it's. bold and i'm told stories from asia and the pacific on al-jazeera. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu claims victory even though no clear winner emerges in the nation's 4th election in 2 years. but i'm daryn jordan this is our desire in life and also coming up. serious brazilians bang pots and pans to vent their anger against president both scenarios as coded 19 daily deaths past 3000 for the 1st time. this is not it

should not be a partisan issue this is an american issue that will save lives american life president joe biden calls and i divided congress to act on gun control after america's 2nd mass shooting in less than a week. and concerns about press freedoms in hong kong a journalist on trial for exposing delayed police response to a mob attack on for testing. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is touting a great victory in the nation's 4th election in 2 years that's despite exit polls suggesting there is no clear winner that show netanyahu likud party has won between 31 and 33 seats are a force that reports now from western. at its start benjamin netanyahu election campaign was all about bringing israel back to life through 1000 vaccines by the

time it finished the message it boiled down to one phrase 2 more seats repeatedly telling his supporters he was within touching distance of the 61 needed 3 majority coalition welcomes up well the good old bill it's the largest gap between 2 leading parties in israel in the last dozen years there is a large majority within the people of israel and with this but you already in the knesset who believe in our principles if possible and needed to set up a stable government in israel a fair. government i reach out to all members of the cabinet believe in these principles i won't rule out anyone i expect them to do the same. bennett was styling himself as a netanyahu alternative the question now is whether his yamuna parties 7 or 8 seats will be enough to get netanyahu over the finish line there's no reason why we should go to fit election. they must come to nothing we want to be part of the government we accept the results of this. and form a right of center a government that could aggressively pursue the opportunities we have ahead of us

earlier election day itself had been hot and hazy a running tally of ballots cast suggesting the lowest turnout in years netanyahu crisscrossed the country to squeeze out every last vote warning his core voters that turnout was particularly bad in his likud strongholds i. do. but it was in palestinian israeli areas where the floor seemed most severe the mainly arab joint list with 15 seats in the previous parliament is projected now to have as few as 8 after splitting into the smaller group failing to get into the parliament at all. meanwhile the far right religious zionist alliance promoted by netanyahu and featuring an advocate of removing disloyal arabs from the country outperformed expectations opposition leader yeah i love pete says relying on their seats would create a homophobic racist illiberal government and one that would shield netanyahu from his corruption trial i mean. i think we can have

a good reason to be proud of the way we handled ourselves and even a bigger reason for the result we brought at the moment and he doesn't have 61 seat but the change blocked. the exit polls have already changed several times since the 1st release coronavirus voting and counting protocols could delay the official count until friday benjamin netanyahu has claimed victory before only to have it dashed away this time he does have some options. the campaign to try to peel away defectors from other right wing parties israelis in 4 elections now have delivered almost identical verdicts and again it's over to the political dealmakers to try to find a way out of the gridlock. here of west jerusalem. where the yousef is a member of the palestine liberation organization he says israeli voters choice for the extreme right what's the prospect for peace. the moment it is clear that the most extreme and the extreme right and those who deny the rights of the palestinian

people and try to write off the palestinian cause the ones who are winning these elections therefore i don't think there is a chance for peace in this region in the presence of those parties who deny the rights of the palestinian people so let's take a closer look at israel's main political forces binyamin netanyahu as we could party have the largest share of seats in the knesset leading the opposition as former journalist year limpid centrist yes party it's promoting good governance capitalizing on netanyahu is corruption trials the right wing you mean a party headed by former education and defense minister naftali bennett has criticised the prime minister's handling of the pandemic a new hope made up of former likud politicians made its electoral debut the party leader gideon has positioned himself as even further to the right of netanyahu but benny gantz netanyahu is main challenger and 3 previous elections faces political extinction supporters have abandoned his blue and white party since he joined the netanyahu led coalition last year where stephen souness's

a professor of politics at the university of san francisco he thinks a 5th consecutive election is quite possible because of the divisions within the right. in tears once again despite many premature obituaries that netanyahu will somehow be able to cobble together a working coalition and it's just quite quite amazing that to see israel. for its 1st 30 years of existence was overwhelmingly controlled by a center left coalition modeled itself after the social democratic parties in western europe it is so firmly in the hands of such a right wing and corrupt a political figure as netanyahu and he is already the longest serving prime minister in the country's history and looks like it may be still longer do the fact that once again the knesset i was coming on top it's still a long distance from an absolute $61.00 seat majority that this is going to be

another yet another. kind of shaky coalition government and we may once again see people going back to the polls because i mean that their overall right we're dressed in israel is very strong and very concerning you know the you know the labor party i mentioned which dominate israel for years only got like they're only going to get 7 seats but within the right there are such divisions both among those who are you know you see nothing out who's a very corrupt figure but also among those of the most extreme elements and those who might be a tad more moderate. brazil has recalled its highest day the number of coronavirus deaths since the beginning of the pandemic more than 3200 people died from covered 9000 on tuesday brazil's

been reporting the world's highest any number of deaths for weeks doctors believe a local variant of the virus is causing a rise in infections and deaths hospitals are pushed to breaking point and supplies of medical oxygen are running out. on brazilians a fear of the government's response to the pandemic cross the country people banging pots and pans to show their anger against president both tomorrow during his short address on television he's long been opposed to lockdowns on last monday citing concerns over the impact on the economy. should rule the virus has a rifle and it is being confronted by us and it will soon pass our life must go on and jobs should be kept the life lee who defended should be kicked should return to a mobile so let's bring in dr jr poncy he is an epidemiologist and joins us via skype from sao paolo jr this is a grim new record for brazil isn't it passing the 3000 death toll in one day how much is this being fueled by a pandemic that's totally out of control in the country and

a government that's failed at every step of the way yes and i know it is a very sad time for brazilians we are seeing a call at some of the health system all throughout the country all of this happening at the same time as we have a new variant of p one being disseminated across the country we 3 didn't mean ologist and data scientists as a whole have been predicting that something was not done in time we would see increase in numbers but we are of course very saddened to see those predictions come true we have reached as was said in the piece over 3000 deaths 30 deaths for the 1st time in the band that make and a 12 percent increase from the last record which was last tuesday tuesday of last week so we are now bracing ourselves for what might be the hardest week in the entire and demick yeah it's a total time hoot in all this comes on the same day that president both tomorrow

installed his new health minister the 4th of the pandemic this is a poison chalice if there was one what are the challenges now just briefly that face the new minister. well the new minister arrives at a time when we have course record breaking numbers but we also have a shortage of oxygen supplies as well as the vaccines the president during his address to the nation tonight mentioned that he had secured vaccines that want to riot until the end of the year but the sex scenes are of course coming later than in other countries and we are now faced with a situation where we have people dying and there's not enough vaccines at this time to be delivered to to everyone most of those contracts will start being delivered in the coming months but have higher numbers of vaccines to be delivered in the 2nd semester so the new minister to foreign minister as you well pointed out will have

to face the challenge of an uncontrolled transmission and a lack of vaccines and the president that doesn't believe in lock down measures and given the celtic picture that you just painted who is not surprising then that brazil has been struggling as you say with its vaccination rollout what impact is that likely to have on overall numbers going forward particularly now with a more highly contagious variant spreading across the country. well the preliminary data on protection for this very end for the vaccines that we have members of are so far very good so we really hope that when the data is consolidated it will find out that this new variant. of the vaccines will provide protection against this new variant but so far the country has vaccinated most of us health professionals and is now vaccinating the elderly with different age brackets every week but we have

reached 75 year old 70 year olds in some cities but that's not nearly as especially because they're seeing that dense area and attacks younger people with higher severity so it's not enough to vaccinate the elderly we have to vaccinate everybody as we just got just a final thought to you before you go i mean many critics say that bolton are a has use the pandemic as a political weapon telling brazilians to stop whining and saying the damage to the economy is worse than the virus itself how much responsibility then does he carry that this terrible death toll on what happens now going forward just briefly well he carries a lot of responsibility to be to be very honest he not only diminished and. didn't respect the demick as it should have but he also stimulated people and he trying to push unproven into yours and he still says that mask some work and that

the lock down won't make the virus go away so he's very much responsible for the situation we're in now dr ponce thank you very much indeed for talking to us thank you and your. well staying in brazil the supreme court has ruled that former president luis inacio lula da silva was not treated impartially in a series of corruption investigations just as common to see it reversed a position to tip the court's 5 judge panel in lewis' favor that means the court is likely to throw out evidence in corruption cases against him strengthening his potential candidacy for next year's election against president jabil tomorrow at noon as lawyers have long argued that former judge jim moret was not impartial and overseeing the investigation. reports from rio de janeiro. this isn't represents a victory for former president lula da silva and paves the way for his candidacy in the 2022 presidential elections he now can run against

a far right president right. now lou i was a front runner in the 28 team presidential elections but he was banned from running because he was tried and convicted and imprisoned by a judge. and the supreme court now says has been saying all along that he the trial was not fair because the judge was. biased he did not act impartially and rumor has been saying this because morrow after the trial went on to become president. justice minister so in a certain way now is feeling vindicated now this does not mean that he is free of all corruption charges there are still corruption charges against him what this means is that this particular trial was not fair. in the united states senate democrats are planning a vote on expanded gun control measures off of the nation's 2nd the shooting in

a week on monday 10 people including a police officer that was shot dead in boulder colorado president biden has called for bipartisan action on gun control but republicans pushing back mike hanna has more from washington d.c. flags that government buildings once again fly at half staff on the president's orders just as they did a week ago following a mash in atlanta among the 10 killed in boulder colorado was a 51 year old police officer eric talley his fellow officers and citizens paid tribute to his body was taken to the morgue and violence is a pandemic within a pandemic we know about 50000000 guns were sold in the last year many of them to people who live in states that don't require a background check or training or permit. and the president has called for a bipartisan push to institute stronger gun controls we can ban assault weapons and

high capacity magazines in this country once again i got that done when i was a senator it passed it was law for the longest time and brought down these mass killings we should do it again 2 bulls making it more difficult to buy a gun have been passed in the house of representatives in recent weeks but they are likely to face strong opposition when brought to the senate for years democrats have pushed for action to stop this killing with commonsense reform that will save lives for years we've been blocked by republican leaders and their special interests now we can act and we will the divisions remained on sharp display in the senate judiciary committee session on gun control should chill before the shootings in recent days thoughts and prayers are not enough. and yet thoughts and prayers is all we have heard from my colleagues on the other side

thoughts and prayers must lead to action i agree it is time for us to do something and every time there's a shooting we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders the legislation that's been passed in the house falls far short of the president's call for a ban on automatic weapons and high capacity magazines it proposes extending the background check period from 3 to 10 days get given rid of this cruel republican opposition to any form of gun control even the moderate measure is unlikely to get the 60 votes needed in the senate to becomes law since mike hanna al-jazeera washington. time for a short break here al-jazeera when we come back ethiopia's prime minister confirms

what i've long been claimed every train soldiers were going to grade when the government offensive that. will bring you the latest on the republic of congo's election on the president's bid to extend his 36 years in power stay with us. however say some rather stormy weather into central parts of the u.s. this massive cloud has been a rolling away hip to sing some very heavy rain withdrawing in the way in the storm the south across the deep south here just pushing up out of the gulf of mexico so this warm moist air meeting out with much cooler on the western flank of that system so we'll see quite a wrap around here somewhat of weather coming in once again into louisiana into mississippi showers slug spells of right and some snow on the northern flank of

that system all the way up towards central canada and around the great lakes another wintry mix too just spinning off the rock history the 4 corners states easing of it was northern parts of texas that a little sweet for the race was turning to rain in christie todd is a right add heavy rain at that that is likely to cause some localized flooding as we go on through the next couple days flash floods river flooding say a possibility around the mississippi delta further north we have got so that what the weather pushing up towards the lakes trouble the coming in behind but for new florida snow coming in across a good part of the rockies down across the caribbean it is lousy 5 and dr we have got some showers just lurking away around hispania a little see some wet weather to towards puerto rico but for most part it's sunny. welcome to doha from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the

scenes. so you can relax and enjoy the perfect break in your journey. and when you leave with a smile we know la day's work is done qatar airways welcome to our home. the air. welcome back a quick recap of the top stories here at this hour israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is touting a great victory in the nation's 4th election in 2 years that's despite exit polls suggested there is no clear winner show netanyahu good party has won between 3133

seats. more than 3000 people died of coded 9000 in brazil in a single day for the 1st time since the pandemic began and cases and deaths have been surging for weeks and public anger is increasingly turning on the president and. senate democrats in the u.s. are planning a vote on expanded gun control measures following the 2nd mass shooting in a week monday 10 people including a police officer was shot dead in boulder colorado. south korea says north korea fired 2 cruise missiles on sunday the confirmation follows reports in american media that the launches came after pyongyang declined to engage with president joe biden's administration as officials are playing down the missile test saying biden is still open to dialogue with north korea. an award winning veteran journalist in hong kong is going on trial about a choice role investigating police conduct case relates to alleged police mishandling of a time during mass protests in 2019 a violent mob attack train passengers in un long falling on the anti exhibition

bill protest earlier that day choi was arrested in the benben connection of the data on vehicle registration she used for an investigative documentary by sarah clarke joins us live now outside the court in hong kong sara so the trial of choices started just tell us what's been happening there. it's just got on the wire in the last couple of hours and this is day one of the trial of the produce of the award winning producer choi the charges are in relation to her role with regards to the investigative documentary that she was involved in. which is the government broadcasting here now that document treat question the role of the police during a particular incident and suggested police misconduct during what was known as the you long attacks in the new territories now they were the gang attacks on the pro-democracy supporters you might recall back in july 29000 where you saw a gang members wearing white t. shirts attacking some of those pro-democracy protesters who were inside

a train carriage now police were criticised for this particular incident for their slow response in reacting to those protesters or those particular people in the train carriage calling for help now about troy she's been charged in connection with accessing data of the vehicle registrations of those vehicles that were present on the night of that particular techno on arrival she didn't speak to the media she said she can't talk because it's now gone before trial in court but she certainly has pleaded guilty not guilty i should say pleaded not guilty at the west telling court today now her supporters that were here they greeted her they said she's tough and they believe that she's going to make this particular case a case of her case a fight for press freedom in the past when she was arrested but before she was charged she did state that she believes now that the place using the law to suppress journalists here in hong kong yes or as you say critics said this trial is all about the press freedoms in hong kong is that the case. it is the case in out here which is the government broadcaster who works for its

news programs have attracted ongoing official criticism from the likes of the government here in hong kong for their investigations into the police here in the city now the place of often been accused of using excessive force against journalists as well as those products the activists during the month so what should say up to a year of anti-government protests they've also been accused of turning a blind eye now press freedom here has been under attack for quite some time and of course the national security law which was introduced last year in july that's compounded the risks for journalists and certainly looking at stifling reporting on potentially sensitive subjects from media outlets you know this case it's intensified those concerns for journalists and those media outlets over what is we believe as the shrinking press freedom and as a authorities continue to crack down on the activists and journalists here in hong kong it's also a landmark case this one which will it's ongoing today and we believe tomorrow because it's also looking at the future of people's access to government registries

as well as investigative journalism here in the city are to sort of plot a lot of percent hong kong sarah thank you. results from the republic of congo election show the incumbent president will extend his 36 years in power so received more than 88 percent of the vote in a result widely expected by analysts the main opposition party boycotted the vote because of concerns about its safety and credibility was closest rival. died of covered 19 hours after the polls closed malcolm webb has more from brazil's president. has been announced the winner of the electoral commission said he won more than 88 percent of the vote some of his party supporters gathered to celebrate the main opposition party has already said that the results that were announced are incorrect their candidate. died reportedly of. on sunday or early on monday and they're saying that

a constitutional requirement if you can that it dies to cancel the election and rerun it has been ignored other opposition candidates boycotted polls and some others are in jail after they challenge the results of the last election rights activists say that there's no freedom of speech or chance of having any kind of democratic process at all one of them we spoke to said that the results were ridiculous and he said that they suggested that congolese people were happy with the status quo where is the opposite he says is true congo's billions of dollars of oil wealth haven't helped many of its people the country's suffered multiple crises groups have been a string of corruption scandals corruption investigators accuse 1st family and people in the inner circle of stealing fast sums of money something that the government denies the opposition say that they're going to be tallying the results in the coming hours from their agents in the polling stations and will announce

what they say are the real results on wednesday. now the yemeni military says who the rebels have been launching attacks on its positions in the southwest of the country the army air this footage showing a number of hooty vehicles burning after they were hit by saudi amorality coalition forces that follow saudi arabia's proposal for a nationwide cease fire in yemen but the hooty say it doesn't go far enough if here appears prime minister has confirmed for the 1st time that eritrean troops did enter the ethiopian region of last year despite their denials eritrean forces have been accused of torturing and killing civilians into great joy a government offensive shot bilis reports. so minutes from the ethiopian capital addis ababa prime minister abi ark made address politicians after months of denials he conceded that eritrean troops were integrated last year during a government of incentives witnesses say while their eritrean soldiers killed and tortured civilians but a good ethiopia's history will never forget the care our soldiers got from era

trial when they were running from death we think that era trying people in government very much for what they did but we will not accept all the offense as on our people by your trained troops in november be launched is strikes and seemed federal troops into the region of to great saying he was responding to attacks by the 2 grain people's liberation front he no admits eritrean soldiers also into 2 gray but said it was out of fear they would be attacked he added eritrea had promised to leave when ethiopian forces were able to control the border because the bottom of the others got their usual with regards to human rights violations war is destructive there is no question of harms a lot of people there is destruction that occurred and to great disregarding propaganda and lies there is information that indicates women were right and there was looting. these.

witnesses told al-jazeera last month they had seen eritrean forces into grey they said that while here they had committed agree just crimes. they tried to rape me and i was thrown to the ground and then one of the soldiers fired bullets to scare me but they hit my hand and then fired another bullet that went through my arm. i was bleeding for hours then i had my arm did. some girls and i managed to leave the village but on the road we were caught by eritrean soldiers more than 10 soldiers took turns raping us. they were trained soldiers have denied ever being into gray this despite wide ranging witness accounts a new report by amnesty international found hundreds of civilians were massacred by eritrean soldiers in the town of axim in november charlotte dallas. now

a massive container ship has blocked the suez canal in both directions it's unclear how evergreens container ship became stuck tugboat spent much of tuesday trying to move it tankers carrying saudi russian and american oil are now waiting on both ends of the waterway which connects europe to asia. africa check of the headlines here on al-jazeera israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is touting a great victory in the nation's 4th election in 2 years that's despite exit polls suggesting there's no clear winner by show netanyahu has likud party as one between 31 and 33 seems like him so well the good. it's the largest gap between 2 leading parties in israel in the last dozen years we're coming out of a covert war and israel is the champion in vaccinations there is a large majority within the people of israel and with this pejorative the knesset.