the fans who make football on al-jazeera. played an important role protecting him and. don't touch face. the national guard has been called in to help america's big winter for years while since causing power blackouts water shortages and chaos in texas. hello there i missed on the attack and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up facebook blocks users in australia from sharing news over proposals to make tech giants pay for content. the u.n.

secretary general calls for a global vaccination plan and just g. 20 nations to lead that effort. and another mass abduction in nigeria more than 250 people are missing and feared kidnapped. but an arctic blast continues to cripple large swathes of the united states where now at least 30 people have been killed this once in a generation storm has left millions without power and 3 quarters of the country blanketed in snow the national guard has now been stationed across texas which is among the hardest hit states pipes have bass there in the freezing temperatures and water treatment plants have stopped whacking 7000000 texans have been told to boil their water well over a quarter of a 1000000 have no running water or tall generators water and blankets are all being sent by the federal government but the governor of texas says it will be days

before the situation starts to improve. the state will be below freezing to more morning along north rim a new freezing through thursday night. with ultra cold temperatures once again on thursday night we should across the state start getting above freezing on saturday well andy gallacher now has more. snow and ice are wreaking havoc from ohio to the rio grande much of the u.s. now gripped by severe winter storms the states of louisiana missouri kentucky and texas of all reported deaths amid historic freezing temperatures north carolina and georgia storms brought tornadoes across the rest of the nation millions are without power as rolling blackouts continue this is fair and hoover says that there were

better. you know somebody is going to do some planning after all this is over and make sure there's an alternative source of energy texas is bearing the brunt of the arctic chill with power outages forcing people to use warming centers families desperate to keep warm have taken to lighting fires in sugarland texas authorities believe that's what killed a grandmother and her 3 grandchildren just incredibly tragic young woman 41 years old. family children it just doesn't get worse seniors to a struggling as care homes run short on medical essential zliten oxygen for those already concerned about their parents amid the coburg crisis it's a worrying time if we weren't here i can't imagine. because there's really not a lot of information flow the rolling blackouts in texas have led to criticisms over the state of existing power grids many residents are calling for alternative sources of power others say that's

a conversation for another time this week we have to get warm i mean people are losing homes they're losing food they're i mean we've seen absurd people have died so it's like we should concentrate on that 1st and maybe figure out the solution next week so it doesn't happen again the severe weather is hampering efforts to get people vaccinated for covert 19 focus to say another extreme cold front will affect south and central parts of the u.s. in the days ahead and gallica al-jazeera well i spoke to ross ramsey he's the executive editor of the texas tribune and he told me just how widespread the impact of the storm has been. it's become a compound problem you start with the electricity is inadequate for the demand the supplies drop at the same time that the demand peak a lot of the things that depend on that electricity went with it natural gas. wasn't flowing properly so that wasn't powering natural gas plants it turns out

a lot of homes mine included are hated by natural gas and then because of the freezing and because texas isn't really built for this kind of a storm a lot of pipes are bursting no in a couple of places around the state main water lines have burst and so now you have water problems and you have problems with when you can't get water it's not necessarily purified enough and that's why the boil warnings come up you know we're going to find out as we get toward the end of the week what all has happened during the week this all began really at about 1 o'clock in the morning on monday when the power supplies were cut when the what we're supposed to be rolling blackouts began and people began at that point entering a period for many of crisis and those crises are now moving toward hospitals and and worse. well now facebook has blocked uses an australia from either viewing or sharing news on its platform because of proposed laws to make tech giants pay for

journalism there it's also affected the accounts of several government agencies and emergency services whose pages went blank the move comes a day off to the australian government suggested that negotiations with social media giants were making progress we've had discussions with all of the parties all of the stakeholders digital platforms news media businesses that will continue but what will also continue is will continue with the process of legislating that the principle is very clear where google and facebook are important parts of the digital it go system in australia they're important parts of the economy we've made it clear that we want to continue operating here but we've also made it clear that if you do business in australia you need to comply with the law of the industry. or let's not bring in david vaile he's a cyber law specialist at the university of new south wales and he joins us from sydney david thank you for being with us this was a really big move by facebook and i see they're already being called the cyber bully but also fall has passed in the lower house right and we've already seen the

australian treasurer pushed back very strongly just in the last half hour or so so presumably we're unlikely to see any concessions from the australian government to the stage. look i think the fact that they've had some success in google announcing that they have signed deals for similar sort of commercial revenue sharing with the other media is any overnight we hear news limited around the world to murdoch's empire. the fact that it's been possible to make a commercial arrangement there i think makes it much less likely that the australian government would. back down the not really facing a united front here google's worked out ways of essentially coming to terms with the request to share the online ad revenue and facebook in a sense has. played a very strong and demonstrated that it 'd has unilateral control over content from

that everybody sees basically in every country in the world but the bit on the nose like this so it's going to be interesting well a lot of the discussion around this whole issue has also been about precedents right especially if these similar laws are adopted elsewhere like the e.u. or usa i see that microsoft is already lobbying for that in the us what's your take on the outlook there. well 'd there is our global platforms the issue of. interspersing the intermediaries the sort of collection of clicks and views in between the end reader and news website is something that applies virtually to every commercial news source around the planet and the desire to try to avoid the complete sort of collapse of you know the funding of commercial journalism i think is something that applies in just about every country the thing is that these

2 giants involved that they are sort of bigger than many countries and they're also in some senses they prefer to be lawless they don't want to be tied down to any particular jurisdiction and so it's a really strange. sort of fight between traditional countries wanting to protect the their own news and media industries and these new players who want to protect this they've both coming over the top and they have invented a very lucrative mechanism for how a sting the revenue and i think every other country is going to be interested in the outcome when you mention commercial journalism that just in the last couple of hours i was speaking to history and meeting in a narrow already pointing out that this could make it easier to spread misinformation without news content there to act as a kind of fact check of sorts and now we've seen these government sites impacted as well for some time at least is there any kind of concern here when it comes to the

legality of that. well there's a galaxy the issue is that both google and facebook prefer not to be held responsible or larval for anything that happens so that they ultimately prefer to operate and constrained by bi national laws so they i think would be preferred and can acted as if they're not responsible increasingly governments find that and people of all sorts and other businesses find that to take the problem is working out a mechanism for making them liable if we're seeing in the us there's misinformation conspiracies hoaxes fake news incitement based on false information all of that has been operating on a message scale and a lot of it propagated through facebook quite a lot of it supposedly triggered from outside of a given country and the u.s. has not been able to date to make any sort of effective response to this

misinformation so it's not that hopeful that what you have instead is entities in australia like the the weather bureau the kids can solo the victoria police. some small businesses and even a satire website have all been taken down or the posts unavailable and so the collateral damage is spreading broadly are suppose what one question would be is this deliberately just to try and punish as broadly as possible to stop the rot i suppose facebook might see it as or is it just incompetence they don't really care the really just trying to maximize traffic and the got algorithms that supposedly pick up sort of news and i don't care that the they're taking down a lot of collateral damage so you've got a potential chaos in that sort of poor and incompetent selection of what gets blocked and you've got the threat that you know impressionable people people who

don't bother to do the problem years or polly. 6 young people maybe increasingly exposed to the sort of nonsense that is in many cases that deliberately being used in this information can pose well they'll be watching how this all plays out in the coming hours and days and weeks david vaile there aside the last best guess at the university of new south wales great to get your thoughts here on out of there thanks for being with us david. weprin. how the united nations says one hundreds of millions of people are being left behind in private 1000 vaccinations and 3 quarters of all that the nations have been administered by just 10 countries the head of the u.n. is calling on wealthy nations to help kick start a global vaccination plan secretary general antonio terra says the coronavirus will keep new tasting if it's allowed to spread in poor countries and conflict zones out there as diplomatic editor james bass reports. refugees being vaccinated for covert

19 in the zardari camp in jordan but this the u.n. secretary general told a meeting of the security council is the exception rather than the norm progress on vieques you know should has been widely and unfair just countries ever administered its 75 percent of all cabinet 19 vaccines you know i own more than 130 countries and not received a single goal and those affected by conflict and insecurity are at particular risk of being left behind. the current president of the council the u.k. is proposing a new resolution calling for cease fires in conflicts around the world so that vaccines can be administered and by calling for vaccination cease bothered by calling for over 1000 bucks nation plans to include all high risk populations including refugees in this resolution and this council really has an opportunity to

. help get back into distributed to the most vulnerable communities across the. both the state councilor of china and the u.s. secretary of state took part in the meeting both stressed the need for global solidarity even though there's still real tension between the 2 nations this perhaps an indication that it won't further stall global efforts on covert 19 the un secretary general is now calling for a global vaccination plan he believes the g 20 is the best body to finance this and he's calling on the cheese 7 leaders who meet on friday to kick start this process james al-jazeera of the united nations. well still ahead here on al-jazeera. and bad rap the violent scenes in barcelona as protesters demanded musicians released from jail. and

a longtime critic ever wonders president credit for saving hundreds of lives during the genocide goes on trial. it's time for the perfect gentleman the weather sponsored by qatar airways another blast of snow is falling at the moment i will do throughout so stay in a good part of japan there are warnings up because of that it's also a warning out of high seas big waves crashing into the coast. but that wind is about to fall out and change direction have a look further west the sun is out the thames to ferry the 18 shanghai one in seoul but bring a southwesterly then rapidly temperatures rise the whole feeling is different the snow has stopped falling you'll notice if you just take case in point of shanghai the temperatures keep rising on average for february should be about 10 has been up

and down over the place but going from below average to around about 23 is quite a substantial change in the next 3 or 4 days south of all this may be also a temptation of change of season the 1st proper circulation received for a while in the philippines seen a lot more incident something more than not certain that's the hint within 24 hours it might even be named and there are showers for me in india to showers of clouds building showers a fall in the bit an increase in the likelihood in sri lanka as well but not much happens really all north and by not staying fairly settled but a very nice attentions just a little bit about freezing that bit more improvement in the air quality despite the lack of breeze. sponsored qatar airways romania's ancient far east 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 being in romania is our drug gangs violence killing whistleblowers amidst claims of corruption and the role of powerful multinationals people in power investigates rumania break with the far east on al-jazeera. hello again. let's remind you the top stories here this hour an all to last continues to cripple a large swathes of the united states where at least 30 people have now been killed millions are without power and are under a boil water advisories the national guard has been stationed across texas which is among the hardest hit states. facebook has blocked australians from viewing or

sharing news on its platform because of proposals to make tech giants pay for journalism the israeli government has slammed the move and demanded that its pages that have gone blank be restored as soon as possible. the u.n. says hundreds of millions of people are being left behind and private 19 vaccinations and 3 quarters of all vaccinations have been administered by just 10 countries the head of the u.n. is calling on the wealthy nations to help kick start a global vaccination plan. well speaking of vaccines a reporter has found that pfizer is coded 1000 vaccine can protect people against new coronavirus variants including the one that's emerged in south africa researchers at pfizer and the university of texas medical branch found that while less antibodies were created it was still enough to neutralize the virus a team in the u.s. national institutes of health of also published a study with similar findings for its vaccine well that comes as south africa

launched its long awaited inoculation campaign beginning with health care workers it's the 1st country in the world to administer vaccines from johnson and johnson for me to miller has more now from johannesburg. hours after the arrival of 80000 doses of the johnson and johnson covert 1000 vaccine some africa's president salaam up orsa was one of the 1st to get the job the government says it wants to allay fears. is that he represents a real growth for us and south africans are finally the road scenes here and there are many. more the problem is that far. ahead of this consignment is one of 4 expected in the coming weeks the government says it plans to administer up to half a 1000000 of the single dose vaccines as part of

a steady mainly targeting health care workers south africa's bought 7000000 more doses for use later in the year at this vaccine sentence a waiter to 28 health care workers have registered for their shots and if any care works in the covert 1000 ward at the chris hani paragon of hospital the whole world has been troubled by this disease and i see the disease and then the bones of it is that only serve this is just those that are in there right there it should the johnson and johnson jab has shown it's almost 60 percent effective against moderate to severe illness caused by a new more contagious variant identified in south africa while it's not yet been approved elsewhere south africa's health products regulator authority has allowed its use for research but many people including in the health service remain skeptical the reality is that there's very different levels of understanding is obviously a lot of fear associated with the vaccine because of the confusion with the initial

one been approved and then moving on to another bechstein so staff have been very confused inferi south africa suspended its planned rollout of the astra zeneca vaccine a local study had shown it didn't provide enough protection against. the new variant once health and essential workers and the vulnerable of vaccinated the rollout is expected to be extended to the general public and getting everyone on board is where the government may face its greatest challenge it hopes to vaccinate 2 thirds of the population with about 40000000 doses of vaccine to achieve the so-called herd immunity but it may be many months before south africa manages to reach the target for me to millar al-jazeera. well japan has kicked off its covert 19 vaccination drive just a few months before it's supposed to host the olympics around 40000 medical workers are being vaccinated in the 1st phase and they'll be followed by senior citizens the fate of the olympics and the billions of dollars at stake has made its

vaccination campaign even more crucial now a rescue operation is currently underway in central nigeria where gunmen have kidnapped a group of students the exact number of those taken by the armed gang is still unknown but hundreds are messing it's been confirmed that one student was shot and killed in the attack on the state run school in kaga a minute just reports now from the capital. at the hospital in doc to some nurses street when the students and teachers and at the going to a science college concerned parents gather for news. elsley in town security has stepped up just as the state government ordered the closure of schools in those areas prone to attacks schools saying creasing be targeted as they offer an opportunity to take many students hostage in nigeria this totally absent absence of look at government administration which has become very difficult for the locals

to have any want to run to another plane yet as that there is also. the border surrounding most parts of that area if you look at what is happening internationally and like in places like chart and kind our own especially in this countries have not been able to hold the security military onslaught for too long this is the 2nd image is could keep happening in us many months. in december last year gunmen stormed a school and abducted hundreds of students in president behind his home state of cats and it. was 6 years before that in 2014 in a case that made headlines around the world more than 270 goes last snatched from a school in your book at least 100 are still unaccounted for the armed group claimed responsibility and for years after that in neighboring state the group took more than 100 students from

a school in dept. kidnapping for ransom is no big business in nigeria from the north down to the country south hundreds of nigerians are kidnapped every week for ransom and despite military offensives against what officials the accord bandits the problem continues to grow on monday 18 passengers were seized while traveling in a bus the killer not far from where the latest kidnapping took place 8 have since managed to secure their freedom although there are no official statistics it's estimated 20 $1000000.00 a speeding ransom money and 2020 to kidnappers and this is in a country africa's largest economy where poverty is on the increase or decrease al-jazeera which are now the man who inspired the film hotel rwanda has gone on trial in kigali facing charges including terrorism america colas us a beginner who is a critic of president paul kagame is accused of supporting the armed wing of the

rwandan movement for democratic change he told the court it can't try him as he's no longer a rwandan citizen but prosecutors say he never renounced his nationality he says mccain is credited with saving more than a 1000 lives during the rwandan genocide the hiding people in his hotel know. who it is i am here illegally because i was kidnapped when you are now open a case in belgium i renounce my rwandan nationality and i have to be cuts elsewhere . protests have turned a violent in barcelona for a 2nd day after thousands demanded the release of rap artist pub or hassle he's been jailed following a 2800 convictions for insulting the monarchy and praising the armed separatist group eta but it's under a controversial law that people say prevents the freedom of speech or about manny has the story. protests he took for a 2nd knowing to cross past a load of. police stations banks and several stores

a damaged during demonstrations. thousands took to the streets to demand the release of popular herself from jail. for most of. the rappers lyrics and tweets got him in hot water with the authorities after he insulted spanish royalty supported till now defunct extremist group and criticize the police . work it's a musical i'm a musician and it affects me the fact that in spain artists musicians rappers everyone is arrested i find it quite brutal that people are arrested for the lyrics of a song you know so i'll send people more common sense tells me that i have to be here because we have less and less freedom in spain. on monday police stormed he ate a university where has cell had barricaded himself in with other activists to avoid a jail sentence has taken away by police but remains defiant out of

the crowd they will never make us give in despite the repression was the right. has self cases inspired support across the country $200.00 prominent artists actors and musicians signed a petition for his release they say the so-called gag order prevents free speech spain's left wing government has moved to change the law but that's come too late for hersel the. protesters here say they'll continue to raise their voices against the silencing of the outspoken rapper. al jazeera. a caravan of migrants and refugees from several african nations and haiti have clashed with police as they try to enter peru for even officials say they don't have the resources to take the men sanchez reports now from.

escaping the pandemic desperate migrants are forced their way across security lines on an international amazon bridge the group is mainly made up of haitians as well as africans some are pregnant or with children and are carrying what little they have but the border is closed and when state police and the military stop them and send them back in the morning there were more than 300 they pushed the police and ran to the peruvian size but then the police partly pushed them back here with violence should not be allowed to happen. the caravan has been stranded on the border region of mother since friday they set up tents waiting for a chance to make their way north official say to haiti panama or the u.s. they just want to get to their lands looking for a bass a life here they lift waiting for days in the middle of the bridge in the rain small children get which it's a desperate situation was. some among the most vulnerable were allowed to stay on

the 2 side some tested positive for corona virus there's only one doctor says the mayor and no infrastructure to take care of them and then. we have a dang epidemic no health services the clinic is a small tent the rains are difficult even for the police and soldiers it is very difficult to tend to them in this situation. u.n.h.c.r. officials say the migrants are fleeing strict lock downs a lack of jobs and the virus raging in brazil and the solution for any government. it's not d.c. don't you know want to come you know the people want to continue but the northern borders are closed and it's difficult to ask authorities to be flexible to health care in peru has absolutely collapsed if they get sick there are no hospital beds and allowing them to continue is taking the problem from one place to the next. borders have been closed for months in january authorities say and tanks to guard the poorest northern border to stop an asylum migrants from crossing from the.

middle usually has an open arms policy for migrants now local authorities say the foreign ministries of trade one brazil should find a quick solution because those migrants are already living in dire condition and there are so many more desperate the caravan is likely to grow. for now the mayor on both sides of the bridge and the catholic organization are given these migrants some food and water but despite the hurdles they're stationed on the bridge waiting for the next chance to get across yes i'm just i just see the evil people. however this is al jazeera and these are the headlines and arctic blast continues to cripple large swathes of the united states where at least 30 people have been killed millions are without power and are under boil water advisories the national guard has been stationed across texas but just among the hardest hit states and the

governor there says it will be days before the situation starts to improve facebook has blocked us trains from viewing or share.