now. the world needs to. make you feel wound. everyone. for the 2nd time in a week north korea fires more missiles off its coast i think pressure on the new biden administration. hello i'm down jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up hospitals in brazil are at breaking point as cope with 19 deaths past 300000. i manage it up a little on the us mexico border where migrant refugee numbers are growing u.s. president joe biden has asked his vice president obama well here's to deal with

your rivals on the other side the situation here is growing desperate. and the 4 month countdown to japan's delayed summer olympics finally begins the torch relay starts without spectators from fukushima. japan says north korea has fired 2 ballistic missiles they were launched from south young province into the sea near japan the u.s. pacific command has responded saying the launches show the pealing young is a threat to its neighbors but the bride joins us live now from seoul rob 'd so what more can you tell us about this latest launch from north korea. this is a significant development for the past couple of years north korea has largely been avoiding such provocative ballistic missile tests which of course are banned under

un resolutions in the couple of years since the breakdown of denuclearization talks with the united states as we know it has returned to developing its its arsenal of weapons including of course nuclear weapons but all of the test firings that it has conducted it's been careful just to concentrate on largely those rockets and missiles which are not banned under un resolutions and in fact in the last weekend we saw just such a test launch of 2 lesser cruise type missiles which basically was ignored by the u.s. joe biden the u.s. president in the past day or so has largely discounted that saying it was a no not a big deal it is business as usual ballistic missiles are a lot harder to ignore and of course it has been condemned by many of north korea's neighbors here most notably of course japan the japanese prime minister yasha he

had a super coming out with a very strong condemnation 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 vehicle 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 of all of this is significant isn't it with senior u.s. diplomats recently visiting asia to formulate policy on north korea. absolutely we have a change in the u.s. administration and typically north korea will want to test the mettle of that incoming administration but it did it's a time when the by the ministration is developing still its strategy towards north korea antony blinken the u.s. secretary of state was here in south korea and in neighboring japan just last week

talking to his counterparts the thinking was that north korea possibly would wait and see just what this strategy would look like that it wouldn't do anything provocative well maybe with this test firing thursday we should think again maybe this is a change of heart that it sees no harm in firing off these missiles now that if anything it may up the pressure on the u.s. turn up the dial a bit to see if it can influence that strategy also in south korea it has been treated with some dismay because of course the south koreans would like to try to revive high level dialogue with north korea diplomatically and was looking towards the summer olympics in japan as being an opportunity for that much as it used the winter olympics of 3 years ago but of course if north korea is now throwing ballistic missiles into the air it makes the chances of that being realized. far harder to achieve or to rob

a bright line for us there in the south korean capital seoul rob thank you well north korea 1st launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2017 during donald trump's 1st year in office the following year kim jong un and trump met in singapore both committed to the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula but the details were never hammered out a follow up summit in vietnam collapsed and 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. well robert kelly is a professor of political science and diplomacy at busan national university explains why north korea is making what it sees as a show of strength my sense that this is probably typical north korean testing of a new u.s. president whenever there is a new president the united states or in south korea the 2 primary opponents of north korea the north koreans usually poll 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 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 gotten a world attention i think that's what they want basically say you know we're still here it tends to us you can sort of ignore us or bullies i think most people assume that north korea doesn't actually want to start a war right away 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 sea for example their bench shoot outs and stuff like that the past at 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 they couldn't do as recently as you know 5 or 10 years ago expanded order include china i think that's people big concern the secondary proliferation but we're going to sell these things or you know give away programs or or sketches and things like that. one of the 4 people in the world who is dying of covered 19 is a brazilian more than 300000 people now die this is the pandemic began 100000 in

just over 2 months president has downplayed the threat of the virus but he's now caved into mounting pressure reports from rio de janeiro. is brazil school the death toll keeps growing women across brazil have joined hands one void or their grief and the names of all those who died from cold 19 this by november the 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 matter 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 national 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 weezer castro embroider the names of her daughter in law and a friend she says she can deal with the sorrow but not with the anguish of watching nothing being done. there for. everybody silent was president j.

boss and scorns the virus the masks and the vaccine even the church which threw up against the day the ship is holding its i'm feeling very anguished knowing i have no body 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 dead monica inaccurate i'll just sirrah we are designer. brazil chile is also seeing a rise in sections it's about to enter the world's toughest coronavirus lockdown cases arising in other parts of latin america to business and human reports from santiago. frantic shoppers rush to south america's largest shopping mall their last chance before they and millions of other chileans go into lockdown. regus needed to buy a birthday present for her niece to get there after family my daughter works in

a clinic and says the number of patients is out of control this is a necessary measure although many don't believe it. despite a massive occupation campaign the number of critical care patients is the highest since the pandemic began. and the new restrictions more stringent than ever before only 2 police permits per week to buy food and medicine and a total nationwide lockdown without permits on weekends the aim is to keep 75 percent of the population at home until after easter and reduce infections enough to allow national elections to take place in 2 weeks but there's no guarantee. south america is facing a fierce resurgence of infections and deaths in neighboring peru relatives of 80 year old men i think the spirit prepared to bury him he died at home because there were no beds left in hospitals is he one year old. is one of the few lucky ones

who's been able to get vaccinated but it won't get him that wider many people are dying every day i lost 2 children one who was 48 years old and 150 recently from cave it 19. 1 year after people were literally dying on the streets from the virus in ecuador hospitals are again on the brink of collapse further north in venezuela the government has ordered a 2 week lockdown after having relaxed confinement measures because of the sudden spike in infections. and severe shortages of critical care units. the volume of patients is increased in this new wave and there are more serious cases than last year even in a why which until now was not regarded as a cold hotspot the government has tightened anti pandemic measures because of the sharp surging cases schools gyms and most public offices will be closed until april 12th the president however says he does not believe in lockdowns. you see the most

we have refused and we continue to do so because it is more a matter of principle than a practice and fortunately our principles are especially in this case the ones we believe we have to apply to move the country forward. whatever the containment strategy the entire continent is struggling to obtain and distribute vaccinations with the exception of chile and even here it hasn't been fast enough to prevent a new deadly viral way to see in human al-jazeera santiago all cases in the u.s. have now surpassed 30000000 since the pandemic began public health experts though are cautiously optimistic 3 months into the vaccination rollout 70 percent of americans who are 65 and older and the received at least one dose of a vaccine uncovered 1000 related deaths of drop below the 1000 daily average for the 1st time since november india has reported its highest number of daily

inspections since the end of october more than 53000 cases were reported overnight health officials have detected what's being described as a double mutant variant of the virus a double newton design tali new variant but with the characteristics of 2 other previously identified types. astra zeneca has slightly downgraded the ficus e. of its corona virus vaccine to 76 percent its tutor's job was initially thought to be 79 percent effective at preventing coverage $900.00. 80 u.s. agency overseeing vaccine trials had said the company's data was not up to date it's now including results from a clinical trial held in peru chile and the united states lots more to come here on al-jazeera including a waiting game in israel after the election prime minister benjamin netanyahu say could rest in the hands of a newly formed party. the u.s. state notorious for using the death penalty become the latest to abolish capital punishment and more in that state.

how is that we've got lots of fabulous sunshine across much of the middle east as we should do what it's warm sunshine as well but let's further north loss of class showing up boys it cold we're struggling to get to freezing still an anchor a big drop in temperatures continue going to fair but a snow coming in across the turkish bounces but further south with 35 degrees warmer than that and we'll see those temperatures picking up even further as we go on into friday so some warm spring sunshine coming through across much of the arabian peninsula still very wintry into turkey and in between well as quite a russia showers for good measure coming in across lebanon jordan if you want to choose shall we say just creeping their way into syria as we go on through friday when she makes pushing across the far north of africa to stop kabul at about 21

celsius so certainly not to win 3 and i saw the winter of course across 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 i come down across the heart of africa it's impossible to go the same some heavy showers so well the weather to into the bases side of south africa for a time moving east. to make a change. change your life or the path of a country challenge the accepted truth you want to create something you push to break you continue remolded to turn the status quo and fight injustice all month iraq. will. witness

personal documentaries not going to the section on al-jazeera. welcome back a quick amount about top stories here this hour japan says north korea has fired 2 ballistic missiles that were launched from south from young products into the sea near japan. more than 300000 people have now died in brazil since the start of the coronavirus pandemic president jabil tomorrow who long downplayed the threat of the virus has announced a committee to tackle the crisis. and corona virus cases in the u.s. are now surpassed 13000000 since the pandemic began public health experts are

cautiously optimistic 3 months into the vaccination rollout 70 percent of people over 65 had at least one chance. 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 it's a small palestinian party which may hold the key kerry force that reports from western style. in a. 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 of the ritual and 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 the religious and conservative right wing

israeli politicians call him auntie's i honest left wingers criticize his stance on cue issues and yet his own. 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 accepting his support from the outside but that was before his bloc once again fell short of the 61 seats it needed and senior members of his party started openly discussing working with abbas 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 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's party says it won't 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 lesson yahoo block 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 of

special reports who investigated the murder of the journalist. received what she perceived as a death threat from the top saudi official the guardian newspaper initially reported that the official threatened agnes kalamata saying she would be taken care of if she was not reined in. u.s. president joe biden has appointed carla harris 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 facilities that have been reopened recently shared the reports from texas. president biden said no one was better qualified to take charge of the influx of unaccompanied migrant children than his vice president and he pointed out that this was the role 'd he took under president obama when he was vice president and one of the ways we learned is that. if you deal with the problems in the country and. come to harris laid out several areas of focus and i

look forward to doing gauging independency with a government that kind of sex their civil society and the leaders in each in el salvador. and honduras and to strengthen democracy but the mere fact that once again a vice president is being tasked with this role is raising questions about whether harris will really be bringing new thinking to the issue of migration or will stick to strategies that clearly haven't worked in the past regional development isn't something that you can switch a light on and off it's going to take time it's going to take effort and it's going to be years of sustained outman so while what b.p. harris is doing might pay off in the long run in the short term the more important thing is going to be just surge resources to the border to handle the arriving spam wheat and children safely and humanely the biden ministration is being given credit for speeding up the processing of child migrants who began entering the country in november when the court forced the trumpet ministration to relax its blanket ban on

undocumented migration but only for unaccompanied children a highly choreographed tour of a facility in correct so springs texas was arranged for one u.s. network and then distributed to the rest of the media on wednesday the footage showed uncrowded spaces the reporter on the tour wasn't allowed to speak to any children 400 kilometers south here in dolma texas at the border we know 2nd stances are different this facility is overflowing with unaccompanied children on sunday it was 1500 percent overcapacity there are many reasons why moggi is on track to see a record 17th. 1000 unaccompanied undocumented children enter the u.s. at the southern border not least the normal seasonal increase in migration in the spring that this year has been supplemented because donald trump closed the border between march and november of last year but migrant groups say there's plenty of blame to go around for the current chaos and distress starting with successive

governments both democratic and republican that have spent an estimated $55000000000.00 over the last 12 years on what's referred to as the border industrial complex high tech equipment and militarization of the border instead of investing in humane facilities to shelter and process the yearly flow of undocumented migrants that streams to the border nonetheless she had her town see al-jazeera donna texas well let's get the view from the other side of the border from tijuana mexico his money a rapper. we are outside and shop out of the port of entry into the united states quite literally a stone's throw away from the us mexico border where you see behind us is a makeshift camp of migrants up popped up just a little over just a little or over a month ago we're told that the majority of people here are either migrants from central america countries like hunter s. and guatemala also many people here from southern mexico states like chiapas one huckabee truck on as well as nationals from haiti cuba and other countries so we

really have a quite the mix of migrants here and it's estimated we believe there to be somewhere between a 101500 people that have been staying at this camp some for more than a month now others that are new arrivals with new migrants arriving almost almost every day now we heard from one gentleman from guatemala earlier today who said that in the more than one month that he's been out here at no point has he been approached by any government officials or anyone from the either the mexican side or the u.s. side to sort of give him an idea of what to do next and that seems to be a common theme among many of the people here they seem to be waiting but they don't seem to be knowing what they're waiting for and there's a lot of frustration a lot of confusion s.g. as as to what they're going to do next what they're hoping is that there will be some sort of visibility of their camp that u.s. officials will hear their voices they've been holding many demonstrations out here so they're hoping that u.s. officials will hear their voices and give them an opportunity to to make their

asylum cases be heard to border agents. the u.s. state of virginia has abolished the death penalty and 1300 people have been executed since its founding as a colony 4 centuries ago the governor rough northam says capital punishment has no place in the state's the south or the nation. around the country more than 170 people have been released from death row since 1973 due to evidence of their innocence. that is simply wrong we can't give out the ultimate punishment without being 100 percent sure that we're right. and we can send its people to that ultimate punishment knowing that this system doesn't work the same for everyone more now from hardy's or castro in washington d.c.

. the big question is what happened why now well there is a name george floyd that had a huge impact on his death and the protests the reckoning of racial inequity in this country that followed in virginia's democratic governor northam he said that seeing those protests was an awakening for him and he saw the statistics that blacks are given the death penalty or a sentence of the death penalty in far greater number than white defendants he said that show the inequity and there was simply no way that the state could push forward and once he announced his support for abolishing the death penalty in virginia than many others followed and we saw this quickly come to pass so now virginia has become the 23rd us state to abolish the death penalty and notably it is the 1st southern state to do so and that has given some confidence some hope to those who would like to abolish the death penalty across the united states and

they're particularly looking at the state of texas with a question whether other southern states will follow in virginia's example but in texas it's very different scenario their different set of politics and there is still a little momentum toward abolishing the death penalty there for the 1st time in the u.s. senate has confirmed openly transgender a federal official to a key post rachel levine will now be the nation's assistant secretary of health transgender rights activists appraise levine's appointment as a breakthrough with few trans people having held office about level. canada's parliament has voted to collect data on how pollution affects areas where racial minority groups live a new build will focus on tackling so-called environmental racism one of the country's biggest cases is the indigenous grassy narrows 1st nations in ontario for decades residents of suffered from contamination from a former paper. maritime authority is in egypt and had to reopen an older section

of the suez canal to divert traffic after one of the world's biggest cargo ships became stuck the 400 meter long 200000 ton ship was knocked off course by strong winds tug boats are still struggling to dislodge it the accidents created a backlog of traffic including tankers carrying saudi russian and american oil now after a delay of more than a year the olympic torch relay ceremony for the tokyo 2020 games has begun the flame started its journey from fukushima which was devastated by a tsunami an earthquake 10 years ago is andrew shapiro. you know politics taken i think i thought it was at long last the torch relay begins in japan for the olympic games. our football star. who was the 1st to carry the flame 10000 others will take it to every part of the country. it's shining

a light on the progress made since fukushima was devastated by an earthquake tsunami and nuclear disaster 10 years ago. on the long road to tokyo it's hoped the relay will generate excitement for the games but many are wondering why it's still happening as the country is still battling cove it. so how could i see what it would be sad to see the olympics cancelled but the priority now is to end the pandemic we can still postpone it and hold the games when it's safe again the pundits say it could cause another pandemic here because people from all over the world are coming here. if it is successful it will symbolize how we overcame many difficulties. knows what it's like to represent japan on the world stage and compete against the world's greatest he's worried organizers have run into too many problems to go ahead. with an effect on your all factors necessary for hosting the games are facing issues there are sports that have held qualifying events while

others haven't when you look at domestic issues in japan the covert infections are far from over and vaccination is not making progress. if the relay goes ahead safely over the next 4 months it'll go a long way in reassuring the public and signal the end of a dark chapter in japan's history and her schapelle al-jazeera. mount etna on the italian island of sicily has erupted again sending lava rocks up to 900 meters into the air explosions can be heard in nearby towns and the airport in the city of khatami a is closed because of the ash it's atmos 16th eruption this year. our top a quick check of the headlines here on out as they are japan says north korea has fired 2 ballistic missiles they will launch from south how many young province into the sea in japan.