japan on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. television o'clock this is a news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes 2 former politicians from the central african republic face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity the international criminal court. as military promises to hand over power after elections but it denies carrying out a coup and insists it had no choice but to seize power. vaccines on hold israel prevented 2000 doses of coronavirus shots from being delivered to the gaza strip. and winter storm sweeps through parts of the united states bringing

a record subzero temperatures traffic headaches and leaving millions in the dark. and i've had to stand with all the sports news for serena williams wins her australian open quarter final but standing in her way as she aims for a 24th grand slam title. cruised past. in melbourne. so we begin this news hour at the hague where 2 former militia leaders have just pleaded not guilty the start of their trial for war crimes committed in central african republic. patrice edward in guy so now we're leaders of the mostly christian and black a movement they're accused of coordinating targeted violence towards muslims when muslim selector rebels overthrew the government i.c.c. prosecutors have laid out the crimes including torture rape and murder.

yes i have understood everything that has been sit here and cathy gridley say that these are not correct. if you say you cut it i reject all the charges that you have laid against me. but it's like a closer look at the 2 former militia leaders facing this trial at the hague i.c.c. prosecutors say that after the 3 word go soner senior leaders within the mostly christian and to block the movement its fighters targeted muslims in a campaign of violence after muslim select a rebel seize power this is in 2013 their alleged crimes include torture murder and rape both men deny the charges they were arrested in central africa republican 2018 yes on says he was beaten and tortured after his arrest all right let's speak to

our conference that person who's the hagans to us more about this case and how long proceedings are set to continue for yeah just are the 2 men have indeed denied the charges and are also said i don't recognize me at all myself in these charges after the prosecutor laid out the $20.00 to $21.00 accounts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by and $32.00 accounts by basically the prosecutors painted the picture of violence against muslim minority in the capital bangui but also in out of villages where muslim residents of randomly were chased out of this place millions of people have been deployed this place because of the conflict people were murdered tortured also raped and also very young children under the age of 15 were recruited as child soldiers these accounts were all the night now by these 2 men

the defense will pick up later but this is what the prosecutor had to say. i saw nice criminally responsible under definer when most of the one facilitating the commission of the crimes us set out in the can from tartus by 18 of aiding and otherwise assisting in their commission or to contribute demean any other way to the commission of those crimes by a group of persons acting with a purpose in violation of articles 7 meetings at the hague let's just listen in to the trial lawyer and look to speaking right now on the 11th of december 2019 briefly from about june 2013 and guys on a general fuss about those you say the former president of the central african

republic bernard maxine morcombe and others implemented a strategy a plan designed to reclaim political power in ca are following the selleck as ouster of boise's a in a could it on the 24th of march 2013 and i saw i was a member of those a's inner circle he helped put together a fighting force composed among others of members of bose's former presidential guard members of the force may start off again which i will refer to as the fucka preexisting self-defense groups new recruits and others to forcibly remove the incumbent celica regime the objective of their strategy was to reclaim power the means the consequences on fortunately that's why we're here. as the evidence will show and i saw his participation in this strategy was integral

and he contributed to it fully aware that the group he was helping to structure arm finance instruct and organize known by september 2013 as the. would inevitably target the most and civilian population in western ca our he knew the vengeance within them and he knew that they intended to and would commit the multiple acts in crimes constituting the widespread and systematic attack that took place from september 2013 through december 2014 this attack included the seminal coordinated on offensives of 5 december 2013 at buying and. hundreds of kilometers apart as a pretrial chamber noted in the evidence before you will prove beyond a reasonable doubt. the attack quote the attack on both and the 5 december

2013 tax attack on buying or essential components of the strategy to reclaim power by francois bushies and others i repeat that they were essential components of the strategy to reclaim power by fall to oppose he's a and others and i saw no was a principal in the uk before he was designated the group's national coordinator in january 2014 its chief he was its defacto political coordinator maxime oakum was its coordinator for military operations his father bernard morcombe as you will hear was also influential in the group's leadership. from its inception and i saw i was aware of the n.t. block as organizational policy. that policy entailed violent targeting of muslim civilians in western c.a.r. who based on their role ijaz national or ethnic affiliation were perceived as

collectively responsible for complicit with and supportive of the telic you will hear this referred to as the criminal policy or common purpose in our presentation. and i saw as many controvert is the senior trial lawyer quick laying out the details of the charges against 2 for militia leaders who just pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial for war crimes committed in central african republic and let's cross back to step who's listening in on this as i say step it just the early stages of the trial is a laying out the details of the charges. yes exactly and very important to note is that the 1450 m. so also will participate in this trial and the i.c.c. gives the victims a way to question their witnesses and also be involved in the trial just to be more than just being a witness so that will happen in a in

a month from now and interesting of course also to note is that at the moment when the trial is taking place here in the hague talking about 2 men who have acted on behalf as what the prosecutor set a former president francois this violence is happening again at the moment as we speak so many experts are saying this trial is very important also to show that whatever is happening now in central african republic it will show that there won't be any impunity for men of people who are committing violence there are still faces the rest of us in the hague let's take this on we can speak now to the marie who's central africa senior analyst at the international crisis group joins us live by skype from nairobi kenya from where he's following the trial 1st up so how significant is it that the international criminal court is taking this on. it's the 1st. meeting for him to get warrants to do

the same. to the international justice. some to shut versus out over at national labor the way it is your thoughts never try to be not obvious. to me not because best adapted to 1st time that he did not just this is prosecuting him but in the but in that not the us is also significant because the question of justice impunity to question is did important for the populations some of you are some of the. way when the government decided years ago it decides what it's going to agreement with 14 pounds groups to population was particularly concerned we had additional mistake on the issue of impunity. so there is a shock to the straight to try to claim the fact that they get into each other on

this issue and not be bottled up like that justice hostile b b. t is the person minds all of. them it's all direct or indirect victims all of this it was of to do for team so that's why it is. fraught from a social on social aspect but also in the way of appeasing the minds of people and also from the deductive cup when you're right is that the questions are just as impunity important no doubt but also of course the question of peace and the question is does a trial like this go any way towards bringing us closer towards peace and after all is violence still going on. yes if you want to quickly understand you know the context to my joints you'll see a tree tree right now is on the border the going on scripts basically full a team of them up in brooklyn ny state with its got agreement but 15 or 16 have

been active on the grow our government right now as to those not of the neutrik us to despite the support of russian. forces who rooted for control of the territory of the fleet is significant if it's those groups that's why what is happening in the hague in the hague is also speaking to the lot of the rebel leaders on the girl some of them may feel print them or may feel. they are present is a kind of community in which i can barter for orders or definitely from a pure rational choice perspective say or think about if i am designing if i am committed to constantly coming to a political agreement one day i could be arrested and sent to the i.c.c. death for i should do it with my center could not about tell us what to protect myself from the books about international justice in the coming days most of all here so i think one thing we should be very but that is the way the rebel leaders

the are out in the country but steve just for all of the i.c.c. but my perception my feeling of disgust with most of them is that there is a definitively perception it is a fact of that prevents them from committing more troops it's b.s. one particular told me 2 years ago that i know that if i go which just i would not be in the right on the right of international i could not cause the mist it is a bit efficiently but but forest they feel like if it is already stated that it only took the gun to it's going to go into the do what the community owns in the end of the laugh. just great to get your analysis to appreciate that hans to marie hunt group from the international crisis group joining us from nairobi thank you. now as military has denied carrying out a coup and pledges once again to hold elections next year a spokesman of the armed forces says that they had no choice but to seize power

moments later the lawyer of the deposed leader and sense e.g. said the military has filed additional charges against his protests across into the 11th day scott hytner is monitoring the situation from the thai capital of bangkok 1st up scott did we really hear anything new from the military and what about these charges. no really nothing new from the military nic those are things that have kind of been said already through statements and through kind of the initial announcements from the head of the military of the coup and why they staged the coup so not really too much more detail but some things that they were a little bit interesting in and one thing that is new is that part about how they'll be the 2nd charge against on song suchi we were supposed to hear tomorrow wednesday about the 1st charge which is the illegal import of 6 walkie talkie radios sounds like there's going to be another charge as well that has something to do with something related probably to to the code 19 which is also brought

restrictions which is also brought against one of her colleagues for their campaigning back in that election in november that the military government sees as fraudulent so that was what they said again and reiterated that's why they carried out this coup another interesting thing that they said is that there's been a lot of speculation about what's been happening with the internet system in side myanmar they had these a blackouts every night for internet blackouts from 1 am to 9 am and there was speculation about what may be going on so what was interesting is the military spokesman said we are not using technology from china or we're not using technicians from china to build our own version of a fire wall we have experts you can do that if we want to so it was interesting that he said yes no china is not involved but if we do want to build a firewall we can but he said that they're not just yet but again that's something that's a concern for the protesters because you know at night is when a lot of these patrols police and military patrols go through the big cities as

well as a lot of these arrests and now we know that over 400 people have been detained now so part of the concern is that when there is this internet blackout it night yeah so that's the question is now what happens now what will the protests do how will they take these on from. right now the way it looks how they have been doing it today and to say that they're keeping it up quite honestly they're becoming a little bit more original in the way that they're carrying out some of the civil disobedience movement actions and how they have been protesting we saw some monks on the streets of yangon in number we've seen people lie across railways in yangon and the city to the east preventing the railway system from operating properly and that's part of this civil deep disobedience movement they say that they want to bring things to a halt so that the military government has to pay attention to their demands or hopefully for the protestors do something that moves toward their demands which is

the release of their democratically elected leaders and their and them being back in power obviously those are pretty tall ass right now but they're working toward that through the civil disobedience movements and that includes trying to shut down the railway system trying to slow down the operations of the government by the civil servants unions coming out and participating the protests as well so right now even with outside of the statement from the military statements from the military they're going straight away head with their protests that is quite highly following events from bangkok thanks go well plenty more still ahead on news are including 50000000 people within 2 months mexico targets the elderly in the 2nd phase of its national but it's a nation right. why joe biden has chosen the state of wisconsin for his 1st official trip and more people the people come out of it. and it is cricket has wrapped up a huge win

a ring in the 2nd test that's coming up with peter and. now the palestinian authority says that israel has stopped 2000 coronavirus vaccines being delivered to the gaza strip the 1st doses of the sputnik vaccine were supposed to be given out on tuesday more than 2000000 palestinians living in the gaza strip are yet to receive any in the kill ations human rights groups have criticize israel for not providing vaccines to palestinians living under israeli occupation in the west bank and the besieged gaza strip spiteri force at a correspondent joins us live from west jerusalem and harry said israel banning these days says the delivery of these days is why. well they're not saying so far the line from officials is that the decision has not yet been taken it is a decision for the national security council so essentially

a decision for the prime minister benjamin netanyahu and so far the political echelon we're told has not taken that decision and so when the palestinian authority tried to transport these 2000 doses for medical workers in gaza through a checkpoint from the west bank into israeli territory they were simply turned back now there was a debate in the israeli parliament the knesset on monday where there were several voices saying that no vaccines should be allowed into gaza while hamas which runs garza continues to hold 2 israeli civilians and the remains of 2 israeli soldiers killed in the 2040 war another israeli member of the knesset talking about the fact that the vaccines were more likely to go to hamas officials than guards or health workers although given no evidence for such a claim and so that remains the situation israel's already been under a good deal of pressure over its low numbers of vaccines that it has provided so

far to the palestinian authority the p.a. is calling for more international pressure against israel for failing to allow it to give its own vaccines from one of the territories the occupied west bank to the other gaza. the international criticism israel is face for not sharing vaccine supplies with palestinians it is carrying out when the world fastest campaign vaccination campaigns per capita for its citizens. indeed i mean when the differential is pretty stark just yesterday the lids figures show 156000 people were vaccinated in israel and we're talking about 2000 vaccines that have been prevented from being transported from the west bank to gaza and what is expected on tuesday is that the number in total of vaccine doses received will be it will pass the 4000000 people mark 2600000 people have had the full

vaccination regime of 2 doses and israel is really banking on this program in order to emerge the prime minister says from the pandemic entirely the government has approved reopening a much broader swathe of society in the economy from the most recent lockdown this coming sunday so we should see morals and stores some cultural and sporting activities allowed to reopen as well as israel has been a test bed for the efficacy of the vaccine itself with the latest figures showing that 94 k. percent of symptomatic cases have been prevented by the pfizer vaccine there also could be a bit of a test bed for how to come out of it there is going to be a green passport scheme for those who have received the vaccine being allowed to do things that those who haven't won't be allowed to do for instance taking part in cultural events sporting activities and the like and so there is some controversy

about that and israel will be one of the 1st countries to to fully explore how that is rolled out also in the knesset debate on monday was the question of vaccinating palestinians and offering more vaccines to those in the west bank because more than $100000.00 palestinian workers come into israel on a daily basis so there is an argument of self interest about extending what is so far only been an offer of $5000.00 vaccines to the palestinians from israel but there was no such argument it was said in the knesset for giving vaccines to gaza because gaza or is entirely cut off from israeli society or our thanks that harry forces reporting there from westerners from. well the world health organization has approved the astra zeneca covert 1000 vaccine for emergency use the decision allows a global rollout of the vaccine and increases access for less wealthy nations through a program known as kovacs comes as the number of cases worldwide dropped for the 5th consecutive week an investigation has been launched in peru to find out why

nearly 500 people including many government officials were secretly vaccinated ahead of health workers former president carter has apologized after it was revealed that he and his wife received injections in october on sunday the foreign minister resigned after it emerged that she had also been given a secret dose. a 2nd round of vaccinations is being administered in mexico's capital health officials aim to inoculate 50000000 elderly people within 2 months i will repel of reports now from mexico city. queues or long outside vaccination centers in the outskirts of the mexican capital on monday health officials rolled out the 2nd phase of mexico's national inoculation program. i feel happy after receiving the vaccine i'm glad they brought us the vexing. they say that with the vaccine hopefully we can control the pandemic because too many of our poor brothers

and sisters have left us. after weeks of delays some 870000 doses of the astra zeneca covert 900 vaccine arrived in the mexican capital over the weekend restarting the country stalled next nation efforts you look at all you said was this if you've got what we're witnessing today is the arrival of the 1st test resentment of vaccines developed with oxford's that were produced in india from mexico this should mean is very important because it will let us accelerate our vaccination drive as was ordered by the president. mexico's military has been mobilized to deliver new doses of the vaccine to all 32 mexican states. that mexico is nearing 2000000 confirmed cases and ranks 3rd in the world in cope with 19 deaths the latest shipments of vaccines or arriving at a critical time jack. said the ending health officials have got the vaccine they arrived in the morning and they will continue arriving on tuesday and they won't

stop arriving and national immunization plan won't stop as we have said there's preference for the elderly. while the 2nd phase of the vaccination program will focus on the elderly and frontline health workers the government has also placed top priority on rural areas where rates of transmission are relatively low many health policy experts say this is the wrong strategy. adding that the government should be focused on inoculation efforts in densely populated cities were authorities continue to struggle to curb contagion. mexico's vaccination program began in december of last year since then mexico's president has said the government intends to vaccinate the entire population that's more than 126000000 people by march of 2022 men who ended up a low al-jazeera mexico city at least 60 people have died in 240 others are missing in democratic republic of congo after a boat capsized it happened late on sunday on the congo river near

a lake in my own don't we the boat was traveling from the capital kinshasa to equator province and the government says it was overloaded along what carney has more now from congestion. this news was right now confirmed by. humanitarian action. not the 1st time anyway on this leg of mind everything happened according to the condition of the boats these boats the usually take a large number like it really saved the score climbing that more done they've been armed with people on this boat lifting to tell not can shuffle to get no boarding this is called a question then there were troubling during the night time and because of the condition of the people in the boat and also the large number of people and too much on the eyes then they got this accident on the river combo so the big

challenge right now is because of access to this area it is not very easy to access and also. the most of the ones are troubling there's no depressed work the rescue team can properly walk to to to give the tradition to the victims so far for now they are still missing more than 200 words to say and what people according to the d.s.e. of the shows still ahead here in algeria a race against time health authorities scrambling to respond to a new break in guinea. in 15 minutes or so the russian a tennis player making history.

well the thought is underway in that part of you has been freezing for a couple of weeks it's the atlantic group providing that warm relatively speaking that was monday's front this is coming in through tuesday so over time we get to wednesday there's a bit of a block here through poland but cold air is hard to push out of the way says be a line of snow stretching down through ukraine and down towards where probably rumania south of that has already been snowing that things are slowly improving greece and turkey and behind the improved is in temperatures rather thing else the other represents temperature risen significantly in the last 2 days alone so burdened up 7 london's up to about 11 o'clock that does mean to be some rain it was mostly not now the weather in greece has been at least worst for 12 years and the point of view of snow we're talking about just north of athens on those video pictures and that's gone by the time it gets through most of wednesday's turkey to get it leaving that's going eastwards so then the focus is further south that cold

wind which is becoming larger through the aegean is certainly wrapped up into a storm system which will affect northern egypt and the levant now mislead by thursday even that's improved although look at the snow still possible in the lebanese mountains. from. the latest news as it breaks human rights groups are questioning why people are taken to this isolation senators and the treatment they receive one fair there with detailed coverage beyond groups now control the villages that we can see on the other side of the river people who live on this side they can hear gunfire when they're fighting from around the world months after that will cain eruption they say their harvest are now back to normal. there was a lot of there in this community and that is where we lived on the way when the woman took 14 yet all the women who want up with us is our own man she worked with

local women to solve the main problem plaguing their community was not always a few problem auction plan had been bought us a priority and led the way in transforming a difficulty into a success so involving a woman to me is standing oklahoma's. women make change on al-jazeera. very good you're watching al-jazeera your mind about top stories and to form a militia leaders have just pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial for war crimes committed in central african republic for you katon

a 3 said well because sona accused of targeting muslims in a campaign of torture murder and rape from 2013 to 2014 basement denying the charges. matron has denied carrying out a coup and has pledged to get him to hold elections next year a spokesman for the armed forces says they had no choice but to seize protest against military takeover are now in that 11th day. the palestinian authority says israel has stopped 2000 coronavirus vaccines being delivered to the gaza strip the 1st cases were supposed to be given out when choose day more than 2000000 palestinians living in the gaza strip are yet to receive any inoculations. now the world health organization says that a bowl of scenes are on the way to get aid to deal with a new outbreak of the disease the 5 people have died 10 others have symptoms it's the 1st outbreak to hit west africa since the disease killed more than 11000 people in the region between 20132016 let's hear now from nicholas hocked reports from

dhaka in senegal. a bulla is back here the virus is spreading to the capital. so they. continue to feel really surprised given the current situation guinea waking names are struggling with a kind of weak 19th pandemic and now with the power it will be a real disaster the country's land borders are sealed an emergency team made up of the world health organization doctors without borders and government health workers were dispatched to the region of ns eric corey after a nurse died of the virus in late january. in fact and we are. thinking through. several people attending the infected nurses funeral contracted the virus some have

since died with more than $200.00 close contacts health authorities fear many more could be unknowingly carrying a bulla the virus spreads easily through bodily fluids and triggers fever vomiting and diarrhea eventually causing organ failure and death people are nervous the governor of in korea is calling for calm in 2013 an outbreak detected in the same region spread to neighboring countries infecting over 20000 people half of them died from the virus blood samples of infected patients have been sent for testing at the institute in neighboring senegal inside this building our researchers sequencing a sample of the virus the idea here is to try to understand which strain of the bulla we're dealing with in the current outbreak in guinea and whether the newly developed vaccine will successfully contain this new epidemic there are currently $7000.00 doses of the vaccine available globally none of them are in west africa

the vaccines need to be stored at minus 80 degrees celsius and transported to guinea's remote and tropical region where power is in short supply for health authorities it is for now a race against time to trace and isolate contact cases before it's too late. and. yes exactly that your last statement the key thing is to track down anybody who's had contact with infected patient. that's right and that's what authorities have announced yesterday measures to restrict movement and to get on the ground to try to get to those contact cases the latest measures were announced in a radio and televised statement on national television in guinea late last night which includes that there are checkpoints manned by security forces throughout the country markets have been shut down and closed public weddings and funerals have been banned that's all to prevent from people spreading the virus unknowingly

there's a real fear that people are carrying this virus without knowing that they have it takes a week before people develop symptoms of a bowl of virus now in 201-425-0000 doses of the vaccine were given to the various countries that have been affected by the bowl outbreak then we're talking about liberia sierra leone in guinea now. and last night sorry doctors the cooper who is the head of the emergency response said in a statement on national television that these vaccine doses had expired in december 2020 and they didn't have any response replacement vaccines available meanwhile mike ryan from the world health organization is saying that vaccine doses available in geneva will be dispatched to the region to try to vaccinate 1st and foremost the health workers that are dealing with the outbreak and following that contact case

and those have been in close contact with the virus that is really taking place in every career remember that's where the outbreak 1st started in 2013 and that's where we're seeing this resurgence yeah and a big concern too from neighboring countries. that's right for a librarian who is on high alert sierra leone and senegal the borders have been completely sealed off and what's interesting here is the reason why there's so much caution in trying to get to the ground in a coup where we saw the 1st case that's because in 2015 that's where several health workers and journalists had come to the ground to to to to try to treat patients of abella were killed by the local population that saw the health authorities with suspicion that's the key issue here is to try to communicate and try to rebuild that trust between the population and health workers there's this

idea that people go to health centers to die not to get treated and so right now governments both in guinea in neighboring countries are trying to communicate with the population so that the health authorities can go into the ground and to get in touch with contact cases and that's why the governor of ns or korea has been making repeated statements calling for calm so that the w.h.o. team the doctors without borders team can set up their operation on the ground safely to try to treat those that are being infected we know that there are cases already in cannot create 10 cases being treated and cannot create and they're occurring and great case of 3 areas where we have live viruses and this is happening amidst a global pandemic already the health authorities in those regions are strained and we know that there are cases also or see where where what we've seen in d. or c.

is that despite the availability of vaccine well that's not enough to ensure the spread of the virus there needs to be political will there needs to be public messaging to ensure that the population are willing to be treated. with with with health health care workers nic troubling situations a race against time and concern to go thanks very much. the red cross is warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in all of mozambique more than half a 1000000 people have fled and violence between the military fights as. hard as this report. aid workers say health facilities are being deliberately targeted in kabul and they can't access huge parts of the province people fleeing the violence in northern mozambique can sometimes only get help when they reach clinics set up in camps for the internally displaced. in the province is

a 455 and 39 over there they are no more pressure not because they have been of on the largest or they have been burned or they have been just to destroy most and because government says fighters affiliated to eisele operating in parts of kabul delgado the militant group stage is 1st attack in 2017 since then the attacks have been bigger in scale and frequency taking on the army and the time seizing entire towns health workers say the humanitarian crisis is getting worse from proton the government the number of cases has gone up there are many diseases like malaria missing displaced people from way into a commune district practically the entire northern area. more than half a 1000000 people have fled their homes many of them are now in the provincial capital they complain about overcrowding manju tradition and the constant threat of cover 1000. living as

a displaced person. moving from one place to another there are many difficulties a problem with staring over finding food to eat at least here and getting treated for illness i am now feeling better. southern african countries portugal and others in the european union have offered to help fight the armed groups but there's been no official word from the mostly be covered and on the way forward. al-jazeera. the u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi has announced plans to form an independent commission to investigate last month's assault on capitol hill she says it will be modeled on the commission established after the $911.00 attacks. reports on the facts and causes of the violence in general the 6th and which 5 people died several republicans have expressed support for an independent investigation or henry olsen is a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center in washington d.c. and he says the findings will be seen as credible because the commission will not

be part of that the important thing that the 911 model that miss speaker pelosi is proposing is that it is 5050 bipartisan controlled by neither party and it is headed by extremely important former or current appointed or officials elected officials from both sides so it's something that gives it binding extreme credibility and i think the purpose of this would be to go in and find what house managers in the impeachment trial either couldn't or wouldn't produce which is clear independent evidence over how responsible president trump is for the riots that occurred in yourself i think there's arguments on all sides of this for getting to the truth about this republicans are unhappy with trump would love to be able to find more evidence as senator bill passes being one of the 7 republicans who voted for victim president trump he said the more people find out the likelier republicans will be to be on my side democrats of course look like find out this

but the trump people also would like to find out what the truth is in part because it will also enable them to investigate what this house speaker was in charge of capitol security did or did not do to protect them and their stands from the possibility of a riot so there's a happy political convergence of interest over establishing this that all sides can find something they want to look at. well joe biden heads to wisconsin on tuesday on his 1st official trip as u.s. president it was one of the key states in his presidential victory and it's been honed by the pandemic people there are hoping it's ministration will help them recover from the economic fallout john hendren reports now from milwaukee 33. when the phillips brothers construction company became the general contractors for the democratic national convention it was a corporate coup when the pandemic forced the convention to go virtual the democrats cancelled the contract and that's about how 2021 here in wisconsin last

year was a rough year so we're looking forward to any kind of wanted out we have the vaccine and everything else i would hope it s. and jobs open up and some opportunities definitely open to other way for a small company like ourselves they're hoping for a better economic climate with a new president who campaigned in wisconsin promising to help minority businesses now joe biden is making his 1st official visit and outside of the washington area here in part to make good on that promise wisconsin lies near the center of the midwest a train ride away from american marketplaces from coast to coast. it exports manufactured goods agriculture and like many rest belt cities across the united states has lost factories in jobs to the ravages of the pandemic would depend demick like any other state you know things went downhill so as a result what we saw in 2020 specially in the the 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter of 2020 is that the economy was doing pretty bad he says the state's ability to reopen

shuttered shops and recover depends in part on biden's $1.00 trillion dollars covert 19 rescue plan which includes money for businesses and workers trump won wisconsin narrowly which helped him get to the white house biden won it back for the democrats but not by a huge margin and wisconsin has shown it could swing right back to the. republicans if it doesn't see results from the democratic president. for minority businesses like the phelps brothers expectations are especially high for black business you know hopefully that he can. do what he needs to put the right legislation or decorative orders or work with congress so that we won't be at the bottom of the list all the time. for wisconsin businesses by the visit is a start they appreciate the high profile attention of the president at the dawn of his term but they'll judge him by his success in turning around the state's

flagging economy john hendren al jazeera milwaukee. thousands of spanish police have stormed the university and have arrested a rap artist who barricaded himself in to avoid prison hospital was sentenced to 9 months in jail for insulting the monarchy and glorifying so-called terrorism law under which he was convicted to be scrapped case led to the government to announce some some easy frustrations on free speech. to democracy activists in hong kong a pleaded guilty to organizing an illegal assembly in $2197.00 others denied the charges including media tycoon and martin lee used in his home combs father democracy charles related to a demonstration in august 2019 against beijing's influence which drew nearly 2000000 people. australia's prime minister scott morrison has apologised to a woman who says she was raped in the parliament building 2 years ago former

government stuff and brittany higgins says the attack was carried out by colleagues in the defense minister's office morrison has promised an investigation into the government's workplace culture i mean that that should not have happened. and do apologize that shouldn't happen that's one of i suspect many process issues that stephanie foster will on a hyper defy and ensure that doesn't prevent the money but at the end of the die i want to make sure that any young woman working in this place is a cipher as possible just as i would like my own daughters if they have a chance to get down that path or in whatever workplace that i will working in. that i could have that confidence of this i feel as a father i could have the confidence of site. a massive winter storm has been pummeling months of the u.s. and even brought the rest of us know to some southern states causing chaos in the region unused to freezing conditions carol and it's on the reports now from new

jersey. for much of the southern united states it was a once in a generation winter storm. heavy snow fall and icy roads conjured up disastrous driving conditions across at least 20 states several of them declaring states of emergency in texas record low temperatures way below freezing brought the electricity grid to its knees at one point more than 2000000 customers there lost power many caught up in intentional outages designed to ease the strain on the system we have experienced probably 5 or 6 rolling blackouts at about 45 minutes and i know that there are some neighborhoods around here that have them up without power since about 4 am even southern texas more accustomed to hurricanes got a rare sight of snow this was the scene in bel-air a suburb of houston and in san antonio home to the alamo

a famous historical site here's what it looked like there. too far but man you never think you see the day and so you got snow coming down like this according to the national weather service at least 150000000 americans are in the storm's path and unusually wide band of frigid air creeping slowly across the country other states bearing the brunt of it happened oklahoma where it's caused near white out conditions on the roads. and more carolina where freezing rain felled trees along highways further north in chicago there me. you're used to this kind of weather at this time of the year but even here they're bracing for more than 30 centimeters of snow by the time the storm passes through the new york city region has already seen its highest snowfall totals in years but the storm that's sweeping through the rest of the country is now barreling north

and about to hit here leaving tens of millions of other americans in the northeast of the country bracing for the next one that also could include sleet and hail. in new jersey. so ahead here on al-jazeera to get ready to face in the champions league we'll have the build up with its bill.

straight out to sport has played

a big thank you so much will start with some breaking news from the world of rugby and we've just heard the entire french 6 nations team has gone into isolation that's because a staff member has tested positive for covert 19 the french rugby federation say head coach fair been guilty returned a negative result but will be retested later today france a top of the 6 nations with 2 wins so far against italy and most recently against ireland in dublin fortunately there are no games this week we'll bring you more information as we get it. so we know williams edged closer to a record equalling $24.00 grand slam titles of the beatings amanda halep in the australian open quarter finals on tuesday williams is the 10th seed in melbourne this year she was able to take the 1st set against the remaining 63 but then found herself a breakdown in the 2nd the american 4th back and would take the 2nd set 63 to move on to the semifinals. waiting for serena in the semifinals a 3 time grand slam champion naomi osaka the japanese is 2 wins away from winning

a 2nd australian open title herself that's after she saw off taiwan's su a share in straight sets this was a share is 1st appearance in a slam quarter final soccer taking care of business in just one hour and 6 minutes 6 to $62.00. and russians are slim cannot say affairs become the 1st man to reach the semifinals on his grand slam debut in the professional era is ranked 114th in the world but he showed no fear against 18 seed grigor dimitrov already zone problems with injury during the match safe drop the 1st set but then took each of the next 3 to reach the final for. india's cricketers have threshing lin in the 2nd test to level the series that won one once again the visitors could not handle the turning pitch in chennai and india's took all 10 wickets in them collapsing to 164 all out after making just 134 win the 1st innings

india winning by 370 runs the 3rd test the day my match starts in ahmedabad on february 25th. not a football and a thrilling game in germany has been this league of 3 leaders by in munich and 3rd from bottom armenia below felt by and perhaps a bit rusty after winning the club world cup in qatar playing in much colder conditions and went to the nobel at home they managed to pull one back thanks to some great skill from a goal machine. robert leaven dobbs ski is 25th in the league this season however just a minute later armenia been a fell through stored there to the advantage but again back came by and with the 1st goal from column 2 to aliso to make it $32.00 and it was often said davies to school the equaliser finishing $33.00 draw puts by 5 points clear of leipzig at the top of the bundesliga. leipzig play their home tie against liverpool in the last 16 of the european champions league except they won't be at home in the 1st leg is

being played in budapest hungary because jim the authorities denied liverpool entry to the country he took over 19 protocols liverpool won the champions league and 29000 but are struggling in the premier league right now with only 2 wins in their last 10 league games which is their group is clear that the. liverpool of more or less given up on the premier league title so now they only have to focus on the champions league which they can still win so they're going to come full of energy trying to get the situation at home so we need to watch out it's going to be a very close match the biggest match up of the night sees paris and the man against a barcelona this was supposed to be p.s.g. star neymar up against his former club but is out injured last time they would have no campaign 2017 p.s.g. were thumped 61 despite arriving in spain with a 4 nil lead from the 1st leg. history is history is but we are a different group with different players what happened in the past happened in the past and recounted results but we are building

a better future and that's the key. as for bar survey i'm a manly n l macy is in great form with 9 goals in his last 9 matches but he did try to leave the club last year and they speculation that he's going to sign for p.s.g. at the end of the season. as she and she does who in turn fees room is not my concern my focus is to prepare my players for an important match messi is a barcelona player and i have high hopes that he will continue being a bass alone player p.s.g. former coach thomas tickell has made a great start at chelsea who are now up to 4th in the premier league and want to get on monday against newcastle this time to make it 13 points from 13 since he replaced frank lampard olivier giroud scored and tino verna ended his 14 game drought with his 1st goal since november. the brooklyn nets continued their impressive form on monday with 813-6125 win over the sacramento kings james harden

contrary to these 1st triple double since joining brooklyn from the houston rockets last month and kyrie irving help them sell to 40 points on the night brooklyn would sing 273 pointers that's a franchise record they are 3rd in the east. elsewhere the chicago bulls became the indiana pacers in overtime zack levine scoring 30 points to help the bulls 281-2112 victory it's a 1st win in 11 for chicago against the indiana pacers or so forth in the east while the bulls online. and it was not a good night for the current stanley cup champions the tampa bay lightning in ice hockey the n.h.l. they were up against the florida panthers on monday even though tampa bay lead the central division it was florida who came out on top here for the 2nd time in 3 meetings 6 different panthers players scored in a 64 win it's florida's 9th win of the season and puts them 2nd in the division just one win behind the lightning. the new formula one season starts next month and

teams are starting to launch a new mclaren of the 1st to reveal their latest design they finished 3rd in the constructed standings last season thanks to some great performances from landau norris and this year he's got a new teammate daniel ricardo naturally it does take some time to learn you know a new team a new car but i guess i'm going to be hard on myself not to well to give myself too much time so i think having another new teammate my 2nd teammate. i think is very exciting. a lot of experience on his side race wins podiums and so on so it's call for me to learn from someone different i think with 10 years apart so i'm obviously a lot older but in mclaren terms he's a lot of a maid. and that's all for now i'll see you again later for more sports news. that is if this news will be here with another hall for use in minutes for me to clock rest the team goodbye from.

a place called world social life where intellectuals artists and activists me where i could use a spark and history is made. to use to have brought out just 0 world tells the story of 4 iconic cafes and their role arab societies as objects of creativity debate the 2nd secrets of the arrow cafe on a. when the news breaks the law would be considered popular support when

people need to be heard. and the story told to struggle for justice there with the l.a. riots to start over with exclusive interviews and in-depth reports remind to be the face that you start not a place for you and that al-jazeera has teams on the ground but climate change is changing all of that right to bring you new award winning documentaries and life leaves. romania's ancient forests some of europe's most pristine they are crucial for our society and crucial for our battle against the climate crisis but illegal logging by a ruthless timber mafia is destroying both the landscape and people's lives logging in the main areas are where there are bunks violence killing whistleblowers amidst claims of corruption and the role of powerful multinationals people in power investigates rumania wing of the far east on al-jazeera. be the hero

world news. washington. 2 former politicians from the central african republic face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity of the international criminal court. watching our desire a life from a headquarters in doha i'm dating an alligator also coming up main mars military promises to hand over power after elections but it denies carrying out a coup and insists it had no choice but to seize power.