ah ah ah, the cost at the council's ongoing silence is too high. more than half the un security council condemns north korea's latest launches, but china calls for dialogue. ah, again, i'm peter w, watching al jazeera alive from dough are also coming up. the u. s. wave, some sanctions on iran, as talks continue to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal. the 1st full day of

competitions underway at the beijing winter olympics, but the event is being overshadowed by coping 19 and a diplomatic boycott. and will tell you about the turf war between rebels in columbia that's threatening the forthcoming election. ah, more than half the un security council has condemned north korea for its recent missile launches. 8 nations issued a statement, including the us, france, japan, and the u. k. but china has called on the us to engage in dialogue with north korea . it's our diplomatic editor james base. she didn't, judy of, she almost kissed at all this propaganda video has been ad in recent days on north korean t. b. kim jong on is showing off his question, skills riding at speed on a white horse. but it is the speed of progress is countries making with nuclear

weapons and miss all programs. it's warring diplomats. there were 9 missile launches in january, a record in a month. and the most recent launch was an advanced intermediate range ballistic missile. ambassadors came to a closed door meeting the 3rd this year. before it even started, though, the chinese ambassador made it clear he felt there was a vicious circle. and the u. s. needed to do more invoking the summits that president trump had held with the korean leader in 20182019. they should come up with more attractive and more practical, more flexible approaches, policies and accents. we have all seen, we have all seen what happened in figure pull. we have all seen what happened the hanoi china and russia wouldn't agree to a joint security council statement at this stage. that clearly angered 8 other

council members, which came up with their own statement read out by the u. s. embassy. the cost at the council's ongoing silence is too high. it will embolden the dpr k to further defy the international community. your chinese colleague said that the u. s . needs to do more, and he specifically referred to the her noise summit and the singapore summit, which president trump had with the supreme leader kim. so is it time for president biden to get directly involved in the diplomacy? the united states has made clear that we are willing to meet with the north koreans without pre conditions. but before we can, can met our president to meeting, we need to have a better sense of what there is to achieve. the united states would clearly like the security council to take a tougher stand on pyongyang, but china currently actually wants to ease sanctions on north korea. and it's

a subject that will come up again on monday when the security council, under the presidency of russia, holds a meeting about sanctions around the world. james spies al jazeera at the united nations. the u. s. is waving sanctions on iran civilian nuclear program as talks to save the 2015 nuclear deal, enter a critical stage. the waiver was ended by the then u. s. president donald trump in 2020. rosalind jordan has more from washington essentially what so the secretary of state antony blinkin has done on friday is restore one part of the deal that was reached back in 2015. this sanctions waiver allows foreign companies and governments to assist iran in the maintenance of 3 of its nuclear reactors. both share a rock which is a heavy water reactor and the terran research reactor. otherwise, without this a waiver,

these companies and other governments could find themselves in trouble with the us, possibly facing a sanctions or ra, criminal charges of their own for assisting the government. this is a purely a maintenance, a type of relationship. you're bringing in parts, bringing in and the ability to monitor the amount of, of, of uranium that has been processed. and basically making certain that everything is safe at these 3 facilities. this is a technical step, one that needed to be done just for the safety of these facilities. and to in order to load, try to make certain that all of the terms of the j, c, p, away or ra nuclear deal can be complied with. you need to have the ability for other parties, not just the u. s. and iran, but other parties, other companies, other governments to know what's going on inside these facilities have the technical information available. so that they can best provide the assistance that

the iranians would need to keep these facilities running. ah now the 1st full day of competition is underway at the beijing winter olympics. nearly 3000 athletes are in a strict bubble because of cov 19. foreigners are not allowed to attend. the games have also been overshadowed by concerns of human rights abuses. his debit stokes from t o m. you heard in the way, try more. after a troubled build up the 24th winter olympics have officially begun in beijing. the venue for friday's opening ceremony was the birds nest stadium originally built for the summer olympics, back in 2008. it's the 1st city ever to host both the winter and summer games. dear fellow olympian, your allan pick stage is set you are for i fear after overcoming

so many challenges. but vow your moment this come the moment you have been longing for like the tokyo olympics last year. cobit 19 has given these games a different complexion that taking place inside a closed loop system, keeping competitors and staff away from the general public athletes must get tested for kirby 19 daily, and there were no foreign funds with only a small handpick domestic audience allowed to attend some of the world's best winter athletes are unable to compete after testing positive. this is not tougher than injury because you aren't putting yourself out. let's take the risk. it's just the risk is everywhere around us and i really feel for those athletes. i can't. i can't even imagine how it must be to day 4 years of work and then at the last minute. so had that taken away by something that's out of your control. several world leaders have trouble to beijing for the games,

but other nations including the u. s. britain than canada have declared a diplomatic boycott overcharged as human rights record. specifically, its treatment of muslim wages, china to noise human rights abuses, the people's republic of china is perpetrating a campaign of gross human rights violations, including genocide. over the next 2 weeks is an urgent moral duty to shine a bright light on the many human rights violations being perpetrated by the host nation. beijing, 2022 organized essay. the games will be carbon neutral. oh, venues will be powered by renewable energy, and 5 of them have been repurposed from 2008, but with very little slow, full, more than 200000000 liters of water have been used to generate fake powder for the alpine locations. let's not be name in the artificial snow is used in a consistent way for decades. no in winter, a competitive sport. what is really important,

like for any other activities that there we, we practice is to try to do it in the most efficient way with the lead up to the olympics dominated by politics and covered 19, most of the athletes will have the focus now shifted to the action as nearly 3000 competitors from 91 nations fight to take home a gold medal. david stokes al jazeera yaki you long is a senior china researcher for human rights watch. she says government should do more than stage boycotts. the diplomatic boycott is the 1st step and there are more actions should be taken by paris government. the u. s. government has already passed to rigor for the labor prevention act, which any effect bands or imports originated from john. that's a consequential ad to because there lot of things made issue, you know, half of the word copy now, maybe john. so i think other governments, the u. k. government, you know, austria and governments should take similar actions to, you know,

address the serious us friday. should be, the chinese government is using the gain, legitimize its policy included terrible human rights violations, to heal case to the world. and, you know, we deliver the 2008 summer arlington game. the same city is deliver the wind. turning games is the 1st time ever in history that the 2 on pick games happening in one city. we tried to show how capable we are. and this is a completely a political thing. and the, you know, and for the i o c to say, you know, this is not political, it's, you know, completely far the us republican national committee has voted to sense yet to politicians from its own ranks. their lives cheney and adam kinsey. again, they're accused of defying party leadership by taking part in the investigation into the january. the 6th riots. republican politicians have described those events as legitimate political discourse and they have largely boycotted the inquiry

before me. us vice president mike pence is dismissed claims by donald trump, that he could have returned the results of the 2020 election and said he couldn't think of anything more on american. and i heard this week, the president trump said i had the right to overturn the election president, trump is wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs to the american people and the american people alone. and frankly, there is no idea more on american than the notion than any one person could choose . the american president, jason nichols is a democratic strategist. he says, mike pence is considering his own presidential ambitions. pencils rejection of donald trump's lies about the 2020 election. should have happened long ago and with extraordinary about this that it took this long, and he's been clearly positioning himself for 2024 run at the presidency. so this was just as much about beginning to stake

a path for his political future as it was about telling the truth. and he'll likely have to stand on a stage across from donald trump during the republican primary. and we'll have to look strong, unprincipled, and can't avoid this topic. and he did it in a politically expedient environment. you did it in front of the federalist society, like these are not people who are going to throw tomatoes. these people were supposed to be devoted to the constitution, but it was also important though i don't want to downplay the importance of hearing a man with closer to donald trump in the white house. acknowledge that january 6th was a dark day in american history. a large minority of our country believes that this was political discourse, or at the very least thinks that the violence came from other sources. they believe conspiracy theories that perhaps the f b i instigated the violent. so it's really, we're in a very, very difficult place. right. now as a nation and our democracy is very fragile,

because people don't believe what they can clearly see that this was a violent insurrection. still come here on out a 0. why? hong kong risks losing its role as the regions financial hub. and the african union will hold its 1st in person summit since the pandemic began with clues and the corona virus, top on the agenda. ah, ah, look forward to brighter sky's the weather. sponsored my cat on a ways as more snow falls in the rainy mountains as a by john sudden caucasus, but leaves turkey behind the cold. it always follows. it generates a shamal, it will blow for a day or 2, bringing some dust out of iraq to east and saudi. probably bahrain at her, and the you a temp to the venture will drop to high teens

a low twenties. so those severe, as we've seen, the last 2 episodes when this happened, this sunday, and the breeze drives down a little bit, but not completely do by will fill it by this time. the sun is a predominant few showers in lebanon, and may be serial by this time. rather, more violent and significant weather is this tropical cycle, an intense one, but sir, i on his way to make landfall during saturday afternoon. it sparsely populated area of madagascar, but this is going to affect a lot of madagascar and they've not seen a store this intensity in this area. i think since probably 2012 possibly before that these are the conditions. 105 kilometers brow wind. 50 meter ways generated flooding rains is going to be extensive. coastal lowland flooding and damage from those winds that the storm will fall apart almost. it goes across madagascar till it gets to the side during sunday. and monday, when it will slowly regenerate and hang around for a bit. ah,

the weather sponsored by katara always while the water is listen, design is our making theory a separate in order to drop the trend. we need to store understand the differences and similarities of culture across the world and might have when you call home will be used in current affairs . that matter to you the the me watching out to 0 reminder about top stories this half hour more than half the un

security council has condemned north korea. prince recent missile launches 8 nations, including the u. s. and the u. k. described as a significant escalation, china is calling for dialogue the 1st day of competitions under way of the aging when to game strict corona virus measures are in place 10 nations of staged 8 at sematic boycott because of human rights abuses. the u. s. is waving some sanctions on iran civilian nuclear program, as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, enter a critical stage for president donald trump entered the waiver in 2020 the u. s. jobs market took an unexpected upturn. in january, half a 1000000 jobs were created despite the search and army kron cases. the white house says it shows the economy is recovering from the pandemic with the still a chronic soft shortage. which happened just in the past 3 weeks. today's extraordinary job report that data was collected. the code crisis has been cut in

half down and half and just 3 weeks. still to many cases. still we have to be on the, on the alert. but to be clear, this is a dramatic decline. while the 900000 people have no died from curve at 19 in the us new infections linked to all micron and falling, but daily deaths are still on the rise. there's an average of $2400.00 a day. the u. s. has the highest number of corona virus deaths anywhere in the world. hong kong is facing increasing pressure to shift away from his no tolerance approach to the pandemic. as on the cron case is reached record levels there, economist a warning, but failing to relax restrictions could jeopardize the regions role as a financial hub. brit clinic reports from hong kong. hong kong is known as asia is world city that economists a warning that could soon change the territory as keeping in line with

a 0 coven policy adopted by mainland china. locked downs and mass testing are common place and social distancing. restrictions have been extended, at least until mid february. people have been suffering a lot in the past 2 years and i doubt whether people can stand another 23 years in the current state. so, so to me this is definitely not ideal. according to a report by the european chamber of commerce, hong kong, international isolation could extend into 2024, or until mainland china reopens to the world. experts say, hong kong reputation could suffer long lasting damage given that to the hong kong is the financial hub. is the headquarters for many multinational firms in the region? ah, and therefore many expects will want to come to hong kong. but you get discouraged by this policy that is going to make on kong. last international. hong kong is one of the few places in the world. still maintaining its no tolerance approach to coven and sticking to mainland china's policy. but as

a 5th wave of infections sweep through the community, followed by another round of restrictions, people here are increasingly questioning whether the strategy is sustainable or not . a scandal over birthday party, attended by government officials, has done little to boost trust. on monday, hong kong home affairs, chief casper choice stepped down after making he behaved inappropriately by attending the gathering last month. the government is also under pressure to boost vaccination rights among the elderly, currently at just over 30 percent, with our micron infections expected to serge following the lunar new year. festive period. getting infections to 0 is looking increasingly out of reach brit clinic. al jazeera hong kong thought a be puts in a set to meet the german chancellor and the french president in moscow. next week, they will discuss the military tensions in eastern ukraine. in a moment we'll hear from natasha butler on

a manual microns visit 1st. dominant. kane tells us about germany's diplomatic efforts. there are those in the media here in germany, but also in the international news media you've been saying, where is all our shots? what? see being up to why are we not hearing more from him in so far as ukraine is concerned, and sons, other world crises? well, he is planning lots of different involvement. so we know that on monday of next week he will be in washington d. c. meeting president joe biden, the german government has slight difficulty in that it wants to emphasize diplomacy and the threat of sanctions against russia as an act of aggression. and yet it doesn't want to arm the ukrainians. it doesn't want to give weapons to defensive weapons to key if, even though they know there are increasingly loud voices coming from key f, asking for precisely that. so it's quite a difficult half that mr. shots and his colleagues are having to,

to go down by trying to talk tough to the russian government while stressing the need for diplomacy. and yet also trying to appear like an ally to those in kiev who are asking for weapons which the germans don't want to give them. the french president manual micro is hoping to use some of his powers of personal persuasion to try and de escalate the crisis with russia of ukraine when he arrives in the russian capital on monday to meet of vladimir putin, the russian leader. now the 2 men had a telephone call on thursday evening. we understand it last just an hour. and this is the 3rd time that the tooth spoken on the phone in the past few weeks is all part of the french presence efforts to really try and push diplomacy to try and put the european union back at the center of diplomacy. because the li say are very adamant that this isn't about emmanuel micro, on

a solo mission to moscow representing fraud. this is a manual micro trying to talk to russia on the health of the european union. france has the rotating presidency of the european union at the moment, and he is traveling to moscow very much on behalf of the e. you, it's worth also noting that micro will be going to key as just after his meeting with president putin. no doubt, to brief for lensky, the ukrainian president, on the talk that he had with the russian liter. thousands of people had been rallying in molly against the former colonial power france. they were celebrating the expulsion of the french ambassador. he was given some 2 hours to leave off to the french foreign minister. describe molly's military leaders as illegitimate and out of control. the corona virus pandemic can recent coups, the top of the agenda to day summits of the african union. leaders are under pressure to increase the number of africans have been vaccinated mohammed ago has

more from addis ababa of the african union headquarters in the few up in capitol. the fust summit with b point instead of a video link in more than 2 years. the newly established africa center for disease control africa cdc, is leading efforts to keep the 2 day summit covered free. the decision to hold a summit in possum. ah, since the advent of brother pandemic was take him with the express arm decision that we agreed to make it safe top on the summits. agendized how to step up oxidation against covered 19 in the continent. although covet vaccines, supplies enough recoveries and significantly the continent is struggling to expand roll out with only 11 percent of the population fully vaccinated. african heads of state and government gathered here will also discuss another epidemic of multiple who's in the continent. emboldened by popular hunger was of the can military

leaders in marley gillian brooke, in a fossil of cut it out folk whose in 18 months they followed military takeovers instead, done and church in 2021 more than 115000000 africans that to day living under the rule of soldiers, who illegal is seized power, lovick, and union with. it's often much hyped slogan of africans. solutions to africa. problems has been unable to do much to tackle what sama calling on a p demco, whose the now increasing calls for more auction from the continental body. there is such as of cruise has a loved was the because remaining civilian didas on friday, cold and emergence is some of the regional economic community of west african states. of course, miss not really fall into the illusion that the military takeover when solve the problem. they cannot solve the problem and that will not solve the problem. because we have seen it in the past. the african union suspended molly guinea burkina faso

had done but not chad. some analysts worn. the double standards could hop dire consequences. there is a brick down into official contract between the government and the people, the government for not delivering for the people. but the benefits of economic growth are going to those florida rich and the poor continued to poor on the marginalized, continue to be marginalized. with many african nations facing major security threats, relentless humanitarian disasters and millions of young people with no prospects producing the number of who's might be a total the for the after communion mohammed i do elders eda, i disobey if you appeal a groups as setting up emergency shelters in madagascar as a tropical cyclone approaches. the storm comes less than 2 weeks after another one that killed at least $58.00 people. so i close but said i expect to force around a 150000 people from their homes when it makes landfall on saturday. coastal areas

have already been evacuated and schools were closed on friday. pharmacy in greece have been demonstrating against rising energy prices. they staged attract a protest on the highway in the central region. some say higher fuel and electricity prices have increased their production costs by as much as 50 percent. almost say the government's $2000000000.00 power subsidy for farmers is not helping enough. fighting between rival rebel groups and columbia is making it impossible for politicians to campaign for next months. congressional elections for the 1st time voting includes so called special electoral districts for peace created under a peace deal. with the fog, his alexander rump yeti farmer, and congressional candidate to do, i need to realize live the horror of columbia conflict. first, hands a local victims leader. he's running for office for a special electoral district for peace created to give a voice to under represented people like him. but the return of violent

confrontation between arm groups in at alca has made campaigning impossible vision . if you meant there were some, we are just sitting still trying to work in the village, talking to friends, knocking on doors when possible. more than 60 people have been killed since the beginning of the year in a conflict between 11 rebels and dissident groups of former 5 gravels. we had planned to follow giovanni, handing out flyers and visiting a perspective voter. but as we were leaving, he had a change of heart. but he said, yeah, when i was, i don't think we should, it would be a nice thing for me to take you around town and be on the news telling people what my plan is. what i want to do if i win, but right now will put us at written this little campaigning that is happening is limited to the main urban center. that's because all candidates are saying it's just too dangerous to travel to rural areas, even on main roads like this one. because the groups are known to set up

checkpoints at any time. the situation is also affecting regular candidates. older cassidy's was running for a traditional seat in the house of representatives has campaigned, in alca for years, in this momentum that we are putting our lives in the crossfire to campaign and we accept silencing ourselves and confinement to try to sustain democracy. but look here at a man, he says, the situation is as bad as at the height of the conflict. he's running most of his campaign on social media. your go? yeah, it was organizing a meeting in for tool is impossible. going to the town of life out of the where i was a teacher and getting 4050 people together, also impossible. the local human rights official says political and social leaders have become the main targets of the arm groups. and they pop in for sienna, on paper, everything is great. the government has full filling its obligation to the victims

who can vote in these elections. but the reality on the ground is the opposite on people context size, their rights. when i'm running a political campaign in the conflict region region like cut, alco was never easy, but this time was supposed to be different. instead, threats and attacks are once again silencing this already marginalized voices. i listen that i'm pity, and just eat out throughs deploying hundreds of police officers and soldiers in the capital city. lima, the state of emergency has been declared after violent crime, their sword, the measures suspend, freedom of movement and the right of assembly. last for 45 days before americans here. even the state of emergency with the government as we have it is dangerous, but unfortunately it's anita siri. the figures of committed crime, speak for themselves. last year there were $70000.00 assaults and robberies reported in the streets of lima. in its 43 neighborhoods, 225. people died from hired killings. hundreds of protest as have driven their cars

through the center of the u. s. city of minneapolis falling the fatal police shooting of a black man in his own apartment and me a lock was killed on wednesday morning after officers used a no knock search warrant his family. se offices woke him while he was sleeping and in the confusion he searched for a firearm. ah, exactly half past the hour. these are your top stories. more than half the un security council has condemned north korea for its recent missile launches. 8 nations describing it as a court, significant escalation, china is calling for dialogue. they should come up with more attractive and more practical, more flexible approaches, policies and actions. we have all seen, we have all seen what happened in finger pool. we have all seen what happened the

hanoi is it time for president biden to get directly involved in the diplomacy. the united states is.