discussions that are unfolding on capitol hill international filmmakers and world class journalists bring programs to inform and inspire you each and every one of us in the responsibility to change thurston's place in on al-jazeera. china holds its annual party congress and unveiled plans to overhaul hong kong's electoral system. and it clout this is out 0 live from doha also coming up. street battles between police and protesters in senate gold that demanding the release of an opposition leader they say is full speak use of rape. the pandemic

pushes more and more people into poverty in brazil is a coronavirus curfew was announced in its 2nd biggest city. living and dying for the job but rights groups pushed for action of the deaths of at least $17000.00 health workers during the pandemic. so that china has unveiled plans to make major changes to hong kong's electoral system the announcement comes as it's a largest political meeting kicked off during the national people's congress beijing also found to guard against anybody interfering in hong kong's of daniel meetings that's not the government's plan for the next 5 years straight away to katrina you a correspondent in beijing and katrina hong kong very much the focus of things. that's right so china has received a lot of international criticism over the past year due to its political reforms in

hong kong and china hasn't responded by opening up or opening any concessions in hong kong it's responded by doubling down and hardening its stunt saying that it's going to continue to rebut what it considers any foreign interference in domestic affairs as now at last year's n.p.c. result the beginning of that with china introduced this national security law banning subversion and dozens of people in hong kong have already been arrested under that law now during this n.p.c. we're set to see more of that political or of a whole and it's really difficult to overstate how that changes we have ahead so one of the main things we're going to see is the change in hong kong electoral system so what is going to happen according to this draft law is that several hundreds of seats will be added 300 seats in fact but what beijing is going to do is shrink the number of seats given to directly elected officials and increase the number of seats given to people from various industry groups academic groups that

probate ginia so essentially they're going to remove much of the to mock received in this democratic system in hong kong which had been a giving rise to the opposition and ultimately the protests that we saw occurring during 2019 and in the lead up to 2020 those are very embarrassing to beijing it consider that a threat to beijing so they're really eliminating many of those elements in the hong kong electoral system we're also going to see a new powers given to the beijing backed chief executive of hong kong kerry lamb and her team shall essentially be given the power to vet candidates to the legislative council in hong kong which is hong kong's parliament know many people in hong kong already contributing criticism to this draft law one lawmaker currently in hong kong said this was major surgery on hong kong. system now china for its part saying that all it's doing is maintaining the one country 2 systems

policy and ensuring stability what they want to do the core of its goal is to ensure that all of those holding public office in hong kong all loyal to the chinese communist party will be forced also to pledge allegiance to beijing when they hold office but of course of many disagree with this wristing many rights groups many western governments have come down on china saying that these are simply moves crushing the democratic freedoms that were promised to the territory during the handover from the u.k. to china saying that it would have had these freedom for another 50 years but indeed we're seeing with this n.b.c. hong kong being brought one step closer to resembling any other mainland china province are true folks that true either. the fight to free senegal's leading opposition figure has taken a violent turn 2 protesters have been killed in battles with police there the 1st deaths in the dispute since the arrest of those men song 2 days ago nicholas has more now from the. supporters of opposition leader months on

co shelter inside the cars to shake up 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. people are tired and the juice 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 sankoh 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 this area of the university and right behind me for the last few days the security forces have failed. 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 on authorized to television stations were taken off 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 nicholas hawk al-jazeera out to car after days of record coronavirus deaths across brazil its 2nd largest city has announced its toughest measures yet to curb the spread of covert 90 for friday restaurants and bars in rio de janeiro will close at 5 pm and an overnight curfew will be imposed follows a decision by sao paulo's government to shut non-essential businesses for 2 weeks from saturday as brazil faces is worse for phase of the pandemic so far it's also saying a shop increase in poverty i want to hear reports now 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 by him 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 make and 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. it 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 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 63 way 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. killings told just sexual violence and ethnic cleansing those are the crimes reportedly being carried out daily in ethiopia's temporary region the un human rights chief wants monitors to be latin michelle bachelet he says the allegations that war crimes need to be investigated aid groups journalists and criminal investigators are all struggling for access that's as fighting continues between federal troops and eritrean forces on one side and soldiers of the region's former ruling party on the other. and these are the people caught in the middle to cry and say they're being blunt

town by soldiers who act with impunity they say they're being forced from their homes and worse more than 136 cases of rape were halted in 2 great hospitals in december in january many more likely to be unreported but washington's ambassador to the united nations has echoed the un's call to end fighting into growth she says he's human a tarion a crisis must be addressed be honest to prevent further atrocities and human suffering oh squarely on the ethiopian government shoulder we urge 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 great are essential steps and we urge the broader region to work fast to lead heroine out 0 why obesity could be a driving factor in deaths from coronavirus. and is

a right gets ready to welcome the pope will tell you why some critics are questioning his timing. it's time for the perfect jenny. sponsored plan qatar airways. the weather in the levant recently been pretty poor cold wet and windy once again it's improving now and the last of that rain on its way through iraq into iran that were last into saturday either but further south as it changes the complection it picks up a wind going down the gulf doha will notice it kept look as a shower is cold as it comes in the north it drops the temperature and it tends to be quite gusty and sometimes quite dusty as well but beyond that when there's not a lot going on about how to get to saturday there's a change taking place in turkey those car we are coming across the black sea from

eastern europe so istanbul will suddenly feel much colder and be quite miserable in southern africa the weather is fairly active but not so much in the mainland as over in the channel and towards madagascar that orange sent to suggest some heavy rain that seasonally correct and right is always wanted to madagascar bus this will produce flash flooding as it always does but beyond that over there is some intensity in the showers every now and again in places like malawi or zimbabwe's a much more dry picture than you might expect even from a week ago and that's true most of southern africa was the rain continues here it's drawing from most of the places. sponsible qatar airways jump into the story there is a lot going on in this and julian global community when i thought of all the misinformation i think we don't want to feed that we end where be part of the debate don't ever take anybody's one word because there's always

a difference when no topic is off the table we have been disconnected from our land we have been disconnected from who we are and would love to hear the new and be part of today's discussion this streamed on out is the era. but again you're watching out 0 remember our top stories this hour and china is planning electoral reforms that will effectively stamp out any opposition in hong kong's alleged body the proposal giving beijing the power to veto any kind of it was announced on the 1st day of china's biggest political heat. 2 protesters have been fighting have been killed in fighting between police and supporters of

senegalese opposition leader so the 1st since of its main song code was arrested 2 days ago. brazil's 2nd largest city is announces toughest measures yet to curb the spread of covert 19 friday restaurants and bars in rio de janeiro will close at 5 pm and an overnight curfew will be imposed. in the united states police are reported to 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 agency said they had 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 cuban conspiracy group believe march the 4th is a day donald trump will return to the presidency heidi joe castro is in washington with more on the security threats to the u.s. capitol. it has been nearly 2 months since the january 6th riot and the so-called people's house the u.s.

capitol still remains behind the heavy fortifications of these fencing the barbed wires and the presence of national guards troops some 5200 members of the guard still stand protecting this capitol complex today and in particularly after an intelligence threat that an unnamed armed militia may have been planning to breach the capitol again on this day march 4th why this date is so important to them because of the completely ludicrous idea that former president donald trump would return to washington on this day and be inaugurated that belief based on the fact that in the original u.s. constitution march 4th was inaugurated and day before it was amended 88 years ago this belief is shared by followers of the q a non conspiracy the same people who have believed that democrats drink the blood of children there is no thing true in any of these beliefs and up to this point

there has been no indications that we've seen thus far today of any armed protesters or any demonstrators whatsoever coming to the u.s. capitol however receiving that intelligence report the security officials here took no chances after having been caught so flatfooted on january 6th and they increased the security presence in fact there has now been a request made by the capitol police to the pentagon for these national guard troops to extend their deployment here originally these troops were to leave a week from tomorrow on march 12th now it's that they're being asked to stay here until may and other 2 months. libya has taken a key step towards unifying the country the prime minister has submitted his pick for the government to the parliament for approval the house of representatives is expected to vote on the proposal on monday the cabinet is part of a un backed transitional plan which hopes to hold national elections by the end of

this year the war torn country has been divided between 2 administrations supported by groups and foreign governments. in the coming hours pope francis will arrive in iraq for a 3 day visit it is his 1st trip outside italy since a pandemic began security has been stepped up ahead of his arrival as on the fringe of a report 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. all 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 sistani. 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 covert 19. the vatican the master 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 nor 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 army and communities since the 2003 us invasion and later the persecution suffered and rice in the visit is a rare opportunity to lift broken spirits among the dwindling christian population but iraqis of all faiths are excited about welcoming pope francis as he is affectionately known in arabic and job it out of the. 17000 frontline

health workers have now died worldwide due to coronavirus international report of the figures and is called governments to speed up vaccinations for health care professionals it says cleaners and social care workers are often ignored in distribution plans and should also be given priority. his vice president at the council of the americas he says health workers need more support. this is a real tragedy and it's particularly amplified because the people who are trying to address it who are literally on the frontlines of addressing it are the ones who are being the families affected the most i mean and that makes sense because they're the ones who are exposed to it they are there working in the worst conditions in developing countries around the world it's really a bad situation and yet they don't seem to have priority in the context of having access to vaccines so it's a really desperate situation for many people it's a really difficult conundrum because literally there's 'd 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 access financial space in the 1st place they really don't have a whole lot of excess liquidity to be able to devote to either vaccines or p.p.d. 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 add on top of that so there really is going to have to be international assistance both financial and also access to vaccines and access to p.p.a. we're seeing some of that through the kovacs facility and through some direct contributions of things like that but the real answer to this is 'd getting enough supply produced so that it 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 solution here. research has found a clear link between obesity and dying from code 90 a report by the world the beastie federation shows that excess weight is the 2nd

greatest risk for a person's age 90 percent of crude from countries with high rates of obesity will tell its rate to 10 times higher or at least half the population is overweight that includes the united states italy and you know it's a kingdom at the other end of the scale none of the countries with obesity rates below 40 percent had high numbers or. join a rolleston is the c.e.o. of world of the world obesity federation and she says the danger to rid of ours poses is clear the fact of the fact that we've mapped out the high court the high correlation between obesity between covert death rates and countries with high rates of obesity similarly we've seen in those countries with at low levels death rates lower rates of obesity so that's just what it is that we know that there's factors including sort of the inflammatory response other factors that are still really emerging bettors that are sort of the have a causal relationship but also there's associated factors like level of public

health policy level of it here and still recommendations and guidelines that probably play in as well we do believe that people that have a city should be prioritized for projects that nations and and that indeed that is happening sort of if you know somewhat fragmented way around the world absolutely the health concerns and conditions quite frequently people of the city do have other diseases in addition to obesity and that would include diabetes cardiovascular disease cancer but but not not solely so it's absolutely people that have basically need to be prioritized for the vaccine. a striker is caught up in a dispute have a coronavirus frank sings for now it won't get a quarter 1000000 doses of astra zeneca shipments being blocked from leaving the european union it's a fast use of an export system designed to hold big pharmaceutical companies to that contract with the frustration not astra zeneca slow rollout of that same firm reduced its pledge day says to the e.u. earlier this year citing supply problems there gauges in camber and she says that

hold up isn't expected to have much of an impact on the strings vexing rollout. these showing government has been quick to try to alive public concerns about what this decision could main for its vaccine rollout of course if we tried to have the block reversed but it does rise wider questions about the issue of astra zeneca failing to meet some of its back same targets the telly in government has said the reason behind this decision is because if that shortage of astra zeneca doses in europe and the close it doesn't see as a vulnerable nation because of the lawyer number of quoted montane cases here a bit this will come about because of the shortage of doses in europe whereby european based vaccine manufacturers need to seek approval from national governments if it wants to export vials outside of europe we understand that the

italian government did inform the european commission of this decision to block the shipment to a stray or it could have skipped gene but it didn't nonetheless sane rollout program is under white we're only just seeing the 1st doses of astra zeneca that same's being rolled out and more will manufacturing all of that vaccine is expected to begin at light this month at the same time we have the funds of vaccine being rolled out in a strategy so at this stage the government does. believe that this decision by italy to block 250000 doses of the astra zeneca vaccine will affect its roll out program in australia q.h. is imposing a 12 hour curfew in an effort to contain the rising number of coronavirus infections the country reported a record number of new cases on thursday the care if you will starts on sunday and

is expected to last for months but also close until the 1st week of april now a group of paramilitary organizations which support a northern ireland staying in the u.k. says it's temporary pulling out of a landmark peace deal there loyalist communities council says it suspending its role in the good friday agreement because of breaks it they say it's disrupted trade and commerce between northern ireland and the rest of the u.k. the 1908 deal $998.00 deal that ended the 3 decade conflict between the catholic nationalists and protestant unionists john hall is in london with more on what this could mean for the agreement. i'm not sure there's any realistic immediate threat to the integrity of the good friday agreement itself after all this is an agreement that's backed by public support as much as anything else nor is there any sense that the parties to the former troubles really want any real return to the troubles or resumption of violence but this being northern ireland it's impossible to say

where things like this might go where they might end so we're talking here about the loyalist communities council the l.c.c. this is an umbrella group that represents what remains of a number of loyalist paramilitary groups that were largely disbanded certainly disarmed under the good friday agreement of 1998 the l.c.c. as you say writing to the british and irish governments giving notice that it's withdrawing its support from the good friday agreement because of concerns about the so-called northern ireland protocol the key piece of legislation underpinning the post briggs it trade deal between the u.k. and the e.u. and you may recall the protocol involves new customs checks brand new checks down the irish sea on the trade of goods between northern ireland and the rest of the u.k. remember this is meant to be one big economic entity and that was a way of avoiding a hard border on the island of ireland and that in itself was a precondition of the peace now there's been problems brewing with this protocol

since the beginning of the year concerns about a shortage of goods on the shelves some trade disruptions and so on and the l.c.c. says particular concerns in the loyalist unionist communities about a breach of their rights because this new relationship between northern ireland and the u.k. is something they were consulted on and didn't consent to which is a right of theirs guaranteed under the agreement so they want their rights restored they say their protest will be peaceful and democratic but they're essentially threatening here with whatever power they may have that anything short of a fundamental change to the nature of the protocol could result in time for the destruction of the good friday agreement. tens of thousands of people in new zealand have fled to higher ground after a tsunami warning that was later downgraded followed by a series of severe quakes c. the biggest was an 8 point one magnitude quake near the codec islands followed a $7.00 magnitude jolt in the same area the 1st quake in the early hours of friday

measured $7.00 it's at the center was around 100 kilometers from here are the threats for an american samoa has also been downgraded now. iceland is bracing for a potential volcanic eruption scientists say tremont showed strong signs of activity at mount kenya 30 kilometers southeast of reykjavik police have shut roads around the mountain and the area is uninhabited but the main airport in the fishing ports are just a few kilometers away and the volcano has been told been for about 800 years. so if this is out there these are the top stories and china is planning electoral reforms that will effectively stamp out any opposition in hong kong some legislative body a proposal giving beijing the power to veto any kind of it was announced on the 1st day of china's biggest political meeting. true to you has more now.