condition for more so and i would love for her to be that's new today. pfizer is vaccine already has emergency authorization from the f d a for children, 12 years and up. the company says it's trials for that age group showed 100 percent efficacy against coded with minimal side effects results for younger children are expected by september. heidi jo castro al jazeera washington crypto fans something shiny and new to get excited about. so the piece auction house is putting a flawless $100.00 carat diamond up for sale, which can be bought using crypto currencies. the pear shaped diamond is expected to fetch up to $15000000.00, which is about $477.00 bit coins at the moment. anyway, the auction house says is by far the highest valued physical object for which one can pay with a crypto currency. ah,

this is al jazeera, these are your top stories counting well, the way in ethiopia is twice delayed general election. the prime minister, mad is hoping to hold on to power in what is his 1st real electoral test, several opposition parties of boycotted the votes, a conflict into gray and ballad shortages left hundreds and thousands of people without the chance to vote on it. though reports now from addis ababa, there was long queues in the capital of the sub, about several other cities across the country. people had started gathering some of these pulling sessions as early as 4 in the morning. these are very crucial elections to europe, and they see us the 1st step towards the most sizing country and they want the entire world to see it's just not a walk in progress. many as

a prime minister, nicole passion yet, and his supporters subbing celebrating their victory and sundays snap parliamentary election patching and says the country's political crisis is over and he's now calling for reconciliation. at least 20 palestinians were injured after thanks by israeli settlers and security forces in occupied east jerusalem settlers through rocks and chairs and families living in the shake general neighbourhood, a number of palestinians were arrested in columbia. at least one protest has been killed in bogota during antique government protested. demonstrates this fault with riot police in bogota. there have been daily demonstrations against rising poverty and equality and police brutality. protest 1st began in april against the government's proposed tax reform, which has since been withdrawn. those are your headlines so far. the news continues here on al jazeera. after full lines. i'll have more news in 30 minutes. i'll see you that tune in to august the english in

h. d for the best experience out there in h. d. 's available across europe on satellites. usually the 13 sci astro, long chaos and astra to g. starting fast, july $221.00 out there. english sd, across europe will only be available on 451241828000784 further information, visit our website. me the temperature drops in a very low and out of power in the city to begin shut down. right, i thought cold february, the lights went out for millions of people in texas as a crippling winter storm down the states power grid. more than 4000000 people were plunged into darkness and left without heat or water. i can imagine

that she froze more than 150 people, 900 fries. according to the news tallies at the battle, much higher is projected to be the most expensive disaster in texas history. all of this death instruction wasn't just from the lack of power, but also from choices made by state leaders. texas is the only state in the us where the power grid is not under federal oversight. instead, there are more than a 100 companies selling electricity. the system, the collapse under the weight of the storm. but the market in work. they didn't stop 4000000 texans from losing power. those market signals didn't stop 14000000 texans from losing water. didn't stop 200 texans from dying. the market just didn't work. in this episode, a fault once we report on the aftermath of the priest it ask if years a deregulation and prioritizing profits to the state power grid failure.

2 months after texas went dark the spring, he can make it hard to remember just how superior the winter storm was but its impact and loss are still being felt. she's a good megan lane. yeah, that's a great picture. is a life? oh, actually she was nice and so brian. shan, lot of people in mid february, as temperatures began to drop. rachel asked mary her 84 year old step mother to come stay with them but the worst in the storm. and we was trying to get her to come and stay with me. and then i remember saying you're allowed to been to worse than miss b. okay. so we may share that if she had everything, she need water, food, or whatever. she wanted. the night of february 14th into the morning temperatures

plummeted to sub reason. hitting lows, not seen in decades of snow and ice accumulated that's when the power began to go out throughout houston. when did you guys know that this wasn't just going to be a normal storm like that something different was happening. was like the day before because the way that they did it on the news, it was like, it might be a little bad. yeah. they down played a lot. they did not say that the thing was going to be as big as it was when the kid called her grandmother that february 15th mary, still have power in her home by 715 at night. we called again, i was actually where she okay with her lighting on to my lights and stuff was off already and she's i yeah, my license stuff is on my heated my. he did say i'm good, but overnight kill us as the power and he went out where her grandmother lived. the next morning, rachel received a call from mary's neighbor. and she said,

miss rachel, i'm calling it because it's some wrong which i'm mom. she say, well, i don't was over nancy, is she just turn around and say oh, she's dead? and i'm i just went ran and got my brother. i told him i was there and we needed to get over there. and it was this greenly screening call. they said we couldn't touch your phone a say we could get my brother had already turned in his oh my god. no, she froze the most. i don't say the whole time i've ever gone up. when she talks about this, the 1st thing she says, she always prays for god to take her while she's asleep. jeff, the die of death. freezing to death. i can't imagine just what she might have went

through. right. she was asleep. i pray that god. so why she was late. because that is a bothers me. it bothers me. i wouldn't want nobody to go. no baggage. the winter storm was one of the coldest texas as seen in years as people blasted their heaters trying to stay warm. the need for power searched the power grid, couldn't meet the demand. so operators began to manage the problem with rolling or short term blackouts. but as equipment froze at both power plants and fuel suppliers, the grid was too stressed, and blackouts lasted for days, from millions of texans. for most of the people who died for the storm, including murray, the cause of death was hypothermia. emergency workers had an upsurge and calls for carbon monoxide poisoning,

as people tried to stay warm in their cars or by using their stove for the carbon monoxide cause. i've never seen apartments full of people getting transport to the hospital who had barbecue pits and charcoal burning inside their apartment. on a normal day, houston's firefighters response roughly a 1000 cars, like the small house fire. but during the winter storm, there cause trouble. as residents tried to find any way to stay warm, so even as houston froze, the city was on fire. and this is at night what transpired. the fire started or by started using whatever means they could to stay warm. and then here's where the freeze comes in. at night and you can see all the fires that are coming in. 2100 runs 3300 runs 2800 runs. now it's starting to drop down to $1714.00. and now we're getting back to 1100, which is pretty typical. your 3 times your capacity right in here. oh,

absolutely. we were really stretching ourself then. is it common on cold nights that you have more house fires? oh, yeah, because there's always people seeking to see trying to seek heat and whatever they can do to find the houston's emergency. workers are used to disasters, since hurricanes are common here, but the fisher's winter story, and the power outage is it over to the city. and state were different, as long as the electricity is working and they could heat their homes to a somewhat comfortable agree that everything reason everything was good. but when that kicked in it, it was a game changer throughout the city. when we lost power, the black out started rolling, that's when i knew it was going to get really bad. immediately you lose power, use water. the hospitals have the same problems. there's no where to take people. what was it like for you guys to have to respond to these calls for a little tax and didn't smell great around the fire station? no showers, no, nothing for us either. same wet clothes can imagine no,

hopeless return. you put it back on. they got to the point at the fire scene when the fire out, when you stand still, it just freezes up. it's a blanket, see actually take it off like a sweater and late in here. and hopefully it's going to be a little warmer in here. but when you lost all the heat, they were just a blanket device, but you have to put it back on that's. that's our protection. do you remember the moment you realize the blackouts were going to be rolling? okay, this is suspected that when all of a sudden it felt like someone just flip the switch and it was very quiet and everything just kind of went dead. and it didn't come back for about 12 hours 1st time. and i said, you know, i think, i don't know if this was a natural and then it seems like something happens. how long have you been in the car for 39 years and how long have you been in the 1770 years? and you guys ever seen anything like this? nothing. nothing like this. with this non stop for 4 days. the

repeat operator would later admit that the grid a come within minutes of a complete collapse. since the local and state officials have raise questions about who was responsible for the black house and it's doing damage, we've been hit hard by nature this week, but we can't deny that some of this is a man made disaster as well, but we weren't the depth of the crisis kept the story in the national needles. we were told by the state and the power grid that we would experience rolling blackouts with 30 minutes to an hour. well, those rolling blackouts turn to a complete catastrophic failure as far as we're concerned. the heart of the issue is the power grid and how it's controlled. there are 3 power grids in the us, one covering the eastern part of the country, another the western bolt under federal oversight. and then there's texas the only state the us to have its own power grid,

90 percent of the state as part of it with the rest around the borders. still part of the 2 national grants traveling east from houston, just one county over at liberty county, texas. you're off the texas power grad. you're on the national eastern grade year. they experience rolling blackouts. if that pack there during the winter storm power and water for day 2 decades ago, the texas legislature deregulated the energy market here and went from a state controlled system to a lightly regulated open market. so before that, it used to be just a few entities that you would sale, fell the power, and that was your regulated utilities. but after that, in majority of the market, there were hundreds, at some point off the retail or so those other electron providers, the change, the energy market here was supposed to provide lower price to consumers. but as did

prices for residence had gone up over time. well, industry from power companies to their fuel suppliers have profited with little regulation, texas. we're left with a less reliable grid. by the way, the texas market is set up means that power plants don't have to maintain back up supply of energy. it is what is known as an energy only market, right? so you are not, you don't have capacity sitting around that you're paying you, you be there and we'll call you and the need arises. the idea is consumers won't pay attic costs for reserve. energy in the market will always be able to meet demand except that didn't work during the winter storm when power plants as well as, or hills versus froze and didn't reserve or back up to rely on. this wasn't the 1st time texas grid. they severe weather challenges though in 2011, a severe winter storm led to rolling outages and prompted state inquiries in

federal investigation into what could prevent this from happening again, you have to build in resiliency into us, into your system if you don't want them to be repeated houston's mayor, sylvester turner was a state representative at the time after that storm he proposed to bill requiring texas to maintain enough reserve power to prevent future blackouts. but the bill didn't even make it out of committee. that bill, unfortunately, was never given a hearing because the powers that be felt that there was no need to impose these type of mandates that they, they, they chose a market driven approach. and that means, but they did what the, what the, the policy makers made the decision that instead of mandating adequate supply to prevent blackouts, that they would allow the power generators to earn more, to charge more when the demand exceeded supply turner was also part of the

legislature when voted to regulate to energy market and something he supported to have it now. so it's nice to have y'all grid, but if you're going to have young grid, then you have a greater responsibility to make sure that you have adequate supply or power to meet the demand. and you need to make sure that you factor in effect, the climate change is real. so you need to build a resilient system. okay? all of those things need to be put in place. if you do that, you can have your own system and you've been responsible and accountable. if you're not willing to do that, then the consequences of going to be huge in the aftermath of the storm. texas is now faced with the question of if and how should prepare for another heart winter. recovering from the storms expected to cost more than $100000000.00. and months later, residents are still dealing with the damage to their homes and their lives. give

out anything happened like this before? never had been to hurricane i down i or army allison, but nothing with the storm like this when when the winter storm hit and temperature dropped water parts frozen burst throughout homes like 12 degrees is cold and pipes bus in the bath. and i didn't know that heights in the attic. i knew we had a vacuum on an attic, and i was just gushing and just coming down to ceiling. just coming down. how long would you without water? back onto march to 30 almost 50 days because i didn't have insurance to get the high fix. so i had to wait to someone to come help me

right now with no insurance and unable to afford the repair. it has been connected with volunteers working to help homeowners recover from the storage damage there. still thousands of families across just do are just in houston that are waiting on insurance waiting on their application to be submitted for assistance or, or waiting for volunteers to do that. let's, we'll finish this side here in the group became working in 2017 after hurricane harvey. and has continued to other disasters including the winter storm. the fries caused a flood from the inside and were used to floods from the outside. we've had 7 floods in the last 6 years. do you have a sense down here that the climate changes playing a part of this does it just seemed like well kind of weird weather or that this is driven by the larger forces? yeah, i think the climate change in constantly and there's a lot of things that,

that are impacted between. just having more people living here. more people living on earth. we're going to have larger swings of disasters. i mean all the disasters are getting bigger. you know, it was so bad that even after that week that we still couldn't get water. they had to wait for the truck to bring water to the stores. it was one and out of water. and people fan. this is not like a 3rd world country. you know, jacob, to stuff like this, that's what we was going to, that we could not get water, not right. what they're doing. they need to get the right people in there to do what they need to do. so this don't ever happen again. you think the problem is the problem of resources or is it a problem of politics? politics, not resources. not resources,

politics. a need to be more concerned about the newer rena, like sister stores potentially fall into the officials that manage the grid for dark and the region has been able to operate as its own interconnection. the organization operation to create is called her and her car is regulated by the public utility commission, where the p u. c, who's officials are appointed by the governor, the ability to manage up wholesale electricity market that operates differently to promote other parts of the country. for the very effective giving the top officials of both and the p u. c. reside, not long after the freeze generation, but any real change to make the grid more reliable and prevent another disaster will require action from the state legislature. after the winter storm in 2011, the rule officials warned that the texas crit would be susceptible to another cold

weather failure. and one of their main recommendations was winter rising power plants, or clipping them for cold weather, as well as fuel sources. specifically, natural gas, but deliciously cher, didn't edge back to the legislature, didn't require the energy and energy industry to make investments in the industry didn't make those investments. many other companies that failed this year 2021 of the very same companies that failed. 2011. i think the failure was in basically taking the company's words forward in the industry's word for it. they didn't invest. and as a result, all of the facts us suffered because the texas legislature only meet once every 2 years. it was added pressure to address the grid failure before this session ended, we're told to leave it to market participants to solve and they keep failing us. right? so just so good. if i could, oh,

they did pay was. so i'd like for you to go and answer to those families who's who lost loved ones in the and say that they didn't during this year session, the legislature seemed to be making steps to require power plants to winter rise. but still that the question of, if they would make the same requirement for their energy supplier, namely, natural gas officials have tried to blame renewable energy like wind and solar, including the governor, john. this shows how the great new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america, who went on brooklyn is in the middle of the crisis to blame renewable energy, central gas, and oil. but the primary source of energy during the winter and the one that killed the most was natural gas. gas failed more from a total perspective, right? the, the total amount of failure, the majority of that came from natural gas energy generation. and so when supply

fell, because well heads were freezing, they weren't able to sell to the electricity generators, and those generators failed addressing that particular failure means questioning the oil and gas industry, which has a powerful and influential lobby. and texas should be more regulated that would require not only the legislature to take action, but also the texas railroad commission, which has nothing to do with what it sounds like. in fact, it's in charge of regulating the state oil and gas industry. the commission itself is made up of 3 elected officials, all of whom come from oil and gas and have been resistant to any attempts to regulate the industry. there is a serious commingling of interests between the regulators and the industry actors and the results that we get. what are sometimes referred to as captive agencies, right? administrative agencies that are run by the very businesses that they are intended to regulate in the wake of the winter storm and the power outages. the commission

has opposed any move to winter rise natural gas facilities. saying the problem isn't them only power plants will fail, simply cannot run without power and making electricity the best. when a relation tool, they oppose any efforts to prohibit them from taking money from the very industry that they're regulating. i mean we've, we've had bills that have said no, you can't take money from the industry when they have pending cases before you never passes and they resisted, well feel and here is a member of the texas house energy committee. he's trying to push for more transparent railroad commission. so when you look at the railroad commissions argument, it seems that they're saying as long as the supply side has electricity that they'll be able to provide. so they don't need to take steps to winter rise,

even though after 2011, the federal officials recommended to winters ation. does that, does that argument hold water? no, i mean it's just inaccurate. and it's, and the only independent parties that have looked at what happened in texas. they've said that we had a major failure at the well had and the gathering lines and the well operations like stuff froze, why? it's not magic. it's not this crazy rocket science because they pull up water in these well operations and they use water and he's well impressions guess what happens, a water, it freezes, not complicated. and, and for them to deny that there were 3000000000 cubic feet of gas that frozen those operations. it flies in the face of science and of all of the independent assessments that have been done on this, including by the federal government. federal economist have said the benefits of winters ation outweigh the cost. but the legislature following the leader,

the oil and gas industry has resisted the move. what in the world would it take for texas to actually mandate girl a gas industry? i've often times wonder the same question and sometimes we operate as a legislature or as regulators as a holy hon subsidiary for me. i guess that's i'm a 9 sessions into this and i'm pretty cynical about our ability to move the needle and, and for the oil and gas to kind of accept responsibility here. and if, if they don't want to build a pass doesn't pass. so bottom line, the texas railroad commission declined our request for an interview with the only days left in this year, sasha, for rep the legislature finally voted on a bill to address the winter storm. $342.00 eyes and 0 nase to conference committee report is adopted. the final bill required power plants to winter rise within 6

months. but when it came to natural gas suppliers, the legislature made no firm requirements for winters ation. leaving any possible rules to be created and implemented by the texas railroad commission. we have the problem in texas that we are willing to privatize profits and subsidize losses. we are once again say, you know, either either tacitly or explicitly that we are okay with private companies making profits from energy production in texas. we are okay with them not providing us a service that is reliable enough to keep the lights on to keep the heat on that we're not requiring them to provide that service. and that is just a very disappointing position to be in. it's also a position at least texas to wonder if the state will be ready when another disaster hits in who will pay the cost? if not. so what would you like to seat change from this?

they need to go back and they need to wait, arrive everything we need to be. we need to be good with when you need to go with floods. i mean, they got a lot to do. we pay too much money in faxes for them not to do it. they're always saying what they will do and we don't, it doesn't get done, but then it takes all of this a whole winter storm, all winter disaster to now for them to try to clean up what they did. and she was a good person, a very brilliant old guy. she was awesome. awesome, awesome person. she was telling me i lied to tell me what the people need to look at. it is, oh, something is for losing a low was something you was negligent? oh, that's, that's one me.

me in 2020 new york city was the global at the center of death and in this from the corona virus. like many cities, the panoramic has altered the metropolis is very fabric. hundreds of thousands of floods, the celebrated concrete jungle. those who remain know that restoring it's my talent will be easy. people in power asks whether the city can bounce back to its former glory. saving new york on a just, you know, you can watch english streaming live and i get 2 channels plus thousands of our

programs award winning documentaries. and you get to choose to scribe. you choose dot com forward slash al jazeera english ah vote counting is under way and ethiopia as general election, but the conflict to meet the grey region. an opposition boycotts and logistical challenges shadowed. the poll. ah, hello and welcome on pizza, w are watching l to 0. life and so coming up election and a decisive victory. thousands of armenians take to the streets to celebrate nicole .