detailed coverage in addition narrow the inoculation campaign was temporarily suspended because there weren't enough vaccines from around the world these volunteers blessed be routinely tested to instead of be getting pregnant not stumble. or. pope francis meets with iraq's top shia muslim cleric on the 2nd day of his historic visit. i am. over there i'm alamo here dean and this is out is iraq live from doha and also coming up was to. the u.n. it's urged to act swiftly against myanmar as military crackdown and protest as

aren't spanking down. the u.s. accuses china of an attack on democracy over beijing's plans to overhaul hong kong's electoral system. the the old and the rallying cry of protesters in senegal on the 3rd day of demonstrations over the rest the rest of an opposition leaders. pope francis has met with iraq's top shia muslim cleric on the 2nd day of his historic visit to the country the meeting with grand ayatollah ali sistani was held in the city of the shaft the heads of the roman catholic church as the 1st pope to travel to iraq and has pledged to deepen his dialogue with other religions let's get more now from a summer binge of aids who's live for us in some of that meeting is just wrapped is

there any indication of what the 2 religious leaders discussed and just why is this meeting significant. well it is history in the making as you said hala you mentioned that the meeting is just between the most revered leader of iraq and the leader of the roman catholic church and at any moment we're expecting that the convoy is going to pass from his home to words the airport where the pope will be going from the jeff to the city of war it is a hugely significant because it is happening for the 1st time we also know that the leader of. the grand ayatollah ali al sistani has been significant in the pivotal moments of iraq's history whether it was the 2005 elections the 2014 religious edict to get fighters to rally against our brother in 2930 told political leaders

to make sure that the the the core of the people of iraq when they were protesting against corruption in the government which ended up in the then prime minister the resigning so it is very significant he is a very important leader and obviously the pope looking for some sort of support from the iraqi shia community to make sure that the christian population of iraq is not just protected but gets to flourish as well. some a pinch of aid that bring us the latest from thank you. well in the coming hour the pope will attend an interfaith missing in the ancient city of it's a place of historic importance to both christians and muslims and soon a 14 reports the visits raising hopes the development of development the long neglected sites. or the ancient capital of mesopotamia it was 1st settled 5000 years before christ and became the seat of samarian kings but this

was not just the cradle of one of the earliest civilizations in the world according to the biblical book of genesis is also believed to have been the birthplace of abraham the father of the 3 monotheistic faiths 2 days in christianity and islam that is why pope francis will pay a much anticipated visit here a harder his you are here with. this visit is important in many respects tourism and become a pilgrimage site for christians of course that will serve our province archaeologists hope the papal visit will usher in funding to further develop the site only around 10 percent has been excavated the walls of the royal tombs opened around a 100 years ago and left unprotected from the elements have been weakened by salt and humidity and are at risk of collapse. the fluctuations and with the conditions greatly impact the buildings which are made of mud bricks

and one stone. of the great ziggurat of abraham's house are the only structures that have been rehabilitated in recent decades this partly restored building is thought to have been the house of abraham some 4000 years ago he's regarded as the patriarch of the 3 abrahamic faith and it is here where the pope is planning to hold an interfaith dialogue to promote understanding between christians muslims and other religions. for muslims abraham is known as prophet abraham who sacrifice is celebrated during the islamic holiday of. how the beat could know and a lot of fathers used to take us to every home's house every 3 to 4 weeks since our childhood we were raised to love abraham's house his words his dialogue shaken he has traveled to the vatican himself and hopes the pope's visit will result in formal collaboration. with and i hope this 1st visit will be followed by other

visits the institutes will be established here for mutual understanding an interchange where students from the vatican come to iraq to study for one or 2 years and our students can go to christian institutes the people who live around who would have more practical demands like this new road paved just ahead of the pope's arrival and. we hope that after the public calms there will be a better services there will be more developments i'm jobs such expectations risked being left unfulfilled during a profound financial and health crisis still the pope's visit will at least for a day cast the limelight on a side that has had few visitors in decades of war and instability seem wonderful to al-jazeera in iraq's ancient city of. security forces have used tear gas and violence to break up another day of and seek protests in myanmar the it

was but despite the crackdown large crowds have gathered across several cities more than 50 people have been killed in protests since the military seized power last month on friday the u.n. special envoy to myanmar urged the security council's take swift acts action against the jinsa and restore democracy i will let's get more now from tony chang he joins us live from bangkok in neighboring thailand so any what more can you tell us about the protests taking place this saturday. as you mentioned once again people have come out on the streets in daraa where young gone mandalay in many places across the country and once again they have been met by security services who are firing tear gas setting fires trying to force them back off using those weapons of fear they've been using to kill a harshly for the last week interesting the one place where they didn't push back

was in northern shan state in the town of last year where a very large crowd came out at about 9 am local time yesterday evening the t.n.l. a which is an armed insurgent group want to represent it's one of the ethnic minorities in that area come out close to the city and made it very clear that they were supporting the protesters now we've seen this in other places too where soldiers from the qur'an ethnic groups have come out in support of the protesters. those protesters in last you stood off with the security services further down the road for a couple of hours they were waving groups representing the protesters around the country but also their own ethnic groups and the security services stood back they didn't push back as they have done so many other places in this highlights a big problem that i think many people are concerned about that these aren't ethnic groups and they exist all across miramar in many of the border areas and they are

very well armed in certain cases these protests could be the potential for greater strikes in addition to which the military shows any weakness at all there is a need groups could use this is an opportunity to push back against them and what we've seen over the last week is the army and the police using live fire all sorts of tools to chant get the protesters off the streets. create an atmosphere of fear that's going to force people to come into line with the military coup but if those ethnic groups decide to push back if we see these divisions emerge in clashes between. the ethnic groups and the military. the trouble in the gunfire that we've seen in the deaths we've seen over the last 7 days could be the start of something far more serious ok tony chang mary is the latest live from bangkok tony thank you and the u.s. has condemned the veto powers proposed by china on hong kong selection or election

candidate saying it's a direct attack on the territories autonomy beijing revealed the legislation on friday at the opening of its largest political meeting the national people's congress the changes would effectively dismantle hong kong's opposition by giving a beijing appointed committee control over who can run for office on the series a.g.m. brain has been speaking to opposition leaders in hong kong about the proposed rules and they say they won't give up without a fight it's located in haiti represents what's left of a once thriving opposition party many of its members have been arrested with others now on trial accused of subversion loz doing caught in 6 months to face unlawful assembly charges but is free on bail he says china's government can eliminate hong kong's political opposition but not the aspirations of its people the chinese

government or the whole government they can suppress the whole competitions they can suppress the opposition politicians but they couldn't suppress or the oppositions the opposition come from the people beijing's electoral overhaul of this territory will likely mean the opposition's landslide win in district council elections 60 months ago was probably its last. many of the winning candidates will link to the protest movement a year later the hong kong government canceled the more important elections for the mini parliament citing code with 19 now it seems that poll could be persona to gain until 2022 china's leaders say that only patriots can hold elected office in hong kong without specifying exactly what that means but it does though raise serious questions over the future of the opposition and whether credible elections can be held without it lowkey in haste says with only candidates approved by mainland

china to choose from many people will be dissuaded from voting in elections already rigged in china's favor the reform means that they want more control they want more secure election system in hong kong and i think whenever you want to control an election more. representation of the election for the people would just be less and less chills one calls himself a patriotic the probation businessman was born on the mainland and heads a new political party that could benefit from china's new electoral laws he says you don't have to love the chinese communist party to be a patriotic actually people should respect communist china and also respect the communist party but having individual china hong kong to love a party which they have very little knowledge or experience with is unrealistic i

think those are 2 different things supporters of the chinese government deny the new laws will weaken hong kong's already diluted democracy and insist the promises made before this place was returned from british to chinese rule have not been broken but to some those guarantees now seem worth of this adrian brown al-jazeera hong kong. still to come on al-jazeera communities in rural south africa say they're being left behind in school that 19 vaccination drive and a small but significant step on mars we'll tell you more about treadmill what's left on the red planet. the temperatures dropping in much of central and eastern europe just

a reminder that winter is not really gone yet that's the cold front of relevance on it there is some snow mostly is just a change in temperature feel and after that the sun comes out but it's going all the way down towards turkey it will be rather miserable day in istanbul i suspect on saturday everywhere else temperatures drops a single figures from what was double figures but any real wintry weather at the moment this is that we're talking about is probably no way in finland maybe the baltic states windy and snowy here a few showers in the war bit further south particularly in spain and portugal but at least the south portugal is slowly drying up now once it's cold is tucked in and it does in warsaw then the wind picks up there's quite a wind chill to feel for the weekend and then snow showers come monday that stay where it is expanding as you can see through this part of europe for the south it doesn't happen that when the cold air comes across warm waters you know it usually builds up it to something we said is a big showers in the valley erik's maybe sudden parts of spain but that across into

the northwest of africa morocco will certainly get rain maybe some snow for the atlas mountains and for the canarios were pretty windy sherry time. to say just set any time for a different approach one that. going to challenge the way you think aren't asking me questions now is the new host of the next season of the show that's got no space for sound bites only cavities so let's leave them firstly to the headline join me as i take on the last dismantle the misconceptions and debate the contradiction. i'm marc lamont hill and it's time to get off from right here on out to get. more. on. the.

bases al-jazeera a quick reminder of our top stories for you this hour pope francis is matts iraq's top shia muslim cleric on the 2nd day of his historic visit he's the 1st catholic pope to travel to the country and has pledged to deepen his dialogue with other religions security forces have used tear gas and stun grenades to break up another day of antiquing protests in me and mark the u.n. special envoy has urged the security council to take swift action to stop an increasingly violent crackdown. and the u.s. has condemned c.v. to paris proposed by china on an ongoing selection or election candidates agena fields the legislation on friday adds the opening of its marches political meeting

a national people's congress. well let's return to our top story that historic meeting between pope francis and grand ayatollah ali sistani in iraq marson. is a post doctoral research fellow at the brookings institute and she joins us on skype from baghdad thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera we hear lots about how this is a huge they significant meeting between these 2 leaders just explain to us if you will why you think this is significant that this meeting has taken place it's whole. yes well i think the meeting is very significant because grand ayatollah sistani does share a lot of similarities of the pope and is part of a religious establishment that has really seen iraq through multiple crises not only in the past few years but historically as well unfortunately given the fact that iraq had been under authoritarianism for so long

a hadn't really been able 'd to take its place amongst other religious groups and thinkers in the world so it's a very important well that religious history it certainly is but given the grammar the overall context of where iraq is as a nation do you think people will be receptive to this message of interfaith dialogue that both the pope and the grand ayatollah are giving. i actually think this is a perfect moment where this message in iraq the iraqi public is so tired of conflict tired of conflict that has ethnic and sectarian undertones and is really looking forward to rebuilding looking forward to having a national dialogue and i think this is the opportune moment to have this this and fact and. the public are perhaps receptive to this message what about iraq's political leaders would you say that they're willing to listen to the message that the pope is burning. i would say they may be less receptive than the public

depending on the political inclinations and the certain advantages or disadvantages that may present to them electorally i think one of the ways it may work in the public's advantage is that it does present electoral advantages for them if they were to listen to this message and i think any way to incentivize the public to push for things will ultimately result in the political class having to listen or else risking our relevance in terms of change that this this meeting or indeed this 4 day visit could bring what do you think is a realistic outcome in the the iraqi people struggle i mean i think it's very important to recognize that this visit is nothing more than symbolic and that is more than enough i mean having the pope visit iraq for the 1st time in history is such an honor and it's such a great thing to be happening in iraq and iraqis are so happy to host them i think

the happiness that he brings i think. the feelings that he inspires not only in the iraqi christian community but in the iraqi community overall are just and court and feeling to have an important sentiment to be shared by iraqis at this time and so that does not how political outcomes that has no impact on policy directly that's nothing we expect from the pope it's not his position to change politics but i think what he has done is really boost the morale and spirit of the public came marson great to get your thoughts and your analysis thank you so much for joining us on al-jazeera here thank you. the rights groups say they are concerned about senegal's handling of protests against the arrest of an opposition leader on the sea international's reports and a wave of arrests partial t.v. and internet blackouts and the use of live ammunition for people have died in 3 days of demonstrations as nicholas hulk reports from the capital dhaka.

a march the government tried to ban protesters chant this is our society be brave and strong protect our senegal not just a message to the security forces but for a government the queues of stifling dissent thousands indycar in other cities have been demonstrating after police detained opposition leader on song go accusing him of both rape and public disturbance that ability to. do young people have toyed of the way we're being governed we need to free him some go is everything to us. police fire rounds of tear gas to disperse the crowd the military has been deployed to help security forces stop the looting banks gas stations and supermarkets have been attacked so go has repeatedly accused president mikey cell of helping french companies profit from senegal's pour. in the distance behind me police are firing

water cannons to try to disperse the crowds they're trying to protect a french gas station and supermarket there now so much of this protest is less about the opposition leader response unquote more about this feeling shared among many senegalese that they're not getting a fair share of this country's wealth. among those protesting are trader mo his job's employees yes come out to assess the damage jobs sees a failure of the state to care for its youth because of that this is horrible. this is this is not something i'm really proud of my homeland this is terrible and all. kids angry remodel how. that's why they're breaking shops stealing to take whole children not going to school properly you know. not being looked after properly among those arrested are many teenagers the government is

restricting access to certain social media sites they say to stop this information and public gatherings but so far all attempts to bring call have failed at the demonstrations continue to spread because hark al-jazeera the car. in the palestine or the u.s. senate has passed a compromise by democrats and republicans on federal benefits for millions of unemployed americans politicians have approved additional weekly unemployment rate of $300.00 until the beginning of september egremont overcomes one of many obstacles the president joe biden's near 2 trillion dollars call that 19 really felt. have been chaotic scenes in rio de janeiro as thousands of elderly brazilians

lined up for hours for cool with 1000 vaccines many had queued overnight after a city mayor said jobs would be given to people over 60 but only a fraction of the doses needed on available lines of people and vehicles stretched for several kilometers. the world health organization has urged brazil to adopt more rigorous measures to combat the virus after presidents joey or balsa naro criticized new restrictions in some states the w.h.o. says it's concerned the whole of latin america could be affected and has warned all countries against against letting down their guards i really am very concerned that all of us governments and individuals alike think in some way psychologically i understand what's driving we think we're through this we're not countries are going to lurch back in just heard and forth surges if we're not careful it to be the

party pooper here but that's unfortunately the way i see it and we should not waste the hope that vaccines bring we should mark waste the precious gift of vaccines will bring by dropping our guard in other areas it's really really important south africa's plans are vaccinate most of its people by the end of the year is running into problems one major challenge is getting the vaccines so rural areas where a 3rd of the population lives for me as a member reports from the natal or some say they're being left behind. tender buried her brother behind a family home in him to about to buy a toll just months ago she says he died from cove in 1000 while she says a family has been devastated by his and the death of 2 other relatives they're not convinced the vaccine will protect them and say that no it's not. a good vaccine to be take him because it can continue killing. they can say that

is it really airbags that it can continue maybe we are going to guy more after that that he's done does he lives in the village of some killer which is nearly 200 kilometers from the city of durban the main clinic has already under pressure it's limited resources have been further strained by the cause of the 1000 pandemic a much needed exist now and we have many challenges we have fewer nurses and not doctors. in its 1st phase of the vaccine rollout south africa's government has vaccinated tens of thousands of health care workers across the country here in course do not tell fewer than 2000 have received the jab so far only after all health care workers are immunized with it vaccinate essential workers the elderly and the vulnerable more than a 3rd of south africans live in rural areas that are often difficult to get to and have poor infrastructure well tens of thousands of health workers in urban areas

have been vaccinated it's unclear how the government plans to inoculate those who haven't been and others in areas like this one. in addition to its current supply of johnson and johnson vaccines the government is expecting $20000000.00 doses of the pfizer job later this year but it requires storage at minus 70 degrees and that's unlikely in rural areas with facilities a limited our population is going down arc but for now we can't just our process because we will create an expectation that will not be 4 feet if we story now get the votes needed then they would say when and then we are not read the with specifics because we are still as i've said to you we've only $10.00 in a bowl turn bowls in for the government expects more vaccines every 2 weeks and

it's increasing the number of vaccination sites but as time does heal as family mourns their loss and fear becoming sick themselves their faith in the vaccine and when it will come remains uncertain for me to malone al-jazeera tell south africa. that was test drive go it's literally ites of this world's the mars rover perseverance has traveled its 1st few meters since landing last month and the u.s. space agency nasa says all systems are go rob reynolds reports. making tracks on mars the perseverance rover went for a spin 2 weeks after landing on the red planet. and milestone on a mission in the mobility of home like we've driven on earth but driving on mars or even to all. so many people i can't even how i work toward the ferry moment from here it wasn't a long trip just over 6 metres in total nor was it

a fast drive the whole exercise took 30 minutes and almost 0.02 kilometers per hour but so far perseverance is working perfectly we haven't had any hardware issues you know everything i've been working that we've been checking out. and so it's actually been amazingly smooth and in that respect and what here in this picture of a rock formation near the landing site you can clearly see stratification or layers of rock they may be made of sediment washed down billions of years ago when mars was rich with surface water either existed or iraq are likely to populate by rivers flowing into the engine right shantaram and perseverence has been flexing its robotic arms with the instruments named sherlock and watson mechanical detectives

searching for signs of ancient life within weeks the rover will deploy its mini helicopter ingenuity for a test flight scientists have named the landing area in honor of the late octavia butler a novelist who was the 1st african-american woman to win top prizes in science fiction and a macarthur fellowship for her books including parable of the sower with the help of a spacecraft orbiting mars scientists are plotting possible routes for perseverance to reach its goal an ancient river delta that may hold some. signs of long extinct microbial life forms if found such signs would be evidence that life perhaps even intelligent life exists in abundance beyond earth throughout the vastness of space robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles.