now more than the world needs w.h.o. and making a healthier world. for everyone. pope francis meets iraq's top shia muslim cleric on the 2nd day of his historic visit. hello there i am home or he and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. was. the u.n. is urged to act swiftly against myanmar as military crackdown in

a protest or is aren't backing down. the u.s. accuses china of an attack ultimate chrissie or her beijing's plans to overhaul hong kong's electoral system. and communities in rural south africa's say they're being left behind and it's with 19 vaccination trying. pope francis is expected in the ancient iraqi city of well he'll address an interfaith meeting in the last hour he met with iraq's top shia muslim cleric on the 2nd day of his historic visit to the country the meeting with grand ayatollah sistani was held in the city of najaf the heads of the roman catholic church as the 1st pope to travel to iraq wife now to a summer binge of 80 joins us from. a summer just talk us through the significance of this me. well this was history in the making the 1st time

the leader of the roman catholic church has met the highest religious authority. in iraq this is a meeting which was anticipated for decades and now finally it is up and the pope made the defining. trip to words his house on 4 of those leaders in prayer how could they. be shy and give the message that they will do all that they can for the for their followers and try and promote the message of peace and harmony and this is something that we heard from the joint statement as well that visit him b.c. harmony the rights of people to live in dignity and freedom is what was emphasized in that meeting old sites that said that there is no political agenda to this meeting and the pope was trying to look for support from society for the christians in iraq who have been bringing in their numbers in the last decade or so and that is something that we heard from the from the joint statement that was released by

the office of. the it's funny that the christians of iraq i need to move as it pulls off well as all iraqi citizens they need to be they need to feel safe and he also emphasized on the road that has been played by the religious authority of the majority ahead in iraq for the protection of christians as they were persecuted 1st after the u.s. led invasion and then under ice and it's bad but just to give you an idea of how important this figure i had to the idea in society is he's been critical and pivotal in his in the important moments of iraq's history whether it was 2005. for iraqi citizens to take whether it was the 2014 edict for citizens to form militias to try and fight isis or in 21000 people in the thousands came out to the streets in iraq and met through the dissolution of the then head of the body so a significant beaten and important beating. and the best would be solidarity and

interfaith harmony having. some adventure of its thank you very much and order is a place of historic importance for both christians and muslims and us manifolds he reports the visit is raising hopes of developments that the lone black said site. 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 or it 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. 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. joe. 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 homes 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 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. ok we're bringing you live pictures now from the iraqi city of this of course is where pope francis is jus to give a speech shortly addressing interfaith dialogue and understanding we're going to bring you that speech live when it happens but for now let's get more on what we're expecting the significance of this event we can join run our monsoor he's the from the projects director of the iraq initiative and a senior research fellow in at least north africa program at chatham high's it's great to have you with us here on. we've been talking about how significant it is

that pope francis is in iraq a toll in terms of the message of interfaith dialogue that we are expecting from the pool what do you think this means see not just iraqi christians but people in iraq right now at this moment. well i think clearly this is a historic day it's the 1st time ever that the head of the catholic church the pope meets with the head of the. faith the grand ayatollah in niger. and so a lot happening now i think has created some excitement but also some sort of people looking at what the legacy of this could be and of course the messaging is clear here that iraq a country that many where it's sort of no you know i've been are here many times before this cussing issues such as sectarianism sonu versus shia kurds versus arabs

christians other minorities genocide the fact that these 2 are meeting to discuss interfaith to discuss coming together is an important message a message that i think what resonate among iraqis and i think it's we should remind ourselves that most iraqis do want to live together iraq has a history of living together multiple cultures not in cities and religions and sex so it's nothing new for iraqis but what we've seen since 2003 is these identity think politicized by politicians or by lens but also for power and iraqis have been the victims to this so whether you know that this could be a boost a reminder to the top kishan particularly that you cannot use one identity against the identity to me would be the key because it's not the iraqis themselves who have a problem to do with each other it's when there are when they have to live through a conflict in war and their identities become a political game as is so what would you say iraq's political leaders do you think

they are receptive to this message could this represent some sort of turning point for iraq's political leadership. i mean i they're receptive to it obviously you know it's on the front legs of the fishery of course most of iraq's leaders especially in the last few years have moved away from that sectarian rhetoric. nick rhetoric and more towards and iraq rhetoric right we are all iraqis and that's largely due to pressure from the street the young your occupy relation are tired of knesset you know sectarian be sectarianism being politicized however the way that the iraqi political system is designed is such that the ethnicity of insects matter it matters that use a near shia or kurd or christian or whatever for how do you succeed politically or how you derive power and because of that i am

a bit more skeptical i'd say the legacy of this meeting it's all good to bring everyone together to have a photo op to share niceties to share messages but how does this translate to overturning a political system that will reinforce the differences in identity it's ok or not the answer we'll leave it there for now but thank you for bringing us your thoughts and your analysis as we wait for pope francis in a speech we will of course come back to you for more thoughts when we hear what the pontiff has to share thank you so much let's turn to other news now security forces have used tear gas and violence to break up another day of protests in me and mar was that despite the crackdown large crowds have gathered across several cities when the 50 people have been killed in protests since the military seized power last month well tony chang is

monitoring the situation from bangkok in neighboring thailand he says there are concerns over manned mars armed ethnic groups who are taking part in antique demonstrations. once again people have come out on the streets and our 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 be using to kill a harshly for the last week interesting new 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 one of representing 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 and we've seen this in other places too where

soldiers from the qur'an and new groups have come out in support of the protesters . those protesters in last year stood off with the security services further down the road for a couple of hours they were waving groups representing different protesters around the country but also their own ethnic groups and the security services stood back they didn't push back because they had done so many other places and this highlights a big problem that i think many people are concerned about that these ethnic groups and they exist all across myanmar in many of the border areas and they very well and in certain cases these protests could be the potential for greater strikes in addition to which the military shows any weakness a tool groups could use this is an opportunity to push back against them. on friday the u.n. special envoy to myanmar urged the security council to take swift action against the jinsa and restore democracy christine sharana bergen has said she receives

thousands of messages every day from people in myanmar praising for help or diplomatic editor james bays reports to u.n. headquarters in new york. in the last weeks the u.n. estimates around 50 people have been killed by the military in myanmar the u.n. special envoy christine seana bergen believes that after the coup people were looking to the united nations for help the envoy said that the people of myanmar including committed civil servants or the real heroes and protectors of the nation's democratic progress but she wore in the hope that they have place in the united nations and its membership is waning special envoy stron a burglar made those comments during a closed session of the security council she also told ambassadors there's an urgency for collective action how much more can we allow the myanmar military to get away with we must be clear previous and current crimes will not go unpunished.

but the end of the meeting the u.k. ambassador briefed reporters as diplomats continue to work on a new statement on the situation the committee that represents the detained politicians including on sun suchi so they want targeted repast sanctions on a total arms embargo why are you not considering vose measures rather than just more words the u.k. has taken by natural sanctions on individuals on trade and we have reviewed our aid but as you know from the u.n. point of view any further measures would you agree would require agreement from all council members the ambassador of the european union to the u.n. told me that even if the security council can't agree sanctions there will be mounting international pressure on the military you know they might. survived isolation for for some time but in the end judgment will come there will be accountability especially for people who go against their own population shooting

innocent you know women you know shot bullets it's just it's not it's not sustainable and i think they know it at heart negotiations continue among diplomats trying to come up with a security council statement what's not clear is whether 2 permanent members of the council russia and china are prepared to support a much harsher condemnation of the military james 0 at the united nations the u.s. has condemned veto power as proposed by china hong kong selection of 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 and 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 to serious adrian brown has been speaking to opposition leaders in hong kong about the

proposed rules and they say they won't give up without a fight. 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 court 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 competition's they can suppress the opposition politicians but they couldn't suppress all 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 it's lost. 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 many 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. 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

shows one calls himself a patriotic the probe asian businessman was. on the mainland and heads a new political party that could benefit from china's new electoral rolls he says you don't have to love the chinese communist party to be a patriot actually people should respect communist china and also respect the communist party but having individual child in 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 miss adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. robert scott is a senior international economist at the economic policy institute says he thinks

the united states is options for pressure in china are limited. certainly we can sanction china in international arena as we can consider terrorists from putting limits on their diplomats that mean limits on their voting rights in forums like the international monetary fund we're trying china has sought to increase representation so that's one step we can take and i think the key is to actually curtail china's economic power which we have failed to do over the past 2 decades if you feel that enormous trade surpluses and its use east to fuel is growing could gemini around the world there are sanctions the united states can put in place on businesses operating in hong kong specially chinese businesses so that's one option available to us and i think that would make progress unfortunately i think china has decided it it does not need a financial power and it was tested in hong kong before it is powerful of itself

china sitting on some 5 trillion dollars in for example in foreign exchange reserves is from one of the largest foreign investors in the world so i think it's going to be less damage but back to businesses may move from hong kong to taiwan or to singapore and other countries i think that will have less consequences for china perhaps more countries more consequence for countries like great britain that may have to repatriate millions of on her own citizens. pakistan's prime minister imran khan has won a vote of confidence in parliament after his government suffered a surprise setback in senate elections can's governing p.t.i. party won most of the seats but his finance minister last night see former prime minister and opposition candidates use of giani can instead scold saturday's votes after the opposition demanded his resignation. rights groups say they're

concerned about senegal's handling of protests against the arrest of an opposition leader anas international has condemned a wave of arrests partial t.v. and internet blackouts and the use of live ammunition 4 people have died in 3 days of demonstrations nicolas ports 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 who spun song go accusing him of both rape and public disturbance i do believe. we do young people have toyed of the way we're being governed we need to free him some call was 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 spore . 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 on quote more about this feeling shared among many senegalese that they're not getting a fair share of this country's wealth among those protesting our trade or more he's jumps employees yes come out to assess the damage job sees a failure of the state to care for its youth but this is about this is. this is this is not something i'm really proud of my homeland this is terrible and i know.

kids angry they model how. that's why they're breaking the shops stealing to take home 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 and the demonstrations continue to spread because hawke al-jazeera the car polls have opens in ivory coast's column entry elections the vote comes 3 months after the son ouattara won a presidential election that was boycotted spy the opposition ahmed edris reports. 5 requests opposition parties staying away from saturday's election is not an

option they say every vote counts to stop the country turning into a one party state and taking control of parliament could make governors difficult for president unless a more tolerant leader of the r.h.d. party was reelected $430.00 in last december's presidential election the son of water us archrival and former president laurent gbagbo is all your voters to ensure the opposition now takes charge of parliament. let's go to the elections and type at the path to give it back to whoever has the bright to it in the ivory coast but this election is seen by the opposition as the biggest possibly only a paternity to stay politically relevant before the next presidential vote in 5 years. in a temple. with think it is important for us to go to these legislative elections because we cannot yet allow the r h

d p to exercise absolute power in ivory coast. so i've always believed the planned return of former president laurent gbagbo will employs both turnout and outcome but the president's supporters dismissed the opposition challenge promising to record another decisive victory. set elections that you know. this election is an opportunity to take stock they all came to power here we saw what they left we also saw what we've done in 10 years that's the balance sheet but if they continue to believe that time has remained fixed that things haven't changed well we whiting for them. are 26 june referendum that the opposition called illegal paved the way for tourists 3rd time in office that led to violent protests that killed dozens of people it was more violence and more deaths leading to december's presidential election something most ivorians don't want to see repeated

a comedy drees al-jazeera. that the u.s. senate has passed a compromise by democrats and republicans on federal benefits for millions of unemployed americans who has issues of approved additional weekly unemployment days of $300.00 until this starts off september the agreement overcomes one of many obstacles to president joe biden's near 2 trillion dollar covert 19 relief bill and to gallacher reports from miami. the senate will come to order in a u.s. congress evenly split between democratic and republican politicians passing president biden so-called american rescue plan was never going to be easy the senate debates been delayed by hours long readings a marathon voting session and compromises by democratic party to pass biden's 1st piece of major legislation republicans who support isn't needed to pass the bill so

it's a wasteful parade of left wing projects 200000000 for the answer to the museum and library services what's that got to do is nothing this legislation is the most consequential in a blow to progressive democrats a push for a $15.00 minimum wage failed with several democrats voting the proposal down there of also being compromises on unemployment benefits trimmed down from $400.00 to $300.00 a week and i appreciate you being rude comment tell your story from president biden meeting at the white house with the families struggling to make ends meet on a last minute plea with less than 2 weeks from enhanced unemployment checks being cut. and 7000000 kids don't have enough food 13000000 people are behind in their rent. and the american rescue plan i believe according to point out of the vast majority of americans believe is essential friday's unemployment

numbers show signs of a steady spring recovery still of a 9000000 people remain out of work if you look at job losses most have been in the service industry a huge sector here in florida reducing unemployment benefits will hit those still out of work hard but the by the administration is keen to pass the bill quickly president biden didn't get the bipartisan support he'd hoped for but it's thought the bill will pass eventually if passed the almost 2 trillion dollars will help struggling families businesses and states strapped for cash leading democrats say the sooner it's passed the quicker the u.s. will bounce back the clear majority of the american people democrats independents and republicans all support the american rescue plan it seems the only group in america who doesn't support the american rescue plan or washington republicans it's hoped the bill will hit the president's desk sometime next week and for many it can't come soon enough to gallacher al-jazeera miami florida have been

chaotic scenes in rio de janiero as thousands of elderly brazilians lined up for hours for covert vaccines many had queued overnight after a city mayor said jobs have been given to people over 60 but only a fraction of the doses needed are 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 coronavirus after president john r. 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 letting down their guard i really am very concerned that all of us governments and individuals alike think of some way psychologically i understand striving we think we're through this we're not.