japan on al-jazeera. african nations step up corona virus vaccine rollouts their affairs the south african variant could derail efforts to control the pandemic across the continent. and give it al this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. their fates are know a rescue operation is underway in the geria to free hundreds of kidnapped students . more anger on the streets of me and maher against the

military coup despite fears of a violent crackdown. on facebook blocks a straightly and news feeds it goes to war with the government which wants the tech giant to pay for content. we begin with the coronavirus pandemic had a growing alarm about the impact across africa the world health organization is increasingly concerned about a 2nd wave driven by the south african variant that says several countries begin their 1st vaccine rollouts zimbabwe's the latest using the side of farm jobs that china has distributed to several african countries the south african strain is now thought to be dominant there were concerns about the chinese vaccines efficacy after a study found it produced a weak immune response against the mutation earlier this month south africa discontinued the astra zeneca jab saying it provided inadequate protection it's now

begun administering the johnson and johnson baxi heart with also is unheard and says there are public concerns around the vaccine rollout. there's 1st sale will go on for about 10 days through our country health workers are being vaccinated 1st most of these people work in public hospitals way to complain for many years about the lack of t.p.s. masks and gloves for some of these nurses and doctors hope they're getting this vaccination will help protect them against covered 19 and then you will see the police soldiers and immigration staff come to get vaccinated later the hours early and people with underlying conditions and then the rest of the population will follow the government says it's posted an additional $600000.00 vaccines from china those are expected to come into the country early in march they also talking to russia and india about buying more vaccines also trying to see happening get more

vaccine to become trees from the cold absolutely that's being coordinated by the world health organization and the global vaccine alliance the ngos to vaccinate $10000000.00 people about 60 percent of the population by the end of the year on tuesday the government said that's a variant that was 1st identified in south africa is now in zimbabwe so some people are now concerned asking questions how effective is this vaccine going to be against that variant some of them are saying that if you look at the chinese i've seen final 5 and other vaccines on the market will produce quickly they want to know what exactly is in these vaccines and will there be any side of it. the un says hundreds of millions of people are being left behind and covered 1000 vaccinations with 3 quarters of all shots given in just 10 countries the head of the u.n. says a global plan is needed because the virus will keep in testing if it's allowed to spread in poor countries in conflict zones or just 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 vaccinations has been widely and unfair just 10 countries ever administered it's 75 percent of all government 19 vaccines meanwhile more than 130 countries have 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 1000 bucks nation plans to include all high risk populations including refugees this resolution and this council really has an opportunity to.

help get back into distributed to the most vulnerable communities across the. bow to 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 bays al-jazeera at the united nations. a rescue operation is underway in central nigeria where gunmen have kidnapped a group of students the exact number of those taken by the armed gang has unknown but hundreds of the sick it's a confirmed one student was shot and killed in the attack on the state run school in calcutta but it just reports from

a built up. at the hospital in calcutta doctors and nurses street would be students and teachers and at the cricket our science college concerned parents gather for news. elsley in town security is stepped up just as the state government ordered the closure of schools in those areas prone to tikes 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 they also. bought that 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 cameroon this countries have not been able to hold the security military onslaught for too long this is the 2nd major kidnapping 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. for 6 years before that in 2014 in a case that made headlines around the world more than 270 goals last night 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 personages 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 where poverty is on the increase or decrease al-jazeera which are you and me and ma thousands of demonstrators a back on the streets a day after some of the biggest rallies yet the protesting for 13th straight day card for the release of deposed leader aung san suu kyi the military's into has issued arrest warrants for 6 celebrities for encouraging the protests close to 500 people have been detained the united nations is warning of a possible violent crackdown after reports of soldiers being moved to. scotland has more from the thai capital bangkok. it's shaping up like we saw very similar to what we saw on wednesday and that's with this broken car campaign starting the day that's were hundreds of people if not thousands drive their cars onto the streets

in central yangon pretend that they're broken down and just park right in the middle to slow things down and then today they also once they did get back in their cars they just drove slowly to further snarled the traffic in the middle of yangon they're doing this they say because they want to prevent the government workers from getting to work they want this to be a very visual aspect of their civil disobedience campaign and they've been doing that very successfully the last 2 days in yes the largest city the commercial capital yangon but also across the country so that's kind of what they're they've been working on lately and this is what's interesting because once they do that like we saw wednesday in are seeing again today unfolding that thousands tens of thousands of protesters come again behind all that chaos if you will that congestion caused by that by that campaign song suchi she is still being detained she still under house arrest in the capital neighborhood or we heard that yesterday

wednesday that her next hearing there are 2 charges that have been placed against her now that her next hearing actually her 1st hearing we haven't heard really seen anything any movement on either of these cases but yesterday the courts better controlled by the joint and now said that the 1st hearing will be on march 1st so that's when we know we'll hopefully get some clarity on what's going to happen with her if she's going to remain in detention or the release or while these cases move forward but right now that's all we really know about her. facebook had stopped uses and astray from viewing all sharing news on its platform blackout is in response to a proposed law that would make tech giants facebook and google pay for republican sharing news content challenged. estradiol wants to regulate facebook in return it's got a news blackout facebook scrubbed its news phase wiping information from health pages government agencies welfare networks and weather warnings the government

wants to bring in a law that forces facebook and google to pay media outlets when they re publish their content google has conceded signing deals with several media outlets but facebook has not facebook was wrong facebook. sections were unnecessary fairway heavy handed and they will damage it's reputation here in australia facebook announced the move on its blog saying astray liam misunderstands the relationship between itself and publishes it says publishers willingly choose to post news on facebook to sow more subscriptions grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue it is to make generated more than $5000000000.00 free referrals to a straight line publishes with an estimated 315000000 dollars last year the government and facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg talked again on thursday the principle is very clear way going on

facebook are important parts of the digital eco system in australia they're important part of the economy we've made it clear that we want them 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 many in the media agree arguing tech giants must pay for the journalism they re publish because news organizations use whatever they can to share their content problem is that what this is meant is google and facebook now tiger woods share of advertising revenue which makes it very difficult for media companies boy the journalists our members need to use human rights watch also condemn the move saying facebook has cut off more than the media babble strains of the ones caught in the middle here because last this floor is aimed at years companies there are a whole range of community organizations have been affected astray or has given google and facebook 2 options strike deals with media companies or have fees sit

for them but facebook has decided on a 3rd take away its news feed altogether shallop bellus al-jazeera. still ahead on al-jazeera an arctic blast hits the u.s. millions of people without a. and more so it could be days before the storm passes. we develop take a look at why the u.s. congress is intervening in the ongoing battle between amateur investors and seasoned wall street traders. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored point qatar airways wrote the sparrows been falling in the satellite picture shows it beautifully this is cold air coming into the water and these are all showers somewhere but in snow and that's certainly true this is

a picture from yesterday from the northwest of japan it blows and it drops a lot of snow has been happening time and time again but as a rapid change on friday the winds go around to the southwest there are no more snow showers in the forecast anywhere in japan and temperatures have really risen as not just to pack the korean peninsula and china will join in let's just pick one at random shankar up to $21.00 degrees by saturday the average is 10 or up to 20 st by sunday in the sunshine now when the wind turns back again i think you'll see monday and tuesday drop down to nearer the average but as a warm spell of 2 or 3 days of course dramatic change a few changes taking place at the moment in india the blue represents outbreaks of rain probably showers thunderstorms more likely over the water heading down towards talent out of or maybe sri lanka if you get further north as well but nothing has changed in the north indian plain it's still quite it's still foggy we're not seeing a cold wave anymore overnight were down to about 10 degrees by day 2930 but that's

delhi and that represents poor air quality as well. sponsored by qatar airways. 0000000000000000000. now this is the only way to get. a course of a minister of keys just. a european judge tasked with imposing law and order and a trial row testing the nose of a newly formed nation. witness. highway on al-jazeera.

you're watching are just there a reminder of our top stories this hour. is the latest african country to begin coronavirus that's the nations the world health organization is increasingly concerned about the spread of the south african variant across the continent. the rescue operation is underway in central nigeria where gunmen have kidnapped students possibly several 100 it's been confirmed one was shot and killed in the attack on the state school the garda. in me and now demonstrators are back on the streets a day after some of the biggest rallies yet the calling for deposed leader aung san suu kyi to be freed to 500 people have been detained over 2 weeks. more now on our top story the vaccination program in africa earlier we spoke to helen razer member of the w.h.o. strategic advisory group of experts on the covert 19 vaccine she says that vaccine effectiveness will be closely monitored during the rollout. many of the countries

where we've seen this very steep rise in the 2nd wave. that so far from the data that we've been able to gather are being now affected by the variant that originated in africa many neighboring countries. had a very accelerated 2nd wave the good news is that in most of these countries now the numbers are coming down but while this was happening it puts enormous on a strain on health systems because many of these countries have got very vulnerable health systems and hospital systems and i think all around the world including in the u.k. that these variants one of the characteristics of the u.k. ritually variant of the south african originated there were transmissible so they're spreading what usually so i think that worldwide we are going to see over the next few months that the variants probably in many cases will not the same very many better replaces the original strain that we saw but having said that

you know there's a lot of work behind the scenes looking at x. in effect yes in the face of the variance and a lot of thinking a lot of lab work clinical work as well and a lot of. what we call 'd following a vigil or work is going to be put in place so that we will monitor the effectiveness of the vaccines as we roll it out including in the context of countries which have got significant numbers of cases caused by the variance or reporters found the fires are covered 19 vaccine can protect people against new coronavirus variants including the one that's emerged in south africa researches adviser and the university of texas medical branch found that while less antibodies were created they were enough to neutralize the virus. and the u.s. national institutes of health has published a study with similar findings for its vaccine. need to also collected by israeli

scientists shows that a person who is vaccinated has only $1.10 chances of contracting covert 19 researches say the pfizer vaccine is showing a 95 percent effectiveness in israel out of more than 600000 people who have already received the 2nd dose only about 600 were infected. they show secretary-general is dismissing an early withdrawal from afghanistan as defense ministers gather for their 1st summit since u.s. president joe biden took office. says forces will only leave when security conditions allow the trump administration brokered a deal with the taliban for a final withdrawal on may 1st nato has nearly 10000 soldiers in afghanistan they include 2 and a half 1000 americans training and assisting local forces. georgia's prime minister has announced he's resigning georgie her decision follows a disagreement with his cabinet over the arrest of opposition leader media

a courier has been critical of the arrest saying it lonely fuel political tensions further he was only in office for a year robin for his dog walker is covering this for us from tbilisi. it's a pretty surprising move for for a senior politician like the prime minister to resign over the fate of one of his let's say competitors one of his opponents but now that carrier has resigned it seems that there may be more even more hardline 3 people in the georgian government who want to see this issue resolved and who want to see this opposition leader nicam area arrested so we're expecting other members of of the cabinet to now get together and form a new cabinet and appoint a new prime minister and now will everyone will be waiting to see whether a lot this government is prepared to go ahead with its plan to see nick a melia arrested and that's a big concern i think for everybody who's been watching this because this country

is already in a political crisis and it has been since elections in october that the opposition said were fraudulent they then decided to boycott parliament. and nick america was among them and he was facing charges for having tried to rush parliament back in 2019 when they were big anti-government demonstrations he's had a parliamentary immunity stripped and last week a court said that he could now be arrested unless he paid his bail the money that he has to pay to pay for a head of his trial. but this is being looked upon as a very dangerous escalation for the georgian politics no opposition in parliament what looks like a one party state the opposition accusing the government of backsliding on democracy and the idea that the police might go in and take an arrest melia is going to be resisted by the opposition and so the potential for violence and the

international community has been calling for both sides to step back from the brink and try to reach some kind of agreement around the to negotiation table. an arctic blast continues to cripple parts of the southern us with more than 20 people killed the once in a generation storm has left millions without power and 3 quarters of the country blanketed in snow texas is among the hardest hit states with warnings of worse to come and go 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 this is the says the further west we're better you know someone 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 all. family children it just doesn't get worse the seniors to a struggling as care homes run short on medical essential slike 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 the. the solution next week so it doesn't happen again the severe weather is hampering efforts to get people vaccinated for code 19 forecasters say another extreme cold front will affect south and central parts of the u.s. in the days ahead and gallacher al-jazeera. the united states congress wants to know why online investors have been limited from purchasing game stop and other stocks in the midst of a market search lawmakers have called on experts to testify thursday after the unexpected rally on wall street challenge too many assumptions about how the markets work kristen salumi has more. you have to have some type of faith if you're in the stock market i don't think all of it is just skill i think some of it is also maybe it's his daily ritual of lighting same age but lately pablo batista has

been lucky he made $11000.00 selling game stop stop him since losing his job as a cook working from his bronx apartment as a day trader was really paying off we have put graham boys up the ground but then the platform he was using started putting limits on trades i saw it like these guys are trying to stop me when i'm at my peak leading up to game stop i had already been making money making a lot of money since 2019 the volume of trading by small time investors like him has grown from 10 to roughly 25 percent of the market there credited with boosting game stop from under $20.00 to above $300.00 a share outsmarting hedge funds who bet against the struggling retailer. without ever setting foot on wall street pablo and other so-called retail investors have been collecting their financial muscle with the help of technology and social media

hitting institutional investors right where it hurts their bottom line. but even before game stop sounded the alarm the market was at record highs a trend experts say is unsustainable i don't think people really understand that especially the younger generation they think you know the stocks in the market is supposed to go up you know that's what they're suppose you know we're supposed to have gretchen's we're supposed to consolidation we haven't seen any of. brock pierce is a former actor who's made millions investing and believes it's the hedge fund not individual investors who need to be restricted what we're seeing is the democratization of the financial system a line is being drawn which side of the fence you stand on are you with the people or are you with a small group of institutions that are profiting from killing companies oh yes rip and. as for pablo he knows investing comes with risks i think i'm

kind of where i'm at right now because i took that risk risks he believes he and other individuals are entitled to take new highs every week christine salumi al-jazeera new york. a caravan of migrants and refugees have clashed with police as they tried to enter provo peruvian officials say they don't have the resources to take the men marianna sanchez reports from lima. escaping the pandemic desperate migrants 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 stopped them and sent 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 in 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 better life here they lift waiting for days in the middle of the bridge in the rain small children get wit 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. 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 lockdowns a lack of jobs and the virus raging in brazil and the solution for any government

is not d.c. you know what i mean the people want to continue but the northern borders are closed and it's difficult to ask authorities to be flexible the health care in peru has absolutely collapsed if they get sick there are no hospital beds and allowing them to continue. it was 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 in israel and migrants from crossing from ecuador. here usually has an open arms policy for migrants now local authorities say the foreign ministries of the 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 the innocent just i'll just see that even

a little. after 7 months and 470000000 kilometers masses perseverance rover is said to touch down on miles their car sized rover is expected to land the vast 0 crater that was once a lake that you can lek samples in a search for signs of microbial organisms that may have lived 3000000000 years ago is successfully brought back to earth they'll be the 1st ever retrieved from another planet. this is there and these are the top stories the barboy is the latest african country deep in corona virus vaccinations the world health organization is increasingly concerned about the spread of the south african variant across the continent harm with arthur has more from zimbabwe as capital haddadi the aim is back in.