a lack of rainfall most of the trees planted are either dying or already dead and while polluting countries have recently pledged billions of dollars more in funds for this project people here say they're throwing money into the desert they say they don't need more trees or more access to water. india sees another record rise in co 1000 more medical aid arrives from abroad. well again i'm peter w. watching al-jazeera live from also coming up meanwhile as government in exile says it's investigating allegations that women were subjected to sexual violence by the military john to. a report on how the pandemic is taking

a toll on media freedoms around the globe. splash landing american astronauts on board the space x. capsule make a smooth touch turn in the gulf of mexico after 167 days in space. india's covered 1000 catastrophe has worsened yet again almost 3700 people have died in one single day the highest figure since the pandemic began that's the official record that accounts for the deaths of people who tested positive for the virus workers crim of tory m so the actual number is much higher on sunday 392000 new infections were recorded numbers 4 times higher than it was a month ago the government is expanding its vaccination program and even though india produces the most vaccines anywhere in the world there aren't enough of them

more aid is coming in from overseas but hospital beds medicine and oxygen are still critically short. the party of the indian prime minister narendra modi has been handed a defeat in regional elections in the state of west bengal mr modi has been criticized for allowing large gatherings to take place while hospital struggle to deal with the world's biggest in coronavirus cases india correspondent elizabeth piron i'm now reports from new delhi. supporters of west bengal's governing trinamool congress party the t.n.c. celebrating victory in the capital kolkata that's despite the election commission banning all celebrations because of n.d.s. high number of cars on a virus cases. but supporters said they wanted to mark a month about a g.'s reelection for a 3rd term as chief minister. from a hard we have good wishes from above energy and that is why of us celebrating we already knew that the mc would have been because the development has been done by

d.n.c. and he went out on the other left wasn't bottle but they did not think. 175000000 people were eligible to vote in the states off west bengal. and put a cherry politicians including prime minister met in the modi had been criticised for holding large election rallies during a 2nd wave of coronavirus the world health organization said such gatherings are one of the reasons for india's surge in cases for candidates died in west bengal after contracting car that 90. political analysts say the government focused on winning elections instead of preparing for the latest search the central government was wholly unprepared in certain on february 21st. got their national id i covered that so i know they passed a political resolution the. same meaning the prime minister and i know what he did

and there were all these claims that go to 0 in getting you unity is so strong you know it's like the best word we're. going to make sense on. india is now the line on international aid as it's hospitals are struggling but shortages of beds oxygen equipment and medicines prime minister met in their morning held a meeting with health experts about the shortage just not just of beds and supplies but also to health. that says reports emerge from areas of people dying as lifesaving equipment including ventilation. and al-jazeera. pakistan's expected to receive $1000000.00 vaccine doses from china on sunday it's purchased a total of $17000000.00 doses from 3 chinese companies will supplement the astra zeneca vaccine being delivered through the kovacs program pakistan as

a no kill it's just over 2000000 people a population of 220000000. has more from a hospital on islam about outskirts. of their goal with 19 rock from china most of the. nation or a gift from the chinese government however. recognition from china which are likely. going to be a thing. made by. ready. and there are of course. right now in. which 57. june they will be.

planning international flights into the country. and there will be restrictions. travel it can turn and. starting on the 8th of may going all the way up to the 50. thousands of people have marched in support of the brazilian president. who's facing continued condemnation over his handling of the pandemic the president's supporters agree with him that the outbreak is overblown even though brazil does continue to be ravaged by infections many were seen without masks the chances against locked on measures that are closed many businesses also naro who fell ill with covert 1000 last year has consistently downplayed the dangers. hundreds of protesters are marching through me and mobs young gone city they're marking what they call the global me and mass spring revolution along with xpand trips around

the world protesters want to return to democracy and the release of political prisoners the military has not been able to stop demonstrations despite the use of force or than 750 people have been killed since the military coup in early february . 3 when was national unity government in exile says it's investigating allegations the military has committed acts of sexual violence against protesters it says has received many reports of abuse torture and sexual assault carried out by troops in 2019 the united nations fact finding mission accuse the army of widespread and systematic gender based violence against ethnic communities the national unity government that says is working to restore democracy in myanmar is demanding the order a stop to all forms of sexual violence norse's law so is the minister for women youth and children's affairs in the national unity government she says there have been widespread reports of sexual abuse by the military since the favorite coons.

we got a lot all complaints and also a lot in the social media. in the news this i lot of sexual assault and why meant to be detained. but now you're. on that in even met face to face with the victims of libel. we affirm get this i mean just say military. theory have dan that set your minds to i think ilia and last 5060 years ago in korea and in chile in shan in rakhine chin states they said we got a lot of reports and information and i don't for example in 2001 we got a report on what's in 2 ring why i don't buy. junk women action network

they have interviewed more than $600.00 jungle it's. just it and then it's different the record systematic only and then they also mention their name of the country and their brittanie and their number so this is the very strong evidence that i have that military is doing such a thing for a long time to their ethnic area again in 2017 in rakhine state committed these these asics of wines to the kind people including who are women so not again 2021 in supreme revolution so would be our dream and keep on dreaming to the women and to doing women just yesterday i got the information and complaint that not just the teaching women they also doing the sexual wine and to the women who also are on the we to their call on our on the very go on the motorcycle

that they make so many bad things to the girls and women right now. kyrgyzstan says the ceasefire with neighboring to g q stan is holding after a week of intense border fighting both nations claim an area around a water supply facility in a dispute dating back decades as the official death tolls mount after the worst fighting there in years kyrgyzstan is accusing its neighbor of war crimes trial strap that has the latest now from off in kyrgyzstan the kurdish ministry of internal affairs has announced that $25.00 bodies have been found in the town of goal over there reporting that these people were killed in a mortar attack by the military on april the 29th they've also released some statistics on the kind of structural damage damage to homes. during these attacks they're saying that 70 to 78 houses have been burned to schools 3 border posts and

10 petrol stations now the press office for the president saw there are power of they're saying that the situation is in their words relatively stable in that area we're hearing reports that the military have withdrawn back across the border we know that there's been a large mobilization of the kirghiz army to that area as you would expect and interestingly some news coming out from the bacon local authorities along most borders they're saying that 58000 people were evacuated from the area 52000 of who they are reporting as being women and children so another indication of just how severe how serious these clashes have been for astronauts serve spy stan back to earth in nasser's 1st nighttime ocean landing in more than 50 years also they are feeling well after traveling 114000000 kilometers during the instant in orbit they

harding has the story. space x. copies are his 1st question after more than 5 months in space 4 astronauts on board the dragon spacecraft splash down in the gulf of mexico off the coast of florida. after a 6 and a half hour journey back from the international space station or i assess they landed safely becoming the 1st crew to return from orbit in a space x. mission in partnership with nasa the night time splashdown was nasa's 1st since 1968 when apollo 8 the 1st mission to send astronauts around the moon returned to earth i think this is a remarkable achievement of a church of a life time for many of us and something to be proud of. americans michael hopkins victor glover and shannon walker along with cina gucci of japan are the 4 astronauts on board this was glover's 1st time in space he's also the 1st black

nasa astronaut to be a member of an i s s crew after medical checks they were taken ashore and flown to houston texas today it went very well overall i would say almost flawlessly dragon did great you know it was great to hear the crew when they woke up the 1st thing my cop considered is as you know what's the weather going to be like we told them hey maybe a 2 not to win a one foot wave and he was very excited from the very beginning by. the crew took off in november onboard a falcon 9 rocket. the mission is the 1st step in space x. owner musk's plan to commercialize space travel and continue to be nominal space x. . a looking to go straight to miles without without stopping elsewhere in the middle not. looking at using the mill you know to test that in some ways this is baby steps on the ground that ground program that front and elements like

data. expanding shimon space flight once again but i think it's still a significant step making their way over to while the astronauts recover the capsule will be taken back to the launch site at cape canaveral florida and refurbished for another trip to space harding al-jazeera. still ahead here on al-jazeera. 100 years ago it was the birth of northern ireland for some set theory is a cause for celebration but not here in dublin the capital of the obvious republic they see it as a disaster i'm andrew symonds about explaining why. also had the electric bikes in rules about when the sensing women on the road to prosperity.

we got some very heavy rain pushing back into central and eastern parts of china over the next day or so not see bad at the moment see this area cloud just rolling across central pass ahead of that we've seen a lot of active system just pushing across japan that's pulling out of the way high pressure coming in behind over the next day or so so it should be last you find that warm and pleasant sunshine coming through want to see showers and all the home she into hokkaido but the really wet weather coming down across central parts of china making its way further east which is we go through chews day the possibility of some disruptive rain coming through here we've already seen damaging winds and flooding into parts of eastern china i'm afraid there is more where that came from ahead of that is not see bad for japan at least through choose day around $25.00 celsius in the sunshine fam out of sunshine say it to southeast asia the philippines is fine and dry southern parts will catch a shop shot since the usual russia showers there across much of southeast asia some

of those heaviest showers there into northern parts of borneo pushing across towards the some montra and on into the have been gold so we'll see some what's the weather just making its way over towards us for lanka as we go through the next day or so southern parts of india also seeing some showers somewhat dry. a weekly critique of the stories hitting the headlines the news media have been left to sort through mixed messages on a quite complex story from mainstream to street journalism the enemy object is to get free speech to send it to the wall to show them what's going on exposing real world threats to objectivity often of our neighbor turned to moscow 11000 people who were arrested the listening post covers the way the blues discovered on a jersey dot. org. for the.

welcome back you're watching us is here a reminder of our top stories this half hour india has recorded the highest number of daily deaths from cope with 19 the health ministry says nearly 3700 people died in the last 24 hours there were 392000 new infections down slightly from saturday. pakistan is expected to receive 1000000 vaccines from china on sunday has purchased a total of 17000000 doses from 3 chinese companies to start as inoculated only slightly more than 2000000 people that's the lowest number in south asia. kyrgyzstan says the ceasefire was neighboring to gie christan is holding after a week of intense border clashes but kyrgyz as authorities say they found 25 bodies

from the latest attack and is accusing its neighbor of war crimes. a contentious new law in australia which threatens jail time for people returning from india is facing a growing backlash before it even takes effect on monday anyone who's been in india within 14 days of their planned days of return. will be banned from entering australia those who disobey could be locked up and find it's the 1st time australia has made it a potential criminal offense for its own people to return home some 9000 australians in india are registered as wanting to go back in pearson is the australia director for human rights watch she says save quarantine method should be the government's focus this is really quite outrageous that the government has pinpointed you know these criminal penalties that have very harsh that are very disproportionate on people coming from india i think what the government really needs to be doing is

looking at measures to ensure that people astray and through return can safely quarantine because let's remember under international law strains do have the right to return to their home country and any restrictions on that right really need to be very sort of carefully thought out they need to be necessary they need caution it and frankly i think criminal penalties just aren't the answer here we need to be looking at safe facilities of course we don't want to see you know the process that's happening in india you know taking place here but the government had already put in place you know very harsh restrictive measures they'd already blocked direct flights travelling from india earlier in the week until may 15th and i think you know instead of focusing so much energy on changing the law to introduce and outrageous and preset into proposal to send people to prison if they dare to get on a flight to return to their home country instead they should be actually looking at what are the ways that we can ensure that strain citizens who do return home can safely quarantine and that is where i think we're seeing

a failure are probably struggling government. reporters without borders says attacks on the media have increased during the pandemic it's published the findings in its annual world press freedom index some governments of accuse journalists of false reporting on coronavirus leaders tried to downplay the extent of the crisis in america editor of the sea and human the reports from santiago. in latin america journalism can be a dangerous profession and now that includes reporting the truth about the pull that 19 pandemic sunny figured or what guatemala's independent investigative reporting outbox for bully last year he and a colleague began publishing the porch of a corruption during the pandemic that implicated close friends of the president. that's when the president labeled us the terrible to detain for 21 hours and we're now getting death threats and are being followed constantly. a new study from

reporters without borders suggests that with the exception of costa rica and europe why freedom of news media has diminished across the board since the pandemic began . authoritarian governments attack slender any solid generalism public then it becomes an online campaign news can quickly spiral into physical attacks against journalists who want to call the brazilian president jay bull tonight or is consistently labeling the media as a public enemy for its coverage of the pandemic encouraging his supporters to attack journalists both online and in person says going on be. a common denominator is the use of social networks to discredit and attack journalists who do not paint a government's handling of the pandemic in a free mobile light or how the governor of the venezuelan state about our accused journalists going to go the idea of being paid to lie in

a report about the acute shortage of hospital beds and medicine she tells me she's being investigated under an anti-terrorism financing law. they were yelling that i won't deny that i'm frightened that i'm always looking over my shoulder that i don't know when this so-called charge against me will result in my arrest and in chile a prominent independent journalist who suggested that the health ministry was under reporting the number of coded 1000 infections and deaths was accused of spreading fake news of trying to destroy the government and of being anti-patriotic it was their message to the rest of the media to behave if you want to be and if you want to. if you want to show that it is them you wouldn't steal the show that that was the message the reporters without borders report makes the point that in the context of a global sanitary emergency journalism is the primary vaccine against

a virus. it's called this information there is and our own investigation suggests that the pandemic is actually being used to justify in many cases limiting transparency and freedom of expression you see in human al-jazeera sent the. antigovernment protesters in venezuela say may day used to be a celebration but workers and suffering the country is years into a deep economic crisis the government announced it was almost quadrupling the minimum wage but that still doesn't match the searching cost of living pro-government demonstrators also marched calling for an end to international sanctions against venezuela a large fire in the northwest of iran has caused extensive damage in an industrial town it broke out in a chemical factory near the city of qom that's known as a factory hub crews stopped the fire from reaching tanks where industrial alcohol was stored and investigation into the course has now been launched there are no initial reports of any casualties. international organization of migration says is

concerned more people will try the dangerous mediterranean crossing from libya as better summer weather approaches on saturday the libyan coast guard rescued 334 refugees and migrants they were on board for small boats heading for europe crewmembers on board another rescue ship the sea watch for libya's coast guard violently detaining people and taking them back against their will. more than 200 people from 15 countries have arrived on the italian island of sicily they were picked up by the ocean biking charity ship rescue groups are pleading for you countries to open their doors. northern ireland turns 100 on monday a 17 yr that's unlikely to be acknowledged south of the border a former irish president has told this channel that the partition in 1921 was a tragedy that continues to have consequences today simmons reports. mary mcaleese is unlike any other former irish president she grew up in northern

ireland a catholic living in a protestant area in the seventy's her family forced to move out sectarian conflict group. the irish war of independence from britain between 1919 to 920 warm had led to the partitioning of the country and the birth of northern ireland exactly 100 years ago thousands of civilian lives were lost in the interim isn't conflict that followed mary mcaleese is calling on protestants not to mark monday's sent tina ri with triumphalism language that is used is so important to be to use language that that doesn't other the people that you share the island with or your share northern ireland with but language that shows that you're sensitive to their concerns one word the right way can you know it can open people up and it can make them consult them hearts where as one word the wrong way and you can harden hearts

some are using the word celebration that is a difficult word and so for very far most of the centenary is that we have been through we haven't used those words we've used the word commemoration we've used softer words we've used words that open up to inclusion and that understand that there are some for whom this was a tragedy and not a when some feel it's ironic that the santini comes at a time when irish unity is edging back onto the agenda helped by bricks at the puts an easy you trade border in the irish sea separating the u.k. mainland from the island protestants fear alienation the government here in dublin sees are as unity as a distant prospect officially at least could it happen sooner rather than later well there's a growing body of opinion that it could do you will never solve the problems of northern ireland by violence the good friday peace agreement recognise something

that fighting couldn't achieve a referendum on irish unity dependent on catholics becoming a majority that's likely to be confirmed in a new u.k. census then brit. and besides if there is a referendum this is the birthplace of irish democracy and there's another factor briggs it took northern ireland against its will out of the european union so for a lot of center middle ground people a united ireland is the only route back to the european union and the advantages which they enjoyed as european union citizens and many young people in the south support reunification and what their leaders to put more emphasis on the cheating and i think that the planning and preparation for a should be because immediately to mitigate some of the damaging impacts of brigs it particularly and what we've seen with solar political leaders at the time is putting it on the long finger and pointed to some indiscriminate days in the future but irish history with all of its overwhelming violence baby the biggest obstacle for now on both sides of the divide many feel reconciliations still has some way to

go under simmons al-jazeera. now in a rural districts in zimbabwe a new electric powered motorcycle is changing how women do business by helping poor women find an income and how easy is the burden of caring for their families or metacity as this report from howard's. chickens are ready for the markets and this 3 wheeler known as hamba which means to go in zimbabwe is going to help her take the me. the farmer pays any privilege of $15.00 a month with a group of friends to lease the electric power to motorcycles she can now sell her goods and much further away from a small village i had said. before i got this bike i couldn't come this far now i sell my chickens and vegetables at a business center that's 20 kilometers away i can get more customers here and more

money even carry more goods. the bikes are being tested by a local startup that's leasing the motorcycles to women in the community our aim was to bring green mobility solutions to remain in communities because you notice that you remain. under rated and they spend most of their time during the whole sword chars instead of. making money and improving their incomes so we thought that if for the player to test for the remains to see if they are going to improve their labeling rules and if the product is your board to be used by many others. most of the solar charged lithium ion batteries the bikes used are charged in here this is the solar charging station 18 batteries can be charged here at the same time on a good day when there's lots of sunlight intake about 7 or 8 hours to charge a battery so in the community whenever someone has

a flat actually they just come in here and swap it for a fully charged one. the bikes made in china and assembled in the capital harare are proving useful in communities with no reliable public transport or tarred roads passengers call or send a whatsapp message to schedule pick up times the drivers say they can make up to $8.00 a day transporting people money that helps make them more financially independent in zimbabwe a country with jobs asking us how to metastasize al-jazeera with zimbabwe. this is these are your top stories india has recorded the highest number of daily deaths from cope with 19 the health ministry says nearly 3700 people died in the last day but workers at local crime authority i'm say the actual number is much higher there were 392000 new infections down slightly.