tens of thousands of vaccines arrive in the occupied west bank in gaza strip to speed up the lagging rollout. verses in the netherlands decide whether to keep this man prime minister in power as they head to the polls. and shootings at several spas in the u.s. state of georgia leaving 8 dead many of them women if asian descent. now the european union has proposed a coronavirus passport to help ease travel restrictions inside the block the digital green pos would provide proof that travelers have either been vaccinated recovered from the virus or had a recent negative test the proposals include an option to allow people from outside the e.u. if they've been vaccinated the world health organization has warned against such schemes citing unknowns around vaccine efficacy against infection. this certificate will make sure that the results are what shows the data answers the minimum set of data are mutually recognised in every member state and thirdly with this digital certificate we aim to help member states reinstate the freedom of movement in a safe responsible and trusted minim or john mccain is in europe and following this for us he says the proposed coronavirus certificate is politically important to e.u. leaders. this whole plan controversial as it may be is one of the routes out of the pandemic that the european union situations believe is perhaps the right one which is to reassure people who've had the vaccine that they will be able to move freely and those who fall into the other categories whether they've had the the virus recently have a high level and antibodies in their system therefore a degree of immunity or whether they've got negative p.c. are tests that the e.u. believes the institutions at least that this is the way out for many many countries because that's because you're about it there are many e.u. countries who depend to a large extent on tourism so an influx of tourists who are able to show a digital green pass to show that they are not a threat from a covert perspective is something that those countries really want also remember that the e.u. is fundamental principles are based on freedom of movement something that from a political perspective is very much desirable but there are potentially teething problems with this the fact that the w.h.o. has indicated it doesn't believe this is necessarily the best way to go about fighting covert that that obviously doesn't help the e.u.'s position and insofar as this is concerned and there are those who make a different argument which is that there is a degree of personal sensitive information that goes into each person's entry persons digital passport digital green pass that perhaps is something that needs to be borne in mind. and another setback for the astra zeneca vaccine a new study from vets university in johannesburg shows that it's less effective at protecting against the south african variant the trial of more than 2000 participants found a job is less than 60 percent effective at preventing mild to moderate infection but why the days it shows that it can still help prevent severe illness and deaths from curve at 19 even for high risk individuals the world health organization supports its use in all countries including those with the new variant also the africa cancelled its rollout of the astra zeneca shot back in february after concerns about effectiveness opting instead for the johnson and johnson job earlier i spoke to should be a madi he's been leading those vaccine trials of novak's and astra zeneca in south africa he says the job still has a vital role in preventing illness. it does speculum as you put it and that is it protects against soviet disease and it produces the rest of people dying from carbon 19 including possibly you read the pew on 351 pm recently again that was once identified in south africa is circulating unfortunately this texan doesn't do and the same will apply for many other 1st generation covered 1000 that seems he said it's i'm likely to put in a saying at the same never again and smiled at moderate infection due to the view on 351 ph and that there couldn't just be violence so many of the 1st generation covered $1000.00 that seems to have clearly been designed around then just the right is a construct to shouldn't come too much as a surprise for just that scene and probably perhaps not so far that it seems that those were not true that there is a method to get smart infection but for all of these covered one thing that seems we expect them to perform reasonably go against if these unfortunately decide that that was the shows that were in fact in times of extreme confidence but the same time i think we need to be caught at any time somewhat the way it's been patient on our government it seems and particularly in countries such as the coverage of that is sort of a dance are dominating getting too hard even if he were the 1st generation of code 19 that seems in settings such as in south africa yes and i'm realistic option in the near future so we really need to recalibrate our expectations or discovered one thing that seems and the focus really needs to be centered on techniques of good production people in developing severe disease and dying while speaking on vaccines palestinian health officials say 62000 doses of vaccines are on their way to the occupied west bank and gaza strip thank you faction if i find that and astra zeneca having to deliver there as part of a donor program over by the wild health organization they don't even have has more now from ramallah in the occupied west bank. the issue of vaccinations has been a tough issue here in the palestinian territory because many people here do not trust the palestinian authority they've been saying that after the palestinian authority has received 12000 jobs in the past few months they've given some of them to officials and their families so there is a lot of when it comes to the transparency and integrity of those effects of nations and it's going to be a true test for the palestinian authority many officials and health officials have been telling us that the health system is overwhelmed we've been to one of the hospitals and covered 19 patients waiting and calling doors they wanted to get a room in some of these hotels some were even looking in other cities in the occupied west bank but they couldn't find the place so these $60000.00 jobs are going to be imported to relieve the overwhelmed health system let's not let's not forget that $24000.00 of those jobs are from us and the health minister has said that they're going to be putting them in storage until they get some sort of clearance and. because that has been concerns about the side effects that they may cause in light of the general situation the lack of vaccinations. growing numbers of people infected with the bars the palestinian authority has been resorting to lock closures here in there and they're hoping that some of these vaccines are going to help alleviate the health system that is deteriorating. now dutch prime minister mark russia has cost his ballot in the netherlands national election opinion polls suggest that his center right party is on track to win by a large margin despite his entire cabinet resigning child benefits scandal just 2 months ago this is also europe's the 1st major vote since the start of the pandemic and will also be a test of the government's policies. of course of action this is you hear me collectively that you were. forced to fix this image of them after another if you're working very hard to acquire once we have. time to make the most of us out of which of course you can back most and you're still having some very seriously and we have you which i'm sure you can forge and at the same time i'm proud to some of the things your company is a country not just me but product. joins us now from amsterdam a step a very very different sort of election this time around it seems. exactly there's a lot of precautions taken to of course have many mice the risk of infection of covert 19 elections are taking place at the start of a 3rd way for thousands of people already in the hospital i'm here actually in a bicycle drive through polling stations especially set up because of that and i make people come here come on their bicycles unfold as safely as possible there's a lot of 1st speculation of course about the outcome the polling stations will still be open for the whole day but already it's been sad that the main party for prime minister margaret is due to win the elections to make some sense of this all i'm joined here with a gas that under a column he is a political analyst of the university for unified state of amsterdam thank you so much for joining us is it a done raise as people say it is well it's very likely that it's prime minister that is liberal party will be the largest party but it's not so certain that his coalition which is consists of 4 parties will keep their majority it's a bare majority no and so they can lose any seats and that sort of only gets so that makes it's very interesting because if they don't have the majority don't need another party to join or a larger party and have a different coalition composition well there's a lot of talk of course about the scandal that has been taking to the prime minister especially to child care benefits candle. right with thousands of families actually were falsely accused of fraud and their lives were destroyed it just happened and the government had to resign because of it but it doesn't seem to affect his popularity why is that it was a big scandal goes is basically racial profiling of families and then prosecuting them by the state and it seems to have not effect its mark good to at all in fact it has eliminated many of his opponents because they were in the previous governments also related to that policy and had to step down for example the leader of the labor party and so he actually got rid of some of his competitors and that's why we don't really have a race for the prime ministership he's basically just ahead only his own because he lost all his competitors along the way but i do skills that he has that he can keep so 5 in all the time that he's very tactical in that sense but also he is a very normal guy a prison cells are very normal men he goes to work on the bike which prime minister in any country cycle stupid work right he eats an epilogue talks about his government falling apart so he portrays us as loosen and the guy of the people and of course makes him look like a person nobody hates him really right so and depth makes him electable but you called him once a vicious leader as well someone who was actually really a strategic operate oh yes he eliminated people in his own party by very cunning tactics and he also severely moved for example the minister of the christian democrats one of the competitors in a position where mark good to basically says how good he is handling the pandemic but there are a lot of programs let me give the floor to my fellow minister who will talk about his problems and so he basically made to the christian democrats lose their leader because of this and so that is very cleverly maneuvering other people out of the way for him to remain his prime ministership but that's all behind that smile right so you have done also some research about how ferrety selections are right and you found some very shocking results that we. we saw that particularly in this election campaign the right wing parties dominated also the populist right wing parties who don't stand a chance of getting into government but it got so much of the media attention 3 quarters of all the media attention went to right wing mail stalking where as we have 5 female party leaders only the left 3 major parties have now a female party to and they haven't been talking even half as much as the men and it was the left wing voters that had the most difficult choice they were most hesitant to vote for because what party should devote to make the coalition more left wing right and so we should have had more information for the left wing voters rather than for the right wing votes who are much more already decided on which party to support so the media is actually played a role here right thank you so much for joining us yes the polls will still be open until 9 o'clock this evening there's actually officially a curfew a 9 time 9 pm curfew in the netherlands but that sort of not to that strict tonight after that that the coming hours after that we will know the actual results pretty soon i want to bring to you here on out is there step on that with all the latest from us to that thanks so much that. still ahead here on al-jazeera tackling china and north korea have the u.s. secretaries of state and defense send a symbolic message on a visit to sell. and life and a martial law there's growing fear and we are not as china calls for the military to control the antique rifle and. how i once again the weather set fair across japan and the cherry blossoms starting to come out nicely now it's going to stay fine and dry for the most part over the next day i would say well so weather will be a little further south and west will so shocked by this band of cloud this stationary weather front choosing rain across central parts of china to run over towards shanghai as we go on into thursday japan stay fine enjoy 18 celsius not too bad but have an 80 in seoul as well cools off a little as we go on into our friday for it warms up a touch in so i'm going to say some rain sleet and snow moving towards beijing hopefully that will help to clean the air here after a recent sandstorm heavy showers continue across central parts of china down towards a south is largely fine and dry not dry weather stretches down across much of in the china philippines not too bad over the next day or 2 but familiar malaysia and also into indonesia you can expect to see the usual seasonal showers coming in from time to time wanted to showers making the way towards flying through as we go on through thursday before much of south asia south that flossy fine and settled it will be a few showers some of the wintry in nature around the foothills of the himalayas little westerly disturber starting to push its way out of afghanistan into northern parts of pakistan and india. from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can rely joyously for breaking news. and when you leave with a smile we know our day's work is done. welcome to. one . hell of a watching al-jazeera let's remind you of our top stories this hour the european union has proposed a coronavirus force to help ease travel restrictions within the block the digital green certificate would provide proof that travelers have either been vaccinated recovered from the virus or had a recent negative test. from palestinian health officials say 63000 doses of the corona virus vaccines are on their way to the occupied west bank and gaza strip thank you charts manufactured by pfizer and astra zeneca provided by the un throwbacks program it aims to not raise at least 1000000 palestinians by next year . and dutch prime minister mark rich that has caused his palace in the netherlands national election opinion polls suggest that his center right party is on track to win and this is europe's a fast major vote the start of this pandemic. now u.s. homeland security secretary out $100.00 majorca us is facing a panel on capitol hill on the recent influx of migrants at the u.s. mexican border it comes as president joe biden's administration struggles to accommodate the growing number of children crossing that border alone u.s. customs officials say they encountered 29000 people in february up by nearly a 3rd on the previous month while president biden told a.b.c. news that his message to migrants is don't come resist serbs the last 2 years and 19 and 20 there was a surge as well this one might be worse not what it could be but here's the deal we're sending back people do it for 1st of all the idea that joe biden said come because i heard the other day that they're coming because you know i'm a nice guy and i want there's a strain of this yeah well here's the deal they're not do you have to say quite clearly don't come yes i could say quite clearly don't come and we're in the process of getting set up don't leave your town or city or community well alan fischer is following that hearing for us on capitol hill allan what have we been hearing from mr my office today. a slight delay he's just made his opening statement there is 20 minutes where we couldn't get the microphones to what was so being done virtually and my office is talking about what he says is a very difficult situation at the border they don't want to describe it as a crisis he said that the dealing with it day by day at the end aware of the numbers but they are putting in procedures that coincide with american values no what we have had from is bennie thompson who is the chairman of the committees a democrat he said that essentially the by the ministration is no dealing with the crisis on the border because they're trying to rebuild an immigration infrastructure that was dismantled over 4 years by the trumpet ministration and scripted essentially as lacking in morals and he said that it will take them more than just a couple of weeks to rebuild something that was destroyed over 4 years as for joint catcall who is the leading republican on the committee said look the face of rhetoric isn't going to happen he said part of the problem is that joe biden on day one overturned a lot of the immigration rules that don't trumpet put in place including the remain in mexico policy for people who are seeking asylum by stopping the border wall all of these he said has built up this crisis as he continues to call it at the border simply there are a number of democrats have been speaking to over the last 24 hours or so saying the fact that the republicans are saying that the borders are open even when the are not is encouraging people to head towards the border but there's no doubt that there is a real difficult problem on the border whether you want to call a crisis or not that becomes a political issue but clearly the by the new administration is under pressure to do something about this and do something very quickly or allan as we've been saying we've heard just less in particular unaccompanied children arriving at that point what striving that. well as always with these things and then there are several factors and you can say there's just one thing 1st of all there is the question of whether or not people are being told the borders are open since joe biden became president and he overturned a lot of the immigration rules people may well be being told you can solo easier to to go to america now and that is why they're taking the opportunity there are those who are being sent by their parents because they believe that there is no economic future for them in the countries where they live there is gang violence that is the problem with the pandemic they think that the night well get treated better treatment in the united states rather than in their own countries and all of this builds and but sadly we've heard from my office and this is opening statements saying that there are more people now coming to the border than the has been in the last 20 years 1400 and a company miners in february the number in march is going to be much washing remember there was a big question about how donald trump was handling unaccompanied minors well we know that hundreds are being held longer than the 72 hours that is a load by a lot many in many cases more than $300.00 have been there for more than 10 days and they're being held in the same sort of detention facilities that they were being that was criticized under donald trump journalists aren't being allowed in to see these facilities there's a question of whether or not a border patrol is actually being forthcoming with many. facts on the situation in the border but you can see that by the administration is already on the defensive how many of these are we into the administration somewhere just over 5055 they're already on the defensive because of the situation on the border and sadly the republicans believe that his political capital to be made emigration one of the main reasons don't trump was elected the still think that this is a drum that they can beat and dran drum up support on fresh air on capitol hill for us in washington thanks so much. now police in the u.s. state of georgia have arrested a 21 year old man charged with killing 8 people during 3 separate shootings at mass entre policy they are investigating whether it was a hate crime as the majority of those women killed were of asian descent ballasts reports. the 1st call came on tuesday evening local time they'd been a shooting north of atlanta at young's asian massage parlor then an hour later another this time in atlanta at gold's spa as police responded a 3rd cool came in reporting gunfire from across the road at aroma therapy spa the crime scenes were all message parlors and majority of the victims were women of asian to st pierre really nice girls and they just do great massages they do great massages out here so it's just unfortunate they had shot 3 ladies of them in front of them i thought were 9 in front of them 5 back in the fight you know and then you had a body. but he was saying he hadn't passed away and they need guys in our federal police of a race to 21 year old and charged him with killing 8 people they're investigating to see if the shooter was specifically targeting asian americans which would make it a hate crime and increase the charges south korea's foreign minister confirmed that 4 of the victims careened to seemed nothing's going to be ruled out will conducting a homicide a multiple homicide investigation so were the evidence leads us that's where they investigated the train driver that's where i'm here you've got a lot of the command staff so on to commander so it is a trait priority. crimes targeting asian americans have risen dramatically since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic former president donald trump controversially called it the china virus president joe biden addressed the attacks in a speech last week vicious hate crimes against asian americans. who've been attacked harassed blamed and scapegoated they're forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in america it's wrong it's un-american and it must stop a report by the organization stop a hate detailed 30 $800.00 attacks against asian americans in the last 12 months more than half were against people of chinese or korean to st now after what happened in georgia it's clear more needs to be done to prevent attacks like the ones challenge ballasts which is there. now as more protesters head out to the streets in manama china has renewed its call for the military to take more action to protect its people and companies that more than 30 chinese backed factories were torched and yangon on sunday scott heiko reports. a mother grieving for her son a scene that is now becoming more frequent across myanmar. 17 year old car maya hey was one of 74 people killed on sunday the worst day of violence in the 6 weeks of protest the medical student was caught in the crackdown by security forces on the outskirts of young gone and we medical doctors initiated the civil disobedience movement from an early time now a life has been sacrificed so i'm sure we as the medical community will not step back from the fight we will fight until the end while security forces continue their crackdown the judge to also imposed martial law in 6 nearby townships of yangon. prompting thousands to flee the industrial zone and fly tell ya the location of chinese factories were torched on sunday home to many migrant workers from across me and mark it's still unclear who started the fires i love my lesson they do. our jobs are not ok and we're also not safe now my parents are worried and that's why we decided to leave today the situation is really bad i don't know how it's going to be. it's not just the violence that concerns human rights groups it's also that the military will have complete control of the 6 townships now under martial law including the courts if you're arrested you're going to be slammed into a kangaroo court run by the military for which there is no appeal of any guilty verdict and there's a possible death sentence or other to coney and punishments like punishment through labor for an undetermined amount of time you know this is a court system run by one of the most abusive militaries in the world as we are hazed loved ones say their final goodbyes there's growing concern that the judge him might expand the zones of martial law in its effort to stifle protests got either out to sea or. 10 years into serious conflict and there's still no political settlement or transitional process syrian president bashar al assad is being accused of failing to engage in un led talks that would eventually weaken his hold on power he may have won the war that he rules over a failed state poverty is on the rise and people are hungry zana how to reports. this is syria's reality after a decade of war lines outside bakeries offering subsidized bread so the deepening economic crisis the worst since the conflict began the local currency has crashed it's affected the price of food and basic goods. the un says 60 percent of the population or more than 12000000 people do not have regular access to food. the salary of a government employee is worth around $15.00 many people just bread and dried meat is a luxury there is hunger and there is anger at the regime but people can do anything but sharia law said may not have recaptured every inch of syria as he promised but he survived the war with the help of russia and iran and the syrian president who has been in power for more than 2 decades is preparing for elections in the coming weeks before his 7 year term expires he is ignoring calls for a un supervised vote and the opposition is not surprised. that you imagine a distraction. so i. think. i'm staying. there's no i don't want to give. i just. the syrian government and its allies are under western sanctions for their role in the war the sanctions have stopped the flow of money needed for reconstruction and the hope assad will agree to political reforms but even when the balance of power was against assad they were forced to cooperate with the un led peace process doing so would ultimately weaken his grip on power was no settlement in sight at least $13000000.00 people remain in exile within and beyond syria's borders it's a central issue of the conflict many say there can't be a settlement or reconciliation with more than half of the country displaced the syrian government. than us they're not. just. description the front lines have been largely quiet for a year there is a stalemate with much of the north and northeast outside the state's control assad may boast about controlling 2 thirds of syria but it's increasingly being described as a failed state with no international legitimacy.

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