the fear that the killings will continue unabated government data shows that only 5 out of the $54.00 killings actually reached the courts this is why critics say the government should not be surprised if belief in do process in the country is at an all time low this is expected they say specially when those who are mandated to administer justice are themselves killed jamelle dogon al jazeera manila. clare this is al-jazeera these are the headlines officials a northwest nigeria say 30 students remain unaccounted for after an identified gunman stormed a college overnight and took dozens of people hostage the army says 180 students were rescued in the early hours of friday abductions for ransom are becoming more frequent in that area just last month 279 people were abducted in zamfara state

fidelis in bar has this update from a pitcher. government. investigating to find out in circumstances the alleged to be abduction of. witnesses that will be going to. school the only 2 with them you know students. which is actually were in signal last. just. days ago and there would be a release now. president joe biden says the u.s. vaccination campaign is on target and as ordered states to ensure all adults are eligible by may fast by morons that the fight against crime in 1000 though is still far from over and urged americans to remain vigilant when i came into office you may recall i should a goal of many you said was a kind of way over the top. i said i intended to get 100000000 shots in people's

arms in my 1st 100 days in office tonight i can say we're not going to meet that goal we're going to beat that goal because we're actually on track to reach this goal of 100000000 shots in the arms of my 60th day in office no other country in the world has done this none and south korea is suspending defense exchanges and banning all means exports to me and law insulates this country is a cup tie is after the military coup on february 1st security forces are accused of torture and persecution and response to peaceful protests contribute salving pay to south africa's zulu king who's died at the age of 72 the city nation says good will as well a teeny had been a hospital for weeks to treat diabetes kings latini was the leader of south africa's largest tribe well those are the headlines of folly will have more news for you here after inside story stay with us.

he was a popular leftist leader and president in brazil but with a criminal record now lula da silva could run for the top job again he'd be up against the far right joe your pulse on our what could that mean for brazil's polarized politics this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm brazil's luis in osceola new lead the cilla was convicted in a corruption and bribery scandal in 2017 but

a judge has found the court that sentenced the former president lack the necessary jurisdiction the conviction has been an old and a left wing politician can now challenge for the presidency next year lula da silva hasn't confirmed if he'll run but if he does his main rival would be far right president diable son r o monica you nakia of reports from rio de janeiro. he may not yet have been proven innocent but brazil's former president lula da silva is no longer a felon and he's back on the political scene with an eye on next year's presidential elections. i know that i was victim of the biggest lie in the 500 years of history i know my wife died due to the high pressure and the stroke came fausta i was forbidden to even see my brother inside a coffin. roula speech on wednesday was the 1st since a supreme court judge overturned the corruption convictions which put him behind bars for 18 months and stripped him of his political rights than from the $28000.00

elections the leader of brazil's left wing workers' party is now seen as a political threat to present not over he says it's too soon to talk about next year's presidential race he spoke like a candidate rule is already a very popular leader presents himself as a moderate leader that this time and i think that the 1st speech that he gave those one as they was an attempt to show that himself is a moderate it can move we had to put together different groups different sectors of the blues in society and soak i think that he has a problem a real problem for also not one for bills when i was at them to be reelected blasted both are not all for downplaying the coven 1000 pandemic which has already claimed the lives of almost 270000 brazilians the 2nd largest death toll after the

united states. we have a president who says cover 19 is a small flu who says that only cowards fear the virus and that he does not because he's an athlete this is not the way a president should act in a civilized world. bo'sun out of points out that is still not off the legal hook. the decision to throw out the corruption charges was based on a technicality the supreme court judge said brazil's former president had been tried by a court in the southern city of could he chiba that had no jurisdiction over his case he may still be retried in the capital brasilia there are many legal twists and turns in this case the supreme court still has to decide whether the judge who convicted the law was impartial or had his own political agenda and colluded with the prosecution meanwhile moolah has started negotiating in alliance with other

left wing parties and even conservative politicians who are not happy with president jalal santa monica of al-jazeera rio de janeiro. the former president commonly known just as lula has been one of the most popular political figures in latin america he was elected brazil's president in 2002 becoming the 1st leftist leader in almost half a century he served for 8 years but his bid to run for presidency again in 2018 was blocked because of corruption charges lula has been credited with presiding over brazil's longest period of economic growth in 3 decades in 2018 he was jailed for accepting an apartment as a bribe in what's known as operation car wash scandal and served 18 months of a reduced sentence. all right let's bring in our guests in sao paolo giraldo ron is a specialist on brazil's ties with the united states from providence james graham director of brazil initiative at brown university and in london francisco domingo

is head of latin american studies at middlesex university all right let me start with you today geraldo do you believe lula da silva will run for the presidency again. i believe to try there's a lot to happen in this next 18 months into. the election. he'll certainly be a big part of the of the political discourse in brazil both for the people that support him and the people that attack him in any way shape or form james how popular is lula da silva now and how much of a threat could he pose politically to president. it's of all indications are that his popularity is increasing very quickly he gave a press conference yesterday which was extremely well received even by the media that had been very hostile towards him and had to close with the global news network i think his popularity will only increase as he starts carrying out

a campaign to travel to the country to speak to the people francisco you heard james there mention the speech that lula gave yesterday i want to ask you about that in that speech lula said it's too soon to talk about next year's presidential race but he certainly spoken sounded very much like a candidate didn't he yes i think he'd be cautious because until you know sort of the president you know you know don't you don't kind of if you can it's a i think he wants to be cautious but the holy speech was not only the brazilians it got he actually got things to kind of be a person to the world saying you know i'm coming back to rescue a candidate from the state if. geraldo was lula da silva essentially presenting himself during that speech as a moderate i mean it was he putting himself forth as someone who can bridge the

political divide in brazil and bring different sectors of brazilian society together. you know presenting himself as a as a moderate is a hard thing when our put it call landscape shift so much to the right. the type of extreme right rhetoric we hear these days sort of changes to center of politics so even though lula by anything where he was a president he was not a leftist by any means he was much more a center left of center actually candidate for president. but presenting himself as he does dissuade a lot of people who just frame him as a as an extreme it as a left wing politician. so he's going to he's going to try he certainly you know compared to bush on that or to the military that are part of the government today. for sure is is

a moderate. and it in his going to try to recall those emotions recall those feelings of a better brazil were less extreme is brazil. and he will it will get support for that but he will also get a lot of criticism for that for people from the left that says that he didn't do enough in his in his plenty not to do enough again and to sort of compromise with the elites with people that say that he should step away in open the space for a new leaders that that they will do more harm than good so it will be a balancing act for the next for the next 18 months james one of the thing is that lula did during that speech was to really go after also naro his handling of the cove of 19 pandemic i mean brazil has lost nearly 270000 people took over 1000 that's the worst death toll outside of the united states and there are local

variants of the virus that are turning this outbreak into its worst phase yet how politically vulnerable is bull so now are because of his handling or as his critics would say mishandling of the pandemic. he's entirely vulnerable if i may draw an analogy with the united states even though i realize all the differences between the 2 countries is that in a situation like biden is towards trump in the sense that the nation is going to understand and his understanding of the disastrous policies of the bulls are not administration another to look for an alternative and they're going to look to the past and a person of the past of produced a very positive economy and a lot of optimism and i think he will be able to bolster his support by consistently criticizing most about his policies on of it and other issues francisco and i saw you nodding along to some what james was saying let me follow up with with you about one specific point you know hours after that speech that

lula gave also naro and some of his team were filmed with masks on and this suggests that perhaps they were really shaken by the criticism that was leveled by lula da silva toward the handling bible so naro of the pandemic i mean do you think that this shows that lula sorry that decision that both scenario and his team were really shaken by this criticism yeah i think so i think no more shame in buying the presidential decision of the supreme court after the ruling by. the you know one of this extraordinary letter from all the charges which were. my view completely falls and when she presume 1000 resins to me that that is the main reason and was never realizes that she is very weak and you very well in the sense a number one rule or whatever anybody may say is

a formidable candidate 'd every time she goes around the country she raises ashen humorless as people humanize him in a way that no other political is a move to do and the 2nd reason why was the marriage changing is because he knows that if he the choice lula will weigh and deal with all conservative or conservative spectrum or present policies realize they don't have a camera there some of them a formidable us on the right and these are their problem they have to make to have to close that they face a very difficult choice either they continue with was an error which is it is going to be a it in or they find somebody else and who is that somebody else seems to me on those 2 grounds loser to bed for a new surprise that he was wearing masks after those beats geraldo has president also naro lost a significant amount of support among his base due to how he has handled the

pandemic. no incredibly not really. bizarre not who has hard core supporters and that that range of support in syria similar to what happened to trenton to united states something like 253035 percent of the population depending on which poll you look at. and these people will stay with him. if it doesn't seem that anything can shake can shake off that support but for the moderates that were. sort of not knowing what to think about the government now you know it's starting slowly some polls are showing. that his government his is is being hurt by how he's his approval hasn't been heard behind his condo cindy the pandemic what i think is happening now is that.

he's he's lost they are they still don't help don't know how to to answer. the news that is a candidate again and so what you saw with the masks and there's just for the vaccine some some posts on social media from government officials supporting vaccination which they didn't do for a year and a half now so they're not they're they're trying to find a new strategy they're trying to find a new narrative in we are going to have to wait to see how how they react but when i realize a lot of misinformation contains on social media this was has been well documented in we probably going to see more of that for the next you know half james it looked to me like you were nodding along to some once or all that was saying did you want to jump in. well i think it's a story at least since brazil really had its 1st democratic elections in 1905 the

electorate is split in in general terms a 3rd to the left a 3rd to the center of 3rd to the right and so both sinatras kind of sunk to that hard right conservative base that used to be conservative catholic and middle class and now it's even general christians as a part of that base will has clear 30 to 40 percent support keep in mind that who is the candidate of the workers' party in the last election that almost 45 percent of the votes against both are not 0 and if also not and does not go beyond 30 or 40 percent he doesn't win the election i think there is a sector that voted for him or stand for voting in the last election who this time will go for a little francisco these corruption charges that were dropped. they were they were dropped on a technicality were they not i mean the supreme court judge who threw them out said that this case against lula had been tried in a court that should not have had jurisdiction so my question is what happens next

could lula be tried again is there going to be a review of the decision by the supreme court justice i mean how far are we from this actually this legal saga actually being over. yeah we know no one thing these are the reasons why lower score shoes and i mean there's a reason why the workers' party is over the course that only gives a reasonable cultural courses and they have to nobody knows exactly what these means in you know in the final analysis. it is possible to go to the supreme court and be unique solution to a problem they have is the number one i think the establishment in brazil is deeply violent i mean you know years to really to those ago i think we were out there by the president said that he doesn't find any problem with being a candidate implying obviously that the charges were not real and they're going to be joe and then he had it to say that he trying that you know there are people

there will be difficult to win the election so that's one they mention of the thing and they're giving by it also regarding what to do i mean i think the major brazil has gone to the floor in the last couple of years because it was an. even well you know even global. center of the media quality. how. little every criticisms of also now not only in the question of the pandemic blows and everything else deeply his success is good or it was theirs and so on so it seems to me that until these you know the final decision is made but it's a critical no no no that is the message sent to the world the in prime minister sent to the world these you know we're going wrong we're going to refer to fire these lists see how we do it because you're really really embarrassment it's a bit of a mess from our point of view we're going to solve it our because one thing people who are in toronto did the decision to quash the conviction charges against lula

come as a complete surprise in brazil and also were boston r.-o. and his team blindsided by the decision. i think they were caught off guard. at least ascendance way d. there are obvious flaws in the prosecution process in many levels so while it was ruled this week was that the court that has depositions against lula didn't have anything to do with love a shot to at least that the prosecutors could not prove that and therefore they shouldn't be judged by death that courting could achieve but they should be had been sent to a to but i see that to the federal courts the auditor feeling that it's also under investigate or it's being ruled was ruled this week by the by the whole by a group of the supreme court judges was suspicious that said 2 more to that the

judge in charge of that us all of us out to was being impartial and was in collusion with the bar secure doors so there are dead 2 charges going on there at the same time. which good deeply hurt everything that love a shot to did on top of that even if. charges are presented again and because it and a new and then you have possession start a new trial starts for lula. if you follow the legal probe the legal the schedule the legal process in brazil it's very hard that those who will be charge in time for the 2022 election is actually how it happened in 2018 i mean. it was sort of put in a fast tracked and all all courts were you know working very very fast to get him out of the 20000 the election so they're all jews mishandling is off the case which

could actually hurt not only the lula case but all in all other cases that moto and i have a shot to persecute against. disease a political case is not a legal case you know that those decisions won't be taken by by the rule of law only james if the silver officially enters the fray and decides to run for president how likely are we to see joe you're also naro start to try to implement more populist policies to ensure continuing support from his base so he runs a real dilemma he has faces a real dilemma because in order for him to be elected he built an alliance with a person of became the minister of finance. who. has insisted on a very conservative new liberal economic policy for the public edges who it's not

very conservative neo liberal policy for the country with tremendous budget cuts and against the possibility of a significant expenditures of the government the federal government so in order for him to bubble sonata to appeal to working class ordinary people by increasing or extending the possibility of financial payments to people because of recovered really he faces a real conflict with economic conservatives and setters of the establishment who support a bill so not to because they felt that their economy would benefit them in the long run and so he's running a real risk there of alienating or weakening some of his important political base an economic base in terms of establishing the figures that have supported his candidacy even though they're against some of his policies as cultural policies as homophobia has racism his comments about different sectors of

resilience society francisco just how dire is the economic situation right now in brazil and how much will the concerns about the state of the economy dot economy dominate election debate in the campaign going forward. well some commentators who know brazil very well. you know refer to the receiver economy as being called the boy was not owing to its. obviously and then it has made is worse. first of all she's hired just about everything here to make huge things much more difficult in terms of particularly generating a huge amount of 100 broke because of laid off or partly sector workers similarly he can provide for him but he is insisted on and also steady on heels and irrigation and social benefits. there is

a significant portion of the population millions of them who are actually you know part of the informal sector and linda gibbs who called 1st of the program was a chameleon that gave them you know regular income they're not going to be able to actually be better or even not go hungry which is what lula trying to do you know and he's an iteration so therefore he's been fazer the normal difficulty or trying to deal with too many give equal these and i don't think he's got the resources to really you know sort of the problems of the economy the economy has contracted between 11 according to serve again you know we can still. and in the continent then it we believe as though it misses who's a really harsh plus the significant amount of repression he has improved the whole population then i think of those abilities of very serious economic recovery who don't risk you package which is not going to exist in terms of hunting for it then

i find it impossible to believe that he's going to be able to do something serious about this that he's going to be judged on the many days of the economic recovery which everybody else in the world is trying to do and then long unease of he's the promise and it was going to happen only on both counts he phase of recently geraldo if the election were held today and if lula were running do you think that either lula or boss norah would have enough support to get to a 2nd round vote. well probably both that that's the most likely scenario and that's the scenario that in a sense they're both betting on the betting on having both scenarios his nemesis and most of those betting on the own having little as it is known is just for all the reasons that francis would just mention if this is a the election about the pandemic bush or not it will lose if this is an election about the economy exposed to not

a real news he doesn't have results to show anywhere on those areas what he has the only thing he has is to keep banging the drum that he's not that little is going to make things worse again that we cannot lead let go back to power or the workers' party go back to power so they're there they're both betting on it in a sense the workers' party a little believe they can go to the 2nd run and win perhaps even we won the 1st round but there's a lot of moderates that say that this dispute and this polarization will be bad for brazil in general and that bush and i might even when i mean he won against a dodgy in 20000 so. they're holding their horses a day actually betting that they'll both go to the 2nd row all right we've run out of times we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all of our guests are all those iran james green and francisco deming yes and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website

al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story from a mom a gentleman the whole team here by find out. and i act of youthful defiance and emerald on earth turn next all the rules of the school will be arrested no toilet for in the morning was electric shock treatment all the worse that triggered

a revolution. the arrest of those children sparked it all which became a battle without a hand back what he'd been giving to the armed struggle in syria. the boy who started the syrian war. on al jazeera. reporting in the field means i often get to witness not just news is breaking but also history as it's unfolding. on the record one day i might be covering politics and the next around my property protests. but what's most important to me is talking to people understanding what they are going through so that i can convey the headlines in the most human way possible. we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. and it's time for a different approach and one that is going to challenge the way you think i'm asking the questions now is the new host of the next season of the show that's got

no space for sale but only television so let's leave simplicity to the headlines join me as i take on the law dismantle the misconceptions and debate the contradiction. i'm marc lamont hill and it's time to get up from right here on out here. in doha with a look at our main stories on al-jazeera gunmen have kidnapped students from a forestry college in northern nigeria the 1st time a high institution of learning has been targeted in a series of mass abductions the attack happened in do an estate in the northwest $180.00 students were rescued in the early hours of friday but officials say 30 students remain unaccounted for school attacks in the north of nigeria as big becoming more frequent for ransom for.