much higher than advertised researches say the huge gaps in testing capacity that the government is trying to close extrapolate that across the country and the spread of coronavirus appears. optimism in libya after an interim government is chosen selected by delegates from both sides of the conflict. no i maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program an i.c.c. ruling paves the way for war crimes investigations in the occupied palestinian territories. president joe biden unveils his plan to help the u.s.

economy rebound from the coronavirus a pandemic the. and the voices of opposition grow louder in me and ma where the military takeover has inspired a campaign of disobedience. and our main story this hour a reunited libya might be a step closer off the delegates from the country's warring factions agreed on the leaders of an interim government it's hoped it could bring an end to the chaos and conflict that's been the hallmarks of the decade since the toppling of mama gadhafi delegates to un brokered talks chose a diplomat from the east mohamed el men feel to have the presidency council and a businessman from the west of the hamid as prime minister once the caretaker administration is in place the eastern government based in tobruk and the un recognized government in the capital tripoli will dissolve and in almost

a decade of national division the new 3 member presidential council will be tasked with preparing the country for general elections next december but there is still the issue of foreign fighters the u.n. special representative in libya estimates up to $20000.00 turks russians syrians sudanese and chaldeans all still remain inside the country malik traynor reports now from tripoli. in what the u.n. is calling a historical vote participants of the libyan political dialogue for voted in a new transitional government their objective lead libya to parliamentary and presidential elections in december this is the moment for historic compromise for reaching we've already seen that people are reaching across the divide. you know the guarantee is that what you are doing now will. serve your people libya has

been golden conflicts for the last 10 years since an armed revolution toppled longtime leader moammar gadhafi in 2011 and april 2019 just days before a un facilitated national conference warlord khalifa haftar began a military campaign in tripoli with support from egypt russia and the u.a.e. in june 2020 they were forced to retreat towards eastern libya after the un recognized government with turkish support retook western libya. here in tripoli most people are hopeful that this transitional government can make some changes. the government will have a large task at hand it will not be easy we have they will be able to make some changes but because it's such a short term i doubt they'll be able to do. the only thing we want from this government is for it to bring us elections we want the decision for who holds power

to return to the people although hope for some have doubts that the elections can take place so soon the last government was supposed to stay in power for one year but they've been in power for over 5 years we hope they stick to their promise and help the average citizen and provide basic services after years of violence and political divisions most libyans want something to believe and to hope for and for now many hope that this new transitional government can leave a reconciliation process and bring about elections now a trainer al jazeera tripoli. that diplomatic editor james bass asked the u.n. secretary general if libyans should expect real change this time secretary general if i could ask you to put today's developments in the context of little libya's recent history it's almost exactly 10 years since the start of the uprising in libya there have been so many false storms for the people of libya do you believe now this is the breakthrough i do believe it is

a breakthrough and it is following the successful result of the negotiations of the 5 plus 5 the military the joint military committee that led to a cease fire so now we have a cease fire we have a political agreement about elections we have a new jersey tional thought it is being put in place or going to be put in place and. it is essential that and i complete the answer that i gave it is essential that all foreign fighters and mercenaries move 1st to tripoli and benghazi and then leave the country according to the new schedule that was the find and it is essential that everybody cooperate so with the new us what it is to make peace happen in libya. now the international criminal court says it has territorial jurisdiction of the palestine paving the way

for an investigation into war crimes to alleged war crimes this includes the gaza strip the occupied west bank and east jerusalem in 2019 the i.c.c. his chief prosecutor bensouda said she was satisfied war crimes have been or being committed in the west bank including east jerusalem and the gaza strip she asked the court to determine if she had jurisdiction for an investigation prompting the ruling the palestinians who joined the i.c.c. in 2015 have been asking the court to look into israeli military actions in the gaza strip in 2014 they also want israel's construction of settlements in the occupied west bank and i nixed east jerusalem investigated talked to susan powers from the palestinian human rights organization aha and cautiously welcomed the decision i mean the one thing that we are there and. there's been a very it's back. right back there might be approached truck. and.

we've been coming to where there were about a 100 years in your ear and them when we thought we were truck years that. there were we're not very much in the investigation very. be present in may we be very frightened. u.s. president joe biden as congress to pass a $1.00 trillion dollars pandemic relief plan he says it's only needed as new dates are on jobs showed how the american economy is still struggling to recover 10000000 jobs lost at the start of the pandemic still haven't been replaced package would include $1400.00 stimulus checks for many americans democrats and congress approved a budget outline to which should allow them to enforce the package. plan too many

people nation have already suffered for too long through this pandemic an economic crisis and telling them we don't have the money to leave you to suffer to get to full employment soon to vaccinate america after 8 trillion dollars in deficit spending over the past 4 years much of it having gone to the wealthiest people in the country the true nor necessary we do have the resources to get to full employment. we do have the tools to reduce a lot of suffering in this country but we just have to choose to use them. so it's time to act alan fischer is live for us from the white house tell us more about why president biden wanted to move so quickly and why this stimulus package is so extensive. well this process is moving forward quite a lick just the house in the last couple of hours has now approved the bill that was passed in the senate in the airlie hours of friday morning what that means is

that the details of this budget which is what it will be this bill will no go to the various committees to work on those details so the things that joe biden wants to see obviously checks for 200 dollars for everyone in the u.s. who qualifies for it you want to expend extend unemployment benefits $400.00 a month for people who are out of what they want to spend more money in making sure that people protection equipment vaccinations equipment for those vaccinations that placed all over the united states they want to stop people being kicked out of their homes they want to make sure that people across the united states local authorities have enough money to pay for the likes of police officers and firefighters and medical staff so all of that is included in the bill and there's a bit more are didn't see to it all as well because in the last couple of hours we've got the latest unemployment figures here in the united states now in the last

month they created 49000 jobs that's pretty good you might think but when you consider that the united states needs $105000.00 jobs to be created every month essentially just to break even you can see there well under the figure now the unemployment rate also dropped it went from $6.00 to $6.00 good news you might think not so fast that's because a lot of people essentially gave up hope of finding a job so took themselves off the job market that's why that number has gone down so for those reasons joe biden thinks he's really got to go big he wants $1.00 trillion dollars it's a lot of money he thinks that it's important to spend this money to make sure that the economy gets kick started and so that is why he is pushing to get this done as quickly as possible no could go to a vote in the house as early as 10. yes or no february the 15th maybe february the 16th theater there abouts it would mean that the checks start to go out in march so joe biden really wants to get this done and get it done quickly as you say there is

that worry about the economic effect of the pandemic being far from over but nonetheless allan one of the risks of. taking such a bold step of course the question is will it work and the answer is we don't really know and of course if you ask any economist usual rule you ask for economists you get 6 opinions but joe biden believes that by going big it will be a success and the reason he thinks that is because 12 years ago when he came into the white house as the vice president to barack obama you remember that was just as the financial crisis was really beginning to bite and they put some money into the economy and the feel they didn't do enough they should have gone bigger quicker to try and protect the economy and you would have seen a much better recovery and in fact that was one of the things that joe biden got beaten up on on the campaign trail that the recovery wasn't as good as it could have been now there are some including those who are close to barack obama were

talking about like summers who was his chief financial guy who said look there's a real problem here if you start putting money into this economy and the corner me which is on fire you could cause real problems you could cause we could dollar which is not great for exports not great for imports rather you could also really fuel inflation no on the other side of that the white house says look janet yellen the former head of the central bank the federal reserve she's know the treasury secretary she knows all about the risks of inflation and she's quite happy with 1.9 trillion so will it work. of course we'll find out and you course but the biden team believes that not only will that what it is essential if there is to be any sort of recovery because with the job figures that came out today they're talking about that sort of level you're not going to get us back in full employment for another 10 years that's not something joe biden wants to see you want to see a much bigger recovery much quicker which is why he's pushing so hard for this deal thank you very much alan fischer of the white house thanks alan or travelers are

arriving here in the u.k. from a list of coronavirus hotspot countries will have to quarantine now for 10 days but the british government's been criticized for only bringing in a measure announced last month on february 15th the so-called red list of countries includes much of latin america southern africa and the u.a.e. thousands of hotel rooms near sea in airports are being booked and arrivals will have to foot the bill is designed to stop the spread of mutant virus strains which could endanger the country's so fast acceptable vaccination program and the barber is at london's heathrow airport says the government's handling of the matter is that some had telly is disappointed. we know precious little about the details of this current team hotel scheme apart from the obvious fact that it's going to be a big challenge to get it in place by the deadline of february the 15th so 10 days for the government to convince hotel groups to get on board and to make rooms

available the government's trying to block books thousands of rooms across the country at airports like here at heathrow and around the u.k. as well as seaports on friday the head of one london hotel group said that it wouldn't be enough time to implement the covered 19 safety procedures necessary on thursday just hours before the announcement the head of the u.k.'s biggest airport hotel group said that they had been left in the dark about how the scheme would operate that was a week after prime minister boris johnson said that the scheme would be coming in and many people are asking why the delay the opposition labor party have accused the government of risking lives with its failure to act more quickly pointing out that the announcement came 50 days after the south african variant of the virus was 1st known about the government of course saying that these measures are necessary

because of new variants many of the countries on the list of 33 the so-called red list are in south america and southern africa let's not forget that there was a variant also from brazil that's worrying scientists here possibly more easily transmitted and more resistant to vaccines which the government has been so doing so well on so there's a big challenge we don't know exactly how many rooms will be available arrivals by u.k. residents from those countries well they'll have to stay in a hotel for 10 days at their own cost around $110.00 per night that will be. and 3 but many people are saying we shouldn't be all right was the government saying that that would be unfeasible and it would unfairly hit people from low risk countries in al jazeera live from london still ahead on the program russia expelled diplomats from 3 european countries as tensions grow over the imprisonment of

critical. national security. china tightens its grip on hong kong this time through the city's children. hello there we've got lots of rain in the forecast for australia over the next couple of days a sense of very heavy rain into western areas of australia because some very heavy rains and stormy weather rattling across the southeast 3 victoria tasmania that's going to make its way further east which as we go on through friday into saturday they sing some very very heavy rain which will stretch just way up into queensland that a little circulation brewing up around the gulf of carpentaria some heavy rain coming in across here around the cape york peninsula into the top end and then we've got

our all tropical low which is running down towards the southwest of australia it will initially cause problems with the winds as far as the bushfires a concern there hopefully helping out as the rain sets in through the course assess the going on into sunday by sunday funday drive across south australia and indeed down towards the southeast but on the cold side for melbourne just 19 celsius is similar temperature for the start of the tennis on monday but it will warm up there after warming up across japan at the moment we have got temperatures getting into the mid teens there for tokyo but still some wintry flour is a possibility across western parts of honshu into hell cairo as we go through sunday 18 celsius in tokyo by that stage elsewhere for china. the fine dry and sunny. on counting the cost china could become the 1st country to issue a digital currency is it rains in the tech giant's house prices rise despite

tanking economy is increasing the divide between generations. and fishermen in the philippines struggle to make a living. carving the cost on al-jazeera understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the mountains so no matter how you take it we'll bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. to move. back the main stories this hour a united libya is a step closer with an agreement for an interim government a prime minister from the west in the head of a presidency council from the east have been selected in talks brokered by the united nations. the international criminal court says it has territorial

jurisdiction over palestine it strengthens the prosecutor's earlier submission to the court to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the territories occupied since 967. and the us president is a congress to do more to help the country's economy recover saying americans are hurting came as new figures show there were fewer jobs in january than have been hoped as a surge in corona virus infections in the colder months slowdown to recovery. twitter and instagram appear to have been blocks in may and ma a day off to facebook was also taken down this is the latest move to conserve power by the military leadership 5 days after the coup in the past few hours the un's envoy to the country used to call at the deputy military chief to condemn their actions and to call for the release of detainees including civilian leader and. but even without leaders in place civil disobedience movement says sprouting up across

the country a scott high level it's. more and more people across myanmar coming out and speaking out against monday's military coup civil disobedience movements have grown in size and numbers more emerging every day since health care workers were the 1st to come out earlier in the week by going on strike. there waving the red flag of unsung suchi is party b n l d and they have adopted the 3 finger salute made popular by the thai anti-government protesters. the movement has now spread to the major cities across myanmar including a gathering of teachers on the young university of education campus even yet another for example many are we don't want this military coup which unlawfully seize power from our elected government we don't want anyone who steals power and then forms their own government we're no longer going to work with them we want the military coup to fail america from october of $88.00 generation is a pro-democracy group born out of a violent army crackdown on protests in 1988 it issued

a statement encouraging and congratulating the civil action this week but also said that it's time to organize some of the chip inlays a former 88 generation member and political prisoner he now lives in thailand distil everyone have a full and everyone have this they also share a call many a call we can call net and content easily also we can't easily share our opening our thinking and information so this started very. different with. the previous. the most reason a point not lost on me and mars military which has blocked facebook and some messaging applications at least until sunday. more than coming out in numbers to be seen and heard organizers are calling for boycotts a business is tied to me and mars militaire japanese beverage maker kiran has already scrapped a 1700000000 dollar joint venture with an army own brewing scott toddler al-jazeera . indonesia is rolling out

a new breath test for covered 19 passengers at train stations and bus terminals are being screened with results issued within minutes some health experts doubt its accuracy jessica washington has the story now from jakarta. this is the early morning rush at 7 wanted to cut his busiest stations these passengers are among the 1st to try indonesia's new coping 19 breathalyzers to get nothing compared to the antigen rapid test in the p.c.r. test this test is a lot cheaper and more simple. the scientists behind the genoese device say it can smell good 19 on the breath in just 2 minutes without getting a negative result these passengers can't board the train the devices will be used at public sites around the country but scientists warn it shouldn't replace p.c.r. testing was this is not in this geno's a screening tool if someone has a positive result should be confirmed with a p.c.

if they test negative there's no need to. the test costs around $1.00 u.s. dollar much cheaper than a p.c.r. test which can cost up to $100.00 at some hospitals but some epidemiologists say this is yet another misguided step by indonesian authorities some health experts are critical of this new method of testing they say in tunisia health care is a crisis in the country's south in a relentless 1st wave of covert 19 cases they recommend the government focuses on increasing the k.c. are testing rather than rolling out cheaper and less accurate options we have to. be seen out there. or if not just. brawls the car bus you give for it because this is. indonesia conduct around $40000.00 tests each day

and has a test positivity rate of almost 30 percent last week the country supposed a 1000000 confirmed cases but experts fear the real number is much higher more than a year into the pandemic some health workers feel the government has let them down on 2 fronts by failing to invest in more testing and by not having strict code 900 restrictions in place for. i don't really know why the testing is still lacking in indonesia it's so important and we're still seeing people traveling and gathering at the stations if it continues this way covered 9000 will stay here even next year . 10 of dr these patients have died and she fears the situation will worsen as overwhelmed hospitals are forced to reject patients the health ministry did not respond to al-jazeera as request for an interview just a washington al-jazeera jakarta. the diplomatic fiore russia's treatment of alexina rally is intensifying its after russia expelled 3 foreign diplomats for joining

protests against his arrest meanwhile the opposition leader himself is appeared in court again after simmons has more. russia's foreign ministry says the diplomats had attended what it called illegal demonstrations last month in support of alexei navalny thousands of protesters were arrested in a series of rather as the ministry isn't saying how many of the diplomats from germany sweden and poland they're expelling. but the action comes only hours after an avanti was back in court again and the european union's top diplomat was also in moscow calling for the opposition leaders really. only 3 days after being jailed on a separate charge of ali is accused of defamation he called kremlin supporters appearing in a video corrupt stooges the prosecution say he insulted a 95 year old man one of russia's revered world war 2 veterans told the court

singling out a war veteran was a p.r. stunt to discredit him and he was disgusted by it in the kremlin burrill the head of the foreign policy was meeting survey lavrov russia's foreign minister are on burrell's agenda was the plight of not only who had been poisoned with a nerve agent novacek and received the lifesaving treatment in germany last september they have conveyed to minister lavrov our deep concern and retreated our appeal to release on to launch of an investigation of a case by shinee lavrov talk to the low points in relations with the e.u. so you're stronger because it is true that not at their best partly due to the illegitimate restrictions which are introduced by a use under trumped up pretext of. all reference that each new trade and financial

sanctions imposed after russia's annexation of crimea in the ukraine conflict in 2014. there were no breakthroughs in the us considering further sanctions against russia over the valley of. andrew simmons. hong kong has issued sweeping new rules for schools children as young as 6 years old will be taught about national security and certain books could be removed from libraries if you've got pollen reports now from hong kong. mess down what is national security it's one of hong kong's biggest moves to overhaul its education system with teaching material that includes animation to help younger children the new national security education curriculum brings hong kong classrooms in line with the communist controlled schools of mainland china teachers will be forced to teach students as young as 6 about secession subversion and foreign interference we are

talking about helping students to develop a sense of national identity being. a national citizen and. they have to develop a standard of taking up give us a possibility to protect our country. authorities here have come under pressure to make changes to education after probating politicians in china state media playing teachers and the curriculum for the month long antigovernment protests of 2019 the majority of the frontline protesters were university and high school students the prolonged demonstrations were also the basis for the wide ranging national security law imposed by beijing in july until recently the target of the law had been opposition leaders protesters and activists but now it's set to influence academics . teachers of subjects such as biology geography general studies and even music will need to incorporate national security and topics taught in plus in the past

the people can express themselves for freely due to money just freight of any consequence but now the situation change i think it really affects the quality and also the nature of education critics say. the move will impact any kind of open discourse in educational institutions from primary to universities it is not just what is being taught in the classrooms that will be monitored teachers and students are encouraged to report material deemed dangerous to national security and even posters on notice boards and library books will come under scrutiny hong kong's education system already places enormous pressure on students whose future is dictated by a number of milestone exams many fear the added constraints could take a toll but the government has warned teachers there's no room for debate or compromise when it comes to national security there we go palin hong kong.

christopher plummer the actor best known for playing captain von trapp in the sound of music has died at the age of 91 the canadian star became famous the world over after his iconic role opposite julie andrews he died peacefully at his home in the us state of connecticut christopher plummer was in more than 100 films and acted well into his later years becoming the oldest actor to win an oscar in 2012. a look at the main stories now a united libya might be a step closer with an agreement for an interim government a prime minister from the west of the country in the head of the presidency council from the east have been chosen in talks brokered by the un but it's not clear if they'll be able to overcome military divisions on the ground country's been split by 2 opposing of ministrations which emerged following the end of one look at di.