coronavirus pandemic. fronts marc lamont hill cut through the headlines to challenge conventional wisdom. hope for the future the ivory coast goes to the polls for its column entry election. march on al-jazeera. the bloodiest day in anti to protest same ima 18 people are killed in the military crackdown the u.n. calls that international action. hello i'm down in jordan the sound is iraq live from doha also coming up iran rejects a european offer for direct talks with the u.s. to revive the 2050 nuclear deal. an agonizing wait for

parents in northwest nigeria as the search continues for over 300 schoolchildren kidnapped by armed men. and a vaccine finally the philippines is set to roll out its code 900 in an ascension program to last among countries in southeast asia. the u.n. secretary general is demanding international action against the military in me and my security forces shot dead 18 testers on top of the terror says the violence is unacceptable and that world leaders have to send a strong message to the military u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken has also denounced what is going on in the country calling the violence apartment he says washington will push for the military to be held accountable well these condemnations follow the most violent days since demonstrations began against the coup live rounds are fired at huge crowds in several cities across the country tony chang. as. medics struggle to

treat a wounded protester shot in the chest and arm on the streets of dar way in southern myanmar the security services cracked down early on sunday police supported by the military firing tear gas rubber bullets and live around. but despite the dangers protesters still turned out in large numbers to oppose the military coup. on live rounds used in yangon a man wounded in the streets of play down district the protesters tried to give him 1st aid and get them to cover. as the tear gas rained down they ran for shelter. elsewhere hid behind improvise shields. but if the intention was to get the crowds to disperse it failed regrouping out of range of the guns the protesters remain defiant the crackdown has been widely anticipated and the crowds are fully aware of the dangers they face down or. we the

public are only protesting peacefully and now the military has come to crackdown they're just here to give us trouble we want peace we have nothing but still they come to crack down on us. we want to protect our people because the police aren't doing that they're attacking us instead as you know the jointer is doing illegal actions so the citizens need to protect themselves. the campaign of civil disobedience has been widely observed against the military coup on febrile the 1st in many areas people block the roads with obstacles and cars the progress of the police hindered as they tried to clear a path in some places the protesters tried to take the stand throwing projectiles a molotov cocktails at the police. but it seems a futile effort as they attempt to stop a military government prepared to use lethal force against its own people tony al

jazeera. joins us live now from bangkok scott so this was the deadliest day of the protests 18 people killed do you think this is likely to stop people from coming back onto the streets. then quite frankly no i do not i mean they've been resolute straight the way through this this period since february 1st with the civil disobedience movement with these protests we've been seeing nearly every day since so i don't believe that that's going to prevent people obviously they're good their posture might change their tactics might change and obviously the dress of what's been going on over the last 24 plus hours is going to add to it but when you look at what they are approach has been over the last i'd say maybe 2 weeks when it's really intensified and we started to see the beginnings of a crackdown by security forces in myanmar that they change their tactics but they still stuck to their goal and that was to get out and spread the word and defy what's been happening since that coup on february 1st things such as writing their

emergency contact number and their blood type on their arm a little bit of protection that we've seen that obviously isn't enough against live rounds but i believe they will start to come out their tactics might change a little bit their gathering points might change a little bit but we are still going to see them come out and that probably will start to happen over the next hour or so there yes caught and that's been a huge international condemnation of the killing of these protests as how is that likely to be received there in myanmar. well let's look at it from both sides you know we're actually just to update the american officials have said that they're going to put in additional measures they haven't said exactly what that is they had already announced a round of sanctions against the top generals in myanmar about 2 weeks ago they're going to put in additional measures details of that probably going to be coming on monday u.s. time how is this going to be received on the front lines if you will across myanmar

i don't think you're going to see a difference in the posture of the security forces because clearly they just had the orders to crack down to intensify their crackdown had been slowly kind of scaling up and we saw that peak on sunday seek we can expect i would imagine a very similar posture one thing to note there and this is a little bit frightening when you look at just how on disciplined these security forces are on the streets the you know you have rubber bullets you have stun grenades you have live rounds and it doesn't seem to be that there's any real kind of discipline when it comes to dealing with crowd size or where the crowds are or they buy sensitive locations within these cities it's just haphazard and that's why we've seen a spike in cows the numbers at least 18 killed on sunday so that's one side we probably won't see that much of a difference on the security forces side on the protesters side you know it'll really be depend on how the how they come out and if they're going to put a different strategy together but they will come out were garbus of what we've seen

over the last day or so and internationally i would imagine we're going to really hear a lot more nations bodies coming out condemning what happened on tuesday off the on the regional bloc they are going to discuss what's happening to me and more. it will be interesting to see how regional players in light of what happened on sunday will kind of intensify the heat on. in. the life in the thai capital bangkok scott thank you. $47.00 activists and former politicians are arriving at a hong kong court after being charged under the national security law they're accused of participating in an unofficial election primary is the latest group of government critics to be detained under the law imposed by beijing activists according to protesters to rally outside the courthouse. efforts to revive the 2050 nuclear deal between iran and major powers have stalled the white house says is disappointed that iran is not ready to hold informal talks along with its european

allies iran's foreign ministry says it's too early to be back at the negotiating table to iran wants the u.s. to lift unilateral sanctions 1st. has more now from washington d.c. this is the initial stages of posturing when it comes to diplomacy and negotiations and this was a meeting that was face to face meeting that was proposed by the european union it would have been the 1st preliminary meeting between tehran and washington and this is what tehran and said no to at least for now but the door still remains very much open especially here in washington the white house spokesperson a white house post person giving a statement out 0 basically saying that they are disappointed in the decision by you ron but we remain ready to engage in meaningful diplomacy to achieve a mutual return to the compliance with the j c p o a the white house indicating now that they'll go back to the p 5 plus one the 5

permanent members of the security council of course united states france the u.k. . china and russia add the other being germany to see where they go from here bottom line is though is that. tehran wants sanction relief before discussing anything the biden ministration has said nope we'll discuss it but we 1st got to meet and that's that is where the real roadblock is right now. well james patterson is a former u.s. diplomat he says the biden administration should not back down against iran americans were told or during joe biden was elected president that he was bringing an expert team into the ministration especially on foreign policy because that's the area east nationalized in over 50 years and i want you know the senate well mr biden in his next words look very foolish right now in the eyes of the world

because they can't get there they are there in the process of trying to meet the demands of. the iranians and they're just making america look very weak in the world and questioning whether mr 5 party plans to take on or again you know last week it bombed rainy and malicious sites in syria and in retaliation now it seems there are a me and your bond is that ship in the gulf of oman and. the israelis are saying that they are very heavy price there so the situation is escalating it's very it's tense and it's as though waiting and it's not the time for the by straight in and here's a great team of experts oh i want to run out at the state department to back down they've got to insist that they're not meeting yet they're not in the sanctions not

now and in fact at the end they put but they could put more on so they've got to they've got to bargain for a position of strength nigerian officials say they're close to rescuing 317 girls abducted from a boarding school in the northwestern state and some foreign it's given their families hope after the raid in the early hours of friday. but it just traveled to the school in jan to speak to a community still in shock what's left behind in these rooms indicates the goals left in hari and probably chalk. the attackers shot through glass windows to force them out post them effects strewn across the floor they were gone only for a few days but the dry weather casts theme layers of dust of what was left behind. at the school and the lawn security guard who tried to stop them but field is back on his job watching the gate. after

a short patrol of the school i went back in and shortly after i saw someone on the wall i pointed my gun at that intruder and he fell back i heard him telling others to shoot me ahead and i called for help no one was able to help because they've surrounded the school. although there are 2 security posts within a few 100 meters of the school in this north western state of them for not enough support rich to a police officer who attempted to stop them was shot dead by the attackers or wanted to shoot to is among students who evaded capture. they now started shouting short and shouted everybody out if anybody inside knew them without call me i went to. so i just came in out so running to the gate. is my only son he still waiting for the needs of his 10 year old daughter sister and a friend's daughter. i've never been in such a confused state i haven't slept much you know eaten well since then there is no

joy no laughter anymore in this house back at the school a few parents hanging around for news of their children with them a few security personnel guarding empty classrooms and hospitals just a few days ago these hostels were full of life 550 goes where he i chase in their dreams some wanted to be doctors others teachers then as they prepare for the night men bussed in they herded and drove 317 girls into the night now the holes of residence are empty the government of them for a state has now shut down all boarding schools in the state but for some the damage has already been done so parents insist that daughters aren't going back to school saying that i jared government has failed them a few students who still want to continue with their education say they may consider going back but under certain conditions can continue.

they've been at least 6 mass kidnappings from schools in northern nigeria in 6 years 2 of them this february the attacks are happening in the region with the lowest levels of school enrollment in high dropout sparking fears the region before father behind the rest of the country ahmed degrees al jazeera joined nigeria a lot more so to come here and al jazeera including we hear evidence of war crimes and ethiopians know them to great region. and anger in brazil as the capital enters lockdown some are arguing that poverty is killing more people than the coronavirus more and that status. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored plan qatar airways

how that shows they marks the start of meterological spring but winter hasn't quite done with us just yet across japan because this area clouds sinking across china this is a cold front behind that we have got some wet and some wintry weather to make its way through so some haiti snow coming in across the korean peninsula thickly into north korea that is likely to cause widespread disruptions some of that snow also running into south korea is going to be the very heavy rain that we have across much of south korea that is light is cause problems as we go on through the next couple of days you push on into choose day it will slide into japan some really heavy rain across southern parts of honshu snow on the back edge of that system snow to the north as well whether we'll set in but just notice for tokyo very mild air still pushing in his time just getting up to 18 celsius or going to a particular present of course because of all that rain and snow and quite a brisk wind well the more pleasant across china by this stage we've got more the

way of dry weather and sunshine 30 s sunshine say into indochina one of 2 showers creeping into vietnam having said that over the next couple of days and we could see a sharp shouted across northern parts of the philippines over the next couple days for much of malaysia and indonesia it's sunshine and showers. sponsored paul cuts at ways when freedom of the press is under threat demonstrators and journalists are dealing with internet outages police intimidation and charges of his addition and the state line becomes the default the media in england about new kinds of images that he did that it gives to these guys that just how did he create and use it just makes it hard for people to know what's real and what's not step outside the mainstream to shift the focus covering the way the news this covered the listening posts on a. welcome

back a quick amount of our top stories here this hour the u.n. secretary general is calling for international action against me in moscow military after the most violent days since anti to protest began the army fired live rounds of huge crowds across the country killing at least 18 people. iran has rejected an invitation from the former talks to revive the 2050 nuclear deal the government's insisting the u.s. sanctions must be lifted 1st verse says he's disappointed and will talk to european allies about the way forward. and $47.00 activists and former politicians are arriving at a hong kong court after being charged under the national security law they're accused of participating in an unofficial election crime. now

former u.s. president donald trump has hinted he may run for the white house again in 2024 but has no plans to start his own party trump was speaking on the final day of the conservative political action conference in florida it was his 1st public speech since leaving office he also repeated his base just claims of election fraud. biden is failed in his number one duty as chief executive it forcing america's laws. this alone should be reason enough. for democrats to suffer withering losses in the midterms and to lose the white house actually as you know they just lost the white house but it's one of those the but i don't. know i may even decide to beat them for a 3rd time ok god was so let's bring in stephen kent he's the host of right

now a new show on al-jazeera as u.s. based digital platform brightly he joins us live from fairfax in virginia stephen good to have you with us so we didn't really hear anything new from donald trump in that 2 and a speech and not surprisingly he repeated those discredited claims that democrats stole the white house what did you make of the speech steve many clearly had some old scores to settle that make yeah that's the donald trump way in the show continues i really thought after 4 years of talking about donald trump speeches we would never have to do it again but here we are i think at the end of the day it was hitting a lot of the same notes and it was putting out the same grievances in the list of enemies but at the end of the day what this speech was about and what donald trump's appearance at sea-tac was about was halting the momentum of his future rivals for 2024 c. pac is normally where the future talent and the next minds of the republican party are sort of put up for a vote and introduced to the base and donald trump showed up here to halt all of

that to keep the attention on him so that he can be the king maker yet and that's an interesting point you make stephen because many high profile republicans like mitch mcconnell mike pence they stayed away from the conference so what a trump speech tell us about the divisions within the party and perhaps the future direction of the g.o.p. . you know it's hard to say i mean sea pack for the many years it has been running has been a hard split between libertarian and conservative politics it's a conference that has always been dedicated to cutting government off at the knees really trying to shrink the role of the federal government but ever since we got the republican party of donald trump we've had the the idea of weaponize in government for different ends the republican party really entering the game in favor of big government and so what this conference was this year was how are we going to fight back against the democrats here in the united states and for donald trump it is as as militantly as possible you had like really you know fiery speeches from the likes of ted cruz and josh holley both trying to put their foot

forward but look at the end of the day i think donald trump is going to hand it to donald trump jr and keep it in the family that's just my pundit opinion but that's that's what what we're where we're headed yeah and i suppose stephen one take away from this is that trump hinted at a possible 2024 election run but as you know u.s. politics is a fickle beast isn't it i mean is he likely to see how the midterms plays out 1st. yeah absolutely i think we'll see how the midterms play out but i mean if you listen to donald trump's speech there are to declaring biden's presidency a failure i mean in politics it's pretty normal to always say that the other party is failing the next guy is not as good as you are but biden's been in office for 2 months so they're already convinced that they're going to do this and 2024 trumps away i think what trump wants at the end of the day is the ability to pick who it's going to be i do not believe that he wants to run again i don't believe that he wanted to be president in the 1st place i think he wanted to keep his family at the

center of america's attention and i think he's going to hand it to donald trump jr to be the candidate and ted cruz and josh ali and all these other people have tried to endear themselves to president trump for 4 years are going to once again be back benched because when you try to suck up to donald trump it doesn't really get you anywhere stephen kent great to get your thoughts thank you so much indeed for talking to us here yeah pleasure. now the philippines is finally starting its vaccination program the government has been running to be in late and securing vaccines despite having the 2nd highest number of cases and deaths in southeast asia while major cities are prepared to run out there were not collection programs there are concerns people in remote areas will miss out. on reports from more than 50. this is one of the most advanced and sophisticated vaccine storage facilities in the philippines so route to prepare.

these. things. we have. the. funds have also been allocated to purchase growing virus vaccines for millions of its people but the situation isn't deceiving many rural towns in this small town the. province villagers say they are allocating about 10 percent of their budget to the purchase of crew in the virus vaccines it's money that was meant for infrastructure and education. and i think. we know that the philippines he says the national government going to provide that says for everyone that this way we decided to contribute for the good the power of constituents. in. the freezer this refrigerator is

a lifeline it stores of vaccines for polio and measles and we'll be able to keep. that don't need sophisticated cold storage systems other well your cities are able to set up separate vaccination facilities rural health clinics like this one will have to serve as main back to the hub at least for now but this by meager resources help workers here they are ready and all their. for now as for the corona virus that seems to actually arrive the government says it expects to vaccinate 25 percent of its 110000000 people by the end of this year but while other countries have started in occupations vaccines have not even their rights in the philippines been on our fear for almost 24 hours a day. it's really very exhausting your box here although you'd be she's not the thought of a solution for the fund any by surely we are for the very significant solution

to this one very still the prospect of them provides hope to millions of filipinos already weary of the pandemic jim duggan al-jazeera the levitt on where they see a province northern philippines. south africa's government is in his coronavirus instructions and orders of in place for the new single job johnson and johnson vaccine 11000000 doses have been ordered with the 1st 2800000 set to arrive within the next 3 months businesses can now reopen although a nighttime curfew from midnight to 4 am will remain in place. millions are in lockdown in brazil's capital to help ease pressure on the hospitals many a capacity with coronavirus patients the 2 week lockdown as i'm going to sun with hundreds protesting against the restrictions that comes as the number of deaths from the virus 250000 out of. the firing the latest restrictions hundreds protested in front of the governor's mansion in

brazilian sunday with one clear message. and the lockdown governor we want to work listen to the voice of the people we want to work we want to work. angry at the latest lockdown imposed on the city to stem a rising wave of infections left hospitals on the verge of collapse. the current restrictions mean only essential services will be allowed for didn't next 2 weeks the same is happening in dozens of other cities in states across the country. but despite the risks protesters in brazil are not the only ones concerned about the economic impact. and friday president. threatened to cut off federal and aid to states there are imposing lockdowns in curfews to quell the surge was you know millions you know emergency aid will come for

a few more months and from now on governors who close down their states and governors who destroyed jobs will have to provide for their own emergency aid. but the brazilian red cross is urging the government to take the crisis seriously. now. it is much more important than the economic situation the country has a sick economy people working in infecting others will not help us so we call on the government to take precautions. a vaccination campaign is under way but delays in deliveries have a time slowed down the rollout to a trickle on saturday to new batches of ingredients to produce the chinese scene of act vaccine in brazil landed in rio renewing hope to jumpstart the campaign. with a quarter of a 1000000 brazilians lives lost from covert so far and more than a 1000 still dying every day the road ahead remains fraught with sorrow and pain i

listened to. it here in the northern region have told al jazeera of multiple war crimes they suffered last year at the hands of eritrean soldiers this despite eritrea denying being integrated when conflict broke out there in the. explains. 18 year olds known only. by one day the 4th of december it was then she says in retrain soldiers into her village in the ethiopian region of tinkering. they tried to rape me and i was thrown to the ground then one of the soldiers fired bullets to scare me but they hit my hand and then fired another bullet that went through my arm. i was bleeding for hours then i had my arm did.

the al-jazeera gained access to 2 gray and heard multiple accounts of more crimes but at the hands of retrain not ethiopians so choose. some girls and i managed to leave the village but on the road we were caught by eritrean soldiers more than 10 soldiers took turns raping us. in november ethiopian prime minister and launched into strikes and seen fit to root troops into to great saying he was responding to attacks by the to grain people's liberation front witnesses say eritrean forces crossed the border to support the ethiopian military and while here committed agree just crimes committed nagen i do i just wish that al-jazeera convey a message on my cowboys who would we demand the exit of iraq trying forces from our country. era trained soldiers deny even being into gray yet al-jazeera obtained these images showing trucks with eritrean license plates integrate caring so which

is amnesty international also released a report stating hundreds of civilians were massacred by eritrean soldiers in the town of axum in november the focus. of the streets using sniper rifles. ethiopia's government has questions the accuracy of amnesty sources but says an investigation will be launched. as information slowly seep selves survive these live with their troops every day. 2 my husband was killed in our village along with the not plays a game tell the world we're dying. by their accounts at the hands of soldiers who deny every entering this land shall a ballasts al-jazeera.