bad idea they don't care about their work is all they care about is making money trying to stop going to be left out of the calling for the bloated defense budget to be high. on us politics and policies and their effect on the world. to cooper testers and me and mara use smoke grenades to escape a police crackdown as more charges are laid against the deposed president. you're watching al-jazeera live from a headquarters and. also coming up warnings of a health catastrophe in brazil or forty's call for a nationwide lockdown on the same day the nation recorded its highest cope with 1000 death toll the chairman of the australian mining company rio tinto says he

will step down next year following criticism over the destruction of aboriginal rock shelters this kind of behavior is not acceptable we will not countenance it we will not tolerate it and the u.s. and the e.u. impose sanctions on russia for the poisoning of opposition politician alexei navalny. hello thanks for joining us charges are mounting against me and mars deposed leaders a month after the military seized power the lawyer for ousted president when men says he's now being charged with breaching the constitution which is punishable by up to 3 years in prison he was arrested along with democratically elected head of government. who's also facing several charges meanwhile protesters are still defying an escalating crackdown to demand an end to the military. take over it's

lunch time right now but are ready to hear gas has been fired in confrontations between security forces and demonstrators at least 21 people have been killed in weeks of protests most of them on sunday scott heiler is joining us live from bangkok for an update on the situation mean martin particularly those charges. have now been imposed on the ousted president what more can you tell us about those. that and we know as you mention that when man has now 2 additional charges laid against them and as you mentioned there's one that's related to constitution breach of the constitution and his attorney who announced these 22 new charges said that that could hold a cold him in prison up to 3 years now we're seeing kind of this pattern that he knew we saw on monday there was a hearing for on songs to cheap to more charges were laid against her they said that the next hearing for her is going to be on the 15th of march and it's kind of this pattern you know because of the situation the trials and the hearings are

going video conferencing so the attorneys really don't really hear much information until after it and then that's when they tell the media and get word out about what's happening with the leadership the deposed leadership of the end of the party in myanmar so that's what we're hearing today with the former president there we don't we think it's probably going to be another 10 days plus before we hear another. report update on what's his condition but overall what it is is the charges are being lobbed on and that is mainly for the june to keep these leaders in detention pretty much now it seems indefinitely because of all these charges that have been initially were initially filed and then ones added on top of it so it will keep them in definitely until the joint i would imagine hopes that things calm down in the streets but they haven't one thing that's interesting you know as you mentioned being in yangon in mandalay and out way down in the south they have come out again and the posture of the protesters that we've been talking about the last couple of days has changed dramatically they have their own shields now

makeshift shields they are a little bit more organized and as you mentioned at the top of the show dotting they're using tactics to prevent them too from being impacted by tear gas but then also because of the live rounds being used for several days now we know that there are some injuries today not necessarily from live rounds but what they're doing also are using smoke grenades and even fire extinguishers to callao themselves. as they retreat from the advancing security forces so their tactics are being upgraded because the crackdown is increasing from the security officials on the streets across me and mark all right scott thank you so much for that update from bank called let's talk about the situation mean more with kingsley abbott who's the director for global red dress and accountability with the international commission of just a jurist excuse me he's joining us from new zealand thanks for your time with us on al-jazeera so what do you think is behind the military's strategy of slapping these charges on the ousted president along with the charges of course that have been put

on. yes headed to women structure you to is another charge violation of section $558.00 b. of the penal code spreading false news knowing it to be false and these provisions were just amended up to the just a few days ago to include this kind of much stronger language and in fact it's just one of numerous revisions to the legal system now taking place but what isn't well known is that despite women being detained since 153 you don't notice it existed as lawyers and as lawyers haven't even received a copy of the child so you or the case file so these are fundamental ferrite trial rights i lay sions that are taking place on top of everything else and they have all the hallmarks of being trumped up charges it's a blatant misuse of the rule of law and we don't know really where all this is going but the military could very well be laying the groundwork to place various brands of women and some suchi in the in all day from dissipating in future

elections this president but at the end we saw it in cambodia in 2017 when one of the most popular political parties the scene of the was desirable and a 100 major you know its members were banned from politics again the rule of law in cambodia was just turned on to it and we're seeing the same i now teach me a moderate so with the lack off sort of concrete pressure from nations as well as the international community then is the military going to succeed in continuing to do this. well look people have me and so many hope not and as you say right now all eyes are on him and if it was an opportunity for the end to prove it it's no longer a week in a fictional association its critics it has this is a this is the moment it's policy of a moment of boltons of the charter simply rings hollow in light of what we're seeing on our screens all right but it turns out to sound like it's going to prove

anything because you know just about 24 hours ago they came up with a they came out with it with this statement where they didn't really take any strong action against me and mars military. i mean look me in marshes borders with the like china thailand laos trade for it its way through the region everybody is affected and so these countries are not happy and even though the block is made up of different religions different languages different political systems they really should be coming out and one voice and agreeing on certain issues like ending the usably. ending arbitrated changing those who've been detained and so on and we hope that they act this is our moment how do they do that though practically what steps do they need to take well there's a number of steps that they can take and we're seeing that already there needs to be direct engagement i think with the military and been h.p.

conversations with them about stepping back from the brink stepping back from the use of lethal force against protesters and looking at a way to resolve this issue that we're seeing there peacefully and that is in the interests of all of these countries in the r.c.m. bloc as i've said ok thank you so much kingsley abbott for speaking to us from new zealand thank you. thank you. now in iraq a military facility that is also used by u.s. forces has come under attack multiple rockets have landed on said the air base in anbar province it comes just days after the u.s. president joe biden ordered an air strike on facilities used by iran backed groups in syria the pentagon says it was retaliation for attacks on american and coalition forces in iraq. there are calls for a national lockdown in brazil after its highest number of deaths from corona virus

in a single day more than a 1600 all of the countries state health secretary say more needs to be done to combat the virus more than a quarter of a 1000000 people have now died in brazil since the pandemic began but president your boss an arrow is opposing further restrictions and is threatening to pull funding for states that go into lockdown monophonic has more from rio de janeiro. here in brazil. states and mayors and governors have utah namie to make decisions they are now extremely worried many of them because they're seeing the situation get out of control we are in the summer years so the 2nd wave should have come in what would be the winter which is would be like in june july and it has started much earlier with the new variant so they have asked for a new nationwide curfew but the president himself has always been against any any sort of measure that he feels will will shut down commerce in any way and he has

even said that if anyone takes these measures like lockdowns which are being taken by some cities and states which have run out of space and there are intensive care units he has said well you know if people go unemployed and there's no work and they need emergency aid while the federal government won't help them you should face the consequences of what we have started so it's a very difficult situation for united response as a matter of fact this has been the problem since the beginning the lack of unity in fighting this pandemic south africa says it's vaccinated tens of thousands of hits health care workers with the johnson and johnson vaccine that had planned to use the oxford astra zeneca job but that rollout was suspended last month after the discovery of a new and more contagious covert 1000 variant. takes us into

a lab in quad nates hall where the new strain was 1st discovered yeah and everything they have to do this a to go to all of their own leads the team at south africa's university of course they're responsible for sequencing the genomes of hundreds of some pulls of covert 19. being moved to the of the room where they will extract that they are and they offer the virus. simply put scientists observe not only how the virus grows and mutates but also how effective vaccines are in protecting people from the disease it's at this lab late last year that scientists discovered one of the 1st covert 19 variants in the world after doctors noticed a wiring rise in infections are 5 all one wired viewed through variants and at the head around like 2313 your patients from the audition always trained with 20 off then called the annoyer sids change with a change of their function off the propane which translates into vitals to be more

profitable but i'll follow as neutralizer by and the board so given that scientific understanding it's not a surprise that the new variant is the dominant theory into its other even though they can't accept it so this variant when it arrives if there's basically had to be for 20 or 30 different limit to cicle a thing and they all basically there's a beer now we have all of the variant 3 just finished and for every day and 99 percent of the journal is there very the discovery of the variant derailed south africa's plans to begin immunizing its health workers with the oxford astra zeneca vaccine studies had suggested it would cut the risk of contracting the original variant of co the 19 by 75 percent but the local trial of about 2000 people showed it was lisita fictive against the new variant we showed together with colleagues of oxfordian after event that a lot of infections happen both in their blood. and also in the vaccinated

scientists say more research is needed to show how effective that vaccine is against severe illness but the world health organization has approved its emergency use for now south africa is using the johnson and johnson vaccine which has shown to be more effective and will instead distribute its batch of as. vaccines to other african countries they are for america has been effective against very effective against and not the non variant as the virus is likely to continue to mutate they are warnings that somebody has a vaccination drive should speed up and it's labs like this one that help ensure scientists stay on top of those mutations and determine just which vaccines will work for me to mona al-jazeera. still ahead on al-jazeera a 7 year old girl caught up in police raids officers are accused of being heavy handed with shootings indigenous community. look at the legacy of

a decade of attacks on health care facilities and rebel controlled areas of syria. how their weather remains fine and mold for a good part of europe at the moment lots of subtle weather around big area of high pressure so large the clear skies early warning folks who were think of but nothing too much it's the truth be know we have got the system this area of high pressure just not a little further east for say over the next couple days so there will be something a change coming in to western parts of here but the moment we got showers snow just pushing across western russia some unsettled weather coming through here that makes its way through as a go on through where to stay still a few showers around the eastern side of the black sea or parts of turkey and also into that a side of the mediterranean so some lively storms

a possibility just around cyprus pushing over towards the levant over the next day or 2 with some strong winds got a few shows that in place across the eastern half of spain as well but some west of weather just making its way in from the atlantic so northern parts of france will see increasing rates to get up to 17 celsius in paris 12 for london as it clouds over. well so weather coming in across some parts of england that the good parts of wales look how it cools off as we go on into thursday winds coming in from a northerly direction wetter weather easing across germany pushing a little further east was about this is fine and dry for the met. frank assessments the world is on the brink of a catastrophic model samia is that a fair assessment you can be a catastrophic failure to twice valuable backseat informed opinions should we be

buying bitcoin ultimately it will be sovereigns and governments who are buying this that is the direction this is all headed in-depth analysis of the day school opel headlines the inside story. teller again the top stories on al-jazeera charges are mounting against myanmar as the pows leaders a month after the military seize power president when minutes facing new accusations including breaching the constitution which is punishable by up to 3 years in prison there are calls for a nationwide lockdown after brazil reported its highest number of deaths from

coronavirus in a single day more than a 1600 are president terrible sonar opposes further restrictions. rio tinto chairman says he will resign following an outcry over the firm's destruction of ancient caves in australia simon thompson will step down nearly a year after the mining giant blew up a 46000 year old indigenous site to expand an iron ore mine thomson says he holds himself accountable for the event australia's mining companies have come under increased scrutiny since last may and gage is joining us from canberra for more on this story so how significant is this announcement. about this has been extremely damaging for rio tinto his reputation and the significance of what happened here really can't be underestimated these caves with 40 seats 1000 years old and contained some of the oldest boring tools to be discovered in

a strike and rio tinto you knew about their cultural significance when they blew them up so while this is welcome news to many people it will buy some the same as another step in the process of rio tinto you are trying to show you that it is accountable for its actions here in terms of simon thomson stepping down pressure has been building all on him to take personal accountability from environmental activists and shareholders and that's exactly what he has done in a statement issued by rio tinto to the stock exchange he says that ultimately he is accountable for the actions that did take place that led to the destruction of these caves but one interesting thing here that some indigenous organisations have taken notice of is the timeline the national nature of tonsil

council has questioned why simon thomson should be staying in the position until next year given he was in that position and over the civil war the destruction of these kites these indigenous council is calling for his immediate resignation and one wonders whether this announcement by him enough to rebuild trust in the company. oh from the indigenous organizations that i have spoken with of course it's a stitch in the right direction but it will take a very long time to repair relationships and rebuild trust we've aboriginal and torres strait islander communities not only the paid pay people who's the traditional owners of the land where those who can go into caves ah but also the wider indigenous community and the wider strangely in community as a whole so people have been calling for more structural reforms within rio tinto

and you know why dissent sinestro liya reforms to native title will because we need to remember he is that what rio tinto deed in destroying these caves was actually legal in the sense of the laws so the structure of native title will is clearly flawed if this was allowed to go ahead and some including senator patrick dodson of calling for oil commission to make sure that mining companies and indigenous organisations can what better together so we can never see something like the destruction of these caves again all right nick ok thank you so much for that update from canberra. a state of siege could be declared by chinese government in a region home to the indigenous people president sebastian pinera seeking approval for tougher anti-terrorist legislation to cover the central southern area called r.-o. can now he says that's to help deal with armed groups carrying out attacks are latin

america editor of the c.n.n. has more from santiago. but these images show some more than $800.00 police intelligence officers carrying out an unprecedented rate in south central chile in an area dominated by indigenous mup which is. on this farm police searching for marijuana were tapped by an agenda fight gunman. one of the officers was killed although his death dominated national news it wasn't the only violence that took place that day these photos show police operatives using what human rights experts call illegitimate use of force and abuse against minors here the target was the 7 year old daughter of my pooch activist comedic at the young guy he was killed 2 years ago by special forces police her mother and grandmother were also thrown face down to the ground and detained it must mean do you mean the this is not an

exceptional or isolated case it's part of institutional violence practiced against them of people in which children are also victims police intelligence director actually spinosa did nice that the child was detained and insists that children police don't mistreat minors but all of the little oh i wonder why that was. but this recording of a map which a teenager reportedly being grabbed by police suggests otherwise you can hear the girl being told to get killed if she doesn't shut up. the prosecutor is now investigating charges of alleged police abuse against minors on the day of the massive raid. but with the government now under strong pressure to declare a state of siege in the rest of region a lot of people are afraid that things will get worse in fact the army has already been given the go ahead to carry out roles in the area alongside special forces

police. you know. the situation today's of uncertainty and fear for the safety of the children. honestly 1000000 says the violation of my children's human rights is an intergenerational problem. the children were yesterday experienced violence from the state the parents of the children experiencing it today so the job of ripper ation and reconciliation is very complex. the sharp increase in attacks by an identified armed groups who claim to fight for land rights has taken the conflict in southern chile to a new level. and with no solution in sight a new generation of children is growing up with violence fear and anger you see in human al-jazeera santiago the u.s. secretary of state has spoken to venezuela's opposition leader calling for in his words or words for him to democracy in

a phone call with. blinken stressed the importance of free and fair elections washington recognized. as well as legitimate leader after disputed elections that saw president nicolas maduro return to power in 28 team. the new u.s. president has imposed sanctions on top top russian officials for the poisoning of opposition figure alexei navalny it's joe biden's 1st big move against a very poor tense government since taking office nearly 6 weeks ago the measures follow similar sanctions imposed by the european union mike hanna reports. as in the case of the e.u. the us sanctions are aimed at some very senior officials in the putin administration these include a federal service director victor was a lot of listening here to his president the russian prosecutor general eagle cross north and the head of the russian investigative committee alexander by streakin.

the buy didn't ministration also announced sanctions under the u.s. chemical and biological weapons control and warfare elimination act against at least 13 russian companies with the threat of more sanctions to follow there is an ongoing review there we reserve the right to take any additional actions at the conclusion of that review and just reiterating that the tone and the tenor and the type of relationship that this president intends to have with president putin will be quite different from the last administration earlier the russian foreign minister was dismissive of the imposition of sanctions. but it sure moves a little there isn't much to comment on and we have numerously expressed our position in regards to illegitimate unilateral sanctions that with or without reason actually mostly always with reason are used by our colleagues from the united states and those who take an example from them the european union. the view

from the u.s. state department is that the coordinated action with the e.u. sends in itself a message to russia that things have changed together they send an unambiguous signal that the united states is working closely with our closest allies and partners in europe to make clear that this kind of behavior is not acceptable we will not countenance it we will not tolerate it and there will be penalties going forward the previous u.s. president appeared eager to accept the words of his russian counterpart over those of the americans european allies to these sanctions signaled that the president incumbent will not and that his administration is beginning to restore a more conventional approach to foreign policy plan. my kind of al-jazeera washington. voting has begun in pakistan senate election members of the provincial and national assemblies are eligible to vote of the $104.00 sitting senators are

reaching the end of their terms it's a secret vote but prime minister imran khan had wanted the electoral ballots to be made public to prevent vote trading but pakistan's supreme court rejected that. aid agencies say syria's rebel controlled areas need urgent help to support their devastated health systems the warning coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the war in that time the syrian government and its allies have carried out widespread and deliberate attacks that have damaged or destroyed hospitals xenophobes it has more. much from of the new. photos thomas of hospitals have been repeatedly bombed in what has been described as a systematic campaign to force the opposition to surrender in. hundreds of airstrikes by syrian government and russian warplanes have been documented throughout the years of conflict. many advocacy groups like physicians

for human rights have tracked the teesta 595 air or artillery attacks on health care facilities in syria since 20112 years later they were described as war crimes by u.n. investigators who said the hospitals were being bombed to gain military advantage but apart from condemnations little else was done and the rules of war continued to be ignored. but still nothing special the russian and syrian government have denied targeting civilians or civilian buildings despite evidence to the contrary and international recognition of the widespread and sometimes deliberate nature of the attacks.

a survey by the international rescue committee showed the risks workers and civilians faced in the past decade 81 percent said they had a coworker or patient injured or killed 77 percent witnessed an average of 4 attacks on health care facilities 68 percent were inside a health facility when it was attacked. part of the because here. of the hospitals i was working in was hit i survived but that feeling is hard to describe we all felt vulnerable we all knew what the risk of being in the hospital it meant we could be killed it was one of the heads of a decade of attacks is also compromised the health care system and its ability to respond to the needs of millions of syrians in opposition controlled areas in the north and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are an added pressure on an already weak system where there is one doctor for every $10000.00 civilians. the situation is not good there are millions of people that live in the countryside of

aleppo how much i get not enough we really suffer from a lack of medicines and medical equipment to treat chronic diseases as ceasefire appears to be largely holding but it hasn't eased the humanitarian crisis the violence has caused critical damage to syria's health sector affecting the ability of millions to receive proper health care center for their beirut. the headlines on al jazeera charges are mounting up against me in mars as the leaders a month after the military seize power the lawyer for the post president when men says he's facing new accusations they include breaching the constitution which is punishable by up to 3 years in prison he was arrested along with the democratically elected state councilor. who's also been hit with several charges since the coup. protesters are still defying an escalating crackdown to demand an end to the

military takeover it's lunch time in myanmar but already tear gas has been fired in confrontations between security.