>> it is 10:00 p.m. in the french capitol. he are our headlines. joe biden called the capitol riots one of the darkest days in u.s. history, as the speaker of the house calls for donald trump to be impeached again. more on that coming up. despite the unrest in washington, joe biden's victory has been certified as lawmakers be convened after the attack on their chambers. french bars, restaurants, and cafes are to stay shut until at least mid february. we will bring you more on this and other announcements.

♪ his twitter account has been suspended for 24 hours and donald trump has remained silent elsewhere since wednesdays unrest in washington, the fallout of those riots has been seen as the first member of donald trump's cabinet has resigned, the transportation secretary. condemnation has poured in from all sides amid reports of more resignations to come after supporters stormed capitol hill yesterday. joe biden has spoken out in stronger terms than the day before. let's listen to him. >> yesterday, in my view, one of

the darkest days in the history of our nation. unprecedented assault on our democracy. an assault literally on the citadel of liberty and the united states capitol itself. an assault on the rule of law, and assault on the most sacred of american undertakings, ratifying the will of the people and choosing the leadership of their government. >> joe biden was amongst many to see the difference in the security response between black lives matter protesters and donald trump supporters yesterday. our washington correspondent had this to say about joe biden's remarks. >> he addressed one of the main topics of discussion, whether it is from lawmakers in the capitol building behind me or simply americans who are discussing

this on social media, the seemingly unfair or double standard between how about enforcement reacted to the protests over the summer after the killing of george floyd at the hands of the police and how law enforcement reacted to the mob attacki the united states capitol, and that is where we heard him the most angry. he was talking about how he received a picture from his granddaughter about those law-enforcement members on the steps of the lincoln memorial back in the summer, during ape black lives matter protest. that is a picture that has been widely shared on social media. you have people posting over and over again side-by-side pictures of how law enforcement was present and reacting to those protests in the summer and how law enforcement was present or not present and reacting to

those violent mobs in the u.s. capitol, and he said that this was simply not fair and this is not how it should be and he said very clearly what a lot of people think, especially in the african-american community, that is somhing that we saw all over social media, that if these crowds who entered the united states capitol had been black, the law enforcement would have reacted much differently. those were the words of the president-elect, joe biden, and there is also, when you look at the difference in reaction to what happened in front of the white house during those protests over the summer, when law enforcement cleared, very violently, beating up protesters in the media, when donald trump wanted to do a photo op in front of a church and that is something that joe biden

addressed and it is something that americans see as shocking and want answers to. if law enforcement should have dealt the way they dealt with the protests in the summer, they should have dealt the same weight with the protesters at the capitol. >> we will be hearing more a little bit later on. there is also a push to have donald trump removed by invoking the 25th amendment which would require a majority of donald trump's cabinet to declare him unfit for office. nancy pelosi said failing that, not donald trump should be impeached and removed from office. this with less than twoeeks to go and his presidency. >> in calling for this seditious act, the president has committed an unspeakable assault on our nation and our people. i joined the samet -- the senate democratic leader in calling for this president by invoking the 20 for the amendment. -- the 25th amendment.

if the vice president does not act, the congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. that is the sentiment of my caucus. >> for more on that, we are joined by a political analyst based in washington, d.c. thank you for talking to us. how do you think will yesterday's invasion of the capitol impact the future of u.s. politics, in particular for the republican party? >> i think it is definitely a before and after kind of situation. i think it is pretty clear this is one of the greatest disasters ever to befall the government of the united states and it is a disaster that was largely made by the president of the united states and i think that one of the things that he has done, which no one could do but himself, is to create a cleavage behind -- between himself and the republican party. they have to be looking at him as what he asked, a liability,

though he continues to command a tremendous amount of support among certain groups within the republican party, he certainly will not have the same power he had before, because he wants be in the white house, but also at a symbolic level, i think he broke the party and now we are going to have to see how the different pieces try to come back together to create some sort of a unified republican party. >> what of these moves to remove donald trump with 13 days to go? is it necessary, did you think? first, talk about the two different approaches, the 25th amendment and the notion that he could be impeached again. surely, both of those would take time and would be laborious procedures. would it be not just for those who went on a time to go, just to wait it out? >> in terms of the two processes, the 25th amendment is a rather instantaneous process.

the vice president and a certain percentage of the cabinet would have to agree, then that is communicated to the congress, and that starts a clock where donald trump can say, i'm still able to fulfill my responsibilities, but in that process, he would effeively be out of power. impeachment is a longer process, there is a procedure in place, though that procedure can be changed. fundamentally, what people are facing are two realities. what is that he is a risk to the nation, he has proven that he is willing to put his political dyers -- his pitical deses are ahead of the law, the constitution, any norm that we have had in this country. i think the second issue is that he has tremendous power and we know that that power does not have any limit and the possibility that he could unleash some terrible room and on the country is not theoretical. he is a vengeful man and all the reports seem to indicate that he

is very angry, frustrated, but still has the nuclear codes. this is a serious situation that congress has to address in some fashion, both relative to that risk of trump but longer-term as well to make sure that any future political leader in the united states understands the repercussions of these kinds of acts. >> to come back to the 25th amendment, which requires a majority of the cabinet to come behind the vice president, we are seeing huge fractures between donald trump and mike pence and we have seen the transportation secretary resigning. do you think it is possible that a majority of his cabinet would weigh in behind the transportation secretary and what of those divisions between the president and vice president? >> the transportation secretary, we have to look at that with skepticism. she is basically getting out

before this decision has to be made. she is washing her hands of the situation, trying to separate herself from the last four years of her service to this administration, which has been catastrophic. in terms of pence versus trump, the publicly available reporting available seems to show that pence feels betrayed by trump and vice versa. pence also have to start thinking about his own future post trump. at this point, he has acted well in the last 24 hours. he has fulfilled his constitutional duties. this may be a possibility of redemption for him to a certain extent as he looks forward in his own life. in terms of the cabinet, it is unknown. most of them are cronies, not distinguished by experience but by loyalty to trump. many of them are business bodies of him. it is unclear what that situation is like. what is important to understand is there has been a to amend his

break, there is a before and after in how people see trump, anthere may be a survival instinct that kicks and that makes some of these people move away from trump before it collapses. >> thank you for your thoughts on that. >> thank you. >> after much upset, the congress did complete its 20 session to certifyhe winter of november's election. normally, the proceedings are a formality, but not this year as a number of the republicans raised objections to the certification of joe biden's victory. >> the chair declares the joint session dissolved. >> an extraordinary joint session of congress wrapped thursday morning as lawmakers certified electoral college votes, sealing the victory of joe biden over donald trump. >> the announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the senate shall be deemed a

sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the united states. >> delayed by the storming of the capitol building by a mob of trump supporters, the session saw republican challenges to result in arizona and pennsylvania, overwhelmingly defeated. >> no's have it. >> challenges to wisconsin and michigan failed for any support. a dozen republican senators planned to lodge objections in support of trump's baseless claims electoral fraud. when states insurrection convinced several of them to reverse course, including senator kelly loeffler, fresh off her boss to a democratic challenger in georgia's runoff election. >> the violence, the lawlessness, and the seizure of the halls of congress are important and stand as an attack on the institution my objection was intended to protect, the

safety of the democratic process. >> trump's last-ditch effort to overturn the will of american voters the widely debunked conspiracy theories do not even by his former ally, mitch mcconnell. >> i know everyone here will soon be marching to the capitol building. >> the president's incitement of the ride during an angry speech prompted a number of resignations among white house staff. lawmakers unanimous in their condemnation of the unprecedented invasion. >> it has been one of the major talking points, the fractures deepening within the republican party, some even saying the gop could cease to exist in its current form. >> just before a mob of trump supporters stormed the u.s. capitol, the leader of the senate republicans made an extraordinary comment from the senate floor about the current

state of his party. >> we cannot keep drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts and separates realities. >> but those separate realities are playing out now inside the gop. one side tt believes trumps was stolen from him, and those on the other side who admit that he lost. after wednesday's violence, encouraged by trump, even bomb makers once devoted to him are defecting. >> trump and i have had a hell of a journey. i hate it to end this way. all i can say is country out, enough is enough. >> more moderate republicans like mitt romney have spoken out even more forcefully against the president all along. >> what happened today was an insurrection incited by the president of the united states.

>> in the end, half a dozen gop senators and more than 120 house members sided with trump and his scores of supporters to overturn the results of a democratic election, a faction by ted cruz. >> 39% of americans think the election was rigged. dismissing these claims i think does real violence to our democratic system. >> the president's son made a more brazen comment. >> this isn't their republican party anymore. this is donald trump's republican party. >> it is unclear if the gop will remain donald trump's party after he leaves office and whether other republican leaders can find a way to court his millions of supporters. >> as the u.s. struggle to ramp up of the rollout of the

vaccine, it sets a new record of 4000 deaths in one day with 21 million americans infected, a fifth state has found a case of the faster spreading variant. >> a grim new record and a warning, with a u.s. recording nearly 4000 deaths from the virus in one day, the centers for disease control saying that toll could top 430,000 deaths by the end of the month. adding to the misery, a fifth state has announced it found a case of the factors spreading u.k. variant of the virus. officials are warning the public not to become complacent now that vaccinations have begun. >> we he a lot of work to do to prevent the bad things that are happening in january with this virus, which is running wildly across the country and causing a great deal of misery. this is not the time for people to relax and say, the vaccine is here. it is time to double down and

get the vaccines distributed. >> more than 21 million americans have been infected and hospitals across the country are at the breaking point. arizona has been hit especially hard, with one out of every 119 people in the state being diagnosed in the past week. >> arizona is having a huge surge, kind of like we did last summer, but even worse. probably because of the holiday season. hospital capacity is limited and you can see the record number of deaths. >> the surge is putting pressure on the government to speed up the vaccination rollout. officials promised 20 million people would be vaccinated by the end of the year, but so far, only 5 million americans have received the jab. >> france is revamping its coronavirus vaccination campaign but the health crisis is far from over.

that was the take away from a press conference by the french prime minister and health minister on thursday. they refused to rule out more instructions in the coming weeks. 10 additional regions are keeping closely watched and may see their curfews moved to 6:00 p.m. by sunday. >> a stern warning from the french prime minister. it is out of the question for france 2 let its guard dn. -- four france to let its guard down. >> [speaking french] >> they announced the reinforcement of existing restrictions. the 8:00 curfew will be extended to january 20 and other begins may soon see a 6:00 curfew, already in place in several regions. >> [speaking french]

>> an official decision will be made on friday night with any new measures set to take effect as early as sunday. the prime minister also announced current closures will remain in place for the next three weeks. >> [speaking french] >> among them, cultural establishments, including museums and theaters, as well as ski stations. officials will make a decision january 20 on whether to reopen them on february 1. as for bars, cafes, and restaurants, they will remain closed until mid february at the earliest. >> time for business now with kate moody. we are starting with a closer look at the aftermath of wednesday's violence at the u.s.

capitol and the reaction of social media. facebook has banned donald trump indefinitely while twitter temporarily froze his account. >> that 12 hour block of his twitter account has end though the outgoing president has yet to tweet since he regained control of his accounts. facebook has said it will extend its 24 hour ban of the outgoing president indefinitely. mark zuckerberg writing that donald trump used that platform to condone rather than condemn the violent actions of his supporters and that he was trying to undermine the transition of thbiden administration. mark zuckerberg writing, we believe the risks of allowing the president to continue using our service are too great, we are therefore extending the block of his accounts. facebook and twitter are among those that have in the past defended their decision to allow the president to continue posting on their platforms even though he was violating their

user terms. he said the public needed to know what e president was saying and only in recent months have they started flagging posts that are factually incorrect. that immunity will almost certainly expire once trump leaves office but the questions about the role and responsibility that social media and big tech giants play in this are going to increase. competitors to those platforms are springing up, attracting many of the far right users that have had their content flagged or blocked. many of those sites where abuzz yesterday with calls for armed revolution. that's part question about why intelligence services did not tracked on those threats. a platform called parler describes itself as the world's town square, it says it has a focus of free speech without being deplatformed for your views. other sites are seeing a spike

in user numbers, much of e content focusing on false claims or conspiracy theories. this is going to be part of a bigger problem when it comes to regulation and balancing oversight of online content on a growing number of sites with freedom of expression. >> many of those tech giants are facing a digital tax in france which has provoked trade tensions with washington. there are signs that the u.s. is backing down on that. >> that united states trade representative's office said it will be suspending the application of a 25% tariff on $1.3 billion worth of french imports, mostly luxury goods. those were announced last year and were imposed -- do to imposed yesterday. they were in retaliation for friends' at test for france -- retaliation for france imposing taxes on amazon among others and it will be a 3% levy on digital

revenues. there had been a truce in this trade spat while talks on a digital tax were underway. the united states withdrew from those negotiations over the summer and by the end of 2020, france confirmed it would be going ahead and collecting that tax. that u.s. trade representative's office saying it is suspending that tax to coordinate its response among other countries that are pushing ahead with similar taxes. the u.k., spain, italy, turkey, india among those facing investigations over the plans to tax digital giants. the european union also seeking a policy. it is not clear what the incoming biden administration is going to do when it comes to digital tax. we know he wants to impro ties with traditional allies b there might be some continuity when it come to trade policies so this is going to be a challenge we will keep an eye on. >> you have been keeping an eye

on the markets. how is buzzfeed faring today? >> stockmarkets have largely shrugged off what we have seen over the past 24 hours, also not perturbed by another week of hike on up limit claims. investors focusing on the prospect of bigger covid relief that now seems certain under what we know will be a democrat-controlled house of representatives and senate. we sell records for the dow jones and nasdaq, the nasdaq jumping above 13,000 for the first time, closing up 2.5%. also breaking records today, shares of tesla sword 8%. -- soared 8%. that also boosting the about of elon musk, he has overtaken jeff bezos the richest man in the world. >> thanks for that.

that brings us to the end of this half hour of news. quick break for the weather and we will be back with more news after that. ♪

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