gouri. guha. the. israel's 4th election in 2 years and what is actually 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 in doha with the world news from al-jazeera now after years of friction on the president donald trump the united states pleasures to revitalize its cooperation with nato. please charge a 21 year old man

a 10 counts of murder after a supermarket shooting rampage in the u.s. state of colorado but they still don't have a motive and more bad news for astra zeneca is coping 19 back seen as a federal health agency in the u.s. raises concerns over possibly outdated and incomplete data. but everyone is running the back of the polls for the 4th time in 2 years deciding on whether benjamin netanyahu success in getting people vaccinated can overshadow his corruption trial and maybe give him a parliamentary majority he is the 1st sitting prime minister though to be indicted and is facing 3 trials we'll start with this report natasha going to him in west jerusalem. is really is have been going through a 2 year cycle of election government formation collapse and to repeat in this 4th cycle there is little suspense prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his

occlude party are expected to get the most votes even though more than half of his release recently polled want him out we are not looking for your ideology you are 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 there was no 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 the house and i'm with that report more with her in a moment she's at the yes the tea party headquarters in tel aviv but 1st a hurry for sit at benjamin netanyahu could party edge to in west jerusalem i am interested harry and natasha referenced it in her report the issue of coronavirus the fact that they have been so many protests in the past against prime minister netanyahu is handling but then he's also managed to get

a lot of the population vaccinated. that's right i mean that the cove in 1900 it was something that benjamin netanyahu for a long time didn't really want to talk about because of the criticism that was coming his way in terms of the decisions about lockdowns about the airport closures about the kind of economic aid that was being provided to businesses that had been hit that it did improve but more importantly he has brought about this it pretty extraordinary vaccination campaign both through appealing to the chief executive of pfizer directly saying that israel would be a testing ground for the pfizer vaccine getting millions of millions of doses into the country and then the countries very well put together digitized health system then rolling it out and giving the kind of data that pfizer wanted in return and so now israel has this extraordinarily high level of vaccination and the numbers in terms of hospitalizations in terms of cases are all trending down to the time when

it's 41 days now since israel came out of the last lockdown in the economy is to all intents and purposes open again people are at restaurants people are at bars they're going out and mixing and the numbers have remained down so there is this sense of renewed freedom but the key question is whether it will translate into a real sense of gratitude to benjamin netanyahu that's going to be felt at the polls a lot of people made their mind up about benjamin netanyahu a long time ago and we've seen very similar results in each of the previous 3 elections when the key question at stake is do you want benjamin netanyahu to continue as prime minister of israel ok that's harry falls said that they could party h.q. not going to aim at yes at headquarters in tel aviv what's the feeling there given that the yes. it is seen as things this time probably the most serious challenger to prime minister netanyahu. no

question you're lucky that is the man to watch in this 4th the election cycle he is the chairman of a t.v. it's called this is the future of party and we need to look at his background you can understand why he has a strong following his party is expected to be the 2nd largest vote getter this evening but pollsters and analysts alike if they are to be believed do not see a path forward for now you're looking to form a government a little bit more about the left he had he is a former journalist a former finance minister in 2019 he along with 3 military generals launched the blue and white party right party and its military because in 2019 it formed a coalition government with netanyahu and as you can see the coalition has collapsed splintering right into several groups so it'll be interesting to see

just how large of a vote that they'll be able to get but again the conventional wisdom is that they will not be able to get enough votes to cobble together a coalition however weak but what makes lapita a little bit different from netanyahu and some of the other party leaders is that his time as a journalist has certainly given him a t.v. personality and certainly given him. why would you say following in the israeli media he does not have that kind of stiff military background and that matters in israeli politics when you consider that top of mind usually for israelis is the security issue but he in terms of his politics he does not believe in a comprehensive peace plan with the palestinians he does believe in a 2 state solution but he says that the large settlements will always need to

remain under israeli control and one of his. major agenda items is and it's a controversial one is that he believes that ultra orthodox jewish that must serve in the military or in some kind of national civil service as you can imagine that is anathema to the altar orthodox community and that base by the way is quite devoted to netanyahu nonetheless so being assured that that's not a base that he needs and yes a team of reporting to court anyway. that's not going to him in tel aviv thank you and more with natasha and harry for such a little late to. brussels tonight a 2nd today no yen stoltenberg has just given a an address there after meeting at u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken and is now taking questions of a listen. my question is on nato 2030 now has 2 minutes to meet. and a little over a month to discuss a plan to know how it's evolved over that time one of the most important things to

have been not at all taken away from your original suggestions today we had the bit of positive exchange all nato 2030. i sensed is broad agreement we need a bold forward looking ambitious agenda to be agreed when the nato leaders meet later on this year to address all the challenges we face us allies in the more competitive global world and therefore i welcome. the good and constructive discussion we had today i also welcome the message that. support the idea that we need to address many different issues at the same time and that's exactly what to do in the nato 2030 initiative this is about how to strengthen our unity with more political consultations but also strengthening our deterrence on the fence because our unity derives from our promise to protect and

defend the childer it's about broadening the security agenda just an issues like receive arrival infrastructure telecommunications. and older critical infrastructure it's about technology maintaining our techno technological edge and also making sure that we strengthen the cooperation with india lines the transatlantic a cooperation on technology it's about taking into account the. consequences of climate change from security and make sure that nato is responding all issues related to climate change and security and then it is about building new partnerships with partners in our neighborhood. training capacity building but also building partnerships with like minded countries for instance in the asia pacific certainly on the sea lion south korea and japan they are partners bodach to

strengthen our partnership to to to stand up for the rule space order and also address the consequences of the rise of china. is ruled against speaking in brussels really looking ahead there as the general southam about neda's 2030 vision. i think perhaps more pertinent was what was said early in the time i took to complete how could about him please our white house correspondent you know ken lay that earlier it was the secretary of state and lincoln who was speaking with us back in fact we've got a little clip from him though he will have a listen i will talk to you after that. will work with russia wanted advances our interests and 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 that 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 as well so kimberly the short story basically the u.s. is trying to repair what's happened in the last 4 years on the don't trust and say look you can trust us now there's going to be no more surprises coming. yeah absolutely after 4 years of unpredictability the word or phrasing that we've heard not just there from the secretary of state or not just the head of nato but others as well is rules based in other words an international order that has a structure not seen when the united states was headed by commander in chief donald trump and so this is what the biden administration is trying to convey that the transatlantic partnership remains intact that the posture forward for the united states is to work collaboratively when it comes to defense strategy to consult to

not work unilaterally with an america 1st agenda so this is the message that seems to be being sent and it appears to be well received as we before we dipped into that press conference there i was listening in and it seemed from the statements being made that it was very clear that this is something that is being a braced with an eagerness to move forward do you think it is a tough sell for the buy been ministration it altered to reset relations or can they distinguish enough between the previous administration and the new one. it appears that from the statements that have just been made that there was an eagerness to hear this message and a tone of relief if anything that there was a predictability in nature that they know with joe biden that they're going to get given his lengthy career in public service and there is an imminent issue to be

tackled with respect to afghanistan in fact we just heard from the nato leader there the fact that they discussed this and that they believe that they can work collaboratively on a solution that will be peace based in other words the message being sent by the united states and the message that is also being projected from the nato members is that they want to work together there are concerns that this needs to be rooted in a peace process that right now there are some fear is not going as planned and of course the united states hoping for a may 1st withdraw all of their soldiers nato has about 10000 there and we just heard from the head of nato just now that they have no final decision on their force posture so it appears this is a big issue that is lingering one that we know is going to be addressed however with the united states working firmly with its partners and allies kimberly how could a white house correspondent thank you for that but stay in the u.s.

police in colorado have charged a 21 year old with 10 counts of murder is accused of going on a shooting spree at a supermarket in boulder colorado the victims include a police officer and was a 1st responder to arrive at the scene the suspect himself was injured in a shootout with police and is now in hospital but the f.b.i. say they're still working to actually establish a motive we mourn those who fell as a state and we mourn them as a nation this has been a painful year. and we sit here once again surrounded by seemingly incomprehensible senseless loss this is a pain that we need to sit with we can't let ourselves ever become numb to the pain because we simply can't let this be accepted as anything close to a normal occurrence evans got a weather update actually now we're going on the story for that vice president come to harris surprising eric talley who is the officer killed in the line of duty it's

trying to. tell i'm. going to get a living here it's. not about him resign. from harming his duty. and. great courage and heroism. 7 children understand. all right now everton's got a check on the weather coming up and then no days off france's president is promising to speed up the covert 19 banks nation dry and why the philippines says it's being provoked by chinese boats which it spotted in the south china saying. it's time for the perfect gentlemen. sponsored point qatar airways.

have a last few days we have seen it on a dry across the good parts of east asia a nice area of high pressure keeping things settled and sunny there's a high there just off the coast of japan and is going to get squeezed a little further east which is because through the next couple days i'm afraid the weather will go downhill follow this little area clear out into central and southern parts of china some west of weather spilling off the east coast of china then and that's going to be the one that just not is there high a little further east which as we go on into thursday some wet weather coming in across q shoot across honshu eventually will see some wet weather making its way towards toke a bit too bad in terms of temperatures still getting up to 21 celsius 70 in found similar temperatures there for beijing the quality on the slide over the next couple of days you can see for much of china it will be dry and sunny joy to across a good part of china where we are pushing quite a few showers into vietnam now usual rashness showers across

a good part of the philippines places seeing the heaviest showers i suspect over the next few days those showers running over towards k.l. which is pretty close to the equator after all those showers run across into a little bit of wet weather because the eastern side of the country westerly disturbances for northern parts of india and pakistan. and ways. for afghans with ties to international organizations. this rate has never been greater. left exposed by the withdrawal of foreign troops . may be the only path to safety. but alienation makes home feel every further away. part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera.

with al-jazeera these are the top stories this hour israelis voting in there for full action in 2 years is widely seen as a referendum on prime minister benjamin netanyahu a campaign has been dominated by his corruption cases as well as the economy and the pandemic. the u.s. secretary of states in brussels meeting with nato chief. pledged to strengthen the alliance with the bloc during his 1st visit to nature at this time police in colorado have charged a 21 year old 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.

astra zeneca has promised to share its most up to date clinical data with the u.s. agency which is overseeing vaccine trials this is after the d.s.p. the data and safety board expressed some concern that the clinical trial results published on monday may be based on out of date information astra zeneca said the findings which show an efficacy rate of 79 percent but based on data up to february the 7th to the white house's top health official says the vaccine is still likely to be fine they're just concerned about how the company presented some of the data the fact is this is very likely a very good vaccine in this kind of thing does as you say do nothing but really care some doubts 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 that in baba reporting from london now he says doctor found she does not want to alarm people about the astra zeneca vaccine. 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's admitting that there could be potential 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 covering 1000 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 the toll in terms of the numbers of people who have died from cough it officially over 125000 but also in terms of the ongoing affects of long covered and of course on the economy as people wonder when life will begin to get back to normal. france's president has vowed to speed up the country's vaccination program saying there will be no weekends or days off the government's

been criticized for its slow roll outs but emanuel macron promise all people over $75.00 would get a vaccine appointment in the coming weeks and he said the vaccine center staffing would be boosted by firefighters retired doctors and medical students no look at that the heart of the battle in the coming weeks and months will leave it as a nation morning noon and night i will be mobilized the government will be mobilized and i know that all the medical staff across france will be mobilized in this fight. ethiopia's prime minister has confirmed for the 1st time that eritrean troops entered the northern territory region during the recent conflict and said the soldiers entered out of fear they would be attacked by to ground forces he added eritrea had promised to leave the area when the ethiopian forces were able to control the border soldiers though been accused of atrocities by rights groups we started to get preliminary results for the republic of congo's presidential election a vote that was marred by concerns over transparency denis is widely expected to

extend his 36 years in power malcolm webb in brazzaville with more on this i mean how does that work i know that got to count the numbers but we have to take into account that the main opposition candidates died after the vote as well. yeah that's just one of the many things that cause a bill to ask very many different quest very many questions about this election indeed official reading out results district by district on the state broadcaster at the moment the internet has been switched off since the early hours of sunday sunday was polling day. and the national book the only way that they can disseminate any information at the moment now in some areas. is being. they're saying that he has more than 80 or more than 90 percent of the vote certainly opposition are going to find that hard to believe in him in the back

congo area of the city where we were on polling day everyone now we spoke to support the opposition leader who died that day the result is that he was neck and neck about 48 percent each for him and to. link there unfortunately with malcolm where but he's reporting on those preliminary results coming out of the elections in brazzaville congo should say now that military has accused the country's are still leader of accepting bribes while in office an army spokesman made those allegations against unsung suchi during a televised media briefing she was of course detained after being deposed in the military coup last month the un human rights council passed a resolution expressing serious concern over deteriorating human rights in sri lanka the text was proposed by britain germany and canada highlights increasing

discrimination against both tamil and muslim minorities and also calls for further gathering of evidence over any war crimes carried out by sri lanka's military at the end of the civil war in 2009 sri lanka's government over poses the resolution and calls it politically motivated. the u.s. says it stands by the philippines in its maritime dispute with china the philippines is urging beijing to recall more than 200 boats that it said were spotted near the islands in the south china sea a presence is also raising concerns about possible conflicts over fishing rights as germans are undergoing reports from manila the philippine defense chief calls their deployment a provocative action and a violation of the country's maritime rights the military released photos of chinese ships mord at whitson reef it says the vessels are well within the exclusive economic zone of the philippines the country has lodged a diplomatic protest against china the chinese embassy says these vessels were not

part of any maritime militia but fishing boats taking shelter jurong rough seas the philippine military has rejected that explanation whitson reef is claimed by the philippines china and vietnam it is that the eastern most part of the spread lease group of islands there are very large. and the number of. these militia vessels are especially bizarre and for the greater purpose they're employed and that's basically. what i said in the b.b. to make it appear nonmilitary but actually it's completely under the control of the military. in china they look like mission best but the holes are. buried. in their design or

ramming into any 16 the philippines filed a landmark case against china at the hague the ruling declared china's 9 deaths claim as invalid a decision china rejects the spite international condemnation china continues its reclamation and expansion of many areas in the south china sea setting up maritime patrols and airships on disputed islands and reefs tension has been rising in the area for years. philippine president through the go to to has refused to assert the landmark ruling and taken a softer approach to dealing with beijing but this critics say he's ilda too often and too much in exchange for promises of grants and projects that remain largely unfulfilled the presence of a chinese armada also means that the philippines stand to lose another critical fishing ground this is similar to what happened in 2012 when china took control of

scarborough seoul and in the region where one 3rd of the global trade passes through each year there is little doubt that the south china sea will be the next security flashpoints. dogon al-jazeera in manila. now scott a parliamentary committee says the 1st minister nicholas mr nicholas seargent misled it over the handling of sexual misconduct complaints against her previous s.-a this is a day after an independent inquiry cleared her of knowingly misleading the scottish parliament. and we are actually just hearing that nicolas sturgeon survived that vote of no confidence which had been tabled by the opposition candidate so cleared by the independent inquiry yesterday and now surviving the vote of no confidence before it is in australia a warning they may need to order more people to evacuate as heavy rains sweep through the east coast thousands of already been told to leave their homes and hundreds of been rescued in the state of new south wales the worst flooding in

decades with natural disasters declared in several areas emergency services say as many as 54000 people could be displaced finally thousands of people are travelling to witness an erupting volcano in iceland of practice the name of this the fire going to. which is just 30 kilometers from the capital reykjavik started erupting on friday which was the 1st in that region about 900 years some people believe it or not seeing grilling hot dogs and marshmallows over the volcanoes smoldering embers. half past the hour on al-jazeera these are the headlines israelis are voting in their 4th election in 2 years in what is widely seen as a referendum on prime minister benjamin netanyahu it is a campaign that has been dominated.