ship back 2021 to the hill to modernize our immigration system on refugees and asylum paul and asylum policies we rescinded harmful executive orders on refugee resettlement and announced a new refugee admissions target of 120 $5000.00 people for fiscal year 2022 we suspended the asylum cooperate agreements with the governments of all salvador honduras and guatemala we reinstated deferred enforcement departure to liberians and granted temporary percent protected status to venezuelans already in the united states on the human rights we joined the un human rights council as an observer we put into effect the presidential proclamation that u.s. diplomacy protect the human rights of people worldwide we release the show we report and announced that the show be banned to stop people who engaged in serious extraterritorial counter dissident activities on behalf of a foreign government from entering our country we imposed russia's sanctions on alexina vollies poisoning and detention and we imposed sanctions in response to the

military coup in burma on public health we rescinded the mexico city policy prioritizing sexual and reproductive health including funding for the u.n. population fund and nonproliferation we extended the new start treaty with russia for 5 years and relaunch diplomacy with our closest european allies to bring iran back into compliance with the j c v.o.a. on conflict diplomacy we suspended the sale of offensive weapons to saudi arabia and named a special envoy to lead diplomatic efforts to end the war in yemen we revoke designations of who these are as a foreign terrorist organization to enable urgent assistance to the world's most challenged people when it comes to the monitoring crisis they're facing and we boost a diplomatic efforts in afghanistan ahead of the may 1st deadline and on strengthening the state department we've invested in diversity and inclusion to have a diplomatic workforce that reflects the diversity of our country we're focused on accountability and transparency and we will modernize and rebuild so our team

around the world has the tools and the support they need to get the job done. so as you can see many of these steps map directly on to our core priorities we can draw a line from each one of them and draw a line further to the security prosperity and wellbeing of our fellow citizens the president has made it clear that we will lead with diplomacy because it's the best way to deal with today's challenges above all we're determined to hold ourselves accountable to a single overarching measure of success are we delivering results for the american people that's our mission it's our opportunity we'll try to do our best to make the most of it thank you very much very glad to be here and i look forward to getting your questions. thank you so much mr secretary it is wonderful and refreshing to have you here before us today i will now recognize members for 5 minutes each and pursuant to house rules all time yielded as for the purpose of questioning our

witnesses i'll recognize members by committee seniority alternating between democrats and republicans if you miss your turn please let our staff now and i will come back to you if you seek recognition you must on mute your microphone and address the chair verbal and identify yourself so that we know who is speaking i'll start by representing by recognizing representative harman of california thank you mr secretary welcome back it's almost 5 years since you were here before i hope you come back soon hopefully in a matter of weeks so that all members of this committee will have a chance to have 5 minutes with you i know that you have a hard stop that may prevent some of our colleagues from being able to address questions i've got a lot of comments to make that i hope your staff or you can respond to for the record and then to shock my colleagues i'll actually have a real question. thank you for focusing on the worldwide effects of kovac

you should know that a number of the research projects designed to speed the production of vaccine or conserve it so that less can be used for each an occupation are a lot of that research isn't being done by people who say well it won't give us any results till may and by then americans will all be vaccinated i hope that your department would push for those studies that will help the entire world get out of this pandemic. russia has the russian state has not been effectively sanctioned for its interference in our elections a mass hack and working with the taliban to kill our troops one way that you can do that that the last administration actually did to a tiny and very flawed way is. to use the chemical weapons statute to prevent americans from investing in debt issued by the russian government or its state owned companies that should increase their cost of borrowing by about half

a point that would be a real sanction and certainly they've earned it. i hope you do what you can to turn down the temperature in the south. we've just been listening to the u.s. secretary of state and blinken testifying in front of the foreign affairs select committee he began with a long list of the reversal of former president trumps policy is quite a list for the 1st 50 days when you ministration and we're going to go now to roslyn jordan who's following this briefing in washington d.c. for us phyllis and what's happened so far. well what we heard anthony blinken the new secretary of state do was essentially recount the speech that he gave one week ago to the american public outlining the us his policies for foreign policy under president joe biden in the next 4 years at the top of the list is fighting covert

it's also dealing with china perhaps as the u.s. is most important political military and economic rival as well as dealing with other countries that pose security threats and challenges including iran north korea and russia the questioning is just getting underway but we expect that the secretary is going to be taking questions on all sorts of issues given that under the previous administration of donald trump the u.s. foreign policy was quite isolationist what we have already seen from other biden heris administration is one that's more engaged on the global stage we've seen the u.s. for example rejoining the u.n. human rights council pledge to be much more fully engaged at the united nations and at nato and certainly try to work on issues that affect the world more than $7000000000.00 people including of course the global covert 19 pandemic so in

the policy has singled out china as the number one rival to the u.s. he's talked about the importance of building strong alliances with beijing but being a little vague on specifics but now we know he will be meeting chinese officials in alaska next week do we have any idea about what could be the on the agenda that. well it's really going to be the full plate of issues that washington has with beijing the u.s. is of course very concerned about human rights abuses particularly of the minority weaker population in western china we see the ministration is very concerned about china's efforts to bully its way around the western pacific rim and try to control the waterways even in international waters for its own economic and military use the u.s. is not pleased with that of course the u.s. is also very concerned about china's for its to extend its political and economic

influence not just here in the u.s. but in other countries on other continents as well and so you're going to see the ministration in the persons of secretary of state blinken as well as the new national security advisor jake sullivan really trying to engage with their chinese counterparts on these issues willing to try to establish a framework for engagement however it is important to note that state department officials repeatedly have said that there isn't going to be a reset with beijing they are seeing this as a relationship that is one primarily of competition but also trying to find areas where the 2 countries might be able to work together particularly on climate change it's worth noting that in the last couple of days the u.s. treasury department and its chinese counterpart have set up a working group under the auspices of the g 20 to start trying to tackle this very

fundamental issue president in washington d.c. for us thank you. joe biden's $1.00 trillion dollar coated relief bill has received enough votes to pass the house of representatives well let's go to our white house correspondent kimberly house in washington d.c. for us now kimberly democratic so cooling this enormous bill transformative republican say it's government run amok which is it. well we may not know 100 percent for some time it all depends how this plays out how american spend the money and how the various towns cities sort of local governments spend their money so the jury is still out on this but what the hope is is that there will be sort of a ripple effect that and micheline will see americans spending money and injecting this into the economy getting the economy going again and that will see the

governments in turn that are outside of washington d.c. doing the same order to ensure that the white house press secretary shinseki just saying moments ago that somebody will be appointed to oversee dispensing this money because it's important then the white house knows that it has to be done right in order for this to work it's a big gamble and republicans are on the opposite side in terms of whether they think this will be a success or not in fact they think just the opposite they say that already so much money has been spent to rescuing the american public and what's needed now is creating jobs so that people can not just catch up but can get ahead and they argue that right now the only thing that this bill does is help people catch up but it's not offering a new income source for the future but beyond 2 the 400 dollars checks that will be going to millions of americans as child tax credit there's a lot of very popular policies in that popular with the general population but the

fact that it's being rejected by republicans how could that lack of support potentially damage the poty. well it's a it's a calculation you know you the u.s. congress is constantly in a state of election and reelection and we're already talking about the midterms and 2022 and $8.00 it could hurt republicans if this is well received given the fact that 75 percent of americans so that includes republican voters as well like this legislation they want to see it so this kind of blowback for republicans if it doesn't work out it could be back for democrats so we're going to have to get some distance from it to see but in the meantime one thing we do know for sure is that the u.s. president is going to be selling this along with the vice president come a harris in order to make sure the people beyond those checks know how their lives are benefiting from this money it will mean more firefighters police departments

personal protective equipment for the front line responders in the covert epidemics so there are a number of ways that beyond sort of the tangible check that people will be receiving that they will benefit from but in order to communicate that we know that the u.s. president is going to be speaking from the white house thursday evening in a primetime address and in terms of signing this into law the white house press secretary confirming moments ago that will take place on friday candy how can that for us thank you. more than 100 countries led by south africa and india are appealing to the world trade organization to temporarily waive patients on covert 900 vaccines their cases being heard it too at a 2 day summit in geneva where they're arguing it will easy an equitable access to lifesaving vaccines the chief has already called for action to boost vaccine production in developing countries saying each day a shortage continues people pay with their lives for costs one more than 80 poor

nations are unlikely to achieve mass vaccination into at least 2024 but many wealthy countries including the united states u.k. and japan oppose the case saying it's not intellectual property that's blocking vaccine access but manufacturing capacity well these are some of the wealthy countries accused of practicing vaccine nationalism john hopkins university says nearly half the people who've been vaccinated globally are in the united states for me to miller reports from johannesburg. if you want to forget it's been a year since the 1st 1000 infliction was identified in south africa since then more than 50000 people have died here and 1500000 have been infected while richard nations rolled out vaccines the program in south africa's been much slower. of course stuck.

aswell oh. it's. south african india leading a movement to suspend the world trade organizations agreement on intellectual property rights for covert 1000 vaccines but many high income countries including the united states and those in the european union have rejected the idea they say waiving the peyton's would put off private investors and slow down scientific innovation and existing regulations allow drug manufacturers to make their own deals with generic manufacturers while some developing nations that garner ivory coast in the suit to have begun receiving their 1st doses to the u.n. back to vaccine sharing scheme known as kovacs many others in africa are being left behind. there is a capacity for mr companies to produce and i stayed in medical school. it is

essential that the wealthy states stop blocking or putting in legal barriers and delaying essential kozel ahead. of the world trade organization according to the united nations 3 quarters of all covert 1000 vaccines have been secured by just 10 countries all of them wealthy this is not the 1st public health emergency that south africa is facing and as one of the highest hiv aids rates in the world in the 1990 s. millions of people in this country and other developing nations died without access to the drugs they needed simply because they were too expensive so africa is once again calling for access to cheaper drugs to save lives with some arguing that despite covert 1000 vaccines been tested in africa many nations on the continent still remain at the back of the queue. for me to al-jazeera johannesburg. brazil's former president has blasted the government's handling of the pandemic and his 1st

speech to support this since a corruption charge against him was overturned monday's decision by a supreme court judge but paved the way for dewey cygnus and needed to silva to make a political comeback the 2017 conviction of 18 months in jail he could become president diable scenarios maine left wing rival in next year's presidential election that he said he hadn't yet decided whether to run there to set his imprisonment made him the victim of the biggest legalize in $500.00 is in brazil. but is really. if there was a brazilian who has a right to be deeply hurt it's me but i'm not because i know that the suffering of the brazilian people and the poor people in this country is infinitely greater than the pain i felt when i was imprisoned by the federal police. well let's go to monica you had a cabin ridge generic monica luna's saying he wants to tour the country talk to the people but hasn't decided if he'll run against both an hour and 2020 what do you

think brazilians made of his speech well i think what brazilians are divided whether he made a speech or not i mean there are those that don't like and still will like him but he spoke like a statesman that at a moment where the country is going through a very difficult situation a very we're at the peak of the pandemic yet again the 2nd highest number of deaths after the u.s. and no policy no federal policy so. that was one thing the other thing is that he had a very moderate speech where he was trying to appeal to not only the left wing but also the middle the center of brazil so it wouldn't be such a radical thing between him and bold so not always the right wing president. it would be with everybody i mean the left wing parties not only is the own party but

also all those that are in the center and he said do not be afraid of me he said of himself of course because referring to the markets don't be afraid of a left wing government but he did say that he would be against privatization of state owned companies. because that would not be the way of getting more jobs. for us in rio de janeiro. the u.n. says at least 67 people have been killed and hundreds injured in. protests. police on wednesday once again use firearms to disperse protesters in the city of london people fled the shots were fired at the un security council has agreed on a statement that condemns the violence against protesters to his drops language condemning the political situation as a coup is strange from the military. indian officials say about 100 people for me

and are mostly police officers and their families have crossed the border since protests began many are seeking refuge in the border town of chump i don't corporate are paying is one of them he says he fled me and because he was ordered to shoot protesters if dispersing efforts did not work it twice refused and feared he would go to jail if he stayed. the duty of the places to protect the people in fact the shooting of people part of me in my place an army is a can't see law so i could not follow those orders. i miss my family i'm married and i have 2 children misses them every night i could not sleep well. every democracy. returned to my country. maybe as parliament has approved a new interim unity government as part of a un back till it will be responsible for holding elections later this year libya

has been divided between 2 rival administrations supported by armed groups and foreign governments the country has experienced unrest since an uprising toppled its leader moammar gadhafi in 2011 by the trainer has more from misrata. it's been a very long and difficult road to bring the m.p.'s libya's members of parliament together they've been divided pretty much since they were elected in 20141 of course the tobruk based parliament with these headed by i get a smaller base in the east while a rival parliament is based in tripoli and he's began this rival parliament one who leave after began a military operation to take control of the capital of course he failed after 14 months but it's a very actual historical day for for libyans for especially for members of parliament who are able to actually come together they came together on monday

$132.00. members of parliament in the city of sirte they've been negotiating for the last couple of days and today they voted in this new interim government seen here. many as a historical day. and a reminder of one of the top stories we're following joe biden's $1.00 trillion dollar coated relief bill has just passed in the house of representatives the historic bill includes $1400.00 stimulus checks to americans and $34000000000.00 in subsidies to expand health care senegalese opposition politician has blamed the president for last week's violence song because a rest for taking part in an authorized rally triggered days of demonstrations 2 people were killed in confrontations between protesters and police sankoh is also facing rape charges he denies the accusation which he says is part of a plot to bar him from standing in elections in 2024 nicholas haq has more from the car. he wants to capitalize on the unprecedented movement that we've seen the last

couple of days where we saw protesters demonstrators taking to the street not just here in the capital the car but throughout the country was quick to condemn the looting and the violence saying that he is not looting in the violence towards french supermarkets he's saying that he's not anti french but he wants a rebalance of the relationship with the former colonial power in favor of not big corporate french corporations but in favor of the senegalese people he also said that the government and the people need to listen to the word on the streets and this call from the people they have really taken on mouse on the streets to express themselves he says he is not responsible though for the violence that has taken place that has resulted and scores of people injured and at least at least according to him dozens of people killed some. of the 6 we are absolutely not

responsible for the violence that happened and we're not responsible for what might happen next because senegal has a lot of problems right now and we will not profit from destabilizing the country further i'm calling on everybody for calm but to remain mobilized now the onus he says is on president monkeys to answer to this call from the people in the streets there are more protests planned this out today because this this new movement called the movement to defend democracy well they say that at least 400 people are currently in detention people that have been detained and that were arrested during the protest movement that we've seen recently so a lot more protests at least a demonstration planned on saturday and and for months some co he sees this as a moment for the country to unite and to get together behind his movement. 5 palestinian children have been arrested by israeli security forces in the occupied

west bank the boys were between 8 to 12 years old officers took them away when they were found picking flowers an amount have brought here they've been transferred to an unknown detention facility. the armenian army's chief of staff has been officially dismissed from his role weeks after he was fired by the prime minister i mean is president has appealed to the constitutional court to review the legality of the sacking prime minister nicolas and accuse the military of an attempted coup months does demanding he resigned the army says passion young mishandled a war with azerbaijan that resulted in armenia giving up control of territory nagorno-karabakh russia has restricted access to twitter accusing the social media platform of failing to remove banned content become trees communications watchdog says it's slowed down the website speed and they've warned it could be blocked entirely unless action is taken when choose day russian authorities announced lawsuits against 5 social media platforms for posts related to opposition protests

according to interfax news agency. 18 white is the founder and president of the ethical journalism network he says the kremlin's action is part of a long campaign to suppress criticism and dissent. we've seen this in particular. the way that social networks have been very important in terms of support for the next in the valley and i think this has irritated the government and the authorities in russia and i think i mean perhaps one of the reasons to explain this latest action that's been taken against twitter the problem is twitter and some of the other social mix networks have not exactly covered themselves in glory in recent times we saw the actions of the social networks in the united states around the attack on the capital which led to. politicians calling for sanctions and social networks and and there has been concern in europe about how slow the social

networks like twitter and facebook are in taking down abusive commentary so they've become in some ways a sort of. a soft target however it's important to bear in mind that twitter is by no means a significant player in the social networks but forms of russia but it there's no doubt at all that this late is not action shows not the use of twitter is getting on the skin of the authorities and there's not much they can do but there is one silver lining if we can call it that and that's a technical one it's very very difficult for the authorities to slow down and completely stop the distribution of social networks like twitter so there's a technical tunnel which is very difficult for them to carry out so it's not certain yet that the authorities will be as successful as they'd like to be. mining giant nickel has paid russia's biggest fine for environmental damage the $2000000000.00 payment is to compensate for damage caused by a fuel spill considered the country's worst arctic environmental disaster

a storage tank at a power plant in siberia leaked $21000.00 tons of diesel into rivers and subsoil the company's net profit fell by 39 percent last year after it set aside $2000000000.00 to cover potential fines japan is marking 10 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami killed thousands of people it also severely damaged a nuclear power plant that continues to pose a contamination risk but pride as more. it was the biggest quake japan has ever recorded. creating devastating tsunami waves that crashed into towns and communities along its northeastern coast it left around $20000.00 people dead or missing and it caused a meltdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant that led to more than 150000 people being evacuated from surrounding areas 10 years on and just 10 kilometers from the

plant the town of tommy yoker still hasn't recovered u.-turn was just 14 when he was evacuated with his family residents were allowed to return only 4 years ago but parts of the town are still off limits and strewn with bags of radioactive soil but over 30 they used to haul a teddy brought some festival here and this in order to fill it with food stars and people further along the coastline away from the contaminated areas lives have been rebuilt and sea defenses strengthened the government has turned the reconstruction effort into a symbol of national revival coinciding with the delayed summer olympics but the games remain in doubt and the decommissioning of the reactors poses a challenge for years to come. as of now i think we should keep our

current plan to decommission within the next 30 years more than a 1000000 tonnes of contaminated water has now built up at the site amid speculation it might be released into the sea there is widespread opposition in spite of government assurances that the water has been treated during or hanging on in what is going to go on and i'm concerned about what will happen to the fishing industry in the next 10 years there's talk of releasing the water and i'm very worried about that for many this anniversary will be a time to reflect on a natural disaster that took so much from this part of japan. and that is still dealing with the legacy of its own precedented fools. a volcanic disaster could be about to erupt in the democratic republic of congo this is mount nyiragongo the world's largest continuing active love lake it sits less than 20 kilometers north of the city of goma readings at the crater

a vital elements to the early warning system but funding cuts in research just can't pay for an internet connection to run remote sensors or fuel to transport them to the volcano 250 people died when the volcano erupted in 2002 and experts fear anything worse tragedy. well you can find much more on our web site including that breaking news of the u.s. covert relief bill stay with us your headlines are coming up. the top stories on al-jazeera u.s. secretary of state and blinken has called out china as the country's biggest rival and plans to meet top chinese government officials next week it will be the 1st person to person meeting between senior u.s. and chinese representatives since joe biden took office it is a time and tensions between the countries are at new heights lincoln says they will discuss a range of issues in.