already these legal research talk about just good hardworking people that want to live the american dream like our ancestors nice for him to refugees are terrified that they may be forced to return to being more. it asks for a constitutional can change. to take over in the united states. are we going to allow canceling and banning and silencing to be sanctioned in this body. donald trump's defense lawyers accuse the democrats of a political witch hunt and hypocrisy and his 2nd senate impeachment trial.

again i'm stunned here to tell you this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up no turning back mass protests in me out of office 8 straight days now against the generals who seized power from elected leaders. culinary elite. if you will my head of the european central bank mario draghi has been sworn in as its nice new prime minister confronting an economic and health crisis. the battle of the ages behind rio de janeiro's a useful image size a huge elderly population struggling to survive this and that. it is now 14 g.m.t. and that's 9 o'clock in the morning in washington d.c. where in less than 60 minutes both sides and donald trump senate impeachment trial

will present their closing arguments the former u.s. president could learn his fate as early as this weekend trump's lawyers have pushed back at the evidence presented so far describing the trial itself as unconstitutional they say democrats are only seeking revenge well in a moment we'll be live on capitol hill with how these are castro but fast his island fresh on fridays proceedings. it some time to kind of markedly short time to wrap up its defense just under 4 hours it argued that the proceedings were unconstitutional were rushed and were driven by a hatred of donald trump this impeachment is completely divorced from the facts the evidence and the interests of the american people the senate should promptly and decisively vote to reject it far from promoting insurrection against the united states the president's remarks explicitly encourage those in attendance to exercise their rights peacefully and patriotically if you don't fight

like hell you're not going to have a country anymore this is ordinary political rhetoric you have to get your people to fight and if they don't fight we have to primaries the hell out of the ones that don't fight hatred is at the heart of the house managers frivolous attempts to blame donald trump for the criminal acts of the rioters based on double here stay for hearsay statements of fringe right wing groups based on no real evidence other than rank speculation hatred is a dangerous thing they have not and can not prove mr trump explicitly or implicitly encourage the use of violence or lawless action to walk down to the capitol the only gets you.

are brave senators and congressmen and women make no mistake and i will repeat it now and any time i'm ever asked january 6th was a terrible day for our country the attack on this building shocked us all. president trump did not incite or caused the horrific violence that occurred on january 6th 2021 the senate then moved to a question and answer session it was combative it was fractious and it allowed both sides to repeat well worn lines this is an article of impeachment for incitement this is not an article of impeachment for anything else so one count they could have charged anything they wanted this process is so on constitutional because it violates due process i'm not even to get into the jurisdiction part. the due process part should be enough to give anybody who loves our constitution and loves

our country great pause to do anything but acquit donald trump at no point was the president informed the vice president was in any danger because the house rushed through this impeachment in 7 days we don't come here in anger contrary to what you've heard today we come here in the spirit of protecting our republic and that's what it's all about. there was a moment of unity at the end of the day when both sides agreed to present the congressional gold medal to capitol hill the officer who led the rioters away from the senate chamber eugene goodman actions probably saved lives that day the senate will meet on saturday that is the possibility they could call witnesses but really we're looking at moving towards a vote on the acquittal of donald trump. so let's talk you through what's going to happen next the senate is set to reconvene now for the 5th day of 2nd impeachment

trial 1st it may vote on whether or not to subpoena witnesses or documents but the u.s. media is reporting that both sides are likely to move straight on to the next phase then we'll have closing arguments house impeachment managers and trump's defense lawyers will each get 2 hours to wrap up their cases and then there will be a final vote that could happen as early as saturday to remind you a 2 thirds majority of the even the split senate is required for a conviction or let's now speak to hades or castor she's on capitol hill for us heidi as we've been saying this is a political rather than the legal trial so it's about trying to change minds talk us through the strongest arguments that we've been hearing now from both sides. sureness stasia we saw the over the course of 2 days when the impeachment managers laid out their case they showed strong video that sought to bring those senators right back to january 6th the date of the insurrection showing videos of the moment that rioters broke in the vandalism that they flipped it and also the fighting with

officers and just how close members of congress came to being caught by that mob they also went back to the begin the early days of traumas presidency trying to establish a pattern of behavior they said of the spread of this former president using insinuating remarks to incite violence leading up to january 6th and they're also arguing that this is a vote that is seeking to protect the future of the u.s. presidency now trumps attorneys they went back to the argument that this trial is unconstitutional they said on 2 fronts that 1st you can't try a former president and that trump has not gotten his due process we also saw them trying to use the 1st amendment as a defense and showing video of democrats using words like fight in their political

speeches which trump to turn he's argue is protected by the constitution now one notable difference in the way that trumps being defended in this trial compared to his last impeachment is you didn't see much of that laudatory language on part of his attorneys this time around but what we do see as a similarity is that the arguments protecting trump defending focus very much on process trying to cast democrats as the persecutors and trump again as the victim in these proceedings things that clearly moving very quickly but we already have a pretty good idea of what the likely outcome will be there any republican senators that we should be particular king out for. right it's almost a foregone conclusion that there will not be the 17 senate republicans needed to secure a conviction but there are likely at least 6 who may vote with democrats these are

the same republican senators who voted earlier that this trial is constitutional and should move forward if you want to know how the senators are thinking at the moment you really can just look to the questions that they submitted yesterday and that question and answer session the vast majority of questions phrase in terms of isn't it the case that this sort of teeing up to the legal teams to repeat the arguments that those who are asking the questions obviously agreed with the few sincere inquiries that were heard came from members of those 6 senators that were watching the smirk house susan collins both republicans who've been on the fence about trump asking his attorney what trump new on the day of january 6th how early he was informed of the riot and what did he do to try to stop it well the answer from his attorneys was telling they didn't have an answer to that question rather they attacked democrats saying it was negligent on their part for not having

investigated this again going back to the due process claim all together not acknowledging that of course trump is their own client and they could have asked him themselves what he knew and when it's notable that trump has declined the offer to testify here in person and democrat prosecutors of course they have the option of asking for witnesses today one person on a lot of people's minds is kevin mccarthy who is one of trump's closest allies in the house there's new reporting that he got into a shouting match with the former president during the riot that was laced with profanity that he was so angry that trump had done so little to stop that violence while you. may think why not call him as a witness it's likely that won't happen because calling witnesses could extend this trial in the stasia by weeks and there's little appetite in either party for that to happen with democrats also wanting to quickly move onto biden's agenda well it's

going to be a very interesting day there on capitol hill how to cast her with all the latest for us thanks so much heidi now moving on to meon mom where calls for democracy and a return to civilian rule are getting louder tens of thousands of people have returned to the streets of yangon myanmar is largest city they're calling on the military to stop kidnappings that night as the gentle continues to detain and to create protesters and activists and this was the scene in the capital not the door thousands of protesters there up to supporting in the demonstration including student union members athletes people from all walks of life and in mandalay and that's me i'm a 2nd city there have been also more rallies this time involving noises people are angry with the military john to who seized power from the elected leaders alleging voter fraud without any evidence and they want the deposed civilian leader on some suchi and her allies to be released it's got hired has been monitoring developments for us from neighboring thailand. there is an increase that's at least the word

we're getting from people on the streets there who have been on the streets since the protests really began since the movement to get as many people out from many different walks of life out in the streets are saying you know friday we saw spike in numbers the biggest numbers yet they say and again that's interest paid today in those pictures really indicate that that's probably what's going to be in store toward the end of the day now we won't get official numbers because the police are authorities are really counting this is coming from the organizers themselves and there is a feeling that you know that the the security forces are allowing them to do this maybe because it's gotten so big maybe they think they're going to fizzle out but that's not the case because they keep coming out in big numbers what's interesting is they're very pinpoint when it comes to where they gather the biggest numbers are gathering and that's at the embassies in the end don because obviously for this movement a key key issue is the international community's reaction. knowledge of what's

going on in myanmar so that's where they're focusing in young gone there's a large area that they've gathered straight right through you know right after the coup on february 1st this intersection there yangon university that's where they've been gathering as well so you know when you look at on the streets you know it's very interesting to see different walks of life different groups but also how creative they've gotten in in presenting their protest movement so it's interesting that that's really kind of a change from from previous uprisings in myanmar that ended in violence but now right now you know we saw violence on tuesday but right now things are peaceful what aspect timmins oh he's the executive director and the man the institute for peace and security in yangon and he thinks for now the military doesn't seem to hear these protests as a direct threat to their role. i don't think at this point the military may make a move because of the protests military may see the current protests it's mostly

nonviolent and also not directly threatening to unseat the military and the a lot of the ministries are still functional and so the protests are calling for civil disobedience to stop walking but on the other hand in a p. daw it is a bit different a difficult to engage in that kind of protests because it is quite isolated and this is the area but he much. we have from most of the populated areas so it's easier more easier to control the civil servants but despite the civil. disobedience movement some of the ministries are functional and so the military may see that kind of protests are not necessarily directly threatening its power base so they may tolerate. at least for the near future a lot of us. who were involved in the pro-democracy movement in the past are

on like a high a lot like a we we activated our safety protocols and we don't even sleep in one place we move one after another and a lot of activists even though they are not arrested a concern that they may be targeted next so yes we all are concerned more or less i think the military government me ignore the current protests more or less until they probably find some evidence that they can claim that they are legitimize why they have to launch a coup so now what i thought was a lot of investigations are going on against the n l d on on the potential voting irregularities and also foreign funding and also on the some of the corruption charges so the military may come up with those whatever finding the half that they may come up with a transition

a plan. well right now anti-government protesters are again in thailand's capital bangkok demanding the release of 4 activists they're in custody on charges of insulting the king as you can see there there does appear to be a standoff developing between the riot police and protesters and they've been out for some time now they're calling for a new constitution and reforms to the monarchy with artie's there as you can see have been recently cracking down on those who speak out against the royal family will be staying across what's happening on the streets of bangkok for you here on al-jazeera. now italy has a new prime minister. it will mean european central bank chief mario draghi was sworn in just a few hours ago he comes to power as italy faces a double crisis on health and economic fronts the previous government collapsed in a dispute about the handling of the coronavirus pandemic druggies cabinet is

a mix of technocrats and politicians from a broad coalition rally i also spoke to seem a group that she's a journalist based in rome and she says the druggy has the support of both the italian parliament and its people. it was his time at the european central bank when he was dealing with the eurozone debt crisis that he made those famous words of doing whatever it takes in order to save the euro what's the hope now is that he will be able to do whatever it takes in order to save italy in terms of the both the health crisis in terms of coping $1000.00 but also the financial crisis that the country's currently in the vaccination program is really top of his priority italy started off fairly well with that but then we've seen things stall we've seen things better in certain regions and others the question remains is whether he can perhaps create some kind of centralized a way of dealing with this in terms of getting that big scene roll out quickly because of course that has an impact on the economy at the difference in terms of

a technocrat leader of a government this time around in italy as compared to others in the past is that others in the past may have had to deal with budget cuts in austerity in this situation druggies getting more than 200000000000 euros of recovery funds from the european union so he'll be spending a recent survey actually put a 70 percent or so approval rating for mario draghi now it's even higher than the previous prime minister giuseppe conti clearly i think a lot of italians know he's a known figure he's a known name he's known to be serious about what he's doing so clearly they're hoping that he will come in there and fix things. well still ahead here on al-jazeera arrests in nigeria as anger grows against the government's decision to reopen a controversial toll gate. and $55.00 battling to bring a huge blaze under control of afghanistan after several gas tank has exploded that

. how the weather scrolling down for the korean peninsula as we go through the next couple of days we got some snow with a full cost as well little area of cloud here just rolling out so that eastern side of china across the yellow sea system with the weather here northern flank of that there's that snow that will slide its way down into north korea some heavier rain to just making its way into south korea and so we'll let go since 13 degrees celsius on sunday for all the cool 4 degrees celsius by the time we come to monday with that wintry weather just making its way across northern parts of south korea somewhat of weather too coming into a good parts of japan calling off in tokyo to around 14 celsius the basin snow over

the mountains mt fuji seeing more snow for another dusting of snow to into the fall north of hokkaido china will quieten down hard like down towards the southwest there is some clouds and rain around here not too bad across india china is generally fine dry across a good part of india as we go through the next couple of days wash as we do have lots to stay out into the by of bengal want to see the showers there on the the foothills of the him alas is some wintry weather mixed in there of course some rain sleet and snow it should stay largely dry for much of india where the fog adds smog across the northern plains. from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax joyously break in your journey.

and when you leave with a smile we know how day's work is done. welcome to. the earth world. and again i must all detained our hot let's remind you about top stories here this hour donald trump 2nd impeachment trial is nearly finished a final vote could happen when the senate reconvenes in just a few hours time on friday trump's lawyers finished their defense calling the trial itself unconstitutional. and take a protest as taking the anger to the streets of myanmar for an 8th day they want military generals to release deposed leader he's under house arrest. and

anti-government protesters as you can see are right now out again and thailand's capital bangkok demanding the release of 4 activists they're in custody on charges of insulting the king protesters they're also calling for a new constitution and reforms to the monarchy. now at least 4 people have been killed and 7 others injured in an attack near somalia's presidential palace in the capital mogadishu. police say a vehicle rigged with explosives managed to get away from a checkpoint at high speed now despite security forces opening fire the driver did manage to reach a police post and to detonate those explosives no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. police in nigeria detaining protesters in the largest city in lagos that's off to activists called for a rally at the very spot where 12 people were killed last year during protests

supporters of the n sols movement against police violence an angry at a decision by a judicial panel to reopen the lekki tollgate that's been closed since those killings many say reopening the toll gate is ill timed an inconsiderate to the victims has more now from the tollgate and lagos. elected told get represent different things to protest us and the government the protests to see this as a sucker ground they claimed this is where 12 of their members were shot and killed by security forces on 20th of october 2020 while they occupied thousands of them occupied this particular place to protest against police brutality they said it's inconsiderate of the government to set up or to reopen be told gate at a time when the parties are still only going to verify or to ascertain what exactly happened here now is one part of the government it says it is losing revenue millions of dollars they say is being lost every week by the state government so

what they want to do is to renovate this structure which has been affected by the rioters if you look on top of that truck. evidence up front windows and structures on the whole lot that was set on fire by protesters what happened here on that day set the tone for the violence we saw spreading across nigeria violence broke out across 36 nigerian states including the federal capital while we saw the rioters at tucking government facilities robbing looting and even burning down properties belonging to private individuals and government so they want to see they're calling for the organizers of the demonstrations calling for supporters to come out and mosque to protest what exactly is going to the police and the security forces on their part. want to see that not top me and so they got themselves prepared and ready for events up to date since yesterday they've been wrecking all the potential flashpoints here in vegas trying to ensure that they were not taken

by surprise. or don't know what to do 1020. a gas tank explosion has injured at least 17 people near afghanistan's border with iran have a look at these images they show the fire after apparently spread through a line of fuel trucks a customs post in the border town of islam kala the health department is saying the number of people that have been hurt could rise afghan 5 fighters have also requested assistance from the a rainy and side to try to put out that play is the cause of the incident is still unclear. elsewhere in afghanistan there have also been a number of blasts across the country killing and injuring security forces and civilians 5 police officers were killed in an attack on their vehicle in cannot province on friday on saturday a car bomb at a security outpost in southern kandahar wounded 12 offices bass attack was claimed by the taliban and the liaison in the day 3 civilians were injured by

a roadside bomb in the city of jalalabad well meanwhile 30 taliban fighters including 6 foreign nationals have been killed in an explosion at a mosque it happened early on saturday and province a statement from the defense ministry says members of the armed group had gathered there for bomb making training the taliban has not commented. now road work is in india's stage of rhetorical and working around the clock to try to reach a number of villages which are now cut off excavations are clearing rocks and debris from the site where a bridge washed away near rainy village much of the surrounding valley was flooded when it last year collapsed into a river on sunday people living in a dozen villages have been relying on food and other supplies being flown in by helicopter and these 36 people have now died and around 200 still missing. well moving on to the pandemic now in the university of oxford is set to begin

assessing the safety of the immune response of the astra zeneca vaccine and children for the very 1st time the trials will determine whether the coronavirus vaccine is effective on people between the ages of $6.17 around $300.00 volunteers will be enrolled in the 1st in occupations are expected this month meanwhile astray is the 2nd most populous state victoria has entered a 5 day lockdown or thirty's a racing to try to prevent a 3rd wave of cases sparked by the highly infectious u.k. private 19 variant well the brazilian city of rio de janeiro is often associated with youth beauty and an energetic lifestyle lived out on its famous beaches but rio is also home to an aging population who are struggling through a devastating pandemic one of the young care reports now on the challenges being faced across that generational divide. the beaches of rio de janeiro are always says a freedom and then are jean even in the midst of

a deadly pandemic everyone seems to be on the move on land and sea. sidestepping the crisis with healthy exercise and moments of deep contemplation but it all real may look youthful it's the brazilian city with the largest proportion of elderly people and they're specially vulnerable to covert 19 this foreign war to live in the image of rio de janeiro as the city of london beautiful women it was here that 2 musicians the research remote i phone for being wrote to the song the girl from ipanema. they were inspired by 18 year old in elise opinion walking to the beach in her bikini that girl is now a grandmother and over 60 years old like 13 percent of the city's population vaccination began in rio earlier this month and the elderly are the 1st in line the

mayor promised to an ocular 8 all by march but fighting the pandemic here has been specially difficult the city's aging population needs younger caregivers who usually live in poor neighborhoods and they have to take a crowded bus to work all the attempts at maintaining at the most social distancing possible still very difficult so what happened i think during the 1st big wave was that lots of elderly people were got sick arts and crafts because one of their caregivers got here. and. this. this problem still exist copacabana is a rich middle class dave or hood with a high cool the death rate 3 out of 10 people here are over 60 but in the nearby slum up on the mountain the younger population faces a different problem they would probably survive the virus but will struggle to

survive another lockdown. on this time of the year this beach would be packed with tourists from the united states and europe not to know i've been walking from one end to the other called even may call for what i used to make the vaccination campaign has brought hope to most brazilians but 25 year old wonderly knows he'll have to wait a long time before it's his turn until the tourists come back life on the beach will be far from carefree monica innocuous al-jazeera rio de janeiro. and then a sound is there i mean for the headlines 30 minutes from now both sides and donald trump's senate impeachment trial will present their closing.