for a package we'll be working on that. as you probably have seen mr hoyer announced that as we work on these issues will be back in session until the beginning of february another group that 1st is of. and but we'll be doing ak. we be doing our committee work all next week so that we are completely ready to go to the floor when we come back and then again the covert proposals from the administration build on many of the initiatives that. our peg ages. it's what the people need it's what the country needs to crush the virus put money in the pockets of the american people and honor our heroes. really about

executive actions but just mention that one package we also were pleased to see the president come forward had the administration come forward with an immigration proposal burd please that in the house linda sanchez will be taking the lead senator menendez and the senate it has the basic principles that leads to. see. what the timetable is on that today we are in session out to vote on the austin waiver it is a waiver so that general lloyd austin conservative secretary of defense. have said highly qualified and well respected leader with over 40 years of death rate at service he brings a great understanding of the challenges facing our nation's defenses and the

sacrifice that many in uniform and their families once the waiver is superb i feel confident that the senate will confirm the general as secretary of defense. civilian control of the military is a not an issue for us it is a principle and we are so pleased that unlike the. the ministration. courage the general to come and. what is happening right now in armed services committee so again it's a very happy time. proud of our members. such bright came here i was in a session that was made available for members and staff about the trauma of what happened on january 6th. physical

psychological trauma by carrier.