trillion dollars in $1000.00 relief bill passes its final hurdle in the u.s. congress offering financial help to millions of americans. on the spot behind mexico's new state led energy policy and why environmentalists are against it. but we are getting reports that at least 6 people have been killed in myanmar in the latest crackdown against protesters there demonstrators are continuing to defy the military these images were taken earlier on thursday in the city of da way but crowds all smaller than in recent days the u.n. says at least 67 people have now been killed since the military seized power last month well let's speak to scott haile he joins us now from bangkok in neighboring thailand it's got the death toll just continues to mount what do we know about these latest deaths. they have we know him as you mentioned it's a central town in me and at least 6 protesters were shot dead there some appear to have been shot in the head now what we do know witness is saying that it was a peaceful protest before the shots rang out and people fled for their lives after that we are also hearing reports unconfirmed those 6 in the are confirmed we're hearing unconfirmed reports that another death shooting at a protest in yangon someone has died there and also in mandalay in central meum are as well so we're hearing that possibly 2 others also have died today bringing it up to 8 so far today but those other 2 still need to be confirmed the confirmed number is that 6 scott as the crackdown continues you will say seen international pressure mounting is that making any sort of a difference to i potentially detect a shift in tone there from the military. well from the military you know they have been pretty resolute in their messaging if you will and there's a press conference going on right now this is being held by the a military spokesman and he is kind of click through some of the same message points that we've been seeing and hearing over the last several weeks but there are a couple of interesting points i wanted to bring up one thing he's trying to say the joint is trying to shift a bit of the blame on the end of the party on songs to choose party they said that they their members the end of the members are encouraging people to go out and protest yet they are hiding themselves also in this press conference they said that 2 protesters who were killed in april of the capital the bullets found in their bodies the army is claiming were theirs because it's not the kind of munitions that they use and that the protesters are actually preventing civil servants from going to work obviously that you know we've heard and seen on the streets civil servants unions have come out and joined the civil disobedience movement so that would contradict what the government what the joint is saying now and also the director was saying that the protesters are preventing medical staff from going into the hospitals and that's that's a public health threat and then lastly that this is something we've heard before that the military is reiterating the joint is reiterating that they're only going to control the country in till there are elections that's something that obviously is a big question mark because they haven't had any time and they've provided no evidence for what they said was the basis for their coup back on february 1st and that was the elections back in november were fraudulent they have proved they have not provided any evidence for that but yet still use that as a reason for what they're doing and and this crackdown we're seeing on the streets across myanmar it's called with all the latest for us from bangkok thanks very much scott well speaking of that crackdown amnesty international says analysis of more than 50 videos shows me the minute she is engaging in premeditated killings and is deploying what it calls battlefield weaponry and warning some people may find it all about. report to stopping. military is using increasingly lethal tactics and weapons normally seen on the battlefield its target protesters and bystanders across the country that's according to new research from amnesty international. the rights group verified dozens of videos like this one and says they confirm security forces are engaging in what it calls systematic and premeditated killings it was around the $28.00 that every we started seeing action more force people being shot with live rounds and being killed. her says earlier on there had been a mixed use of live bullets and rubber bullets but now what we're seeing is a mounting death toll. in this video recorded on march the 2nd in young gone on the sea international says a commander can be seen standing over an officer in operating a sniper rifle and appears to be giving him orders to direct aspire towards specific protests as. well. 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 amas international reports some soldiers deployed to me on mars 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 hang in the west some rakhine state in 2017 days i heard right. tree divisions that have been responsible heinous crimes elsewhere in the country that are now out in the streets shooting people. videos analyzed by amnesty also appear to show civilians being beaten at the harms because the curate guards but the demonstrators say they're on to turn. the cheer casing there was billions to military rule by continuously adapting their tactics no matter how much they. grew out of them. on our japan is marking 10 years since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated its northeastern coast and triggered meltdowns at a nuclear power plant nearly 16000 people were killed in the 2011 disaster and 2 and a half 1000 others remain missing this is the tsunami smashed into the focus daiichi nuclear plant of destroying its cooling systems during the next week 3 of the plant's reactors exploded hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes. has more now from fatah that in focus the more prefecture. this is very emotional for people because 10 years is a landmark year to at least 2 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 at the same time when the tsunami struck this area behind me 10 years ago at 246 minutes. more than 10 meters of tsunami just went through all this area destroyed all the houses everything in the area at the same time people are also reminded of the. critical situation in the area last month on the 13th of february also. witnessed the 7.3 earthquake just reminding people of how vulnerable this washing is still here in the area. news have been far from the headlines lately but the situation there is still very critical we have to remember that the nuclear fuel is in 3 of the 3 reactors. nothing has been done to move to remove it also another. point here is the accumulating water almost 1240000 cubic meters are accumulated during that 10 years this water is the political water from underground that has been withdrawn and the storing facility or the sorting space is about to run our own out by autumn orders or summer of next year. yeah after the global pandemic was declared the u.s. house of representatives has now approved president joe biden's $1.00 trillion $1.19 really feel 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 has more from washington d.c. thank you going to pause the house deliver joe biden is for. significant victory as president a $1.00 trillion dollar covert relief 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 ahead of the needs of the working class the deal delivers $1400.00 stimulus checks to every qualifying american targeted mainly of lower incomes there's 350000000000 dollars for states cities and tribal governments 130000000000 for schools 40000000000 for further education and 50000000000 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 with. 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 testing 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. well still ahead here on al-jazeera we're live in beijing but china's national people's congress has now wrapped up we'll tell you about some of the new laws and what it could mean for hong kong. and russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has been cast off and talks find out what that means as being u.s. calibrate recalibrates its role in the region. it's time for the perfect. sponsored plan qatar airways. stormy weather now piling in across northern parts of europe big banks of cloud harrowing across the low countries making its way into scandinavia you can see this rough of weather fronts just coming through here tightly packed ice about some very strong winds gales also vehicles are rattling in across the british isles and that's that moderate just runs into the cold air you can see it really turns to snow across scandinavia so norway and sweden seeing some significant snowfall comes down into the baltic states but we wanted to snow flurries that was possible in england and into that western side all scotland a weather system bringing some outbreaks of rain then across the low countries into germany good part of germany central parts of fronts seeing some very wet weather as well and down into the southeast for good measure that we missed out here we're seeing some rather wet and wintry weather making its way across turkey that will clear through practice guys come back in behind fabulous snow there now making its way through belarus through ukraine easing up towards that western side of russia and then more showers just rackley in a strong wind that blustery weather will continue across northwestern parts of europe as we go on through the next couple of days there is some warm weather around is fine and dry for a good part of spain and portugal. spokes of qatar airways jump into the story there is a lot going on in this and julian and global community when i talk about the misinformation i think we are more afraid than we are aware be part of the debate don't ever take anybody's one word because there's always a difference when no topic is off the table we have been disconnected from our land we have been disconnected from who we are good enough to hear from you in the to be part of today's discussion this streamed on out is there a. hello there i'm as tall as your tender home that's right and you of our top stories here this hour we're getting reports at least 6 people have been killed in myanmar the latest crackdown against and who protesters demonstrators are still defying the military but crowds are smaller than in recent days. japan is marking 10 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami hits northeastern coast and triggered meltdowns at a nuclear power plant 16000 people were killed 2500 are still missing. the u.s. house of representatives has approved a nearly 2 trillion dollars pandemic relief bill that will provide stimulus checks for millions of americans as well as extend unemployment benefits and tax breaks. when china's annual national people's congress has wrapped up in beijing and leaders of past new laws restricting democratic participation in hong kong candidates running for office will be vetted by a committee appointed by beijing this year's meeting also saw chinese president xi jinping announced that his government had ended extreme poverty in china you have been following all of this for us in beijing katrina as this all comes to a close can you talk to us about the significance of the bills that we've seen voted through. well this national people's congress has an annual opportunity for 3000 members of the chinese communist party to past bills in china now this is a largely ceremonial event and many of these bills and documents are approved way ahead of schedule and also we expect that all of these will be passed so they voted on 10 different bills today and those include the budget for the next year or china's 5 and 15 year plan but of course the one that we're really looking out for that the international community was waiting for was this bill to reform hong kong's political system now when it comes to the vote today in beijing is great hall of the people we had $2895.00 officials approve this bill and only one abstention so it was pretty much unanimously passed as was expected now we've just gotten more details of what this includes it was released by shin wire that china's state media and there are 9 articles to this bill basically these changes can be summarized in 2 ways one that there's going to be a major overhaul to the make up of hong kong's legislative council that is the mini parliament that elects the hong kong leader more seats will be added to the electoral system and they will be stacked mostly with probating figures the 2nd may just change is the introduction of essentially a screening mechanism to ensure that all of those holding public office in hong kong a loyal to the chinese government considered patriots essentially by beijing now china has said that these changes are necessary to ensure the security and the stability of the territory but of course there are many inside and outside of hong kong who are hugely critical of these changes saying that this is crushing the democratic freedoms that were promised to hong kong for at least another 50 years and katrina just thinking about it from an international perspective one of the more contentious issues of layers has really been the relationship with the u.s. was there much discussion of that the n.p.c. . not much too much direct mention of china's relationship with the u.s. but it was definitely on the forefront of the communist party is mine we've seen the biden administration refer to china as a strategic threat and china has responded to this and many of the documents that we've seen discussed or released during this national people's congress namely in this economic targets we've seen china really push during this n.p.c. for self-reliance and its economy and that's in terms of producing its own core technologies boosting innovation and also boosting its domestic consumption or longer relying so much on exports specifically to the western world but instead of really a developing its service economy and we've also seen the bursting during this n.p.c. of the will ringback to boost china's military now what china's foreign minister on sunday called for the u.s. and china to reset ties to chart a new path but we've seen the biden administration u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken raise many concerns with china's behavior particularly around human rights abuse allegations in shin jiang against the muslim week of minority let's have a listen to what he had to say i think it would be very important if china claims that there is nothing going on that it give access to the international community to the united nations if they have nothing to hide show it to us show show the world and so we'll be calling for that and then i think there's a series of practical things that are very very important for example we should make sure that we are not exporting and others are not exporting to china any products that can be used for the repression of their people and their minorities similarly we shouldn't be bringing into this country products that are created by forced labor including from flinching. of aging has just a few hours ago confirmed 4 minutes to one young true which is who is the top diplomat here in china will meet with anthony blinken next week in alaska in anchorage to discuss hopefully what will be some areas of corporations will be we'll be watching to see whether they can find any common ground we will indeed katrina you there with all the latest for us from beijing thank you so much katrina well speaking of diplomatic meetings the russian foreign minister is in cats are on the final leg of his 4 day tour of the gulf region so a lover of his expected to meet with the emir of qatar and its foreign minister lavrov has already held meetings with turkey's foreign minister on wednesday while al-jazeera is bernard smith is following this visit for us here in doha but at a very busy meeting schedule of full of right here in doha how significant is this visit. a lot of the circle of rob russia's foreign minister has already visited abu dhabi dubai riyadh and then his 4 dates saw here in doha in mere in less than an hour's time we'll have a tripartite meeting with catus foreign minister turkey's foreign minister which i was solo along with now the russian foreign ministry said last week that this tour is in a sense to discuss business opportunities in terms of power generation industry agriculture and the peaceful use of space and it says there's a need to settle existing conflicts in this region is a reference to libya to syria and to yemen turkey and qatar of course on the side of the rebels holed up along the northern syrian border with turkey in the conflict while russia has but the assad regime and in libya both groups on different sides of the argument in libya but this visit also comes interestingly just a week after the u.s. issued that intelligence report suggesting the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon ordered the alleged allegedly ordered the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi in $28.00 the u.s. a stop the sale of weapons to the u.a.e. and the saudis weapons that might be used in the conflict in yemen so while the u.s. is sort of recalibrating its relationships with gulf countries from russia is here than in smith across that does it for us here in doha thank you so much bennett on our mining giant a normal skin neck and has paid a record fine of $2000000000.00 for an oil spill that cost $1.00 of russia's a west and via mental disasters last year a storage tank at a power plant in siberia $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. well the united nations says there are mounting concerns about unexploded devices after a series of explosions at a military barracks in equitorial guinea more than $100.00 people were killed in those blasts in the coastal city of on sunday the president says nearly every building in basra has been damaged and it was caused by mishandled dynamite. or senegal is observing a national day of mourning for those killed in days of anti-government protests the unrest was sparked when police arrested opposition politician is money some call last week well nicholas had sat down with him in the capital dhaka. for some months on ko is one of senegal's rising opposition leaders for others including the state prosecutor he's a rapist responsible for public disorder after a protester ruptured following his arrest last week but zongo who is out on bail says the allegations against him are politically motivated. i have committed no crime we can't trust the justice system in the way the keys is being carried out against me the trouble is by altering the law and the process in order to sentence political opening the prosecutor is not working for the state but. the government deployed extra security forces including the military to end days of nationwide demonstrations rights groups say hundreds of people are being detained to protest stopped after president monkey still called for calm and dialogue in a nationwide address but zongo is calling for more protests. what we are seeing right now is a revolution but this is not a privilege to overthrow president. it's a smart revolution we need to organize local elections that are 2 years overdue then the parliament election in 2022 so that the people can freely elected a new leader 2024. song who describes himself as the anti establishment candidate for the 2024 presidential election critical of senegal's relationship with former corps no power france he accuses the government of corruption favoring french corporations our relationship with friends like in other countries need to be more balanced it has to be a win win relationship not a one way relationship critics say song goes nationalist discourse is dangerous during the recent protests his supporters are accused of burning and looting french supermarkets those looting are do not because they support me but because they need provisions these are people that walk past the spot markets unable to enter because they can afford it the trolls the feel of the seat. scores were killed in many injured by security forces since some cause arrest last wednesday president mikey cell blames the economic fallout of the pandemic for the unrest for sanko the crisis calls for political change those that died were 141618 years old they know the future is at stake in our and to them and all those that are politic are prisoners of my cell we can't give up the fight. but this is a movement that goes beyond politics it's a call by young senegalese tired of being ignored wanting to be heard some go believes he is the best suited to carry that voice nicolas hawke al-jazeera the car . now the number of migrants seeking to cross into the united states from mexico is at its highest level in nearly 2 years u.s. customs officials say they encountered thousands of families or unaccompanied minors in february up by nearly a 3rd on the previous month and challenging president joe biden's attempts to undo the trumpet ministrations restrictive immigration policies and the biden administration is restarting a program that will allow children fleeing violence and central america to settle in the u.s. from 2014 to 2017 miners from el salvador guatemala and honduras sought safety in the u.s. under that policy today we are announcing the restarting of the central american miners' program for children to be reunited with a parent who is legally in the united states this program was ended abruptly by the previous administration leaving around 3000 children already approved for travel stranded in phase 2 we'll be working to improve the cam program to expand cif and legal avenues for to the united states. and mexico as president has signed a controversial energy bill into law favoring state owned plants that largely run on fossil fuels and i meant to say it's a major setback for investment in the renewable energy sector john heilemann reports from mexico city. one thing mates because president makes no secret of his favoring state over private enterprise and makers especially for the country's electricity industry under his predecessor it was opened up to private investment now he's doing what he can to reverse that is to convince he's i am convinced that privatization has been a failure robbery looting of mexico resources just to benefit individuals. thanks to the energy reform he's pushed through a bill that favors the state companies c.f.e. to supply the country's electricity and sends private firms to the back of the line on wednesday it became law not as obrador says it will help give mexico energy independence but environmentalist are worried that many of the state plants of fossil fuel and the companies providing renewable energy formerly given preference and now getting such a bad deal that they won't want to come to mexico is that most undersea at that address where going backwards then years on all the bounces that we made in loss and policy instruments that push for the transition to renewable energy. in general investment is going to be hit say analysts flip flopping regulations don't inspire confidence and the country could also be open to lawsuits if it doesn't respect the investments already made when the sector opened up it doesn't let's go to cram it doesn't look good technically it doesn't look good environmental re and particularly does it make cars that medic. because my little ation are right that's a countries that have a question mexico i particular analysts say the changes could run afoul of the new trade agreement between the united states canada and mexico but what the president says is that this is really going to help mexico to get back control of its electricity for the country and its people now that claim is questionable because a lot of the state power plants still depend on gas. it's coming from abroad but politically it's a winner. and it should go over noise the president's base going into the upcoming midterm elections where virtually helpmates cruz energy sector is world is open to question your home and now does it a little. hello there this is al jazeera these are the headlines we're getting reports at least 6 people have been killed in myanmar in the latest crackdown against protesters demonstrators are still defying the military but crowds are smaller than in recent days the u.n. says at least 67 people have been killed since the military seized power last month scott hyla is following this for us from.