violence killing with some roles amidst claims of corruption and the role of powerful multinationals the people in power in vested rumania of the far east on al-jazeera. holding the powerful to account as we examine the us is rome in the wild on al-jazeera. for too long we have been waging a senseless and suicidal war on nature. a scientific blueprint lays out the urgent task of tackling climate change biodiversity loss and pollution before it's too late. hello again you're watching al-jazeera live from headquarters here in doha my name's peter dhabi also coming up. warnings that

a massive famine and an offensive by the rebels threaten new opportunities to end the war in yellow. a double health alert in africa a coronavirus variant spreads as a new a bola outbreak threaten several countries. that have it. and nurses perseverance rover sends back its 1st images of mars moments after landing to look for signs of ancient life. top story this hour the nations of the world are failing to meet their own climate change targets bogeyman issues future at risk the u.n. secretary general has appealed to world leaders to make a renewed commitment to fight climate change and called for urgent global action. we need to make these coalition truly global and turns formative you for the opted

by every county seat the financial institution and company around the world a global coalition for carbon neutrality by 20 feet thick and seal prevent the worst the impacts of climate change but we cannot delay we are running out of time to meet temperature rise to $1.00 the cells use and build resilience to the impacts the come and they also need equal urgency and then bishan to address how we produce all foods and manage our water land and the oceans. well mr terrace was speaking of the release of a un environment report outlining a triple threat 1st the world is set to warm by at least 3 degrees celsius by the end of the century shooting past the 2 degree target from the paris accords and twice the one and a half degree ceiling that would prevent the worst consequences 2nd no biodiversity targets are being met leaving more than a 1000000 of the world's plant and animal species the seriously increased risk of extinction 3rd 9000000 people die prematurely every year from diseases caused by

pollution a toll that disproportionately hits developing countries we spoke earlier to the executive director of the un environment program in the under some says there have been some moves in the right direction but there is a long way to go now the good news is that already 126 countries have signed up for into what we call the net 0 club that they will get the net 0 carbon emissions by 2050 we need to see more countries doing that and we see the need to see and then sing for the poor countries to enable them to make these shifts at the same time for biodiversity we need to invest in smart agriculture that doesn't destroy biodiversity and we need to invest in nature not not have and buy products that we need to buy products and at deforestation 3 and on pollution of course we need to use those chemicals of course and the other products well use them use them wisely

and all of this means essentially let's not take out of the environment materials put them into economy and when we're done with them we throw them back refuse and waste. to the states the american government says it's ready to join talks with iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2050 nuclear deal the us state department will accept an invitation from the e.u. to attend a meeting of the signatories to the original agreement the former us president will withdrew in 2018 iran has been reducing its complaints ever since printing repeated warnings from britain france and germany the best. the best and safest path is to ensure that iran does not get nuclear weapons we want to discuss this with our u.s. partners and to find out under what conditions they would be prepared to rejoin the deal but in regards to tehran one has to say that the way iran is acting out regarding its commitments which it is discarding bit by bit and has now even threatened to reduce any transparency tara is playing with fire will complicate

this process even more and it's complicated enough as it is christine salumi joins us now from washington christine how significant is this u.s. reengagement. well it is a step towards a reengagement with iran the 6 was the 2nd meeting between secretary of state anthony blinken and his european counterparts on the nuclear deal attempting to find a common ground between the allies before they move forward to reengage with iran. and as we heard they have committed to being willing to talk with iran some interesting follow up to the public statement coming out of the state department official telling al-jazeera that the united states has also formally reversed its position at the united nations on sanctions there international

sanctions under president trump the united states had declared sanctions had come back into force because of iran's noncompliance with the nuclear deal of the united states was alone in that position but nevertheless had reimposed sanctions on its part against iran iran of course opposed that all along the united states and also . announced today that it is now reversed that position it is not claiming that those sanctions are in effect so a minor concession quietly happening behind the scenes at the united nations also the removing some travel restrictions on diplomats at the united nations which seems to be a step a minor concession perhaps to entice the iranians back to the negotiating table and by way of background very publicly joe biden said all along that he was opposed to

the united states withdrawing from the nuclear deal however was putting the onus on iran to come back into compliance in order for talks to happen. public officials telling us that this is seen. an announcement of a meeting would be necessary in order for the sides to work out what it would take to for both sides to get back into compliance so it's significant in that they're agreeing to talk they do not the united states is not painting this is a concession in any way but says that in order for both sides to come into compliance there has to be discussion they have to talk to each other and they are willing to talk briefly crystal can we expect to see to this meeting while the united states and its european allies say that they will meet now with russia and china other signatories to the iran nuclear deal and we will see the

response from the iranians who have promised to ramp up the pressure by going forward on the 23rd with steps to basically not allow inspectors to their facilities whether or not they go through with that threat in the wake of this news will also be interesting to see kristen thanks very much kristen salumi there reporting live from washington. u.n. officials have told the u.n. security council that yemen is hurtling towards the worst firm in the world has seen in decades this they say and the renewed offensive by who the rebels threaten to wipe out a new opportunity to end the war a diplomatic editor james bays reports now from the united nations. the news from yemen is about as grim as it gets these scriptures from the aid agency save the children of 7 month old amir the u.n. says he's one among a staggering 400000 children under 5 years of age who are seriously malnourished

and at risk of dying from starvation famines are very unusual well there has only been one in the last 20 years of a significant scale when a quarter 1000000 somalis lost their lives in 2011 what could happen in yemen over the next weeks and months is something the world hasn't seen for 40 years something literally i thought was unimaginable but it will happen unless different action is taken by the u.n. special envoy martin griffiths told the security council the situation on the ground in yemen is now the most tense he's seen since he took up the job 3 years ago i am certain that the word is probably more than that to report that over the past month the conflict in yemen has taken a sharp escalation to return with the answer out of the most recent offensive in

mar a government i have done this many times since early last year when this offensive operations started and i repeat my call our entire america must stop. there's been are a new diplomatic focus on yemen from the biden administration and mr griffiths himself has been to terror on and riyadh in recent weeks the u.n. is hoping the dark humanitarian situation will be helped by a pledging conference on the 1st of march they want countries to give money for yemen james pays out 0 at the united nations algeria's president has moved to appease protesters by pardoning jailed anti government activists and calling early elections in a televised address abdul majeed to whom called the dissolution of parliament and

also announced a government reshuffle almost 2 years after a popular uprising algeria's political and economic crises are being compounded by the coronavirus pandemic rushdie allawi is a middle east and north africa and honest he explains what could be behind the president's thinking. i think to boone is trying to get a had a looming political social crisis the political scene right now and then syria is a turbulent political scene if you will is trying to preempt another uprising known as a rocket like in 2 years ago that led to the reason for the departure of the freebies president of the sleeper so if you take some elements some variable and think about how the board was elected president it was in effect a very bad. effort to amend the constitution through referendum was also very badly because the turnout in those 2 election the reprimand them in the presidential

election were extremely low you add to the fact that there has been absence for almost 2 months. in germany because you had a was infected with the virus. and you have a president who is suffering from a lack of pollution the and the lack of trust so what he's trying to do is preempt another uprising 3 and another. just the street spilling all over and and at the same time he's trying to expand the only brand by walked in some of the language popularized by iraq the uprising. nurse's latest mars rover has touched on successfully. this was the scene at mission control as the news came through and the rover

perseverance sent back its 1st images it traveled around 470000000 kilometers through space on a mission costing nearly $3000000000.00 it's there to collect 30 rock and soil samples from mars just 0 crater looking for signs of past life a future mission maybe around 2026 will aim to land another rover within centimeters of those samples and fire them up into the martian orbit then a 3rd mission which isn't planned to depart for at least a decade will hopefully grab them and bring them back to earth for analysis tanya harrison is the director of science strategy at planet lab she says this is the start of a new era of exploration. nasa just landed their next flagship rover on the surface of mars it's carrying a ton of new technology including even in the entry descent and landing system that we used to land on mars in the 1st place so we today was just the opening day of a whole new era of mars exploration so this mission is the 1st dedicated

astrobiology mission it is specifically designed to look for signs of each of life and collect samples that it was sent back to earth and that's not something we've ever done from mars we've never been able to send something back so with perseverance we can actually collect the samples but also characterize the context from which we got the samples so that tells us a lot more information about what the sample is telling us in terms of what that rock might have formed in temperature pressure of the water chemical conditions of the water and if it would have been conducive for life but when the samples come back to earth then we can actually look at them for signs of d.n.a. which will be the definitive answer as to whether or not there ever was life in those samples still to come here on al-jazeera the u.s. government unveils a new immigration policy with an 80 a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and facebook friends no more but after logging australian news sites also could the social network be risking

a backlash. it's time for the perfect gentleman who went on sponsored plan qatar airways there will be a smell of spring in a good part of china the korean peninsula even japan has temperatures rapidly rises the wind reverses from a northerly to the south westerly and it keeps going for at least a couple of days at mrs lee this snow stephen hall carda but not for most of this rain showers the whole sure the forecast for shanghai shows pretty. high temperatures the average is 10 for february and we're up to about 23 in the sunshine it just cooled down a little bit by monday and tuesday back down to nearer the average but hey that's 3 warm days. active weather further south as well for the southern philippines this

tropical cyclone may well strengthen but i don't think it'll get typhoon strikes however it will be a shock because sometime in the weekend it will go through the beside us when the rain there is so brightest seized rain just a few showers in some parts of india more significant over the water a 3rd is that has nothing has moved the persistent fog in the northern plains and delis still stuck in it for most days the forecasts of a nasty is not a foggy one it's a quite a war one here things have improved sherry whether it's way down to the gulf to be followed by. endure hard. sponsored paul qatar airways. the champagne hall where the. ground is so full that. in syria the only way to do. a cost of a minister a key list. a european judge tasked with imposing a no or

a new order and a trial testing the nose of a newly formed nation. with mace. highway on. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera your top stories so far today the u.n. secretary general has appealed to world leaders to end what he called the suicidal war on nature and to negate terror issue speaking after the release of a u.n. environment report outlining environmental threats. germany is accusing iran of playing with fire over its repeated breaches of the 2050 nuclear deal the u.s. says it is ready to join talks with iran and world powers to discuss a return to the agreement. here's her slow invoice for yemen is calling for

a stop to the rebel attacks on the city of mariupol dozens of people have been killed in the intensified efforts to seize the government strong. to the coronavirus pandemic and increasing alarm about the spread of new variants one that was originally identified in south africa is moving across the continent there is evidence to suggest the strain is more resistant to vaccines those fears are raising concerns in a handful of african countries that are just beginning to roll out their vaccination programs recorded deaths across the continent of now reached 100000 that's as a new ebola outbreak poses new threats to andrew is a professor of microbiology at johns hopkins university we asked a 1000000 about the effectiveness of vaccines against new strains and how countries can cope with the added threat of ebola. the 2 studies that were published

yesterday. show that there is some immunity of the vaccine to these new variants that are circulating in south africa so i think the simple message is yes get your vaccine when you're come up for it you will get some protection it may not be as high a protection as to the original viruses that are circulating but it's should still be enough to protect from severe disease and to limit the spread of the virus in your community and that's really the goal of the vaccination campaign the important thing to note about the south african variant is that it's only mutated in one spot so it only eliminates a small portion of the vaccine induced immunity it should be relatively easy particularly for companies like moderna and pfizer to generate a new version of the vaccine that covers these new variants there are tried and true methods by which to contain a bowl of virus outbreaks certainly the situation right now is a bit more strained with respect to. resources that are becoming available as well

as capabilities using covert 1000 restrictions and working within koeppen 1000 restrictions i think this is going to take a global effort support from the w.h.o. as well as other not for in countries to really get this under control early we've seen in many of these of all outbreaks the earlier you act the better the chances of avoiding a major outbreak and so now is the time to really devote resources to stem that outbreak. cas are says it will lift quarantine restrictions for citizens and residents have been vaccinated against cope with 19 the gulf states ministry of public health says exemptions will apply when vaccinated people return from abroad will still be subject to testing on arrival and the exemption won't apply to those who've been vaccinated in other countries governments worldwide are exploring how they'll use it and for so-called vaccine passports in hungary people who've been

inoculated or recovered from cope with 19 may soon be given exemptions from light time curfews and other restrictions bahrain is building a vaccination certificate into its existing coronavirus telephone app it will display information including which job a person has received denmark's planning to put out an early version of vaccination passports by the end of next month while sweden wants to launch one by the middle of this year. in the iraqi capital baghdad people are again being subjected to tough rules nighttime curfews are in place as of monday to thursday and around the clock weekends shops schools and restaurants will be closed for 2 weeks and extra police checkpoints are being set up cases have been on the rise there more than 3 and a half 1000 new infections counted in the past day. relatives of people who died in a huge blast of beirut's port last year have been protesting outside lebanon's highest court the courts decided to remove the chief prosecutor investigating the explosion he was ousted after legal challenges from senior officials who he accused

of negligence or the 200 people died in the disaster in august thousands more were injured and many were left homeless. the white house has unveiled sweeping new measures to overhaul the nation's immigration system it wants to offer permanent protected status to undocumented migrants brought to the u.s. as children and to millions more who works in front line roles during the pandemic legislation would also provide an 8 year path to citizenship for 11000000 people already in the u.s. the white house has already overturned the trumpet ministrations remain in mexico policy it requires asylum seekers to stay in mexico while their applications were being processed the department of homeland security is now admitting 25000 applicants who were waiting at the border are white house correspondent kimberly how could explains what the plan hopes to achieve. there is this feeling that if

they create 2 pathways for immigrants in the united states who are currently here undocumented they will be able to push these through bring these people out of the shadows allow them to pay for taxes and other things that the times when the united states really needs it what they'll do is those that are working here as farm workers for example those with temporary protected status or even those who came as children are now adults only know the united states as their home country known as dreamers they would be given an automatic green card as it's called or permanent residency and the chance to kind of fast track for citizenship everybody else would then be given background checks would be given work permits and would also be able to request deportation relief now what's really important about all of this is that you have to have been here in the united states before january 1st of 2021 so this is not going to apply to people that are coming for example who are hearing this news thinking they'd like to cross the border and in fact the white house press

secretary jeh talking about this and be very firm saying that the united states is not ready for a wave of people to come as a result of this legislation the infrastructure is not there the policy is not there what they're saying is that for those who have been here for years and have been living in the shadows they will finally be able to if this is passed be able to be an important part of an integrated american society. the buy the been astray she says a severe winter storm engulfing texas nearby states was likely caused by climate change hundreds of thousands of people continue without power senator ted cruz is facing anger holidaying in mexico as the crisis develops it will in the zonda reports from new york. says this is. day 4 of the u.s. winter weather crisis and things only seem to be getting worse especially in texas

where as of thursday afternoon a half 1000000 people are still without power and heat as electricity companies fail to deal with a rare subzero temperatures. will. make it mobile so that they have a mobile a quarter of the residents in the state have been told to boil their own drinking water as supply systems are hit adding insult to injury a state famous for its oil industry is also suffering from a shortage of petrol the kind of stuck here i have 9 miles left to go with my car so we have to find something that's with then i'm miles from texas is america's 2nd most populous state with 29000000 residents living in an area larger than the whole of france it's the only u.s. state that has its own electricity grid and is not part of the national system by its own choice which is allowed it to bypass federal regulations designed to

protect against exactly these kinds of conditions under fire for being seemingly woefully unprepared for the state's energy bosses were forced to defend themselves it was a problem when back and happening knocked out by an extraordinary embed and also the impact of that same extraordinary event head on down. and and. people may argue about. also facing scrutiny texas republican senator ted cruz who won wednesday left his embattled state for an unannounced family vacation in the mexican beatriz sort of can coon when outrage ensued he promptly cut his trip short and flew home the storm is now here over the north east of the u.s. and its forecast to linger until the end of friday but it is not expected to cause

nearly as much disruption as what it has in texas a state there remains in a deep freeze crisis gabriel sandow. new york key players involved in a trading frenzy earlier this month of told skeptical u.s. politicians that their actions will all above board much of the volatility sense that on shares in the game stop video games to or which rose by as much as 1600 percent before forming sharply founders of free stock trading up robinhood to an online forum reddit were among those testifying during the school congressional hearing the robin hood c.e.o. was grilled on allegations appeared to be helping small time investors when it was actually on the side of large headphones. canada to be the next country to make facebook pay for news content also says it won't back down to social media giant

shuts off the country's news outlets as it has in australia another move shocked australia and drew the attention of governments and media companies everywhere it shall about us. this trail 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 fareway heavy handed and they will damage it's reputation here in a strange facebook announced the move on its blog saying astray misunderstands the relationship between itself and publishes it says publishers willingly choose to post news on facebook to sell 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 a lot of the industry many in the media agree arguing tech giants must pay for the journalism they republish well because news organizations use whatever platform 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 to boil the journalists our members need to

use human rights watch also condemn the move saying facebook has cut off more than the media they were all strains of the ones caught in the middle here because last this floor is saying that 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. you're watching al-jazeera live from doha these are your headlines the u.n. secretary general has appealed to world leaders to end what he called a suicidal war on nature and tony spoke after the release of a u.n. environment report outlining environmental threats.