has meant more devastating summer rains and floods while the korean peninsula has suffered from more destructive typhoons the early blossom may portend a changing climate that will bring more extreme weather come the summer months but for now and appearing all the more beautiful given the fragility and transients of its existence the blossom is here to be cherished. but bright al-jazeera so. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera millions across europe are set to mark easter sunday under new coronavirus restrictions france will begin its 3rd national lockdown on saturday and italy returned to stricter measures after a surge in cases at least 5 people are reported to have been killed in me in mar and the latest crackdown by the military against an siku protesters gunshots were

heard in a number of cities as demonstrators again took to the streets tony chang has more from bangkok in neighboring thailand. those protests are still ongoing they have been pretty much every day since the coup happened on the 1st of february. in money in tone and months they an embargo we understand the security services have opened fire and killed a number of protests is being reported at the moment alludes to that number will rise we also saw protests on the street of young go on. to largest cities 5 indian security forces have died in a clash with maoist rebels the skirmish broke out in the upper region in the central chances ghar states it comes days after a 5 police officers were killed in a malice the attack on a bass a police officer has been killed and another injured when a man rammed his car into a barrier outside the u.s. capitol complex in washington d.c.

the attacker was shot and died in hospital prosecutors in taiwan have questioned the driver and owner for a construction truck that rolled onto rail tracks just as the train was approaching at least 51 people were killed when the train hit the truck in the road on friday it's taiwan's worst rail disaster in recent history nearly 500 people were on board . and people are demonstrating in several u.k. cities against a bill that would give police more powers to break up protests it would let police set time and noise limits on rallies even individual demonstrations the backlog in the suez canal has been cleared more than $420.00 vessels were delayed when the 400 meter long ever given got stuck for almost a week it blocked one of the world's most vital waterways halting billions of dollars a day in trade and it was freed on monday with the help of tugboats oster days of dredging those are the headlines on al-jazeera up front is coming up next thanks for watching but i for now. ready for another perspective listen to the take

al-jazeera its flagship news podcast with or discover hindsight and original docu drama podcast generated by charles stunts the famous came from politics and culture go undercover to the allegations of corruption by those in power and if you read a hard get you news in 2 minutes from al-jazeera news updates on. as ethiopia's to great people's liberation front been crushed by prime minister every ahmed's crackdown in the region last a senior member of the group. marc lamont hill also on the show yet another spate of mass shootings in the united states and along with it another debate about gun control but is this time

different will president joe biden be the one to finally implement reform we'll speak with the mass shooting survivor turned activist but 1st horrifying accounts of human rights abuses continue to emerge from ethiopia's northern region where the government is at war with the to grab people's liberation front but. is there any end in sight and what is the objective this week's headlines are from to gray spokes person who read it. since last november more than 2000000 people have been displaced by the conflict between ethiopia's government and the to great people's liberation front the t.p. l.f. thousands have been killed and credible reports have emerged of massacres and widespread sexual violence united nations has called for an immediate into attacks on civilians but with rights groups still unable to gain full access to the degree region remains unclear just how bad things are we invited the ethiopian government

to come on our program to discuss the situation but they refused our request saying they did not want to share a platform with the t.p. l.f. a group they view as quote a criminal enterprise we are joined now by content you read a spokes person an executive committee member of the t.p. i left. thank you so much for joining me. my theory that you're joining us on upfront from an undisclosed location via telephone from the to great region oh why . the water's warm like you said. last november before the 2 of them are. in the mix government and you start missing kyron. more practical to me the exact reason is not out of the knowledge he. of course make the attack i'm going to look at love to go back. now with i don't know what is on the record because of the grass and the people i have been having.

success for instance are going to say. it's coordinated attack by. i.b.m. but you have support getting a need in a crime that's not the same crime and it's. quite obvious that if you do how to do what has to disclose literally what i am of course i'm active resistance and i'm your dilutes the ticket i'm outta me. and i considered reagan that effect because i never been to school in check making the genocide a company by and by how do you support. for months prime minister at the at mit has denied the presence of a return troops in the 2 great region despite reports from the united nations of human rights abuses by eritrea in the region last week he finally admitted that

ethiopian national forces and eritrean soldiers had been fighting side by side he also announced on twitter that they returned government agreed to withdraw its forces and that the ethiopian national defense force would take over guarding the border hold immediately have to retrain forces left to help they haven't left in fact that it's going to take some of the cost of the air different version to reach the point but this is spicy station. that's. the time portishead not involved in the fighting has to come for a lot and i mean that's the equal of the impact the truth that the current process will have i think a long time it is going to see because now brendan hutchens community the school on the issue if you have a different government i mean i have to come for a lot of. government and that. none of us hasn't had anything government was that it was an indication on the part of the afghan government to go there for $65.00. announcement. the streets.

are going to really focus and a career has pretty. increasing the influx of its core to seem to cry by leaps and bounds but because. you're concerned. there are looking out for just from the point of view looking at the violence i think of it because he has already lost current of thousands of people from voting. most of them out of the years that have come for the stone to come come come come use some prefer a compliment. apparently. i could read something going to. put you to quote them the very provide is the purpose of hunting us down because. i want to ask you a question about a time it that you made in december of last year during an interview with the great t.v. you called upon the people in the region to quote rise and deployed to battle in

tens of thousands given that to grab opposition reports that tens of thousands of people are now dead and there have been numerous documented human rights abuses do you regret the statement should you have worked harder to create diplomatic possibilities in the international community to get international support rather than rising up in the way that they did. at the knives last year that the quarterly idea that you have supported would have different results than this has ordered because. i mean i'm not going. to do it was specifically meant to neutralize the credit because. the fact of the. doubt and i. was for whatever we might have done is not i'm not a member but yes we could have come on because this is that we could have both what

i think into. the principle that one obvious not work and if you are going to that's because we should have is a bit of a perfect if you didn't get my country i'm going to be counted as a reformer by the way what's going to. it looks very interesting we should not be could have stopped short of of course. the people so do i have a great quarter you want to. know i don't because. it's a bit stunning i mean so there was a senior humanitarian official into gray who said that this could end up like a situation similar to yugoslavia where we'll be digging mass graves for more than a decade when i look at that amount of. of violence when i look at that amount of

death it prompts the question. was there room despite the circumstance you've just laid out was there room for some alternative not maybe not all to merely no violence but certainly at least in the short term some diplomatic possibility some international coalition that could have led to an outcome that was different is there anything you could have done differently what. it would require. to come to the democracy trip where we would have been. i don't study and the kind of political coverage in the. russian community could happen would have done could have done. out of control. is there currently any line of communication between the to payless and big government no no not. on the bottom front. what is the end game here does the to p.l.f.

want to grab it to become its own state is that the ultimate goal here. you know i can address this question only by giving you. my take on what it means to be in europe you know written because i have read a lot of this context proponents of some killed it. i have no clue whatsoever how they did not you know i don't you're going to keep the phone if you're trying to grab right now. trying to get some in these people are going to be in don't you know you have just a title of interest now it's going to be absolutely impossible for its own appointed a proponent or he's guilty and. like myself to come out in public and argue for the court meet the people and i'm not saying ethiopia could go down the drain

but i have no capacity whatsoever to avoid. good luck and that kind of decision. by your typical talk but i think about ready to say at this point that's been exposed to people to try to determine whether. the rich should have their own state i would strongly strongly suggest that's different scrawny the best option that is at this point if you develop an irony for me to become a public and probably. take on some things about egypt and since we're likely to have seen the last 5 months mexico abundantly clear that this is nick and that is if. for her any ordinary president he said if i'm understanding you correctly you're saying that you're not ruling this out you're not ruling out the possibility of an independent state. i'm not going to give up in fact the situation strongly said just that that would probably. flap is the possibility of a state

a realistic one though because none of the hawks in. your land live between sudan and eritrea if you'll be i was i was curious and i'm saying you know calling someone today but you're not ruling out the possibility i guess i'm not ruling out by the way as far as i'm concerned it's not just about having being landlocked or whatever it was about that criticism when the people or perhaps become an independent state there is nothing whatsoever that could stand in the rain. not a stretch is not acceptable to my my my you'd like i thought i i i was one of the proponents of. the fed on the open stage but even myself a staunch proponent of the difference can you have difficulty coming out in public in support of because i don't believe it is. at this point in time what i'm saying

is i'm not the person you're running out of. hiding from taxes but if it's more idea and more romantic than i am to attach a read of thank you so much for joining me on a fraud. to mass shootings in the space of just one week have reignited the debate about gun control in the united states on march 16th 8 people were killed in a shooting spree in atlanta georgia just days later 10 people were killed in another shooting at a grocery store in boulder colorado president joe biden was quick to call for a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines urging members of congress to take action but since the shootings his focus has already shifted to other areas of policy so after years of inaction on meaningful reforms to prevent mass shootings in the united states is it just going to be more of the same to help us answer this we're joined by kamran caskey a gun rights activist and a survivor of the 2800 school shooting in parklane florida which killed 17 of his

fellow students and teachers cameron thank you so much for joining me and stratton me. another one of these moments that we've seen far too often in the united states we have a spate of mass shootings that have caused people to say we need to do something about gun legislation a day after the shooting in boulder president biden said and i quote he didn't need to wait another minute to address gun control and yet since then he's shifted back to talking about infrastructure as the priority issue what do you make of this shift are you worried that serious action will never happen on gun control. it's bizarre i'm starting to see something with the added ministration that i saw and i and everybody saw a lot of with the trump administration which is the people in power are taking this bizarre stance where they're acting as though they're not completely in power doll trump when he was the president would constantly tweed

a washington politics are so corrupt everybody out there in washington they aren't looking they are looking out for you when he was the president of the united states and he had a lot of control with the senate so right now the biden administration is using people like joe mansion and and cures and cinema as this kind of safety net where if there's a policy that they are not particularly interested in trying to are the past they get to say oh you know what it's not going to get the votes in the senate and there's only so much we can do as if the democrats don't literally have every branch right now so the question becomes if they're not going to show up for immensely popular things like background checks and red flag laws which you know 70 more than 70 percent of cargo holding n.r.a. members support red flag laws what are biden harris going to show up or wasn't a $50.00 minimum wage or wasn't cancelling student loan debt you know we've seen

a lot of great things in the american rescue plan was in many ways a success but. you know if you're not going to deliver on guns i spent the absent there in the let me ask you are you are you surprised by this i mean we've seen presidency of the presidency show the same kind of lack of political will on the question of gun legislation so the can't be too much of a surprise here no i mean look at the end of the day. specifically background checks and red flag laws those laws are so unbelievable. popular that it's shocking to me that those long passed but in terms of the ban on assault rifles and other you know what i consider commonsense pieces of gun reform i'm not surprised at all and it's been a common thread with the biden harris administration that we're not seeing exactly what we wanted out of them but i spent 3 years telling everybody guys we need to get the democrats and power because once the democrats are in power we're going to

be able to fix these kinds of issues and you know here a lot of people are in the gun violence prevention community we're sitting here saying ok this is the moment are we not going to get it yeah i mean why didn't didn't just gesture toward this he gave some concrete promises some day one cop promises including sending a bill to congress to repeal liability protection for gun manufactures and of course closing loopholes in the federal background check system now there are people who say look biden is playing the long game here he has a navigate a congress that is has a razor thin majority for democrats and many of those democrats who you reference are themselves right leaning and that there really isn't much else they can do you take that you understand that sensibility or you are like a promise is a promise a day one promise has to be kept. well i get it politics are real but again the question is at what point are we going to get something meaningful from them because if you've got the governing power you have to govern that's just how it

works and how silly are we going to look in 2022 when we're asking america to vote for democrats again and america says ok well the democrats campaigned very distinctly on these issues and wouldn't even deliver the most baseline simple results on them rape i mean if we put in 4 years of what we've been seeing in the 1st less than $100.00 days of the biden ministration which the 1st 100 days are normally when you see so many of the results what am i supposed as all people what is anybody supposed to tell anybody we're trying to get them to democrats and 2022 you know that we're asking to lose seats if we're not going to deliver the things that we said we did some would argue that the result of these mass shootings are evidence that we won't get anywhere think about the sandy hook school shooting for example in 2012 you have 20 people 20 young people ages 6 and 7. they die and we don't see any shift in gun legislation no progress in the

estimation of many that moment for so many observers was the moment where they'd realize or believe came to believe that nothing was ever going to change that a vet many children killed did nothing then there's no shooting no tragedy no other moment that could sway lawmakers any more than that one what do you make of that idea. well sandy hook was a huge sign it was a sign that you're right this is not going to happen because of one of these shootings white little kids are the only thing republicans like to talk about with any legislation they like to tell you in their culture war battles that liberals are coming to do this to your kids and obviously they don't care when children of color are murdered so in that many white children were murdered and we still didn't see any any meaningful legislation passed that was a sign no matter what levels of cruelty we will see. it's not just going to

happen like that and that's why so many people in the gun violence prevention immunity were thrilled to see the joe biden won the election because we said ok we've got i didn't inherit i didn't hear us who campaigned on these changes these are changes that we made up out of nowhere you know things like red flag laws universal background checks that's the most basic technocratic thing that i could have written out and told you about in 4th grade and we're 'd going to get these you know why are we going to the ballots in 2022 why am i supposed to go i will not campaign for the democrats because that's just my life but what are we supposed to say to people who see this kind of violence with no meaningful action one of the things that the n.r.a. does and other gun can gun advocates do is they appeal for the 2nd amendment they create a kind of romantic narrative the 2nd amendment how it's tied to liberty and freedom

etc that the right to bear arms or right to own weapons is tied to our sense of citizenship and identity as americans when i watch people on your side of the fence defend your position you often still appeal to the 2nd amendment rather than say the 2nd amendment is something we should get rid of that i often hear you say look we're not trying to take your guns we're just trying to control reasonably what people have access to and how people navigate so we can be more safe my question for you is why why stop there what wide wide conceive the ground the 2nd amendment is a reasonable place to start given the context in which was produced why begin from a place of saying that every american adult has a right to have a weapon why begin there why not begin to question the premise itself that the 2nd amendment may not be a reasonable. presentational provision in the 21st century. sure well i need to very quickly make it clear that my personal views on this are not reflective of the entire gun safety community it's my understanding that the entire

gun safety community is very rooted in a holding the 2nd amendment but of holding the 2nd amendment in it's appropriate use. and by that i mean allowing people to hold their right to bear arms but arguing that this is not a well trained militia that we're seeing right well regulated militia we don't have a well regulated militia here we don't even know how to put on masks and we've got a wal-mart my personal opinion is that our country is obsession with the constitution is very weird it's a very very old document there's some good stuff in it there's some very silly stuff in it but it was written by a literal slave owners and look i don't want to trigger people because people get really upset when young people are talking smack on the constitution people have this really weird obsession with it when they won't even follow the constitution when it isn't appropriate for them you know but you know i think that there's 2

ways to look at it yes banning these assault weapons can be adjacent to the 2nd amendment simply because the 2nd amendment was not written with the understanding that weapons of this power would exist and we were doing that i mean as a simple question if you were in charge of policy for the united states what would you still allow for the 2nd amendment to exist would you allow for all americans of our rights of any arms well i would say all americans i think that americans should have the rights to defend themselves and their home specifically with weapons i think that the working class should have the right to be armed with weapons that belong in the hands of civilians and are not directly designed for killing i think that what we're going to say when you say weapons are going to mean guns. yeah i mean look we have handguns in my house my father has a gun safely stored in a locked safe i couldn't tell you where the key is in case he needs to defend our

home i don't know how to access a gun that we have but people should have the right to own a handgun in my opinion specifically people in communities of color that are the targets racial violence i feel as though suggesting that people should disarm themselves when they are directly threatened by police officers would be very shortsighted of me i'm not directly afraid of police officers the way that people of color would be because i feel as though the police force in this country is designed to work in protect and so i've got a militia and i got to push a little bit on that camera i got to push a little bit on that because some people would say myself included quite frankly but but that's leading into the well regulated militia argument that it's like this romantic idea of it somehow hang us i want to protect the vulnerable in this country from from the state violence in other words black people as a country can't defend itself and the police with guns right. well that's where it gets really complicated because on the one hand you know

a there are people there are conservatives who will say you can't judge you know you're right over the 2nd and rights of people in black communities look let's look at what's happening you know and say ok conservatives you have absolutely no right to be spot speaking about this but it's an interesting it's an interesting thing to bring up i think that if. a black person is stopped by police officer and they are legally carrying at handgun that can be an excuse that the police officer sees is to do whatever horrible things that they want because a police officer will say that a black person having a pack of skittles is a weapon so you've got this really difficult situation obviously specifically for communities of color on the one hand self defense is important on the other hand if you have if you have a pack a sticky notes in your pocket the cops will shoot you dead and say they did so i thought it was a gun and i don't have an easy answer to that i will say that i think that the

right to own a gun should be protected and that should be protected but all of this all of this can just be put aside to look at the issue of assault rifles where nobody really needs these weapons camera casket thank you so much for joining me on outfront thanks so much for. that is our show for the week but up front will be back next. examining the impact of today's headlines it didn't matter you're rich or poor what your religion is you are battling this and you're staring at it in the face and you're dealing with it setting the agenda for tomorrow's discussions that are on folding on capitol hill international filmmakers the world class journalists bring programs to inform and inspire you each and in one of us in the responsibility to

change our 1st its place for the middle on al-jazeera. a mineral central to the quest for clean energy a key ingredient for the production of electric car batteries cobalt extracting it is dangerous but profitable with global demand such as sky rocket people in power investigates claims that industrial mines obstructing the precious material needed for cleaner energy are in fact poisoning the environment with dire health consequences for those living in their shadow the cost of cobalt people in power on and just you know. in some time i call swoons students are being bullied to abuse and humiliation by their teachers one a one east investigates thailand school scandal funneled to see. the whole d.n.a. and know there are still even use people who are subject to the decisions played by the pound limply know where to put all these people they're willing to be cool to

children that would like to get back story this place has become a complete crap you have to hear all of them and to treat them with something that in respects. this is al-jazeera. hello there i missed the attain this is the news hour live from our headquarters here and coming up in the next 60 minutes growing concerns about a rise and covered 1000 infections for several countries to reimpose restrictions even as they roll out vaccination campaigns. another day of violence security forces again open a file an anti crew protesters demanding get up.