for the 2nd time in a week north korea fires more missiles office coast adding pressure on the new bike from the ministration. well i'm down jordan this is our 0 live from doha also coming up hospitals in brazil are at breaking point as cope with 900 deaths are 300000. homeless again aid agencies rush to build new shelters for again the refugees after a fire tore through their camp in bangladesh. on the

4 month countdown to japan's delayed summer olympics finally begins the torch relay starts without spectators in fukushima. japan says north korea has fired 2 ballistic missiles that were launched from south how many young province into the sea near japan the u.s. pacific command has responded saying the launches show that pyongyang is a threat to its neighbors well robert reich joins us live now from the south korean capital seoul rob so yet another missile launch from north korea what more do we know at this stage. it is a significant development apart from a similar multiple ballistic tests carried out nearly a year ago said north korea for the past couple of years is largely avoided such provocative tests since denuclearization talks broke down between north korea and

the us north korea as we know has returned to developing its arsenal but it has largely been carrying out tests of missiles and rockets which are not banned under u.n. resolutions of these ballistic tests are in fact just last weekend it tested 2 cruise type missiles that was largely ignored by the u.s. white house u.s. president joe biden saying that it was not a big deal that it was still business as usual but less stick tests are a lot harder to ignore and it has been quickly and roundly condemned by the japanese prime minister you're shaheed a sukkah largely to. you know here you are it is a threat to our country and to regional security and it's also a violation of the united nations security council resolution will strictly protest and condemn their actions. i'm determined to closely cooperate with the united

states south korea and other related nations to protect the lives of our people and rob the timing is significant i mean senior u.s. diplomats recently visited asia to formulate policy on north korea. we have had a change in the u.s. administration we've been expecting for some time now ways that north korea might test the mettle of this new administration and to me blinken the u.s. secretary of state was here just last week visiting with counterparts in south korea and japan formulating just what the u.s. strategy will be to north korea now we heard from the comments coming out of north korea that it looked as though they would wait and see what that strategy was they wouldn't provoke the u.s. that they would wait to see how they should respond depending on what the strategy is maybe this is a change of heart by the north koreans they don't see any damage in carrying out this test now they matter in fact see some value in putting more pressure on the

u.s. but it also by doing this quickly it puts pressure on the south koreans because of course south korea is desperate to try to revive some sort of diplomatic dialogue at a high level with north korea it has been looking at the delayed summer olympics in japan as giving an opportunity for that much as the what they did around the winter olympics 3 years ago but of course the testing of ballistic missiles makes that a lot harder to realize all right to live in seoul rob thank you. when north korea 1st launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2017 during donald trump's 1st year in office the following year kim jong il met in singapore both committed to the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula but the details were never hunted out a follow up meeting in vietnam collapsed on their 3rd meeting at the demilitarized zone also failed to bring a resolution in 2020 north korea unveiled a new larger intercontinental ballistic missile and blew up a liaison office used for diplomatic talks with south korea's let's bring in robert

kelly he's a professor of political science and diplomacy at busan national university he joins us via skype from busan in south korea rob great to have you back on the program this is the 2nd time in a week the north korea has fired projectiles into the sea this is all becoming pretty mundane now for p.r. but what kind of message are they trying to send here yeah that's right it is almost sort of routine at this point in fact i believe you or i have actually had this conversation on this program in the past. and i think it's just my my sense that this is probably typical north korean testing of a new u.s. president whenever there is a new president of the united states or in south korea the 2 primary opponents of north korea the north koreans usually pull some kind of stunt some kind of provocation missile tests have become particularly a big one for them in the last few years but they've done other things as well and they were quiet as your correspondent mentioned they were wired for a while during the trial period and so the missile tests are kind of new and make a bit of a splash and have got the world attention or they got what they want face to say

you know we're still here pay attention once you can sort of ignore us or bowler's yeah and the timing is interesting isn't it senior u.s. diplomats recently visiting asia to strengthen alliances and formulate policy on north korea. yeah to try to transcend some pretty weird signals about the u.s. position in asia right i mean he had gone on television and said that he was in love with the north korean dictator news friend he ran down south korea very publicly right when trump was not particularly get into the care of american allies i suppose is the way to put it and i think one of the things or by trying to do in the last few months or receive all these gaps get people back sort of on the same page that is the north korea of course on china which is really the big show i think yeah i'm john we're going to york oh yeah no as i say robot because japan says this latest launch represents a threat to regional peace and stability and it also violates un resolutions how worried are regional players like japan like south korea where you are about north korea's intentions here i think most people assume that north korea doesn't

actually want to start a war i mean they had many opportunities to do this in the past i think the real concern is that you might have some kind of spark rethink spin out of control in the yellow secret sample their bench shoot outs and stuff like that past these things spin out of control the north korea has substantially greater firepower to expand the conflict right you can now bombard japanese cities which is something it couldn't do as recently as you know 5 or 10 years ago expanded order include china and i think that's people big concern the secondary concern is proliferation and working for him to sell these things or you know give away programs or sketches and things like that a final thought the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov with is visiting south korea today how do you see the roles of russia and also china playing out in their dealings with north korea. the big fear of the russians and the chinese to rethink regarding north korea is they provide an outlet for sanctions or the great north korea's pretty heavy sanction now i'm in chinese and the russians have facilitated any kind of on off sometimes we see it sometimes we don't sanctions evasion right

there are things but there are legal money in banks in china and russia and one of the things that we the united states has tried particularly is to get the russians and the chinese to stop doing destroys or seal the borders that sanctions have some bite and i think that's what you know probably the future regarding these 2 countries and north koreans can we get a hold line on the u.n. sanctions road kelly always good to get your thoughts thank you very much indeed for talking to al-jazeera thanks for that thank you. now one in 4 people in the world who is dying of covered 19 is a brazilian and more than 300000 people have now died since the pandemic began 100000 of them in just over 2 months the president has downplayed the threat of the virus but he's now caved in to mounting pressure. reports from rio de janeiro. is brazil scoobie death toll keeps growing women across brazil have joined hands when broidery their grief and the names of all those who died from corbett 19 this

by november's map of america this panel has 2 and a half meters per presents only 0 point one percent of the number of victims we would need $1000.00 panels like this one for all the victims that's another 2 and a half kilometers of. pressure against presidential aide who has been mounting as infections and death continue to spiral out of control brazil's bar association has asked the attorney general to charge president. with criminally mishandling the pandemic $500.00 bankers economists and business men wrote a letter asking the government to stop boycotting measures aimed at controlling the new wave of infections and to start heating to the advice of doctors and scientists . on tuesday night or went on television to say he was in favor of the vaccines he had criticised in the past and was slow to start finding raw brazil his words were

greeted with hot banging protests with next year's presidential election in mind also narrow met wednesday with representatives from congress in the supreme court one year after couvade 19 struck brazil the government has finally announced a committee to deal with the pandemic on a national level. meanwhile in this square 19 year old in ways that castro embroidered the names of her daughter in law and a friend she says she can deal with the sorrow but not with wish of watching nothing being done. there for. everybody silent while president jaber sonata of scornful virus the masks and the vaccine even the church which threw up against a dictatorship is holding its tongue i'm feeling very anguished knowing i have nobody to turn to she decided to write a letter to the pope but while waiting for an answer to her prayers in luisa and her friends will continue using their needle and thread to keep alive the memory of

brazil's 300000 meineke an i.q. al-jazeera. cases in the u.s. have now surpassed $13000000.00 since the pandemic began and public health experts though are cautiously optimistic 3 months into the vaccination rollout 70 percent of americans who are $65.00 and older have now received at least one dose of a vaccine and coban $1000.00 related deaths of drop below the $1000.00 daily average for the 1st time since november india says it's detected what's being described as a double mutant variant of the virus that was found in 206 samples in the state of maharashtra and a further 9 in new delhi a double mutant is an entirely new variant but with the characteristics of 2 other previously identified types astra zeneca has slightly downgraded the efficacy of its corona virus vaccine to 76 percent it's too does job was initially thought to be 79 percent effective at preventing covered $900.00 symptoms the u.s.

agency overseeing vaccine trials had said the company's data was not up to date it's not including results from a clinical trial held in peru chile and the us. the european union and u.k. appear to still be on a collision course of a vaccine supplies as the bloc faces a 3rd wave the coronavirus it's set to tighten rules and exporting vaccines with supplies of astra zeneca job a central issue but before any more that seems arrive several countries are struggling to find the right measures to stop more citizens becoming said we challenge reports. spring is in the air in europe but so too is something less welcome something that is also having its rebirth much of the continent. of corona virus. 19 countries are now reporting increasing case numbers 15 member states are reporting increased hospital and i.c.u. admissions while 8 member states are now reporting increase the number of us

with more care with 19 infections comes agony about lockdowns belgium his shuttering schools non-essential shops and hairdressers until late april germany can't decide what to do angela merkel has apologized and cancelled a hastily planned 5 day easter lockdown after a political backlash and feel it's been unfairly a mistake needs to be called a mistake and above all it must be corrected and if possible this needs to happen as soon as possible at the same time i am aware that this whole business has created even more uncertainty and i deeply regret peace and i ask for forgiveness. for. europe's repeating misery comes as it tries to sort out its beleaguered vaccination program in the e.u. only 10 percent of the adult population has received the jab so far by contrast the

u.k. has already injected more than half. the european commission is planning tighter rules on vaccine exports to protect already reduced he you supply it says it's not targeting any particular country but it wants the situation to be more reciprocal since the introduction of export opposition system some $10000000.00 are being exported from your k. from e.u. to your k. 0 dollars a scullion exporters from the e.u. according to the french government's $29000000.00 astra zeneca vaccine doses were discovered at the weekend in a police inspection of a plant in italy the drug maker insists most were for e.u. consumption not exports francaise a shipment block should be considered if that's not true confusion to an already fraught atmosphere. now jazeera time for

a short break here al-jazeera when we come back the number of refugees and migrants arriving at the us mexico border is growing we'll hear how the white house is tackling the crisis of the opposition in the republic of congo calls the president's election fraudulent war and that stay with us. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored by qatar airways. how is that we've got lots of fabulous sunshine across much of the middle east as we should do it it's warm sunshine as well but look further north loss of cloud showing up here and boy is it cold we're struggling to get to freezing still in ankara dropping temperatures continue going to fair bit of snow coming in across the turkish bounces but further south with 35 degrees warmer than that in doha we'll see those temperatures picking up even further as we go on into friday so

some warm spring sunshine coming through of course much of the arabian peninsula still very wintry into turkey and in between well as quite a rush of showers for good measure coming in across lebanon jordan if you want to showers that just creeping their way into syria as we go on through friday when she makes pushing across the far north of africa couple at around 21 celsius so certainly not to win 3 and those sort of winds are of course across the central parts of africa it's fine and dry lots of warm sunshine coming through the showers popping up once again into the democratic republic of congo easing up towards the gulf of guinea more big downpours here now show as well they come down across the heart of africa it's impossible to go the same some heavy showers so well the weather too into that ace's side of south africa for a time moving east. sports of qatar airways jump into the story there is a lot going on in this one julian on global community when i thought of all the

misinformation i think we're more afraid than we are aware be part of the debate don't ever take anybody's one word because there's always a difference when no topic is off the table we have been disconnected from our land we have been disconnected from who we are and would love to hear from you in the to be part of today's discussion this streamed on out is there a. welcome back if you come out of the top stories here at this hour japan says north korea has fired 2 ballistic missiles that were launched from south i'm young province into the sea near japan. more than 300000 people have now died in brazil since the

start of the coronavirus pandemic president jaya both narrow the long downplayed the threat of the virus has announced a committee to tackle the crisis. and the european union and u.k. appear to still be like collision course of a vaccine supply is the block faces a 3rd wave of coronavirus is planning to tighten rules and exporting vaccines with supplies of astra zeneca jobs a central issue. with most of the votes counted a day after israel's 4th election in just 2 years there's still no clear idea of who will end up in power unexpectedly though it's a small palestinian party which may hold the key for said reports in west jerusalem . one month so robust decided to split from the rest of the mainly palestinian israeli joint list alliance and campaign separately it was a big gamble that earned him plenty of blowback now with 5 seats news really parliament his united arab list in theory has the power to bestow either side a majority. vote so he can be kingmakers in the elections we need to

succeed so we can establish our status and influence in politics for the future the next generation. of us is politics are religious and conservative right wing israeli politicians call him auntie's i honest left wingers criticize his stance on q. issues and yet his openness to engage with and potentially support either the bloc led by prime minister benjamin netanyahu or the one trying to remove netanyahu from power has shaken up israeli politics. during the campaign netanyahu ruled out the idea of allowing abbas into his coalition or even. setting his support from the outside but that was before his block once again fell short of the 61 seats it needed and senior members of his party started openly discussing working with us for some even having such a conversation represents a political watershed the very engagement between the 2 particularly to the extent that it would be public is going to be a story and

a transformative for israeli politics in from that point of view it could have results an outcome irrespective of whether it actually reaches a new coalition agreement. abbas isn't the only one celebrating the prospects of influence in the new parliament the far right religious sign is a movement also outperformed expectations and would be welcomed in an s. and yahoo coalition. a bus his party says it would sit with racists the opposition leader also says a government relying on religious zionism would be dark and dangerous but marshalling his own coalition with support from our politicians would also be a difficult sell to the right wing is in the anti netanyahu look not every path to a government runs through months or a bust for instance that he could try to poach off a right wing politician or 2 from another party less likely could try to break off part of the netanyahu bloc and there's still a possibility of total failure and

a 5th election to come but after 4 elections this is a very different type of political conversation with the palestinian israeli polity at its center are a force that al-jazeera westerners the united nations has confirmed reports as special rapporteur who investigated the murder of the journalist. received what she perceived as a death threat from a top saudi official the guardian newspaper initially reported that the official threatened agnes saying she'd be taken care of if she was not reined in. a senior military figure loyal to the libyan warlord to have to has been killed in benghazi . he was a special forces commander libyan national he was wanted by the international criminal court for the killing of 33 people between 20162018 human rights watch says a militia under his command as responsible for the disappearance of hundreds political opposition in the republic of congo have rejected the results of the presidential

election as for challenge president dennison west so already ruled for decades and the electoral commission says he won more than 88 percent of the vote of the opposition politicians boycotted the poll or are in jail welcome with reports from brussels. political opposition in the republic of congo say they've been cheated the electoral commission said president. with nearly 90 percent of the vote. is not a democracy you can see what happened to congress a dictatorship pure and simple. presidential polls one sunday results were announced 2 days later the supporters here don't believe the results but also many of them say that they're not surprised some of the opposition candidates boycotted the elections entirely to others who run in the last election are in jail serving sentences of 20 years forced labor that they were given after challenging the result of the last election the police part. the most prominent opposition

candidates is dead was announced just after voting he tested positive for covert. many of his supporters think he was poisoned his party officials say they've discovered widespread irregularities like polling stations where the president won more than 6 times as many votes as the work people voting liberal politically nor did him look at human history of the union of human history strongly rejects these results as a whole and invites the constitutional court to do the same. then he sasso in queso has ruled for most of the last 40 years the french public relations company run his campaign along with the minister for education he told us the president's past record and charisma won him the vote over with getting a party democracy can you say there is no democracy i think that those who are saying that are just in need of consoling themselves because they're not able to

win an election. people complained of irregularities cheering the voting here dozens of armed police came when opposition supporters said a ruling party official was ballot stuffing many opposition politicians and rights activist said there was never a chance of a democratic process in the 1st place if you thought a country just now working health care. human rights violation record told you some leaders angel who's going to be happy and maybe 8 percent no it doesn't make sense since there are so. many people we spoke to here say they wanted change it looks like they won't get it. malcolm webb al-jazeera brazzaville republic of congo . yes president joe biden as a point of common interest to manage the steady arrival of refugees and migrants at the southern border the vice president will lead u.s. efforts with mexico and central american countries to stem the flow of migration members of congress have been visiting emergency facilities that have been reopened

recently it follows a growing outcry after images revealed over crowded and makeshift conditions at a center in texas and so it's not like someone sits around. the table from one of the what amounts to going to great idea whatsoever and we have given money do you really haven't taken our kids rushed to the border the mercury to take for cross rivers and there were those people lying we would be. one of the ways we learned is that. if you deal with the problems in your country it benefits . the people through 3 counties there. an investigation into a deadly fire at the world's biggest refugee camp is now under way the campus conses bazaar in bangladesh is home to more than a 1000000 rangar refugees from me and ma the official death toll currently stands at 15 but hundreds more are still missing on the child reports from cox's bazaar

26 yo mama job as father died while trying to salvage belongings from his house fire ripped through the camp. i can't explain in words how i feel emotionally at this moment the loss of my father is devastating for me and my family my shop was also destroyed but it doesn't bother me. i saw my count them and their family lost everything including their home. after facing so much trouble and we fled to this place now it seems like we are refugees all over again some witnesses say the barbed wire fencing around the camp stopped people from scaping the fire the fire out of the spotlight back on the struggle the drama and the tragedy on daily basis by everyone here it has been more than 3 and a half years since nearly a 1000000 man march into this distant corner of bangladesh trying to get into what is now the world's largest refugee camp camp community leaders are seriously

concerned about the fire has it. it is about time that the rohingya volunteers are given training on fire safety by government and aid agencies it is very critical that the refugees learn and be aware of fire hazards and safety and they should be door to door public awareness on such hazards lives could be saved in the future. u.n.h.c.r. and other aid agencies along with government trying hard to provide shelter and assistance. the situation it's devastating this fire is such a huge scale it's like nothing we've ever seen before even more than 45000 people. just completely gone and not only that but also health centers and learning centers nutrition centers they're all gone so it's so important. the other humanitarian part work together to try to provide basic assistance but also psychological

support for people who've been through trauma again and again. this tragedy is a reminder of the burner ability of refugees who are caught between the increasingly precarious situation in bangladesh and a new political reality off their homeland now ruled by the military government responsible for the genocide that forced them to flee. cox's bazaar and now after a delay of more than a year the olympic torch relay for the tokyo 2020 games has begun the top set off from focus a few hours ago the event was meant to celebrate its recovery from nuclear disaster but it's been overshadowed by the pandemic spectators are barred there are worries about the games going ahead safely this summer or michael pena is the president of the shin gets to news agency and says people in japan supportive of the games going ahead. they still have many many challenges to face in the last 4 months including the possibility of yet another major wave of covert in the country and

trying to figure out 1st of all how they're going to. divide the costs when they don't have foreign spectators coming from overseas to watch the games and one of the other very big policy decisions they have to make next month is whether or not they're going to allow japanese spectators to watch the games so they're very far from being out of the woods yet in spite of the fact that the torch is now starting to run from fukushima to tokyo 80 percent think that the olympics should either be canceled altogether or they should be delayed until some future occasion and you know essentially that's where the public is that they're extremely an enthusiastic they're worried they think this could be something that that raef layers the pandemic in the country and that they think the government this kind of irresponsible for for hosting the olympics at this time but the government's view

in the establishment's view is 100 percent opposite they are absolutely determined to hold these olympics no matter what no matter what the criticism they're going to push forward with everything they've got mountain out on the italian island of sicily has erupted again sending lava rocks up to 900 meters into the air explosions could be heard in nearby towns and the airport in the city of khatami was closed because of the ash it's at ms 16 eruption to see it. for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera japan says north korea has fired 2 ballistic missiles that were launched from south home young province into the sea near japan the u.s. pacific command.