problem plaguing their community those photos of the problem auction plan have been bought as a priority and led the way in transforming a difficulty into a success so imparting a one to me is standing economy. women make change on al-jazeera. the there. a not to blast leaves millions without power in the u.s. state of texas with freezing temperatures set to last for days. down in jordan this is our jazeera live from doha also coming up. facebook was wrong. facebook sections were unnecessary thumbs down from the australian government as facebook blocks new sites in

a dispute over paying for content. shots are fired in miramar as the military confronts rail workers protesting against the coup. and to be seen but not heard japan's ruling party says women can attend high level meetings but only if they keep quiet. welcomes the program an arctic blast continues to cripple large parts of the united states where at least 30 people have been killed the once in a generation storm has left millions without power and 3 quarters of the country blanketed in snow a national guard has been stationed right across texas which is among the hardest hit states types of burst in the freezing temperatures and water treatment plants of stop working 7000000 texans have been told to boil their water while of a quarter 1000000 have no running water at all where generators water and blankets

are being sent by the federal government but the governor of texas says it will be days before the situation starts to improve most of the state will be below freezing tomorrow morning along i 10 in north will remain freezing through thursday night with cold temperatures once again on thursday night. we should across the state start getting above freezing on saturday and a gallica has more. snow and ice are wreaking havoc from ohio to the rio grande much of the us now gripped by severe winter storms the states of louisiana missouri kentucky and texas of all reported deaths amid historic freezing temperatures in 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 there were better. you know i'm 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 xl 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 more 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. ramsay's executive editor of the texas tribune he told us 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 heated 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 reversing i know 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 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 were 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 facebook has blocked uses in australia from viewing or sharing news on its platform because of proposed laws to make tech giants pay media groups the

content the blackout also affected some government agencies as pages counting health and weather warnings when blank the government has criticised the move as heavy handed google had previously threatened to pull out of australia because of the oil but a sign deals with several media outlets in recent days but australian treasurer josh frydenberg says he expects facebook to a storm government accounts as soon as possible facebook was wrong facebook. sections were unnecessary that way havey ended and they will damage its reputation here in australia their decision to block a stray and access to government sites be they have bad support through the pandemic mental health emergency services the bureau of meteorology will completely unrelated to the media code which is yet to pass through the senate or marcus trauma's a federal president of australia has made a union the n.e.a.

he says he's been taken aback by facebook's actions i mean it is just such an arrogant response from a tech monopoly responding in a monopoly is. a pretty minor tends to control some of that monopolistic behavior kind of proves the point that then monopoly behavior needs a little bit of control because news organizations use whatever platform they can to share their content problem is that what this is meant is google and facebook now take the lion's share of advertising revenue which makes it very difficult for media companies to employ the journalists our members need to bring quality news and so you have facebook refusing to abide by local laws not just that this is not just about astronomy and they're worried about a club recent and we expect that the u.s. federal trade commission will be looking at this very closely which is some anti

trust investigation into facebook's activity this is a classic monopoly move by a powerful company trying to dictate what civil society does when in a democratic society civil society needs to determine how tech companies upright residents and me and my 2nd biggest city mandalay say police have shot at railway workers protesting the military coup. they were blocking the tracks to a railway station when they were confronted by offices it's the latest act in an ongoing campaign of civil disobedience in iran and young gun protests were the largest in recent days demonstrators are angry about the detention of elected leader unsung cinci scott hyder reports. in a creative move by antic who protesters in young gone many pretend that their cars have broken down in the city center parking in the middle of streets and on bridges

an act of civil disobedience to vent their anger at the military for overthrowing the government but also to make it difficult for security forces to move around the city as protesters gather for another day of rallies calls for the broken down car campaign came soon after the internet blackout was lifted at 9 am local time the 3rd straight nighttime blackout the campaign called off late morning to make way for this thousands of people gathering in the go to area of yangon right next to city hall. the protest was announced late tuesday after the joint a spokesman said that the military did not stage a coup when it overthrew the civilian government led by on song suchi adding to that news that a 2nd charge has been filed against suchi on the night i'm going to terry told the public that he would appear in court on february 17th but they change it to get media attention we assume that the military has done dishonored purpose so they can fire one more shot against her to sister reason we are on the street again and

those on the streets on tuesday in the southern township of faced rubber bullets and tear gas fired by security forces the protesters gathered to call for the release of a detained school principal who had been taking part in the civil disobedience movement since the coup on february 1st hundreds of people have been arrested back in yangon the punk rock band rebel riot does more than just play music it also fronts the organization food not bombs delivering hundreds of food boxes each week to those in need they've been busy since the coup. well well you know i mean most people the. economy is descending into darkness people cannot sleep at night can't even eat and don't get to rest and there are people across generations. who have no fear that is why we have to pay used to join to. and more and more people are showing up to show that growing opposition but the judge appears to be ignoring that instead further justifying its takeover and arresting more people who are

organizing or even just taking part in the movement to counter its coup let's go to joins us live now from the thai capital bangkok scott so let's talk 1st about sang suchi by all accounts she was supposed to appear in court yesterday but that didn't happen what's the latest on her detention that yes there are no she didn't appear there wasn't any appearance on wednesday that was supposed to be for the 1st charges brought against her by the gentile and that was illegally possessing walkie talkie radios and this was supposed to happen monday they pushed it to wednesday but it didn't happen and presumably that's because there was a 2nd charge as we just heard put on her as well and now we're hearing the next hearing for her will be a court hearing for her will be on march 1st so it seems to be a bit of a pattern i think they just want to delay and delay delay so they can keep her essentially under house arrest in her property in naked or the capitol and skull we saw in your report there some of the biggest and see military rallies across the

country yesterday i mean these protests are clearly gaining traction all day. they are and we can see that they're out again today deron and one thing that's interesting that started the day yesterday that saw some of the biggest hundreds of thousands of protesters went out across myanmar focused really. on the biggest crowd was focused in yangon and we're seeing them out again today and the day started wednesday by this civil disobedience movement where the broken down car campaign is what they call it where people pretended that their cars were broken down and they parked in the middle of bridges and roads throughout the city as we saw in that story they're doing that again today and again maybe you will see as big numbers as we saw yesterday again hundreds of thousands but we know that they are at least going to start the day off very similarly it was interesting we spoke with a taxi driver just before that internet shutdown knightly internet shutdown kicked in and wednesday night and he said if the internet is broken at night our cars will

break in the morning so i think we see it we're seeing kind of this as a retaliatory move by the protesters in other words if they have blackouts for the internet at night they're going to come out and they can pretend their cars are broken down to bring the city at least in the end gone bring the city to a standstill all right just got hired to live in the thai capital bangkok skull thank you. time for a short break here al-jazeera only come back jailed hong kong democracy activist jimmy lied faces another round in his legal battle for bail. out another mass abduction in nigeria more than 250 people are missing and feared kidnapped more that stainless. was. it staying cold throughout the u.s. and canada for almost every state this is just an example of the result of the cold and every night again the tranche of snow that comes through the snow is 3 week

spell for very many decades in chicago that was the picture of the night and then the following day says they will see more snow out of the mississippi valley and beyond that the appalachians there is rain to the east that is still relatively warm in florida the junction between snow and rain those where you get the freezing rain which produces ice on contact brings down trees bring some power lines and anyway we have power cuts in many places notably in texas where it remains subzero by the even on the south coast and that is just too much for the power supply that picturing thursday does see things move out of the eastern seaboard and snow in the sealed snow in new york and behind it all tempers remain low those lows they were maybe used to be a trend it is but i'm here to saturday it's almost back to normal in texas or least represented by houston but in new york well also you could even call it normal it's a brief nor'easter northwesterly so the forecast for new york state about about

freezing snow on friday sunshine by sunday. welcome to doha from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax and enjoy the perfect break in your journey. and when you leave with a smile we know la day's work is done qatar airways welcome to our home.

welcome back a quick recap of the top stories here at this hour an arctic blast continues to cripple large parts of the united states and has caused the deaths of at least 30 people millions without power the national guard has been stationed right across texas which is among the hardest hit states. facebook has blocked australians from viewing or sharing news in its platform because of proposals to make tech giants pay for journalism the australian government to slam the move then demanded that its pages that have gone blank be restored as soon as possible. and she could protest as are keeping up the pressure on me and mars ministry john they're back on the streets of yangon the day after the city saw some of its biggest demonstrations since the start of a civil disobedience campaign. jailed hong kong media tycoon jimmy lies heading to court on thursday to continue his appeal against a rule denying him bail he's accused of fraud and conspiring with foreign forces on

the beijing's controversial national security law lies the most high profile person among the more than a 100 people arrested under the new legislation will agent brown joins us live now from hong kong adrian so another court appearance for jimmy lie what's the possibility then that he will get bail. i think the chances of getting bail daryn are extremely remote given the severity of the charges against him he arrived here at the high court in central hong kong a few hours ago he's appearing in court because he's trying to get the judge to overrule an earlier court decision to deny him bail in his national security case not this legal odyssey that jimmy lie actually began back in may and i remember at the time asking him whether he thought the various charges he was facing could possibly be politically motivated perhaps even backed by china and he looked at me and said you know what do you think and that's certainly the feeling of many of his

supporters they feel that he is the victim of the other deepening political vendetta last night also came word in the local media anyway which is yet to be confirmed by hong kong police the jimmy lie has been charged a 2nd time under the national security law with helping a group of activists to flee hong kong by boat so if you're a betting man i think it's fair to assume that you know jimmy no i really is facing the prospect of a very long time in jail if he is convicted he is facing multiple trials at the moment he's accused of fraud taking part in an illegal assembly and now 2 violations of the national security law it's worth remembering daryn that you know next year is the 25th anniversary of hong kong's handover from britain to china president xi jinping is almost certain to come to hong kong and i think the

authorities want to ensure that there are no just scored invoices you know on the sidelines i mean the authorities have been framing this as a national security issue one of the broader implications of this case for the people in hong kong. well the thing is this national security law is very vaguely worded but it's being very broadly defined for instance if i did a report about what was president xi jinping a favorite meal let's say that could be construed as a state secret and therefore a violation of the national security law as journalists we're having to sort of navigate red lines without knowing what those red lines are the only time you will know if you've done something wrong is if you get a telephone call from the office of safeguarding national security inviting you around for you know a cup of tea since the new law was imposed on june the 30th last year

96 people have been arrested accused of violating the national security law and at the time carried on of course said the law would affect only a small number of people it certainly doesn't seem to be the case now all right to adrian brown live for us there in hong kong adrian thank you now a rescue operation is underway in central nigeria where gunmen have kidnapped a group of students the exact number of those taken by the ongoing is unknown but hundreds still missing it's been confirmed one student was shot and killed in the attack on the state run school in. reports now from. at the hospital in got up doc to some nurses st when to 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 tikes school 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 anyone to run to another plane yet as that they also. bought their 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 sovereign cameroon there's countries have not been able to hold the security military onslaught for too long this is the 2nd majors 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 cuts and it. was 6 years before that in 2014 in a case that made headlines around the world more than 270 goals 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 enabling you will state the group took more than 100 students from a school and dumped. 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. 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 $20000000.00 was paid in ransom money and 2020 to kidnappers and this is in a country africa's largest economy while properties on the increase or decrease. which are. japan's ruling party says it wants more women to attend key meetings

that are usually dominated by men but only if they don't talk it comes just days after the head of the tokyo olympics resigned for saying women talk too much in meetings the liberal democrat party has proposed allowing 5 female politicians to join its board as observers only 2 of the board's 12 members are women but the observers won't be allowed to speak during the meetings and can only give their opinions later to the parties office and the us even if i think the united i think people in japan are finally aware of the problem that women can't participate in society at the same level as men but by letting women attend the meeting as observers without the right to speak would make it look like women are participating with the same rights as men i feel like this is cheating to manipulate people's feelings and i am not there but. i think this is unacceptable because it's been 20 or 30 years since the idea of gender equal society was brought up but women are still in such a position are participating in politics only as observers so let's bring in

chelsea she's an historian and associate professor in the faculty of economics yamagata in university and joins us via skype from tokyo it's a great to have you with us on the program look what in japan have long been eliminated from this male dominated world of business and politics how much does this move then by japan's governing party reinforce the sad reality that women can be seen but not heard in japan. yes so it really did feed a lot of headlines that now women can be enter these spaces but still can't talk in and there's nothing inherently wrong or bad about a political process that requires that people be observers 1st before they can be full participants but i think the problem is that this is a. a promise long deferred originally in 2015 the l.d.p. under the administration set a goal of 30 percent of women in executive positions in japan and here we are 6

years later and so it's a little too little too late yeah that's an important point to make because the japanese lympics minister moto there was a woman now says she intends to accept the job of leading the tokyo 2020 m. pick games but many people are chelsea will see this as just window dressing by the establishment i'm not real change. yes yes i think there are a few dangers here i think that actually since 2014 we've seen a lot of window dressing tokenism a lot of rhetoric about letting women shine but again these are policies that were created and proposed suggested under l.d.p. governance but the l.d.p. has been the slowest in actually adopting these are actually aggressively pursuing these quotas and there are also concerns that hashimoto is being set up for a glass cliff the olympics is

a troubled event already and there is evidence or studies that some corporations organizations when in trouble could a woman in front to take the take the fall that's maybe too conspiratorial but. this said does seem a little bit like a superficial solution here and this this all follows the recent outrageous sexist remarks by japan's former head of tokyo 20 twentieth's shira morea was forced to resign after saying that women talk too much or how much was that seen do you think as a pivotal point on the issue of the status of women in japanese society. well i think that it was seen a bit more as. illuminating. conversations that are quite common. as an older generation there's been discussion that he perhaps doesn't even really see what is wrong with his comments has been surprised at the public

backlash the outrage in japan and then in the world and so. i'm not really sure. if this is an inflection point on the part of people in a mentally positions like morrie but i think that it does bring home to many people in japan this gap between the rhetoric we've heard since 2014. that just a just a final thought to you i mean many critics of a lot argue that there needs to be fundamental change in japanese society from i don't know education to hiring practices so what needs to change and is that likely to happen anytime soon the i think. yeah well when we look at the gender gap index in japan in education there's actually a great deal of equality among men and women through maybe undergraduate and it's really the job market it's really positions of influence it's really the gender pay

gap and it's these economic situations and then of course marriage and care for children and elderly and these are cultural issues but there's a huge generational gap and we'll see what younger people can do in a super age society like japan that great to get your thoughts thank you very much and they've talked a lot as they are going to chelsea. now reports found that pfizer's coded $1000.00 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 team at medinah and the u.s. national institutes of health has published a study with similar findings but it's back seen. a winter storm has hit middle eastern countries along the mediterranean disrupting traffic and halting code 19 vaccinations heavy snowfall has blanketed the syrian capital in several neighboring

province is roads are blocked and the university of damascus has postponed examinations there are similar conditions in lebanon and jordan has had to suspend its 19 oxidation drive the beginnings of a blizzard also started falling on jerusalem's old city on wednesday snows expected to cover the city on thursday morning plows and power crews are on alert in jerusalem and in the palestinian territories. now after 7 months and 470000000 kilometers nasa's perseverance rover is now due to touch down on the surface of mars on thursday the se of the size rover is expected to land in the jazz aero crater that's a vast basin that was once a lake bed it will search for signs of microbial organisms that may have lived on mars 3000000000 years ago and collect samples if successfully brought back to earth of the 1st of a samples retrieved from another planet mars surface today is specially were growing is not hospitable for life we believe because of the absence of water

freezing. landscape and the radiation that constantly showers the surface as we see it there but we know rovers and orbiters off the past and the process that mars has had a past and. 2 jastrow we go to the most promising side to really luck the information about where past and question most are ancient life during that period where on earth life force a rising. star for a quick check of the top stories here on al-jazeera an arctic blast continues to cripple large parts of the united states and has caused the deaths of at least 30 people millions of without power the national guard has been stationed across texas which is among the hardest.