army has a right in the village with a bulldozer graz it and face soldiers gave them one minute to do. it took the found me months to build their brick house and less than an hour ready. after a marathon voting session the u.s. senate passes president biden's $1.00 trillion dollar covert relief bill. hello i'm daryn jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up after meeting shia islam's most influential ayatollah pope francis heads to iraq's kurdish region to hold prayers for victims of war. senegal erupts in protest over the continued detention of

a prominent opposition figure. and with kobe infections on the rise chile and brazil are returning to unpopular strict law tells. us president joe biden has achieved his 1st major legislative victory the senate has passed a $1.00 trillion dollars covert relief bill by the narrowest of margins it will provide one of payments with 1400 dollars to most americans the bill now goes back to the democratic controlled house for approval well mike hanna joins us live now from washington d.c. mike so this was a controversial piece of legislation with no support from republicans and it passed the senate only with a slimmest of margins. indeed years so president biden always said that he wanted to advance his legislative agenda on bipartisan basis well some of the bill was passed but this was anything but it was only passed after

extended and torturous debate. is passed. the ball was finally passed in a process tied to a vote a rama it was the longest senate vote in recent memory approval coming more than 24 hours after the role of members was called this bill will deliver more help to more people than anything the federal government has done in decades we could have worked together to speed up. our democratic colleagues wrote. a top priority one pandemic relief it was their washer and wish wish. the whole process began as it would largely continue with the deciding vote by the vice president kaamelott harris to acceptable for debate breaking a $5050.00 deadlock along party lines. the 1st major delay was among democrats with

senator joe manchin holding on for more than 10 hours before reaching a compromise to president biden on unemployment payments i asked at republican insistence the whole bill was read out in the chamber a highly unusual measure that in itself took some 11 hours and then came dozens of amendments introduced by republicans the vice president's vote not needed many as a republican senator from alaska had to return home or a family you will not agree to the amendments were rejected by 30 votes to 49 torsionally my friends on the other side have used the link tactics after the link tactics obstruction of structured obstruction some senators raising the issues as part of the abstraction it should taxpayer money be set $1400.00 to every illegal alien in america provoking

a heated response the statement of the senator from texas is just playing force false let me be clear the ball will go back to the house for approval and president biden is likely to get his big 3 when i was elected i said we're going to get the government out of the business of badly known twitter and back in the business of delivering for the american people making a difference in their lives. every one achieves a fighting chance. well what's not very clear to president biden is that every piece of legislation is only going to be passed by the slimmest of margins and that would be threatened by any single democratic party senator who decided to vote against the president's line or to my kind of life for us there in washington d.c. mike thank you so let's bring in james warren is executive editor of news got in

the former washington bureau chief at the chicago tribune he joins us live from chicago james good to have you back with us here so every single republican voted against this covert bill whatever happened to joe biden's promise of a more bipartisan style of government well it's really what out the window right here but i think as telling then those republican votes was the fact that is an old party only senator manchin you mention from west virginia held firm against some predictions that it would not question might be now as joe biden very quickly during this relative honeymoon period now reached a ceiling. nishant see but it's an extraordinary amount of money we're using they get 1.9 trillion it's actually a little bit more if you look at about 300000000000 that hasn't been spent from some of the trump outlays so figure about $2.02 children dollars money directly

going to $150000000.00 american households you know james as they say even though democrats weren't happy with some of the unemployment provisions in the bill it doesn't extend jobless benefits to millions of americans that's got to be good news though. yeah i mean but i want to counter instance i mean here's how the real world works for a family of 4 say living in the state of massachusetts with a total household income of maybe 55000 dollars not much at all with one person unemployed they're going to get basically direct payments of $22000.00 that's a huge amount of doesn't even count unemployment that that person may already be getting so it's it is a staggering amount of money of course you've got some economists who are in this country you know disputing about whether this would all will overheat the economy in some lead to inflation but i think the bottom line if you're joe biden is that most polling suggests right now that not only do about 60 percent approve of your

performance which is a lot higher than its predecessor but of broccoli 70 percent even higher up the way you hear to be handling and yeah and as i say i mean this kind of an erroneous bill james again lays bad that political divide on capitol hill but with the u.s. having the highest rate of deaths on infections around the world what to order americans on main street make of this relief bill during this pandemic. oh i think they're going to be quite supportive and it's a great question to bring up because so much of the debate here and which the a lot of the media is parrot it has to do with the simple staggering amount of $1.00 trillion dollars actually a little bit over them whether it's not it's fun only to inflation in fact also included in this bill is a tremendous amount of money for getting out that seeds for distributing back seeds and most people who really know the stuff about the economy know that part of the economic troubles this country is facing will all lead the handle when the

pandemic is ample and somehow forgotten is all the amount of resources that are going to help states and. cities like chicago which is way behind very small number of people in vaccinated but this amount of money will help them and help struggling state and local governments which are you that train for and great to get your thoughts thanks for talking to us. was well it's your process a celebrated mass in baghdad's child in cathedral of the latest stop on his visit to iraq earlier the head roman catholic church delivered a message of peace to a nation rocked by years of war i'm going to just a visions the prime minister must offer i'll have you me as declared march 6th as iraq's day of tolerance and coexistence. well the process was also in the just where as a summer binge of aid reports iraq's top shia clerics. under strict security pope

francis' enters not just one of the holiest cities for shia muslims another historic 1st for the leader of the catholic church as he met iraq's grand ayatollah ali al sistani is a reclusive leader who is rarely seen in public he's iraq's most revered cleric and his proclamations have influenced many since the 2003 u.s. invasion the plight of those being persecuted in the region including palestinians and syrians that discussed. short the point of equal rights for christians in iraq and peaceful coexistence the meeting between the pope and grand ayatollah ali sistani is symbolic and significant although the merger of the religious authority says it plays no role in politics has played a pivotal part in iraq recently whether it was urging people to take part in politics in elections whether it was to tell them to pick up arms against isis and more recently in the favor of the protesters clerics in najaf say the pope's visit has highlighted iraq's central place for all religions and is

a brave gesture from for france's in the face of security challenges and the pandemic. home. clerics through their words and behavior convert the message of peace and love and convince people to stay away from extremism this is what we did in iraq in the last 2 decades and not just doors have remained open the pope's visit to natura will boost the spirit with our partners the christians in iraq. as part of this pact 3 day visit the 4 went on a pilgrimage to or the city is the birthplace of prophet abraham the patriarch of all abrahamic religions. in a meeting with leaders representing sudanese sheers christians disease and sabin's francis called himself a messenger of peace advocating harmony faiths. we. believe is a strong element that unifies us terrorism and extremism has nothing to do with religion terrorism exploits religion and it is up to us to find solutions and is up

to us to face and deal with those who betray religions the ancient city in the province where they have been frequent protests violence but on saturday the message from politicians and religious leaders there was of tolerance and peaceful change many iraqis say they're ready for such a transition and hope it will also has produced corruption and bring more jobs some of the job it out of the era. lebanon's caretaker prime minister says he'll start forming his duties unless politicians form a new government to address the country's worsening economic crisis have been demonstrations for a 4th day in the capital beirut as lebanon's currency slides to record new lows caretaker prime minister has threatened to stop performing his duties to try to force the formation of a new cabinet this political crisis compounded by the recent collapse of the lira and allegations of corruption. the filaments really yet it's an attempt to avoid responsibility which leaves me with the option of halting work amongst this

disruption that we are facing now to work on matters in the country so i can put pressure on to form a government if it helps to form a government i am prepared to resort to that option even though it goes against my principles because it will hold the whole country back and will hurt the lebanese thought for a short break here now jazeera when we come back 4 months after a deadly election violence varian's vote once again and a crucial test of stability. in the netherlands holds its 1st music festival since the pandemic began to see if major events can because it proves that stay with us. it's warmed up nicely in most of the united states in the last week but they still are cold kona and that is what represents it is mostly cloudy with the pharaoh wind

chill but temperatures by day are struggling to get above freezing really from the midwest east was particularly in eastern canada and obviously that's true in the rockies further west but because the wind disease in the sun is coming out it won't feel as cold as it did now there's a big storm opening up from the pacific its 1st legs come in and brought some snow bring some more into british columbia and down to washington and possibly further in that then it dies at the next bring some rain down through california briefly into san francisco that will probably die out we go a few big showers from the last frontal system just leaving florida and probably bermuda but the legacy of the bits of cuba and quite possibly haiti is there are showers as gotham allah and probably an enhanced ones of those and they also reform over power and costa rica and again haiti the dominican republic is also likely to

be some pretty big downpours around ecuador and the southern parts of colombia but rio is also pretty wet. what should americans be thinking and doing right now it should be about ideas they don't care about their work is all they care about is making money china is not going to be left out of the coming for the bloated defense budget to be kind of the bottom line on u.s. politics and policies and their effect on the world as their own. unprompted and uninterrupted discussions from on london broadcast center. on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick amount of our top stories this hour the u.s. senate's not only passed a $1.00 trillion dollar coronavirus relief package the bill includes one of payments of $1400.00 to most americans emergency unemployment benefits and billions of dollars for increased vaccine distribution. u.s. president joe biden says the relief bill marks a turning point in the fight against the coronavirus and will revive the economy he's confident the bill will pass in the house to allow the payments to go out this month. and pope francis a celebrated mass in iraq's capital baghdad on the 2nd day of the 1st of a papal visit to the country he called for common ground and unity after meeting religious leaders. now corona virus infections are on the rise in a number of countries across latin america from argentina to chile and brazil or

forty's are imposing a return to strict lockdowns that at times are being met with protests and violence on the streets without a sound around petty joins us live now from a listener so ongoing protests in paraguayan soaring infections in brazil and argentina things seem to be getting worse across the continent. yes there and that seems to be the case at least in a number of countries brazil as you were saying in parts of argentina most of chile and paraguayan the 2nd wave of infection seems to be extremely stubborn and difficult to control in other countries things have begun to improve for example in colombia where i am but what's clear and what every day and to cross the region is the fact that people are increasingly angry and frustrated at their government's response to the crisis there or lack thereof the fact that the fact that the

vaccine were rolled 'd out has been extremely slow the fact that there have been a number of scandals where powerful people have jumped the line to access the few vaccines that are available people are also angry at the fact that the government the many governments in south america haven't been able really to respond to the recessions that have been triggered by the held crisis so for all these reasons we're seeing more people taking to the streets in other cases like in the north of argentina in the province of formosa people were protesting and clashed against the police because they are the government has imposed some of the most harshest some of the strongest majors anywhere in latin america. clashes broke out. a border city in northern argentina following the imposition of . down restrictions police officers used tear gas and rubber bullets against

a crowd injuring dozens. of argentina. and had already been hit hard by an economic recession before. many protesters were informal vendors demanding to be allowed to work. rights groups have denounced what they say was indiscriminate use of force by the police but. the protestors were responsible for the violence. nothing justifies the actions we call for affliction and invite you all to make your claims in a peaceful manner i similar scenes on the same day across the board capital s. and sean where thousands of angry demonstrators confronted police throughout the night protesters burned roadblocks around congress demanding president.

resigned. earlier in the day the country's health minister was the latest official in the region to give up his post but that wasn't enough to quell people's anger over the government's handling of the global health crisis why is experiencing record numbers of cases with hospitals on the brink of collapse and few vaccine doses available. moving fast some. cases are on the right as well for a 2nd day the country registered more than 5000 new cases the highest infection rate in 9 months 2 thirds of the capital there are strict lockdown as are a number of regions. in brazil the worst hit country in south america local authorities. have adopted new restrictions and a curfew to try to control the brutal 2nd wave shops in stalls are shut as police

patrol the streets this this by president. told citizens to stop whining and move on as he continues to downplay depend amec. is going through an extremely grave situation that could be catastrophic in some parts the result of a policy of denial and scientific platform and a contempt for human life. the latest restrictions are expected to last here until march 11th but many were out on the beach in rio on saturday the find the experts alison that i'm here. shops banks and petrol stations have been torched and looted in senegal after 3 days of protests over the arrest of an opposition leader at least 4 people have been killed since the unrest began over the detention of. those charges of rape and making death threats says the charges are politically motivated and an attempt by the president. to discredit him before the 2024 election his

party is calling on his supporters to run again next week because honk has more on the damage in the company dhaka. this is much more than politics whilst the the rest to respond has crystallized this feeling and remember we spent sancho describes himself as the anti establishment politician he's been very critical of the relationship of big corporations with the state and the government specifically the president himself accusing him of corruption and that has really resonated among many people here is pacifically after this year of pandemic where the government has put really restrictive measures on the on on on people the curfew has badly affected some of these people who no longer can earn a living many of them have stalls fruit and vegetable stalls and they're not able to sell they're not able to compete with big corporations that sell their vegetables at half the price that they are selling it so there is this feeling that

this protest is no just about politics it's about a social movement it seems you know protesters these unarmed protesters these are people that live in this neighborhood young people that come here to get by and to get some food maybe for today. and it's not just happening here it's happening in so many other places not just in the capital but throughout the country vote counting is underway in ivory coast parliamentary election some small clashes were reported in the west of the country but it wasn't enough to stop ivorians from casting their ballots it was a contrast to the violent scene in october's presidential election but he has more now from the. election a few shows count the ballots cast for the party representatives watch closely. it's a process that's going on across the country with i have already ins and cheerfully waiting for the results. as they voted there were concerns about the outcome.

for their purposes are going to say this does not become like the past elections that were followed by violence this time he wanted to be a peaceful election say they're in a victim's among the population after casting his ballot president alassane ouattara reassures awardee page. here just younger i see that there is no tension in the year i've just spoken to the minister of the interior he tells me that things are going well everywhere and i hope that the day as well as well as the count good luck to all the candidates. the election commission says it hopes to announce when is in print for hours election officials say voting one across much of the country. voting started late in some areas because of water machines malfunction and also some skirmishes in a few places but officials say not enough to moderate. opposition leaders who boycotted last december's presidential polls are warning against irregularities of

paper loss they are not i would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the independent electoral commission to ensure that this whole process takes place peacefully and that there's no cheating observers say the turnout was low and that could work against some candidate the governing party aims to win 148 seats in parliament enough for a working majority of the opposition want to stop that from happening having stayed away from the presidential election in december analysts here say the opposition may struggle to reassert itself but for ivorians the primary concern is an election that doesn't get married in pilar's comedy trees al-jazeera. anger of the u.k.'s breaks that deal with the e.u. could spill over into protests and possible violence according to one leading up permanent people in northern ireland who want to remain part of the u.k. so the deal is driven a wedge between them and the rest of the country john howard explains from belfast

. in communities still divided protestant unionists from catholic nationalist the past is hard to shake off even though we have a peace process here it's probably more of a negative piece of those days or a take and it's not a part of the case because they still have grills in their windows if they're still there still are security zation around here community activists on both sides witnessed regular confrontations between young people who weren't even born when the good friday agreement brought peace to northern ireland 998 has kind of frog back all that sort of old memories of traumatic times where that was a constant here as well and it is unfortunate that this is passed to another generation of young people who are basically going out and going out of their way to attack other communities the other community some fear that a fragile peace could falter with tensions raised further by post breaks it customs checks between northern ireland and the rest of the u.k.

under the so-called northern ireland protocol for unionists it's a stake through the heart of what they stand for causing loyalist paramilitary groups to withdraw their support for the good friday agreement any major decision affecting the north in our community hard to have the consent of both communities in the case of this protocol a fact is being given just to the national nationalist side of the agreement in other words there has been broader perspective it should not be hard for them on the island of ireland but equally there cannot be a hard border oregan entry border between north and island and the rest of our own country some plea is anathema to you know some so how much of a threat is there to peace in northern ireland well observers including the police force don't believe there are many among the former paramilitaries who want a return to violence but there's no denying that unionists and therefore harder

line lower. lists have been badly let down by the briggs it negotiations and there's very real anger about the feelings that loyalist activists warn shouldn't be overlooked if the concerns of young loyalists and the concerns of the way to unions community are persistently ignored then what's going to happen is the data anger is going to have nowhere to go and when you have all this pent up anger and you've no order to act and then you end of a the interest territory and once once that genie gets out of the bottle it's extraordinarily difficult to put to put it back in again and that's a concern the good friday agreement is underpinned by public support and it will likely stand regardless of the loyalists move but as long as there remains no alternative to a sea border between northern ireland and great britain that anger will grow threatening to spill over into something worse during a whole al-jazeera belfast. one of europe's best known party spots has been dormant since the pandemic began but this weekend amsterdam's largest music venue the dam

has come back to life more than a 1000 people flooded in for the 1st of a series of concerts designed to test social distancing rules stop fasteners among them. an explosion of an itchy was released after hundreds of duck trustable france returned to the dance arena after a year of absence and with no social distancing it was just the party against the to be rid of heavy drought and you're blabbering little here i mean leo love it if you're not hearing live. oh it was so amazing i'm still alive like drilling is still my buddy but i loved every 2nd the people went crazy. really amazing organizers divided 1300 people in 6 different bubbles and which different rules apply with sense of they gather data about their behavior after you want is asked to get tested afterwards but researchers say the

results are not needed for the experiment to work and not interested in the real infections it's it's a mess magical prediction model what we are actually doing isn't that strange because that's the best proof you can get right if it's safe or not yeah but then people really become guinea pigs and i don't think that's the idea it's it's not safe. before the event and 11 people classified as a tiff with covert 19 they were not allowed to enter. in love makes it hard. to get something. like that. similar experiments will be held in the next few weeks if successful organizers are hopeful they can reopen soon we have the eurovision song festival in may we have the euro. football tournament in june. we want to build up the capacity step by step in order to have a summer with. hopefully

a full capacity much will be found on a possible 3rd wave of infections many in the netherlands have urged the government to ease the lockdown which is one of the strictest in the region last tuesday an explosion took place at one of the testing facilities police called it an attack but with infection still high and night curfew remains in place. the future now. to be honest i hope not i don't really want to go back to normal but if this is necessary why not for at least 1300 people. like normal again but. it was shortly after a few hours on the dance floor they went back into lockdown step class from al-jazeera and said that.