the et. al jazeera. global. me and mars military regime sacks the country's u.n. ambassador a day after his dramatic appeal to the world he'd called the military an existential threat words which have emboldened the protest movement in me and mine. alone barbara sara this is al jazeera live from london also coming up on the program dozens of kidnapped students are released and they geria but the fate of

hundreds more is still not known and in armenia growing calls for the removal of a prime minister increasingly at all those with the people and with those in power would. be on mars a u.n. ambassador has been sacked and publicly rebuked for betrayal by the military he urged the world to confront john morton told the general assembly he spoke for the government of unsound suchi but the army said it was an abuse of his power and his dramatic testimony on friday he said the military was a threat to me and more its existence. in addition to the existing support we need to find our strongest possible action from the international community to immediately and a military coup to stop oppressing the innocent people to return the state power to

the people and to school the democracy the military leadership appears not only to have lost patience with the u.n. ambassador but also with protests there is still streaming on to the streets launching one of their strongest crackdowns on saturday police change tactics chasing thousands of people through the streets of several cities with tear gas and rubber bullets and detaining those they managed to catch well have tony chains report from bangkok in a moment 1st though our diplomatic editor james bass has more on the ambassador's calculated risk. well the ambassador would have known what was at stake when he made those words he would of very carefully judge that he knew the the possible repercussions against his family he knew that the military would try to sack him and recall him the big question now is is he going to go is he going to give up his job or is he going to say that he is the legitimate representative of the people of

myanmar and of the rulers of the country who are currently jailed it's worth reminding you that at the same general assembly session the special envoy the secretary-general special envoy on myanmar christine seana bergen said it's important the international community does not lend legitimacy or recognition to this regime so will they recognize the decision of the regime to sack the ambassador i'm sure that the military will now strand send a new ambassador that will reflect their views but which one is the united nations going to recognize it will go to a rather obscure body part of the general assembly known as the credentials committee if there is a dispute it has 9 members interestingly among those 9 members of the u.s. is one as are china and russia which of made the point that this is largely an internal affair they will come up with

a recommendation and then it will go to the general assembly for a vote so it's although the military is saying they've sacked the ambassador is not a tall clear whether he'll be losing his job or after a protective fight will actually stay in the job the latest there from the u.n. meanwhile in more lara security forces have changed their tactics against protesters tony chang has been following the protests from bangkok. police in the amman southern city of daraa way employing more aggressive tactics to disperse protesters. advancing behind the cover of their riot shields they fired tear gas into the crowd forcing people back into the city's small alleyways in yangon on more aggression to from the early morning on saturday security forces occupied areas the protesters that claimed as their own charging forward they pursued protesters relentlessly throughout the day those who didn't flee were detained not just protesters several journalists were also arrested. but the mood

on the streets remains defiant behind improvised barricades to keep the police at bay and the protesters happy to see their cause raised so publicly at the united nations the call of your lot we got so much encouragement to protest by seeing me and mars ambassador to the u.n. that's why we're protesting with lots of energy and as much effort as we can have we feel so thankful and got so much courage to see that the u.n. representative stands with us while we're trying to protest and get our state councilor and president released. and memo 2nd city mendeley the protest when led by monks in this majority but this nation it's regarded as to boo to attack a member of the clergy that myanmar's military has shown in the past it has no qualms about cracking down on monks and it's unlikely these protesters will find sanctuary behind their saffron robes tony chang al jazeera.

dozens of students kidnapped from a secondary school in nigeria last week have been released gunmen raided their school that day in the share state 10 days ago taking 27 students some of their relatives and staff members one of the students was shot and killed the group's now being received by local government officials in the city of mina in the center of the country. compound i already knew him. from going to science college i have. put it in number. even though we have one in the hospital suffering from excessive exhaustion. under a lot on board. but it was peacefully. to

be. medically. checked. and i believe. the medical team when you told them. for a few more days. happen either says the latest now on both mass abductions from a brooch. the resolve the students and members of staff as well as family members came after 10 days of intense negotiations between government officials and the armed men who held the students for at least 10 days now and it's also 10 days of intense tension anger and frustration on the part of members of the school community and the entire can get a community who felt that the government wasn't doing enough to get the children released now government said it was not going to pay any ransom for the release of the students but we also understood that the gunman who abducted the students

demanded the release of at least $6.00 of their members held in police custody we're not sure at this moment whether that run some has been paid and members of the armed group also been released now the release of these students came just i was or even at least a day after another set of students 317 goes who have been taken from a boarding school in northwest and some for a state now there are questions being raised as to how they were told to sow hundley at the rise in cases of kidnapping banditry in the north as well as the central parts of nigeria many people believe that being run some to free hostages has resulted in the rise in cases of abductions as well as criminality in the northern part of nigeria as well as the central parts of the country lot of people are questioning the rationale of the go sheeting with people they just criminals who i say were said to be emboldened by enron some want to go see issues between

them and government officials. armenia's top army general is at all this with the government the president is refusing to fire him even though the prime minister has publicly called for his dismissal prime minister nick called passionate man and called on the president to fire colonel general on a guest and after accusing the military of an attempted coup the prime minister has faced growing calls to step down since november that's when protesters say he betrayed the country by ceding land the to end a 6 week war with azerbaijan robin forestay a walker isn't yet a van and says protesters think authorities are on their side it is definitely a sorry supports from the political institutions is waning in media full nickel pressure on the prime minister and the opposition who know. every every day of late calling for his resignation said that this was

a victory of sorts for them and they even say now that they're hoping that the police and the other security services who join the armed services in calling for the call pressure resignation. that of course would be a major development because it looks as if all the police institutions to around the prime minister's office are i'm standing in front of the premises of his now if all of them. are lining up to call for him to go it looks as if the situation because it is becoming pretty on tenable the nickel pressure. the u.s. president has urged the country senate to act quickly on a nearly 2 trillion dollar coronavirus aid package joe biden thanked members of the house of representatives who approved the bill in the early hours of saturday. we have no time to waste if we act now decisively quickly and boldly we can finally

get ahead of this virus we can finally get our economy moving again and the people of this country have suffered far too much for too long we need to relieve that suffering the american rescue plan does just that relieve the suffering it is time to act or join up with particle haim in washington d.c. so nearly 2 trillion dollars for this coronavirus aid package what is it going to mean for americans in need. well for those who make under a certain amount of means that they're going to get checks for $1400.00 once it passes a lot of those will be directly deposited into their bank accounts and then there's going to be credits for child child care credits so it's a lot of money $1.00 trillion dollars worth is that i'll go well a lot of it to those direct payments but it's also for unemployment benefits as we know tens of more than 10000000 americans are out of work right now millions of simply lost their job to no fault of their own but because of the pandemic and

because of the economic fallout from that so basically their benefits were going to decrease or if not cut off what this bill does if it's passed it will give them additional federal unemployment aid up to about $400.00 a week increase it's a now about $300.00 but the bigger part is it extends it those are set to expire these that will then go till august so that gives people peace of mind to know that they're going to be able to pay for certain bills in the weeks and months ahead well the wait while we all wait for the economy to recover it's also going to go towards increasing vaccine distribution increasing testing obviously that is something that's very frustrating for americans there is a huge demand for this vaccine an incredibly short supply of it so it'll help they say speed that up more of it will go to state and local governments their budgets have been hammered by this economic crisis and so many of them are looking to lay off key employees school teachers garbage collectors firefighters police officers so this will go directly to some states and some cities in the last aspect of it is

schools it's been a year most students are still learning from home by demonstration and return mendus pressure to reopen these schools but the c.d.c. the centers for disease control says to do that safely you need to make changes you need to improve the ventilation system you need to make sure everyone has the right protective gear you need to have the space to space students out so a big chunk of this goes to help schools states local cities and directly to the people who are hurting the most in this pandemic the opening of schools obviously a priority and to do it safely everywhere in the world and now this it's been approved by the house of representatives but the bill's passage in the senate could still be rocky why is that. well they only have 50 democrats and it's a $100.00 person senate so they need all 50 democrats in the 2 independents a caucus with democrats to stick with this bill with the vice president cobble harris than casting the the tie breaking vote so this could be easier now

because there were 2 democratic senators who were really against a minimum wage increase to $15.00 an hour that would happen over several years now it was unclear if they're going to take the entire package over that but the senate parliamentarian has said they can include that in the bill because of the way the senate rules are written now this is the big question how are they going to proceed because this is a big thing for democrats they really want that $15.00 minimum wage increase they campaigned they've been promising that for years there's some talk that they'll try to do something with the tax code to penalize companies who don't increase their minimum wage over time to $15.00 an hour but that still somewhat uncertain it is likely to pass the senate and speaker of the house nancy pelosi is putting the aggressive timeline on it predicting that the president will sign this into law by march 22nd in the coming days and weeks we'll get a better sense of how the democrats in the senate are going to handle this but they have no margin of error classical hanging with the latest from washington d.c.

patty thank you. still to come here on al-jazeera russia's vaccine is rolled out in mexico a boost for immunity but also the economy. and banking on a brighter tomorrow farmers in zimbabwe take positive action to safeguard their future crops. hello there welcome to another cat the international forecast the weather remains largely fine and dry across a good part of europe got high pressure in charge that acts as a lid on the atmosphere keeps it calm and settle bit around the area of high pressure we are drawing the winds to scandinavia quite a brisk wind around the baltic states and a cold winter behind our cold fronts the temperatures starting to fall off but for

many it will still feel quite pleasant if the truth be told it's actually rising temperature wise for moscow getting up to around freezing bits and pieces of sleet and snow there across at least inside if you're but where it is calm temperatures getting up to 11 celsius in berlin so 45 degrees above the seasonal average here that's still mild but as mild as it was the start of the week but it's mild nevertheless mild enough to into the british isles and into france want to choose showers into parts of central and eastern spain and we'll see more of those showers gathering as we go on through monday a tad colder monday you notice in london and 8 degrees celsius plenty of dry weather there into central parts of the few showers down towards that eastern side of the but it's raining with quite a brisk wind blowing through here got a few showers too into the northwest of africa with bits and pieces of rain for northern parts of morocco.

an ancient land and one man's dream to transport hot air balloons from europe and fly them over his beloved country. in a nation reeling from decades of violence. can an international team of pilots get this man's dream off the ground. over babylon on al-jazeera. the a. look back here's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera me and more as u.n. ambassador has been sacked and publicly rebuked for betrayal by the military he

urged the world to confront meanwhile in myanmar itself authorities have launched one of their strongest cracked thousands thousands of people continue to flood the streets. dozens of students kidnapped from a secondary school in nigeria last week have been released but the fate of 317 schoolgirls kidnapped on friday from of forest date is still unknown. armenia's president is refusing to fire the country's top general despite a call by the embattled prime minister. has accused the military of an attempted coup against them with protesters instead calling for him to go. the 1st doses of russia's sputnik v vaccine arrived in mexico this week but the slow pace of the rollout comes as the country struggles both with the human and the economic cost and as money whether apple reports now from the capital mexico city

the president. is getting much of the blame. vaccination efforts continue in mexico at this inoculation site in sochi need go health workers are ministering 1st doses of the sputnik the vaccine developed by russia which for now is only available for people 60 years of age or older. people this is the appointment for the next dose that i'll receive on march 17th i don't have a time but they'll let me now. since the virus was 1st spotted in mexico the outbreak in the country has grown beyond what anyone here could have imagined today the death toll nationwide remains the world's 3rd highest. it's become frustrating to see our local ones die people who have dedicated their patients in the area of medical professionals mexico has lost more lives than any other country that has been painful and i hope we have learned some important lessons we need to

better health says we need to be better prepared we need to produce our own back scenes. the outbreak is not only stretch the limits of the country's public health system it's also pushed the national economy into the worst recession in almost 90 years the coded 19 pandemic in mexico has led to a devastating 8.5 percent decline in g.d.p. and a dramatic increase in the national poverty rate from 36 percent to 45 percent of the population the other via. the much of the blame for why the health emergency in mexico has ballooned beyond control has fallen on mexico's president who's been widely criticised for downplaying the extent of the crisis upon them. for his part the president has promised that everyone in the country will have access to vaccines as supplies become available pedro a the handy the people should know that we are committed to vaccinating everyone as

soon as possible even if we don't finish by march every senior citizen will at least be by. needed with one dose by the end of april. the mexico is now in phase 2 of the national inoculation program health experts warn that so for less than 2000000 people of mexico's 126000000 residents have been inoculated. amounting to a vaccination rate that is still far from making a meaningful impact against the pandemic. al jazeera mexico city. the czech republic is bringing in its toughest lockdown since the start of the pandemic for 3 weeks starting on monday the government is banning non-essential travel outside local areas 'd this is in response to a surge in the u.k. variant of covert 19 nursery schools and most shops will be shut with people order to wear masks outdoors in towns and cities the czech republic has the world's 2nd highest death rate $189.00 people 400000.

palestine's health ministry says intensive care units in the occupied west bank are around 95 percent for the government has announced new restrictions but they don't include a 2 week lockdown as recommended by the health minister a nighttime curfew will be in place and schools will go back to teaching online more than 200000 palestinians are known to have been infected during the pandemic and 2000 have died. questions are continuing to be asked about why saudi arabia's crown prince has not been targeted by new u.s. sanctions over the murder of john. this comes after u.s. intelligence report was declassified revealing agencies concluded mohammed bin salamon approved of an operation to capture or kill the journalist in 2018 ashaji was killed by a team of operatives inside the saudi consulate in istanbul his remains have never

been found u.s. president joe biden says he will be announcing significant changes to their country's bilateral relationship in the coming days but hubris is a former u.s. diplomat and a white house official he says he was surprised when he learned the crown prince was not included in the sanctions. candidate biden said he's going to hold saudi arabia and the crown prince responsible and the democrats when they want to or the house of representatives i appeared on on al-jazeera several times and said well now now there will be an accounting for what happened the democrats are going to subpoena members of the trump administration and the truth will come out with the truth has come out but. the conference literally got away with murder so i hope that there isn't even like a visa sanction against him he's not the head of state yet that's surprising and disappointing. and so you know that by the administration has said things will change but you know let's see what happens it seems absurd that. one of the

sanctions taken are one of the steps taken by the biden administration is to launch a new initiative shoji initiative to prevent anybody who represses media freedom or civil society anywhere in the world from obtaining visas yet yet the person the person who committed or ordered the murder has no personal sanctions against himself it's very strange to me whether iran interests are in play yeah i think so i mean saudi arabia is a really important country if for the united states it doesn't really it doesn't need saudi arabian oil because the u.s. is now the world's largest oil producer but a lot of other u.s. allies do rely on it but i think you're right containing your arm was a driving force and also it's a 70 year you know alliance or partnership the u.s. has had with saudi arabian i think the biden ministration didn't want to just throw that out the window. bangladesh says it's under no obligation to take back 81 refugees who were rescued by the indian coast guard they've been adrift for 2 weeks in the andaman sea and a crammed fishing boat along with 8 people who had died that set sail from

a refugee camp in bangladesh hoping to reach malaysia india wants find whether to take them back but bangladesh says they were found closer to me and maher and indian territories were only is a visiting scholar at the international state crime initiative a queen mary university of london he says the legal responsibility is to help people rescued at sea to be taken seriously there in dire straits i mean the situation that they find themselves in highlights the dread for humanitarian circumstances that in myanmar have found themselves in and consequently those in bangladesh where they face genocide or crimes within me and ma and then those who managed to flee across the border to bangladesh find themselves in limbo there permanently in camps the prospect of return to me and now seems very slim and their life opportunities are incredibly limited i mean access to to education or or

industry or any sense of a meaningful future is genuinely limited for them so it's understandable in those circumstances that people will become desperate and will try to escape they'll try to go to somewhere where life can be better that the situation today though is that the 80 people are in danger at sea and whether or not india or bangladesh have signed the refugee convention becomes irrelevant the law of the sea means that whoever finds them has an obligation to make them safe in this case i understand it's the indian navy they have an obligation to to take those people who are in trouble at sea to a safe place. if you can soldiers and officials are engaging in a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the northern region of t. great that's the judgment of the united states government report obtained by the new york times it's us fighters backing prime minister are made are moving from

town to town pushing out native to graham's with intimidation and violence if the opium launched a military campaign against the grain separatists in november both sides have been accused of atrocities. let's go to yemen now sources inside the yemen's government say more than 65 has have been killed in the latest clashes between who the rebels and government forces that would make it the most violent day of fighting since the who these resumed their offensive on the city of mary more than 2 weeks ago the city which is around 100 kilometers east of the rebel held capital sanaa lies close to some of the country's richest fields farmers in southern africa are expecting a bumper harvest this year after a good rainy season but that's not always the case the region often experiences years of drought so farmers in zimbabwe are setting up seed the banks how do we

pass that traveled now to the farming town of mood see in northern eastern zimbabwe where one community is saving seeds that are resistant to drought this is a different kind of thank one with the hard currency is seeds deposited and stored away for safe keeping in community seed banks when low rainfall is lead to drought in zimbabwe indigenous seeds such as sorghum and millet stored here become valuable savings. which is the. pound you come in brought work you have deported. yes now you are. can also benefit from what is really deposited but you do this outside you. or he can ask you to give him something these farmers are growing millet with seeds borrowed from the bank they hope to repay back the loan with some of those from their harvest the

table friends who that you are receiving is very few in the. they will be more in $44.00 sometimes so this is a disadvantage so it's better to grow disciple. erratic rainfall brought on by climate change sometimes leads to food shortages during dry seasons access to the right scenes at the right time is crucial like other countries in southern africa zimbabwe is prone to long periods of drought whenever that happens the government buys food from abroad and aid organizations help vulnerable families the staple food here is maize a cash crop that doesn't do well in low rainfall but many farmers tend to be less interested in growing drought resistant to digital crops such as millet and sorghum we need to really support because to ration and production of traditional crops so

much is that the who will be able to get food security. because without that i think we will be heading towards a very wrong direction most of the households will be hit by the droughts because droughts are very recurrent part which is almost a full that's why rural communities are being encouraged to keep the seed banks stocked up savings they can easily access when times get tough how to meet us are al-jazeera zimbabwe. and their reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera me and mars u.n. ambassador has been sacked and publicly rebuked for betrayal by the military jumper that he orange the world to confront camel time told the general assembly he spoke for the government of france on suchi but the army said it.