discussions that are unfolding on capitol hill international filmmakers and world class journalists bring programs to inform and inspire you each and every one of us in the responsibility to change its place in on al-jazeera. u.s. president joe biden authorizes an airstrike targeting iranian backed militia in syria the pentagon says it's in response to attacks on u.s. personnel in iraq. are all the others and this is all to see a live from doha also coming up brazil's cova death toll rises about a quarter of a 1000000 there are warnings of aviation which is even more contagious is pushing its health system to the verge of collapse. i mean is prime

minister calls his supporters on to the streets in accuses the military of an attempted coup after it said he should resign. rising from the ruins how artists in mosul leading a cultural revival in the iraqi city devastated by isis. and we're going to begin with breaking news u.s. president joe biden has launched an air strike in syria targeting structures that belong to iran backed fighters it's thought the strike targeted the military base near al book amal the pentagon says it's in response to recent attacks against u.s. personnel in iraq. we're confident in the target that we would after we know we.

were confident that that target was being you know the same shia militia. that conducted the strike. often on this let's go to shihab rattansi who's in washington d.c. what has the pentagon been saying about these attacks. we've had lots of lots more detail now coming in from various sources the defense secretary actually is is on the press junket to california right now which is why we're getting comments almost immediately from the defense secretary himself that we understand joe biden who authorized this on thursday morning the attack took place 23 g.m.t. and we understand that biden has been presented with several options and it's been reported that he picked the smallest targets of all the options presented to him by the pens again and we have not was this this facility which the u.s. claims was used by quote iran backed militias on the border between syria and iraq

and we have this statement which is seems to be the key message that the u.s. is trying to get out that this proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures including consultations with coalition partners the operation sounds and big u.s. message president biden will act to protect american and coalition personnel at the same time we've acted in a deliberate manner that aims to deescalate the overall situation in both eastern syria and iraq this message of deescalation this message of consultation as well we understand together port's joe biden and certainly no mention of the possibility that this might happen in a phone call with the iraqi prime minister earlier this week it's perhaps significant of the strike which is purportedly about coalition attacks on coalition forces in iraq is in fact happening in syria but out of course leads to another question what under what legal legal authority does the u.s. have to be bombing syria in the 1st place especially iranian backed militias and

that's what we have all this talk of calling activity i would imagine really trying to draw a line between donald trump's ministration and biden by. emphasizing deescalation and proportionality but the fact remains this is the 1st official u.s. military strike. by the by didn't ministration it's in the middle east and it has all the usual questionable legality she had thanks very much indeed shihab rattansi in washington d.c. i want to bring in hillary mann leverett she's c.e.o. of the political risk consultancies and also a former u.s. state department official she's joining us by skype from mclean virginia just outside washington d.c. it's good to have you with us on al-jazeera as always hilary i want to told you specifically about initially rather about what she had was just mentioning there this was a patently in a deliberate manner aiming to deescalate the overall situation is that going to happen. i'm not sure it's going to happen i mean i think the administration is

trying to portray this as biden's 1st military strike it's the 1st military attack act of his presidency and they're trying to portray it as measured in a react in consultation with our allies he spoke president biden spoke to the iraqi prime minister earlier this week importantly he spoke to the king of saudi arabia today and that's something that i think is not being reported widely but the rocket attacks that. the u.s. administration is saying were perpetrated by these shia militias were not just attacks in iraq in baghdad in the green zone in northern iraq in the event but there are also reports that rocket attacks were launched from iraq war in saudi arabia and from my understanding the conversation that president biden had with can some on of saudi arabia today also included a determination to defend saudi arabia against external threats to the kingdom this

is something that president trump had refused to do a couple of years ago when. oil infrastructure in saudi arabia had been attacked so that's an important piece but i don't think this is going to deescalate anything in fact it's a sign it's a signal very strongly to iran that notwithstanding their hopes and expectations that the biden administration would pursue a diplomatic track with iran that the biden straighten is in fact trying to increase its pressure and what it calls its leverage against iran before it goes into any real diplomatic process it is an interesting situation particular with regard to saudi arabia is may have to be because on the 100 biden administration has been very critical of the side of saudi arabia particularly with regards to the report into the killing of as amal a soldier which is due to come out in the next few hours i understand but at the same time it seems to be trying to attempt to tread a very delicate line with that phone call that you're talking about and one is

tempted to say that it's perhaps a coincidence this attack happened but again in many ways in diplomacy there's no such thing as coincidence. i would be surprised if it really rick winston said i think the what the administration calls with the by the demonstration calls it's a deliberate decision to quote unquote recalibrate its relationship with saudi arabia is very important here it's because he ministration has put such an emphasis and priority on recalibrating its relationship with saudi arabia it also needs to be very careful in its perspective that it not be perceived that any change in the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia is in any way a gesture or a favor or a gift to iran and so it's incredibly important my understanding is that the administration is trying to take this balanced approach that it's being tough on saudi arabia and tough i mean iran and that but it is not trying to play favorites here or to do anything that would spark domestic criticism in the united states

that it's being too soft on iran and hard on our allies like saudi arabia as always really good to get your thoughts on this hillary mann leverett we appreciate it thank you very much and. thank you very much ok on official has more on the phone call between biden and saudi king solomon. we were told that joe biden would have a call with the saudi king and then this report would be released it's to compile by the director of national intelligence it details on the killing of jamal khashoggi in the saudi consulate in istanbul back in 2018 but we know that senators have already been briefed on the contents of that joe biden said he would release that. dorsey as soon as he was elected but he wanted to speak to the saudi king 1st we are told in leaks that have come out already that it will very much point the finger at mohammed bin salman suggesting that he was

responsible for ordering the death of jamal khashoggi in fact one senator after hearing the classified briefing said that if there was a jury then mohammed bin some of the convicted within 30 minutes and even lindsey graham big supporter of donald trump big supporter of relations with saudi arabia said that as far as he was concerned it would mean essentially redrawing the rules of the relationship between saudi arabia and the united states so it is that important that significant we're expected to get that unredacted unclassified dorsey at some point in the next 24 hours or so and it could have implications for long term u.s. so did relations. there are warnings that brazil's health system is on the verge of collapse the health minister says this country is facing a new stage of the coronavirus pandemic with a mutated variant that is 3 times more contagious and says it's threatening to

overwhelm health facilities brazil is the worst affected country in latin america and it's just a means to quarter of a 1000000 deaths monica has more from rio de janeiro. on friday it will be the anniversary of one year since the 1st case of cove is 19. or so and while that the country has the 2nd largest death toll after the united states the people are very worried because hospitals are really filled up in many states in this moment and all over the country and my one state has on top of that which back to yvonne top of that flood and also now break of the day ingots so it is a complicated situation brazil has a large experience of max vaccination is in the past with has of a very good system but this time with this virus what has happened is a lot of misinformation well you had the federal government the president

downplaying the virus saying he would not say that the native so there was there was you know there was a. a political infighting between the federal government and governors and state so there's a lot of. confusion and delays in starting this program and once it started in certain places it stopped because there wasn't enough there weren't enough back things like real suspended it's a vaccination for a while so this so far brazil has only vaccinated less than 4 percent of its population and that is a problem that is going on so the private sector is saying allow was to buy vaccines and so and mayors and governors have told have asked the federal government to allow us to buy vaccines on our own and not just depend on the federal government buying for the whole country and distributing it. hong kong has started its vaccination campaign after 1000000 doses of the chinese made sign of

a good job arrived last week hong kong government endorsed the sign about vaccine before trial results were published that's despite the territory already receiving jobs from pfizer and zeneca residents can choose between the 3 vaccines and a low take up rate the chinese made short could be seen as mainland sentiment. towards joining us now from hong kong so the day one of this what do we expect to happen. well if we are one of those vaccination centers there are 29 set up across hong kong and today on friday we have the state to work is that teaches the cross border transport workers the elderly and disabled getting access into this mass vaccination rollout and the government's hoping around $2500.00 vaccinations will be issued per day and they put a number on about 70 percent of hong kong is willing to take this vaccination now the government has my trade valuable as you mention it's $22.00 and a half 1000000 doses to be issued across hong kong sort of after the 1st to be my

development of course is the chinese or the mainland manufactured vaccine it's in tried as well as the buy and take advice before fast tracked by the government as an emergency response of the other one astra zeneca is yet to arrive and the biotech i should say it's been july it's a rival into hong kong now i should say the hong kong's rollout of the specter nation or the vaccines it's lag behind some of the other developed cities across asia i should state that china got access last july to the sign in fact vaccine and there's been skepticism about this particular china. vaccination vaccine because of the lack of published articles has been made available the benefactor was exempted from publishing its 3rd phase i clinical trial results and this of course has fueled skepticism in hong kong but the hong kong government 8 it's indorsed this sort of act back saying if a study it's better to receive the vaccine than not so thanks very much indeed sarah clarke talking to us from hong kong. still ahead on al-jazeera taken for

ransom what we need some of the victims of nigeria's biggest and fastest growing criminal enterprise. it's time for the perfect gentlemen. sponsored point qatar airways however we got some very heavy rain pushing into central parts of china at miami you see this little area cloud here just spilling across shanghai easing out into the open waters southern parts of japan seeing some heavy downpours thundery showers here could lead to some localized flooding has certainly one to watch out for that wet weather does extend down across a good part of southern china as well as it continues to make its way further east which it will clear through process guys come back in behind really just makes way for the next weather system bills outs of mongolia sliding

a little further south which of these was as we go through the next couple days so we will see some snow coming back into northern parts of china and it cools off in japan tokyo at around 9 degrees celsius but it should be largely dry now places say it's looking somewhat drier across the philippines now usual rash of showers just coming in here as you go through the next couple of days some showers too into were born here but the wetter weather continues across indonesia we have still got flooding concerns into that eastern side of java these heavy showers there not going anywhere too quickly or heavy downpours coming in over the next couple of days not too many heavy downpours see the forecast for india and pakistan over the next couple of days but some wintry weather to the far north region. at ways the population growth in anything is increasing the more pregnancies a woman puts herself christopher mccandless down introducing family planning interview tree article culture is

a challenging task for fire resistance to shift comes from men when a woman can decide for head board and how many children she wants it actually in policy and but one woman's perseverance is transforming her community women make change on al-jazeera. what you want to see to remind of our top stories this hour u.s. president joe biden's ordered an air strike in syria targeting structures that belong to iran backed fighters the pentagon says it's in response to recent attacks against u.s. personnel in iraq. but are warnings that brazil's health system is on the verge of

collapse the health minister says his country is facing a new stage of the coronavirus pandemic with mutated variant of the virus that is 3 times more contagious. on kong has started its vaccination campaign after 1000000 doses of the chinese made sign of back job arrived last week hong kong government endorsed the vaccine before the trial results were published that's despite it already receiving jabs from pfizer and astra zeneca. armenia's political crisis is deepening prime minister nicole passion and has fired his military chief after senior army officials called for his resignation he says that call amounts to a coup attempt thousands of rally both for and against passion and in the capital and no opponents have set up camp outside parliament saying they won't leave until the prime minister steps down ballot smith reports in the center of yerevan on thursday armenia's prime minister was defiant in the face of calls from the

military for him to stand down made. some people want to drag the army into unconstitutional processes this is an attempted coup but the people will not allow a military coup in armenia. an estimated 20000 people came out onto the streets of the capital after nicol pushing in called for a show of support. back on take part in political processes it must obey the people and the elected authorities machine ian has been under pressure to resign after his country lost last year's war with azerbaijan over the region of nagorno-karabakh. i'm not as much of a supporter of passion you know but i don't want to corrupt the dream to come more than 3 and a half 1000 damini and soldiers were killed in the 6 week conflict a significant number for a country with a population of under 3000000 passion young was forced to cede large swathes of territory around the going to karabakh that armenia controlled for almost 30 years

since the end of the last war with as a by john. that prompted weeks of protests led by the opposition are not equal. passion and came to power in 28 and what was called the velvet revolution after an attempt by the previous leader to stay in control beyond his term limit we are in effect. crises i hope to see i do means to take their course in peace and. security. police to stand by their army and to demand to leave our prime minister without any. opposition representatives say they'll spend the night in yerevan central freedom square the prime minister and of government have diminished what did larry but the alternative the discredited political opposition has much less of or no in general

there is little alternative who partially or his government what this is unprecedented in terms of a military record what's not clear is whether the army is willing to use force to back its call for the prime minister to step down clashing and says he'll announce a replacement for the head of the army in the coming days the crisis he says will be resolved constitutionally but it smith al-jazeera. ok let's bring in send money and he's a senior research fellow at the institute of armenian studies at the university of southern california who's joining us by skype from washington d.c. thank you very much indeed for being with us how do you think this is going to play out. well this is unprecedented situation for me and a pretty unprecedented response coming from the military alarming in until now military has been the most of the trust that institution i mean even more so than any of the civilian structures including the prime minister and this is

a very significant development that gives a boost to the push to have prime minister resign after the war that transpired in the fall last year. what was initially sort of the symbol change and promising i mean you know prime minister nico pushing it has really been . turned into a symbol of incompetence and defeat so this call for a new government new election has resonated a lot of arguments if pushing in does not step down what is the army's next move. what we don't know we know that at this point. is that up until now we've had a protest moment that basically the objective is to pressure the parliament to sack pressure not which they can do according to the army and constitution and the response from the government was that if there was a pressure on the parliament that they might use force against the protesters now

that the army has weighed in on that threat of force against the protesters has the marriage considerably so this gives the the opposition protesters an opportunity to continue to pressure the parliament it's hard for voters in armenia isn't it because in the one hand they've got this prime minister that they blame far they say capitulating towards. john on the other hand they have an opposition which many of them as we had in our report their. claim were corrupt when they were in office they had the choice isn't that great foreign for voters in armenia if the where elections how do you think that would work out. well this is a this is something that other countries have also dealt with they have import in perfect government systems and then and they have populist challenges such as we had here in the united states the president trump that basically play a very destructive role in the as they get elected here we have sort of the armenian version of donald trump and you call pushing out after he was elected his

promise was fight against corruption basically making life better in armenia and grant that there were some objective difficulties related to the quote endemic but in general his record has been. very very bad i mean and in terms of the economic reforms and crucially in terms of security i mean this sort of tests you know that one when you have a populist elected to government generally tend to show that yes corrupt corruption is bad but there are some issues that are you know the trump corruption and then su with the security in their community economic development going to the future of the country right now i mean is very much on the precipice as far as whether it could maintain its independence considering that it experienced a direct and confrontation with the turkish government turkish military during the fall of. 2020 something that some precedent that in the past 100 years you know for

for turkey to confront i mean you the rectally and the fact that the iranian government was unable to prepare to for that confrontation diplomatically in other ways shows that unfortunately this promise that initially this government will showing has not won as many effect. has resulted been really devastating will swarm to me and said we appreciate your time sir thank you very much indeed thank you. kidnapping for ransom has become one of the most reported crimes in nigeria hundreds of people are being held by gangs across the country and in the most recent case dozens of passengers were snatched from a bus and i did just reports from mina. 6 members of the family were among the 53 passengers kidnapped from a bus in nigeria's niger state how 3 they were able to offer an insight into the minds of the abductors they say we are not of tell you we are after the government not the one the government you think you said government promised them and the

feeling is. what you know what did the government promised you nothing was that the government problem during the election as in the election well this in political rallies you promise them to give them. shelter. and those that are not working and you promise them to be given them once they allow us while doing this to us how i and others were forced to walk barefoot for 60 kilometers to a camp why she says torture and other abuses were common the method as though they're going to kill us and they really can improve. from saturday that is on saturday. on sunday if you're a parent you know come and take you. on sunday she says the gang who snatched them seem well connected to highly placed individuals. kidnapping is currently nigeria's

biggest and fastest growing criminal enterprise dozens of people are dotted every day and families are forced to pay thousands of dollars in ransom here at one of miller's bus stations passengers say they set off on a journey without knowing whether they will reach their destination hundreds have ended up in the hands of kidnappers bus operators say there are now fewer passengers and only those who need to travel. in the town of going at least 52 students teachers and family members were taken more than a week ago as each day passes hope is fading for a speedy and safe return the government tries to offer some reassurance we have go very far we have been there you know using the same platform that we use an awful the for the you know occupants. we have also reached out to some middle stakeholders you know within the forest and you know we are discussion does very small but we believe that will eventually it will bring some positive results time

is going that's a little comfort for the parents of the missing students their primary objective of government everywhere in the world is to provide security. and clearly. systematic injuria the security has collapsed and. we are looking hard in the government not only at the state level but even at the threat level guy is becoming increasingly isolated if you will risk traveling there now just the security forces and locals who have no way to go about it greece i'll just be in nigeria. church in mosul is the last place you'd expect to find an orchestra but for years after isis violent reign budding young musicians some of the artists changing the face of the iraqi city some of the

ports. amid the ruins of old mosul stirs a cultural awakening the city hasn't seen in decades members of mosul orchestra established just 3 months ago by a local radio station in rehearsal. many are beginners others played in secrets during rule a. terrorist organization by music people were scared in the society did not encourage all support musicians but that began to change when i saw was driven out in 2017 but the. energy of the youth which had been hidden before started to come out now missiles floor of. the orchestra is a melting pot of religious and ethnic groups just like mostly used to be before eisel just like they wanted to be again. the main goal of the orchestra in mosul is to revive life in the city especially in destroyed areas like this church

now wish most of the city can return to its form of beauty i hope that peace does return here. but the orchestra has no budget no proper place to rehearse the whole is a promotional video to be published online it will attract attention and funding musicians and artists are spearheading morsels cultural revival and say they're doing so despite limited support from the governments their work is a show of hope for the future and the way to process the collective trauma from devastating 3 year reign that trauma screams from many of claves paintings the veteran artist fled the city in 2014 his pieces from that period portray. a the chaos of war and displacement. but after i solved defeat the great tones gradually gave way to pink green and yellow the facial expressions of his

characters soft and. i change my colors i give them more optimism for the future i have hope that through all my art i can send a message to the world that we are people who like art and beauty that we like peace away from terror his colleague love now wants to revive memories of mosul's architectural heritage much of which was destroyed during the war. most of the things i painted take from what was there before my out depends on old architecture like day. old folklore but all that was destroyed so i use old tapes for my way. her paintings also depict women who now enjoy greater freedom a reflection of how mosul is opening up again and a sign that its residents have turned a new page seem awful to an al-jazeera mosul.