fierce and formidable the polls good because a renowned for their courage under fire. when i went east binds out what it takes to join the elite brigade. on al-jazeera. u.s. president joe biden the vales his coronavirus strategy to speed up the pandemic response which he says has so far been a dismal failure. so romney watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha are also coming up coated clouds over the tokyo olympics but japan's government denies reports it's considering canceling the games also i saw claims responsibility for

a suicide attack in baghdad that killed 32 people will find out what it means for the country's fragile security situation and left out in the cold days of snow one to wrench all rain the thousands of syrian refugees without shelter. welcome to the program u.s. president joe biden has launched what he calls a full scale war time strategy to beat covert 19 on his 1st full day in office he signed a string of executive orders aimed at speeding up the response to the pandemic which has claimed the lives of more than 400000 americans biden's team of experts is working on a centralized inoculation strategy revealing the troubled administration had no federally coordinated vaccination plan in place by cam the reports now from washington d.c. . this you jake. day 2 of the biden presidency and another flurry of executive

orders 24 hours after the u.s. recorded the worst single day coronavirus death toll these are focused on combating the pandemic the measures ranging from getting more vaccines to more people to improving safety in schools and work spaces we can get to dismiss overnight it's monstrous to turn things around but let me be equally clear we will get through this we will defeat is pandemic into a nation waiting for action let me be clear stand this point help is on the way one of the new things in this administration's if you know the answer don't guess just say you don't know the answer yet a familiar face returning to the white house briefing podium sidelined for many months stuck to antony found she is a central figure in the new pandemic task group and he made clear reference to the difficulties he experienced as a scientist and

a president trump there were things that were said. regarding things like a drug cyclone rick when and other things like that that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact i can tell you i take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president the idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know what the evidence what the sciences know that's it let the science speak it is somewhat of a liberating feeling there's been shocked at how little planning had been put into combating the pandemic but there has been no centralized federal strategy it's been left to governors and their states to plan and sometimes fund and pandemic measures administration officials say that when they are safe says for a pandemic plan there wasn't one. many members of congress are dismayed at it we learned this morning we learned this morning that the company ministration had no

real plan for the production and distribution of the vaccine just another in a series. they're terrible an affective approach to it from the start and americans are reeling from a startling statistic the country has 4 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of recorded coronavirus cases. before assuming office joe biden stood at the reflecting pool in memory of the 400000 americans who have died his message now that there sadly will be many more before the pandemic is brought under control. mike hanna out his ear or washington. the top republican in the u.s. senate says he wants full president donald trump's impeachment to be delayed until mid february mitch mcconnells said it would give trump 2 weeks to get ready for the proceedings once the charge is presented house speaker nancy pelosi has rejected

demands to drop the trial trump was impeached just days before the end of his term accused of inciting a riot at capitol hill that left 5 people dead if you don't play the president do whatever you want in the last months of your lowest ration you're going to get a just get out of jail card free because because people think we should make nice nice and forget the people died here on january 5th that the attempt to undermine our election to undermine our democracy to dishonor our constitution no i don't see that you know i think that would be harmful to unity the european union is considering putting in place time to travel restrictions in the blocks coronavirus hot spots areas will be labeled dark red zones and travelers from there will have to get tested and undergo quarantine european commission

president civil delaying says and non-essential travel must be strongly discouraged . the start behind it is that we understand once again that we are one epidemy a logical zone and not divided in different member states where we have different situations and we will only contain the virus if we have targeted measures and not unnecessary measures like a blanket closure of borders which would severely hurt our economy but not very much restrict the virus the netherlands is sent to impose its 1st curfew since the 2nd world war parliament approved a measure to try to stop the spread of a more contagious variant of the corona virus on wednesday it banned flights from britain south africa and south america where mutations are believed to be widespread french president manuel mccall says covert 100 tents will become compulsory for all travelers trying to enter france as of sunday london transport

haitian and cross border workers will be exempt fronts is now also requiring people to a higher quality masks instead of fabric face coverings. meanwhile in neighboring germany the number of people who've died from corona virus has topped 50000 chancellor angela merkel is defending the decision to extend the lockdown until mid february she thinks it would be unwise to ease restrictions given mutations of the virus have been detected in germany the country's been in lockdown since november. japan's government has denied reports considering canceling the tokyo olympics the times newspaper says the japanese government has privately concluded the games will need to be called off because of the corona virus pandemic victoria b. has more. the olympic games jewel to be held last year but were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic now a rise in infections has forced the government to impose a state of emergency in tokyo and other parts of the country and that's raise

questions about whether the summer games will be held in 6 months as planned newspaper reports that you pan's government has privately concluded the games will have to be reshaped jeweled have been denied by the prime minister. regarding the tokyo games it will be a symbol of humanity overcoming the novel coronavirus and the chance to showcase japan's reconstruction from the devastating northeastern earthquake and tsunami to the world we will be well prepared on the measures for the infection japan has spent $25000000000.00 preparing for the taking of a lympics most of which is public money but a recent poll shows 80 percent of japanese people don't want the games to go ahead this summer. even if japan was able to curb the coronavirus a giant thing we can welcome athletes considering the current situation it should be canceled the money we spend on the game should be used for antivirus measures and stayed. 80 percent i want the olympics to go ahead but the other 20

percent i wonder what would happen to japan if it was canceled when i read it going through a lot. analytics has been cancelled only 5 times before in war time a final decision on whether to hold the games this year or not is expected in early spring i think the date to watch is march 25th that's when the target really begins for northern japan 4 months 10000 runners crossing the country arriving there will enjoy our 23rd in tokyo it would seem absurd to start the torch relay and then have to have no olympics the international olympic committee make 75 percent of its income from selling broadcast rights of the olympics if is cancelled it could lose an estimated $2.00 to $3000000000.00 of revenue victoria gate and be al-jazeera. responsibility for a double suicide bombing of the iraqi capital 32 people were killed and more than 100 injured. but the blast ripped through

a busy market in baghdad. iraq's prime minister reshuffle several top security officials following the attack the worst in several years some of the faultiness following events for us and is life for us in baghdad i mean i saw claimed responsibility but how worried will also our t's be that the group is still active in some form and operating in the heart of the capital. well i thought never really went away despite he government declaring its territorial defeat in iraq in 2017 the group had a relatively seamless transition to an insurgency and even though it was pushed out from the urban areas have really pushed to deep into rule areas in the mountains it continued to operate it continued to stage attacks on security forces on checkpoints in remote areas it continued to terrorize the population in remote villages and iraqi officials have acknowledged as just yesterday in an exclusive

interview of al-jazeera iraq's foreign minister minister of what hussein acknowledged that is still a threat that the country needed support from the region and from international countries to really counter the threat but we also have to say that it is very difficult to quantify how strong the organization is and in my reporting on the metro it was always a challenge to gather accurate statistics in terms of how many attacks actually carries out we do know that for example the u.s. led coalition to fight i saw it under reports cases of attacks by eiseley specially in remote rural areas because they rely on the iraqi security forces to report these cases and a lot of times the information is just not captured turns difficult to say how strong it is but it's still definitely. is active since the attack. we heard various analysts on al-jazeera talking about the fact of whether this is as you

suggest i saw making a resurgence all the final remnants of i saw within iraq as a sleeper cell i mean what is your reading could this just be disgruntled members of the public may do. or the devices just want to get back at the government because they're not happy with security they're not happy with the employment but not happy with the health service. well if you want to assess isel strength it's important to look back to 2013 and 14 and to understand how the group rose to power at that time in those years there was very deeply deeply rooted sense of marginalizing nation in iraq's northern sunni areas to wards the shia led government there was violence suppression of anti-government protests and that is what led people to join iceland and some of the general population to think well perhaps this other form of governance is worth

a try given how badly things are going now that kind of thinking is no longer there it's very clear that iceland wreaks havoc on this country and there is very little support from iraq is for this group now and now the other factor that is very important is the capability of iraq's security forces as we as we know back in 2014 the iraqi army basically disintegrated as i was for approach and of course the challenge has changed now it is no longer a standing army it is now an insurgency and that is where iraq's institutions still need development is tony training they still need a better capabilities in terms of intelligence gathering and surveillance to be able to pursue eisel in its current form so move on to reporting for us there in baghdad thank you. still ahead here on al-jazeera tight restrictions in malawi you have to fear that returning migrant workers could spike coronavirus infections and overwhelm hospitals and joe biden sets

a new course for america but where does that leave israel and its illegal settlements after years of support by donald trump those stories after the break. we've got storm kristoff now making its way across the north sea easing over towards norway some very strong winds rattling behind across scotland because if there was snow on this is well with that northerly blast coming in and a fair bit of snow there's no way easing over towards the sweden as we go through the next couple of days so that wet weather that wintry weather will gradually continue to not just way further raise was as we go on into friday things will quiet and down there for much of the british isles want to shower still coming into northern parts of more than a wetter weather to just pushing across into that western side of spain through the

by of biscay and some very wet weather some very heavy snow coming in across the alps remold air pushing into some very cold air so big dumpings of snow certainly likely avalanche risk is certainly elevated as a result of that in temperatures elevated to ensure that a ceasar if you're moscow get up tomorrow it's a plus one celsius on friday just a few days back we were struggling to get to minus 21 so that is something of an improvement still if you went too far as here we go through saturday wintry flurries around the baltic states and quiet weather coming back into scandinavia and also the british isles have got some rain is in parts of france with snow back down across the alps and peyronie's. the. american people have finally suppose. america as i see it because of our world becomes more dangerous the world is looking very slim mixture of sadness and. with the election behind us will the republican party dump trucks to the fuel

weekly take on us politics and the solution that the bottom of the usa is always of in fact the people all right the world people pay attention to walk on here now does it is very good at bringing the news to the world from here. ruth. oh. oh. welcome back you're watching i was there with me so rob a reminder of our top news stories u.s. president joe biden has launched what he calls a full scale war time strategy to be covert 19 his newly signed executive orders include emergency legislation to appease that same production and requiring international travelers to quarantine when they arrive in the u.s.

japan has denied reports it's considering canceling the take your lympics the times newspaper has the government said privately concluded the games would need to be called off because of the pandemic and i sort of claim responsibility for a double suicide bombing in the iraqi capital $32.00 people were killed and more than $100.00 injured on thursday when the blast ripped through a busy market in baghdad. trying to rain has caused widespread flooding in refugee camps in syria that's left thousands of internally displaced people without shelter while others have been forced to stay inside flooded tents and as laura beth manley reports the conditions are also increasing the risks of covert 90. the aftermath of 4 days of torrential rain and snow thousands of people displaced by war are trapped in this camp and many have nowhere to go they do their best to clear their living spaces marked pushed up to the side the tents offer some

protection from the water the rains came in the middle of the night forcing people out of the homes into the bitter winter cold on tuesday one boy was killed after the brick wall built around his tent collapsed on top of him. thousands of families have lost their shelters and more rain has been forecast most every year we're having the situation great constant actual rains flooding the area because the roads are closed even for. the ground who are trying to reach these families with assistance it's hard to get what we know so far is that at least 21900. further north along syria's border with turkey a freezing blanket of snow and weeks of rain maker unsteady ground in this refugee camp conditions here are already tough but covered 1000 is adding to the misery of

. cold weather seeps into the tents it comes from the floor we are truck between 2 things cold weather and winter and at the same time of the coronavirus we are trapped between 2 fires we cannot isolate for corona virus and we cannot protect ourselves from cold weather this heater does not help families here have no choice but to creep inside the tends to keep away from the freezing temperatures outside. but living in such close proximity can also make them vulnerable to the virus or law. conditions are very hard here especially in winter where can we hide from the call where can we hide from the coronavirus there are infections here and tents are not isolated many people are unprepared for the treacherous conditions and some don't even have shoes to wear. nor does a man the al jazeera. a 15 day state of emergency has come into force in central

african republic to deal with armed groups trying to blockade the capital bunky u.n. peacekeepers have been trying to push back the rebel coalition pressuring the president are steen scholz to dare to quit after disputed december elections. from the capital a coalition of armed groups controls about 2 thirds of the central african republic territory and in it to most of the country's gold and diamond mines they're also not far from where we are here in the capital borghi they've been threatening to attack it they did attack it last week they were 4th off by forces aligned with the government that includes the national army un peacekeepers but the most effective fighters are russian mercenaries and rwandan troops now the forces aligned with the government complain that it's not a fair fight because the arms involved are they say they are here to it but they say that their enemy the armed groups do not know they say that means the armed

group got much heavier higher caliber weapons and rockets they have to fight against the communications minister we spoke to him a couple of days ago even said he thinks those armed groups are getting support and weaponry from other countries in the region and possibly even from some european countries as well. the united nations envoy to the central african republic has appealed to the security council to increase its peacekeeping operations with more than $11000.00 un soldiers stationed in ca are it's already one of the largest and costliest u.n. operations in the world kristen salumi has the latest from the u.n. in new york. the head of the united nations peacekeeping mission in the central african republic as well as the country's foreign minister pleaded with the security council for more resources to keep armed rebel opposition groups at bay they are concerned about ongoing violence in the country as of december the united nations had more than $11000.00 peacekeepers on the ground in the central african

republic the security council ahead of elections in december did grant them some $300.00 additional troops as well as a couple of helicopters from another mission to bolster their presence on the ground but the head of the mission monk or and-i says even more troops are needed going forward as well as equipment to make them more mobile they're worried about supply routes into the capital of being attacked by these opposition groups and that possibly cutting off food supplies and medical supplies with more than 100000 civilians on the run because of the fighting the humanitarian situation there is worsening now alongside of the peacekeepers government forces are also on the ground the foreign minister of the country sylvie bi-polar tame mon said that she

wanted the security council to lift an arms embargo that's been in place since 2012 she said this arms embargo is severely limiting the government's ability to respond to these attacks there was some reservation among security council members on that front while there was widespread widespread support for the recently reelected president to dari and for bolstering the u.n. mission some were concerned the united states in particular that lifting the arms embargo would allow weapons to get into the hands of the opposition given there were some issues they said with do. and defectors in the central african republic military the foreign minister made a pleas saying that they were being outgunned not only by regular guns but by heavy heavy equipment like rocket launchers opposition already had these supplies in the

government did not the security council heard that concern asked her to make a formal request for the weapons that the country needs and said they would consider it the southern african nation of malawi has seen far fewer cave in 1000 infections compared to other countries but there are concerns that migrants are causing the disease to spread tens of thousands of malawians work in south africa where a new variant of the disease has also been identified so now while we has put tougher restrictions in place for me to allow small. malawi has recorded more than 13000 corona virus infections since the 1st case was identified the 9 months ago while the number may be far lower than many other countries more than harmful cases have been detected this month alone prompting the government to tighten restrictions. on find. some.

other. a nighttime curfew has been imposed and schools have been closed malawi has recorded more than 300 deaths related to cope with 19 with a 3rd of those recorded this month alone they are concerns that already limited health facilities may be overwhelmed and now a new more contagious variant of the virus found in south africa is adding to worries that returning migrant workers may contribute to the spread in malawi patients and their way is one of tens of thousands of malawians who work in south africa because of the poor economy at home but she returned to blantyre after coded 1000 restrictions in south africa made it difficult to find work there's

a lot of talent is coming back here coming. because of you need to get tested placed before you leave. and you need to have. this for $4414.00 days the government has spent the equivalent of $8000000.00 to fight the virus some of that money has been used to quarantine screen monitor and transport almost $20000.00 malawians returning to the country some of those returning were quarantined in a prison building which was later looted and vandalized when the release of some people was delayed the dinner is what if you don't like that when we arrived they test this and promised to give us results the next morning by 9 o'clock we patiently waited for our results often on the clock and looking at how tired we were and the unexplained delays people with some ringleaders started vandalizing this the death of 2 government ministers and 2 senior political figures from covert

1000 led the government to declare a state of emergency for media miller al-jazeera. joe biden is doing all he can to make a sharp change in course after 4 years of double trump that some are questioning how that shift will play out for israel and palestine biden officials have already said that they won't undo the recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital or move the u.s. embassy but they are signaling a move from trump's unprecedented pro israeli stance are a force that reports of robyn hode by injury and you do solemnly swear inauguration of a new u.s. president is a moment of reappraisal for america's friends and foes around the world perhaps none more so than israel whose prime minister has aligned himself so closely with donald trump president biden you and i had a warm personal friendship going back many decades i look forward to working with you to further strengthen the u.s.

israel alliance at the same time netanyahu is delivering a very different welcome message for a president he knows will oppose the expansion of illegal israeli settlements issuing approvals for nearly $800.00 new housing units tendering outbuilding work for 2 and a half 1000 more and with just 5 hours to go before the inauguration confirming building contracts for work to start here at give out how much toss the long delayed settlement between jerusalem and bethlehem the palestinians say would be a major obstacle to their future state. it's reminiscent of another major settlement announcement made during a biden visit to jerusalem in 2010 leaving then vice president furious it's basically not in yell poking a thing in the president elect why he's doing that it baffles me he is going to need the cooperation of president biden an issue sectors iran the reality is biden's pick for secretary of state anthony blinken expressed support this week for a 2 state solution to the israeli palestinian conflict along with doubts about

making progress on that in the near term nonetheless palestinians have been making moves designed to find favor with biden such as. abbas's announcement this month of the 1st presidential and legislative elections for 15 years so now. we receive positive messages that we can build on to restore bilateral relations and restore a peace process that is built on the 2 state solution and international legitimacy biden supports the normalization deals between israel and arab states that the palestinians call a stab in the back deals that netanyahu happily emphasized had come without concessions but some see scope for biden to extract concessions from netanyahu in the future but he would like to have help from president biden in securing additional normalization agreements he knows now that this would require further 'd changes in israel's policy towards the palestinians and to the extent that these are minor he seems to be ready to go down that road the initial phase of the biden

netanyahu relationship is likely to be defined by differences over iran the israel palestine conflict may well slip down the agenda of the person. but bruised by 4 years of donald trump the palestinians at least have a more familiar style of u.s. leadership with which to engage kerry for sit on his ear in the occupied west bank . with me so robin a reminder of our top stories u.s. president joe biden has launched what he calls a full scale war time strategy to be covert 19 his newly signed executive orders include emergency legislation vaccine production and requiring international travelers to quarantine when they arrive in the united states we get in this mess overnight it's going to take more interest to turn things around but let me be equally clear we.