this is al jazeera. it's 1500 pounds g.m.t. here on al-jazeera hello i'm come all sons of maria welcome to the news hour israel's 4th election in 2 years in what is largely seen as a referendum on prime minister benjamin netanyahu there are just hours left until the polls close also there's more bad news for astra zeneca is covert 19 banks saying a federal health agency in the u.s.

is raising concerns over possibly outdated incomplete data. after years of friction under president donald trump the u.s. pledges to revitalize its cooperation with nato and another attempt to discredit. me in my joints or accuses the ousted leader of corruption saying she received bribes including cash and gold. and support teams face more than just a footballing challenge to qualify for next year's world cup 1000 travel restrictions are causing chaos as players join up with their national side. we are 5 hours away now from the polls closing in israel in yet another parliamentary election it is the 4th in 2 years but this time the sitting prime minister benjamin netanyahu is facing 3 corruption trials while the opposition is more fractured than ever it all points to yet more deadlock followed by the

inevitable scramble to form a workable coalition will have a live update from west jerusalem in a moment 1st this report from the. is really is have been going through a 2 year cycle of election government. formation collapse and repeat in the sports cycle there is little suspense prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his little cood party are expected to get the most votes even though more than half of israelis recently polled want him out you have a valuable ideology you have voting against someone so it's very hard to to get to a country like this you know you can avoid because you don't want someone you have to build because you want something happen and that the problem. netanyahu needs to get 61 seats in the knesset to form a government no one ever has so the question is who would he form a coalition government with he's alienated former allies and is facing stiff

competition from within the right i think he's been a wonderful politician for israel in the past he's been in power way too long and he has too many issues surrounding him at this point i'd really like to see a change and it surprises me that the whole country isn't behind that idea. janet melzer is a liberal voter who like many others believes israelis have a 5th election on the horizon really concerned with the direction the country is going a lack of respect for the other total lack of respect for the of their own no no understanding of civil rights and democracy voter participation in the previous election was 71 percent posters predict a lower turnout for now israelis vote and wait to see if their country can move past this unprecedented political limbo natasha going to aim to syria west jerusalem and now we go to harry for so he was out in the could party headquarters

and westerners in hi harry deja vu all over again isn't it for you for the politicians for this ratings for everyone and yet again prime minister netanyahu can look forward to the fact that he will probably win the most votes. that's right yes i mean the muscle memory is definitely kicking in the 4th time around in less than 2 years but you're right benjamin netanyahu is expressing i think a more confident public face this time around although he like many other party leaders is rushing around the country right now literally with a loud hailer chiding his likud supporters to get out to the polls because he's warning them and his son on twitter as well as warningly could supporters that there are high turnouts in areas of northern tel of eve places they see as liberal and left wing and low turnout in some of the more working class areas further south

that they see as lee could strongholds at the same time we're here we're seeing the same thing from many party leaders the secular right wing or avigdor lieberman is complaining that the how radio the ultra orthodox community is heading to the polls and so his supporters need to come out you have to price all this in what is seemingly pretty apparent though now is that it does look like a fairly low turnout election as of 3 hours ago which is the last figure we have the turnout figure was 3 and a half percent down on last year it's the lowest if that holds since 2009 just seeing you wearing your mask there hairy of course makes me think of the pandemic and how that might play into this election i mean saturday after saturday we saw those protests didn't we people protesting about lockdowns and strict restrictions however under prime minister netanyahu managed to vaccinate a lot of israelis in a short amount of time. you're actually right now i was even wondering whether

a actually needed to wear it given the fact that everyone in here supposedly should be vaccinated or be recovered from coded although there weren't any checks on the way and we have to say but yes it has been the narrative that benjamin netanyahu has wanted to emphasize throughout his campaign that he is the man who badgered the c.e.o. of pfizer very vociferously to make israel the lab for the world in terms of a country sized test of the efficacy of that vaccine so he got all these vaccines in he got or least the israeli health system got so many already vaccinated and the numbers are tumbling in terms of infections in terms of hospitalizations and all the rest of it the problem for him is that the polls haven't moved hugely if he was expecting as there were reports that he was at the beginning of the campaign to get 40 or more votes seats rather fully could in the israeli parliament that hasn't happened the most recent poll put him at around 30 maybe just over and of course he

needs 61 in concert with other coalition parties at least to make a strong right wing government which is what he's been promising the israeli electorate for 4 elections now he does look in a slightly more strong position than he had in the previous elections he has the opportunity with so many right wing rivals or potentially poaching some of their m.p.'s if he doesn't actually formally make a coalition with their party so there are more options open to him than there are to the main opposition leader peed from the centrist party but he certainly isn't there yet herefore said at could party headquarters you keep that mask on my friend better safe than sorry ok let's talk to you again later. so let's take a look at the main candidates we're looking at of course we've just been hearing about prime minister netanyahu head of the likud party. as we say also on trial for corruption let's not forget that he's hoping his efforts to get people vaccinated

as harry was saying against kovan 19 and don't forget the normalization of ties with some arab countries hoping all of that will keep him in the late you have his former head of stuff and that's not the bennett who's the head of the right wing party who has criticized the prime minister's handling of the pandemic but also hasn't ruled out joining any liquid led government after the election we've got another right wing challenger gideon star from the new hope party which supports settlement construction in the occupied west bank and opposes the iran nuclear deal some political agenda is similar to netanyahu but not interested in a coalition with him you've also got the t.v. host turned politician pete who heads the opposition centrist yes the tea party which is now considered one of the strongest candidates who was were actually once a coalition partner in a netanyahu led government in 2013 so if you stay with me with all of that we'll put it all to deal hoffman is chief political correspondent at the jerusalem post nice to see me just reading through all of that my goodness the tangled web of who

might work with whom and who wouldn't it what is it like actually for you trying to cover this 4th time around. it's intense you know it's never getting any rest you know waiting for the government to be stable sort of the other reporters or the other things like. health and science and security can focus on the what the country is doing to help its people. focus on what the politicians are. and i've been very busy but you years when i were you are that. ok so let's look at maybe the most likely scenarios in your view what would you be expecting to look good policy to bring in and number of states tonight because that will obviously dictate what goes from from there we're doing now to know that the game of exit polls are not entirely accurate but there are a pretty good indicator if he gets the 60 right out of a 120 that he needs to govern with his right wing satellite armies. and

see. if the. gets that magic number of 61 that starts acting but the more likely scenario some kind of continued. her lying perhaps the. arab 'd leader who for the 1st time wants to cooperate with the israeli establishment he could have a big. this is surprising at all that a really strong opposition contend to hasn't emerged not just in this election but in any of the previous ones as we heard in a report earlier netanyahu has been in power for a long time a lot of people are sort of sick of him if i can put it that way plus let's not forget all the corruption charges against him it should be a chance for someone else. it should be israelis really believe it's. the most experienced leader that israel is this.

especially at a time of security tensions at the end iran's nuclear is the issue that. we would understand why israelis are once the bilinear. ok tell me about the balance then of issues because ok you just mentioned iran there i mentioned the normalization with some arab countries as well the current covert as well as all these issues it i would think it's the domestic issues that matter the most to israelis yes you've got 700000 unemployed people there is much of what we become but that nation nation and have 4 and a half 1000000 people back there the 2nd by the back in a country of 9000000 people of which a 3rd of the people are children and knowledgeable in the backseat on the other and . 600006000 deaths. a year but people there are countries that are similar in size that have a situation a lot better and 'd it has been the security situation or diplomatic

situation that's been at the be was perhaps the birth election where those who were not issues that israelis voted on and that's something that could give an opportunity for somebody to do better than expected in this election to be able to form a government that out of you know it's. will have been great to talk to you as always and we'll just see where the cards fall shall we later on tonight thank you for your time thank you. 12 minutes past this news hour here is what's coming up the u.k. holding a minute's silence for the 146000 victims of covert 19 exactly a year after its 1st 'd lockdown. the united nations says hundreds of people are unaccounted for after a massive fire at a refugee camp. and sport the rockets aiming to relaunch their season in the n.b.a. basketball with a little later on. so

covered 19 and in europe a number of countries are bracing for a 3rd wave and struggling with sluggish vaccine rollouts germany 1st of all has extended restrictions for another 3 weeks trying to drive down the infection numbers public gatherings are banned non-essential shops are going to be closed again over the easter holiday in the u.k. as we just mentioned that minute's silence has been held to mark a year since the 1st lockdown almost 150000 people have died from the virus in the u.k. you see images there of people remembering that one year on russia president vladimir putin expected to receive his vaccine perhaps a move to encourage russians to take up the job after poll suggested only 30 percent of russians were actually willing to get back to. the u.k. vaccine for astra zeneca well it's promising to provide more docile u.s. health officials raised concerns over possible out dated trial results. the

fact is this is very likely a very good vaccine and this kind of thing does as you say do nothing but really care some doubt about the vaccines and maybe contribute to the hesitancy it was not necessary if you look at the data really are quite good but when they put it into the press release it wasn't completely accurate so we have to keep essentially trying as hard as we can to get people to understand that there are safeguards in place and i think that data and safety monitoring board picking up this discrepancy was an example of the safeguard. there of course the u.s. is top. voice on back citations and the coronavirus will not in bars with us now is outside of south london hospital where london's 1st covert patients were admitted on this one year anniversary maybe i can ask you 1st of all name about the astra zeneca i mean only 24 hours ago you and i would talking and you were telling us how

the data was good and there had been all this backing up coming from the u.k. and from countries in europe who decided to go back to it and now i mean it takes another hit again. that's right although as you heard from anthony felt she who is the head of the national director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases in the u.s. as well as medical advisor on covets the president biden he was saying that this seems to be a procedural matter stressing that there is no question mark really over the safety of the astra zeneca vaccine but he is admitting that there could be potentially if they don't get the message out there clearly to the public what's happened here in in the in europe has been more damaging because we've seen european union governments actually briefly holt's the use of the astra zeneca vaccine before the e m a the e.u.'s own agency reiterated that it was safe that said that has caused reputational

damage and there has been a survey which shows over 50 percent of the public in some countries like germany and france who think that it's not safe but back to back to the astra zeneca topic will britain was one of the 1st to authorize its use america has yet to do so but in the last few hours as you said we've been marking here a year since the 1st lockdown the 1st covered 19 patients in the capital arrived here in february of 2020 within weeks this place was overwhelmed and now the nation is taking stock of the toll in terms of the numbers of people who have died from cough it officially over a 125000 but also in terms of the ongoing effects of long coverage and of course on the economy as people wonder when life will begin to get back to normal all right thank you not in barbara outside the hospital there in london as we say one year

since the 1st u.k. lockdown. now doctor the phantom of x. and all just now vice president of vaccine research and development of blue will obama dix joining us on skype from ann arbor michigan regular contributor it's always nice to talk to you what's your take on the latest concerns over the astra zeneca vaccine. i think as. we heard from dr fox he is really a procedure law issue and maybe some inaccurate it here and there is that should not to be lee him back to the d. good qualities and the need for the us the senate maxine's of the data by itself is honest of data and good data probably there are. 2 issues here and did and at least as i what we know are. that should be we should be accurate you know when we do our best sort of leases we have to pull. data from everything at vanderbilt and put it out we cannot just put out to us at least with some inaccurate and not

get data or inaccurate. statements so i think that this is a procedure i think between that the assembly and the. senate there will solve this shortly it the vaccine is good divac seen as it's a geisha sense safe and hopefully that things would be fixed and should not really impact the procedure off of you know docs and seeing that scene in your us and also for other countries because they sounded to be quite impressive numbers that came from the clinical trials in the u.s. when they it was i think 7675 percent efficacy against infection and then and i think they went up to 100 percent again severe infection and it is a big claim to make but an important one. yeah it's gets a great data you know and this data is very good for everyone and

fortunately you know some small things can. go in the water and therefore i think what what we are looking at is that the s. and b. also don't want to board days is interested also with the good data to get out accurately and so forth and they are very strict about how they look at the data and how they look at the language used for new communicate to the public and therefore i think us doesn't it i will fix that between the d.s.m. v. you know sometimes these things happen you fix it during direct communication between the companies and at the s.m.b. and so forth and i believe that this is going to be a good one the efficacy is very good as expected you know from what we've seen before it's even about 7 to 9 percent and the cut off of the data was sometime in and february so between february and today there is some maybe more information

available not to let you will not to change probably the date out of the outcome significantly however if you. may be sick wiring that the us doesn't it to get this data into the analysts so they know where you are not ised the data should be a common ground or a good read up on between that the s.m.b. and the company and probably. this mishap that happened here unfortunate for us the cynic up because of what happened in europe and so forth and now with this but this should not to be limited use the importance and to success fall outcome of the clinical trials in the united states always a pleasure talking to you thank you for your time thank you. well in the united states a curfew and emergency powers have been extended for up to 3 weeks in miami beach after those chaotic scenes we saw over the weekend thousands of people who went to

the tourist destination for college spring break posing what officials said was a serious coronavirus risk from miami and uganda has this report. miami beach has long been a destination for those looking to soak up the sun relax and enjoy the beaches that . every year students on their spring break typically gather along the city's iconic ocean drive in what's rarely a low key affair. over the weekend however celebrations tend to chaos in a city officials deemed the overwhelming crowds a coded risk police and swat teams in riot gear used pepper balls and sound cannons to disperse largely masculist revelers as an 8 pm curfew was enforced we've done everything we can to try to to mitigate the behavior that we're seeing but quite frankly i'm concerned that the behavior is getting out it's getting a little more from last to be able to handle the tactics used by police have been heavily criticized by local black leaders says the crowds were largely

african-american but the city's mayor says the risk from coburg incidents of violence and gun crime left him with little choice too many people are coming here right well. and too many people are coming here with bad intentions and we have seen images and videos. i've been out there a lot as my colleagues have been as well. although at times it is perfectly fine during the day especially at night there is no question that it becomes a place that feels a little bit out of control or a lot out of control because fuse forced businesses to close restricted access to the beach and may be extended into next month over the last 3 weeks over a 1000 people have been arrested more than half in from out of state the problem with all this is that florida's aggressively encouraged visitors to come here the state's governor rod to scientists openly brags that south florida is booming fueled in part by cheap flights and hotel rooms in

a state that's lost over $30000.00 people to cope at 19 what's happening here now is seen as a serious public health risk florida thrives on tourism and. for those looking to break free from a year of coup would restrictions there's disappointment it's a little ridiculous considering that now we are going to stay on the hotels on the strip and we can't even have been to paris back then and i stand. by that that's not what i expected at that it was going to be more fun these aren't the kind of scenes miami beach wants seen across the world but in the midst of a deadly pandemic officials say they'd rather not deal with another spike in cases gallacher al-jazeera miami beach florida. still in the u.s. and police in colorado have charged a suspect with 10 counts of murder accused of going on a shooting spree at a supermarket in boulder the victims include a police officer who was the 1st responder to arrive at the scene a 21 year old suspect was injured in a shootout with police and is now in hospital. we were.

caught her going. very good part of the card check in when i you prefer it would be time. good night good. night good. night for listening in their. repaired car and then there are 3 like. every place. in bangladesh at least 15 people have been killed and thousands left homeless after a major fire at a reading a refugee camp united nations says the damage is massive and devastating. reports from the. flames and panic in the largest refugee camp in the world more than a 1000000 drawing are refugees from me on my leave in cox's bazaar their shelters are flimsy and closely packed the fire started on monday afternoon and spread fast

. and 10000 brother i don't have any idea where my wife and children are or la where my wife and children i'm alone now i was unable to salvage anything from my home thousands of shelters were reportedly destroyed in the blaze at least 20000 people fled their lives as black smoke billowed over had people scramble to save their belongings and gather their families. i can't find my children are even my husband the name of one child these men mourn and are not and there is their being and my husband's name is on the monkey. it's not known what started the blaze one witnesses told a news agency agents france press that the fire spread faster after gas can sisters used for cooking exploded. you know that maybe more than a 1000 shelters have burnt down many people have died elderly people were unable to get out of the shelters. firefighters worked into the night most of them.

have been dying to put the fire out we are trying to extinguish the many burning guests feeling. most of the rohingya arrived in the camp in 2017 during a crackdown by the me and marc government that the un scoll textbook ethnic cleansing there are going to have suffered persecution and been denied citizenship by governments in myanmar for decades they are often called the world's largest group of stateless people in what is fire in the place that fled to for safety is a reminder often how difficult their lives are and how tenuous their survival can often be done to children dhaka. so have you on this news on the un human rights council slums sri lanka for human rights abuses against minorities reaction coming up from colombo. gaijin eastern astray which is being he's by some of the

worst floods in decades and support one of the biggest stars of moto g.p. he's going to miss the start of the new season virus got that story a little later. how very much a game of 2 hobson terms of the weather across the middle east at the moment it's fine and dry warm and sunny across southern parts of the region but plenty of cloud and plenty of snow too across northern parts with say temperatures in ankara struggling to get to 3 degrees celsius something like a 10 degree drop of the sort of values that we saw earlier on in the week was to moving in across the eastern side of the mediterranean sweeping across cyprus into lebanon see some of that western weather just easing across into northern parts of

syria and increasingly turning to snow in the process quite a brisk wind into southern areas of iraq northern parts of saudi arabia and that's going to get pushed over towards the gulf as we go on through thursday temperatures here in doha falling back around 5 degrees to high for around $29.00 celsius by thursday but at least it should be lossy dry and sunny old lifted just a sad always a possibility south of that fire and dry also hazy sunshine the hazy sunshine stretches down across the whole of africa where it is generally set for somalia for we got a few showers there just around liveth valley of cool so showers pushing up towards the gulf of guinea for south africa is generally fine and try cape town with a high of 30. for. a footballer to jump on the pioneers for a sport he lost the chance to play for his country club one

a legal battle that paved the way for a generation of brazilian players footballing legend eric cantona introduces after one scene of penalized by his club for his political beliefs he took power into his own hands and blazed the trail for players rights. on algis eve the u.s. is always of interest to people all around the world this has been going on for a number of those with tear gas being used to push the fight back. to report through an international perspective to try to explain your global audience why it's important how did it impact your life at the height of the storm to walk away with your high we didn't buy hey this is an important part of the world people pay attention to what we're going here now to do is very good at bringing the news to the world from here.

oh. from the news hour here at al-jazeera and these are the top stories israelis voting in their 4th election in 2 years in what is why the same as a referendum on batman on screen prime minister benjamin netanyahu campaign has been dominated by his corruption cases sort of the economy and of course the pandemic astra zeneca has promised to share its most recent clinical data with the u.s. agency overseeing vaccine trials this is after the agency expressed some concern that the trial results released on monday were based on out of date. the nation and the u.n. says at least 15 people have been killed $400.00 missing after a fire on monday to rethink a camp in bangladesh hundreds of tents were burned down leaving thousands of people without chills. u.s.

secretary of state says america's ready to rebuild the transatlantic nato military alliance after years of friction on to the presidency of donald trump and to the blinken made the pledge on his 1st visit to nato headquarters in brussels he warns the alliance is at a pivotal moment with threats around the world and also from climate change and promised to share any plans for withdrawing u.s. troops from afghanistan. will work with russia wanted advances our interests in one of those a strategic stability and we've always demonstrated that with the extension of the the new start agreement on the other hand we will stand resolutely against russian aggression and other actions the try to undermine our alliance and i think that our approach is exactly where we're nato is as well and similarly we have to and we will i believe make sure that nato is also focused on some of the challenges the china poses to the rules based international law international order that is part

of the 2030 vision is well off to washington now with our white house correspondent kimberly how can i can believe recessing relations seems to be the name of the game for this administration. as no question about of the u.s. president joe biden has instructed his team in the words of antony blinken this is really a reshaping of the relationship after 4 years of donald trump calling the nato relationship one that is obsolete that time saying that it was outdated and always pressing the members of nato to step up their financial commitments it caused enormous friction and so as a result this meeting about trying to repair that relationship and to reassure nervous allies so we know that this message that is being sent is one that this is a pivotal moment there is that opportunity here to rebuild this transatlantic partnership and the united states wanting to reassure the partners and allies that

they are committed when it comes to defense strategy of working collaboratively. how will the sort of reset not just with nato but with other countries and groups kambli how much of a hard sell is it for the for the bond administration or do you think that countries in groups can look at the u.s. and go well you know it was different on the last guy and we can we can move forward with this new person. given the fact that joe biden is a known it know the fact that he served in the u.s. senate he was at one point leading up before relations committee he was the vice president under obama and we're talking you know while to pull decades of government experience in public service and many of the allies in europe are well aware of his resume and so 2 there's this reassurance knowing that they have somebody that is not going to bring about the surprises that they were continually

experiencing under donald trump is something that seems to be working in joe biden's favor whether it be with respect to nato where there are concerns about some imminent deadlines of course the withdrawal of u.s. troops in afghanistan being the 1st one may 1st and people worried about that whether or not they'll be able to meet that commitment joe biden himself giving some questions about that so these are the things that are being discussed being reassured but again it's that resume of joe biden that maybe most valuable of all is they try to send that message thank you kimberly hall gets at the white house let's hear from brit brewin know who's the president of global situation room a consultancy group he told us the secretary of state and president biden well he thinks they'll have their work cut out for them. there's. an old phrase here in the western us that you can rebuild your friends after the cattle has already escaped

and that really i fear is what we're seeing right now happening with the us returning in trying to reassure its allies that the power of nato was in detour our nato was in no way united states was going to have the back of our european allies ever they were under threat there was a tall order right now tony blinken and joe biden as they head back into the alliance trying to not only reassure those allies but also say that your message to our active starts he is going to try and send a strong signal and yet if you will have the ball rolling in the right direction he's not going to be able to build back that confidence better on this trip but if he can generate some goodwill if you can generate. asians that will be critical who are buying the time to buy didn't ministration needs however one of the big

questions is how big is the united states when we come back are we going to have a significant decrease in international aid in defense spending for our allies and just in the amount of time that the president was able to spend overseas working on the. man miles military has accused the country's ousted leader of accepting bribes while in office an army spokesman made those allegations against on sun soon change during a televised media briefing here is of course detained after being deposed in the military coup last month more from florence lowy and qualify. the spokesman one of the 1st things he talked about was that the military expressed regret and they were sorry for the loss of lives and he said about 164 protesters had been killed during the protests and it's worth pointing out that this number is much smaller than the number given by an advocacy group that's been tracking death

sentence sentients since the coup assistance association for political prisoners says 260 more than 200 at least 261 people have been killed and more than 2300 people have been detained since the coup on the 1st of february now and then the myanmar military also went on to. in a way to try and shore up support for their case against the democratically elected leader aung sun suu kyi now if you remember she was charged with breaching import export laws by possessing an illegal walkie talkies and then after that she was subsequently charged with breaking covert 19 laws and gatherings and then about 10 days ago the military said she was guilty of corruption and now at this press conference they've shown video testimony by a former yangon chief minister saying that he had visited her and given her cash whenever needed and also accusing her of aseptic gifts of gold bars and silk. every

star father is the founder and coordinator of syria burma which is a network of ask the organizations and individuals which supports human rights in me in ma she told us the military press conference is a sign that foreign pressure on me mas leadership is working. despite paying a lot millions of dollars to push back on sanctions and to sell their illegal and the illegal coup they have it hasn't worked they are feeling the pressure they are feeling the pressure from the from the international community and they are trying to step back and and pretend that these killings of young people in the streets of the country the turning of a place near entire neighborhoods in yangon and other cities into urban or zones is something that is x. a dental this was an intentional crime against humanity in order to take control of

the country and we still cannot. despite all the charges though they might throw the book they might try a kitchen sink at also sujit in order to prevent her from being involved in politics in order to close the n.o.b. the people of the country are still resisting and they're not going to forget that this is an illegal home that came to power through an illegal state of emergency the u.n. human rights council has passed a resolution expressing serious concern over deteriorating human rights in sri lanka the text was proposed by britain germany and canada and it highlights increasing discrimination against tamil and muslim minorities but also calls for further gathering of evidence of alleged war crimes carried out by sri lanka's military back to the end of the civil war in 2009 because government opposes the resolution calling it all politically motivated let's get more from an elf amanda's in colombia tell us more about this fundamental and also i mean why is it happening

now. who have come of the government of sri lanka. once it came into power. basically because of the intention of rejoining basically co-sponsoring the resolution that they had signed up to with the united nations human rights council they said it was not in keeping with those what was good for the country and they had opted out so essentially this was almost a replacement resolution but as you mentioned by some of the cool countries and a number of countries that co-sponsored it aimed at looking at sort of enforcing and bringing in justice and accountability here in sri lanka so as much as the resolution echoed certain areas that were mapped out by the un human rights chief in her report to the council at the start of the sessions it is a somewhat watered down version all of the things that she had recommended the

chief had last full century targeted sanctions against senior members of the sri lankan administration. and also a range of areas that she had put down what we have seen though is the resolution that was passed a sensually calling on the office of the high commission to begin collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes essentially both committed by the sri lankan military allegedly as well as the tamil tigers whom they were fighting among thank you miguel fernandez for that update from colombo people in northwestern colombia cleaning up after heavy rain caused flooding across the region this was the scene in the town of the baber after a mudslide swept through early on monday least 185 homes and more than 50 businesses have been destroyed. i mean you've got the situation in australia where

authorities are warning they may need to order more people to evacuate as heavy rain continues across the east coast thousands in the state of new south wales have already been told to leave and hundreds have had to be rescued the worst in decades with natural disasters declared in several areas. as this report now from town west of sydney unrelenting rain hits already flooded regions in australia's east some towns in the state of new south wales now resemble islands caught off by rising floodwaters and surrounded by debris those who didn't leave the stranded with no way out including in peak town western sydney pulls them out left in time but has been watching as floodwaters rise around his home fencing tools and cars already lost relays it's an absolute disaster i'm not kidding i don't have. next door is a building company underwater its owner already counting the costs. of

the 2nd year but i feel pretty upset for ourselves and everybody else i suppose. the scale of this unfolding crisis is enormous thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes may be rescued by boat or helicopter and areas declared natural disaster zones. need largest dam will likely spillover for days threatening highly populated areas people using boats and cars i aks to rescue animals and salvage anything they can from the floodwaters the cleanup will be immense and the damage bill is expected to tip into the billions of dollars. right now the focus is on ensuring people and animals a safe rain is forecast to ease in the coming days that the flood threat is expected to remain in the strong warning when he paid for his place continue to be

patient because even when the rain stops in some of these coastal communities the rivers will keep rising people living in lawyer lying areas of new south wales are no strangers to floods but this one many say is unlike anything they've seen gauge al-jazeera town. officials have started to release preliminary results for the republic of congo's presidential election a vote that was marred by concerns over transparency. is widely expected to extend his 36 years in power his mark and web browser with the latest not just transparency issues malcolm we shouldn't forget the untimely death of an opposition candidate as well what sort of pictures coming out now. right now that official from the electoral commission is on state television reading results district by district the internet be switched off here early hours of sunday that was polling

day so that's the only way that information can be disseminated the moment is through the state broadcaster now in almost all of the areas that interesting result very fast to ingress there is being announced as the winner and give the past the opposition candidate who died in being a 2nd place now this is something that. supporters certainly will be very skeptical about there are many of them you know in areas in the poorer suburbs around the city people who have known anyone who was supporting the ruling party people you know entire communities voting for the opposition they're going to be very skeptical about being told that the ruling party has in fact won and his death also he reportedly died of. if you travel the world towards the end of last week you missed the final rally that was meant to be here in the capitol grounds of ill on friday he traveled to paris seeking medical treatment center a dramatic video message on

a hospital bed with an oxygen mask saying it was fighting with death then the death was announced early on monday morning the constitution says that if a presidential candidate dies during the electoral process the election should be cancelled there has to be run by the ruling party been arguing that because he died after the vote before the result that doesn't apply. there is no surprises that he's being announced the winner the everyone expected that vital all the major complaints of irregularities with him being given more than 50 percent in all areas would mean that there isn't even going to be a 2nd runoff and that is malcolm webb in branson thank you malcolm a scottish parliamentary committee says the 1st minister nicola sturgeon misled it over her handling of sexual misconduct complaints against her predecessor this is a day after an independent inquiry cleared her of knowingly misleading the scottish parliament sturgeon faces

a vote of no confidence table by opposition conservatives she says she is confident that the parliament will back to the us where more than 15000 migrant children are in custody a 3rd of them held under the jail like conditions in border patrol facilities and that's according to the federal government's own records their children who fled violence and poverty in central america and travel to the us to seek asylum without their parents or guardians the u.s. southern border is now on track to shatter all previous records of arrivals. has more on the demonstrations response. the u.s. government claims these are not detention centers but photos taken from inside u.s. border patrol facilities have stirred and outcry thousands of teenagers and younger children crowded into pens and sleeping on floors held in these conditions for more than 5 days in violation of a court order requiring they be moved to more child friendly shelters within 72

hours but was at the national center so i guess they are. guarded by. officers the u.s. homeland security secretary and a contingent of senators toured a border patrol facility holding children friday media were barred from entering officials said due to covert concerns but we are safely processing the children who do come to our border we strongly urge in the message is clear not to do so now under the trump administration thousands of migrant children who arrived at the u.s. border had been expelled to mexico without seeing an immigration judge president joe biden ended the practice calling it inhumane ok now immigration officials report more than 9000 unaccompanied children entering the u.s. in february and since then it's been an average of 500 more

a day children presenting at our border who are fleeing violence or fleeing prosecution who are fleeing terrible situations is not a crisis. in an effort to expedite moving the miners to better conditions the biden administration has deployed fema the government agency that handles disasters to turn the dallas convention center into an emergency shelter for 2000 children 3 other temporary shelters are in operation or being planned they. they're migrant children white and nother 30 some days but with access to school and recreation until the government places them with a u.s. sponsor a process of waiting for sponsorship should be short and you know more resources they're going to also want the way they should be putting an ace in the care of nonprofits and faith based organizations and i'm by no means what about all these

about have come up before district the white house says it's sending messages to central american countries for their youth not to come that includes $17000.00 ads on the radio social media and television it's unclear how many children are listening in their home countries what's obvious is that their numbers at the u.s. border continue to grow hi joe castro al-jazeera washington sport is coming up to you on this news hour as international teams try to navigate the global pandemic to prepare for the latest round of world cup the qualify as far as you're about to.

the.

as promised barr is here with your sport thanks so much come on beating their opponents isn't the only challenge facing teams in the latest round of world cup qualifiers just about every national side is feeling the effects of the crown of virus pandemic of world's top ranked team belgium are at home to wales and their striker wrong will kako place for the italian club inter milan which recently suffered a covert 19 outbreak alert caco has tested negative and was able to join up with his belgian teammates on monday. but evelyn's team arrived for their latest training session in traditional dutch side they face turkey an essential on wednesday this month schedule qualifiers in south america were called off and most matches in asia have been postponed players in europe are having to work their way

around travel restrictions to join up with their national teams byron munich had initially refused to release robert lewandowsky for poland's trip to england but it's been confirmed he won't need to quarantine for 2 weeks upon returning to germany so now he's allowed to go or to go have moved their home game against. italy had it gone ahead in portugal some players would have faced a quarantine issues and there's been controversy in france where the government did a last minute u. turn and is now allowing players to travel outside of the european union for matches and we've been speaking to international football writer gavin hamilton who says governing bodies are under pressure to make sure the qualifiers take place. it's up to fit to organize the qualifiers and up to the confederations to organize them in each region and they need to get them done on time in order to host the look up in in 2022 so there's a lot of pressure feature but there are international dates in place the calendar

is in place and dates are set aside for the games but there are individual countries who having problems with players being released once it's clear that the countries in the individual federations are following procedures about testing and comes up portugal are moving going then there are ways around the problems and i think people are corporates and i think clubs are right to to to to be concerned about the players they pay the players wages their employees and they're concerned about their their their future safety so clubs are right to be concerned but i think the confederation's and the federal individual for their actions are acting properly as well i think there's a use to you know the international calendar takes place in a very short space of time within the the wider football calendar supplies that are used to to to to to international travel and to time travelling in tight sort of spaces and tight tight calendars suddenly pleasure to concerned and you know let's face it they do travel 1st class and travel in quite some luxury so i don't think

it's a particular poem but obviously there are their problems it's associated with international travel and international football. is possibly contributing to the transfer of the virus and that is a concern for everybody. so as any behavior that has been training with this weight in team for the 1st time since his decision to come out of international retirement it would have been that played for his country at the european championships in 2016 on the 39 year old ac milan striker has decided to have another shot at qualifying for the world cup sweden played georgia on thursday. we do swerd see can push players but for me. to look at team how we behave and he want to win you know for any price so he's so hard worker on and off the pitch he's you know inspiring the young athletes i think and being now in the houston rockets have ended their 20 game losing streak with a win over the trauma raptors the rockets hadn't won a game since early february but on monday all 5 houston starters scored in double

figures john wall scored a triple double to finish with 19 points christian would also had 19 helping houston win at $117.00 to $99.00 he says scared was tied for the 9th worst and be a history. 6 time moto g.p. champion marc marc has will miss the 1st 2 races of the year as he recovers from injury the 28 year old has undergone 3 surgeries since breaking his arm in a crash at the start of last season doctors say he may be able to resume racing in mid april for the grand prix in portugal the season starts in cats are on sunday fresh from winning the players' championship golf world number 2 justin thomas has set asides on competing at the tokyo olympics american is next in action at the w g c match play event which starts on wednesday in texas i'm ecstatic to have the opportunity to do so if the olympics hope to happen and i hope i qualify because i

think that would be one of the coolest honors that. that i've ever had it's something you don't have a cigarette to do too often and it's probably the only. one of the only tournaments that i would brag about playing in there or qualifying for the fact that i would be able to play you know for team usa in the olympics so i would be honored too and i hope i get the opportunity. thousands of people in el salvador have attended the funeral of international surfer catherine diaz the 22 year old was killed by lightning as she entered the water for a training session at a beach near the capital san salvador dares was hoping to make the team for the tokyo olympics were surfing is included for the 1st time. ok and that is all your support for now back to you. will see far again next tuesday when she is that 1800 hours g.m.t. 2 hours away in the meantime we're back with more news right after the break we're

also waiting to hear from the secretary general of nato you installed but he's due to speak in the next hour or so you know moments. meets the minimum assists the turkish couple and their daughter decide to quit the iraq race hoping to cut ties with us. let's just throw everything away outers or world expose the simple living movement aimed at reducing personal consumption

credit and clock times i hope to be up here as a result of a simple life on al-jazeera. it's one of the world's most powerful and dangerous criminal enterprises central to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people and behind the deaths of many more exceptional access to some of its key players reveals the in a what kings of an organization telling the name to many as the blood alliance inside this in a low a cartel part 2 of a 2 part investigation people in power on al-jazeera. revealing eco friendly solutions to comeback threats to our planet on al-jazeera.

israel's 4 for election in 2 years and what is seen as a referendum on prime minister netanyahu just a few hours left now to the polls close. but again i'm come out santa maria here and with the world news from al-jazeera now after years of friction on the president of the united states pleasures to revitalize its cooperation with nato. please charge a 20.