protesters. and the prime minister of ivory coast dies. played a crucial role in mediation during the country's civil war. on japan is marking 10 years since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated its northeastern coast and triggered meltdowns at an power plant nearly 16000 people were killed in the 2011 disaster 2 and a half 1000 others still remain missing the tsunami smashed into the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant destroying its cooling systems during the following week 3 of the pumps reactors exploded and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes well let's move over to japan now the solomon is in for taba in fukushima prefecture friday i imagine this is a very emotional day there for many people how are people marking it. well as you mentioned this is very emotional for people because 10 years is a landmark year to at least to recovery and lots of the sort of that followed the disaster but still people are in the highest emotions after they heard today the announcement of the same time when the tsunami struck this area behind me 10 years ago to 46 minutes. b.m. . more than 10 meters of tsunami just went through all this area destroyed all the houses everything in the area just behind me this mountain road leads to nuclear plant this area 10 years ago it was inside the no go zone that you couldn't have crossed but now we're just about 3 kilometers from the nuclear plant just behind the mountain behind me is the nuclear fusion the nuclear plant and from that observatory. building just opposite of me we can see the very clearly the roof and water cooling towers or focus nuclear plants so very very tough time for many people we have to remember that almost 900000 people were killed or went missing and that was the story just last month the japanese police they found the remains of a lady $61.00 or lady from yagi prefecture north of japan they found her remains and yesterday they delivered it to her son who was able at last to put a closure to the his emotions at the same time people are also reminded of the. critical situation in the area last month on the 13th of february also this area witnessed the $7.00 earthquake just reminding people of how vulnerable the situation is still here in the area i thought even more than a decade on i mean the cleanup and rebuilding a still going it's not been without controversy can you talk us through where we are now. well i'm now in town it's only 3 kilometers away from the nuclear plant as i mentioned so this area is it was a no go zone but last year it was open to the public of course none of the 6000 people who used to live here are living now although they have feel to me model museum just so common that it occasion as a symbol for the reconstruction but the area is just far away from being reconstructed already inhabited the reason behind that is that all the. news have been far from the headlines lately but the situation there is still very critical we have to remember that the myth of the nuclear fuel is that in 3 of the reactors . nothing has been done to move to remove it also another being points here is the accumulating water almost 1240000 cubic meters are accumulated during that 10 years this water is the pulley to the water from underground that has been withdrawn and the starting facility or the sorting space is about to run out on out by autumn orders or some of next year lastly i know if you can see from here a little bit far away we can see the waste there are 14000000 cubic tonnes 1000000 cubic tonnes of cubic meters study of waste and there has been contaminated with the material and now it's sort temporarily around fukushima plant but i'm betting too to get rid of it but until now nobody knows when or how that is going to be to be done. on the ground for us in for shame with all that i just thank you so much chad. now moving on to the united states where the house of representatives has approved president joe biden's $1.00 trillion dollars over $1000.00 really fell it's one of the largest spending plans in the country's history that package includes funding for more vaccines and also extends unemployment benefits and the show has more now from washington d.c. thank you scott applause the host delivered joe biden's 1st significant victory as president of $1.00 trillion dollars called would relieve bill and all done without a single republican vote in support this is a momentous day in the history of our country because we have passed historic consequential and transformative legislation thanks goes to the senators who are standing here are great committee chairs and all of our senators who pulled together as one unit beating back killer amendments making sure the bill was as strong as possible the bill has overwhelming support across the country 61 percent approval but republicans claim it spends far too much and delivers far too little we are here today mr speaker because democrats made a choice. i choice to put their own partisan political ambitions the head of the needs of the working class the deal delivers $1400.00 stimulus checks to every qualifying american targeted mainly at lower incomes there's 350000000000 dollars for states cities and tribal governments $130000000000.00 for schools $40000000000.00 for further education and $50000000000.00 in relief for small businesses the package was a big pre-election promise from biden he wanted to do it with republican support but was happy to push on without it. everything in the american rescue plan addresses a real need including investments to fund our entire vaccination effort more vaccines more vaccinate tours and more vaccination sites millions more americans will get tested including home chesty schools will soon have the funding and resources to reopen safely a national imperative biden is expected to sign the bill when it hits his desk on friday the administration says the 1st checks could start going out soon with many people receiving their money before the end of the month alan fischer al-jazeera washington. china is annual parliamentary session the national people's congress is now wrapping up in beijing as you can see new laws have been passed restricting democratic participation in hong kong where candidates running for office will be vetted by a committee appointed by beijing this is me saying also saw chinese president xi jinping announce his government has ended poverty and china correspondent katrina you joins us now live from beijing katrina as this all starts coming to a close what bills are being voted on right now. now we know about 10 different bills and documents are being voted on by the 3000 strong group in the national people's congress here in beijing's great hall of the people we've got the budget for the next year china's 5 year plan it's got a document stating out its strategic goals for the next 15 years and we have other documents on climate change in the environment but the big one of course that we're waiting on is a draft law about hong kong's political reforms now just to give a bit more context the national people's congress is it's an event of a lot of pomp and pageantry what's said is that during this this week a many of these members are presented with these bills but in reality many of these documents have been discussed and finalized months in advance so that has given rise to the term the rubber stamp parliament when people do talk about this national people's congress and what the international community is waiting on today is really this hong kong law now what we're going to see is according to beijing an order of the whole of hong kong's political system which will fight subversion against the government and also bring stability to the hong kong territory but of course there are many critics of this bill including democracy activists in hong kong and abroad who say that this is simply a bill to crush the democracy and freedoms promised to the hong kong people now we're still waiting on details about what that entails but essentially we know that it will overhaul the make up of the many politicians in hong kong the legislative council which avoids the hong kong's leaders it will shrink the number of officials that are directly voices in by the public and increase the number of seats given to probe aging figures and we also know that there will be the insertion of this new screening test which will basically ensure that all those holding office in hong kong a loyal to the beijing government essentially what china china calls a patriot's katrina internationally looking at one of the more contentious issues of aid has been china's relationship with the u.s. was that much just question of that at the meeting. there wasn't much head on no direct mention of the us that certainly tunnel relationship with the u.s. or its deteriorating relationship with the us was at the forefront of the communist party's mind we've seen the biden and did mr ation in recent weeks many times label china a strategic threat to the u.s. and this is really been manifest in a lot of the documents and a lot of discussions that have been held during the national people's congress of the past few days and we seeing this in his long term plan going forward especially when you look at the economic strategy economic targets as a lot of mention about china's need to become self-reliant and independent when it comes to its supply chains when it comes to its technological technological products basically boosting innovation and research to compete with the u.s. or china does not have to use u.s. core technologies we've also seen xi jinping himself speak about china's need to boost its military at a time of uncertainty and one new china's foreign minister on friday on sunday called for china and the u.s. to set a new path in its ties but of course the biden administration has raised a lot of concerns about beijing specifically about alleged human rights abuses when it comes to the. washington has labeled that genocide and now with this hong kong political reform but we do know that just a few hours ago beijing confirmed a meeting between its foreign minister one knee and his top lip the diplomat young gesture with the u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken next week in alaska and they're going to try to sort out some sort of corporation going forward but we will be watching that very closely. katrina you there with all the latest for us from beijing thanks so much katrina. well speaking of the u.s. the u.s. is now imposing sanctions on 2 adult children of myanmar's military leader i mean online after the violence against protesters there washington has now frozen their assets and blacklisted 6 companies that they control that move comes as protesters continue to defy the military these images were taken just in the past few hours in the city of daraa way as you can see there the crowds are smaller than in recent days the u.n. says at least $67.00 people have been killed since the military seized power last month amnesty international says an analysis of more than 50 videos shows that man laws military is engaging in premeditated killings and the prying what it calls battlefield weaponry and warning some people may find more about him and his report to stopping. myanmar's military is using increasingly lethal tactics weapons normally seen on the battlefield its target protests is the bystanders across the country that's according to new research from amnesty international. the rights group verified the videos like this one and says they confirm security forces are engaged in what it calls systematic and premeditated killings it was around the 28th of february we started seeing action more lethal force people being shot with live rounds and being killed. per says earlier on they had been a mixed use of life bullets and probably bullets but now what we're seeing is a mounting death toll. in this video recorders will mark the 2nd in young gone on the sea internationals as a commander can be seen standing over an officer operating a sniper rifle and appears to be giving him orders to direct aspire to with specific protests as. since last month's military coup thousands of held daily protests across the country. an increasingly bloody crackdown by security forces is so far led to dozens of deaths. according to the u.n. at least 61 people have been killed activists believe the death toll is higher. in another development i'm a senior national report some soldiers deployed to me on march 2nd city of mandalay belong to the 33rd light infantry division that's a division which has been accused of war crimes against the muslim or hanged in the western iraq and state in 2017 days heard right into entry divisions that have been responsible said heinous crimes elsewhere in the country that are now out in the streets shooting people in the videos analyzed by amnesty also appear to show civilians being beaten at the hands of security guards but the demonstrators say they're undeterred was we show casing there was brilliant to military rule by continuously adapting their tactics no matter how much violence they. were about a man out as not. hostile ahead here on al-jazeera will get the latest on the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov sneezing with his counterparts from qatar and turkey. struggling to survive by businesses and zimbabwe say the easing of coronavirus sections may do a little to help them recover. hello there we've got a late taste of winter coming in across parts of northern europe here we go with this big massive cloud rolling in from the atlantic but in some rather cold air heading increasingly wet and windy as go through the next couple days across the british isles and that will eventually push its way in across the low countries through parts of france easing across germany right sleet and snow then irakli and on a very strong wind gals will see big al's at times it slides across a little see in sioux norway and sweden and you can see a fair bit of snow there as this moderate she bumps into the cold air readily turns to snow in the process and that's what the baltic states we have some snow in here as well we'll see some snowy weather there across the northern parts of poland down to the southeast have got some snow here as well for good measure just into well northeastern parts of turkey in between in this fight in dry moscow a cold minus 7 celsius sunshine there down across a good part of ukraine then as we push on into friday well that wintry weather continues to fade further east where it's slightly drier weather comes rattling in behind with quite a few showers those showers still stretched across a good part of france but despite in portugal at least here is fine dry sunny and pleasantly warm. frank assessments should we be buying big court ultimately it will be sovereigns and governments who are buying this and in-depth analysis of the day global headlines inside story. military takeover amy and molly us on the streets 101 east is on the ground investigating what it means for the future of the southeast asian nation on out you see. what. color they are to al-jazeera that's remind you of our top stories here this hour japan is marking 10 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami hits northeastern coast and triggered meltdowns at a nuclear power plant $16000.00 people were killed 2500 are still missing. the u.s. house of representatives has approved a nearly 2 trillion dollars pandemic relief bill it will provide stimulus checks for millions of americans as well as extend unemployment benefits and tax breaks. and china's national people's congress is wrapping up as you can see him now in beijing new laws restricting democratic participation in hong kong are being discussed candidates for office will be vetted by a committee appointed by the. now the russian foreign minister is in cats are on the final leg of his 4 day tour of the gulf region sergey lavrov is expected to meet the emir of qatar and its foreign minister very shortly that dr held meetings with turkey's foreign minister in doha already on wednesday and we can now speak to bernard smith who is following the visit for us ben and kelly plenty for the men to discuss how significant is this this is the end of a 4 day trip to the gulf region it started in abu dhabi to dubai riyadh and lastly here in doha where he'll meet katz's in mir and then they'll be a meeting between cats as foreign minister turkey's foreign minister met a lot of a solo and. now the official reason for this trip to the region given by the russian foreign ministry last week is to discuss business ties to discuss power generation industry agriculture the peaceful uses space and the need to settle existing conflicts in this region he's referring to libya to syria and to yemen so what's interesting is that we have the catteries and the turks on one side of the conflict in syria supporting the rebels now hold off on the along the northern border with with turkey and russia backing the outside regime on both those groups on different sides of the conflict in libya as well the timing is quite interesting quite useful for the russians it comes a week after the u.s. release that intelligence report pointing the finger saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon for allegedly ordering the killing of jamal khashoggi in $28.00 of the u.s. suspended the sales of weapons to the saudis and the m.r. artie's weapons that might be used in the conflict of yemen so a lot of robberies here while the u.s. is the by the administration is essentially recalibrating its relationships with some countries in the gulf states then it's myth or following that does it for us here and i have thank you very much ban it. well mining giant norilsk nickel has paid a record fine of $2000000000.00 for an oil spill that caused one of russia's worst environmental disaster is last year a storage tank is a power plant in siberia it leaked $21000.00 tons of diesel into rivers and lakes in the arctic russia says the money will be used to improve the region's ecology now ivory coast's prime minister hum it has died marking the 2nd time within a year that one of the nation's leaders has died in office today illness but here who is seen as a possible successor to president allison were tara he was flown to france for medical treatment last month and then to germany a manager as has more now from. he died of advanced case of cancer and this is a man who is seen by many here in ivory coast as a possible successor he's been groomed going by his profile is that the minister of defense the prime minister as well as minister of interior it tells you how much trusted he is. by a loss of what and what the future had in store for him before this now this is this 2nd. loss and what sort of success of a possible successor who has died in the last 8 months he inherited the position from. who died 8 months ago and was seen as a possible successor to us and what i what i gave the reason for his contesting the presidential elections last last year. because he lost somebody you could have trusted to handle the job and as a result the constitution was picked and then he stood and won the election of voice disputed by the by the opposition now. the prime minister the late prime minister may be a heavyweight in government circles but he's not that much he doesn't cut that much figure in politics in the ruling out of steeply party he is seen as a lightweight so some other senior political big weeks out there and but they also knew that this is the preferred candidate of president alassane ouattara. well as president is now under a new scrutiny for allegedly promising to protect drug traffic is moving large amounts of cocaine into the united states prosecutors in new york say president want to lend a hand has received millions of dollars and bribes and and as has denied those allegations but he could be facing 4 out in his relationship with the u.s. and europe reports. plundering president when he landed in and is has been accused of trafficking tons of cocaine to the united states this according to you. prosecutors who went as far as calling honduras a norco state. investigator say president edmond is received bribes amounting to $25000000.00 from giovanni fuentes play midis in alleged drug trafficker currently on trial in a us federal court though the u.s. government is long viewed hundreds says the strategic ally in the region this week u.s. state department spokesperson ned price distanced the biden administration from its counterparts in the adnan this government we are committed to fighting corruption in honduras and we will support and work with leaders who are committed to fighting corruption any leader i think it is fair to say fair to say not prepared to combat the corruption won't be in a position to enjoy a close partnership with the united states allegations of criminal conduct against president and his have been mounting for years in 2019 a us court convicted the president's younger brother tony of 9 days for cocaine trafficking charges. tell us. everyone. is saying. work or not. this is rather and iran's president can only go up and say that he had rates it and that he used that he was 020. 000 s. it added. the united states government ok for his part the honduran president has denied any involvement with organized crime taking to twitter on wednesday to deny the latest allegations against him the false testimony of the not be a slice the not just testified under oath they purchased full immunity 425200 21 is an election year and it's shaping up to be an important one for the country's relationship with the united states the bye to the administration has allocated for . $1000000000.00 to combat the root causes of migration from central american countries along with violence and poverty political corruption into the government of president and is has been a driving factor behind the waves of mass migration out of honduras but the white house says there is little aid is possible will go to corrupt government setting conditions like transparent elections as evidence of good governance manildra up a little al-jazeera. mexico has moved closer to decriminalizing cannabis after its lower house of congress approved a new bill that legislation would allow the drug to be used for recreational medical and scientific purposes it's backed by president under its manolo has obrador and would make the country one of the world's largest cannabis markets the bill now goes to the senate for brazil has recorded its highest number of deaths from 1001 day since this pandemic began more than 2000 wednesday's figure takes the overall toll that to more than 270000 brazil is struggling to deal with a surge in cases that's pushed many hospitals close to breaking point health experts say it's being fueled by more contagious strains of the virus. on zimbabwe has meanwhile eased its coronavirus lockdown an overnight curfew that were imposed back in january it's now allowing businesses to reopen after the race of new infections there slowed many are now trying to recover after months of disruptions has a has this report from harare. tasty girl burgers some chicken and anything else on the menu will soon be ready but not for a sits down meal cloven 1000 mr chinn's in zimbabwe don't allow that for now it's only takeaways part of the government's plan to bring down infection rates for restaurants and fast food outlets also known as quick service restaurants or. this is not good for business as you can see now or an empty restaurant will only be able to trade till 7 pm and even then we might have a few people who will come through but restaurants are not primarily catered for takeaway business and even if you look at some of the logic u.s. our businesses there are only still operating in 50 percent because they have designed themselves to allow saddam patrons so it's a significant impact in the business and going forward significant impact and we're looking at job losses and companies closing other businesses have fully reopened as the country tries to recover from a 2nd wave of corona virus infections lockdowns in 2020 and early this year back to zimbabwe is already struggling economy we certainly are past the worst in terms of course at 19 and unfortunately at the beginning of the 1st return of the law. and what really looking forward to is where. it started coming in but since we may not have to resort to lockdowns i. should see you know performance in profile for companies. that zimbabweans are taking advantage of being able to move around without restrictions there is high unemployment most people here live hand to mouth this isn't very one of the oldest is. years old friend markets in the capital harare informal traders cannot understand their way must the practice of distancing but not everyone is a. threat as winter approaches in this region health officials are warning of a 3rd wave is called 9000 regulations on to follow that business owners on the brink of permanent closure say they can't afford another lock down. this is al-jazeera these are the headlines japan is marking 10 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit its northeast uncursed and triggered meltdowns at a nuclear power plant 16000 people were killed and 2500 are still missing. in fukushima prefecture still people are. the highest emotions after they heard today announced.