generally you don't get the day that others are not i would really. like to put you on 3rd. the way that you tell that story isn't what can make a difference. not guilty former u.s. president donald trump is acquitted of inciting an insurrection on the republican senators who backed him accused of a dishonorable act. they're watching on his their ally from a headquarters in doha. also coming up trump praises the verdict calling the trial the biggest witchhunt in the country's history and hints at a possible political future mean mars military is accused of cracking down on

opponents as it hunts down supporters or protests denouncing the coup and struggling to age with dignity a lack of medicine and resources is hurting the lives of elderly people in syria. hello thanks for joining us for a 2nd time the former u.s. president donald trump has escaped conviction during an impeachment trial the results livered by the senate was expected but 7 republicans sided with democrats in favor of impeachment trump was accused of inciting the capitol hill riots on january the 6th alan fischer begins our coverage the. 57. for ease 3 for a 2nd time acquitted of high crimes and misdemeanors by the u.s. senate john trunk former president states. is not guilty as charged the charge

he incited the crowd ahead of the violent riot at the capitol on january the 6th. 57 senators said he did including 7 republicans but that's not enough for the 2 thirds majority to convict this was about choosing country over donald trump and 43 republican members chose trump they chose trump it should be a weight on their conscience today the day started with a surprise the democrats asking for witnesses a move which could delay the process we would like the opportunity to subpoena congresswoman herrera regarding her communications with house minority leader kevin mccarthy and to subpoena her contemporaneous notes that she made regarding what president trump told kevin mccarthy in the middle of the insurrection if they want to have witnesses i'm going to need at least over 100

depositions not just one both sides though wanted to bring this to a quick end so reached agreement which meant new witnesses and a move to closing statements from the man who led the prosecution an appeal to senators to meet the moment senators this trial in the final analysis is not about donald trump the country in the world know who donald trump is this trial is about who we are who we are this is almost certainly how you will be remembered by history that might not be fair. he really buy not be fair but none of us can escape the demands of history and destiny right now. so often echoed the x. president supports this impeachment has been a complete charade from beginning to and the entire specter bill expect the call has been nothing but the unhinged pursuit of

a long standing political vendetta against mr trump by the opposition party it is time to bring this const unconstitutional political theater to an end it is time to allow our nation to move forward with the result 10 donald trump meet his 1st comment since the trial began a statement from his florida home thanking senators for their vote but insisting this is yet another phase in the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country no president has gone through anything like it but one of his closest allies in the senate who voted to acquit him made it clear the former president was responsible for what happened rather than trouble still for everything he did while he was out of as an ordinary sort of. structured levitation to iran. for everything you do while you're going off and get away with anything yeah.

yeah the decision here means that donald trump will not be excluded for running from political office in the future he could run again for the presidency in 2024 his supporters say he should and he would win but despite the not guilty plea january the 6th will always be attached to donald trump's presidency on the day when democracy was threatened in america alan fischer al jazeera on capitol hill. house speaker nancy pelosi described the republicans who backed as cowards and took issue with mitch mcconnell's logic for voting against impeachment saying he was the one who delayed the trial in the 1st place for mitch mcconnell. who created the situation where it could not have been heard before that 20th or even begun before the 20th in the senate to say all the things he said oh my gosh about donald trump and how horrible he

was and is and then said but that time it's time that the democrat the house chose to bring it oh no we didn't choose you chose not to receive it so i think that's really important so how has donald trump reacted to the verdict and the gallagher is in west palm beach in florida near the former president's resort. the one message from that statement that was released within minutes of him being acquitted is that don trump is going nowhere and he told his supporters that his role to make america great again has only just begun and there will be big announcements in the months to come so it's pretty clear at the moment this is in many ways donald trump's republican party he is a looming figure here but the wider question is i think what does this do to the republican party who are the republican party going forward are they people like

marjorie tele green who believes in q and on or are they people like liz cheney who voted against trump and is more of a moderate republican there's no question now that don't trump has political plans going forward the bigger question is what are those plans is he going to run in 2024 as many people believe or 'd is he going to seek revenge on those 7 republicans that voted him guilty in all of this so we haven't heard or we haven't seen from donald trump since this all began this is the longest period i think in the last few years that he stayed this quiet for this long of course he's not on twitter anymore one of his favorite platforms before he was banned from that and i'm not of mining seeing him on t.v. any time soon because it's the weekend here on monday it's presidents day which is a national holiday and we all know that president former president trump likes prime time so. i guess the country is waiting with bated breath to see what he says

next in particular to see what he says about mitch mcconnell after that scathing speech in which one of the most senior republicans laid the blame squarely at trump's feet. the president joe biden issued a statement after trump's acquittal he says that even though there was no conviction the charge is not in dispute and even those opposed to the conviction like senate minority leader mcconnell believe donald trump was guilty of disgraceful dereliction of duty and practically and morally responsible for provoking the violence unleashed on the capital clara finkelstein is a professor of law enforcement the university of pennsylvania she says the not guilty verdict shows that the impeachment system is broken. i don't know how they can live with it i mean they are certainly choosing party over country but i would go further than that and say that they are choosing mistakenly what they take to be their own political futures i think ultimately if they represent the political

future in their decisions and done trump represents the political future of the country not only is the republican party going to fall apart because it just cannot hold the split inside the party but the country's democracy will fall apart because democracy cannot hold in the face of this kind of assault on the rule of law was absolutely extraordinary one of the things that we learned today is that even with a democratic administration and 2 houses of congress controlled by the democrats the democrats were un able to convict a president who everybody nearly everyone seems to agree intentionally provoked an assault a deadly assault on our capitol building something that didn't even happen during the civil war so if it is so hard to impeach even

a president who has recently left office and we could not do it either when donald trump was in office when he was using a foreign power to boost his bid for reelection that really tells us that impeachment is broken crowds are out demonstrating against myanmar as military rulers for a 9th consecutive day the generals are giving themselves new powers to monitor search and detain people involved in protests activists say they're concerned by the increase of 1000 police raids more than 380 people have been detained since the military since power in a coup or for the 1st for us there is following developments from malaysia since joining us from kuala lumpur how big are these protests and how much momentum to they continue to have florence. well what we're hearing from the guy on the ground is that thousands of people are converging in different parts of yangon that's the largest city in myanmar and there are also reports that protests are taking place

in naypyidaw there was a convoy of thousands of cars and motorbikes that drove through the city we have also seen on social media live streamed videos of protests taking part in other parts of me and cities and towns across the country so clearly these are big protests these protests already in their 2nd week and these are the largest protests in more than 10 years so there's still a lot of anger against what's happened in the the general seizing power in a coup and people are turning out on the streets of the of the cities of towns despite the military warning it will take action against people and despite a ban on gatherings of more than 5 people there the military is also bringing back more repressive laws that hark back to the days when young man was under strict military rule it's reinstated a law that requires people to report to authorities any overnight visitors they have this was a law that was used by the previous military and it was repealed by the own son sujit led government it has now been brought back now on top of that the military

has suspended other provisions and now it means police don't have to obtain a court order to hold someone for more than 24 hours they also don't need to go to court before they enter someone's home or private property could to conduct a search so there's a lot of ease and there's fear among activists and protesters that they could be targeted more easily now a group that champions for the rights of political prisoners says more than $380.00 people have been detained since the start of the coup and many of them in nighttime raids so of course there's fear that the needs but there's also a lot of anger and that's why i think we're not seeing any we're not seeing these protests lose any momentum in fact the crowds appear to be growing bigger as the sunday goes on and we're hearing that the crowds are probably the crowds are gathering and these protests are likely to continue throughout next week ok florence that we thank you for that update from kuala lumpur. now world health

organization investigator says china has refused to hand over raw data on early coronavirus cases the w.h.o. team visited rwanda chinese city where the pandemic is believed to have emerged after a 4 week visit looking into the origins of the pandemic the team had wanted more information about the 1st cases in december of 2019 but the investigation has been plagued by delays concerns about access and bickering between beijing and washington dominic dwyer is an australian infectious diseases expert on the w.h.o. team he says china only provided summaries on the early cases in the ideal world you would go through it. and that's what we call it and that's standard practice for an outbreak investigation in this situation the chinese gave us the dolls we would have liked i guess to erode gaza but that can still come health officials in guinea have reporter the deaths of 4 people from ebola at least 11000

people died during an ebola epidemic in west africa that lasted between 20132016 the virus has also been reported in the democratic republic of congo. still ahead on al-jazeera blooming but no longer booming will beat the flower growers in zimbabwe refusing to give up on their struggling business. with ice skaters already the netherlands keeps its fingers crossed for a once in a generation sporting event. it's time for the perfect jenny. sponsored point qatar airways hollow we've got a welcome return to mahler across western parts of europe the payoff is going to be some very cloudy conditions wet and windy weather streaming in from the atlantic

quite a chase down towards the southeast as well little area of low pressure bringing some heavy snowfall across a good part of greece and that's going to make its way further east with the southern part of the balkans pushing through greece easing of its walls that western side of turkey could see around a meter of snow over the next 24 hours in between it is generally dry but still pretty cold temperatures struggling to get anywhere near freezing for many that's not milder air that wetter weather that windy a weather coming into western parts across the u.k. you will see temperatures in london at around 4 degrees celsius on sunday but warming up nicely getting back up into double figures by the time we come to monday some wintry weather there is that's a rain sleet and snow just develops across scandinavia once again sliding down into denmark into germany at moderate bumping into the cold air really turning to snow there's that cold a west of weather still there across southern parts of europe but it will make its way further east which and indeed some of that cooler air digging down across

northern parts of africa so some wet weather and some cool weather into northern areas of libya over the next couple of days. sponsored by qatar airways told to own their own we know this in a case where us for the company and compensated civilians when we listen to the only music you hear is the only the most beautiful music in the world is silence we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories the although does their own . holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s. its role in the war on al jazeera.

now we've got the top stories on al-jazeera this hour the former u.s. president donald trump has been acquitted in his 2nd impeachment trial 7 republican senators joined 50 democrats in a vote to convict him but that fell short of the 2 thirds majority needed. trump issued a statement welcoming the verdict and repeating his claim it was the greatest witch hunt in the country's history he also hinted at a possible political future crowds are out demonstrating against me in mars a military coup for a 9th consecutive day the generals are grounding themselves new powers to monitor search and detain people involved in protests. tens of thousands of elderly people in syria are struggling to find the treatment they need for physical and mental illnesses after 10 years of for many are living out their final years and camps cattle up as reports. you know this is how on hussein

moves around her camp in northern syria her health is getting worse and walking is no longer an option. for years she thought she would one day go back to her hometown but that hope is now fading the war is just one of several tragedies she's had to endure her husband became death some of their children have died others are scattered in different camps medicine is a luxury she can't afford. all of them i have nothing except my old age other people can walk and go anywhere they want but i can only crawl on my knees this is where some of the elderly go to get help a makeshift medical center set up in another camp for the displaced it's estimated that about 200000 elderly people in syria are homeless this is the only medical attention many will have access to. we mostly care for the elderly and many of them

have long term illnesses like high blood pressure diabetes and heart problems for many things are worse because they're suffering from psychological hardships many of which stem from worrying about the future. the war has devastated entire communities more than 5000000 people fled syria during the fighting about another 6000000 are still displaced within the country without a home camps have become their only refuge and humanitarian aid their only lifeline leverage the homeless and with failing health many here say their only hope is to try and live out whatever time they have left with dignity. this early on al-jazeera. demonstrations have been held in behalf of rain ahead of the 10th anniversary of the popular uprising against its monarchy her and was the only gulf country that saw protests during the 2011 arab spring mohamed volatiles back at the

crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners. this is how it looked when the arab spring breached the gulf region 10 years ago mr noted 6000 people protested in the behind the capital mina on february 14th 2011. i attend now it was unprecedented they called to tell day of rain but today i dressed in behind had begun the year before the arab spring the country's majority shah population complained of marginalization by a sunni more knock their initial demands included political and constitutional reform socio economic justice and that in east of detained political leaders at the start of the protests they didn't seem to openly seek a complete removal of the ruling family. but the spectacular success of tunisian and egyptian protesters in toppling they'll powerful rulers gave a similar hope to those in behind i they occupied madonna's pearl roundabout and

chanted for the creation of a democratic republic. the 2. security forces intervened in a heavy handed map. dozens of activists were injured all rested by the end of that day 21 year old idea of that had to lay dead dozens more were killed in the months that followed. the killings ignited anger thousands of the occupied the square a few days later. they pitched tents in an attempt to copy what happened in cairo's tahrir square during those initial weeks the behind the government seemed to offer concessions. the crown prince called for dialogue and laid out a plan of the constellation and reform but the show position expressed mistrust. i the testers now demanded the act to removal of the ruling family

and to the monarchy. on march 14th 2011 the gulf cooperation council dispatched 1500 soldiers with armored personnel carriers mostly from saudi arabia and the united arab emirates to behind to support the government. the same day the king declared a state of emergency now and the security forces to clear the per square by any means. i hospitals choked with the wound hundreds were arrested. here on and the protest leaders criticize the gulf countries military intervention describe it as an occupation on the other hand behind this government accused iran of meddling in its internal affairs by supporting the protest movement. the us navy which has its 5th fleet stationed in behind didn't seem to want to put real pressure on the government or to openly

support any party in the uprising because of the hands geo political importance being you know between saudi arabia and iran and hosting the flames are now also a base for the united kingdom there are a lot of interests that are based on behind where and you know when we took to the streets in 2011 we knew that we weren't just up against the behind the government but rather the sixty's you see countries plus their allies the united kingdom and the united states over the years and with other arab spring countries sliding into anarchy and civil war behinds uprising began to fade. most of it she our political leaders were locked up and are still in jail still the leaders of the uprising insists the struggle will continue as long as people's anger and grievances are not heard $105.00 under seal. those ilands largest city is going into a 3 day lockdown after 3 people tested positive for cope with 19 essential services will remain open in auckland but other businesses and schools will close people

have been urged to work from home where possible new zealand has managed to keep the number of infections down with less than 2000 cases since the start of the pandemic lebannon has begun its inoculation drive after receiving its 1st shipment of the pfizer vaccine the caretaker prime minister has son india visited the hospital where the 1st shots were administered to him and health workers about 28000 doses arrived on saturday the country has ordered more than 2000000 more the through the global kovacs scheme and lebanon's recent increase in cases have filled up intensive care units it's also prompted a shortage of oxygen tanks the coronavirus pandemic prune the profits of the world's flower industry growers in zimbabwe were already struggling before the outbreak now their country is in its worst economic state in years but farmers are refusing to give up much also reports in the town of concession.

overseas demand for fresh cut flowers plummeted last year because of covert 19 and that's affected zimbabwe's biggest export company. manages the orders dropped to about 50 percent but this year they say demand is picking up. zimbabwe has high levels of unemployment and more orders mean more jobs on an average day on a summer's day rather riccarton area between 100230000 stems a day we have 700 labor force who are working from 62 i live in 32325700 people on cutting so yeah it's a nonstop operation more than 20 years ago flower exports brought in a lot of foreign currency for the country but ended in president robert mugabe's land reform program the government sees thousands of white owned commercial farms since then the industry hasn't been what it used to be back in 2001 zimbabwe was

the 5th biggest exporter of flowers to the european union then came years of economic decline and now called 19 many guys left but others are still here carrying on. kenya and ethiopia africa's top exporters explain how they have managed to stay in business we were dealing with auction system ok we're looking in the market to didn't plan only with auction system we deal directly with customers ok and our our main customer base is the supermarkets and supermarkets in europe was the open because it was part of the essential and that allowed us that. they're there for its ability of so playing those markets. has abetted businesses and economies globally is no different on this farm workers here receive food parcels every month in addition to the salaries to help them push on and they know the job security depends on being able to export roses to more global markets.

al-jazeera concision zimbabwe. people in spain's catalonia region are voting in an election that could reshape its political landscape separatist parties dominate the regional parliament the polls suggest the socialist party which opposes caroline independence could make significant gains on the far right is projected to win seats for the 1st time. ice skaters in the netherlands are hoping to get a once in a generation chance to tackle the 11 cities tour it takes place on natural ice on the last time it was cold enough was 1907. reports there is another problem this year. the cracking noise of natural ice is music to the ears of peter becker it's been nearly a decade since dutch waters have been covered with such a layer of ice for 24 years peter has been waiting for the tour of all ice skating

tourists a journey on skates between 11 cities which takes thousands of ice skaters 200 kilometers to cities in the north of the country. i like the extreme challenge of the tour but also want to enjoy the beautiful landscape skating through fields and cities and a large audience cheering you on at something for this is how peter imagines to have because in reality all he has been doing is practicing because every skater selected by the committee has to be appropriate to go at any time you know it is over the best it begins in summer that's when i prepare you quick when is ready and i make sure i'm always sharp and when to start freezing the ice skate fever is unstoppable you make sure you're ready to go the 11 cities 2 or took place 15 times in the 20th century but this century meteorologist predicted dutch will be lucky if it happens a maximum of 3 times if at all due to global warming 11 so these 2 were turned

skaters into heroes and by the nation to gather something badly needed now during the lockdown but even before the magical 15 centimeters of thickness needed for the race was reached hopes already dashed not only global warming but now all of that is posing a threat. organizers have announced that it will be too dangerous to hold such a large event attracting more than a 1000000 people a bit a massive here but it has not time but this skating fever i think it's a beautiful it feels like your life again and we haven't been alive for almost a year so it really feels like i can imagine everybody's out here feeling to say i did have a normal commission that we really missed this and it makes up for everything i work in a hospital and i've seen a lot but this makes me forget that it makes me feel happy we're going to enjoy this. beach and.

these are busy days for the ice master who keeps checking the quality of the ice we are measuring about 99 and a half centimeters today. we'll just which is quite good but still not enough for us to get all the i's with our heavy material only a few more centimeters are needed for the 11 cities tour but looking at the weather forecast there won't be enough ice again this winter that brings mixed feelings for peter was desperate to escape detour but can't bear the thought of the event getting the go ahead but then being cancelled due to the button that make step fasten al-jazeera kinsell mir the netherlands. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera their former u.s. president donald trump has been acquitted in his 2nd impeachment trial 7 republican senators joined 50 democrats in a vote to convict him of that fell short.