seasons on people then how it affects them every day that. we are free to tell them what they are in to really gauge their stories because we know there are all this is interesting not just in history news but also the more hidden stories from parts of the world that often go under-reported. china's communist party lezard its economic and political plan for the year promising to deter what it calls separatist activity in taiwan and hong kong. loves the whole robin you want your 0 life my headquarters here in doha are also coming up. getting more dangerous by the day protestors are

killing the killed trying to free 7 girls opposition leader. also the un and us says eritrean forces must leave ethiopia's to grey region accusing them of committing crimes against humanity. and living and dying for the job rights groups push for action over the deaths of at least $17000.00 health workers during the pandemic. welcome to the program china says it will guard against anyone interfering in hong kong's affairs the threats come as its largest political meeting kicked off 3000 officials are the national people's congress led by the president xi jinping the annual meeting sets out the government's plan for the next 5 years let's get more on this from our correspondent it's really you who is following events force from beijing the prime minister has been speaking likud chang he's taken to the lectern

what's he been saying so far. that's right and to sell sell just give you a little bit of context there they've got almost 3000 of agents most powerful politicians inside this room the great hall of the people most of them are wearing masks it's only xi jinping in the rest of the top dogs that pull the viewer who are not wearing masks themselves and this is really traditionally events of much pomp much pageantry where the communist party gets outline its achievements for the last year or so and then go forward with challenges and its plan and this year is particularly important because the national people's congress which is an event that lasts for about 7 days they'll be outlining not only the plans for the upcoming year but for the next 5 years in the next 15 years also so we've heard leak a child giving his annual work report and 1st he started with the tone of victory the communist party is really wanting to tout this triumphant image and really held

the achievements they've had in the past year particularly fighting poverty being able to control the pandemic and also maintain economic growth during the year which really brought the country many challenges while one of the things we were really waiting to hear is whether he would announce a d.d.p. target now china last year was the or only one of the only countries to post any growth in mid and make and this year he's actually said that the goal would be 6 percent which is quite a bold target for g.d.p. growth he also talked about different challenges of head to maintaining that core that china is still fighting very slow domestic consumption slow investment there are still a lot of challenges with unemployment going forward and he says china really wants to take care of trying to become more self-reliant and in doing this being more innovative in the central government is going to invest an extra 10 percent in terms of its budget into research and development to try to really become

self-reliant developing these key technologies another thing he mentioned was green development now china has made some quantum. bush's goals in terms of becoming carbon neutral by 2060 that's one of the goals it set and the chances that they will try to cut carbon unused emissions per unit by 18 percent in the coming year now all of this is well the tone of this speech is very much been a lot of mention of president xi jinping and his role in the country's triumphs and his role at the helm going forward and this n.p.c. is very much sort of about cementing his role as the leader of china giving him a status on par with mal de dong the founder of the communist party and giving him really an emperor like stature and of course katrina china has been sort of attracting the air of international criticism on what china would describe as a domestic policy issue when it comes to taiwan and hong kong the international

community don't think of that and of course we're expecting some sort of comment to be made this venue as well. that's right what's really interesting about this n.p.c. is that it comes at a time when china's back so to speak is against the wall in terms of the global stage in the past year there have been increasing hostility is increasing criticism aimed at beijing because of a number of things because of the spread of corporate because of the treatment of the weak and was a minority and because of as you mentioned political reforms in hong kong and how beijing has reacted to this criticism is not by being more open or giving any concessions it's done exactly the opposite it's kind of double down close its doors and kind of hardened its stance and were very much hearing this attitude in leakage chunks speech today he mentioned that they doing will continue to refute and rebuts any foreign into what it sees as foreign interference in its domestic affairs go on

to mention taiwan saying that taiwan is one of their red line issues that beijing will do whatever it takes to protect the sovereignty of taiwan of course they ging sees taiwan as one of its own rogue states and also a mention of hong kong saying that beijing will continue to defend the one country 2 systems policy now of course many people around the world many governments many rights groups say that they do has not been of holding this principle at all and in fact it's been doing the opposite putting in various movements to crush democratic freedoms that they didn't promise after the handover from britain and certainly during this n.p.c. we're going to expect more of those reforms in that direction specifically possibly reform which is going to be passed to force anybody in hong kong wanting to hold office to pledge allegiance to the chinese government because all were monitor what goes on at the conference through the day with you katrina either correspondence beijing. now the fight to free senegal's leading opposition figure has taken

a turn for the worst to protest us of being killed in battles with police the 1st deaths in the dispute since the arrest of a somber song go 2 days ago has more from the capital. supporters of opposition leader months on co shelter inside the cars to shake on to joke university they chant free song and call president mikey selling a dictator. police respond by firing tear gas but the crowd is defiant. outside the police station where suncor is held for questioning security forces struggle to control the situation and. people are tired they're not dupes we are being manipulated by the government they say songkhla is creating public disorder this is all an excuse to arrest the political opponents of the president's real stand by song called in early february sancho was accused of rape he denies any wrongdoing saying the case is politically motivated followed by his supporters song

go was arrested on his way to meet the judge sparking nationwide protests. mr sankoh has not committed any act with a view to disturbing public order he was answering the summons of the court and you will all witnesses to that. song co a former bureaucrat turned politician was the youngest candidate in the 200-1000 presidential election where he finished 3rd he describes himself as an anti establishment politician accusing the political elite including president mikey sell of corruption he has denounced french corporations saying they make profits off the back of course in italy's following his arrest demonstrators looted french supermarkets and gas stations with several officers injured swat teams were dispatched to stop the riots that protesters are throwing stones in this area of the university and right behind me for the last few days. security forces have

failed to enter the premise is that the university and demonstrators say don't continue this protest movement. is freedom. the military has called in reinforcements to protect strategic sites the government says these demonstrations are an authorized to television stations were taken off the air for broadcasting the riots public gatherings have been banned to prevent the spread of the current virus but these protesters see the government measures a ploy to silence them and in the court case against an attempt by president mikey cell to eliminate a popular political opponent defying the political system the goal is hard algis iraq to car killings torture and sexual violence and ethnic cleansing those are the crimes reportedly being carried out to daily in ethiopia's degree region the only human rights chief wants monitors to be let in which are basho says the allegations of war crimes need to be investigated aid groups journalists and criminal

investigators are all struggling for access as fighting continues with federal troops and are trained forces on one side and soldiers of the region's former ruling party on the other. these are the people caught in the middle grains being wiped out by troops who act with impunity they say they're being forced from their homes and worse more than 136 cases of rape have been reported to graze hospitals in december and january with many more likely on reporters well washington's ambassador to the united nations has echoed the un's call for an end to the fighting in de grey she says the humanitarian crisis there must be urgently addressed. be honest to prevent further atrocities and human suffering all squarely on the ethiopian government shoulder we urged the ethiopian government to support any immediate end to the fighting in

tikrit and to that end the prompt withdrawal of eritrean forces and her regional forces from grave are essential steps and we urge the broader region to work fast after days of record crowd of virus deaths across brazil the country's 2nd largest city has announced its toughest measures yet to curb the spread of hiv 19 from friday restaurants and bars in rio de janeiro will close at 5 pm and commercial activity on beaches will be suspended it follows a decision by the powers governor to close the non-essential businesses for 2 weeks from saturday. well as a result face its worst phase of the pandemic so far it's also seeing a sharp increase in poverty while a chaotic year of reports from rio de janeiro. there are new people standing in line in front of the banks and increasingly more in line by the door on the sidewalk like 33 year old battered body and her soon to be born baby boy.

i lost my job as a cleaning lady when the pandemic began but at least i could rely on the government to megan see age now i have nothing or in me a child on the way. government handouts benefiting 60 percent of brazil's population stopped abruptly in january but the effects are beginning to show now. so the brazilians will return to poverty by the end of the year brazil went from one extreme to the other from having the most generous emergency aid program in the region benefiting 60 percent of the population to having none the question is how will people survive until we are all texan ated street vendor paul and his wife used to live in a shack in the slum until last week when their savings dried up and their customers stopped buying. that way it's a vicious cycle we can't pay the rent or clients quit buying or finding

a job now things are going from bad to worse is almost impossible. brazil's economy minister says the solution for the disease and the economy is the vaccine but president. has always downplayed the pandemic and political infighting has delayed binocular lieschen campaign less than 5 percent of the 210000000 population has been vaccinated in previous days rio's oldest slum people are wary of promises. we have less money food is more expensive and vaccines will take a long time to get here there is still the public that is extremely high and the government says it could not maintain the emergency but economists say that dropping it all together can be doing for us. the specter of recession already looms over providing and with it the fear that the high unemployment and poverty

rates will lead to an increase of violence which is already on the rise monica and i give all jazeera rio de janeiro. well still ahead here on al-jazeera it was little she was nicknamed angel the service for a teenager who is among the latest victims of mia mars military crackdown also. hours goings on in new zealand we've update on the tsunami warnings straight after the break. it's time for the perfect gentlemen the winter sponsored point qatar airways its range in central and southern china this is just

a hint the springs on its way and are rolling low through southern japan temp just to the north of all this have risen recently but they're about to come down again the winds going around to the south as big drop of 9 degrees invited for stock eventual feel the same in tokyo so the korean peninsula and even down to shanghai eleven's probably lower limits here and then the rain might be in hearts a bit to the south of that it gets as far south as hong kong tokyo's temperature drops down to about 11 degrees we have seen 20 recently so as bit of a shock but you early spring you expect that sort of thing still the northeast monsoon blows and sort of suppresses any significant shower growth for the philippines or for most of southeast asia or a few showers around bangkok for the heavy ones our course for the south right into an easy job in particular that was most of india bangladesh and pakistan remain quiet and still with the fog problem the air quality problem in the northern valley of india and in particular you've got a westerly disturbance that's what they're called bringing showers or snow through

afghanistan to northern pakistan that might indeed have the air quality in new delhi inverness it's not such a big problem although it will be unhealthy again by monday. the way. too often on the streets of india women are victims but a new force is at play. female police officers are combat in sexual assault and domestic abuse. but changing society is a challenge and so is life behind the backs for india's lady called. on does either.

book about what you all just means the whole running reminder of our top news stories china says it will guard against anyone interfering in hong kong's of the threats come at the start of its largest political meeting 3000 officials are at the national people's congress led by the president xi jinping. 2 protesters have been killed in fighting between police and supporters of senegalese opposition leader that's the 1st summer song because of arrest 2 days ago. and the u.n. wants answers to ethiopia's to gray region to investigate what it says are war crimes being carried out it says killings torture sexual violence ethnic cleansing happening until the basis. now the u.s. has tightened export controls on me and bar in the latest response to the killing of protesters by the military the u.n.

says 38 people died to join demonstrations on wednesday and it's urging governments to impose more sanctions as well as a global weapons and bargo against the military scott has more. like thousands of others just in nickname angel went out to protest on the streets of mandalay on wednesday less than 24 hours later people gathered for her funeral she had been shot in the head. according to the u.n. angel was one of $38.00 protesters who died at the hands of myanmar security forces the most killed in a single day since the coup in february 1st aid agency save the children says 4 of the dead were children. in yangon bodies were identified and collected by family members this neighborhood of the country's largest city saw the heaviest death toll on wednesday there are reports that security forces opened up with live ammunition on the unarmed protesters without warning. but the protesters continued to put

pressure on the jointer. on thursday again building barricades to block the security forces as they prepare for another day of protest young dealy is the former u.n. special repertory for myanmar she and 2 other experts have started a council to track the situation after the coup the behaviors the actions of this so called military. aren't. terrorists like behaviors they have snow. and high high rise buildings around town buildings they aren't amy and shooting at. civilian populations is a question and she said that the international community needs to acknowledge the military's actions as being comparable to terrorism un. they should really ashamed of what they've done we not done you know they haven't been hearing to the un charter to protect and to restore it to maintain

to secure peace in order. and the security council has has really not done its job . she went on to say that china and russia has veto power in the un security council is obstructing action that needs to be taken in myanmar so far the council has voiced concern but has not condemned what's happened since the coup but there will be a further test of that on friday as another security council meeting has been called to discuss the crackdown on protesters this week scott hyder al-jazeera australia's got caught up in a dispute over quite a virus vaccines for it won't get a quarter of a 1000000 doses of us to seneca but the shipments being blocked from leaving the european union is the 1st you solve the export system designed to hold big pharmaceutical companies to their cult trucks. at least 17000 frontline health workers have died worldwide due to corona virus amnesty international which

reported the figures is calling on governments to speed up vaccinations for health care professionals it says workers often ignored a distribution plan such as cleaners and social care workers and they should be given priority as well as bring in eric files with his vice president of the council of the americas and joins me via skype from washington d.c. mr farnsworth good to be on the program again i mean it's not just seeing the quality of vaccine distribution that's annoying the public globally but the fact now that health workers and the support staff at the forefront of the fight or not being protected enough by their national authorities and national governments yeah i think that's right and great to be with you. this is a real tragedy and it's particularly amplified because the people who are trying to address it who are literally on the front lines of addressing what are the ones who are being followers affected the most i mean and that makes sense because they're the ones who are exposed to it there are they're working in the worst conditions in

developing countries around the world and really bad situation and yet they don't seem to have priority in that can't. have been actions to actually enjoy if you will not put into action for many people and sort of a subculture you might say we've seen rich countries fare better to help their front line workers the poor nations the disparity is clear for all to see but where do you spend the money in this particular scenario now on p p or a vaccine that has now become available. it's a really difficult conundrum because literally there's only so much money that can go around and particularly again if you're dealing with developing markets who may not have a lot of financial space in the 1st place they really don't have a whole lot of. liquidity to be able to devote to either vaccines or p.v. and then if you put on top of that the fact that several of these countries 'd around the world are already have significant debt loads that will be difficult to service many are reluctant to air to air on top of that so there really is going to

have to be international assistance both financial and also access to clean and they're close to p.v. we're seeing some of that through the coal that facility and through some direct contributions and things like that but the real answer to this is 'd getting enough supply produced so they can be distributed not just to developed countries but to developing markets alike i think that's the ultimate answer but it does take time and there are no simple solutions here you just touched on kovacs which is what i want to ask next you think there should be a sort of a a style of kovacs might say for people to protect the poor countries the people within the poor countries that are trying to fight in the same way that they've looking at the kovacs scheme for the vaccine as well. i mean i think it's a really important idea to create about idea and look you know some of the folks who are dealing in space are not traditionally deletes of society i mean they're

not the doctors necessarily who may be part of the educated elite but if you're talking about sanitation workers and social workers and folks who are doing the really behind the scenes work in the health care system oftentimes they're not being drawn out of the strata of the wealthy elites of countries and so sometimes there is actually societies look down on folks like that interest instead of prioritizing their well being it's got to be a mind shift here we have to reverse how we're looking at people who are living the frontlines of the standard i mean their report does highlight the fact that it's clean there's auxilary staff social care workers have faced reprisals including dismissal and the rest after demanding and safe working conditions countries listed malaysia or mexico but what somebody might you know you might actually go ok fine but also the usa about such a quite concerning i mean it's really outrageous that anybody who has to deal with 'd has to ask or in some cases or demand that they have the equipment to do their

work safely do their work safely i mean again in some cases the equipment or the material simply isn't available that's one thing but if it's available and it's not going to them but rather it's going to others that can become a real problem so that has political implications and yet other countries you mentioned i think are are very much facing some of the floor of the issues as with always good to have your insight of these sorts of subjects very much for joining us from washington d.c. thank you. in the coming hours pope francis will arrive in iraq for a 3 day visit it's his 1st trip outside of italy since the pandemic began security has been stepped up ahead of the visit has a somma been reports now from baghdad. baghdad is on high alert for the 1st ever visit to iraq by the leader of the roman catholic church still faces security threats and attacks from isis and militia groups which means iraqi security forces

have their work cut out for them for francis will be in 6 cities in 3 days. all requirements have been secured through a plan drawn up by the joint operations command to secure logical and security matters for all the places that the pope will visit whether they are in baghdad not just. places pope francis has frequently traveled to muslim majority countries and in iraq he will meet one of the world's most influential shiite clerics grand ayatollah ali al sistani the pope's visit is meant to expand on his message in defray the dialogue and bring hope to iraq's christian community but it also comes during a pandemic to a country which has not started vaccinating its people and is important. to try and stop the spread of covered 19. the vatican the massacre to iraq who would have escorted the pope to all his appointments has already tested positive pope francis and his entourage have been vaccinated and organizers say they will strictly

enforce crowd limits at public events but with a sharp rise in iraq school with 1000 cases in a week health care system critics have questioned the effectiveness of social distancing as it's expected crowds will gather to see the pope can add. some people close to the pope believe that the visit should be perspiring treat the pandemic and security situation but the pope insisted on his visit iraq needs his visit and he feels the pain of the people who are suffering. iraqi authorities say all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of all involved are being taken. the civil defense plan has 2 components 1st part is protection firefighters and rescuers will be more places to be visited by his holiness and the 2nd part is sterilization of all places and without exception it will be in court a nation with those in charge of churches and holy sites that will be included in the visit of his holiness iraq and christians can trace their lineage to the earliest days of the religion they are a diverse group with syriac the syrian armenian and communities since the 2003

us invasion and later the persecution suffered in the rice and the visit is a rare opportunity to lift broken spirits among the grinning christian population but iraq because of all faiths are excited about welcoming pope francis baba as he's affectionately known in arabic or some other job without a 0 like. well there are reports from the us the police have asked the national guard to stay on for another 2 months to secure the capitol building security forces in washington d.c. are on high alert after intelligence agencies uncovered a potential plot by a militia group to storm the building that prompted the cancellation of thursday's u.s. house of representatives session followers of the debunked huon on conspiracy group believe that march the 4th is the day that donald trump will return to the presidency we should have them here as long as they are needed and the silliness of this being

a nod to ration day and that in may the president will be. inaugurated is forth into the realm of. let's not waste our time on it but in terms of that what we need we have to have what we need when we need it and in the numbers that we need it but that's a security decision. tens of thousands of people in new zealand fled to higher ground after a tsunami warning that was later downgraded it followed a series of severe quakes at sea the biggest was an 8 point one magnitude quake near the combat islands it followed a $7.00 magnitude jolted the same area 1st quake in the early hours of friday measured $7.00 now it's epicenter was around 100 kilometers from order the threat to some our american samoa has now be downgraded iceland is bracing for a potential volcanic eruption side to save trouble shows strong signs of activity

at mt killer which is just 30 kilometers south east of reykjavik police have shut roads surrounding the mountain and issued warnings not to go near it the area in the immediate vicinity is uninhabited but the main airport on the fishing port are just a few kilometers away and the volcano has been dormant for about 800 years. with me as a whole robin a reminder of our top stories china says it will guard against any wanted to firing in hong kong's affairs the threats come up the start of its largest political meeting $3000.00 officials are at the national people's congress led by the president xi jinping the treaty you is in beijing and has more on premier league chains opening remarks china last year was or only one of the only country.