facebook has announced it will restore news content to its uses in australia at the moment all australian news pages are blocked from sharing material on facebook and all its users are banned from sharing links to australian news sources decision comes after the government agreed to amend legislation that would make tech giants pay for strain in news content. so this is our desert these are the top stories and the united states has impose new sanctions targeting me and most military leaders over this month and the european union says it's agreed to do the same the army has increased its use of force against protesters has more now from the thai capital of franco. hospitals are running on skeleton staff at the moment because many of the doctors are going in some cases it's affecting the civil service and i think the effort there is for the protesters to keep on pushing that said we saw the senior generals in the coup

council meeting yesterday they don't appear to be recognizing either the huge numbers of people out on the streets or the calls for the reversal of this coup they said that the media is not allowed to refer to this as a coup any longer more than a 1000 refugees and migrants in malaysia who were due to be deported to me a man who have been granted temporary stay to follows a court appeal but human rights activists who said that deporting the group could into their lives. the united states has now recorded more than half a 1000000 deaths from covert 19 by far the highest toll in the world flags were half mast and president joe biden all of the victims with a moment of silence. british prime minister boris johnson has laid out his plan to lift pandemic restrictions schools are due to reopen in 2 people from separate households will be allowed to beat outside and that starts in march the 8th restaurants sporting venues and cinema and sell

a pin gradually in the months afterwards police in georgia have stormed the offices of the opposition and have arrested its leader became melia is demanding new elections off the losses disputed parliamentary polls georgia's parliament voted on monday to approve a new prime minister and cabinet at least one protester has been killed and several others injured by security forces in southern iraq crowds have gathered in the city of nasiriyah a calling for an overthrow of the local governments and also there are also demanding more job opportunities and better services in the city. and the u.s. space agency not so has released the 1st pictures of its perseverance robot landing on the surface of mars it's the 1st time a landing on the red planet has been captured on video the river is expected to start exploring its you home by the end of the month the outstate headlines more news coming up here and on tour right off to the stream i think that's. in india identity politics on the rise what we're seeing is the construction built

partitions in parts and loads of units of the across the country and there's a dark side is to seek the grit from his awful majesty of the him into something more like the team i didn't see of the bridge when i meet with victims of violence and discover what life is like for minorities in the country join me on my journey in search of india's soul on al-jazeera. after the ok you're watching the screen all nice epicenter looking at the urgent efforts to preserve native american culture and traditions like the way across the united states it was covered 19 has killed elders he was responsible for maintaining men's coaches and traditions we spoke to simon morgan smith who told us

more about. the detrimental impact on our communities right now we have to remember that indigenous people are the smallest racial minority in our investor land in the united states so we're doing our best to protect our elders these are the language speakers these are the keepers as indigenous people we don't have the luxury of getting on a plane and flying back to the old country like italy or germany and finding our languages and our ceremonies or or customs that's happening here that this is all we have this is our italy visitors are your money so we're doing everything we can to protect our people and especially our elders who are the lifeblood of our communities. joining the string to talk about the bank challenge 19 as a pandemic and native american culture and tradition we have up ago we have jason we have stephanie welcome or to the stream avigail introduce yourself tell our international audience who you are and what you do. thanks for having me i'm

abigail echo hawk i'm on a roll descent of the pani nation of oklahoma and i'm the director of the urban indian health institute a tribal at the center that is working to ensure that native people are represented in the data and ensuring that we're getting the resources we need and cope with 1000 good to have a stephanie tell everybody you on what you do welcome to the stream. thank you for having me and where you hello everyone my name is definitely in where i am 1st nation megamall and one of the co-founder of what's called the focal distance power which is an online platform that works to enhance protect and share native culture and traditions over the internet while bushell the thing and are in person celebration are not able to occur take place safely thanks for joining us stephanie and finally jason welcome to the stream tell everybody who. you know meadow thank you so much for having me jason salzman show to photos. and still go everyone.

the press secretary for the muskogee nation america's 4th largest tried. a legacy of survivalists that are functioning and thriving in oklahoma today and so proud to be on this panel with. 2 individuals that whose work i very much respect so i'm excited to get started. excellent i am to you chief i know you're watching live if you call comments experiences stories to shed jump into the comments section be part of this discussion abigail coombs we all remember not separating our last march or when that 19 was spreading through the u.s. and impacting the native american communities more than any of the communities almost to basically white communities that was a big challenge where are we now how are native american communities doing as far as you can tell. well i want to start with the story part of my role is serving on

the executive leadership team of the schedule indian health board which is a feather we call community health center and health provider in seattle when the pandemic hit us in february it was the 1st eppy center the 1st cases were in seattle washington we were running low of people on our at our clinic and in fact we had doctors who were sewing fabric masks because we are running out of masks we asked our state we asked our federal partners we asked our counties to send this people but what we received instead was a box of body bags that box of body bags exemplifies how native communities have been treated during this pandemic particularly with the previous administration we did not get the resources we need we've been getting things like body bags for centuries so what we have seen as a disproportionate impact in a recent study is that i coauthored we found that native people with $3.00 times more likely to be infected with kovan $1000.00 as compared to non has that whites and 1.8 times more likely to die and we know that that is

a gross under-reporting and that's because states across the nation are not collecting the information and the data correctly so we know of those rates are asked just so high it like blows your mind we also have to acknowledge it's actually higher so our communities have been incredibly impacted but it is their strength and their resume that will ensure that we not only survive this pandemic but we thrive but it's going to take a concerted effort by are tribal communities and support from our federal partners and the filling of our treaty rights just doing what is right and following the law and filling our treaty rights is what we need to see happening. jason this is more than just an underserved communities your under-served communities the impact of when you lose your elders is bab's everybody would be every single elder would be a library or a book or a datafile it is so much more than the painful loss of the elders in

society can you unpack that more space. absolutely and i think you hit the nail on the head it's a gathering of a gathering of knowledge. information traditional culture our ways our life ways everything that makes us muskogee differentiates whatever tribe you come from. those things are held in those elders we have them at our ceremonial grounds that knowledge is kept there if it's in a book a publisher can switch up what's in a text book if it's on a television program no offense but if it's on a television program there's created there things like that when these people you're talking about generations of people that have been concerned about how if they share and i think ultimately with the outside world how it can be twisted and

misconstrued and maybe not accurately portrayed so that's why these things are held at our grounds within these people and it's meant for oral tradition oral histories storytelling learning songs going in taking part in the stalking it's as you see this is really more of a social type of start dance but but this is what those arms. that are remind the remaining ceremonial grounds that are still there those ceremonial fires were kiri from the trail of tears. because for this reason because we are survivors and as was said just a moment ago i think that the things that make us susceptible to this virus are also the things that inherently inside of us that make us to where we are going to survive we are going to endure because we come from that legacy that legacy of survival that legacy of endure it's keep going don't stop keep going there's

something more for us if we just go and i think that. our existence in oklahoma today is proof of that and so we look at it as a double loss when an elder with traditional knowledge leaves they know the muskogee language they know the songs they know the dances and they know things about their clan systems that have been passed in past and past are makos or heal as high as our test and i guess lifetime appoint minutes those are things you can't get back so for us it's been extremely extremely brutal to watch a few of those i would say traditional mount rushmore folks in muskogee creek heritage world go on and pass our. stephanie i think this this must be very difficult because social gatherings in

native american communities are so important so key then we put everybody not down because the elders are very susceptible to covered 19 and there's a double impact to not how have people been surviving have you been working around . this sure and to say that we depend on our in person gatherings is almost an understatement we are very social people we wake come together in times of trouble we come together to celebrate we come together for a litany of reasons truly and as jason was mentioning you know when we lose our elders we lose so much more than just a person and our ability to carry out ceremony for a variety of reasons is very hindered it's very impacted by being forced to stay behind a wall behind a computer but i would also like to have on the fact that we are resilient we are

strong as a as a community and i say that across the native american native country is that we find ways we adapt we overcome and i think that the the ability for us to go virtual was something that i i'm not sure that would have been possible if we were still gathering in person you know it would be a why why do it here when i can go down world or go to the powell ground there traveled ceremony and social distance powell was founded as a stopgap you know when we 1st had the virus breakout with ok maybe a few months just to get people through and what it's really turned into is a lifeline it's turned into a movement it's so much more and it's an open source place for us to share our social dances mostly what you're going to be it's all down thing there we host virtual pollo that we can where we bring our youth forward we bring our elders we bring everyone in between and if nothing else we bring joy we bring hope and

something that these gatherings carry for our native people native communities is the hope that things will get better that we can still laugh if we give each other permission to celebrate our existence the fact that we are still here and that we can carry. these traditions and all to learn them at the same time whether it's traditional craft whether it's storytellers we have our storytellers coming on. and just really being able to make may do the best we can but at the same time not lose the spirit and the energy and the vibrancy that we carry. is so huge it's really important i began on think about this and you know what about this is. the in summation dani's going to help in terms of resources and know what is going on among the various different communities how is day to helping with the current situation of making sure you're preserving coach additions and particularly you

know ellis. well it's more about what data isn't doing right now my organization this report released a report on friday title data genocide and covert 19 data 'd why such a harsh title because that's what's happening the reason that we are more risk for infection of cope with 19 and more risk for death of coping 1000 is not because i'm a native person it's because i'm a native person in a country that has been trying to kill me for more than 500 years as a result of the ongoing oppression and colonization of our communities we find that we have higher rates of health disparities such as diabetes obesity heart disease all of those things that make you more risk for complications and death of cope with my team but those are not inherent to native people it's a result of the chronic underfunding of the indian health care system which has never been funded at its full capacity it's a result of being taken away and placed on other lands it's a result of global warming and climate change it is impacting our communities and

our traditional foods as a result of this we see our people dying and the data right now isn't gathering the information so we titled this report dated genocide recognizing that by eliminating us in the data what is happening is that the states and the federal government without the data are not those billing are treating responsibilities because they say but it's not represented in the data how do we allocate resources and policy so that data genocide is directly impacting our ability to get the allocation of resources and the fulfillment of our treaty rights and that also includes the urban indian population which represents about 70 percent of all native people currently live in large urban settings across united states some of the traditional land where the cities were built others taken there by the federal government and others coming for opportunities that don't exist on the reservations all our people matter regard loose of where we live we are tribal people wherever we are in right now we

are having this debt. stating impact because of the continued colonization of the united states government and it has to end now now is the time for change take a look at our report and genocide where we rank every single state in the nation on how they're collecting race and ethnicity for american indians alaska natives but what we found is that as a nation united states got a d. plus we would have barely graduated high school with that grade. and if i may jump in here on abigail's comments. i think we did things that she's talking about. go so far back when she mentioned some of the preexisting conditions and the things that we see this virus attacking and really taking hold in people that have these this go so far back as far as under-served. places where you have no access to nutrition. little to no access to nutrition

impoverished communities that are kept in a cycle and this is all part. and she mentioned it a little bit earlier you know this isn't the the native communities asking the united states government hey help us out throw us a bone here no these are trust and sridevi responsibilities you have not. live to your end of the bargain and i say bargain because the things that they are minute to provide are a drop in the bucket compared to the value of human lives lost and land base lost. that lead to these responsibilities and these trust issues so for us it is an emotional topic because these are things that haven't been done yet we're still waiting for justice and i don't even know if i want to call it justice i want to

say we're still waiting for you to make good on your end of the deal and when is it i may have picked out some yabsley you confess i am going to parry my ass i'm tryna news like a duck i'm saying no no please meet me. in the suffering in these challenges of the community face the the role of dad and culture and and how do we how do we internally help ourselves and how are we protecting our health because those early on the pounds have explained to our institutional care coming from the outside isn't necessarily there so what we're developing to help combat things like heart disease obesity overweight being you know these live healthy challenges that we see coming out we've been culturally based programs where we are encouraging each other to be well we are encouraging ourselves to take responsibility because you know that the things that we were promised and that and that were told to us

aren't aren't coming true syfy absolutely say that because i was about to go to allie young who's a young person who is saying that it's our responsibility to protect our elders and this is how she's doing it have a listen have a look. the pfizer vaccines are now available in the navajo nation for tribal citizens 16 years and over i decided to get a vaccine over a month ago and i actually just got my 2nd dose last week for my people and for my family for elders our community has been so devastated this past year that. you know this is a sign of hope for many of our tribal communities and it's a way to protect the elders and protect the sacred so this is a treaty doubt young people encourage you to get the vaccination process started

we've lost too many of our precious out is to this uphill battle and g.c.d. fascinating here again to bring you in on this percentage of u.s. residents who have received at least one dose 19 vaccine by race ethnicity across all states with available data nuku is a have everybody else indigenous peoples in the united states i am not abigail seeing vaccine hesitancy a month's native american people who realize that they have to protect their communities go ahead. yeah absolutely we've seen this across indian country and in fact at the beginning of the pandemic native communities tribal communities where the very 1st employment masking mandate to stay at home orders quarantined we did it 1st and it was followed through in our communities because we knew we need to protect our elders in our community as a whole now when we look at what's happening with the vaccine my organization has done to this point the only national survey of american indians in alaska natives and we found that 75 percent of them were willing to get vaccinated and that is

much higher than the national average when we asked folks why they were so willing it had to do with the number one thing was they were doing it for their family for their tribe and for their community whereas when you look at the majority white population when you ask that same question they're doing it for themselves for them as an individual but that's not who we are as native people enough of public health is the united states should come to native communities when thinking about how to roll out these public health efforts we already knew we've been doing it and so and we've seen this vaccination uptake we're seeing communities and alaska where there are already almost 100 percent vaccinated in villages where they're flying them in these vaccines by little planes and taking them by snowmachine and dog sleds to these villages the baby milk community in michigan is 50 percent vaccinated of all of the adults residents that they have in their community and at the seattle indian health ward where i work we have vaccinated 100 percent of our elders at this point in time 100 percent of our elders those are vaccination rates that are not being

seen anywhere else however we are lacking in the resources so we would be vaccinating more people if we had more of the vaccine we are doing with the rest of the country hasn't been able to do and that we knew who was needed to get this vaccine in our communities we knew how to communicate that because the indian health service is so chronically underfunded we haven't been able to get all the vaccination out that we could and that is something that we are looking towards with biden administration will soon be appointing we hope a new director of the indian health service and i'm tired of saying the director of the indian health service does the best they can with the little they have i want to say they're doing the best they can because they have all of the resources and our community will see results as a part of that. i can see jason he's pumped up fight out ready to a.j. said i want to play this one look at festival because i wanted no practical things that you are able to do the young people really doing it getting back to that they doing work this is wilson wilson is also being proactive have

a listen to wilson and then to the back of what's one way to preserve a culture and to protect our tradition is to protect their elders and know a lot of the now families on my reservation are limiting. patients from to their elders so that's one way many indigenous communities that are as patients are helping protect our culture and traditions and one way to support this idea is to support organisations are doing groundwork over relief. moonless protecting you and for senate traditions yeah yeah yeah absolutely that then that it's all been grassroots it's a movement amongst the people and i love what abigail said because of the communal nature just by nature of native people it's we over me and that has helped us and

mentally in our messaging our messaging is focused on leadership elders people with a lot of trust equity in the need in our muskogee creek community look i don't have to tell anybody here when you 1st say hey the government's coming to vaccinate us all you have natives are going to be like hold up wait what no no i'm not good with that so a lot of it was hey look our chief our our elders are getting this we have to get a picture of them getting it we have to get them following up and saying i feel great no side effects i'm good i feel better i feel more secure i feel a sense of relief that i now have these and that trickles down amongst all the people and exactly as abigail said it is a what can we do to make sure that we're all 'd good i don't care to feel just say for myself i'm not scared of the virus just for myself what can we do to make sure

that 90000 strong are going to continue moving forward are going to continue going and doing what they do and making sure that we are not only preserving culture but we are perpetuating it and that we are doing everything we can to say muskogee nation is just as strong as it's ever been and it's going to be stronger because we are seeing things change as abigail said the by the administration has already put out the 1st native to ever be considered for a cabinet secretary position i want to see that continue with everything i want to see native in charge of indian health service i want to see natives in charge of native issues because when you talk about the interior department it deal. as with land water what is so incredibly important to us and if you have a native in those positions not only are they going to care about native issues more importantly they are going to understand that it's not just enough to hear from native communities about what's going on there you have to know because you've

lived it you've experienced it and you are there completely with knowledge and understanding and exactly what is needed in these areas i mean i think that's a good one as we go on and look to the future of this issue what she has been saying has is probably going to be the most important thing how are we rectifying some of the places where we're not getting good data or not getting proper funding let's do that jason take care of a lot of other things jason and i will go in stephanie thank you so much for bringing to us the challenge of preserving and coach dish and i'm very elderly because nature did not continue in the united states i think you fry much we have a look you know my laptop i mean soon i'm live conversation on sunday at 2030 g.m.t. will be rich. and if you can't make it on sunday 20000 g.m.t. you find it you didn't need to win the stream instagram account i feel appropriate this appropriate to leave you with something from the social distancing powwow and

i'm going to leave you with sonny eagle spica he has no teeth for his hand jumping and this is how we're going to end today thanks for watching scene x. but that was 6 it was the the wasn't hurt. the corona virus has affected every corner of the world. people in power look back to the early days of the pandemic and examines where the air is and delays at the world health organization may have made the global spread of the virus inevitable.

chronicle of a pandemic people in power on al-jazeera. western

countries step up the pressure militarily with the us announcing sanctions against 2 generals for this month's crew. aboard. i don't acknowledge this is out 0 life and also coming up. it is a staggering milestone in the u.s. remembers the 500000 people who have died for mine.