this is a set headed fire for a different approach so let's leave them closely to the headlines join me as i take on the dismantle the misconceptions and debate the contradictions now marc lamont hill and it's time to get up for. 'd the u.s. launches an airstrike targeting iranian backed militia in syria the pentagon says it's in response to attacks on american personnel in iraq. again i'm peter told me you're watching out to 0 life my headquarters here and also coming up the world bank stops payments to some projects a 1000000 mark as pressure mounts on the militant. fears in brazil that are more

contagious could 19 strains pushing the health system to the verge of collapse as the death toll exceeds 250000. e.u. leaders to speed up the block specs in rollout of one of the difficult weeks ahead . the u.s. has launched in a strike in syria targeting structures that belong to iranian backed militia it's thought the strike targeted the in the military base near al book of all the pentagon says that's in response to recent attacks against american personnel in iraq the strikes karmas tehran and washington continue to discuss what happens next with the 2050 nuclear deal. the target that we would you know we. were. being you.

shia militia that conducted the strike she is following developments from washington we understand joe biden who authorized this on thursday morning the attack took place 23 g.m.t. and we understand that biden had 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 and that that was this this facility which the u.s. claims was used by quote iran backed militias on the border between syria and and iraq and we have this statement which 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 sends an unambiguous message president biden will act to protect

american and coalition personnel at the same time we have 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 again there are reports that joe biden and certainly mentioned the possibility that this might happen in a phone call with the iraqi prime minister earlier this week if perhaps significant of the strike which is proportionately about coalition attacks on coalition forces in iraq is in fact happening in syria. hillary mann leverett is c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy strategic and also formerly a u.s. state department official she says the airstrike sends a message about the ministrations loyalties in the region. 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 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 but there are also reports that rocket attacks were launched from iraq toward saudi arabia and from my understanding the conversation that president biden had with king's amman of saudi arabia today also included a determination to defend saudi arabia against external threat to the kingdom this is something that president trump had refused to do couple of years ago when the oil infrastructure in saudi arabia had been attacked so that's an important piece 'd 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 body and straighten is in fact trying to increase its pressure and what it calls its leverage against iran. global pressure is mounting on me and mars' military after it seized power earlier this month the world bank is the latest to take action it stopped payments on projects made after the coup the bank's president says it's taking a quote cautious approach but will continue to assist with past projects the u.k. has announced new sanctions on several generals who are behind the coup meanwhile protests continue demanding the release of the elected leader and son suchi and a return to democracy scott hardly joins us live now from across the border in the thai capital bangkok scott hi there we have these reports scott that there was a heavy police presence in one part of yan gone late into the night what are you

hearing. yes peter in the tom way neighborhood of yangon we hear that police were there was a heavy police presence we knew kind of late in the day but now we're getting reports that they stayed around until about 2 am and what it sounds like transpired is that protest kind of evolved and grew in that part of town because there was an administrator a local administrator appointed by the military the residents there did not like that and were protesting that heavy police kind of pushed them back we heard that they were stun grenades used and then other force to go to break up that protest and it went pretty late into the night you know there's a curfew for cross-member big since the coup so obviously they're breaking that and that's probably what the police used as justification for their crackdown in that part of yangon of peter this came after a day that we haven't seen before and that was that there was a large presence early in the day on thursday of pro military protesters and then

after that this is all in yangon and then after that some scuffles broke out and then they get into violence in a couple of places and we know that there were attacks by some of those who support the military and on those who were and who protesters so that was kind of at the end of a fairly violent day no massive violence no major injuries from what we were able to find out but yeah that was kind of at the end of a fairly violent day where there were confrontations today and we are seeing people come out again we saw them earlier in the day early in the morning at on songs to cheese house in yangon they came out to pray for her we're also hearing way down in the south are coming out again some teachers groups are coming out and then we're going to see more in yangon as well particularly keeping a close eye in that neighborhood that i was just describing because there were announcing late into the night that they're going to come out and protest again so that's what we're keeping a close eye on but again you know pretty much like we've been seeing over the past week peter people are still coming out despite the pushbacks despite the cry. downs

they're pouring out on the street scott thanks very much scott tyler there reporting live from bangkok. there 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 a mutated variant that's 3 times more contagious it was. says it's threatening to overwhelm the health system brazil is the worst affected country in latin america has just reached a quarter of a 1000000 deaths monica monica here has more from rio de janeiro. on friday it will be the anniversary of one year since the 1st case of cold did 19. or so and while the 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 it in the past with it 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 states 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 rio suspended its a vaccination for a while so 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. now hong kong has started its coronavirus vaccination campaign the territory indoors the chinese made sign of act vaccine before trial results were published despite the territory already receiving jobs from pfizer and astra zeneca residents can choose between the 3 vaccines on the take up rate of the chinese made shot could be seen as anti mainland sentiment sarah clocks in hong kong with more on the vaccination drive. well this is the 1st day of this mass vaccination rollout we've been at a couple of the community vaccination centers this morning and we now know that

70000 people have signed up the next 2 weeks to have. and that's fully booked but 1000000 as you mentioned 1000000 the sun about germs that doses there arrived last friday today is the 1st time the public has been given access that's friday that includes the essential workers will be getting access the elderly as well as the cross transport workers across the border transport workers as well as teachers now the government's hoping to issue around $2500.00 and occupations per day and to vaccinate at least to 70 percent of hong kong's population which is about 7 and a half 1000000 people prevents a nation talks will be made available to the government for 2020 1000000 doses to try and another like the entire population to sign in fact was the 1st one to be made available that's of course the chinese manufacturer the mainland base manufacturer it was fast tracked as was the pfizer one by the government in what was called an emergency response now the body find someone has actually been delayed we also have the asters and then people which have no arrival date as yet but i should state that the hong kong rollout of these vaccinations has been quite

delayed when you compare it to other developed cities across asia and we should note that the mainland got access to their vaccination or their vaccine last july well the head of the european commission says the e.u. is on track to fully vaccinate 70 percent of adults by the end of the summer despite condemnation of the slow roll over. speaking during the summit e.u. leaders put pressure on astra zeneca over to lead kuwait 19 vaccine supplies the company says it will hopefully deliver $40000000.00 doses by the end of march but that's still less than half the amount it had promised dominic keane with more from berlin. brussels on thursday was the venue for 2 separate meetings both of which have a role to play in the way that the pandemic will be managed across the continent going forward on the one hand e.u. heads of government heads of state met in a digital conference to discuss the next steps 3 specific areas for top for

discussion the 1st about how to speed up the production of the vaccine to get more vaccines into the arms of europeans living on the continent although they spoke about the need to close up bottlenecks and facilitate production but in go to much detail about it the 2nd area for discussion was about vaccine certificates how people who have had the vaccine may be able to go beyond the social distancing rules perhaps to travel in the near future a broad agreement about how to go forward but no precise details of when and how that would happen and then looking into the future you had a meeting also in brussels at the same time at the european parliament there interviews with the heads of several of the vaccine manufacturers specifically with the c.e.o. of astra zeneca several different members of parliament but hostile questions to him about the way they perceive the treatment of the e.u. visa his vaccine was going compared to the way that it was happening in the united

kingdom his answers did not please those members of parliament the fact they were asking the questions shows the level of envy or resentment there is among some people at the way the rollout of the vaccines are proceeding in the e.u. relative to the u.k. and other countries. still ahead here on al-jazeera. armenia's prime minister calls his supporters on to the streets accusing the military of an attempted coup plus. rising from the ruins have also seen most of the leading a cultural revival in the iraqi city devastated by isis or.

how i once again i'm pleased to say the weather looks a little quieter across the middle east over the next couple of days but there is still some rain sleet and snow in the full cost of the area clad him moving across iran over towards afghanistan some snow over the high ground some places the phrase sleet and snow into iran clear skies to come back in behind still quite a keen wind blowing across the gulf for a time but that should ease off as we go on through saturday temperatures here in doha around 22 degrees celsius to fall further north baghdad at 22 but for the levant we're getting up into the high teens with plenty of sunshine plenty of sunshine to into somalia much of a p.s.a. fabby have got some rather lively showers just moving towards the fall north of madagascar over the next day i'll say so i certainly want to keep an eye on that west the weather just stretches across the mozambique channel because see some lively storms just popping off across northern parts of mozambique as well some pretty wet weather to ensue zambia for a time zimbabwe and with

a chance of seeing some very heavy rain as we go through the next couple of days that could lead to some localized flooding but some places afraid into central and eastern parts of south africa for a time but you can see come sunday the wettest weather will be course much of zimbabwe. mount vesuvius is one of the most dangerous active volcanoes in the world but not everyone feels living in its shadow with good food so perhaps there is something like magic about the service that the people who don't live in the camp understand . world goes to the red zone near naples. to understand this unusual love of. living with a volcano on al-jazeera. good .

you're watching al-jazeera i'm peter double your top stories the u.s. has carried out an air strike in syria targeting structures that belong to iranian backed fighters the pentagon says that's in response to recent attacks against american personnel in iraq. there are fears that parts of brazil's health system are on the verge of collapse the health minister says the country is facing a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic with a strain of the virus that's 3 times more contagious. and the world bank is stopping payments for projects in myanmar as global pressure mounts on the military that seized power earlier this month meanwhile protests continue to mount in the release of the elected leader aung sun suu kyi and a return to democracy. armenia's political crisis is deepening the prime minister

nicole pasha and has fired his military chief after senior army officials called for his resignation he says that call amounts to an attempted coup thousands of rallied both for and against passion on in the capital and now opponents of set up camp outside parliament saying they won't leave until the prime minister steps down his burnet smith 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. 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 but not that beat the. context 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 nico pasha no but i don't want to corrupt the dream to come back 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 yan was forced to cede large swathes of territory around the going to karabakh that armenia had 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. passion young came to power in 2018 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. crisis. mode to see i do means to take their course he said

that chance now security. police just didn't buy their army and to demand to leave the prime minister without any. opposition representatives say they'll spend the night in yerevan central freedom square the prime minister it is government have diminished what people are ready but the alternative the discredited political opposition has much less so or so in general there is little alternative to partially on or his government but 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's made al-jazeera. well staying with us story

emil is a senior research fellow at the institute of amini and studies at the university of southern california he says many are angry that passion has failed to protect amini from serious security threats here we have sort of the armenian version of donald trump and you call pushing out after you was elected his promise was fight against corruption and basically making life better in armenia and grant that there were some objective difficulties related to the quote with endemic but in general his record has been. very very bad i mean and in terms of the economic reforms and most crucially in terms of security i mean this sort of tests you know the one that when you have a populist elected to the government generally tend to show that yes corrupt corruption is bad but there are some issues that are you know the trunk corruption and then asking with the security in there and the 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 this form of. 2020 something that's unprecedented in the past 100 years you know for for turkey to confront their own you directly 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 for as a matter of fact. yes the result of been really devastating will swarm. opposition presidential candidates in somalia perspire under protest over delayed elections after reaching a last minute deal with the government officials have pledged to investigate last week's protest when at least 5 people were killed by the security forces and there's been growing over a political deadlock that's delayed presidential and parliamentary polls the

president mohammed mandate expires on february 8th with no agreement on a transition to a new government. 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 militarist reports from mena. 6 members of their family were among the 53 passengers kidnapped from a bus in nigeria's niger state how free 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 ones the government you think he said government promised them and the fear is. what's in them what did the government promised you not those that the government problem during the election as in the election well this isn't political rally we promise them to give them. shelter. and was the

north what can we promise them to be given them once they allow us while doing this to us how war and others were forced to walk barefoot for 60 kilometers to a camp why she says torture and other abuses were common the methadone is out there and there really is. true. from saturday that is on saturday. and sunday if you're a parent it all come on. 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 and 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 got there 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 gone 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. to its people

and clearly. systematic in india 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 them now just the security forces and locals who have no way to go about it reece i'll just be in nigeria. the former u.s. gymnastics coach john has committed suicide just hours after being charged with crimes including sexual assault and human trafficking was head coach of the 2012 u.s. women's olympic team he worked closely for many years with disgraced team doctor larry nasa 3 years ago nasa pleaded guilty to sexually abusing female gymnasts get it all who has maintained he had no knowledge of masses crimes. the indian

government today announcing tough new rules covering social media streaming services and digital news outlets the goal is to stop what it calls anti national propaganda platforms like facebook whatsapp and twitter must now erase content which the government considers to be unlawful critics say as they scrubbed down on free speech there's been a dispute with twitter after it refused the government's demand to remove posts linked to the recent farmers' protests. a bombed out church in mosul is the last place perhaps you'd expect to find an orchestra but for years after i saul's violent reign budding young musicians are some of the artists changing the face of this iraqi city is similar 14. amid the ruins of old mosul a cultural awakening the city hasn't seen in decades members of mosul's 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 and the society did not encourage all supporting 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 former 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 of 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 iceland 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 the chaos of war and displacement. but after 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 dame stairwells old folklore but all that was destroyed so i use old. for my work her paintings also depict women who now enjoy a greater freedom a reflection of how mostly opening up again and a sign that its residents have turned a new page seem on a 14 al-jazeera mosul. updating your top stories here on al-jazeera the u.s. has carried out an air strike in syria targeting structures that belong to iranian backed fighters the pentagon says it's in response to recent attacks against u.s. personnel in iraq.