thank you sir just to be. this has been the invisible weapon of the syrian dictatorship for some time is a call to complete whether to god continue to be sure to control. the disappeared of syria. mean mass security forces crackdown on protesters and. police to people are killed by live fire. on sammy's a dan this is a lie from so coming up a confidential u.n. report accuses former u.s. president donald trump's ally erik prince of breaking an arms embargo also with the

reward khalifa haftar. i'm just a washington in jakarta with severe flooding has forced hundreds from their homes. and for the 1st time ever stunning images of beamed back from nasa's and rove. has been an escalation in myanmar with security forces cracking down further on protesters demanding a return to civilian rule so people have now been killed this police tried to break up the. second largest city the officers used live fire on crowds gathering in banda lie tell me chang has the latest. shots ringing out as protesters in mandalay flee from the police and water cannon tear gas and sling shots also.

used to disperse the crowd casualties taken from the scene by ambulance as the security services attempt to break strikes that have shut down shipyards only or what the river in the capital naypyidaw marches commemorated the death of a 20 year old student shot in the head during a demonstration last week determination amongst those present that they would continue to march against the military coup despite the danger until the civilian government is restored. and there are possibilities of many more people dying and we ourselves can even know whether we will die or not but we need to fight until the end regardless of our lives in order to succeed and that is only after we get rid of this military dictatorship downtown young gone through the largest crowds despite a police cordon around the soon go to the crowds just move down the road chanting for the release of aung san suu kyi she remains under military detention there is a campaign of civil disobedience starts to impact transport and banking systems across myanmar some feel they have nothing to lose 6 i was young people have

their dreams 21000 was a year of development and 2020 there was coronavirus and we were all thinking about the future but everything is gone now everything we were hoping for is going to be destroyed that's why more people are joining the protests than in the past in kitchen stays in the far north the tense standoff between protesters and police this is one of the areas where the military has struggled for years to suppress ethnic and rest but now there's news men most diverse ethnic groups have signed a nationwide ceasefire to unite in opposition to military rule tony chang al jazeera. al-jazeera has same parts of a confidential u.n. report which finds donald trump's ally in private security contractor erik prince violated noms embargo on libya the report to the security council reveals how friends foreign mercenaries and weapons to war after in 2019 when he was fighting

against the internationally recognized government in tripoli kristen salumi 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 devadasi. but it's his role in a malicious assault on the internationally recognized government video 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 attack was condemned by u.s. secretary of state mike pompei oh this will be resolved through force of arms or just a no way that's going to take place we there's a u.n. process we've been part of that and a half 2 hours been part of that we urge them to have started a 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 monic trying to has more on the story from the libyan city of misurata. it isn't really clear how much of this specific operation was completed by blackwater but there have been reports that date back to 2017 which suggests that blackwater was coordinating with have to when he was cementing his power base in eastern libya the reports suggest that blackwater supplied unpiloted air tractor attack planes which bombed neighborhoods in eastern libya which helps solidify his power there before he began making his move towards the west in 2011 the u.s.

played an integral part to support rebel forces to topple moammar gadhafi through nato through nato airstrikes later on the u.s. helped forces loyal to the government of national quite considerably here in misrata to fight against i saw when they took a foothold in the city of sirte so the u.s. has always been seen as a a beacon of hope and democracy and to help that help libyans in their fight to a democratic state and they were they felt a bit betrayed and disappointed when president trump made that phone call with khalifa haftar now that president joe biden has been elected president that hope is sort of been reignited sort of been sparked believing that the u.s. may now once again. come and help libyans in their fight for democratic and civilian state so the feeling the feeling here among libyans is that one of hope

that the the americans will come back and help libyans fight for their civilian state which they you know they they expressed that they won in 2011. a court in moscow has upheld kremlin critic alexina valley's prison sentence but is shorten his term by a month and a half he was earlier sentenced to nearly 3 years for violating his parole while he was in germany recovering from poisoning. law which it isn't going to have been wiser than today's verdict was expected for us we consider it unlawful nothing is changed all the arguments made in the court in the 1st instance they got rejected them and they got rejected now the only thing is that the court didn't take into account a month and a half of house arrest they did that now that time prime minister prior to 9 members of his cabinet have survived no confidence vote they were accused of this managing the economy for handling of the pandemic human rights abuses and

corruption it's the 2nd no confidence vote that the government has faced since taking office in 2019 meanwhile thai pro-democracy groups are rallying outside parliament demanding his resignation and for the monarchy to be reformed thousands of police officers are on standby ahead of the protest authorities have recently been cracking down on those who speak out against the royal family has been severe flooding in indonesia's capital triggered by heavy rainfall in some parts homes were submerged by up to 2 metres of water suburbs to the east have been worst affected city officials saying more than a 1000 people were forced to seek shelter jessica washington is in one of those affected areas joe carter. you can hear is the world's fastest sinking city every monsoon season is a reminder of the worsening crisis at large parts of the city once again submerged . and you can't as east thousands of people were moved to safety as floodwaters

reached up to 1.8 meters high in some areas. rescue is in police work together to help people escape. and see the water in my home is still chest high all my belongings got flooded i try to put them somewhere higher but then last night the water also went higher the indonesian capital is home to about 10000000 people and thousands are now without power many here are so accustomed to this recurring disaster that used to wait it out on balconies and roofs flooding is an annual event here in jakarta heard something that this community. is well accustomed to but this year many communities which have never experienced severe flooding before are doing so for the 1st time and scientists age a card is local governments must act faster to save this sinking city. in the relatively affluent area of command people told al-jazeera they have never

experienced such severe flooding jakarta's governor. says local authorities are working swiftly to assist everyone to send my family to have a main in top priority is to make sure the people of site we don't want to see any casualties and we've prepared evacuation centers for people who are affected by the 2 rachel right. but this crisis is about more than just rain experts have criticised the governor for failing to act and for blaming the rain when there are other factors contributing to the floods were the normalisation projects have been delayed and scaled back despite experts saying they would help ease the annual flooding and excessive ground water extraction and the destruction of adequate green spaces in the city is sinking at an even faster rate. joe carter has an obligation to fix its drainage and complete. projects this is to increase the function and capacity of the rivers to contain the rainfall without

causing floods forced from their homes without their toys it's not the 1st time these children have played in floodwaters and it likely won't be the last as thousands of indonesians are forced to leave their homes and belongings once again many are asking what it would take for the authorities to act jessica washington al-jazeera jakarta. still ahead on al-jazeera power outages food shortages and now a new crisis for texas rode into chaos by a rare winter storm. and the terrifying moments a ferry full of people flips in indonesia. springs bursting through nicely now across a good part of east asia so some loss of pleasant sunshine coming through was

attempted getting up to 21 celsius in tokyo just 70 and found hot woman off to across the korean peninsula seoul 15 degrees a little further west get up to 80 in beijing and a bit of fair weather cloud around here but bright skies as we go on through monday quite as warm but in light winds still feel quite pleasant. if a soloist well it's warmer in tokyo with a high of around 12 so $22.00 degrees the further north we have got some rain sleet and snow into northern parts of honshu easing up into the chance of want to see showers too into southern parts of china chance of wanted to showers too into southern parts of india over the next day or so much of india is settled and fine but some heavier downpours down towards out of the dashed was done will not i could see some localized flooding in here so the 70 something to watch out for over the next couple of days just a little further west which as we go on through monday and shoes day so chance of showers just coming into carola trying to also with a chance of seeing some showers from

a small problems continue across the northern plains we do have a westerly disturbance across the far north of pakistan just drifting into the funnels of india. he ses is sick and it's time for a different approach one that is going to challenge the way you think on asking the questions now is the new host of the next season of the show that's got no space for sound bites only comedy politically simplicity into the headlines join me as i take on the lies dismantle the misconceptions and give me the contradiction. i'm marc lamont hill and it's time to get up front right here on al-jazeera.

bag time to recap the headlines now 2 people have been killed as police tried to break up a protest in the 2nd largest city they turned live fire on the crowd in mandalay demonstrations against the military coup of continued around the country entering a 3rd week. al-jazeera has gained access to parts of a confidential u.n. report which finds blackwater founder erik prince violated an arms embargo in libya and says prince sent weapons toward holy for half staff has been severe flooding in indonesia's capital jakarta triggered by heavy rainfall in some parts homes were submerged by up to 2 metres of water. 5 people have been killed in 3 explosions in afghanistan's capital police a improvised explosive devices were used in the attacks in kabul no one has claimed

responsibility at least 70 people have lost their lives in similar incidents in the past month including journalists and activists and with more news of attacks in afghanistan the u.s. says there's no decision yet on its troop withdrawal defense secretary lloyd austin says more progress is needed in the peace negotiations clearly the violence is too high right now in more progress needs to be like these to be made in the afghan led negotiations. and so i urge all parties to choose the path toward peace. the violence must decrease now. i told our allies that no matter what the outcome of our review the united states will not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from afghanistan that puts their forces or the alliance's reputation at risk. at this time no decisions about our future

force posture have been made in the meantime current missions will continue and of course commanders have the right and the responsibility to defend themselves and their afghan partners against attack as we move forward in our review we will consult with our nato allies our resolute support partners and of course the government of afghanistan. and there will be no surprises we will consult each other and consult together and and decide together and act together michael semple is a professor at queen's university belfast he's been a special adeptly you special representative to afghanistan he thinks if the taliban continues fighting it will lose all the political gains it's earned in the past year. i think the u.s. has put the ball in the taliban's court they've said that if if the violence were

to stop or go do go down we would be on our way out on the basis of a recent performance by the taliban i don't think anybody expects them to reduce the violence enough for troops to the in the next 2 months the taliban are rattling their own sabers and saying that if the tallow if the u.s. does not withdraw in 2 months they intend to intensify a military campaign which they have sustained they say they will fight i don't think it would be the end of the agreement of course on force fighting people will die but there is a huge amount of pressure on all parties to this conflict to bring it to an end and i think that if they if it comes up be clear that only by resisting a cease fire insisting on sustaining their violence against the afghan government they the town of on. oblige the of the u.s. to stay i think they'll find themselves isolated and i think they'll find

themselves under pressure to farms to find some kind of a solution in other words the agreement of the agreement does not die but i can imagine that there might be a period in which there's no that there are no no negotiations and the taliban finds itself more and more isolated and they lose some of the political gains and respectability that they've enjoyed over the past year 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 woes this past week has been an enormous challenge maybe unlike any challenge that you've ever dealt with before it's 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 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 truckee and 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 saff 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. and the freezing temperatures also played a part in a hotel going up in flames in texas the automatic sprinkler system wasn't working

because of frozen water pipes in the city of believe the hotel was for walk in see when the fire started with many people staying there because they didn't have power or water in their own homes one guest was treated for minor burns it's not clear what started the blaze. a ferry loaded with passengers in very cold says flip's in indonesia's west kalimantan. officials say they're still checking to make sure all passengers were rescued but been no reports of any deaths high waves are being blamed for the acts of the. u.s. and other wealthy nations accused of hoarding vaccines have promised to put more money into ensuring developing countries obtain those says they you is pledging $1200000000.00 to the vaccine alliance kovacs the u.s. says it will put in $4000000000.00 journal how has the details under pressure from

the united nations and the world health organization g 7 leaders promised to step up their efforts to make vaccines available worldwide make sure everybody gets the vaccines that they only. come through this kind of game only to call it already announced that will be the case strongly strongly supported ahead of the virtual meeting chaired by britain's prime minister the u.n. said just 10 countries accounted for 3 quarters of the entire global vaccine rollout $130.00 countries have not 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. vox iniquities not just the right thing to do it's also the smart thing to do $37.00 pledges of funding and future vaccine donations have been

welcomed but countries like india and south africa want to share access to vaccine patents what we're calling for on reforms in the how patents are in their words in this case we because this should be a people's votes in as many countries as possible we have the capacity to be able to produce this but seeing it for themselves this is we carry it starting with africa has to wait for leftovers 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 existing supply he has support from the german chancellor. is a man with over come from different immuno workers i stressed in my intervention that the pandemic is not beaten and told all people in the world have been vaccinated i'll mention after

a bit infant the g 7 pledges of progress so campaigners but not enough joe know how al-jazeera. brazil is relaxing its gun ownership roles critics say it could increase violence but supporters argue they made greater protection monica care reports from rio de janeiro. inspired in broad daylight i mean the middle of the night bullets flying over slums every day violence in rio de janeiro that's by people on the spot and shared by thousands on if we're is the shootout the app was created by physics teacher myself and 3 friends. imus to help people avoid being on the wrong place at the wrong time by informing them what parts of the city dangerous. the president should be able so now to says the best way of reducing crime in brazil is to far more people. is just

taken measures to make weapons and ammunition more widely available in a country that has one of the world's largest number of homicides. it's a promise he made to his voters but one that has sparked outrage among gun control campaigners they say brazil has weak gun control policies and dismantling them will make violence worse but it's not only that is that also president bill schneider is in a sense. a lot of the rhetoric of former president truck when it comes to incite is more loyal supporters that in the caves in brazil are also this categories that these degrees benefit their gun owners collectors shooters hunters to actually be own inside in case for example there is an election fraud in brazil in 2022 also

not a has been and still is loyal to trump who has not condemned the attack by the former u.s. president supporters on capitol hill january and many here fear the same could happen in brazil in 2 years if both is not reelected. owns a shooting club and imports weapons is winnable so now to supporters who say human rights groups are exaggerating or form a biased margin more drama series of abattoirs is brazil the country with the highest number of homicides probably but how many of these crimes were committed with legally registered firearms do we have a record number of police killings maybe but we also have a record. dead policeman if many are killed many are dead well that means it's a war. there is a teacher in the poor neighborhoods of rio de janeiro he's been

a victim of violence and has seen children and banned in school to take up arms and follow the local drug lord. the only solution is to invest in education and equal opportunities while there is in the quality there is no way out except dodging stray bullets brazil appears increasingly divided with no common ground between those who believe guns will reduce violence and those who fear it will put democracy at risk. of al-jazeera rio de janeiro. well it's only been on the red planet for a day but masses perseverance rover is already sending back to tell color photos it's on a mission to collect samples on the surface which nasa hopes will one day be analyzed here on earth is rob reynolds. 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 ray 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 founds 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 number of different geological processes beckon 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 team 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.