direct links to corruption at the highest level of the bangladesh government. thanks. to al-jazeera investigations all the prime ministers. the world health organization scientists complete the hotel quarantine will now they'll stop their investigation into the source of the coded 19 outbreak. darren jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up if iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the j c v.o.a. the united states would do the same thing. the new us secretary of state says the

door is open for terror and to return to the nuclear deal but there is work to be done. in lebanon protestors defy a strict lockdown to confront the government on economic failures and its handling of the pandemic plans. to stop its push on what usually it's a little like. a warning for investors about the sudden rise in stock sales of the gaming retail company game stop. a team of investigators sent by the world health organization is preparing to leave the hotel quarantined in the chinese city of where they have begun their inquiry into the origins of the corona virus the independent scientists to interview people from research institutes hospitals and the seafood market linked to the initial outbreak a long awaited inquiry comes after months of negotiations between the double a show in beijing covered 19 was 1st detected in in late 2019 let's cross now to

katrina you who's in katrina so how is the chinese government likely to be to this team and what are they hoping to find given that it's been over a year is the virus was discovered that. that's right daryn well there is certainly a lot of skepticism the chinese government has been tightly controlled the any information any doctor around the origins of this outbreak and the reason why a one of the reasons why the took so long to arrive on was because beijing was reportedly reluctant to bring fied access and of course many people are also questioning whether any key evidence around this point a virus outbreak will still be here more than a year after the outbreak 1st began and of course it doesn't help that this mission is highly politicized the u.s. and many other governments around the world have blamed china for what they say is a lack of transparency which they say led to this becoming a global pandemic now many of the health that that we've spoken to say that this is a key moment full day it's an opportunity they say for beijing to redeem itself if

the chinese government can clear the path for this investigation if they can cooperate fully with the pager mission they can prove to the international community that they're willing to be open about how this part of i think it did actually spread throughout the world now folks into some of the key members here in the waiting in the hotel behind it including dr brawley just marian she said that she's feeling quite optimistic that the team is in good spirits and that she's going to get any citizens of the team will do what it can but also she says that the public may need to temper its expectations this is only the very beginning of what is a deep dive into the origin of the war in a virus and to expect any conclusive blinding in the next few weeks is unrealistic this could in fact take years and katrina in terms of the bigger picture across the country it's chinese new year in just a few weeks time is there a big worry that infections were wrong as with millions of people of course traveling across the country. this certainly is at the moment

a few governments in the north of the country are battling resurgent outbreaks including in beijing and also in the provinces of halal john and in a province. there are dozens of regions now under lockdown and that of course is a huge concern for the aging because we've got chinese new year coming up and this is known as the world's largest annual migration typically we've got hundreds of millions of people making their way across the country for a period of one to 2 weeks during this holiday and the chinese government really doesn't want this virus to spread this year and to to prevent that from happening the vaccine discourage people from traveling this year and they've done that they're imposing various policies including compulsory tests free refunds for any travel bookings made during this period and also some governments are even resorting to offering financial incentives to my good workers for example about $300.00 for them to stay in the cities where they were during this holiday period

and instead of going back home to visit family not as a result travel bookings agency said they've seen a decrease in spring festival of chinese new year travel holaday bookings by about 40 percent this year all right to katrina you live for us there in katrina thank you for now the new man in charge of america's foreign policy says one of the top priorities of the biden administration will be how to handle iran and its 1st press briefings and taking office u.s. secretary of state on tony blinken said washington wants to return to the 2015 nuclear deal which donald trump pulled out of but lincoln called in iran to act 1st shihab rattansi reports argue the new u.s. secretary of state once again pledged to rejoin the jury c.p.u. or iran nuclear deal president biden has been break clear in saying that if iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the j c p a way the united states would do the same thing. but there is still

a great deal of ambiguity about the new administration's approach sometimes officials around biden appear to be saying the administration will rejoin the j.c. as it was with no change lifting the u.s. is crippling economic sanctions concurrently with iran's return to compliance while leaving open the option of follow on deals to address other issues of concern that did seem to be what lincoln said on wednesday but at other times they suggest the u.s. will use its economic leverage to strike a tough a deal before it lift sanctions we are a long ways from that point iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts and it would take some time should it make the decision to do so for it to come back into compliance and time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations both blinken and biden have repeatedly pledged unconditional military aid to israel and that the u.s. embassy will remain in jerusalem despite the occupation and it's clear that the israeli government understands biden will be

a close ally and. we are in front of the era of a new american administration that is friendly to israel and we will know how to start to correct a strategic dialogue in the near future we will use all the tools available to us politically economically intelligence and security. but some wonder if the israeli government is concerned about exactly where the bike ministrations stands they have the very real prospect the united states and iran with you mean negotiations at a very high level these are things that the israelis are trying to grapple with and they're doing so by in my view really trumpeting a threat from iran that has not changed in the past ever. iran meanwhile continues to reiterate that it will return to compliance with iran nuclear deal once the signatories decide they really are prepared to abide by the agreement if they rejoin the deal will do so as well and for an entire year we kept going forward this way but we've always said as soon as you return to the deal will return to

full compliance the next hour. in the meantime the biden ministration are sending conflicting signals even on tuesday sending a b. $52.00 bomber on a round trip from the u.s. to the gulf in a show of force aimed at iran used by the trumpet administration several times in the dying days of its presidency. of the state department when all of this says the u.s. has temporarily frozen arms sales to saudi arabia and the u.s. secretary of state and blinken says it's typical for new administrations to review pending arm sales donald trump's administration had been doing deals down to the wire including one for 50 f. 35 fighter jets from lockheed martin to the u.a.e. the u.s. ambassador to the u.s. says his country will work closely with the biden administration towards peace and stability in the middle east let's bring in william lawrence he's a former u.s. diplomat and currently professor of international relations at the american university joins us via skype from washington d.c. we have great to have you back on the program so how significant then is this arms

sales freeze by the u.s. and why is that bad ministration doing this now do you think. well there's sort of 2 stories here one is that it is entirely normal as the administration is saying to review such weapons sales when a new administration comes in with i'm usual is all of these public statements and all of this turmoil including tweets by senators you know and all and all the brouhaha around it that that's quite a typical it's very likely that these sales will go through but it's the way in which the children ministration hastily went through a whole bunch of quid pro quos relating to the abraham accords and other he actions at the end of the ministration created a circumstance by which he even if the democrats and b. vitamins trishna agree with the arms sales there's a kind of bitter taste in their mouth about the way in which trump went about it and that's regulations under review yeah and when i imagine for

a 2nd of stay down from the brink and says nope this is just a normal pause for a new administration but let's remind ourselves that raw many in congress who want a permanent ban on mom sales to the saudis because of a humanitarian crisis caused by the war in yemen. yeah and so what happened last year and the year before is to murder i showed him the war in yemen dumped him sort of into one issue at the level of the senate and there was a lot of comments by senators about getting cancer study review cancer c.m.s. much as much of that was as much directed at the trump administration and their relationship with those countries as anything the countries were doing and then what happened after that is they got $55.00 thoughts in the senate $55.00 votes against the arms sales but they needed 60 votes to break the filibuster and that's still about the same ratio in the senate so if it came up for another congressional review the sales would go through again but the opposition to the conduct of the

war him and world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe is something the senate is going to continue to raise the alarm bells about the i know what in this comes on the heels of joe biden promising to reassess washington's relationship with saudi arabia is this also about reviewing the very tight relationship that donald trump had with the saudis. absolutely and so you remember well there was a 1st visit of the trucker ministration to saudi arabia and a picture with the horror of all that and again is a lot about troubled even more than about the sadness because there's a blink in is not going to rock the boat nor is biden. regarding the strategic alliance with saudi arabia and you are a particularly after the ending of the blockade against qatar as long as the saudis and read and write is do the very things that the americans want them to do which is one don't give arms actual kind of link groups which happened in yemen and

that's something that came up with the state department inspector general report and don't do humanitarian don't do work crimes in yemen and so she would vote against of saudi arabia and that's what lincoln says we're not going to help saudi arabia and yemen anymore i'm just a final thought to you the trump administration signed many of these arms deals with the saudis and the u.a.e. saying look it was to offset the threat posed by iran to israel how do you see biden's foreign policy toward saudi arabia playing out that. well on the one hand and blinking and jake sullivan want to rejoin the j c p a way of the it's going to be more difficult than they think but on the other hand the big problem with the j c p a way in terms of the gulf countries in israel was that they were consulted enough so the irony here is that to get back into the g c p a way i'm sure the divided look at mr sheen are going to consult with the saudis in the u.a.e. and that's going to raise all of the very issues we're talking about and the whole

u.s. confrontation for its iran so the diplomacy is going to get very complicated very quickly women's right to get your thoughts as always thank you for talking to us here at al-jazeera a pleasure. time for a short break here not just iraq when we come back we've also been through travel from 22 countries where there is a risk of various new toughest frictions announced in the u.k. forcing some travelers to isolate in hotels for up to 10 days and fears that rain the refugees in bangladesh will miss out on a coronavirus vaccine more on that stay with us. but. we've got some cool but quiet weather just making its way across eastern parts of the u.s. following on from violent tornadoes in the deep south just around 24 hours or so ago we've got this cold front same place has still it's weakening as it bumps into

this area of high pressure that was responsible for the tornado that rattled its way across alabama with the damaging winds in the process quiet as i said across the good parts of the u.s. added good day a good part of canada but cold temperatures starting to get above freezing in new york and in they say subzero there in chicago through weather actions over towards the west stay with us some very heavy rain coming into california for you on the burn areas that could cause some problems with debby being washed down off the mountains we are looking at the potential for some flash flooding and some disruption and some heavy snow too over the sierra nevada some snow warnings in force rest no warning around lake tahoe as a result of the system which will make its way further inland as we go through friday more snow over the rockies but you see pretty much all of california saying some of that wet weather when the the rate is that's not a bad thing but it will cause some disruption central and eastern parts well i say

lassie fine dry sunny and co. welcome. from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax enjoy a little break in your journey. and when you leave with a smile we know our day's work is done. welcome to our home. welcome

back a quick amount of our top stories here this team of investigators sent by the world health organization of parents of the fallen teen in the chinese city of. they're looking into the origins of the coronavirus covered 19 was 1st detected in late 29 to meet. the new u.s. secretary of state has laid out how joe biden's administration plans to rebuild ties with the rest of the world anthony blinken says if iran returns to full compliance none of the 2050 nuclear deal the u.s. will also come back to the increased brink and also announced a temporary halt in arms sales to saudi arabia and the u.a.e. donald trump's administration had been doing defense deals down to the wire through the one for 50 f. 35 fighter jets from lockheed martin to the u.a.e. . u.s. president joe biden has signed executive orders to address the climate crisis that includes cutting fossil fuel subsidies and posing oil and gas leases on federal land biden says climate change is at the center of the u.s.

is national security and foreign policy. and just like we need a unified national response to cope with 19 we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis because there is a climate crisis we must keep we must lead the global response because neither challenge can be met as secretary kerry has pointed out many times by the united states alone we know what to do we've just got to do it when we think of climate change we think of it this is a case where conscience and convenience cross paths where dealing with the sex the central threat to the planet and increasing our economic growth and prosperity are one in the same. hundreds of protesters have clashed with security forces in lebanon as anger rises of a coronavirus restrictions that are devastating an economy already on the brink of collapse police in the northern city of tripoli use tear gas and water cannon against protesters who are demanding the government do more than

a 100 reports from tripoli. growing poverty is pushing lebanese people back onto the streets protesters say they are hungry unable to cope with a coronavirus lockdown now in its 3rd week they want economic support this is how the authorities responded. that they. are the politicians are focusing on distributing the spoils is that of focusing on us we'll witnessing a collapse of all sectors security politics and health they are all irresponsible they're leaving us to die lebanon's economic collapse began more than a year ago there have been social unrest and political turmoil since official say 500000 families or 2500000 people are in need of assistance that's nearly half the population compliance with a 24 hour curfew that exempts essential workers is a week in lebanon 2nd largest city tripoli it was already poor before the pandemic

. these people are obliged to work even though it puts their health at risk other governments are enforcing lockdowns but they give people 8. there is no social safety net for the poor no government assistance the state is nearly bankrupt one 3rd of the workforce is jobless and around half of the workforce depends on daily wages like. he has 4 children no shop and on a good day he makes $20000.00 lebanese pounds which is less than $3.00 at the black market rate. i can't even. i'm barely able to feed my family my mother's county with a. charity association say more and more people are relying on handouts among them to middle class the cost of daily life is

becoming too high especially since the local currencies value collapse on a daily basis we have people like you register because of course we register them according to nationality and location so i must say that the numbers are increasing on a daily basis the open ended political crisis is not helping politicians are arguing about cabinet seats instead of agreeing to fight corruption allowing lebanon to receive much needed international financial assistance the lockdown isn't place until february 8th and it can be extended officials are promising to help the most vulnerable and they're asking people to be patient but for many that's not an option. tripoli northern lebanon. the united kingdom has recorded its 2nd highest daily number of deaths in the past 24 hours with more than 1700 lives lost just a day in the u.k. passed a total of 100000 deaths the government's now defending its handling of the 1000 crisis in an effort to stem the outbreak it's announced new restrictions for some

people flying in. more than 100000 dead livelihoods lost in a generation put at risk with no clear end in sight and the prime minister unable to announce a way out of the national not only give a date when a permit might emerge we remain in a perilous situation with more than 37000 patients now in hospital with almost double the peak of the 1st wave but the overall picture should be clearer by mid february. by then we will know much about the effect of vaccines in preventing hospitalizations and deaths. the caveat being if no new coded variants emerge and the vaccine rollout continues as planned then look down is particularly tough on children school closures have led to mental health plummeting and inequality soaring the government says classrooms may reopen on march 8th but it

will take years for students to catch up on lost education. meanwhile new quarantine rules for some arrivals into the u.k. to try and protect the country from unknown kovac mutations u.k. citizens and residents flying in from $22.00 countries will be forced to isolate hotels for 10 days at their own expense the high risk countries include south africa and brazil like a variant already circulating we've also traveled from $22.00 countries where there is a risk of known variants including south africa portugal and south american nations . and in order to reduce the risk posed by u.k. nationals and residents returning home from these countries i could announce that we will require such a ride those who cannot be refused entry to isolate in government provided accommodation such as hotels for 10 days without exception the airline industry

says with no exit plan these measures will effectively close the u.k.'s borders and the country already has strict protocols in place or some ministers want to quarantine every traveler we need a much stronger defenses around our borders we were one of the slowest countries to take any measures or all those when we had a quarantine system not many people and here we are today without a comprehensive way of protecting our borders at the very least it's urgently needed. that seems a providing hope for many but the u.k. has the highest death toll in here at the prime minister insists he has followed the science throughout the pandemic at the scientists disagree and grimly predicts another 50000 people could die charlie and al jazeera. the funerals of 3 high profile zimbabwean politicians who died from coronavirus last week has been held in harare thank lou the foreign minister. and

a retired general for cabinet ministers have also died from a covert 19 in the past 2 weeks zimbabwe has recently experienced a spike in cases the opposition accuses the government of using the virus as a weapon by detaining its supporters and overcrowded jails where the disease is easily transmitted a nurse has become the 1st cove in $1000.00 vaccine recipient in bangladesh why the inoculations are set to begin their next month but concerns remain for the allocation of vaccines for a hanger refugees living in bangladeshi camps that's counted no strategy for the minority group tanveer chadri has more on the vaccine effort from dhaka. the 1st person to be vaccinated in bangladesh is a 38 year old nurse veronique out costa now 12 other people in this hospital general hospital has been vaccinated all of them are emergency 1st responder there's a plan to vaccinate at least 5 to 600 more people across the capital city today

what has been time as a vaccine diplomacy the government right now has 7000000 dosage of vaccine oxford estrogenic made by indian pharmaceutical company institute off india $2000000.00 of those vaccines were actually donated by the indian government a government plan to start mass vaccination program next month probably in the 1st week at least $1200.00 people mostly foster responded will be vaccinated in phases now that dissimilar a lot according to critics in a country over a population of 165000000 as well as 1000000 refugees living in southeastern part of the country bangor that suffered quite a bit of economic slowdown when they went into a lockdown last year but the government took a strategic decision to open up the country there's a sense of normalcy in the country most of the businesses shops and government offices are open other than the school everything is open people are walking all

about but they're cautious they're wearing masks and taking necessary precautions. the economic a boeing has announced a loss of more than $8000000000.00 in the 4th quarter of 2020 boeing a suffered its worst year on record what often the coburg $900.00 demick slashed demand for planes and in the aftermath of a safety crisis of 737 months john hendren has the latest from the company's headquarters in chicago. the good news for chicago based aircraft manufacturer boeing is that 2020 is over the company posted a loss of $11900000000.00 for the year that is its worst ever by far c.e.o. dave calhoun says i'm sure glad 2020 is in the rearview mirror that happened largely due to twin crises there was a global pandemic that dramatically slowed air travel around the world and also the company's continued problems with it 737 max aircraft that was grounded for 2 years after crashes the killed 346 people the company made significant changes to that

plane and it was recertified to fly in the u.s. in november and on wednesday it was announced that it was also recertified to fly in europe their continued concerns deliveries of that plane have been slowed because airlines have had slow business and also there's a concern of whether people want to get back on that plane so many airlines have decided if people realize they're on a 737 max and don't want to be they can cancel and rebook the company did relatively poorly compared to its rival airbus industry of europe airbus delivered 255 planes in the 4th quarter compared to 59 for boeing 2021 is looking up but only relatively speaking compared to 2020 he continued presence of the pandemic and slow delivery of vaccines means 2021 could look historically slow as well. the video game retailer game stop has one of 2 companies which

despite losing millions of dollars have soared in value this week on the u.s. stock market is the result of a group of day traders communicating online and banding together to force the share price to skyrocket and institutional investors i'm happy christensen amid reports from new york. game stop a videogame retailer was in trouble even before the coronavirus pandemic hit suffering hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and. closing hundreds of brick and mortar stores as gamers increasingly made their purchases online but none of that has stopped its stock from skyrocketing in value spurred on by individual investors posting on the reddit page wall street bets started by jamie robeson ski and what we're seeing here is the result of having a massive influx of retail traders who don't care about fundamentals never really have cared about fundamentals they cared about the short term moves so in theory in the short term anything is possible i mean the price is set based on supply and

demand and at this point anyone who's just buying up the stocks is further putting pressure to raise the price institutional investors had bet against game stop shorting the stock to make a profit but reddit investors rallied against them buying the stock on mass this increased the price and created a so-called short squeeze where hedge funds were forced by the rising stocks to avoid massive losses further pushing up game stop shares after losing hundreds of millions of dollars institutional investors like andrew left of citron research have admitted defeat and walked away analysts warn this is a dangerous game the stock is pushed up what usually it's a little like a ponzi scheme because if you're a last person old in those years under $60.00 a share you got a dollars and now it's treated 88 dollars well you just got stuck the last part of the trade you lost a lot of money game stop express and standard statement but many day traders appear

willing to take the risk now propping up other struggling companies like the amc theater chain and black berry threatening wall street institutions and prompting calls for reform of a market increasingly seen as out of touch with main street kristen salumi al-jazeera new york. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera a team of investigators sent by the world health organization is preparing to meet quarantine in the chinese city of. looking into the origins of the corona virus covered 19 was 1st detected in late 2019 katrina you as the latest from. new clothing to some of the team members here in waiting in the hotel behind us including dr brawley just mary and she said that she's feeling quite optimistic that the team is in goods.