the u.s. secretaries of state and of defense and offense rather arrive in south korea as pyongyang issues a warning to the pipe that ministration. hello i'm adrian forget this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. here it goes inside a hospital in chile where the number of covert $1000.00 cases is still causing alarm despite a successful vaccine rollout plus. one of the student here don't i was the one trying to this was like beginning it was just telling me to do is leave the mountain i told him i can leave in the powering tales of escaping kidnappers of

nigeria with some families still waiting for their children to come home. and poverty the pandemic at a child care benefits scandal voters in the netherlands have a lot on their minds as they head to the polls. a day after some sharp words from north korea the u.s. secretaries of state and defense are in south korea on the 2nd stop of their asia tour and blinken at lloyd austin the bolstering alliances in the region on their 1st foreign trip since taking office in japan on tuesday they criticized what they called china's coercion and aggression in asia north korea's nuclear ambitions are expected to be top issue in seoul at the influential sister of north korea's leader has warned the u.s. not to cause trouble in the region let's go live to seoul office of the bride is there rob the u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin said the u.s.

south korea alliance is more important than ever. absolutely this these meetings get underway north korea will dominate discussions obviously but also it is a chance of for the united states to revive relationships with its traditional allies in this part of the world to reconnect with them as a way of saying this is america we are back on the world stage in these what is an increasingly important part of the world so those meetings are getting underway this wednesday evening continuing through into thursday it's also a chance when it comes to defense issues to get through a lot of very important housekeeping stuff here in south korea there is a deal to be side this is the cost sharing agreement for the hosting of u.s. troops here some $28000.00 on the south korean part of the peninsula south korea contributes a lot towards that but of course this was the subject of

a bitter dispute with the trump of ministration going over a period of months and years they could not reach an agreement donald trump as with many other u.s. allies wanted to see far more of a contribution and it really left a bitter taste here in south korea it soured relationships and it's only until the biden ministration has come in that have actually been able to reach an agreement so that deal will be signed as part of the agreement south korea is upping the amount of that it contributes for hosting u.s. troops by some 14 percent so it's a considerable sum of money it is according to many people over the odds and it has been seen as possibly a bit of a gift to the americans as a way in the hope of getting a quid pro quo a freer hand when it comes to dealing with north korea as far as the north is concerned to what extent of the u.s. and south korea singing from the same song sheet. there is likely to be some tense discussions behind closed doors in the coming hours they are on slightly different agendas of the u.s.

administration of course we know they're trying to frame their relationship a future relationship with with north korea it's likely to be a return to a kind of strategic patience of containing north korea's especially when it comes to their development of a nuclear arsenal south korea is desperate to try to revive this period of high level negotiations of meeting with north korean leaders possibly then leading to a resumption of high level negotiations of negotiations between north korea and the u.s. so that's what the president him and jay in wants but of course in order to do that he has to be given a free hand to talk to the north koreans and possibly maybe give some sort of concessions when it comes to sanctions but that is a real stumbling block there has been no indication whatsoever from the united states that they'll give any margin when it comes to imposing sanctions imposing the toughest of pressure on north korea robert bride reporting live there from

seoul many thanks indeed. india's daily covered 19 cases of risen to the highest level since december cases that have jumped by almost $29000.00 data from the country's health ministry shows india has the world's highest tally of infections of the united states brazil the federal government has blamed crowding people not wearing masks is growing alarm about the increasing number of covert 19 cases in chile despite the nation having a successful vaccine rollout about 5000000 people have now had their 1st job but cases arising by an average of 5000 a day alas in america is elusive newman reports now from santiago. a severe health crisis in the latin american country one my gleason have expected when chilian is dying from cold and 19 every 15 minutes and critical care units are

overflowing the doctor said that they runs the i.c.u. at the clinic and takes us to see for ourselves that every bed is occupied even though the number of critical care units nearly doubled this week. people over 17 most of whom have already been vaccinated have almost disappeared from our emergency rooms now we have younger patients but some gravely ill. chile's 2nd wave is turning out to be far more aggressive than the 1st even though more than 33 percent of the population has received one or both jabs these people are among the 10s of thousands of chileans one killing at this hour for their corona virus vaccine and is a world leader in terms of the percentage of the population that has already been inoculated health officials warn it will not make much difference at least not for some time. in order for herd immunity to be effective 80 percent of chileans

must be fully vaccinated and that won't happen for another 3 months. now judy used to make the vaccine available. if one free of charge and to convince you all that it's of fictive and cite. back at the hospital doctors and nurses concede they're exhausted 30 percent of staff are on medical leave from illness or stress and they're more difficult to replace than a bed or respirator. we caught our breath between the 1st and 2nd wave but the patient load never dropped enough to really let us recover so here we are practically living here. with d.s. had none this hasn't been able to travel home for nearly a year so i. think it's very stressful the patients are in a critical condition there's no time to rest because the number of patients multiply faster than we do but we do all we can. to be in suffering from pandemic burnout have clearly let down their guard doctor who got a d.

is one of many who questions the government's overall pandemic strategy. the strategy was not to suppress the pandemic but to contain it a delicate balance in which flexibility and easing restrictions led to thousands of patients despite the inoculation a bitter lesson for a country that thought it was out of the woods and a wake up call for others who are counting on vaccines to be the magic cure you see in human al-jazeera some p.r. the situation's also worsening in brazil where there's been another record number of facilities in a single day on tuesday health officials reported more than $2800.00 deaths in 24 hours the government's for health for the health minister in the last year says that he'll support president jaya ball sinatra's approach to the pandemic he is opposed to lock downs. once people have been fully vaccinated they might get a passport type document to prove this the european commission is expected to

propose a certificate that would allow inoculated people to travel freely within the e.u. a so-called digital green pass would provide proof that a person has had one of the e.u.'s 4 approved jobs iceland was the 1st european country to issue vaccine passports to its citizens and to recognize immunity certificates from other countries china is rolling out a similar program for international travel it's also planning to make it easier for foreigners who've had the chinese made vaccine to enter the country douglas kid is from the national association of airline passengers he says there needs to be a realistic approach to vaccines difficult. one aspect that's not being looked at is that ok if you're going to have a vaccine passport and if you're going to be requiring passengers to be back in you to get schooled with one of the approved back scenes what about the hundreds of other diseases that are out there. you could have the average passenger saying you know becoming more like a pin cushion where you've got to have

a vaccine against this that you know something else something else you know maybe a dozen different diseases you might have to have a vaccine against some of which you may never heard of. maybe that's going to have to be the way things go but certainly i'm not looking at the looking forward to having to have a dozen different vaccines on my vaccine passport in order to travel you know say from one state to the other in the united states or from one country advance developed country in the united states to say the far east like japan or perhaps to england or or even in the middle east if you've got people on an airliner who are separated by at least one seat. from the person from the next person or separated by a piece of a row the chances of spreading that virus are going to be correspondingly reduced that's why we do not like the idea of the airlines saying ok it's back to normal you've got a socially distance in the terminal that we're going to pack you as tightly

together within the plane as we can in order to make the money make our money no i think it's best if the airlines follow the same policies and procedures that we're forcing on other businesses and limit the number of people on the planes to 50 percent. gunmen on motorcycles have attacked a group of civilians and killing at least 58 people it happened as the people were returning from a live stock market. near the border with mali the attackers also destroyed nearby structures used to store grain the government has declared 3 days of national mourning. the government in nigeria's could do no state says that it won't be giving in to ransom demands after 3 teachers were kidnapped from a primary school monday it's the latest in a string of abductions from schools in the north on friday 39 college students were taken by men in the same states. reports from.

except for security personnel and if you start at the forest researching mundo. is largely empty and quiet. the usual bustle on campus is gone no classes no field work. the hostels where hundreds used to leave and i wonder lock and key as students remain in the hands of their captors. and added e.g.l. xandra 2 friends who escaped the attack is still haunted by what they saw. to keep me safe. which. we tried to escape. and the process of. i hate. our own here. big eyes big one of the students.

5 days after the attack the personal effects of the missing students are still being recovered that we want they were taken. security sources say guns were used to open up this gaping hole is a breach in point from where the students were extracted now behind this wall is a force that stretches 4 kilometers to a location where the students thought to be still held by their captors neighbors and relatives still come to confront the sandy family as they try to come to terms of the kidnap of their 2 daughters from their school. the mother still shaken by the incident is against the use of force to rescue them. davis was on there they want to keep up with their lives give the children and my hope is gone. so we have you know government to blair is good but the fight. the family says the

absence of the 2 goals is a bearable for everyone dislike deal with these dark. it is wanted for you to move. on the more leash. with 3 kidnappings in forty's the government here says it will not give in to kidnapper's demand for runs. based on principle. they state. even given their money. that we. decided to avoid completely what some parents of missing students want to hear at the moment but the government negotiating with the hostage takers will only create a bigger problem. the crisis in myanmar

worsens it's becoming difficult to know just how many people have been killed in the military crackdown the un says they've been 149 deaths in 6 weeks but a political prisoner group insists the toll is higher $183.00. more spin imposed in many areas but protesters are defying the restrictions and continue to stage daily rallies against the. weather update. we need a syrian refugee who's making inroads into german politics. the election's over the u.s. president is back touring swing states. it's time for the perfect. sponsored point at ways we've got

some cool wet sand to toss wintry weather diving into central and eastern parts of europe at the moment little areas of low pressure we got some snow significant snow fall down towards the aegean pushing down across greece into turkey cross into remain as well as i said but this area of low pressure another area of low pressure into central parts of the med just around suddenly we're looking at to me strong winds strong winds across the western side of the mediterranean just blowing out the fronts towards the bow erik's but high pressure towards the west will keep things largely fine and dry across the british isles into good parts of france and down into spain said 20 celsius in madrid some won't around here some of the sunshine you see showers not too far away some showers in the western med some wintry weather some significant snow fall into switzerland into austria and a fair bit of snow to into remain here and ukraine and a little so a fair bit of snow there into turkey i was also west so it is warm and dry 13

celsius in glasgow and rising could touch 14 celsius here as we go on into thursday actually not with the trade actually showers there will continue across central parts of the met in the central areas of europe as well we will see a little bit of wet weather gradually making its way into the fall of america filtering into the north of libya. sponsible qatar airways jump into the story there is a lot going on in this and julian and global community when i thought of all the misinformation i think we are more afraid than we are aware 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 from you and you too could be part of today's discussion this streamed on out is there a. hello

'd again this is al jazeera let's remind you of the main news this hour the u.s. secretaries of state and defense are in south korea on the 2nd leg of their 1st asia tour pyongyang has warned the u.s. not to cause trouble in the region. the government of nigeria's could do in a state says that it won't give in to ransom demands after 3 teachers were kicked out from a primary school on monday it's the latest in a string of abductions from schools in the north. of the number of covert 19 cases in chile is on the rise despite a largely successful vaccine rollout around 5000000 people have not had their 1st job but you cases are averaging around 5000 a day. u.s. president joe biden has hit the road to promote his new a 2 trillion dollar covert 19 relief package for missing more support was

a big part of his election campaign but not everyone is clear on what they're now entitled to us our white house correspondent kimberly hell could reports from delaware county. like so many u.s. towns the covered pandemic has brought businesses in delaware county pennsylvania economic uncertainty and even collapse a lot of our small businesses are interdependent of each other so as one business sales we all feel that michael gibbons has been running a small automotive repair shop in delaware county that employs 7 people last year the government stimulus helped keep his business running. but he's less certain about president joe biden's promise of new aid and what it needs for him there's a lot of questions that americans need answers to you look at some of these big stimulus bills and there's a lot of what you'd call pork in them that's exactly why biden visited this floor

in business in delaware county to highlight the benefits of his one. point 9 trillion dollar american rescue plan that last week he signed into law more than what the plan includes $1400.00 checks for individuals that help for small businesses bided staking his presidency on his relief package to stop america's jobs crisis it's also intended to repair local government finances and address issues of poverty and inequality. and people are getting. a check for. why it's the biggest enhanced one of america's social safety net in decades be rolled out like a nation at war in addition to biden vice president camila harris her husband doug m. hoffa and 1st lady dr jill biden are crisscrossing the united states to promote the rescue plans benefits it's

a big gamble the bybee ministration is hoping to create an explosion of economic activity without triggering inflation on main streets just like this one all across the united states but business owners like michael gibbons are skeptical of the plan and whether all that money will go to those that really need it and there's a lot of americans out there that for whatever reason have a general mistrust of government and so yes joe biden has a lot of work in front of them to kind of bridge those gaps and get this country back on line national polls show the american rescue plan is popular but biden's not taking it for granted his administration knows it needs to deliver relief to america's main street quickly in order for it to be a success. can really help get al-jazeera delaware county pennsylvania at least 8 people have been killed in one inch of the u.s. city of atlanta in 3 separate shootings targeting paulus 2 of the shootings were of

spalls across the street from each other but he said the 4 women killed were of asian descent a male suspect has been arrested. polls open to the netherlands national election it's europe's 1st major vote since the start of the pandemic will be a test of the government's safety policies opinion polls suggest that the center right party of prime minister mark router is on track to win by a large margin that's despite his entire cabinet resigning after a child care benefits scandal 2 months ago. reports. as the matter goes to the polls hundreds of people have been queuing for food handout it shows a growing divide in society after a decade of leadership by the center right government of mark. the ever smiling prime minister who went to the palace in january to hand in the resignation of his cabinet on a bicycle then he says i will year old i grew up in poverty with lots of dept

because the tax office accused us of fraud then we became part. of a new role as part of a campaign launched before the elections to raise awareness about the one in 13 dutch children living in poverty a mother was one of 26000 families who were wrongly accused by tax authorities of child care benefits fraud now sasha says she was forced to pay back nearly $120000.00 and lost her job her house and her marriage she suffered from 2 strokes and is learning to walk again report concluded that most of the accused families perfect and so for a short profiling of that we were confronted with that collectors on a daily basis they often came with police we lived in fear we look to door shut the curtains and we're too embarrassed to go outside. prime minister mark whitaker was confronted by one of the victims during a recent gallup buys the bait. i know a little responsible for this because he is the one in charge he keeps saying it is

awful but i don't feel he means. he and the other victims don't understand why you chose to run again i explained to her that at the same time and i had to ask myself the question what did it mean for my rerunning again to become leader of my party and hopefully the focus would give me just again i said to the. many things which have been very successful out of the people in their lives have lost trust in politics because how do you gain the trust back. by working very hard. or you are good to hear although did not mince has been struggling through the 1900 pandemic. people in times of crisis vote for the leader they know stem market the seen as a crisis manager but also a leader tainted by serious scandals a recent survey shows that even without a covert than that make poverty rates will increase by 30 percent or more people will depend on food handouts and one of the world's richest nations so even though

mark is still popular some are wondering how long he can rely on his survival skills most people in this queue are longing for a change in leadership they hope may come true sooner than they might expect some political observers predict a prime minister if elected again may have to step down after all a parliamentary inquiry into the childcare benefits scandal is scheduled for 2 years from now that fast and al-jazeera. election officials in the netherlands have had to come up with creative ways to ensure social distancing voters were even given the option to use bike through polling stations the government has expanded postal proxy voting options and allowed the more vulnerable to vote early in the week. in the 10 years since syria was plunged into chaos by the refugees found their way to germany thanks to its so-called open door policy now one of them is hoping to become the 1st syrian to be elected to the german parliament came reports from berlin more than

a 1000000 syrians have made their way to germany in the last 10 years and while each has a story to tell of how they ended up here some are particular it has had other cloth my name is tara to laos i am 31 years old and i was born in syria and grew up in damascus i have lived in germany for 5 years i studied law and i am a human rights activist in the syria tarik left was a war zone where hundreds of thousands would really be killed many millions more were homeless rival armed groups vied for control of cities and for many people the only option was to flee. first through turkey then on to greece and up the balkan peninsula into central europe the germany they arrived in was at 1st welcoming but facilities were often basic. there i was just very happy because for the 1st time in years i felt safe at the same time i was shocked about the living conditions for refugees i arrived in dortmund and was sent to

a shelter which is in the middle of the forest with no public transportation around undaunted tarik concentrated on learning the language as far as possible and in time to help the many people like him as grateful as tarik is he believes germany needs to do more to improve integration. in the refugees face systemic discrimination in this society they're affected by racism and by laws and asylum and residence those are experiences that refugees share and i want to work on bringing about changes in these areas. tarik solution is political he's applied to become a german citizen and persuaded the green party to select him as a candidate in this year's general election never mind that the greens haven't traditionally prospered in the place tarik wants to represent just by getting into the political contest he's traveled further than any other syrian refugee in germany and if his citizenship does come through in time he's determined to fight

for his seat here in september dominic cain al-jazeera at the german parliament u.s. vice president's carla harris is delivered her 1st speech of the united nations but as kristen salumi reports setbacks caused by the pandemic cast a shadow over the event. the 65th conference on the status of women may have lacked the pomp and circumstance of years past not to mention the number of female participants but it had something previous conference's did not the 1st ever female vice president of the united states it is an honor to address this is deemed commission so having a 1st v.b. lady in the u.s. you know it's just amazing the most demography country or word it's amazing is just such a strong message for every woman everywhere promoting women's leadership was the

theme of the gears event but women like kamel harris germany's angela merkel and new zealand's just send arden remain the exceptions on the world stage around the globe and women serve as the head of state or head of government in just some 22 countries and even here at the united nations where women now make up more than 40 percent of the professional staff a female secretary general has yet to be elected and covered 19 has been a setback for women lockdowns have led to increases in domestic violence women leaving the workforce and disruptions to family planning services particularly in developing countries the united nations estimates 12000000 women lost access to contraception resulting in 1400000 unplanned pregnancies the status of democracy also depends fundamentally on the empowerment of women not only because the exclusion of women in decision making is a marker of a flawed democracy but because the participation of women strengthens democracy

and that's true everywhere the new u.s. administration has promised to carry the flag for women at the un restoring funding for women sexual and reproductive health which was cut by the trumpet ministration sexual and. the british are so important in the in the back of the word where more and more my kind of mortality is so high giving this gathering despite recent setbacks for women something to celebrate kristen salumi al-jazeera the united nations. i. could sit here with us hello adrian sitting in here at doha the headlines on al-jazeera a day after some sharp words from pyongyang the u.s. secretaries of states and defense are in south korea on the 2nd stop of the asia tour and they blinken a lot also.