for the company in its current form the kind remains unworkable and if it became law would hurt not just google but small publishers small businesses and the millions of australians that ease out services every day the principle of unrestricted linking between websites is fundamental to search and coupled with the unmanageable financial and operational risk if this version of the code were to become law it would give us no real choice but to stop making google search available in australia. so this is our deserve these are the top stories and u.s. president joe biden is set to target the economy on his 2nd full day in office its executive orders are expected to help those struggling to feed their families or find a job because of the pandemic it is a temporary means of financial relief before congress considers his $1.00 trillion dollars stimulus package biden set his pandemic response plan in motion on thursday

with several executive orders on wearing masks and quarantine for international travelers mike hanna has more now from washington d.c. we expect a few more executive orders from president biden one we understand will deal with a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour for federal contractors another will help. americans with assistance such as food stamps improving their conditions of life trying to relieve some of their situation as you say the legislation but one aid ranging legislation in the coronavirus relief bill goes through congress the number of people who've died from coronavirus in germany has exceeded 50000 chancellor angela merkel is defending her decision to extend the lockdown until mid february and says the european union works to impose new travel restrictions on the books hardest hit areas. china is battling its worst outbreak of covert 900 since march

its recorded more than 100 new daily infections for more than 10 straight days mass testing is underway in areas of beijing and all hospital staff are being tested in shanghai china is on high alert as hundreds of millions of people plan to travel during the lunar new year holiday in february. japan has denied reports it's considering counseling the take your lympics the british newspaper the times says the government has privately concluded the games would need to become called off because of the pandemic the u.n. says it's conservative concerned about the security situation in syria's largest refugee camp after a series of murders at least 12 people have been killed in the whole camp since the start of the year the u.n. says the violence could jeopardize the delivery of aid and humanitarian assistance for your state with the headlines got more news coming up here in of syria right after the street. on counting the cost

a trillion dollar man we take a look at president biden's plans to revive the pandemic on a meat and create millions of jobs plus can he man fences with america's traditional allies we talked him out of foreign minister for the view from the in his. counting the cost on al-jazeera. time after we had caylee watching the screen the recent high profile arrests of 3 crewmen and critics of zimbabwe's government is a stilton point for today's conversation you may remember of a string in gas frauds. she was recently detained for commenting on an alleged case of police brutality she's now out and this is what she told the stream . the opposition continues to be stifled in zimbabwe with opponents of the

regime and whether the journalists members of the main opposition or general government critics being locked up for protesting and you know some of the indiscretions of the regime including police brutality and corruption this has had and doubted chilling effect on people's ability to speak out freely it's had a chilling effect on freedom of expression and it certainly and the mind and the ability of citizens to hold the government to account is symbolic way criminalizing the st if you have an opinion on that if you've got examples of that you know what to do on you tube he can jump into the comments section and be part of today's program we were also hoping that the information ministry of zimbabwe would also be part of today's program we reached out we asked them multiple times they did not respond to our requests but we do have an excellent lineup of guests

as always when we talk about zimbabwe bright doug tendai thank you for being on the string today bright to tell our audience who you are what. it is right to. duty for a minute that. a former president. we don't know if it's movie used. good to have you nice to have you on the string 10 ides national audience he was one of the relevant to today's conversation. i think me my name's doug coltart i'm a human rights lawyer and a constitutional lawyer i spent i spend a lot of my time representing. people you know like the. the 3 who have been locked up for in this latest incident people who speak out on issues and a lot of and i've been part of the legal team representing. journalists good to

have you and i tend i woke into the strain was you know really need to know about what you're doing. and we could even encourage. it and we certainly his literally meant to for get him to a bt i'm a christian. member of parliament. as well as. the face president's office and barbara said be splatted the movement for democratic change alliance led by advocate notes in jerusalem. so this is a kind of contentious conversation that we're going to use these recent arrests and detention of 3 quite high profile critics of the bobbins government as a case study what's happening in zimbabwe have a look in my laptop these were the 3 that we are talking about this is fan site he saw earlier this is joe peace from the m.d.c. alliance and he's an m.p. and then you may well run that recognize you know very well known journalist in

zimbabwe and often does stories a critiquing the government so let me just start with bright light why was the story even rested briefly. for the record to wish for the. story was that is down. to the. best of my resume is that the. resources. in one mustn't be. no i. understand it where. you fall publishing. aren't so that is you understand let me show out as on my laptop this is new zimbabwe this is the headline here latest police investigation

dismisses caught baby murder claims to see that a lady in red holding up but he let me shoot a video from that page and you can have a look for yourself he can always decide from looking at video but let's roll that please brutality video because i want to see how. some of the chaos. was the 1st week of january was was he very different stories going around down one story was that the police he accidentally beat the baby and the baby died the police are saying that shards of glass fell on the baby as far as i can tell from that report and the baby hasn't died duck. well. for you international audience i think it's important. to know that in that

video what the crowd are shouting at the police officer is you kill the baby you kill the baby he kill the baby that's the refrain which is repeated being shouted at the police officer it's for the states to prove you are in that case with that baby is alive or not we don't know at the stage but i think that it to a large degree that totally misses the point of what this is really about this is not about publishing false it's for a start the crime of publishing equal so that the 3 have been have been charged with was struck down by the constitutional court of zimbabwe as unconstitutional it was declared void if it's not a law it is not a law in terms of a lot being struck down but secondly these 3 individuals who are critics of the regime. as politicians one as

a journalist had been arrested multiple times if and and not about about. the previous time hope of shimano was a risk that he was arrested for curricular reporting on corruption in the n.p.a. and the whole charge was based on the fact that since he critically reported what was happening in the n.p.a. as the prosecuting authority. reported that a human must. have sources in the n.p.a. and if was interfering in the n.p.a. securities it really has nothing to do with with with fake news or anything like that that's really it is a red herring this is about cracking down on people speaking out against police brutality and corruption within the we're a sheep. tendai i'm going to show our audience 2 tweets one is from 5 and every one is from hopewell it's go to these teachers i'm just wondering there are some parts

of the world way tweeting out informational story or sharing a story that will get you put in prison is zimbabwe one of those countries. but i think you i think that. the issue here is that zimbabwe is a fear. in a direction with civic rights a constitutional rights being sounds left right and center by the new regime headed by mr. defector the my taste at since november 27th. into the coup that removed president mugabe. we have seen a massive aid to teach you a vision of the human rights in political situation and we've seen

a massive call exclusion of civic and political rights we have seen it to him escalation tentative forces so on the attack or net and out east or new or putin one of job we were scholar and if i'd say my area. this is it unleashes its full might against the citizens who actually put the substance of their tweets was that they'd been policed if i alinsky act innocent unarmed woman in a child the police themselves don't dispute that is a middle fictive in public to say the same the policemen are facing it is not really a judge's. the issue of the with of the baby is alive or not is a dispute over 4 fifth's is dark or tads is critical observed if you understood our language my mother language is sure that the people in that shouting wold am i

know what i am what you feel did this baby of killed this baby there protesting it's an instant thing no as it participation to do to the police. or a life so they could be making it up there it's an addict as is little. moon i shall very soon hear is. the regime that is muscular it's intended it will be known in france i will put it into job just send me examples of the continued to release in the united situation in iraq and let me just bring brought back into the conversation i'm looking here at an edition of the zimbabwe mail and i'm going to take us beyond this this tragic story because it's a very difficult story to get a head around but you see as an example so this in belgrade and zimbabwe is

a constitutional democracy says that zanu p.f. this is the national spokesperson speaking out about this particular story and weiss 3 people quite high prominent critics of the zimbabwean government why they were detained so let me just go down here a spokesperson said that citizens who are suspected to have 20 crimes in zimbabwe a substance objected to due process is that the law irrespective of one's political affiliation station in life so basically saying this is not looking at politics not the fact they criticize the government they just broke the law right but i'm wondering that if this has a chilling effect on people being out to use social media or to journalism or critique police brutality what does it say about zimbabwe right now. if you believe just. that piece of politicization of the uses was yes it was 2040 poems about who we. are

still in trouble you were a little too it was even stated in 16 is now in a row treaty or the treaty is it in the institution so that you know exist if disagreed with you there we go piece of legislation you know what to do. gentlemen and. so isn't what it is either to do that or doesn't exist it does exist no need to argue the motives of which is no democracy there is a hallucination was there any just. put something to you know 1610 and you know this about the challenge shifted a little and you notice the getting high for it is about the. media how. to control. the. 2000.

representing the earth and is about more than the. savior it is not democracy is about will there be you know people being muslim and despair of their. own of the truth of one of the 2010 others. and i wondering wondering about this one particular journey i need. that he's attracting a lot of attention so let's go back to july 2020 for instance this is when he was held on indictment charteris. and then in november of last year he was charged with obstruction of justice and then in january of this year saying journalists was held on communication for charts force his charge is and that was

for sharing aid to wheat duck is this. journalism where you can actually scoops communicate freely or not bright is a nut but isn't that there are plenty of janis in zimbabwe this one is just getting himself into trouble you represented him i know you're working on his various different cases will be your sewer sponsor the bright about you know in particular . can i just take a moment to respond to bright on some false hoods that he has been communicating i won't. pay for him to be a child because it's because there's no law to charge him with but that there are always not try and i did and i think this is very important to address what the law that bright is talking about was something called the general law amendment act and what it did is it just made some tweaks to the language in a whole range of xcor was of different acts all that it did is who was replaced

a couple of words and one of the things that was that was changed was our prison service change from being called prisons to prison services and they just went sweeping through all the legislation and anywhere with prisons. it was changed to prisons and correctional services now one of the places where that appears is was section $31.00 now literally the only reference to section $31.00 in that act that bright references it's simply says it simply says that the substitution of prison service with prison and correctional services that that with respect does not reenact a law that has been struck down by the constitutional court in in an over 80 page reasons jet reasoned judgment explaining why this law is unconstitutional i just needed to set the record straight on on that particular issue now to your question on on on on on with that this is really just one general i mean i think the 1st

thing to say is that hope is not the only journalist who is being prosecuted by the state. to for example is a journalist who has written critical pieces his nephew was abducted and brutally tortured that was captured on on c.c.t.v. footage and government has not denied that. it was a. after the torture he was interrogated about his uncle's sources during his abduction and torture and. is in hiding as we speak other journalists have been arista french who are it has been. just to name one other was arrested on a whole range of charges journalists last year were beaten up by the military this is this is a widespread pack practice against against journalists now coming to hopewell in

particular in each of his cases he has he has they have that the state has gone after him because because he has either been exposing. corruption in government he has been speaking about police brutality all he has been reporting on citizens who are exercising their rights to protest against corruption and another abuses this is this is this is a clear targeting of a particular journalist who has been especially. outspoken and seemingly from the fact that they keep arresting him and he keeps on reporting in the way that he has done a fearless journalist to the government here. in these building out a conversation with you tend and looking at if if if this force hits or it's being applied is it being applied evenly to opposition members as well as

johnny p.f. men best have a listen to this like nothing to come off the back of this comment. portion or no drops a collar has on my head. and many others that are languishing in german prison some of them process where the system. this is going to say that corruption in the contrie as become a major enabler for the poverty the country is experiencing so and the whole government decides to. charge of peddling or for schools in order to cram down or not criticism is a bit rich because politicians lie every day in the net that never held to account for for the promises they make no i don't doubt and i wonder if i can include you in a position who may not be telling you for every single day but is is the attention of the zimbabwe government apartment even designing platinum does i know position

meant that your thoughts what was it just to say that we actually don't have a force of law in zimbabwe just to but this what quarter to say 6 into one or 4 what can or 2 as in fix it al gore does way big 2040 but it was outlawed in the relation to the orders and up and calls for shit that was the players in 2380 there's since been a subsequent questionable case that is determined to cause many to 6 in 3 to one with visa if you close your ship in the causational tenderizer the ides is tendai i can see that i had to i had to i had a different accent that everybody else who's not in europe is going to have trouble following you so let's cut to the shiites opposition members from sharon a minister that should have they both equally equally treat it.

no days and even in the quo application of the law. feds i made it. is spend more than a week in police custody she was our mutts mom but isn't a ruby which exposed to it in this i'm speaking to you right now she is they think tim that you have good people from zanu p if we have committed when the official feeds match groups criminal offenses i want to give you 2 examples to our minister. we have. accused of fraud of you is $63000000.00 you did not spend is single night in police see it does to our ears to our minister overfull in social civvies.

for me to accused of fraud of you is $1.00 to $3000000.00 should come to court in vision and see it this is even jimmy true. and breaks that's the selective in and quo in an even application of the law that we have lived with for $44.00 tickets or 4 of sendai thank you thank you for showing us examples of what we got more from a huge thank you coming to us brits this is going to be a speed round i need some darn thought i see responses so 11 says zimbabwe used don't we i said the 4 story spread through the internets internet we will have slander norse bryant instant reaction to that and media.

outlets we need to. ok i'm going to i'm going to move on to another question bright because i you want to be a part of this show and you've got a big chunk and i need to shout around with them this is fara this is for you done very quickly these situations are not new to africa in general and actually increasing day by day the governments are getting more brutal as the know because authorities to check them duck instant reaction go ahead. yeah i mean i think this week we have all been so taken in by following events in uganda and seeing how they has been the brutal crackdown on the opposition there and bobby wine and and his team we see this all across the continent and and it's very disturbing

we see brutality need to meted out that that the liberation struggles of of all across africa we're meant to deal to meet with me to address what it meant to create mirror societies where 'd people were free to speak were free to create a life a better life for themselves and sadly we're not seeing that and and bringing it back to zimbabwe often the the laws that are used to crack down on people ironically have the roots in the in the evil in racist colonial system but instead of dismantling that colonial system we see it being entrenched and used against against the citizens who our erstwhile liberators were meant to treat. it was an interesting comment here it's almost a compliment but i would say bright and sunny p.f. i was i could a compliment does a complement and

a decent the same time he says it has been no change in zimbabwe a fact to put it correctly the mccarthy regime which you surf bright was a better devil and now zimbabwe's under brutal regime far worse than the 70s you know that we will always come back to this conversation about zimbabwe how it is serving its citizens as long as one video i want to leave you with and this is a really important video because it brings us up to date from what is happening now as far as coding is concerned this is the president of transform zimbabwe have a listen how. there is interest or. is there are. business. there. any. move. to fight.

this kind you know of or is this. just i was being independent and it didn't mean how does this. which is that the. i hope not bright dog tendai thank you for being part of this conversation was appreciate you to answer watching us in mexico.

when all that seems to matter is the headline when narratives and counter narratives obscure reality the listening post drips away the spin lays bare the bias and uncovers the uncomfortable truths the listening posts on al-jazeera told to own their own. tell us are in a case where us what is happening in compensated civilians or we listen to the only music you hear is your own the most beautiful music in the world is silent as we

meet with the global news makers and talk about the stories that matter although to 0 on the stand the differences and similarities of cultures across the wound is another matter when you go home with the news and current affairs that matter to you. al jazeera. hello i'm rob matheson and this is the news our live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes u.s. president joe biden is expected to sign a raft of orders focusing on fixing the economy. the u.s. senate will also vote on nominating biden's pick for defense chief if approved lloyd austin will be the 1st african-american to take up the post.