as he hears that that is really army has arrived the village with the books or residents say soldiers give them one minute to do. it took the family months to build their brick house and less than an hour to see you get to. likely to be on the biggest day of protests against the military coup so far hundreds of thousands of people the fire arrests and a crackdown to demand a return to democracy. let this be clear discriminants use of youth or less than lethal weapons against peaceful protesters is unacceptable. in the wild is watching diplomats at the u.n. call for the release of myanmar's elected leaders and warn the generals against the use of force will be speaking to the un special rapporteur on myanmar.

hello again i'm to start with the world news on al-jazeera live from also coming up the attack was done for donald trump at his instructions and to fulfill his wishes . donald trump had sent them there. democrats concluded their arguments and donald trump senate impeachment trial the former president's defense team will now make their case. britain's economy slumped to a record 9.9 sorry sums by a record 9.9 percent it's the worst in more than 300 years. and setting a different target our white house correspondent has a surprise encounter with u.s. president joe biden and 1st lady as they survey an installation on the white house lawn biden also shared a cup of coffee. i think i have things that i didn't even i didn't have the days to

come back. but we begin in myanmar where hundreds of thousands of people have been rallying against the military john to and want to looking like one of the biggest day as a protest against the case despite the government's efforts to quell the demonstrations on the demonstrators continue to demand the release of their deposed civilian leader. and also for the generals to give up power scott highly begins our coverage but this report. as they tap their creativity for the marches for a 7th straight day the antic who protesters across myanmar continue with their movement calling for the return of democracy and the release of their civilian leaders an iranian arab we are asking international football fans on twitter facebook instagram to save our country and share what is happening here. and not

just premier league football fans in yangon. in the eastern city of mean police broke up a protest arresting several people for the last few nights security forces have rounded up people who have taken part in the growing civil disobedience movement. and as myanmar's military celebrated union day in the capital which marks the anniversary of the nation's independence facebook announced it would reduce the distribution of all content in profiles run by the military the move is not a ban but to lower the number of people who see their content the social media giant saying the military has continued to spread misinformation. and there's growing concern about a cyber bill proposed by the junta. the military says its new laws are to protect the public and prevent crimes that could harm the country's stability. freedom of expression advocates see it as an unprecedented censorship. and this is sort of a page out of the authoritarian playbook you define something so broadly that it

can mean anything and then you can charge anyone and 9 times out of 10 that's going to be a government critic or an activist so we're really worried that this law will be pushed through and then it will be used to suppress criticism of the military or resistance to the military coup also marking the union day holiday the huta announced a prisoner amnesty more than 23000 prisoners were released the military leaders say the move was to establish a new democratic state with peace developments and disappointed protesters are concerned that part of the reason for the release is to make room in the prisons possibly for more political detainees scott hodler al-jazeera of thousands of kilometers away in geneva the u.n. human rights council is holding an emergency session to discuss that unrest in manama u.n. investigators say there is now growing evidence that security forces have used live ammunition on protesters but china which is an ally of myanmar has refused to

condemn the violence on the envoy from the law says their country is going through a delicate transition here are some of the highlights from that meeting. to the international community i expressed my concern that any sanctions on the consideration should be carefully targeted against specific individuals who are credibly alleged to have violated people's rights leaders of the school are an appropriate focus of such actions your mind is undergoing complex extremely complex challenges and delegate transition we do not want to stall the more graphic transition in the country we therefore look forward to receiving a better understanding of the prevailing situation in the country and contractors and and cooperation from the international community you know i will continue to engage with the united nations towards lasting peace stability and something of a development to the benefit of the people in the country china is not in favor of

holding the special session by the human rights council what happened in myanmar is essentially internal affairs what is required now is for the international community on the basis of respecting myanmar sovereignty political independence and territorial integrity and national unity and help all the parties concerned me and engage in dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the wishes and the interests of the myanmar people on our landscape tory chalons in brighton in the u.k. where he's been keeping an eye on that meeting for us where it seems a vote on a resolution is potentially set to happen fairly soon. yet what we are expecting to happen as the meeting comes back from it is recess for the afternoon session which is starting about now is that 1st of all we're going to hear statements from various n.g.o.s groups the morning session as you just heard was a selection of voices the ambassadors to the un various countries speaking out giving

their opinions on the country's opinions. what we're going to get next is is the view from the ngos sector and after that we're expecting if there is to be a vote it will be zooming voting in these covert times that's how these sorts of meetings are done $47.00 members each one will be gone through in turn and they will say whether they approve the resolution reject the resolution or whether they're abstaining. it has to pass by just a simple mind majority so that that's the way it'll go in the policy the leadership of the un human rights council and the british and european union governments that called this special meeting would like a pretty strongly worded resolution to be adopted but as we've just heard china is one of the big voices against such

a thing it doesn't think that this special meeting should have been called at all in the 1st place and russia holds that a similar view saying that so far the meeting is just been a kind of unbridled criticism session and that it thinks that what's going on in myanmar is man mars internal affairs so it doesn't really want any any kind of resolution passed either so we'll have to see whether those voices color how the voting goes when it transpires later in the day void chalons they keep an eye on that meeting for us thanks so much for well let's now bring in tom andrea's he's. un special rapporteur on the human rights situation in myanmar and he joins us now from washington d.c. mr andrews thank you so much for your time i do want to start with your comments like the ones that you made when you addressed that human rights council meeting about how protestors are being treated including the use of live ammunition what have you been finding. what we've been seeing horrific scenes through

video through cameras one of the interesting things about this particular challenge that we're facing is that. unlike the massacres that have occurred in the past of democracy activists. we now have incredible access to video footage and documentation of what's going on so we've seen live ammunition being being used we've seen people falling we've we've seen the harassment of individuals the people going into hiding journalists going into hiding. significant arrests that continue so we're watching very very closely and i wanted to make sure that the council had a true appreciation of the of the reality on the ground in the indian model which is quite horrific and you mentioned the arrests that we've seen the arrests of those activists alongside this public holiday amnesty and prisoner release today what do you make of the narrative that we're getting from the generals that demonstrators actually need to work with them towards democracy. you know it's kind

of an alice in wonderland scenario there i mean it is truly remarkable they talked to today the representative from me and mark talked about not interfering with their progress toward democracy i mean it's just absolutely stunning and saying that you know we have to the protesters have to stand back in order to preserve democracy the tatmadaw or the amazing thing is is that they are violating the very constitution that they themselves wrote even their own rules then violated making this crew completely illegal from however you look at it so it's just really quite bizarre frankly to see the arguments that they are that they're making in light of the reality 'd that just about everybody else can see on the ground we've also seen some police officers i believe actually joining in some of these protests and huge divest city and those crowds his sentiment on the ground shifting. you

know the diversity it's just really amazing i mean we've seen hundreds and hundreds of villages cities towns large and small coming out and protesting and it's an amazing cross-section of the me and mar society that are working in march and gather monks buddhist monks watching marching with with with with with muslim leaders it's just every ethnic group marching together all sectors of the economy on strike and on the street marching it's quite remarkable to see and yes we're now seeing police. changing sides one going over the barricades and joining the protesters it's quite inspiring particularly when you consider the track record of the tatmadaw they have brutally massacred democracy activists in the past they've they've slaughtered buddhist monks in saffron robes of course we know of the massive atrocity crimes committed against the running of ethnic minority in rakhine

state so this incredible acts of courage that we're seeing from the people of me and more but they are totally totally committed to making sure that they don't go back into the dark ages of this rule under this authoritarian regime strategy as you all do un special rapporteur for the country and you having to do a lot of your reporting based on videos what's the status of your requests for access to the country. well we've we've made it it's been reiterated by by many individual member states the resolution is going to call or make a very strong statement in support of bet the united nations wants me and i want to go in as many member states want me and if the regime has nothing to hide then they will let you but but we'll see when you mention the resolution i see the draft resolution that was being circulated ahead of the meeting today had really been watered down from earlier drafts is that being driven by china and russia

especially after what happened at the security council well of course china and russia play a. significant role it's a challenge that no doubt. me and more has traditionally been able to hide behind the cloak of china protecting them at the security council they provide them with weapons and trade. so it's a it's a challenge there's no there's no doubt about that but i think the fact that the security council took this up at all but a statement was issued by the security council that was quite strong the fact that today's special session is is and is going and the fact that many and growing numbers of nations are announcing that they are moving toward taking diplomatic action a targeted economic sanctions and other and other steps including an arms embargo all of these steps can be taken and will be taken despite the efforts of trying to

water things down oh let me ask you then given the state of the conversation at the u.n. and the status of this drafts resolution is anything actually likely to imagine this process that will have a concrete impact in manama you mentioned sanctions we've seen the u.s. imposed sanctions but and they did that the last time around after the the ranger kept crackdown that seemed to make very little difference. well i'll tell you the changes that we saw the positive changes that were overthrown last week by the by to me and more tatmadaw military they all happened precisely because of economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure. the world united many many countries of the world in forced pretty tough targeted sanctions regime said listen we're impervious to that you can do all the sanctioning you want it's not going to make any difference well it made a difference they changed they reformed and we saw the beginning of the development toward the democracy which was

a which was very very good but it wasn't done because they suddenly realized that democracy is a good thing it was done precisely because the world was applying pressure economic and diplomatic pressure and so it's happened before it was successful before and it will be successful again but we have to get out and we have to go quickly we have to have these targeted sanctions applied now and make them tough and hit the really the tatmadaw the generals where they hurt their wallet well i'm curious because the world has changed substantially since then and as tragic as you are i believe the general secretary of the campaign to make uncensored. can i ask you how you personally feel about her now and if you've had from had during this period it'll. i have not heard from her i was reading at an international campaign to seek or release some years ago and it again required significant international pressure but we were successful i have not there's been no communication with with her of the

the generals have made sure that no one can speak with that with her or frankly anyone i have a friend's cousin has been arrested and no one knows how to reach. her her cousin the family is completely in the dark and this is going across me and more society leaders like angst and suci the president all the way to see if so leaders community based leading leaders of organizations in the communities all the way to the regular people whose crime apparently was to volunteer for the in the elections at the polling stations so it's crossed the border this repression these this due to these detentions these threats and intimidation are going right across the board it all aspects of society and people from all walks of life so i've not heard from her there's no way so far to communicate either way but that's with everyone who's now been detained tom andrews that the un special rapporteur on the

human rights situation in myanmar thank you so much safa giving us your time here and i'm just there it's my pleasure thank you. hostile ahead here on out there and the head of japan's olympic organizing committee has resigned after sexist comments he made about women. empty streets across east asia and they usually bustling celebration of the lunar new year holiday this year scaled back by the pandemic. it's time for the perfect jenny. sponsored point qatar airways holiday we've got more wet weather just pushing away from central parts of china that'll just clip its way across the fos out of japan a little drop to the north of that but there are weather systems on the side of that movie we'll see some wet some wintry weather moving across northeastern china

as you go through the next couple of days the better de los you 5. 100 celsius in seoul a similar temperature there for tokyo so a few showers just to the south of q.c. but you see this area of cloud in the rain just making its way across western and central parts of china and that will continue just ease a little further eastwards where the weather coming in across the yellow sea there be some snow into the far north east of china some of the snowfall also affecting the fall north of north korea but notice some wetter weather also affecting south korea pushing towards q.c. it will be heavy at times dry skies come back in behind well she fought a dry across india china you can follow that dry weather across a good part of india i'd also into pakistan want to showers in the full cost though for a schrank or as we go through the next a day or 2 eastern parts of the country will see one of 2 showers snow showers just creeping up fools the fog north as well elsewhere as i said it is settled in troy but a few showers there from nepal by the weekend. qatar

airways what should americans be thinking and doing right now it should be about ideas they don't care about their work is all they care about is making money china is not going to be locked out of the pot calling for the bloated defense budget to be high the bottom line on u.s. politics and policies and their effect on the world is their own. if you want to help save the world. sneeze into your own.

home again i missed it let's remind you of our top stories here this hour the un human rights investigation of myanmar says there is growing evidence that security forces have used live ammunition on protesters 300 members of parliament in myanmar are now calling on the u.n. to investigate human rights violations committed by the military. meanwhile myanmar's seen one of the largest days of demonstrations against the military can so far hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of a 7th consecutive day despite the government's efforts to quell those protests. well in just a few hours from now former u.s. president donald trump's lawyers will present their defense on charges of inciting an insurrection democratic impeachment managers are wrapped up their side of the case and trump's senate impeachment trial has alan fish on thursday's proceedings from capitol hill. there was no dramatic video from the impeachment managers on

thursday and instead there was a warning donald trump had a history of political violence and if he wasn't convicted then there would inevitably be more the attack was done for donald trump at his instructions and to fulfill his wishes donald trump had sent them there we love it we love you grow you know you'll be happy what do you mean we're fighting for jobs. all of these people have been arrested and charged they're being accountable held accountable for their actions their leader the man who incited them must be held accountable as well. for you thank. you. thank. god if we don't try the line here what's next what makes you think the nightmare

with donald trump and his lawmaking and violent mobs is over. if we let him get away with it. and then it comes to your state capital or comes back here again is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the senate to get back into the oval office donald trump would stop inciting violence to get his way. would you bet the lives of more police officers on the. i'm not afraid of donald trump running again in 4 years i'm afraid to say run again and lose. because he can do this again. the democratic impeachment managers quoted extensively from republicans who had blamed criticized and condemned donald trump for what happened here on capitol hill on january the 6th a clear message to the republican senators no sitting in judgment impeachment is not to punish but to prevent we are not here to tarnish donald trump we are here to

prevent the seeds of hatred that he planted from bearing any more fruit many of the insurrection is the present trump incited to invade this chamber were dangerous people on the f.b.i. watch lists violent extremists white supremacists. i challenge you all to think about it if you think this is not impeachable what is . what would be. president trump's lawyers indorse his breathtaking assertion that his conduct in inciting these events was totally appropriate. and the senate acquits donald trump than any president could incite and provoke insurrectionary violence against us again if you don't find this a high crime and misdemeanor today you have set a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct in the united states of america

. defense team will note about less than half the time allowed to present its defense convinced it has the votes to stop the conviction of donald trump on the charge of high crimes and misdemeanors. on just a moment we'll be speaking to our white house correspondent can they help but 1st let's go to hide it or castro who has all the latest for us from capitol hill now heidi the defense is set to start any minute any moment well in the next few hours but it's set to be very brief. that's right nastasia this coming from david showing one of trump's attorneys speaking with reporters yesterday he said that the defense's case maybe less than 4 hours if you follow that up with 4 more hours of the lot of time for question and answers that makes for the vote on whether or not to convict coming as early as tomorrow now shown also said that the presentation by the impeachment managers he called it

a movie he said that while some parts were powerful they failed to connect the dots directly to trump to delay the responsibility at his feet for the violence here on capitol hill on january 6th and today we expect the defense team to use the 1st amendment as a defense for trump's words that day and the many weeks prior to the argue that like any other american the president at the time had the right to voice his opinion that the election had been stolen from him and they plan on showing video of democrats lawmakers who've also used the term fight as hyperbole in their political speech we also expect trump's defense to repeat their argument from earlier in the trial that this entire thing is unconstitutional now you may wonder that that question has already been done away with on monday when the senate rejected the argument that this was unconstitutional well of you remember though

that vote was enough to have a majority of senators say that this trial should go forward however more than a 3rd said that it was unconstitutional and if you remember it only takes a 3rd to prevent a conviction so they would only have to repeat that vote and it is a powerful argument according to some republican senators including mike rounds of south dakota who said that this was the main issue that republicans who are the jurors are grappling with but there are signs that. there is more a fracture in the crater republican party nikki haley trump's former ambassador to the u.n. and who has said who who we know hopes to become the next republican president of the united states she gave an interview to politico that was published today and in it she broke with trump in the strongest of terms telling the reporter we need to acknowledge he let us down he went down

a path he shouldn't have and we shouldn't have followed him we can't let that ever happen again. castro there with all the latest for us from capitol hill thanks so much heidi well let's now cross over tara white house correspondent candy how can this kimberly the white house has been very quiet on this whole impeachment issue but you did just run for president biden did he have any comments for you have a coffee. he did in fact i normally don't bring coffee to work with me and well at least not on camera but this time i'm going to because this was given to me by the president of the united states who happened to be walking behind me as i got prepared for our live shots because he was looking at these hearts that you see behind me here compassion courage love and the reason that this was set up is not only for valentine's day the 1st lady setting it up but also because this is a white house that is very much trying to change the tone in terms of what is happening in america in contrast to what is happening on capitol hill and his

predecessor donald trump who he believes was very toxic to many times divided this nation he is trying to move forward with hope in the midst of the pandemic to address many of the concerns that americans have not only when it comes to infections in the united states but also the adversity the animosity that exists between neighbors and family says so i talked to the president about that why he was out here the 1st lady why they wanted to do this and what their valentine's day message is for americans and the world. i'll bring the doenitz next friday if you come back. after work and apologize here i think. i did because i didn't have the days to come out i promise you i mean i had trouble i know my math i did your hard work thank you i appreciate it very. and to be clear the reason i wasn't wearing my mask is because i was putting on my makeup so what i should tell

you is that we did talk a little bit of news as well and in terms of the impeachment the president says that he's not going to call any republican senators to try and get them to potentially change their minds or change their votes but he does believe that some of them have in fact been at least have listened to these arguments and may have been convinced but he's not going to engage directly in this what he says says he's going to do is instead focus on getting americans vaccinated to covert 19 and to provide tech to them and prevent them from getting sick and he hopes that he could meet this goal of 300000000 americans vaccinated by the end of the summer so that's what the president had to tell us that's his message he's trying to stay above the fray change the tone in washington after a very toxic for years can be how come they're drinking coffee with the president on the white house phone thanks very much kimberly while the u.k. economy has recorded its biggest annual contraction and more than 300 years driven largely by the impact of the coronavirus and g.d.p.

shrank nearly 10 percent and 2020 that's the low in just a client among g 7 countries the families affected 5 men thought to be trapped inside a tunnel in the indian state of what tara conner say are numerical can save their loved ones now it's been 6 days since a tunnel and much of the surrounding valley was flooded when a part of a classic collapsed into a river at least $36.00 people have died around $200.00 all still missing. olympics or tokyo organizers say they will try to find a new president as soon as possible and mori officially resigned on friday over his recent sexist comments mori had been facing backlash in japan and abroad after saying that women talk too much during meetings and have a strong sense of rivalry and countries across east asia are marking the lunar new year this time it's the year of the ox in taiwan.