al-jazeera. 8 small regions go into lockdown in italy including the capital rome to stop a new wave of covert infections while the world health organization says there's no reason to stop using astra zeneca as covert vaccine. how i maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program gunmen adult 30 students from a forestry college in nigeria's had doonas state

a 4th mass school kidnapping since december. president joe biden holds the 1st ever leaders' meeting of the quad a group seen as a counterweight to chinese influence. hello welcome to the program coronavirus restrictions have been ramped up across italy for monday 8 more regions including the capital rome and its financial center milan will become red zones puts most of the population under the country's most severe measures the government is scrambling now to contain a surge in cases believed to be driven by a variant 1st discovered in the u.k. residents in the red zones won't be allowed to leave their homes except for work exercise or emergencies schools nonessential shops and restaurants will all close with movement between towns also severely limited the government has also announced

a 3 day nationwide lockdown of the easter weekend. springs events are still fresh in our minds and we will do everything we can to prevent them from happening again on the basis of santa's ok with the government today adopted restrictive measures that we have judged to be appropriate proportionate. we're now joined by journalist francesca attorney in milan tell us more about why these restrictions have been announced and and the reaction that is coming into them given that it effects most of the population 2 thirds of population. well basically infection numbers have been growing for 20 days now in a row so reaching 20000 daily cases from the beginning of march so this new restrictions are considered quite inevitable for what is happening the new

government started new possible restrictions for weeks and decided to take action now also looking at what could happen in easter that is in april and so people from the government were very worried that the next weeks could basically make the virus explode and all over the country the variants are considered spreading too fast at the moment so today 380 people died again and these numbers are too concerning to not take action and that's what the government is basically saying. now how funny to me is becoming a red zone it's important to say that red zone is not exactly as 'd $20000.00 is locked down but it's still the maximum level in aid to the system of restrictions and as you were saying people cannot move it's outside these non-essential shops or

close restaurants and bars her everything is closed and in schools too so some other businesses will keep running again people are quite frustrated. if the vaccination campaign doesn't start to go faster than this that's maybe the only thing that the government can do right so the virus is spreading rapidly in the country driven by these highly contagious variant but please restrictions might affect the logistics around the vaccination program how is the rollout going. the rollout is going quite slow. actually the public opinion in this moment is not very concerned about the italy's logistics but. why europe is not delivering what they were

they thought and they said they would have done so that the pace is very slow in the last week less than 220-0000 doses but they were giving to 2 italians with 60000000 people here so that the prime minister mario druggy said that these numbers will tribal in x. weeks what. if if the dozes will not come. this won't won't happen so this is very concerning for people more more than the red zones at the moment all right thank you very much for joining us francesco jumper turn a very in milan you. meanwhile in a stony or country has entered a month long lockdown there are to its corona virus infection rate became the 2nd highest per capita in the world country of $1300000.00 people as recorded nearly

80000 cases since the start of the pandemic these new measures include the closure of schools non-essential stores and restaurants while in other developments world health organization is saying that brazil is not moving in a good direction with health officials warning that major hospitals are overwhelmed brazil's daily death toll exceeded 2000 for the 2nd day in a row on thursday another 75000 new daily cases were also confirmed intensive care units in more than half of state capitals are 90 percent capacity but brazil's president has played down the threat now earlier this week he told people to stop whining. well there also has been speaking out about the coronavirus vaccine saying that there's no reason to stop using the vaccine manufactured by astra zeneca thailand bulgaria and the democratic republic of congo become the latest countries to delay their rollout of the jab this comes a day off to denmark norway and iceland suspended their use of the vaccine while

investigating reported cases of blood clots w. is aware that some countries have suspended the use of force or is in a car vaccines based on reports of blood clots in some people who receive the doors of the vaccine from tool box this measure was taken as a precaution while a full investigation is finalized it's important to note that the european medicines agency house say there is no indication of a link between the bucks in the blood clots and that the vaccine can continue to be used while its investigation is ongoing. now the parents of around 30 students kidnapped in northern nigeria are waiting for news of their whereabouts the overnight raid on a forestry college is now the 4th mass cool abduction in the volatile region since

the month of december we have already said the armed bandits attacked the school which is located near a military academy and could deny a state neighbors had gunshots but thought it was a routine military exercise witnesses say the gang targeted young women and left male students behind after a distress call the army rescued $180.00 other students hours after the attack for delhi simba is in a budget now with more on the story. this is the 1st time that groups are targeting it missed additional prior lending it's usually the else and asked. to jewish an almost every day kidnapping across nigeria even kidnappings of the people who are a commercial buses people in their homes and towns and villages big government has been making across 2 continents but in recent months since specially since december

there's been an increase it's not equal with the replacements of military troops you can generate as minutely president mohamed. as a place the. army never. the navy and also what the. crowds. and mainly people are worried the situation is really getting out of. a mass funerals been held in equitorial guinea for the victims of a series of explosions that leveled much of the city of bata soldiers carried each coffin enter the bought a sports stadium at least $105.00 people were killed in multiple blas and munitions that the president. has blamed the explosions on the negligent handling of dynamite stored at a base and 5 separate families living nearby campaign group human rights watch has called for an independent inquiry into what place 'd. i am addressing all of you in

these moments of pain and consternation caused by the saga vent of the explosions which have caused more than 100 deaths more than 600 injured and serious damage to public and private infrastructure i am asking the people of acquits oriel guinea and the city of batter in particular to keep calm and defend peace demands that the nation asks of us in the sad and terrible moments. a spokesperson for the hoofy rebels in yemen is saying they've rejected a u.s. plan for a nationwide cease fire because it only represents saudi and u.n. views. the u.s. envoy for yemen said the hoof he's appeared to be prioritizing military takeover to take the moderate every region and when the country will spiral into greater conflict without an immediate halt to fighting to lead a king also said the u.s. has restored humanitarian assistance funding to north yemen or the head of the world the u.n. world food program is saying a cease fire is crucial for yemenis to start rebuilding their lives and the economy

a cease fire would have been the. effect that all to the to the. that 2 days ago about this that if all parties could move for a cease fire it would truly. reduce extraordinary not a pressure so that we can move forward if we get this. biometrics at a significant way which will allow us to pull all of the it to the only which will grab the real date back which will allow through christ stabilize for all these things become much more possible if you have a ceasefire or we have greater access groupers the bill. with thousands of anti-government protesters have taken to streets of several cities in algeria to reject early elections in the capital algiers they chanted slogans rejecting president abdomen gita boone's move to hold elections on thursday to been dissolved

parliament and announce that a vote will be held in the month of june demonstrators are continuing their calls for a complete overhaul of the government of 10 had an idea as a research chair at the london school of economics and an associate fellow of the middle east and africa program at the u.k. think tank chatham house and joins us now on the protests in algeria taking on a minute intensity. yes they are absolutely and so during much of 2024 tests had to. because of the pandemic however the mismanagement of the crisis as well as like the continues practices of the algerian regime needs him doing work ration r.s.s. little activists but also the deteriorating economic situation meant that a lot of people took to the streets in recent weeks and on during seem very much

determined to continue protesting until meaningful political changes in achieved. oh so i'm just going to say what it what that's what's interesting about these demonstrations is that actually people are rejecting the call for the elections tell us more about what they're trying to achieve because they're saying that. majeed to boot has failed to implement major reforms. absolutely so so far all we're seeing is the regime gauge and accepted cosmetic we want all a need to i renew the regime without actually. getting into meaningful political change so we're still very much following their go ma'am that was set out by former general ahmed. in 29 team and this road map consisted organizing presidential elections and these were held in the summer 29 teams and then coming up with a new constitution that was a record elderly that took place in november 2020 and now leave the final step of

this road map is legislative elections and yesterday president's argument to the board announced that these elections will take place in june of this year however a lot of this is very customary that the regime and the army particular the true power holders in algeria still called an upper hand on the whole process and we haven't seen any meaningful changes whether that is in the new constitution which still gives a lot of authority to the president and has not really gauging redistributing power to other institutions he but also in daily political practices. political parties nigeria had a hard time gathering off a political meeting normally so just very briefly just very briefly do these protests and represent a major threat to the establishment. yes ahead iraq at its core has radical

slug and there is. a slum in saying that they want a real change of the political system so these little elections organized by the regime are not going to be enough to stop the algerians that are protesting on a weekly basis. i thank you for sharing your thoughts with us i appreciate it. joining us there from much better house. and al jazeera live from london well still ahead on the program a reckless settlement in the george floyd lawsuit minneapolis city council agrees to pay his family $27000000.00 and after a 15 year old illness claims the life of zulu nation king good will so well if any .

of the. well the spring thaw is well underway for most parts spring weather actually wet and windy and this cold front is actually bringing the wet and windy so it's pushing cold air out of the way that junction always brings snow and that snow is going to really push into western russia listen the temperature in moscow significantly to 0 briefly making it cold in the southeast of you but it's not really a very active front after that point temps will start to rise in the sunshine then the following band of wind the rain is a little bit cooler just by a few degrees but for example in zurich you'll see it's 13 on saturday in the windy wet weather that goes down to 5 then drops further and sleet or even snow the billows wet snow i think for the northern house least and temperature drop by and data single figures in places like berlin still 10 in london warm sunshine in spain and portugal still warm sunshine in greece and returning to turkey but with some significant wet snow in some of the high ground down in the balkans would be math

across anywhere there is action south of that rain is fairly quiet look at this band of cloud here in central area that is likely to develop into a proper little area of low pressure its most active feature probably is the wind picking up dust running up to the north coast including sudden. an act of youthful defiance commemorated the return next hour also in the school they arrested me at home at 4 in the morning was electric shock treatment or worse that triggered a revolution. the arrest of those children sparked it all of which became a battle without a hand that was very beginning on the arms struggle with syria. the boy who started the syrian war. on al jazeera.

the all. the all. welcome back a recap of the headlines stories this hour now coronavirus restrictions are being ramped up in several regions in italy almost half the population will be put under the country's most severe measures from monday on words including the capital rome and its financial center milan the world health organization says there's no reason to stop using the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by astra zeneca thailand bulgaria and the democratic republic of congo all become the latest countries to delay their own out of the chapel of the concerns of blood clots. and the

parents of around 30 students kidnapped in northern nigeria are waiting for news of their whereabouts the overnight raid on a forestry college is the 4th mass school abduction in the volatile region since december. the us city of minneapolis is agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement over the death of george floyd council members voted unanimously to pay his family $27000000.00 george floyd's deaf at the hands of a police officer sparks a public outcry in may the officer involved derek chauvin is facing murder charges will john hendren joins us from chicago now john tell us about the terms of the settlement. well as we understand it the entire city council of minneapolis voted unanimously to award the family or the estate of george floyd $27000000.00 that is a huge civil rights settlement by comparison the family of brianna taylor who

a black woman who was sleeping in her house when police raided it looking for drugs from someone else did not find it and ended up killing her that family was paid $12000000.00 so this is really one of the largest settlements you could find but the family says that they're not just looking for a monetary settlement that family all along has been calling for a guilty verdict in the case of derek chauffeur and end the other 3 officers involved now show of an already on trial the jury selection is ongoing in that case and the issue there is trying to ensure that that jury has some minority read representation and it does so far there's been at least 6 jurors picked including one african-american and hispanic as well the hope is that they would have some understanding for what minorities in the united states face when they are

confronted by police officers in challenging situations like the one involving george floyd when he died last may 25th of course that set off riots in the streets in protests across the united states and so around that trial going on in minneapolis right now the concern is whether that would happen again so there are police and national guard troops but this might help to mitigate some of the concern that nothing is being done in this case in fact this city is making this agreement to pay $27000000.00 a very large sum to the family of george floyd as it goes on with the legal cases involved here. derek chauvelin that case is going on now and we expect to see opening arguments on march 29th and then there is the case of the other 3 officers that has been postponed until summer it's going on in a courthouse that's got very high security high barricades national guard troops

police and very few people allowed inside what we know we know from a pool producer there only 2 reporters are allowed in at a time and we expect the opening arguments to be going on on march 29th and then we expect about a month of. testimony and decision making in that case and the concern is if derek chauvinism charged with anything will this $27000000.00 settlement be enough to appease the protesters in the street one suspects probably not all right thank you from chicago john hendren. now for the 1st time the leaders of the u.s. japan australia and india a group known as the quad of hell talks a call was initially formed in the aftermath of the chief $1004.00 indian ocean of quake and tsunami and then reestablished in 2017 as relations between the united states and china deteriorated 1st official leaders' meeting has been held via video

link to address security challenges across the entire pacific as well as climate change in the spread of that 19 in the region following these developments our white house correspondent kimberly how she joins us now from washington so you saying that kimberly this is not a new group it was actually established over a decade ago so why is it gaining more prominence now. it's given more prominence because the u.s. president for one but the other leaders as well have identified that there still are ongoing threats and concerns that they can work on collaboratively and that is really the foundation of u.s. foreign policy under the biden administration so identifying some of those threats climate change they talk today about how they can make sure that all nations are living up to their commitments under the paris climate accord as well the issue of covert 19 news made at this event the announcement that in fact there would be a unique partnership among the quad where they would be setting

a goal of getting out vaccines $1000000000.00 by 2022 through us supplying the vaccines they're being manufactured in india the financing by the u.s. in japan and then australian support so this was something that was another goal that was identified as something it's because of that partnership but security is one of the major issues that still confronts not just these 4 but they feel by banding together they can confront this issue and the national security adviser in fact stopping by the white house press briefing to talk about why this group is so important when addressing issues particularly when it comes to china each of the leaders independently in the course of the meeting referred to this event as historic because it's cemented a group of strong democracies that will work together going forward to secure a free and open indo-pacific the president noted in his opening remarks that this

is the 1st multilateral summit he's hosted since taking office and that's on purpose it reflects his view that we have to rally democratic allies and partners in common cause and his belief in the central idea of the indo-pacific to the national security of the united states. the concern by the united states that china has been identified as a major geopolitical threat is concerned there from the part of the united states is china's growing assertiveness whether it be militarily whether it be economically and this meeting of the quiet is coming at a critical time because it comes just days before another significant face to face meeting this time taking place in alaska next week that is when the national security advisor jake sullivan and the u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken will be meeting with chinese counterparts there and that meeting is intended to be much more forceful this is where the united states will take up these issues of concern the growing authoritarian nature of the

chinese government as well as concerns over human rights so this was a prelude for the an opportunity for all of the nations of the quad to get a message in advance of what is expected to be a significant meeting with china in the days to come all right thanks very much from washington kimberly halkett with that story thanks kimberly meanwhile in a development several prominent democratic leaders have joined calls for new york governor andrew cuomo to resign off to 6 women accused him of sexual harassment alexandra cortez and jerry nadler are among more than hoff of the parsis new york representatives who are calling on cuomo also a democrat to quit the new york state legislature is announced it will also review the allegations lawmakers say that cuomo tried to hide thousands of nursing home deaths at the beginning of the pandemic. protests have been continuing in may in ma despite at least 10 people being killed during rallies on thursday riot police

fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in young gone while thousands marched the streets of mandalay calling for democracy to be restored in civilian leaders released a court has extended the detention of 6 journalists who were arrested last month while covering the protests against the military meanwhile the united nations special rapporteur on me and mars called for a united international stance against the military and its violent crackdown on the protesters is can't break to bear witness to the terror in lawlessness that those who are illegally grab power belong or at least the people. i described the murders beatings torture arbitrary detentions systematic destruction of human rights and the mounting evidence that we are witnessing crimes against humanity. tributes are being paid to one of south africa's popular traditional rulers who has died at the age of 720 looking good will so early theni was leader of south africa's largest

tribe for 50 years he'd been in hospital for weeks when his health suddenly deteriorated for me to miller has more now from janet. the king goodwills in a teeny had been ill for more than a month admitted to hospital for treatment related to diabetes source that africans have known for some weeks that he has been ill but i think he is passing has been met with shock and mourning from many south africans nations specifically there are at least 11000000 zulus in south africa many of them in kwazulu-natal and we also heard from the former deputy president in south africa who spoke about the point of pride that the king had in the hearts of many south africans and what he represented in terms of the unity created amongst many people specifically impossible to tell but also particularly within the apartheid or during the apartheid regime in there to united people against that kind of repression at the

time we have heard from. from the prime minister of the zilla nation that his body world will be held in state for a few days and that this is an opportunity for many to bid farewell to the king this is somebody whose role was largely ceremonial or symbolic but i don't think it can be ignored that he did have political influence in a couple of instances during negotiations to end apartheid there were many pensions between people of different ethnic groups and at that time former president nelson mandela approached the king to try and quell tensions between zulu people are aligned to the cart of encarta freedom party of the political party and the a.n.c. at that time. now europe's largest active volcano mt etna has erupted once again explosions sent a 4 could almost a high plume of smoke into the sky

a larva found in a region dating from the southeast in quite a flowed from the early morning until noon on friday no damage has been reported to the villages below the volcano thankfully but there has been of course a popular tourist destination it attracts many people particularly hike is that keen to see the lava flows which of course bright orange at night but these are some of the pitches that we've seen recently. a recap of the main stories now coronavirus restrictions of being ramped up across italy from monday 8 to more regions including the capital run and its financial center milan will become red zones most of the population under the country's most severe measures the government is scrambling now to contain a surge in cases believed to be driven by a variant 1st discovered here.