it's under threat demonstrators and journalists are dealing with internet outages police intimidation and charges of said dish shift the focus covering the way the news this culture the listening posts on a. confidential u.n. report accuses donald trump's ally erik prince of sending mercenaries and weapons to libyan warlord $105.00 down. there i'm kevin allen with world views on al jazeera live from doha also coming up america is back transatlantic alliance is back on. u.s. president joe biden in his 1st address to world leaders this promises to mend it

frayed alliances save the iran nuclear deal and take on russia and china also. i'm just to washington in jakarta with severe flooding has forced hundreds from their homes. and images of mass from that says perseverance of a sense the 1st ever color pictures of the red planet. al-jazeera has seen parts of a confidential u.n. report which finds donald trump's ally and private security contractor erik prince violated and arms embargo on libya the report to the security council reveals how prince sent foreign mercenaries and weapons to war highly for half the hour and 2019 when he was fighting against the internationally recognized government in tripoli christensen in the reports from washington d.c. . erik prince is best known as the founder of blackwater security

a private contractor whose employees were implicated in the killing of 17 iraqi civilians in 2007 he's also a prominent supporter of former president donald trump and brother to former education secretary betsy divide us. but it's his role in a malicious assault on the internationally recognized government libya in 2019 that's now a question al-jazeera has seen excerpts of a 121 page report submitted to the u.n. security council and 1st reported by the new york times alleging prince help supply a trove of weapons including attack helicopters to the military's commander khalifa haftar are in violation of a u.n. arms embargo on libya. it also alleges he deployed a force of foreign mercenaries to help in the attack was condemned by u.s. secretary of state mike pompei oh this will be resolved through force of arms is

just no way that's going to take place we there's a u.n. process we've been part of that and i have tars been part of that we urge them to have started stand down move back to the negotiating table so that we can get a political resolution in libya the day after pompei are made that statement president trump made a phone call to have to are raising eyebrows in the ire of some members of congress an official readout of the call said that the president quote recognized field-marshal huffed are significant role in fighting terrorism and securing libya's oil resources and the 2 discussed a shared vision for libya's transition to a stable democratic political system. what many saw as a contradiction of official u.s. policy the un report raises a question not only of whether or not a close associate of the president violated an international arms embargo but also of whether or not the president himself was complicit in defying a stated u.s.

policy kristen salumi al-jazeera washington well as put those questions to on a sound multi he is the founder and director of the city institute a public policy think tank in libya thank you for your time sir how bad a look do you think this is for the former trump administration perhaps even for the former president donald trump himself. it's terrible i mean you know this is the beginning of what will become a long slog good in the best location the early growth. in terms of the relationship between prince and. this is going to be this will this will threaten to be you know his scandal of his campaign i think we would have many obesity but i think with in terms of libya the ease of which this could have been stopped and the ease of which donald trump facility for the war in libya and his administration i think is is quite scary know that these details are coming to the surface so you know it's it's mad to think now that only 18 months ago 24 months ago these are

things that were happening behind the scenes we're surprised at all by the revelations that have been put forward in this u.n. reports that erik prince was was sending a weapons nurseries to holy 5 star at the same time as the then secretary of state was saying you know condemning the attack in which these mercenaries had probably taken part. you know really no i mean hey eric prince had been building and furnishing a base eastern libya at all had them for the united arab emirates and furnishing them with tractors and drones at the time so you know we've known about erik prince at least since 201617 at the earliest perhaps but i met eric actually shortly before the war in libya and i asked him what it what are you doing in debian and he seemed quite tense by the question but he said we're doing method backs to medical evacuations for the u.n. and i thought this is someone who doesn't really care about the truth he cares

about how if any of this could be proven and i think at that stage i thought very little of this could be proven because of how sophisticated erik prince is infrastructure is and how many places he's gotten away with but i think in libya's case there were to many threads and believe half there is only dispute with princes things will imagine i imagine things will emerge in the next come coming weeks these are where things start to become a bit more testy this isn't just being his opponents that have really delivered on some of these documents it's even within have to own such. i mean prince says a blackwater is a is a private company a private contractor how much coordination is there between prince and the u.s. government. well i think they certainly know when to certainly know one another they're not in the dark and i think that's one of these this is often one of the aspects of using private military contractors using these you know the merchants of war as they're called there's an aspect of deniability that one can use to stay an

arm's length from you know a war when they don't want to be said when you can't from for the for medical reasons and an obvious and legal reasons you can't be involved in complicit people like princes currency go right up and the real aspect here as we've seen with russia and the bagnall group and how they've been deployed in several theaters including libya is that they offer a beautiful eerie and in fact the fastest kind of deniability to any government you can refuse that you have any knowledge of what is going on you can refuse that you have any of the leaders but we know that erik prince has a relationship with donald trump we all sort of the his sister betsy the boats had a relationship with donald trump we know that you have been to preserve an inn in russia the head of the main a group has a close relationship with development and he was put in chef we also know that they have very very close encounters and it worked to at one time or over the last several years they've had meetings on behalf of 3rd countries look like the united

ever of emirates now i think there are 2 major questions they're being left behind so what degree the trump helped facilitate this war alongside erik prince and more importantly whether or not erik prince and the prince was toward meeting with russian wagner's group messages in libya and has helped them establish a foothold in libya in the way that he helped the united arab emirates establish a foothold in there because there was american weaponry and russian weaponry that passing through the same hands it's mad it's mad the think at the degree to which this has repercussions beyond libya plaids you say and probably be some time for this to sort of unravel thanks for your time and their founder and director of the city institute. america will work closely with its allies a clear message sent on president joe biden who seems determined to break away from donald trump's america 1st policies in his 1st speech on the walls to the g. 7 and munich security conference on proclaimed america is back as i watch house

correspondent complete help that it's not about pushing reset on the past 4 years u.s. president joe biden addressed to global conferences with world leaders on friday but delivered one clear message forget the america 1st policies of his predecessor america is back the transatlantic alliance is back i know i know the past years of strain and tested our transatlantic relationship but the united states is determined determined to reengage with europe. biden made clear he believes solutions to global threats must be collaborative during the virtual gathering of the g. 7 and later the munich security conference leaders conferred about share threats posed by china iran and russia. to move you down the future it is very important that we develop

a common transatlantic russia agenda which on the one hand makes cooperative offers but on the other hand clearly identifies differences and i can only agree with the american president on the question of what makes a strong strong european union unfortunately russia is not working on this at the moment on the issue of climate change biden underscored he believes the planet faces an excess stench will threat even as the united states has officially rejoined the paris climate accord envoy john kerry apologized for his precious time last pledge the united states will do all it can to meet emission reduction targets he urged others to do the same what we do or don't do in the coming months and years will make all the difference as biden repudiated the nationalist approach of his predecessor donald trump he had knowledge the challenges to preserve democracy remain both inside and outside the united states democracy doesn't happen by action

we have to defend it fight for it strengthen renew it we have to prove that our model isn't a relic of history. it's the single best way to revitalize the promise of our future the global conferences were an opportunity for president biden to lay out his foreign policy agenda and chart a new course with european leaders while reassuring them that the era of trump style diplomacy has ended can really help get al-jazeera washington. there's been severe flooding in indonesia's capital jakarta triggered by heavy rainfall 180 centimeters of rain was recorded in some areas it's not clear how many people are affected yes jessica washington is live for us in jakarta and jessica just tell us what's been happening there where you are. jim

this is a developing situation it's day one of severe widespread flooding across jakarta and greater jakarta including the satellite cities i'm here in eastern congo which is one of the worst affected areas this area is often hit hard by the monsoon season we've been watching as police and search and rescue operations have been conducted in this area attempting to rescue individuals who may be trapped in their houses and also trying to help communities get some of their belongings alge of their flooded homes but this is a sort of recurring problem for people in this community is so used to it we've seen children playing in the floodwaters people sort of walking about as if it's business as usual but while this area is used to flooding there are many parts of the capital that are now flooded which have never experienced severe flooding before an environmentalist and scientists say that it's time for the jakarta local government to act seriously about jakarta's flooding problems now you mentioned the

heavy rain that's something that the jakarta government often says is the cause of this flood but there is more to the flooding than just heavy rainfall there is over development too much concrete a lack of green space over extraction of ground water these are some of the factors that contribute to jakarta severe flooding every year and make the world's fastest sinking city the scientists that we've spoken to say that the jakarta governor a bus weighed in has not acted as he had promised and has instead of focusing on river normalization widening the rivers to make this city more resilient against flooding he's focused on the aesthetics rather than the practicalities and that means that these and it potentially in future years this flooding crisis will only get worse ok thank you for that update washington now live from jakarta. protests against men miles military have entered their 3rd week around a 1000 people gathered in the largest city gangaji to demand the release of deposed

leader aung san suu kyi and return to civilian some are holding photos of a 20 year old woman who died on friday after being injured in protests she was shot in the head last week when police tried to disperse a crowd in the capital. tony chang joins us now live from bangkok tony is there any indication that these now daily protests are having any sort of impact on the military. words very hard to say at this stage but those protests are now widespread today that taking place across the country up in the north in kitchen state in mandalay in the center of myanmar in the capital naypyidaw as you mentioned just there in yangon in fact in yangon they're happening in 2 places in the center of the city but also outside the chinese embassy i think that's the protesters trying to make the point that china is a sensitive country particularly important for the military a source of

a lot of influence a lot of arms and they are trying to put pressure on the chinese not to interfere in this situation the many particularly nervous that the chinese have exerted undue influence over the the military leaders but in addition to which the protesters are showing themselves to be relatively flexible in the center of yangon where the protests have taken place outside the super godor over the last week the security services thrown up in a fairly impenetrable ring of steel instead the protesters have just moved further down the road and i think this is the problem that the military are facing these a young imaginative protesters who are using all sorts of ways to express their dissatisfaction with the coup they've been writing it in huge letters on the streets they've been posting all over all over social media and they're like the they're flexible they're on their feet they're moving in places where they're being blocked and that makes it very difficult to stop them in addition to which the

civil disobedience movement which they've been promoting is starting to have quite a severe impact i was just speaking to somebody in yangon who said that the railways now closed because the engineers have joined the civil disobedience movement we understand that a lot of domestic flights around myanmar have stopped because pilots have been joining the banking system is crawling the pace with many banks only opening one day. we know while all of these things will affect the civilian population they are also going to the military and at the moment there appears to be fairly universal support for the protests and people joining in these movements not attending work though some cases even hospitals are being affected with doctors refusing to work and the military is increasingly going to feel the pressure building up as normal live grinds to a hold and that is going to put a huge amount of pressure on them to do something about it what they do at this

stage we really don't know and i think the concern for many people is they could start to crack down hard but at this stage they seem to be standing back was speaking to one of the protesters in yangon who said he didn't feel a huge amount of tension on the streets today about how long the patients last minute is anyone's guess at this stage i think is that tony chang in bangkok. in neighboring thailand prime minister prayers channel 9 members of his cabinet have survived a no confidence vote there accused of mismanaging the economy poor handling of the pandemic rights abuse allegations and corruption it's the 2nd no confidence for the government has faced since taking office and 2019 type pro-democracy groups are rallying outside parliament demanding his resignation and a reform of the monarchy. so come here on al-jazeera wealthy nations accused of hoarding covert $900.00 vaccines promised to do more to make up for the

widespread discrepancy. power outages food shortages said now a new crisis for texas thrown into chaos by a rare winter storm. while it does from maine on the cool side across northeastern parts of europe we've got much smaller spinning in a from the west and that's lifting the temperatures up there quite nicely suppose the temperatures getting up into double figures for london and for paris negative double figures there for moscow's you go on through the next couple of days that mild air which does encroach away into central parts of you upset to continue but it's not exactly t. shirts and shorts weather because we've got quite a cane wind is a southerly wind hence the warmth we're going to lot of cloud of rain also making

its way in some 14 celsius there in london or into double figures in glasgow a 17 in paris near february record high temperatures for some of these western parts of europe more of the same as we go on through sunday but notice some rather wet weather some snow coming in across the pyrenees so northern parts of spain wetter weather also sliding across a good part of portugal central areas to standard generally stay dry not bad in vienna light winds 11 celsius will feel quite pleasant but it's still very wintry there it's that western side of russia come further south into africa a cool breeze across the northeast of africa generally dry for the most part but as we go on through sunday it will turn increasingly wet for a good part of morocco with the threat of flooding. coveted beyond round. taken without hesitation. and died for

the power defines our. babies were boiling. it's the glass babies to death people in power investigates exposes and question the use and abuse of power around the globe. on how to see. the world. is there a reminder of our top stories this hour al-jazeera has gained access to parts of a confidential u.n. report which finds the blackwater founder erik prince violated an arms embargo on libya it says print send weapons to war fairly fast on. the street severe flooding

in indonesia's capital jakarta triggered by heavy rains evacuations are underway 180 centimeters of rain was recorded in some areas it's not clear how many people are affected yes. protests against me in miles military coup have ended a 3rd week around a 1000 people gathered in the largest city again gone to demand the release of deposed leader aung san suu kyi their return to civilian rule. 2 people have died in explosions in afghanistan's capital having say base to improvised explosive devices were used in the attack in kabul no one has claimed responsibility. accordant moscow is expected to hear an appeal by kremlin critic alexina valley was asked to be released from prison the valley is facing 2 court decisions that could our poll the judge's ruling to jail him to several years earlier this month he was sentenced to nearly 3 years for violating his parole while he was in germany recovering from poisoning. protests have turned violent in barcelona for

a 4th consecutive noise of the thousands demanded the release of a rapper on friday. was sentenced to 9 months in jail for insulting the monarchy and glorifying so-called terrorists as a once the law that was used to convict him scraps. the u.s. and other wealthy nations accused of hoarding vaccines has promised to put more money into ensuring developing countries obtain doses the e.u. is pledging $1200000000.00 to the vaccine alliance kovacs us is put in $4000000000.00 so whole reports under pressure from the united nations and the world health organization g 7 leaders promise to step up their efforts to make vaccines available worldwide make sure everybody gets the fact that they need. to come through this. case strong.

supporters ahead of the virtual meeting chaired by britain's prime minister the un said just 10 countries accounted for 3 quarters of the entire global vaccine rollout 130 countries have received a single dose the w.h.o. has warned of a catastrophic moral failure that will be paid for with lives and livelihoods among the world's poorest bucks iniquities not just the right thing to do it's also the smart thing to do. 37 pledges of funding and future vaccine donations have been welcomed but countries like india and south africa want to share their access to vaccine patients what we're calling for ari forms in the how patents are in this case we because this should be in people's votes as many countries as possible we have the capacity to be able to produce. for them so this

we carried starting with africa has to wait for liftoff from the rich countries is not going to end the epidemic only france and germany have considered making some of their own vaccine stocks available to developing countries now the french president has suggested donating up to 5 percent of the existing supply he has support from the german chancellor says among them to come from different immuno workers i stressed in my intervention that the pandemic is not beaten and to all people in the world have been vaccinated i'll mention of the overt infant the g 7 pledges of progress so campaigners but not enough joe to hold 0. new zealand has started its covert 19 vaccination rollout with front line workers at the front of the queue a small group of health workers were injected on friday in or plan to head off the wider roll out about $12000.00 border and quarantine workers will be vaccinated

over the coming weeks. argentina's health minister has resigned after reports that his friend was able to skip the line for a covert 19 vaccination. garces stepped down after the president called on him to question the wake of the scandal so far only health workers have been vaccinated vaccinations for people aged over 70 only began on wednesday. healthcare workers in bolivia have gone on strike they are demanding the government for appeal in new health emergency of norwich banned strikes during the pandemic and allows foreign staff to be hired livia's health union says the law is unconstitutional and restricts the right to protest. millions of people in texas don't have clean drinking water and hundreds of thousands are still without power the southern u.s. state has been plunged into chaos by a rare winter storm john hendren reports from chicago. frigid texas is trading

power problems for water walk this past week has been an enormous challenge maybe unlike any challenge that you've ever dealt with before has been far too burdensome for the lives of all those affected. we're working around the clock and we will continue to work around the clock to address to meet your needs and challenges that after days of rare freezing temperatures blanketed the 2nd largest state in the u.s. power stations are all back on line that after unusually high demand led to rolling blackouts transmission lines taken down by ice still have left nearly 200000 without power but now texans face a new crisis 7000000 people a quarter of the state or being asked to boil their water if they have it at all because the cold weather has left broken pipes and taken water treatment plants offline san antonio faces fire and ice as frozen fire hydrants forced firefighters

to truck in water flowing crews battling flames at an apartment complex haven't been able to get a workout weeklong. now everything that we have in there it's got grocery store shelves are largely bare leaving residents lined up in their cars for food and water president joe biden says he's declaring the entire state the disaster zone i talked with the federal emergency management agency fema the administrator. of the sav community going to ask him to accelerate our response and request for quote it's a different decoration a major disaster declaration the president says he hopes to visit the lone star state next week here in chicago where the northern end of the weather system that struck texas about 1500 kilometers north of dallas but your god is used to weather like this it's water and power transmission systems are hardened for the routine cold weather that strikes every winter texas hasn't seen

a storm system like this in 35 years and it's clear its system simply weren't up to the task there is hope sustained temperatures above freezing beginning saturday john hendren al-jazeera chicago. it's only been on the red planet for a day that nasa is perseverance is already sending back days held color photos and on a mission to collect samples from the switch nasa hopes will one day be analyzed here on earth has. this is the 1st ever color picture from a world more than 54000000 kilometers beyond ours it's one of several sent from perseverance is a raid of cameras this one shows the rover being lowered down by cables to its martian landing spot from the delivery space vehicle. nasa scientists say the rover came through its action packed landing thursday in fine form and happy to say

that the rover is doing great and healthy on the surface of mars and continues to be highly highly functional and then just an exhilarating this shot shows one of the rovers heavy duty wheels that it will use to explore the red dust of just 0 crater for signs of extinct ancient life but perseverance won't be making tracks right away 1st engineers will perform system checks update its software and test some of its instruments like a robotic arm and a microphone in a month or so ingenuity the drone attached to the rover will take its 1st flight this rover is epic for it it represents. 8 years of hundreds of engineers at the laboratory thousands around the world a total of over 4 pounds and human years of investment. and already

a detail in this picture has caught scientists attention that rock on the left the one that looks like a hunk of swiss cheese and there are a number of different geological processes that can make holes in iraq like that and so the science team is now thinking about what this might mean and one of the questions we'll ask 1st is whether these rocks represent a volcanic or sedimentary origin and both of those would be equally exciting to the teams ultimately perseverance may dig up evidence that life existed on mars at some point in the ancient past that could be a sign that life is widespread in our solar system our galaxy and the far flung reaches of the universe and that we are not alone robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles. the sound is there and these are the top stories.