jordi this is legal research talk about just good hardworking people that want to live the american dream like our ancestors these are hindu refugees are terrified that they may be forced to return to being more. tanzania's president john michael fully has died a man has been criticised for his denial of the coronavirus pandemic. hello from doha everyone i'm come out santamaria this is the world news from al-jazeera exit polls in the netherlands just prime minister mark critz as conservative party is on course to form a ruling coalition. also in the news brazil reports a record number of corona virus infections as one of the world's worst hit

countries struggles with its deadliest phase of the pandemic. and police charge a white gunman with killing 8 people in atlanta georgia 6 among them were women of asian descent. so tanzania's president john mica foley has died at the age of 61 he hadn't been seen in public since february and there was speculation about his ill health the vice president saw me out so who is his son announced his death on television a short time ago hamas critical market were citizens today on this date march 17th 2021 that 6 in the evening we lost our leader president of the republic of tanzania the only able to join palm bay. he parted this life from heart complications in hospital in dar es salaam. foley was one of africa's most

prominent covert 19 deniers and said last year tanzania had eradicated the disease through national prayer. looks back at his life. soon after taking office in 2015 president john palmer mughal fully made a name for himself across tanzania as a leader committed to fulfilling his promises of reform many people called him the bulldozer because of his no nonsense approach to fighting corruption and wasteful spending which had plagued the country for decades he made it his mission to cut down on civil service expenses and boost infrastructure projects including the development of a really different cities while many tanzanian see mughal flee as a popular leader who tried to help the poor and bring economic stability he's critics accuse him of being a populist dictator who changed civil liberties lows and presided over a government using heavy handed tactics to curtail freedom of expression the media

political opposition and the l g b t community has also faced international criticism for how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic his government refused to put in place world health organization particles refused to release statistics of the disease or to start a vaccination program instead asking tanzania's to pray and use law called preventive remedies. john michael fullilove a checkered legacy some will remember him as a symbol of consistency and decisiveness others say he's decisions affected the very essence of tanzania's democracy and in the middle of a pandemic the health of its people. with that report we're going to talk to her more now catherine i'm trying to decide if we would consider this to be a sudden announcement or not i mean it certainly surprised us as far as a news event goes but he had not been seen in public for some time. yes

this is devastating news to many people in tanzania but it doesn't entirely come as a surprise there has been speculation going around not just in tanzania but around the world he went missing back in february after his last public appearance that anyone who knows president fully know that he likes his public appearances in that he likes talking to the people in public he like launching his development projects which have been many and so on and he also never misses church services so when he missed 3 consecutive church services people in tanzania got very worried and started asking about his whereabouts about he's one of the government did quiet with some government official thing that he's doing well that people should stop speculating about this thing a few people have been arrested because of thing that the president is dead but then today vice presidents a mere salute who have made this announcement she said that the president fell

ill on the 4th that's when he was hospitalized he had had complications the president has had heart issues for quite a while for 10 years now so she said he was hospitalized but he got better and a few days after he was discharged but then when he situation worsened he was readmitted at the hospital and then a hospital in the capital directly and that's where he died early this evening she also declared 14 days of mourning so i think right now even if it doesn't quite come as a surprise there's a lot of shock in tanzania i think people are trying to process this news because he was an enigma and despite all the criticism against him a lot of people in tanzania did love him took more about the criticism catherine especially on the issue of. we should be very clear there is no indication that this is what he died from effect as you said the. cause of death has been put is

a heart problem but the way he dealt with that 19 seems to become a very big issue. absolutely it's important to rater it as you mention that the government says that he died of heart complications there's been a lot of rumors that he could have. contracted the corona virus but it's important to note that the government says it was a hack failure and going back to your question yes there's been a lot of criticism about how he's government has handled coronavirus the president himself declared that tanzania is free of coronavirus asked people to pray and use local remedies refused to lock down the country when other countries were. did not encourage people to wear masks and. take other carona measures he himself never wore mask in public he also his government also

said that they're not going to be importing vaccines and they're going to start this vaccination campaign that is going on across the world saying that god is going to protect them so but then in the in recent days in recent weeks we've seen more and more people in tanzania falling ill but when you go to hospital the diagnosis that is given is risperdal re complications within government officials including the finance minister who was recently hospitalized with this will respond or a tory problems in zanzibar the main opposition leader say sharif ahmad died on the 17th coronavirus we have government officials like i mentioned who have fallen ill a pisco paul conference on march the 3rd said that 25 priests 63 had died since. since last year

coronavirus and are just people to take precautions because of the disease so we have seen more and more people falling sick and it's going to be interesting going forward to see whether there's going to be a change of strategy on how the government now is going to handle this disease. catherine soy reporting from nairobi catherine thank you for that so tanzania's constitution says the vice president must serve the rest of this 5 year term if the president is unable to carry out their duties and so before these likely successor as we've heard is the vice president some solo who has done if she takes the reins officially how sun will make history as the 1st female president of tanzania born in the autonomous island of zanzibar where her ascent within the ruling c.c.m. party began between 202010 she held ministerial posts in the zanzibar government house and became a member of parliament in tanzania as national assembly representing

a zanzibar constituency in 2010 when president musharraf really won his 1st term in 2015 he selected her to become vice president she is expected to take perhaps a less thorough tarion approach than her predecessor. short time ago the u.s. state department issued a statement expressing its condolences for michael fully says washington remains committed to improving ties between the 2 countries and supports tanzanians for human rights as well as combating covert 19 let's bring a list together with william lawrence professor of political science and international affairs at the american university also former u.s. diplomat and a regional security officer in west africa with us from washington with him thank you for your time let's talk about some of the you know i just did a quick check of she would be the only president in africa i think actually ethiopia has a female head of state but still historic in that she would be the 1st in tanzania and one of very few female leaders on the continent. yes i think there's been less

than a dozen cotton in wide over the last 2 decades or so and she's the rough and tumble politician with a lot of experience in tanzania and politics she was vice chair of the constituency family which was writing a new constitution and she's been a member of parliament she's been a minister. the when she was selected as his running mate into it as it 15 if it surprised a lot of people she's been subject to she says quite a bit of gender bias intensity yes it will be interesting to see how she spends the political capital that she has at the beginning of her tenure so let's talk about the late president you know one of the very simple almost lazy questions we ask at this time is what will lead of legacy bay but i think it is interesting with not a fully because you know he was this program infrastructure anti corruption man very strong figure but then. the cove in 1000 denial which we talked about as well

human rights something of an immigrant i think is what our correspondents. well he was christened and perhaps christened early in his 1st term of the bulldozer because he was a long time public works minister is served in that position twice he got this 1st year in a presidency along stole a road built he was famous for inaugurations and projects across the country and hiding other parts of the budget so that these infrastructure projects could occur but that nickname morphed into a negative one when he started cracking down on opposition figures shutting down journalists forcing even bloggers to get government certification bill for their sites and their content a crackdown on human rights issues in a variety of ways and sort of inserting a new religious interpretation of things including against killing 19 he tens of

millions could pray away the virus when in lawrence i'm going to leave you there thank you so much for your time we've got a lot of other news to get through this hour but that we do appreciate your time and your thoughts to put up. some of our developing news that the prime minister macro to his claim victory in parliamentary elections the exit polls put his conservative party on course to form a ruling coalition in the lower house one of his current coalition partners the center left $66.00 are on track to come 2nd for the anti immigration party the freedom party is projected to be 3rd this is europe's 1st major election since the pandemic began step fasten in amsterdam to take us through this one step is this a clear victory on our official results that come out for some time but quite safe in making this call. yes i think these exit polls are quite reliable as predicted prime minister mark rutte of the very day

this center right party has won the elections according to today's action polls with quite a. large margin and it was all already predicted because he's seen as the crisis manager the leader who has actually taken the netherlands through this growing up and that makes although the netherlands hasn't done so well but we call this rally around the flag phenomenon where the leader of a country in a crisis is seen as the person who needs to take the country through the crisis people don't want change but very interesting interestingly and surprisingly the 2nd largest party as you say a democrat 66 has scored so much better than expected and that's why when prime minister marketa came out an hour ago after this actual poll was announced he wasn't even too happy because he now has to deal with a very large 2nd party what about fielders step it's hard to avoid

personality you know as large as his. politics. well interestingly he was actually paul to be the 2nd party that he came around came out 3rd and that's where least $66.00 the democrats under the leadership of the guy who is a former senior u.n. diplomat has actually claimed this 2nd spot and it was a very interesting moment in the last debate yesterday where he at will is a q. secret car who is married to a palestinian man who also has been had a lot of aggressive 1st social media attacks he blames her for wearing a veil during a visit in iran she was working for the foreign ministry and actually called her a traitor and that moment was a very intense moment and the way she has dealt with this has now is now being seen as one of the moments where she actually gained so many seats thank you for that

stevenson looking at the elections in the netherlands from amsterdam. well check the world weather next to and then the 80 year unveiling plans for a vaccine passport scheme to allow travel to resume around europe this summer. but. we have severe weather warnings in force to parts of the u.s. we've got some very heavy rainfall nasty conditions pushing down towards the southeast and colder all associated with this area of low pressure we could see some tornadoes we're drawing up warm moist air from the gulf of mexico and behind that with more tug and need some some very cold air out of canada pushing all the way down across the plains and whether to mix that's where the air is forced to rise it cools condenses quite rapidly so tornadoes certainly

a possibility as the system makes its way over towards the eastern seaboard through the appalachians and running up towards new york into new england eastern parts of canada dry weather comes back in behind it as i move out of the way have a look at this more wet sand when she weather coming into western parts of canada right down the west coast of the u.s. and that will continue to filter its way a little further inland as we go on through friday central as the u.s. financial state and snow around the eastern seaboard but it does grassy brighten up down towards the southeast and colder so a chance of some kind of rest by coming in here is fighting dry meanwhile across much of the caribbean we have got some showers coming in across the western side of the region costa rica panama could see some flooding over the next day i'll say and rain also popping up southern mexico. well most call. after egypt's revolution that passion turned into something

much bigger. just 0 world. the top stories on al-jazeera this hour tanzania's president john major fully has died at age 61 africa's most prominent coronavirus skeptic who hadn't been seen in public since february was speculation about his health the government says he died

from heart failure. the dutch prime minister claimed victory in parliamentary elections exit polls put his conservative party on course to become the largest in the lower house in europe's 1st major election since the pandemic. speaking of which the pandemic brazil recording its highest number of covert 19 infections since it began more than 2600 deaths registered on wednesday with 90000 more infections hospitals are close to full capacity and more than half of brazilian state's incoming health minister says the government can only do so much though to stop the virus from spreading. what you thought would be in. my office it's not enough for the government to recommend the use of masks people are not capable of adhering to these type of measures it's a simple type of measure that does not need costs for example the government or comments or direction of people in large groups and of people organizing we can't

parties both of which help the virus to circulate so it is not necessary to wait for the government to solve everything as monika you know cave in rio to update us now when we hear from the new health minister they are putting the onus almost on to the people of brazil how does that match up with mr paulson are the president's viewpoint as well that very hardline view that he has. well the problem is yes it's true that the people should follow the safety rules people have been ignoring them they've been walking around without masks they've been not getting social distancing but it's also true that the exam the president does not give a good example so the president himself has been walking around with masks the president himself has been. causing people to me without maintaining social distancing and the president himself has downplayed the virus from the start so

people are hearing mixed messages from from the government from doctors from scientists in the end of it is that it's very confusing since you don't know what to believe the present himself was even downplaying vaccines until recently and so now he says that it's a solution but he himself had said he would not be vaccinated so it is just come from above that's what scientists and doctors are saying ok in rio de janeiro that is monaco you know i can't thank you for that update. when hundreds of millions of europeans could be able to travel around the continent at least from this summer if an app on their smartphones shows they've been vaccinated the digital green pass is being proposed by the e.u. commission president van dillen and would mean freedom of movement restored from june but the world health organization's warning the plan could be premature as dominic kane reports from berlin. almost sunny parisienne morning partly casual but

walks his dog has recently been vaccinated and has the badge to prove it but he would welcome something more official. a covert 19 health pass would allow us to travel to get back a little bit of freedom by june those wishes will be a reality because the european commission plans a digital green pass which all e.u. residents would have on a smart phone proving they have either been vaccinated recently recovered from covert or had a negative test with this digital certificate aid to help member states reinstate the freedom of movement in a safe responsible and trusted manner but for some e.u. leaders that goes neither far nor fast enough we want to but we don't want to wait for implementation by the robber will take the 1st steps on the national level the health minister will give a news conference on thursday outlining the necessary legal basis to introduce

green stick it in austria as early as april many in the tourism industry welcomed the e.u. proposal as a. vaccine certificate is essential to make travel easier and it's important that it's digital because only a digital certificate makes it easier to check in at airports it's no good if there's big queues and lots of bits of paper on the flipside the world health organization is urging caution the requirement for certification of vaccination as a requirement for international travel is not justified as rexx a nation is not widely enough where level and is in equitably distributed throughout the world having a certificate on a smart phone is clearly going to transform the way people travel across the e.u. but in order to work as a proof of vaccination the person must 1st have been vaccinated and so far at least comparatively few europeans have been dominant claim al-jazeera.

police in the u.s. city of atlanta say the man who killed 8 people in attacks on 3 messages palos told them he was not motivated by racism however 6 of the victims were asian the suspect is a white man now in police custody she says killings have sent fear through the asian american community which has been increasingly targeted during the coronavirus pandemic castro has a report. still little is known about the 8 victims killed in the atlanta asian spa shootings only that 6 were asian women police would not say wednesday whether they had worked at the spas but did say that the suspect 21 year old robert aaron long had targeted the businesses but he does claim that it was not racially motivated he apparently has an issue what he considers a sex addiction and sees these locations as something that allows him to to. to go to these places and into temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate

police a long has confessed to the shootings and is scheduled to appear in court on thursday atlanta's mayor says there is no evidence the spas were cover for sex work we certainly will not began to blame victims and as far as we know in atlanta these are legally operating businesses. experts say the stereotype of asian spas doubling as brothels is another facet of the anti asian racism growing in the united states the group stop a.p.i. hate formed in response to the rise in xena phobia since cove it has collected nearly 3800 reports of hate incidents toward asian americans in the past year i think there's a lot of fear and trepidation right now and you know you've seen it over the past few months too for us seeing our elder being attacked certainly folks are scared some communities have formed citizen. troubles in response to the uptick

in random violence against asians and they've expressed anger at law enforcement's refusal in some cases to call the attacks hate crimes police in atlanta say they've yet to decide whether to use the label for this week's killings we've received a number of calls about is this a hate crime we're still early in this investigation whatever the motivation here i'm going to be married to charlotte. very. very concerned because you know i can speak. italian can be near to. the right because one thing could. be very very troubling for president biden says the f.b.i. and the department of justice are involved in the investigation. castro al-jazeera washington. man was most powerful buddhist monks association is called on the military to end its violent crackdown the government appointed organization accused

an armed minority of torturing and killing innocent civilians exact number killed since the military seized power last month remains unclear the un's putting it at $149.00 but the association of the city's sorry association of assistance for political prison is says it's much higher more than $200.00 fact several people were killed in protests on wednesday. now the u.s. secretaries of state and defense are in south korea the 2nd stop of their asia tour sector state and in the blink an openly pressed seoul to join the u.s. in keeping china's aggression in check and addressing north korea's human rights violations the country's defense ministers also pledged to work together. to resolve north korea's nuclear threat in the past hour the north korean news agency reported that the u.s. and tried to make contact several times but that any attempts would be. ignored until what are called hostile policies such as military drills where drops.

are ok along. which is because we're over 70 years removed and are employed it is the linchpin. security and prosperity we knew we. were free to go through to the region and across the world have to return to that story in a moment meanwhile england's football association has apologised to survivors of child sexual abuse in football after a long awaited report found the organization did not do enough to protect children the independent review which took 4 years to complete focused on historical claims of abuse between $1702005.00 concluded the association was too slow to put sufficient protection measures in place so let's return

to our earlier story after the east asia trip wraps up with the secretaries of state and defense from the united states will secretary said and the white house national security adviser will meet china's foreign minister and state counselor in anchorage alaska and that is where a diplomatic editor james bays is for us now james after everything we've heard about all the talk of reining in china's aggression that is talking to japan and south korea this could shape up as a pretty interesting meeting. very interesting meeting and we'll have to i think take the temperature at the end of this meeting so cold here in alaska that's why we were slightly delayed coming to you because some more equipment is failing well will the atmosphere of these talks be cold because you know what the relations between the u.s. and china have been like in recent years they've been really seriously bad people have been talking about the prospect even over a new cold war the u.n. secretary general has said that he is deeply concerned about this relationship well

the chinese have been reaching out to the biden ministrations since the beginning of that administration now that by administration a range talks there here in alaska because the u.s. secretary of state is on his way back from asia for this meeting and anthony blinken the secretary of state has said that what he wants is a case by case approach to china he believes there are some issues where they are going to have big problems for example china's human rights the week is the issue of hong kong the issue of taiwan the south china sea there are other issues the ones that president trump used to focus on the trade issues where they're going to be competitors these 2 major players in the global economy but they think there are other issues as well come all where they can collaborate for example on the issue of climate change and some of the regional issues for example. afghanistan would be one of myanmar potentially would be another. james phase in anchorage

alaska great to talk to you thank you. finally a chorus of protests by girls in afghanistan has helped overturn a ban on singing in public. i don't think that i said it was in her words i was saying where there is no. using the hash tag i am my song girls share videos of themselves singing on social media comes after the couple regions the department of education said female students over the age of 12 could no longer performed in front of mixed audiences women's rights groups that it was reminiscent of the days of the taliban rule. but how fast they are these are the top stories tanzania's president john mica fully has died at the age of 61 africa's most prominent coronavirus skeptic hadn't been seen in public since february and there was speculation about his health the

government says he died from heart failure catherine soy has more says the vice president announce.