after the unity government's failure to pass a national budget up front smocked lamont hill culchie the headlines to challenge conventional wisdom. march on al-jazeera. the arab. the international criminal court opens a war crimes investigation which will look at both sides of the israeli palestinian conflict. they're watching al-jazeera live from doha with me for the back to pull also ahead . several people are killed in an tycoon protest seen in myanmar in the deadliest day so far since the military takeover last month u.s.

states are moving to open up as coronavirus vaccinations rise but health experts warn it's probably too soon and the japanese government reportedly plans to stop international fans coming to watch it tokyo and then pigs in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus. so the international criminal court has opened an investigation into suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by israel in the occupied palestinian territory palestinians who joined the i.c.c. in 2015 have asks the court to look into israeli military action in the gaza strip in 2014 they also want the court to investigate israel's construction of illegal settlements in the occupied west bank and east jerusalem the i.c.c. says it will also look into the actions of gaza based hamas and other palestinian groups during the call. about

a science foreign ministry has welcomed the investigation in a statement it said this is a long awaited step that serves palestine's tireless pursuit of justice and accountability which are indispensable pillars of the peace the palestinian people seek and deserve al-jazeera is need a brain is in ramallah with more on the palestinian reaction wide welcoming remarks from many palestinian officials and n.g.o.s that have been working with the palestinian authority on advancing this issue in the international criminal court this is the main point that palestinians were hoping to get to since the palestinians have joined this line of the rome statute in 2015 and some even say that this is the reason why the palestinian authority has seek its diplomatic and international approach at the u.n. security council with the hopes to get a full membership of course this didn't happen they got a nonmember state status via the general assembly which has allowed them to go

forward and join their own statute and ask the i.c.c. to investigate crimes now one of the main issues that the palestinians hope that the i.c.c. would investigate is the illegal israeli settlement on the ground they hope that the prosecutor would look into this as the main violation of international law and they believe that this has been a policy by is really authority it's not just a war crime here or that they believe that the foreign minister has released the statement they say that this has been continuing and if these were crimes are ongoing which is why they want to i.c.c. to investigate and conclude its investigation urgently. let's bring in harry fawcett mouse live for us in west jerusalem so harry this is a move of course said it always has been opposed by israel one of the early reactions from the. that's right and in the last hour we have heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu not for the 1st time he's called this

investigation anti semitic he said the biased international criminal court in the hague recent decision that is pure anti semitism he said that it designed that our brave and moral soldiers that fight against cruel terrorists are the terrorists and as i was just referring to about the prospects of settlement construction also being included in this investigation he said that the court had decided that when we build a house in our eternal capital jerusalem. that is a crime of course occupied east jerusalem is has all already been defined as within the remit of this investigation along with the occupied west bank and gaza the international criminal court investigates individuals not states and so we heard from the israeli defense minister benny gantz just on tuesday he was asked about the prospect of such investigation and he said there could be hundreds of people in

the crosshairs of the investigation and including himself and that israel would do everything it could to protect them from such investigation as far as israel is concerned it says that this whole process is image of an illegitimate and politicized of course as far as the i.c.c. is concerned it is now within the remit of the court to investigate both the actions of the israelis and the palestinians and particularly in regard to the 2014 war in gaza israel has been trying for some time to try to head this off at the pass working very closely with the trump administration which sanction members of the i.c.c. the indications from the biden ministration is that they want to undo some of that but that they are still opposed to the investigation as it stands but now we know it is going ahead harry thank you harry fossett live in western. actually i spoke to omar abdullah who is head of the united nations and human rights department at

the palestinian ministry of foreign affairs he says the i.c.c. decision to investigate she send a strong message to the israeli government the prosecutor this is what she has with its obligation under its mandate that's why it was always a victory for international law and justice and that's why we come to decision by the prosecutor to investigate the war crimes that committed committed in their capability then financially including in jerusalem we understand that. his war criminal criminals they should be afraid now from this. important by the from this important study by the international criminal court we only will come to the decision by the prosecutor one before that we will come the decision by the brits will chum both all the factions and the government of superstar and we always come to this decision under difficult for it to coordinate

with the office of the prosecutor or the investigator the investigators and or any other advice by the international criminal court we would be needed to cooperate and work closely with the international criminal court but we don't believe that israel is going to investigate because it is our policy it's a widespread systematic policy of aggression against the best you know people and crimes against it but you have people who don't believe that there is any kind of investigation in the israeli who knew a regime and the settlements regime its governmental policy and its policy as we said that all the factions but the oppressions and the government they will come decision and are going to go down and we believe that our unity is a major and a minute issue in our must do to please them that's why the investigation or any other issue can stop this this process toward the conciliation being a unity between with bank you think if you listen and get. in other news myanmar

has seen its worst day of violence yet since last month's military coup with the killing of at least 20 people during protests police sponsored by soldiers fired live ammunition in an attempt to break up demonstrations in a number of cities protesters are defying an increasingly violent crackdown to demand an end to the military takeover sky high every force. new tactics and new equipment for the protesters as the crackdown from myanmar security forces escalates. but despite this wednesday's protest again turned deadly with live ammunition being used along with rubber bullets and stun grenades the protesters now wear helmets use homemade shields and even create smoke screens themselves to hide from snipers and gunmen but when the smoke clears the protest barriers their line of defense are gone. in mandalay a regular siempre gatherings during the month of protests they have also increased

their protection against the police and military but even with the added measures there is little they can do against live rounds. and in the southern city of da way the red flag of on song and all the party was hoisted images of the military leader mint on lie pasted on the ground. as the protests continued on wednesday also present when men will face 2 additional charges his lawyer describing what it could mean she'll be banished with imprisonment home i the description for a time which me extended 3 years is a would find a way to. some feel that the charges against women and young song suchi are trumped up possibly to prevent them from ever returning to politics. despite women being detained. you don't notice it existed was lawyers and his lawyers haven't even received a copy of the child story. so these are from the. trial right. on

top of everything out so as the protesters continue their stand against the coup on the streets across myanmar their elected leaders are facing their own battle in a judicial system that appears to be working against them scott hodler al-jazeera. we want to take you now live to washington d.c. where u.s. secretary of state anthony banking is giving his 1st major speech outlining the new administration's foreign policy priorities our full armed forces our ability to be effective diplomats depends in no small measure on the strength of our military and in everything we do we look not only to make progress on short term problems but also to address the root causes and lay the groundwork for our long term strength as the president says to not only build back but build back better so here's our plan 1st we will stop covert 19 and strengthen global health security

the pandemic has defined lives our lives for more than a year to beat it back we need governments scientists businesses and communities around the world working together none of us will be fully safe until the majority of the world is immune because as long as the virus is replicating it could mutate into new strains that find their way back to america so we need to work closely with partners to keep the global vaccination effort moving forward. at the same time we need to make sure we learn the right lessons and make the right investments in global health security including tools to predict prevent and stop pandemics and a firm global commitment to share accurate and timely information so that a crisis like this never happens again 2nd we will turn around the economic

crisis and build a more stable inclusive global economy the pandemic has caused unemployment to surge around the world nearly every country on earth is now in a recession the pandemic also laid bare inequalities that have defined life for millions of americans for a long time so we've got a double challenge to protect americans from a lengthy downturn and to make sure the global economy deliver security an opportunity for as many americans as possible in the long term to do that we need to pass the right policies at home like the relief package the president is pushing hard for right now while working to manage the global economy so it truly benefits the american people and by that i don't just mean a bigger g.d.p. or a rising stock market for many american households those measures don't mean much i mean good jobs good incomes and lower household costs for american workers and

their families were building on hard lessons learned some of us previously argued for free trade agreements because we believed americans would broadly share in the economic gains that those d. and that those deals would shape the global economy in ways that we wanted we had good reasons to think those things but we didn't do enough to understand who would be negatively affected and what would be needed to adequately offset their pain or to enforce agreements that were already on the books and help more workers and small businesses fully benefit from them. our approach now will be different we will fight for every american job and for the rights protections and interests of all american workers we will use every tool to stop countries from stealing our intellectual property or manipulating their currencies to get a fair advantage we will fight corruption which stacks the deck against us in our

trade policies will need to answer very clearly how they will grow the american middle class create new and better jobs and benefit all americans not only those for whom the economy is already working 3rd we will renew democracy because it's under threat a new report from the independent watchdog group freedom house is sobering authoritarianism nationalism are on the rise around the world governments are becoming less transparent and i've lost the trust of the people elections are increasingly flashpoints for violence corruption is growing and the pandemic has accelerated many of these trends but the erosion of democracy is not only happening in other places it's also happening here in the united states this information is rampant here structural racism and inequality make life worse for millions our elected leaders were targeted in the violent siege of the capitol just 2 months ago

and more broadly americans are increasingly polarized and the institutions that exist to help us manage our differences so our democracy can continue to function are under strain shoring up our democracy is a foreign policy imperative otherwise we play right into the hands of adversaries and competitors like russia and china who sees every opportunity to so doubts about the strength of our democracy we shouldn't be making their jobs easier i take heart from the fact that we're dealing with our struggles out in the open. and that sets us apart from many other countries we don't ignore our failures and shortcomings or try to sweep them under the rug and pretend they don't exist we confront them for the world to see it's painful sometimes it's ugly but it's how we make progress still there's no question that our democracy is fragile people around the world of

seen that many recognise in our challenges the challenges that they're facing and now they're watching us because they want to see whether our democracy is resilient whether we can rise to the challenge here at home that will be the foundation for our legitimacy in defending democracy around the world for years to come why does that matter because strong democracies are more stable more open better partners to us more committed to human rights less prone to conflict and more dependable markets for our goods and services when democracies are weak governments can't deliver for their people or a country become so polarized that it's hard for anything to get done they become more vulnerable to extremist movements from the inside and to interference from the outside and they become less reliable partners for the united states none of that is in our national interest the more we and other democracies can show the world

that we can deliver not only for our people but also for each other the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries love to tell that theirs is the better way to meet people's fundamental needs and hopes it's on us to prove them wrong so the question isn't if we will support democracy around the world but how we will use the power of our example we will encourage others to make you reforms overturn bad laws fight corruption and stop unjust practices we will incentivize democratic behavior. but we will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or by attempting to overthrow or 3rd term regimes by force we've tried these tactics in the past however well intentioned they haven't worked they've given democracy promotion a bad name and they've lost the confidence of the american people will do things

differently for we will work to create a unique u.s. secretary of state an attorney blink in giving his 1st major popcorn policy speech at the state department outlining the new u.s. administration's foreign policy priorities he says american leadership bending gauge to it matter our friends are glad that we're back because america is uniquely capable of bringing countries together to solve problems no country can solve on its own on he says the 1st priority will be to contain the cold $1000.00 pandemic and strengthen global health security but he also talked about turning around the economic crisis and building a more stable inclusive global economy and to me don't blink and also talking about democracy and saying that the united states under the biden administration will renew democracy because it is under threat again the 1st major speech of the u.s.

secretary of state blinken will continue to listen to it and bring you the highlights throughout the evening here on al-jazeera. and staying in the united states the republican controlled state south texas and mississippi are lifting nearly all the coronavirus restrictions despite warnings from health officials from next week all businesses will be able to fully reopen and no one will be required to wear a mask this week the head of the centers for disease control warned against such a rollback saying it could lead to a surge in infections the number of cases in the u.s. has been slowly declining which many attribute to tighten restrictions that speak to our white house correspondent kimberly how about this so kimberly the c.d.c. has cautioned against lifting the mask mandates so why are states like texas ignoring this all comes down to politics and political ideology as you mentioned these states are run by republicans and they favor less government in

people's lives so when they announced these policies you heard the governors of texas for example saying this will give people the freedom to determine their own destiny and the governor from mississippi saying that this is going to be an end to state imposed rules they really believe in their philosophy is that government should play a secondary role that people should have the ability to do the right to choose whether they want to wear a mask or not now the centers for disease control which is a federal body has looked at all of the united states the say we don't feel like our numbers are in the right place that we can lift any of these restrictions or caution against it but the u.s. constitution has given states very strong rights and so in other words they can ignore the federal advice and that seems to be what they're doing kimberly thank you for that can be live at the white house. the u.s. capitol police says it has obtained intelligence of

a possible plot to breach the capitol by an unidentified militia group on thursday march 4th asked today when far as of the debunk can on conspiracy theory believe donald trump well retake power let's bring in alan fischer was on capitol hill for us so allan a new threat on the capitol building what more do we know. what we know that members of congress have been warned about this threat and capitol police are beefing up the defenses this comes as there's a very important hearing underway at the moment here on capitol hill we're hearing from the head of the national guard in washington d.c. essentially saying that his plans to deploy troops on january the 6 were delayed by the pentagon told by the secretary of defense who was an acting secretary of defense at that point that he couldn't send a rapid reaction force until he got approval from the secretary of state himself and there had to be a plan for what they were going to do which as one senator points so completely

defeats the whole idea of a rapid reaction force what it seems at this time around though is that many of the security agencies including the national guard capitol police the d.c. police are aware of the threat that has been circulating unlike january the 6th they are putting precautions in place no we know that the date in march is important to q. and a on supporters it is just a couple of days away in fact as to morrow that is because traditionally years and years ago that was the date that presidents were sworn in and they have been looking at this date since january the 6th seeing that march the 4th will be important because that is when donald trump will come back and will be sworn in as president because they believe that the presidents who have been sworn in since it was changed from much the 4th have been illegitimate presidents i know that sounds crazy but remember this is a cuban conspiracy theory we're dealing with and so they believe that march the 4th . donald trump will come but as the president they have said and you see this on

the internet that donald trump is the 45th president and he will be doing 45 they go by a number but they believe that he will be sworn in as president on march the 4th and that is why security's been kicked up because they think there will be another or another effort to breach the capitol good luck with that just getting in here today you walk past the yards metres and metres and metres of huge fences razor wire national guard troops and police at every possible corner it would have to be a concerted large effort to be able to breach the security here at the moment incredible thank you very much for that alan alan fischer lie for us on capitol hill. and german media reporting the opposition tentative for germany party f.d.a. is being put under state surveillance is suspected of links to what officials call far right extremism germany's intelligence agencies already put the party's youth wing under surveillance in 2019 the government is refusing to confirm or deny the latest reports f.d.a.

is the biggest opposition party in parliament the move comes ahead of general elections set for september 26. serious pound fell to a record low on the back on the black market on wednesday traders say it now costs around $4000.00 on pounds to buy one u.s. dollar the economic crisis in neighboring lebanon has worsened prospects for syria's currency already battered by a decade of war its value has fallen by around 40 percent this year alone. i hate agencies say syria's rebel controlled areas need urgent help to support their devastated health systems the warning coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the civil war in that time the syrian government and its allies have carried out widespread and deliberate attacks that have damaged or destroyed hospitals zana honda reports. much from of the of. the hospitals have been repeatedly bombed in what has been described as

a systematic campaign to force the opposition to surrender and. hundreds of air strikes by syrian government and russian warplanes have been documented throughout the years of conflict. many advocacy groups like physicians for human rights have tracked that least 595 air or artillery attacks on health care facilities in syria since 20112 years later they were described as war crimes by u.n. investigators who said the hospitals were being bombed to gain military advantage but apart from condemnations little else was done and the rules of war continued to be ignored. but still nothing but the russian and syrian government have denied targeting civilians or civilian buildings despite evidence to the contrary and international recognition of the widespread and sometimes deliberate litter of the attacks. we know now.

we know that. a survey by the international rescue committee showed the risks health workers and civilians faced in the past decade 81 percent said they had a coworker or patient injured or killed 77 percent witnessed an average of 4 attacks on health care facilities 68 percent were inside a health facility when it was attacked part of the casino bottom to myself in the fall 2 of the hospitals i was working in was hit i survived but that feeling is hard to describe we all felt vulnerable but we all knew what the risks of being in a hospital it meant we could be killed with one of the heads and got a decade of attacks has also compromised the health care system and its ability to respond to the needs of millions of syrians in opposition controlled areas in the

north and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are an added pressure on an already weak system where there is one doctor for every 10000 civilians. in the midst of the situation is not good there are millions of people that live in the countryside of aleppo and matter how much aid we get just not enough we really suffer from a lack of medicines and medical equipment to treat chronic diseases as ceasefire appears to be largely holding but it hasn't eased the humanitarian crisis the violence has caused critical damage to syria's health sector affecting the ability of millions to receive proper health scare. senator there beirut. senegal's opposition leader months on cole has been arrested for participating in an unauthorized ranee hundreds of his supporters were following samples motorcade in the car when some allegedly throw stones at police police broke up the demonstration with tear gas sancho was already due to appear in court to face a rape charge he denies it saying it's politically motivated in an attempt to

remove him from the 2024 presidential race. now reports in japan say the government is planning on stopping international spectators from attending the summer olympics to help prevent the spread of coronavirus the games originally scheduled for 2020 have been postponed until july this year but many in japan are against holding them at all david stealth reports. the tokyo game starts in 5 months but now seems destined to take place without overseas friends a japanese newspaper is reporting that the government has already made up its mind as it looks to allay the fears of an increasingly skeptical public about hosting about a global health crisis. no need to sit regarding spectators from abroad we will listen to the scientific experts personally i want a decision by march the 25th before the torch relay stance meanwhile the international olympic committee says it's trying to get as many participants as possible backs naked before the games although it's not mandatory

a considerable number of. national olympic committees. already secured the. nation not all athletes will take up the offer jamaican sprinter yohan blake earlier this week said he'd rather miss the games than get the vaccine but others like german canoeist sebastian brendel are prepared to do whatever it takes to get to tokyo. the cave workers should get their vaccines 1st so the sporting world doesn't want to shove its way to the front of the queue. but of course it would make it a lot easier for us as far as preparations go. ahead randall competed at both the london and rio olympics and won 3 gold medals he's expecting a very different type of games this time around in fact as a start i assume that it will happen without fans and there will likely be no olympic village but we've all been told that it's happening and this is really

important for a lot of the disciplines. back in tokyo the games organizing committee is now ratified the appointment of 12 new female members it means 42 percent of the board and now women including the new president seiko hashimoto who's pretty decisive resigned last month over sexist comments. most when her new look organizing committee have their work cut out with lots of questions still hanging over the games and only 142 days to come up with the answers david stokes out 0. clear again i'm fully back with the headlines on al-jazeera international criminal court has opened an investigation into suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by israel in the occupied palestinian territory in 2014 it says it will also look into the actions of gaza based hamas and other palestinian groups

during the conflict need abraham is in the ramallah with more one of the main issues that the palestinians hope that the i.c.c. would investigate is the league.