surviving a massacre on al-jazeera to stand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world no matter when. using current that matter to you. a big diplomatic mission for joe biden his new administration but already the americans arrival in asia is agitating north korea. in jordan this is out as iraq live from doha also coming up a 4th new health minister for brazil as it struggles to contain coronavirus even with curfews in place in its biggest city. the thai prime minister takes a job for the team he gets a dose of the controversial astra zeneca that. we're going to pay the bill so we

should be the ones making the decision and they're making noises on coronavirus on climate change we meet the young dutch with a passion for politics. 2 of the most powerful politicians in the u.s. have just started their 1st foray into kenya asian nations and already there's a wary eye being kept on north korea secretary of state anthony blinken than secretary of defense lloyd austin started the trip with high level meetings in japan well ahead of their arrival the sister of north korea's leader kim jong warned the new job the ministration to quote not do anything unseemly well we'll get more on that shortly from rob mcbride in south korea but 1st thought is solemn a is in tokyo thought he said this trip by anthony blinken and lloyd austin may be about strengthening allies and countering china but what will japan be hoping to

get out of this. this is a very important visit for japan 1st of all this is complete the change from the so-called the america 1st policy of former us president to one of trump and that's why many of us allies that they would worry about their stance about there was action in in importance to us so now with this visit it's the 1st visit of both the foreign and defense ministers of the u.s. after by them took office to a foreign country this symbol of the simplifies how important japan is for the alliance of the 2 countries and that the sense i'm this is the 1st step in their tour in asia they're going to visit also south korea and the japan is very keen on underlying underlining the u.s. stance towards the situation in the area japan is very much concerned about that is

in tension with the china around the sink acquire lands. and administrated islands in china sea which china calls them. and more and more china is is making what so called the intrusions into a japanese territorial waters around the silence before it was the base of 2 times a month now it's 2 times a week so this is 4 times more starting from this year and also after china has acted a new low the 1st of february in which it's course guards gun fire at the ships deemed to be sailing in its territorial waters so the area is under too much tension and at the same time the u.s. wants to it wants japan to engage more in guaranteeing order and implementing the safety and security in the area just a couple of days ago so-called the choir the group containing of the us president

or prime ministers of japan india and australia they met online and also they affirmed they import. and so for the. free and safe area in the pacific and indian oceans are at authorities telling me they live for us. thank you so let's take a little look now at in detail at the warning from north korea kim jong the sister of the leader kim jong un has the u.s. administration to refrain from doing anything unseemly but wants to sleep in peace in the coming 4 years and she says joint military drills with south korea are a barrier to renewed diplomacy with bride is in south korea's capital seoul robs the biden ministration wants to push ahead with dialogue over north korea's nuclear program but pyongyang is already saber rattling with a warning to the americans. that's right this is quite a strong statement from kim you know john coming this tuesday morning saying that there will be no return to the spring days of 3 years ago reference of course to

all of the diplomacy surrounding the winter olympics and this is a concern because it's really one of the 1st statements by north korea since the biden administration came into being it is a time to coincide with the military drills that are taking place at the moment between south korea and the united states now for the past few years these exercises were suspended by the trumpet ministration a new administration has come in these exercises are normally held in spring and they have gone ahead with this exercise but it has to be said that it is very much a scaled down exercise very few troops involved it's very much almost a computer simulation and despite having this response from north korea it is being seen as actually a pretty toned down and measured response in the past of course north korea has responded with live firing exercises even missile launches of its own so it is a fairly muted response from north korea i think of possibly more concern to the

united states is the lack of any response from overtures by the u.s. state department for talks with officials just to try to get the ball rolling again when it comes to dialogue between the united states and north korea and has been almost a radio silence from pyongyang and there have been various explanations for that possibly this could be an indication of just how dire the domestic situation is inside north korea with the impact of covert 19 cutting itself off from the outside world for over a year now and also impacted of course by sanctions it could be argued that conjunction has far more on his plate at the moment rather than diplomacy especially in the absence of any specific proposals from the united states and that is playing a game of waiting and seeing what the biden administration will come up with as it formulates its new policy towards north korea and rob what about the south koreans

then what will they be wanting from this new biden administration particularly when it comes to north korea. there is on the face of it is that when blink and austin come here to sell there will be the usual handshakes and smiles this is of course a very strong alliance between south korea and the united states going back now decades there will be a reaffirmation of that alliance it's as strong as ever but of course behind closed doors there will be certain tensions coming to the surface south korea does want to try to revive talks with north korea at a very high level and possibly beyond that maybe restarting as it did in the past talks between north korea and the united states but in order for it to do that it really has to have the permission of by the senior partner in this alliance especially if it comes to anything like relaxing sanctions as an olive branch to the north and there really is no indication that the united states is willing to do

that it's interesting that recently they've just reached an agreement that was held up for years under the trump of ministration over how the u.s. forces who are based here are funded and the hosting of those forces in south korea was seen as making a large concession in the hope that it will get to this allowance from the united states but as the south koreans prepare for this visit there is no guarantee of that happening are right or wrong live for us there in seoul rob thank you. well the u.s. and japan share a number of common challenges in the asia pacific region top of the list is china the biden administration has made it clear that it wants to work with allies in the region to make beijing accountable for alleged human rights abuses in june chang and to bet as well as its crackdown in hong kong and a growing aggression against taiwan china also has competing territory the claims with several other countries in the region including one with japan over the cargo

islands of lincoln would also be looking to repair trade ties after 4 turbulent years under former president donald trump and then there's the fate of north korea's nuclear program after the failure of high profile summits during the trump administration what tina brett is associate professor of politics at sophia university in tokyo she says japan will have its own priorities when it comes to regional security it's important to the button that ministration are to the erratic 4 years of the trump administration to signal to allies in the region that need there by an administration sees this is a concerted containment of china 6 are pushing back against its certain us in the region and in particular its behavior these are the human rights but i think we'll just have to speculate much more focused on the issues around the center island cyber security and other concerns of how to build things closer to home so in terms of the priority list i think might be some differences actually been greatly i'm sorry i mean i think you know. yes i think you talk with japan's agenda and

probably also for washington are the concerns around the center who i am and so we've seen in china almost daily in thinking incursions into japanese territorial waters around the island quite recently china also issued a new law that said that it's because carcasses could lose all in the disputed waters the wolves as are claimed by china so there's the potential there for this to really escalate tensions in the region but also that there be accidental conflict between china and perhaps the japanese coast guard so this new law is a real concern to tokyo and washington and one of the things we may see following the meeting days of the joint statement from both countries about this new law or perhaps even naming china all raising tensions around the center. for u.n. secretary general has condemned the escalating military crackdown in myanmar tears

called on the international community to help stop the killings funerals have been held after at least 50 protesters were killed on sunday the worst day of violence since the military overthrew the elected government in february activists say security forces killed another 20 people on monday. and. brazil's health minister has been replaced again as the corona virus outbreak there hits record levels marcelle little kid olga will be the 4th person in charge of the pandemic began that replaces a military general who took the job in may of brazil's most populous state has introduced emergency restrictions to curb rising cases infection and death rates have been planning rapidly in sao paolo the state's health care system is on the brink of collapse. so let's take a look at who's been in charge of handling the pandemic over the past year outgoing health minister eduardo paes willo took over in may as health minister brazil's top court is now investigating him for alleged neglect that contributed to the collapse

of the health system in amazonas state his previous predecessor nelson resigned after less than a month of a differences with president both scenarios regarding the use of anti malaria drugs as treatments coded 19 and before that luis enrique mann deta was fired by the president over his support for physical distancing measures manual rappler joins us live now from mexico city money so this is brazil's 4th health minister since the pandemic is there a sense now that with the 2nd highest death rate in the world in the hospitals in brazil i'm a verge of collapse but brazil needs to seriously get a grip on this do you think. that certainly the hopes that i would think most people in brazil have to look at oga now becomes the 4th health minister he's the president of brazil's national cardiology society and even though the incoming 4th and now health minister does have a background in medical science unlike the outgoing health minister there is no

sense that there this is going to lead to any sort of meaningful or significant change in the overall strategy that the brazilian government has toward the pandemic now we should note that brazil is edging closer to a death toll of 280000 it is the 2nd highest death toll in the world it's certainly the worst outbreak in all of latin america and when you look at the case loads new cases every day really are starting to outpace even the united states the worst outbreak in the world so brazilians i think it would be fair to say continue to live what are some of the darkest days of the pandemic and of social media in brazil is any indicator the fact that president bush so now 2 is now at this stage of the pandemic now moving toward his 4th health minister certainly is not inspiring a lot of confidence in the federal government's larger strategy toward the pandemic now the key doga will be replacing the outgoing health minister and one of the

posts where you who's an active duty army general who was hired precisely because he had a quote unquote expertise in logistics kind of ironic knowing that he's been severely criticized widely criticized specifically over his handling of the country's national vaccination program now one of the things that we do know about president is that he places a great deal of value on loyalty from his cabinet members and one warning that we're hearing from health policy experts is that the president is that while the incoming health minister has said that the president of brazil is a great brazilian the president has been reluctant to apply the strict measures that many say are necessary to occur. for this pandemic when there is no expectation that the incoming health minister is going to take a different stand than the previous one money just very quickly before you go brazil's about some nation rolled out has barely got off the ground but it's now one of the 100000000 doses of the 5 job how much pressure has the government been

on the vaccination program a tremendous amount of pressure arguably this is the reason why we're seeing the the outgoing health minister being booted out of brazil ironically prior to the pandemic had a tremendous track record when it came to vaccination programs currently that program has stalled only about 1.4 percent of the population is fully vaccinated brazil is in the process of securing new vaccines more vaccines we know the pfizer we know about the chinese and russian vaccines and new deals there but just like is the case with many other cases of the world shortages persist so the expectation is that this is a dire situation that can only get worse all right i mean a rapid a lot for us there in mexico city michael thank you tom for to a break here now just about when we come back. there's no doubt that the community security council the international system a free syrian united nations special envoy opens up about the body's failure to

stop the war in syria 10 years on. this is story nature of my confirmation is not lost on me but i will say it's not about me being u.s. gets its 1st ever native american secretary of the interior in dead hot war in that state is. how i once again welcome to have a look at the international forecast for say the big snow storms moving off the rockies rolling across the plains into the u.s. still the same area of low pressure causing some rather active weather and this is a very active cold front had some tornadoes on that as it moves across texas as it drives its way across that southeastern corner we could still see more severe storms rolling on over the next couple days pushing over towards the mid atlantic states for the moved east and be dry new york on the cool side 5 celsius here dry 2

into eastern parts of canada again on the cool side want to see wintry flowers spilling outs of ontario manitoba down across the northern plains back into the rockies but for much of the west coast of the u.s. and the day for western parts of canada for the time being it is fine and dry but rain will come into b.c. as we go on through the course of wednesday by wednesday more big downpours coming in across the central and southern plains possibility of the snow as well but those heavy showers for the deep south could cause some localized flooding said something to keep an eye on a good deal quater meanwhile across the caribbean a chance of one of 2 shells just around the east and is for a time for the right trying to dislodge the 5 and dry with a few shot was there for the west. you know what out more and mighty is very much our culture has been very harmful to the economy and the lives of many people on challenging traditional attitudes how

narrowing the gender gap is helping women in whom the card was escape poverty the focus that we're trying to break these various of machismo by giving women access to resources need to women leading the way. women make change on al-jazeera. the room to the. welcome back a pretty amount of our top stories here at this hour u.s. sector of state anthony blinken non sequitur defends lloyd austin not holding high level meetings in japan ahead of their arrival north korea warned the u.s. administration to quote not do anything unseemly. at the u.n.

secretary general has called on the international community to help stop the military crackdown in me and long funerals have been held for at least 50 protesters were killed on sunday the bloodiest day yet since the news and separate . and brazil's most populous state is under a new curfew it was already the 2nd worst hit country in the world and is seeing a rapid climate infection and death rates under spoke minister has been replaced again was elected obama will be the 4th person in charge since the pandemic again. now a growing number of countries have stopped using the astra zeneca vaccine citing concerns about a few cases of blood clots among people who've been given the job one of them was thailand which is now cleared it for use the prime minister genosha became one of the 1st people there to be given the shot he wants to build confidence and it after the worries thailand will become a regional manufacturing june it does reserve the 1st 61000000 doses for its population and the nighttime curfew is being enforced in manila for 2 weeks to

combat a rise in tobit 19 infections some areas of the philippines capital and other cities have gone into lockdown or how tough a curfew is in place the total number of cases nationwide has about $620000.00 that's the 2nd highest in southeast asia. meanwhile jordan has recorded its highest number of daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic nearly 9 and a half 1000 cases than 82 deaths reported on monday jordan's health minister resigned over the weekend after 719 patients died in a hospital due to an oxygen shortage. now facebook is rolling out new measures to combat misinformation about coded 19 and to encourage vaccinations the website is launching a tool in the u.s. to show people where and when they can make an appointment to get vaccinated it also labelled posts about cope with 19 with facts from the world health organization facebook has faced criticism for allowing false claims to spread

during the pandemic. now they want change and they want it now the dutch go to the polls in just over 24 hours with a record number of candidates under the age of 30 the youngest is just 16 and their passion for wanting to get into parliament is driven by a coronavirus and climate change stuff the new generation for. they are 1617 and 19 years old and campaigning for a seat in the dutch parliament because tina middleton napal represents the young party or young and along with. they are the youngest candidates running in this week's parliamentary elections all the time i was working for you only an idea and now it's now i can see where i am where i am right now you're on the official list . as the number 2 here these are the 16 year old grew up in a foster home and decided to run so she could fight for more protection for young people everyone in the 2nd chamber is talking about

a younger few people would not live with them so that's what i decided to that's when i decided to join young so they will they will have to talk to me and to my colleagues. climate change is one of the main reasons young people and 2 in politics thousands have sounded an alarm all over the nat'l and to stop global warming among them young politicians we've seen to date are doing better where you see black lives matter all over the world but there has to be a group of people that says we love that activism and we're going to translate it into parliament and 1000 year old bibi really is number 6 on the list of fault a rapidly growing party would bases all over europe and a large number of young candidates as a group that's going to pay for the crisis that we're facing so the economic crisis after corona won and especially the climate crisis we're going to pay the bill so we should be the ones making the decision well the election campaign has been dominated by traditional parties mostly focusing on the mastic issues this is seen

as a new force to be reckoned with. a new generation more interested in politics and with international views and above all they want change and change that will eventually happen says political analyst holder a cracker well the average voter in the netherlands is over 50 years old the influence of younger generations is in africa bill he says the differences in foetal behavior have never been as large internationally as they are today since world war 2 most of all the younger generation folks much more often for radically progressive parties like green parties we see that almost every country. also in almost every country that's the traditional center parties like the social democrats and the christian democrats perform really poorly among this youngest age group the polls show that newcomer of old may win 3 seats in parliament while this is not enough for a seat for the party is already seen as a surprise of these elections young will be lucky enough to get one seat but their campaign is paying off until today. before we met them i didn't think

about it so i don't know yet but it made me think yeah yeah if elected christian i'm in the list not yet allowed to work as a member of parliament as she's under age her seat would go to the next candidate on the list visiting the parliament building for the 1st time she can't wait for the day her career in politics get started step fasten al-jazeera the hague. thousands of protesters have turned out across several rebel controlled parts of syria marking 10 years since the start of the civil war the conflict has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis and. our aim being here is to topple the regime and to overthrow its militia it's we are so i'm to unite our selves to keep syria unified and united i'm sure the regime will be toppled and after 10 years we are still ongoing and we haven't stopped if it's all the free people of syria with differently toppled the regime. as long as we have the will and as long

as people from everywhere are here the regime will be toppled sooner or later and we are here today to convey a message to the entire world our message is that there is no power but the power of the law and the power of the syrian that's. the u.n. special envoy for syria says the war is one of the darkest chapters in recent history our diplomatic editor james bays has more the b.d.c. meeting of the security council it's called to order for 10 years the security council has held this monthly meeting the u.n. though is not just an observer to the war in syria it's been a key part of the tragedy the council remains deeply divided on the issue diplomacy is stalled and despite the mounting war crimes over 10 years no one can be held accountable after russia and china use their vetoes to block or refer to the international criminal court has the un and in particular the security council

failed the people of syria it is clear that if award last 10 years the international security governance system that we have is not effective and this is something that should be a source of reflection about everybody involved. i put the same question to the un special envoy gary pedersen who's been holding talks on a new constitution for the country talks that have made no progress whatsoever in almost a year and a half has the un and in particular the security council failed the people of syria . yes i could be a very direct and honest that you know i think if you look at the 10 years. of the syrian people in our lives through it's not going up that the muslim community in the security council the international system has failed syria mr patterson

believes that a new format may be needed for international diplomacy on syria there's already a start up process involving turkey russia and iran but he told me that the u.s. needs to be among the countries at the table to decide the next steps for syria is out as era at the united nations the u.s. now has its 1st ever native american cabinet secretary that hollande has been confirmed in the key job under castro as the details of history comes full circle in the confirmation of deb hollande as the u.s. secretary of the interior a member of the lagoon employable tribe of new mexico holland's family traces back 35 generations on american soil and like other native american peoples suffered centuries of mistreatment and a glatt from the very federal agency she will now lead this is storied nature of my confirmation is not lost on me but i will say it's not about me rather i hope this

nomination would be an inspiration for americans moving forward together as one nation and creating opportunities for all of us elevating repsol and to lead the department of interior we reset the relationship between the federal government and tribal nations to one of cooperation mutual respect and trust as interior secretary holland will be responsible for promoting the well being of the nation's nearly $2000000.00 indigenous people a group whose poverty rate is more than double that of the general us population it's inspirational to other native women like me who seek. be a change makers in our own communities to have that representation at the national level she will also oversee management of some 2000000 square kilometers of public lands including the bears ears national monument sacred land to native americans

and whose boundaries were slashed by president trump holland's advocacy to protect public lands includes her opposition to the keystone pipeline and fracking cost him her the support of most senate republicans based on her own public statements and actions congresswoman hollande is more radical in her positions than president biden as interior secretary hollande will be tasked with jump starting biden's ambitious plan for the united states to get to 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 native leaders say there are none better than holland to lead that charge has a track record of really advocating for marginalized communities who are disproportionately affected by the disasters and devastation that climate change causes and also of course you know has the experience necessary to come into this position and really

you know speak with the president and shape policy holland said during her confirmation hearing there was no question that fossil fuels will continue to play a major part of america for years to come but that the industry is innovating she also said is an indigenous woman from humble beginnings can become a cabinet secretary the u.s. holds promise for everyone. castro al-jazeera washington. stop a quick check of the top stories here on al-jazeera u.s. secretary of state and the blinken then secretary of defense lloyd austin are holding high level meetings in japan ahead of their arrival north korea warning the u.s. administration to quote not do anything unseemly for me has more on japan's goals from tokyo japan is very much concerned about that i think tension with china.