for mom the easing of the lockdown would lead to an increase in the impact that would have on dogs the kind that 19. in india overwhelmed does the coronavirus death toll crosses 200000 and pakistan's military is called in to help its own growing outbreak. so raman you're watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 30 minutes the u.k.'s political watchdog launches a formal investigation into prime minister boris johnson after claims he used donations from supporters to upgrade his downing street residence. south africa's president several run opposer towns a judicial inquiry his ruling party should have done more to prevent corruption

under his predecessor. and trying to clear the air we look at u.s. relations with china in president joe biden's 1st 100 days in office. welcome to the program india's seen its worst day so far from the pandemic with nearly 3300 more faith tallaght taking the official death toll past 200000 more than 360000 new cases a global recall that's been confirmed in the past 24 hours in new delhi neighboring states hospitals are running out of beds medical supplies and oxygen many people have been flocking to makeshift clinics like this sikh temple hoping to get some of its limited oxygen supply. it goes they can get it going to have much money to come you from my leave and come here for the south again so i can knock it back without an oxygen till i have to give it one 0 my god how much do you make

a week. or. how do you do our job and all over the nearby cities from 140 a little over about. all over. the world. now the pandemic has also taken its toll on neighboring pakistan with a new daily record of 201 deaths on wednesday now soldiers have been deployed to cities with high infection rates to enforce restrictions but there is some good news coming out of the u.k. a new study suggests that a single dose of the pfizer or astra zeneca vaccine conelly harve the transmission of the virus well elizabeth random said this update from new delhi. we are at a makeshift kramatorsk that's been created here and dia's capital new delhi because the actual crime atory i'm behind does has run out of space to cremate the number

of bodies which are piling up every single day that is the situation in every crime atory and every burial ground not just here in delhi but many of the worst affected states these predatory and has been working from 6 o'clock in the morning till midnight its 1st set top 20 funeral pyres 20 extra extra funeral pyres in this part next door to it but it's realized that it has to set off another 50 here the situation is such here in delhi and beyond that family members of the sick after going from hospital to hospital to try and get their loved ones admitted then having to go from crime atory into crime atory and from burial ground to burial ground to try and have funerals funerals in the country where they're held as soon as possible not just because of custom but because a very hot temperatures because of a shortage of mortuaries with freezing facilities and that is why the international

aid that has begun arriving in india over the past few days in the form of oxygen could not be more welcomed with hospitals still short of beds and oxygen in many places. in islamabad where he says the government is opposing restrictions to stop people from gathering for ramadan. their. claws. going to be deployed in fact they have been deployed. 3. days. bring. down the and.

be something that everybody. now getting ready for a more comprehensive. government study shows a single dose of 19 vaccine can cut the risk of household transmission. the report by public health england included more than 57000 people from 24000 homes but

those who got the 1st. jobs were 38 to 49 percent less likely to pass home the virus protection against 192 weeks after vaccination on the british health secretary has welcomed the report. to get the job as soon as possible. before. she says vaccines a crucial to keep those infected with 19 out of hospitals. this is really encouraging news on 2 fronts firstly that a single jab is able to reduce transmission because that was we have not been certain that the japanese able to reduce transmission at all and so the fact that it's now seems working with just a single dose of either the pfizer of the astra zeneca axiom is really good news and just and helps with thinking about how back to the nation is going to help

reduce the number of cases the back scenes are very effective at preventing against severe disease so coronavirus or there are a lot of people get really mild disease and having a coronavirus vaccine against coronaviruses it's a very is it's going to be really key at preventing people ending up in hospital and sadly preventing some of the pathology is that we're seeing so this news that it actually also prevents transmission is probably really key in helping people understand that by getting the vaccine they're also protecting those people who they care about and so that even if unfortunately they get infected after getting the vaccine they're much less likely to transmit it to anybody and unfortunately it's just too soon yet we just haven't got the length of time and to have that data . i mean we have about 9 months worth of data from the people who best buy's their backs in that clinical trial way back in july but we really are looking at you know

another year before we understand the longevity of the immunity 'd but certainly the effectiveness now in driving down cases is very promising. the u.k. prime minister has denied any wrongdoing in the dining street flat make over scandal boris johnson says he's covered the cost of the refurbishment of the property himself although he did not clarify who the initially paid for it the u.k. political watchdog and launched a full investigation into johnson about a possible violation of finance rules a former adviser claims that the prime minister tried to get conservative party donors to sit for the pay for the renovations. i have covered the costs and by that most people will find it absolutely bizarre and of course as an electoral commission invested in this now i can tell you that i conformed in full with the code of conduct with. ministers a mysterious code and i officials have been kept a been advising me throughout this whole thing but i think people will think it absolutely bizarre that he is focusing on this issue.

political commentators here in london where unanimous in saying that the prime minister loads angry and rattled red faced and really struggling at times to answer the very for encik questioning of the leader of the opposition secure starmer the labor party leader whose questioning basically concentrated on who exactly paid the initial invoice for these rather expensive renovation works the took place at the downing street apartment of the prime minister when he 1st moved in there with his girlfriend kerry simons now the prime minister insisted repeatedly that he had covered the cost but he very studiously avoided saying who had covered the initial invoice the payments and there is anecdotal evidence to say that it could possibly have been the conservative party that actually paid the initial bill and then was

repaid by boris johnson and who paid the conservative party's funds well large conservative donors probably it's called it's been called here cash for curtains as in the with the potential for it being a kind of cash for influence kind of affair now that's not to say that it has been that the the commission that has responsibility for transparency and party funding is now going to look into it but they dropped a bombshell into the mix just an hour before that prime minister's question session when they revealed and they announced that they had enough evidence on the face of it to believe or to suspect that there had possibly been an offense committed south africa's president has told a corruption inquiry involving his predecessor that he will not defend the indefensible cyril ramaphosa says the governing party could have done more to prevent corruption during jacob zuma is tenure ramaphosa is the highest ranking

official to testify in the so-called state capture scandal zuma faces allegations of allowing a business family close to him to secure government contracts and influence policy for me to miller has more from outside the zone the commission building in johannesburg. the zonder commission is looking into wide scale corruption and until now much of it has focused on former president jacob zuma in fact he's called the commission a witch hunt and this is why he said he's staying away you appeared once or twice and said he wouldn't come back because he felt vilified he felt targeted men he says he hasn't been given a fair opportunity to represent himself and the outcomes are really been preved determent and now the sitting president is at the commission to answer questions on behalf of that political party who is struggling at the moment around allegations of corruption especially in an election year where a lot of south africans are unhappy with their party the a.n.c.

has lost a significant amount of support in south africa so many would argue that the roma poor cers testimony at this commission could really be about p.r. and damage control and wanting to see him accountable at a time when solved africans want answers but he also has to deal with toeing the party line so it's likely we're going to see some sort of balance perhaps not a lot coming out of this commission but really. the a.n.c. ultimately still grappling with this issue of corruption well still ahead here on al-jazeera asia's economy starts to lift off but we look at what could still put the region's recovery a risk and somalia's president decides not to extend his term but 2 years after protests sunday calls for early elections to ease those tensions those stories after the break.

hello there are some drenching rains coming in for japan and this is the same system that was plaguing southern areas of china as that what weather now moves across the south china sea into japan tokyo 22 degrees on thursday but this is a quick moving system so by friday it's out into the pacific for china mostly looking fine and dry for the most part some showers popping up into shanghai air quality for beijing on friday with a high of 20 degrees for southeast asia we're still dealing with these bouts of heavy heavy showers for indochina and for the southern philippines we've seen about a month's worth of rain in 24 hours that trend of what weather continues well the story for india is the potential for some strong storms to bubble up towards southern portions of the country and for sri lanka but the high heat continues ahead of monsoon season you know where else we're dialing up the heat well for the

middle east temperatures particularly for turkey cyprus and the levant really heating up over the next few days aleppo 34 on thursday i want to show you the next 3 days in jordan where up to $32.00 when really we should be at $25.00 degrees and wall to wall sunshine on deck. feeling the debate down. and amplify your voice you're only human mr merivale the media will miss when true story no topic is off the table why in the world what was humanize an individual domestic terror this was an illegal occupation of a country what they're doing is they're removing knowledge it's historical that in this in this strain where a global audience becomes a global community on al-jazeera. the moon.

oh. oh. talk about your challenges there with me so robin a reminder of our top stories india has seen its worst day so far from the coronavirus with maybe 3300 more fatalities taking the official toll past 200000 but the actual number has sought to be far higher. the british prime minister has denied allegations that he tried to get party donors to pay for his renovations to his official residence boris johnson says he personally covered the cost the u.k. political watchdog is now investigating and south africa's presidents around opposer has told a corruption inquiry involving his predecessor that he will not defend the

indefensible jacob zuma is facing allegations of allowing a wealthy business family to secure contracts and influence decisions. somalia's president has agreed not to extend his term and is promising to hold elections but haven't. faced growing unrest on the streets of the capital mogadishu catherine sawyer reports. president mohammad up to life as address to the nation was tough but the same time provided and offered to unlock the political statement he accused the opposition leaders of politicizing the security forces trying to cause. and grab power and some foreign countries of meddling in somalia in tunnel affairs but he also pedaled back on the controversial law passed by the lower house of parliament to extend his term in office by 2 yes' and have the electoral commission organize a popular vote within that time. to go to the federal government of somalia has

always believed and still says there look compromise and negotiation on their return to the discussion of the only way options on marrying the september 17th 2020 agreement on that accommodations or the right door technical committee. you know trees of this of $29.00 re meant to come together you made a tree for i did discussions on the unconditional implementation of the above mentioned agreement. the september greenman says the country will hold and in direct election. as members of parliament who in town vote in a crisis. talks between the government leaders from the federal state and others have stalled with the different sides accusing each other of derailing the process some analysts say the president's reversal of the decision to extend doesn't change the political contest over management of the election and the mistrust between politicians. between the different groups and educator who.

has failed to do that and so unless the. the african union or somebody else coming out as that mediator i don't think they will come together to be able to agree on a path forward that would save the people and the rest of the country from the crisis. the tensions have been building for a while and the crisis has drawn in the military and police force which you say to be divided along political lines government and opposition forces fought on sunday in mogadishu and there are reports that opposition forces hold positions in several parts of the city people have been fleeing their homes fearing more conflict but some are hopeful that the president's message will deescalate tensions and politicians will find a middle ground to hold an election soon catherine soy. now the eve of his 100th day in office u.s.

president joe biden is due to give his 1st speech to a joint session of congress it's not but unity for biden to update americans on what his election promises currently stand the pandemic and his $1.00 trillion dollars american families plan likely to feature prominently let's get more this mail official joins us now from the white house so what can we expect allan in terms of sort of subject areas that the president is going to touch on. well 40 years ago in his 1st year an address to congress ronald reagan said that government wasn't the solution to people's problems it was the problem watch for a full 180 from joe biden who believes the government should get involved more and one of those ways of doing that is through his $1.00 trillion dollar american families bill now he says he wants to see free kindergarten for 3 and 4 year olds in the united states he wants free community college for 2 years for anyone he wants to make sure that there's better access to health care he wants to improve the financial safety net for many struggling families he wants to increase access

to paid illness leath leave and also family leave as well he's going to talk about coronavirus he talked about how he wanted 100000000 jobs in the 1st 100 days well he's well exceeded that total many people thought that he was showing a lack of ambition with the figure that he quoted but he'll talk about how the vaccine is going very well how the economy is starting to move in the right direction you'll see that was because of the stimulus bill that he pushed through remember with no republican support he may talk about some of the foreign policy things that he has done such as confronting russia certainly being more confrontational with china and of course withdrawing the troops from afghanistan which he plans to do in september but this is going to be an address and mainly at the domestic audience remember they're all the 200 people in the room because of coronavirus restrictions that means many big biden supporters won't be there but probably could have to watch on al-jazeera instead indeed with the big plans big

price tags that he's going to pay for all. exactly that's the $1.00 trillion dollar question isn't it well joe biden says he thinks he can do it for that figure and he thinks he can raise that money in a number of ways 1st of all he wants to increase the upper tax rate so those who are considered to be very rich instead of paying 37 percent with pay 39.6 percent he wants to almost double capital gains the tax paid on that he thinks that could raise a significant amount of money he also thinks that by making sure that the tax regime is employed much more fairly and closing down look course he can bring in 700000000000 dollars a year there hasn't been a politician has been elected doesn't believe that you could close to tax loopholes and bring in more money but that joe biden believes he can fund the families 1st program no remember this is on top of the $1.00 trillion dollars covert relief bill so republicans are very keen what they see are big tax rises even though joe biden

says anyone under $400000.00 a year won't pay any more in taxes but republicans are very much against the idea of any tax increases and that means joe biden might be struggling to get his american families bill through congress if there is opposition from the republicans that's why you see this address as being so important he believes he can get over the partisanship in washington by addressing the american people he thinks many people are in favor of his ideas and certainly some polls would tend to back him up so he believes that when he talks about bipartisanship he means support in the country not just necessarily republicans on capitol hill we should watch very carefully elevation the forests in the white house not quite in the white house yet thanks allan. when joe biden became u.s. president there were hopes of improving strained relations with china but times he approaches the 100th day of his presidency times was for server if you brown

reports now from google. when senior u.s. and chinese officials met in alaska last month their encounter matched the freezing temperatures outside the u.s. was in no position to lecture china top diplomat young. united states does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to china from a position of strength u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken has been equally blunt our relationship with china will be competitive one should be collaborative when it can be an adversarial one it must be there had been hopes that under president joe biden the relationship would be less confrontational that it had become under his predecessor biden and chinese president xi jinping met many times when the 2 vice presidents analysts say that biden's china strategy is based on a stronger alliance with allies i think he's done

a very good job of messaging. which is to say to the chinese that the the old rules of the past one apply anymore. and and they've been very tactically astute economic diplomatic and even military tensions between the 2 rival superpowers are continuing to rise relations are fraught on a number of issues the south china sea dispute the well documented evidence of human rights abuses in shin jiang china's tightening controls here in hong kong and taiwan the nearby island republic over which china claims sovereignty. and biden has lowered expectations of a breakthrough on another friction point with china north korea washington places denuclearization of north korea it's top of its priority list with respect to pyongyang that's not the case for beijing beijing is more interested in stability yet in one area at least there's a promise of cooperation at

a virtual summit this week china and the u.s. the world's 2 biggest carbon emitters pledged to work more closely on cutting their emissions a rare display of collaboration but one unlikely to be repeated on other fronts adrian brown al-jazeera hong kong the home kong immigration officials will soon be able to stop residents and visitors from leaving the territory without a court warrant the local legislature which is not a voice of opposition but has done the changes and so-called exit bans have been used in mainland china to prevent foreigners from leaving the country for years in some cases the hong kong government says the rules are necessary to tackle illegal immigration and the backlog of asylum claims. the u.n. says the worsening conflict in africa's hell region is leading to what it calls an unparalleled humanitarian crisis a record 29000000 people are in need of aid that's 5000000 more than last year 6 countries cameroon chad mali and nigeria requires

$3700000000.00 attacks by armed groups military operations and kidnappings are forcing millions to flee this is also led to the closure of thousands of schools $1600000.00 children are now risk of severe acute malnutrition the region plunged into conflict in 2012 after abc roups took over in northern mali and violence spread to neighboring countries georgia for many and is the regional spokesman for the u.n. world food program in west africa he says the conflict is driving up hunger and insecurity the biggest threat to people's ability to have food the biggest concern the biggest thing that the biggest factor that causes accurate hunger as we have seen in this region is actually conflict it's insecurity we have now as you just mentioned millions of millions of people across the central sahara region that is booking a fossil knees and money as well as

a leech on these an area in northern parts of nigeria and cameroon as well as parts of nisha where we find millions of people who are desperately in need of food assistance but clearly in the northern parts of niger where we have about 800000 people who are in imagine sea levels of food insecurity where they need immediate assistance without which they cannot survive and that is mainly due to the conflict and insecurity that has been gaining ground there. now a magnitude 6 earthquake has hit india's northeastern a some state it damaged buildings and sent many people running from their homes there were no immediate reports of casualties the national disaster management agency says it said that it was assessing the situation progress on the vaccines is helping the global economies recovery asia pacific countries are forecast to rebound stronger than previously thought but the asian development bank says new

outbreaks could still put their recovery at risk from a slew explains from kuala lumpur when the pandemic hit and countries closed their borders businesses that rely mainly on terrorists were badly affected. hot air balloon pilot hired him and his sister who run a company that organizes ballooning events tend to there are the passion baking cookies to supplement their income we had to downsize. we've been serious and also real. domestic lockdowns closed international borders a global recession these factors drag down output in most economies but economic recovery has begun in many asian countries according to a forecast by the asian development bank growth which strengthened in the latter part of last year has been driven mostly by exports of electronics and personal protective equipment developing asia which groups 45 countries in asia pacific is

forecast to grow 7.3 percent this year rapid economic recovery. stronger. economies. you want to. trade. and therefore likely provided. but the outlook for asia pacific countries will depend mainly on how the pandemic unfolds many countries have started vaccination programs but any delay in rollout could prolong the crisis new outbreaks and subsequent curbs on movement will disrupt mobility and economic activity even as economies recover countries will be counting the cost of the pandemic for years to come school closures disrupted education and students in developing asia last nearly a 3rd of a year's learning on average that to substantially reduce future earnings and

productivity. the asian development bank says getting back on the path to growth will require a vast amount of government and private funds lawrence lee. just there with me said. top stories india has seen its worst day so far from the crowd a virus with nearly 3300 more fatalities taking the official toll past 200000 but the actual number is thought to be much higher and it's withdrawn and has more from new delhi. hospital to hospital to have.