according to a recent, for more than half a french people think that politicians are corrupt. you foresee, sue kluse, the prison court listed for you. the gap is getting wider between the ruling class and french citizens who cannot understand why politicians who are accused of several charges. what do not have to resign in the past, politicians stepped aside until the trials were over. that's no longer the case. former president sock was eas, back in court, in 2023. he's expected to deny wrong doing and allegations of corruption. but it will take more than words for much of the french public to start believing their politicians are honest. from a job without the 0. paris. france as kurdish community is holding is 3rd march in a month in paris, protests as a marking the 10th anniversary of an attack in which 3 kurdish act of his died and demanding justice for those murders. the march comes less than 3 weeks after another attack in the french capital when a man opened fire on a kurdish centre, killing 3 people.

ah, this is al jazeera, these are the top stories, u. s. republican leader kevin mccarthy as being elected speaker of the us house of representatives. the votes went into a 5th day after a group of ultra conservative republicans blocked his election. and now the hard work begins. what we do here to day next week, next month. next year we'll set the tone for everything that follows. tonight. i want to talk directly to the american people. that speaker the house, my ultimate responsibility is not to my party, my conference, or even our congress, my responsibility, our responsibility is to our country. artillery fire has been heard in ukraine last,

despite a unilateral cease fire cooled by russian president vladimir putin. ukraine rejected the offer on both sides who accusing each other of shelling the ceasefire coincides with the orthodox christmas holiday. oh, meanwhile, orthodox christians in ukraine, a celebrating of the shadow of rushes who have attended a mass in the capital. keith orthodox church traditionally celebrate christmas. on the 7th of january, instead of the 25th of december, mexico was deployed a 1000 soldiers to restore order in the northern city of calia cam. that's after a night of deadly violence. these 29 people were killed in confrontations linked to the arrest of a drug kingpin, the military force with cartel members after a video guzman lopez was taken into custody on thursday. portugal and the netherlands serv become the latest countries to require coven 19 checks for

travelers from china. this week, the eve strongly recommend test before departure. as china struggles with a search in cases and iran has hangs to men for crimes committed during nationwide protests. over the death of master armine, the men were found guilty of killing a security officer in november 22 year old martha. how many died in police custody in september? she'd been detained for violating the country's dress code. i'm state those are the headline news continues on al jazeera after inside story. stay with us for that. ah. a record number of cubans left their homeland last year to get into the united

states. the president joe biden is bringing in law to make that harder for most of them. so what's causing this mass exodus and can conditions change for the people of cuba? this is inside story. ah hello there and welcome to the program. i'm laura kyle. cuba saw as largest departure of people last year since fidel castro's revolution in the 1950s, most headed for the us over the border with mexico along with many thousands from other countries. migration has become something of a political crisis for the white house and present. joe biden has announced new measures. more visas will be granted for some going through official channels. but those who simply turn up at the border will be immediately turned away. the lavelle

reports from miami ah, a new year new arrivals and a new plan by president joe biden aimed at slowing the rising tide of migrants trying to answer the us illegally. today, my administration is taking several steps to stiff an enforcement for those who try to come without a legal right to stay. and to put in place a faster processor, i was as a faster processor to decide. a claim of a style that you measured would create a legal opiate narrow pathway for the growing number of cubans, nicaraguans and haitians making their way north of to $30000.00 migrants a month. those with sponsors and to pass background checks will be allowed into the u. s to live and to work for 2 years, but they will have to travel by plane. if they try to smuggle themselves in by land or by say, and get caught, they will be bought. this week, the arrival of hundreds of migrants from cuba forced the closure of a national park of the coast of florida. on thursday,

they were moved to the u. s. milan and another measure aimed at reducing the number of illegal migrants. the u. s. is just resumed visa concert at services in cuba. it's hoping more people will follow this legitimate route instead. if you are in a burning building, it does not seem right to say, but before you jump from the 2nd floor, please go to your computer, get online, schedule an interview, go to the conflict, come back to the burning building. wait for a couple of months and then you can jump right when somebody has to flee to be alive, they have to flee, and our systems have to honor and recognize that context. the new policy has the land border firmly and its sites. but in florida, where the border is at the water, the question is, how will it work here? all di, economic conditions in cuba. lastly, to blame for the population's mass departure more than $220000.00 cubans arrived at the border between the us and mexico over the past year. that still is 6 times as

many in the previous year. many her fled because of sources and food medicine and power. after former president donald trump tightened sanctions on cuba in 2019 a trade embargo brought in by president john f. kennedy has also been in place for 60 years. the pandemic had a devastating impact on cuba tourism industry. it was a vital source of revenue that came to a standstill. and in july 2021. the biggest protest since cuba revolution in the late 19 fifties broke out over the government's handling of the economic crisis and the pandemic, the widespread crackdown that followed added to those wanting to leave. ah, let's bring in our guests now. rosa maria pyre, founder of cuba, decide a movement to change political and economic systems in cuba towards democracy. she joins us from miami. helen yappy is senior lecturer in economic and social history

at the university of glasgow. she joins us from there. and joining us via skype from washington, d. c, is andrew seeley. he's president of the migration policy institute. i one welcome to all of you, rosa maria, we outlined. there's some of the reasons why people leave cuba. so called push factors. but why did we see such a rise in numbers over the past year? well, we have to understand that a strain is not only economical prices, they each season in the, in the going to have been doing that in the last year or, and medicines in the pharmacy. they have, they have to find for medical attention, people in many, many years that they've gone to start in. but they're under the impression have an increase and increase. we say that they are

more than $1000.00 a year. if you are all there is a number that we have while we're talking about me, you know that the only thing that for me is to, well, in that a why that people is kaden. and recently, a r a means it say, wait a day, you know, people in the money that actually in the last year at least 3000

profit being there were brought in september last year that you like 2021 on. now you know what that is? not b now ray, so go to bomb and they are in november of 2021. when the, if you only care she a law, i remove that. he says, for a few months from that day to deal. now i know there's plenty to any one deal in the center last year. more than more than 267000, you sell them of the we're coming up more than 2 percent. even

population escaping here, escaping there. but all being well now i do, i mean the math on a day you go over the u. s. government you been doing that stands for 60 ok under before we address many of those are the points that raise. maria brought up the i just want to make clear this nicaragua element because it did seem to be a key factor in the past years. migration push wasn't at this opening up of transit between cuba and nicaragua. the fact that cubans could leave to not correct you without a visa or easily obtain a visa and then travel by land across the u. s. this was a major route for cubans to be able to take yes, this has become the principal route. i mean, we have seen some people leaving on my boat as well, directly from cuba,

but the primary route has been people find in nicaragua because they no longer need to be. and there are charter companies that have started doing multiple flights a day from, from that to another place you actually do to managua. and then people hire a smuggler and head or sometimes go on their own for pieces of entire smuggling pieces in head up to the us border until yesterday us was allowing almost all cubans in. there's also no deportation agreement with you. but right now, as part of the many problems in relation to the diplomatic relationship between the 2 countries. so you have a situation where somebody is that where people are desperate, where people, you know, have lost hope in the future of the country. and economic situation is bad, little situation is bad. you have the possibility of getting out. there's a route that opened up and you know, if you make it to us, we're in there. the danger is, you know, i mean, this is a dangerous journey. even with the smuggler, there's lots of danger from organized crime. but if you make it to the us border,

at least until yesterday, we're pretty much assured of getting into the united states. and that's a risk. a lot of people really to take a she said more than 2 percent of population, that risk, why do you think cuba and the correct q i chose to open up that rate you know it, it could be you can read it one of 2 ways and they are not mutually exclusive. i mean, one is the nicaraguan needed human tourism, which is probably true at the end of it. i mean, they were desperate also for, for tourists and, and human tours are important for the corolla. but look, i, you know, both the cuban in nicaragua, governance are also looking to leverage their relationship, leverage migration in the relationship with u. s. government. and they are figuring that the more this becomes a, a bigger crisis are politically in the united states for joe biden. then they will probably be able to negotiate something with them. i think it worked out for you there are talks going on in may not be just because of this, but there have been going on between us in cuba does not seem to work out for or

any ortega in nicaragua, that's not going anywhere. but i'm sure whether that was the original intention or not. it certainly became a side benefit and it may well have been part of the original legend is knowing that this one would cause political havoc in the u. s. and would bring the u. s. to negotiate, alan, do you see the major push fact as being as res maria says, people escaping tara, getting away from a dictatorship? or is it the economic factors, the di, economic conditions that people are living and without hope of them improving in the near future? what is the major push back to that from cuba? there is no doubt that most of these are enormous migrants. i'd say all over latin america. and i mean, you know, here in britain we also have a massive increase in illegal immigration from people who want to improve their lives. now at the top of this, you have a price on someone talking about will have being on fire. but we should step back

a little and say, well, who has the cuban house on via and the cuban house has been set on fire, as you said in your introduction, not just through the most comprehensive and longest engineering of sanctions of sanctions regime against one single country that the united states located against cuba. but since 2019, the trump administration pursued a maximum pressure strategy in order to make life unbearable cubans. and i agree with that. there was scarcity, your basic medicine. and this is the country which is prior to the topic capacity to produce almost 70 percent of the medicines it consumes domestically. so you have this terrible call to me. you have to be leading figure in biotech sector, the only country in latin america and the caribbean. was the capacity to parade

covered $900.00 back, but then on able for several months to administer that back. which was linked to the 11th of july process, which is also mentioned because it couldn't access syringes. why? because the global syringe production is dominated by the united states. now the extent of sanctions has become absolutely suffocating cookie. but so let me give you a little example. i'm a british citizen in britain. if i send a one time transaction to the european bank account using the word that transaction is currently blocked. so you know, the question is, with these shortages, how can you by get the necessities that the cuban people are accustomed to having? i'm need when they can use the international financial system because all sanctions, so it's a very complicated problem,

but we need to look pools and not just unreason. maria, to what extent do you agree with that, that united states sanctions? it's longstanding, trade embargo, all of this has created the cube that we have today and created the situation that is pushing so many people to leave. well, i don't, i don't put on medicine for you. that is that it wasn't bad. and actually they do that. and then a united states after, you know, united nations united states, i believe that also offer cuba not doing a most hi thomas in the monday and the human with that help because they, the spot they keep on people. is that what they show in the moment they refuse these things or not? i, they go there

a day that actually they know i, they both the longest a, b, b, i used to use that is them by my addition to every guy that is, wow, this fun right now. if you, if you can see the man in the say i didn't, they have possible me a now, why are they in that amount in the, in bible they are demanding the end of the day. and the end of the day we

are, you know, we have the right to the side. i did you sign a legal system that i have been kidnapped by only dictatorship for more than 60? i'm just going to jump in the room or if they get a chance to respond because she has a point, doesn't she? let's look at the recent protests in 2021. up to 700. i rested from those protests in human rights. i was actually, i, i was in cuba, 11th of july. i believe that maria was, and i've written about my experience and also about these phenomenal many media manipulation that happened. and there was a plaque to flow from somebody as an organization that seems to have been prepared for those demonstrations. and there's a lot of evidence back. yeah about,

you know, the, we have to, we have to recognize that the united states congress and this is code, but i would certainly agree funds and $20000000.00 every year, but what they call democracy promotion regime. now the cubans of calls cool this regime change regime, but we have to recognize that that's a lot of money i'm. it is being challenge to channels to people who are proponents over transition to democracy at, sorry, i transition to capitalism because, i mean, i'm not going to you if you're going to go for each other and i'm, i'm already of lightly different debates and the one that we had thought about from when not going to be debating regime change in q, but i just had just one moment i want to bring in and try and get the

conversation back a little bit onto migration because we still need to look at the us changing policy towards people who want to go to the us and andrew, let's ask a very basic question here. should mass migration be brought to an end or shouldn't be encouraged? what is the right answer if people want to leave cuba, should they be allowed to, or should they be stopped? and yeah, it's a complicated question. it depends on who you ask. i mean, i, you know, i think you could, a lot of cubans would like to leave, you know, on the other hand, the u. s. ready political system, you know, at some point, reaches a breaking point when there's a perception that there is no order at the border. and so that, you know, there is a, you know, there's conflicting ideas on that. i think there's a lot of people leave you to leave freely and go where they wish, but in the end, countries are on the other thing that changed. let me just go back to the migration

part. i mean, the thing that change is that the u. s. closed down, it's console it a few years ago. actually before the 2900 sanctions. this was somewhat separate. it was part of the hardening of the policy for you, but it was also result of the specific incident where a lot of u. s embassy employees and cows or employees were, were getting headaches and mysterious illness. and no one knew what was caused by the yes was down. what that meant is, per year, is there existed legal pathways for a few minutes to get to united states, a lottery $20000.00 cubans a year to go through a watery united states. another $45000.00 a year. we're going to the diversity visa and, and many more we're actually going through family additions, right? people being, being requested by family members to get a green card to come to united states. so there are lots of reasons for humans to wait around for their legal turn. it states getting the pro down is all the legal pathways. right. and so yesterday to actually 2 days ago, the u. s. restarting counselor processing in havana. it remains to be seen how

effective this will be. i mean i, i think if you see that the u. s. is, is, again, processing people, not just the program. and i was yesterday that actually is only minor cubans. but the lottery system, the family reunification, b, l. a sponsorship system which allows people waiting for their, their family unification petition to come to the us earlier in the diversity says, many people might be willing to wait for legal term because there are legal trends to cut. what are, what happened is people lost the legal opportunity come to the u. s. nicaragua opened the process to come to the garage without a b, d, u. s. wasn't returning people and people that look, things are really bad. this is my time to go on and i don't have another alternative. i'm going now. that's the help that would you agree with that, that the opening of the counseling office there in about it? it's a step, isn't it? in the right direction. if you're looking to improve relations between cuba and the u. s. yes, i think, but i wanted to add,

i mean there is this huge full factor for cubans going to the united states. so they have something called the cuban adjustment, which is pulse and, and $966.00 and updated a decade later. and basically, it says, but any cuban arriving in the united states legally own legal entry, hold or not. and so on and off the one you can claim that residency in the united states, now they all the enemy, citizens around the wells that have that privilege. and it's a very big factor. it also means there are many cubans settled in the united states . so when times get hot, they have to capacity to lead. many is to keep her left in our parents had the time to cuba, had started to invest in small businesses and so on during the brief approach. mom under the obama era, by them with my president. and the other thing is that they have, these are all the keep them the united states, where they was, the united states agreed to supply 20000 visas for cubans,

traveling to states, all sorts of reasons. and they never really met that target, but in the last 5 years, you have to speak. it was saying they basically closed on the coast and not being issuing not issuing visa. so there are some very simple sets, but could be taken by the us administration. this is one very small one, but it takes them a long time by then, you know, many people thought that he would revive the, the trauma measures and go back to the policy. and the indeed, he suggested that campaign during his campaign electro campaign. but he hasn't done that, he's taken, you know, this is an important step, but there's a huge back over people who want to go and see a relative or even scientist trying through enter that goal. and so i have conferences and cooperation, academic culture. so it's all being frozen and it's creat, see that backlog and association of people who may have very important personal

reasons or intellectual scientific reasons to go to the united states and haven't been able to. and that is why i talk about the ha, the house being set on fire, because the sanctions have created this economic hardship. and then, you know, if anyone is using cuban migrate migrants as a whole, arguably it's the united states which i've been fulfilling it. ok rosa maria. what do you welcome these changes the, the biden administration, allowing in 30000 people a month, but expelling another 30000 people who don't have the correct paperwork. do you welcome the opening of a counsellor office and havana? the improvement of ties, is that something that you that many in the diaspora want to see happen for many years now, especially since we have been rising our voice.

i donder situations that a it, when you do it by food or when you do it by the c is equal or so in that radar they all you need to be able to ship it in a safe way. is something that we see we don't know, i don't, i don't think i was anyone actually that get a sounding board? is it in a humane where we have to understand that and in this case is people, is kate, it's escaping for at least what when they cannot leave a or b is in there. i'm going to get with me that they all been in

new ways. they already a is not, that's not to say that it solution duty problem because the problem is got it. and this because the real conflict is not to be doing a review and the next day or that we have is between a whole nation. think somebody that wants to be free, that was there anything that had been denied for more than 6. ok if they go that they want to hell, they to decide that help in the math or reading a course. let me know that by now i, we do apologize. we do have to leave it. then we may have to leave it on

disagreement as to why people want to leave cuba, but perhaps agreement that people must be allowed to do it, should they want to in a humane fashion. thank you very much, rosemary pyre, haven't daffy and andrew silly for joining us today on our discussion. thank you and thank you to, for watching, you can see the program again any time by visiting our website. that's al jazeera dot com, and to further discussion, do go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter or handlers at a j inside story for me, laura kyle and the whole team here. it's bye for now. ah

and a new horizon for visually impaired the orkeys. they finally have their own football team. training was launching in october in the city of karbala. this specially designed to both was donated by a japanese tour. it creates a cracking sound to allow players to locate these players hope to join football clubs and represent their country in competition. but other iraqi provinces don't have their own teams because there are only why you believe specially designed all ah.