democracy studio b unscrewed states on houses they ran, ah, bold and untold stories from asia and the pacific on al jazeera. ah . a german court sentences of former syrian intelligence officer to life in prison and the 1st have a conviction of an official to torture mass murder in serious war. oh, hello. i am dire in jordan, this is al jazeera live from dough, also coming up to the man who assassinated us presidential candidate robert kennedy . 54 years ago is denied parole by california's governor. the u. s. supreme court blocks the bible administration's requirement, but workers at large companies should be fully vaccinated or test regularly. the

coven. 19. i'm britton's prince. andrew is stripped of his royal and military titles by his mother, queen elizabeth the 2nd. as he faced a civil trial. m. a u. s. mississippi's ah, a former syrian colonel has been jail for life in germany for torture and murder during serious civil war. anwar ross law as a 1st year and official to be convicted for such crimes. he held up top position in a prison where detainees were tortured and killed for seeking a solomon germany back in 2014. dominic came reports from berlin. 10 years ago. unwashed osland was a senior officer in the syrian government forces. now the former colonel is starting a life sentence for crimes against humanity convicted by a german court of multiple counts of murder, torture, and sexual violence. all carried out during his time in charge of the al hattie

prison, near damascus, dahlia collector, by untied as, as the defendant was a part of a system. at his instigation, thousands of civilians were greatly tortured. he is also responsible for the murder of at least $27.00 people. the evidence we put forward proved fat unambiguously pursuing ruslan defected to the syrian opposition in 2012 before eventually coming to germany. 2 years later where he was granted asylum, it was only in 2018 that police began checking out his story. when they realized the extent of his crimes, they decided to prosecute. in bringing this case, the german authorities have invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction. effectively saying that some crimes are so serious that it doesn't matter where they take place, nor does it matter that the victims and perpetrators on not german. what matters is that justice be done. outside the court on thursday, relatives of those killed in syria gave their reaction to the verdict. yeah,

they haven't shown that evidence. yeah, we were actually expecting this verdict and were of course, hoping that this would be the word it. of course, this doesn't bring back our loved ones and doesn't get our loved ones out of prison . we have to keep talking about it and keep reminding the world that there are still a lot of people in syrian prisons and math in on the human rights campaign. is welcomed the sentence, i think it's quite okay for their survivor, their syrian how are affected with this crime? so i hope that they serve these symptoms and their little b as strong pays for her future war and water. aslan was not the 1st former member of the syrian government forces to be jailed in germany. and if the government here continues its prosecuting drive against those suspects of war crimes, there, he seems. unlikely to be the last dominant came al jazeera berlin,

california governor gavin newsome has denied parole. the man who assassinated us presidential candidate, robert kennedy. sir hanser hon. a palestinian refugee has been serving a life sentence for the 1968, killing robert kennedy's murder came just 5 years after his brother, president john f. kennedy was killed in texas. rob reynolds reports from los angeles, the man convicted of killing robert f. kennedy. more than 50 years ago will remain behind bars. california governor gavin newsome rejected parole for sir, han b. sharice your hon. a palestinian immigrant found guilty of assassinating kennedy . in 1968 kennedy was a democratic us senator and younger brother of the assassinated president john f. kennedy, he was running for the democratic party nomination for president and had just celebrated winning the crucial california primary at a rally at the ambassador hotel in los angeles. i thank to all of you and out on

the chicago and like when as kennedy and his entourage made their way back stage in the kitchen area of the hotel, sir, hans struck fatally wounded kennedy with a bullet to the head. dozens of people witness the shooting. it was an act of violence that changed the course of american history. in august of last year, a california parole panel recommended that sir han who is now 77 years old. be released, saying he had expressed some remorse, but newsome has the final say on pearls. in a statement he called sir han's assassination of kennedy among the most notorious crimes in american history. he said sir, hans still poses a threat to the public. sir han initially said he was motivated to kill kennedy because of the senator support for israel. he never denied the crime but later claimed he remembered nothing from that night. although 2 of robert kennedy's children urged sir han's release,

many kennedy family members said they were deeply relieved by the decision. rob reynolds al jazeera los angeles, with the u. s. supreme court has blocked the biden administration's vaccine or testing mandate for large companies. the plan would have forced around $80000000.00 americans to get the corona virus job or take regular tests. if they work for a company with more than $100.00 employees. the court voted 6 to 3 against the mandate saying it was an improper imposition on the life and health of those affected. but they've ruled health care workers can be mandated to get the job that makes it a legal requirement for more than 10000000 people in the sector for the rulings came as president biden amounts, that more military medical personnel will be deployed to staff hospitals. our white house correspondent, kimberly help get referrals. i know we're all frustrated as we enter this new year

. overwhelmed by a record number of i'm a crime infections. us president joe biden announced he was deploying more military medical team to at least 6 states. it's a surge bite in blames on the millions in the u. s. still and vaccinated right now, both vaccinated unvaccinated people are tested positive. but what happens after that could not be more different. public health officials report the majority of us hospitalizations and death remain among the on vaccinated to help control the i'm a crohn very and spread by then has announced a new plan to distribute mass nationwide. next week will announce, well as how, where i'm making high quality mask available to american people. the american people for free last month, the white house also announced it was ordering 500000000 co with 900 test on thursday by didn't announce his administration was doubling that number. but as for

when americans could receive those tests, his vice president commer harris, couldn't say shortly though they're going to go out really, we've been ordered, they've been ordered. we have to look at the current information, i think is going to be by next week. but soon, absolutely, the lack of availability has led to widespread frustration with the biden harris administration's response, especially when last month, the president ward, he expected a high number of cobra infections. we are looking at a with severe illness and americans were asking why more wasn't done sooner. one analyst points out america, that unique system hampers the response. so much of the us health care system is outside of the federal government. it is privatized, it is for profit. so having the government coordinate everything is, is quite difficult. the 1st batch of ad home covered tests are expected to be

distributed by the end of the month. on friday, the details of how americans can access those tests through a new government website are expected to be made public. kimberly health care al jazeera washington. china is facing a test of at 0 cobra policy ahead of the beijing winter lympics. in february, the nearby city of john jan is under strict locked down with 41 locally transmitted amik on cases reported on thursday. travel in and out of the air has been severely restricted. there are fears the outbreak could disrupt the winter games and also the upcoming lunar new year celebration next month. but clinic joins us live now from hong kong, right. so just bring us up to date on the latest situation in china, and also there in hong kong where you will well, as you say, the focus of china's covet efforts is intention. now they're not exactly sure what the source is and change in, but they do know that the chain of transmission looks to have gone through primary

school kids. now change in to give you an idea is just about a 30 minute train ride to bay ging way winter games will be held. so that's why this alarm around this cluster in change it and they taking no chance with the olympics as a closed loop system. so that athletes and travelers will be separated from residence there at authorities of also now announced that they will be ramping up more rigorous. checks for inbound travelers into bay ging. there is also a suspected case of coven 19 in the southern district of phone tai that's believe to be linked to the change in cluster, as well. as we know, one case in china is one to many. there are around 140 cases every day in china at the moment, and that is causing some concern in the country. now, chasing covered, there is something that we know a lot about here in hong kong to there currently are under around 10 local cases. every day, but there are some districts that are more alarming than others. the western

district of chin moon that is under mandatory testing right now because 2 nurses have tested positive, they're now chief executive kerry lab is set to announce some relief measures for businesses that have been impacted by the restrictions the ramped restrictions over the last couple of weeks we've seen a ban on 8 countries, including the united states and the united kingdom. there's now also a ban for transit passengers who come from to hong through hong kong. they won't be allowed to do that until the middle of next month. and primary school kids and kindergarten, kids have also returned to home learning officials, however, do appear to be very confident that they can bring this social 5th wave on to control and many hoping that they are still able to gather for chinese new year festivities in 2 weeks time to ring in the year of the tiger. all right, separate tenet life in hong kong. thank you now teaches in france of walked off

a job and a nationwide strike to protest against the government's handling of the pandemic. they say the measures in place don't go far enough to protect them. france is one of the country's most affected by the amazon variant in europe. infection rates are up by about 45 percent last week. let's come here now. does air including running out of time? will argentina strike a deal with international lenders? before march deadline, we speak to the economy minister and white public transport workers in lebanon. had walked off the job more on that and stay with us. ah hello, we have signs of some quiet weather making its way across much of north america. same much but not all. we do have a fabulous snow in the forecast the some courtesy of this area of low pressure which will sink its way across the northern in central plains over the next day or

so. meanwhile, was seeing some quite to where the rabbit was at east side of canada or western parts as well should be largely dry over the next day or 2, there is that snow runs down her cross minnesota, pushing down into iowa, grassy make its way into missouri it will be widespread, and on the southern flank of that is it bumps into some milder as a warm air. it will turn to rain in that rain will be a heavy at times for parts of the mississippi and also alabama could cause some localized flooding. muslim, further north, it's dry. it's gotta be crispin cold, new york, with a top temperature by sas day of minus 6 degrees celsius. a good deal cold in that of course, into canada or to were around minus 17, but some sparkling sunshine. should we say coming through here? do wrap up warm, ready to wrap up, warm across the car, be a lot of sunshine around here. we have got some showers in the forecast. having said that, he could see some wet weather that rain just making his way across a dominican republic, easing over to ward, so puerto rico, with

a few showers for these knots. ah. the coveted beyond wealth taken without hesitation, fulton died for political power defines our wild laws. loop babies were doyle. i did it, not for your baby. it's neglected babies to deck people empower, investigates, exposed is and question. so the use and abuse of power around the come on out to 0. ah ah,

welcome back over about about top stories here. this, our former serum colonel has been jail for life in germany, but torture and murder during serious civil war on, while ross loves a 1st syrian official to be convicted to such crimes, he moved to germany, asthma, asylum seeker. in 2014, california governor gavin newsome has been, i parole for the mom who assassinated us presidential candidate robert kennedy. 54 years ago, sir. hm. so hon. a palestinian refugee has been serving a life sentence for the 1968 kimmie and britain's prince andrew husband tripped with his military titles and can no longer be called his royal highness. he compares to face a civil sex abuse trial in new york. now some of the top universities in the us are being sued for allegedly working together to limit financial aid for students. yale, columbia, and georgetown are among the 16 universities facing a lawsuit in illinois state. former students alleged the institutions shared

calculations on how much money would be offered. lawyers say as many as a $170000.00 students could be eligible to join the case. well, jason nichols is a senior lecturer in african american studies. the university of maryland. it joins us via skype, from ellicott city in maryland. jason, good to have you with us. so this is a very serious allegation against these elite universities. how surprising is this and how widespread is the problem? well, i don't think it's so surprising. we know that in many, for many years, people have gotten admission because they are connected or because they had wealthy donors as family members. so some elements of this case are not surprising. it is upsetting though. busy because using wealth to determine admission or limiting financial aid is fundamentally anti american. so many americans changed to were the trajectory of their families by getting a university education. so putting a university education out of the reach of some students and price gouging is

a serious problem for the future of our nation. and particularly for my students, who are many of them come from working class backgrounds that are african american or latino. yeah, and that's an interesting point you make, jason, because some of the service say the financial aid formula, as you say, benefited, wealthy students at the expense of minorities like african american students. is this also perhaps why universities are still accused of not letting in enough people of color? absolutely, i mean this is, this has been a long standing problem, particularly at, at elite universities like the universities who am mentioned in the lawsuit, universities like columbia georgetown, which is in the washington d. c. area. i and a yale have a long history of not really changing the, the amount of african american and latino students and native american students that get through their doors. but people who make big donations, who may not actually be qualified to get in there, seem to get in. and this is

a real big problem for the future of our nation. i. i think our nation depends upon african american and latinos getting opportunities because as we know, the white population in the united states is shrinking and the population of african americans, latinos, and other people of color is growing. so if those young people don't get those opportunities of a nation isn't going to at jason, just to play devil's advocate for a 2nd because under an antitrust exemption for schools, universities are allowed to work together on determining financial aid formulas. as long as i understand it, as students are admitted on a needs blind basis. so is this lawsuit then like it to be successful? do you think well that that remains to be seen. it sounds as though they have some really good evidence that that suggests that some of these universities are letting certain students in and, and are trying to,

to fix the price. they are allowed to come together and determine those things. but they're not allowed to price gouge and, and price out certain students are the way the lawsuit alleges. so this is really true. this is really troubling, particularly at such prestigious universities. jason, just a final thought to you. i mean, how does this case compare to say, the varsity blues scandal, where i think you mentioned it earlier, wealthy families committed fraud in order to get their children into top us universities. some parents even went to prison. so what needs to be done? you think going forward? should congress be involved, perhaps and then congress should absolutely be involved. we need tuition free college. that's the answer. and many other countries, 1st world countries around the, the world had tuition free college. we at the very least need for students to be able to get an education in the community college system without having to pay. and you know, that would equal out the playing field for so many american young people to be able

to get an education test. nichols, when a good to get your thoughts. thank you very much. indeed the talking to us and they're now britain's prince. andrew has been stripped of all military and royal title as it comes just a day off. a judge in the u. s. rule that a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse, can continue virginia as your fray picture. he alongside the princess, she was forced to have sex with him and other men. when she was 17 years old, the palace has been sandra, will defend the case as a private citizen, which any bone is a u. k. royal commentator, she says, prince andrew's reputation won't recover whatever the outcome of the trial. what we're seeing here is the institution of monarchy acting quite quickly, quite ruthlessly. one might say, certainly, brutally to protect itself. the queen decided that enough was enough last few weeks it months of been dominated by leer. it headlines about the duke of york, all the other work. the members of the royal family doing seems not to get

a noticed am and it could not go on any longer. so she moved to protect the monarchy by doing something which very hard for any mother to do, which is permanently sac and publicly humiliate her son. this is going to rumble on and on. and the duke may have to give quite embarrassing evidence, maybe submit himself to what probably now submit himself to 7 hours of a detail legal cross examination. and i just think that the queen felt that and, and the duke of cambridge and the her and prince charles, all of the key members of the monarchy, felt that they had to protect the institution and cut andrew loose. his patronage is and his military titles all being handed out at mediately to other members of the family. it couldn't go on because the military themselves were making very loud noises about how they didn't want this,

this toxic person to be their honory colonel in chief, a 150 a veterans military veterans wrote to the queen herself and said, we don't want him any more you must strip him and i think that forced the queen's hand and now there is no coming back for the duke is going to continue to defend himself as a private citizen. that doesn't really wash with me. i don't think it'll wash with the public either. he remains a member of the earth and he remains the queen's son. and i think they're hoping that the institution won't be tainted by his toxicity. but nevertheless, the, the case is going to get enormous publicity. he protests his innocent, he may well be in, but i'm afraid his reputation is shredded. and a 2 year old palestinian american who died after being detained and beaten by his railey soldiers, has been buried in the occupied west back. omar assad was arrested after visiting a relative near the city of ramallah. for your estate department has asked israel

for half a century. although we will no longer go alo bookman. he was on his belly, him with his face to the ground and hands cracked. they cut one side of the zip caps of his hand. the other was still cut. i checked his pulse, there was nothing. we called the doctor, but it was too late. the soldiers didn't talk to us. they had their weapons pointed to our heads and saying, hush or we'll shoot on. if i were to wave a fly away, they would have shot them. they were so aggressive. a soldier looked at him for others scheme of a whisper to each other and left after they checked him. public transport workers in lebanon, neuron strike, drivers have been blocking roads across the capital bay route. they're angry about increasing fuel prices and a sharp devaluation of the currency center hot reports. they try to paralyze the country, public transport workers blocked roads across lebanon. in the hope the authorities will improve their living conditions and international increase in fuel costs as

adding pressure to their financial challenges. but it's the rapid depreciation of the local currency that made petrol unaffordable for many is up pull. no abolaren are going airs. we demand, they fix the dollar rate so we can live, we can't survive with the fuel prices. we can't feed our children, we are in pain. lebanon's inflation has reached triple digits and is among the highest in the world that lead to fuel consumption, falling by nearly half. as many people are no longer able to afford using their cars, filling them with fuel costs more than their monthly minimum wage. that's now worth 20 us dollars. he kinda went to work is cheaper than using my car, but i still have to pay one ford of my salary for transportation. a few months ago, the nearly bankrupt government lifted subsidies on fuel because of a lack of foreign reserves and public transport costs increased by 400 percent la mama, i know people who walk in for kilometers because they can't afford to pay for the

ride. everything is too expensive. the economic crisis is likely to worsen as politicians blame for years of corruption. don't have a recovery plan needed to unlock international financial aid. last year, i'm going to talk we have to beg for money to survive. we are dying slowly. the situation is drastic. many people are also struggling with power outages, lasting 22 hours a day because the state can't afford to buy enough fuel. i pay 1600000 mirrors for private electricity. that is more than an average salary. what about the other bills? food inflation and lebanon is among the highest in the world. most people, 11 on, are paid in the local currency at the official exchange rate of $1500.00 to the us dollar. but the prices of goods in commodities are based on a power low market rates. that's no more than 30000 lire. us. there doesn't seem to be

a clear way out of the crisis. the government hasn't convened in 3 months because a political infighting. all the while desperation among many is increasing. and what was once a middle class country that their elders ita, beirut, argentina is trying to work out a deal with the international monetary fund and a bid to avoid economic collapse. the government has until march to restructure billions of dollars in debt. learn to it by the i m. f in 2018. 0 tories about spoke with the economy minister martin goodman about progress made in the negotiations. i didn't, tina struggling to stabilize the economy after years. the financial instability, poverty rates are over 40 percent and inflation close to 15. in 2018, the m f granted argentina and economic bailout to form a precedent feel motley. it was the largest known in the funds history, $57000000.00 for more than a year. the government and the m. f had been in tough talks, hoping to avoid

a potential default of the loan algebra met with economy minister, mapping of men who explained the current situation is a historic negotiation and the will to, to a large extent, determine the, the face that the m. f. will have in the next few years in a war that is full of problems in a word that is evolving and in which multilateralism needs to evolve. and m. f also needs to revolve. why the negotiation so difficult? i mean, i didn't have to pay this year. $19000000000.00. i mean, what are the discrepancy was versus difficult because of the size of a loan? because of what happens before a, you know, in 2018, there was a loan that many, many so as a political loan, as the support defense move production is the addition to a government. so that the government could win the elections. and that created

a lot of anti ity. it created many problems and the economic problem was implemented in not work. there's big differences between members of the i m f of those who support what origin tina is proposing. and those who don't. what is origin tina proposing? what we're proposing is if you scope past that in our view, we'll have bargain tina not only to give continuity to the met recovering the short term. but it will also help us to have a more dynamic market economy and economy that bills comp, dynamic competitive advantage is it has more a creation of value. dad a has more public infrastructure and has better capacity to invest in science. in technological developments, our view is that the kind of fiscal path that the i m f is proposing will bring troubles. there are differences, day m f once

a faster boss of fisco. faster fiscal conciliation than what argentina's proposing . and we think that will affect the, the recovery in the short term, but also the capacity of the economy to grow in the medium, a long term. i think if you are for an investor and you are outside of argentina and you look at the economy here and you say it's a country that has had over 20 programs with the many of which have had paled a country with capital controls with inflation. what would you say to them to say that this time it's going to be different? so there is on the upside, the economy is growing. there are investment opportunities, investment, as i said, we have grown by 35 percent this year. and actually there is foreign direct investment today in important sectors of our economy, especially in sectors associated with, with natural resources and then get industrialized or in denise. now on the right path. no, i didn't. tina has

a history of endless economic troubles that have often ended with payment crisis to the i m f. in march. argentine now we'll have to pay around $2900000000.00. that's why an agreement is crucial to prevent that country default once again. that will defeat site if quick reminded. gotcha. but when he was in the web site, there would have been a screen out 0 dot com. ah, dr. creature, the headlines are now to 0, form a syrian colonel, as in jail, for life in germany, for torture and murder. during series, civil war and war ruslan is the 1st syrian official to be convicted for such crimes . he moved to germany as an asylum seeker in.