the need encourage fans that matter to you. al jazeera. the european union is proposing a coup in $1000.00 digital green pass to ease travel restrictions within the broke . my. of them how my kitty and this is al jazeera life and don't also coming up do you know vladimir putin you think is a killer. were duped u.s. president joe biden criticizes russia's leader and says to me a person will pay a price for meddling in last year's election. elections are underway in the netherlands opinion polls suggest prime minister mark rutte says party is on track to win. and we take a closer look at a ghana stands national sport

a boost cash. the tournaments this provides him one can believe from decades of conflict. the european union has proposed a coronavirus passport to help ease travel restrictions in the blog that's it it'll green pass would provide proof travelers have either been vaccinated recovered from the virus or had a recent negative test the proposals include an option to live people from outside the e.u. if they've been vaccinated the world health organization has warned against such schemes science an unknown surround vaccine efficacy against infection. this significant will make sure that the results of 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 manner. not on mccain as in berlin 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 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 there are 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 over 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. another setback for the astra zeneca vaccine a new study shows it's less effective at protecting against the south african

variants the early trial of more than 2000 participants for the job is less than 60 percent effective at preventing multi moderates infection but wider data shows it can still help prevent severe illness and death from covert 19 even for high risk individuals the world health organization supports its use in all countries including those with the u. variant south african cancels its roll out of the astra zeneca shot back in february amid concerns about its effectiveness for the johnson and johnson jav instead. he has been leading the 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 spell the basic but and that is it protects against a disease and it produces that's got people dying from carbon 19 including possibly you read the pew on 351 pm recently had in that this was identified in south africa you circulating unfortunately this text in doesn't do it and the same will apply

for many other 1st generation covered 1000 seems you said it's i'm likely to detect in a saying at the same never again and smiled at martin catch you to be wrong 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 just the right as a construct to shouldn't come too much as a surprise for us at c.n.n. and probably perhaps not so far that it seems that those were not that it was a method to get smart infection but for all of these covered $1000.00 vaccines expect them to perform reasonably go against it unfortunately despite the fact of the shows that were in fact in times of extreme confidence at the same time i think we need to be caught at any time somewhat the way patients are now off government it seems and particularly in countries such as the coverage of that is sort of you guys are are dominating getting too hard unity with the 1st generation of code 1000

it 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 architecting savitt protecting people in developing so it isn't dying palestinian health officials say 600000 doses of coronavirus vaccines will now way to the occupied west bank and gaza strip they include shots manufactured by pfizer and astra zeneca being delivered down as part of a donor program organized by the balls health organization and abraham has more 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 rolling out those vaccinations 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 seen covered 19 patients waiting in 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 a 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 and it because there 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 lockdowns closures here and there and they're hoping that some of these vaccines are going to help alleviate the health system that is deteriorating. pregnant women vaccinated against code 19 could pass along protection to their babies that's according to a new study conducted in israel research in february front antibodies were detected in all 20 women who were given both of the fines for vaccine and their newborns the trial will for the recessed how long the antibodies will last in the babies the study has yet to be peer reviewed so it's army hierophant strike research as maternal and infectious diseases he says the findings of the study seem promising. examined women who received the 2 doses of the other vaccine but i think also for

the other m. are unable to know what they are and i think there is also to be similar also of course we didn't test it but there was also promising in several minutes the 1st one which is not which was not very clear before we started to study there was some concern as maybe women who received the vaccine during pregnancy will not develop an adequate immune response so 1st of all these are reassuring trying to all women included exhibit an adequate presence of antibodies following the vaccination the other finding which is very promising is that all male inmates who were examined exhibited the presence of antibodies against the vaccine against the coffee 1000 of course and this is important because there were some concerns maybe the vaccine would have been harmful consequences on the growing fittest and we didn't we didn't observe any harmful adverse effects what we observed is as i said is that adequate and efficient that sense of transfer of antibodies transfer for the mother but

besides our studies where we are continually vaccinating women pregnant women during the 2nd and certainly mr fantasy which is there a commendation of the israeli ministry of health and. the amount of women we're talking about that over a half of the pregnant women were already vaccinated me 0 and there are no currently any adverse reported to vax events reported and that's very reassuring as well. president joe biden has spoken about a number of foreign policy issues during an interview with an american broadcaster including pulling troops out of afghanistan and allegations of russian interference in last year's u.s. election you know vladimir putin you think he's a killer and i do so what price must he pay the price he's going to pay well you'll see shortly i'm not going to there's a by the way we want to be able that all that trade expression walk and chew gum at the same time there are places where it's in our mutual interest to us to work

together that's why i renewed to start agreement with them. i'm in the process of making that decision now as to when they'll leave the fact is that. i was not a very solidly negotiated deal that. the president the former president worked out and so were and consultation with our allies as well as the government and. that decisions on of me is in process now likely to take longer i don't think a lot longer but may 1st is tough could happen but it is tough i white house correspondent kimberly hellcats has more. what we've learned is that some of these comments have upset some of those inside russia with regard to the statements made by the u.s. president joe biden made some comments in an interview with the network a.b.c. news here in the united states and he did discuss

a number of domestic as well and for as well as foreign policy issues with respect to russia he said that the. leader of russia is in his words a killer that he will have to pay the price was he talking about well we've just had a report that indicates that once again the intelligence in the united states suggesting that russia interfered in the 2020 election as it did in the 2016 election this time to try and discredit joe biden's candidacy so the u.s. president saying that he is looking towards making sure that russia is held accountable and also that he believes that when it is in the interest of the united states that he will work cooperate of lee with russia still to come on al-jazeera. police in the u.s. state of georgia have arrested him on base a open fire at several spots killing 8 people most of them women of asian descent

plus. i'm a comedy government in baghdad and i'll tell you about the agent mundanes edition and how it's struggling and by. how it's a total of 2 homes across the middle east in terms of the weather over the next couple of days most of us across iraq is fine and dry and warming up nice to be could have to search yet celsius in doha on thursday while leaving for his last 100 in found hyperloop a little further north. got some snow in the forecast there across the turkish mountains sliding across a good part of turkey some rain showers running in on a brisk wind into the levant syria lebanon jordan could see some splashes of right as we go through the next day or 2 it all makes its way a little further east with tending to peter out as it does so i'm pleased to say

still a chance of wanted to wintry shallows there in afghanistan stays on the warm side here doha 36 celsius friday afternoon and that lovely sunshine stretches down across the u.a.e. your mom and into yemen lawsuit right sue across somalia all over charts of one or 2 showers just coming in here running across central parts southern areas of ethiopia and then the showers continue across the rift valley and big talus starting to pack pop just around the gulf of guinea and notice southern parts of nigeria could see some very heavy rain over the next day or so heavy showers right into the heart of africa then because of what the weather into the eastern cape that's making its way further east for the weekend. frank assessments should we be buying big court ultimately it will be sovereigns and governments who are buying this and in-depth analysis of the day global

headlines inside story. is really is a bracing for a 4th election in 2 years benjamin netanyahu is facing a new set of challenges with a new message vote for the man who brought the back seat to be enough to secure israel's longest serving prime minister a decisive win. join us for special coverage of the israeli election on al-jazeera . this is al jazeera criticizer all the top stories for you this hour the european union has proposed to corona virus passports to help ease travel restrictions within the block the digital green certificate provide proof travelers have either been vaccinated recovered from the virus or out of recent nectar tatts palestinian

health officials say 60 families and doses all the vaccine on their way to be occupied west bank and gaza strip include shots money factor by pfizer and astra zeneca provided by the un callbacks program and president joe biden has spoken about a number of foreign policy issues said the u.s. may miss a may 1st deadline to go troops out of afghanistan he also accused russia of interfering in last year's u.s. election. the polls will close in a few years' time in the netherlands national election opinion polls suggest prime minister mark with a sense right party is on track to win by a large margin that's despite his entire cabinet resigning after a child care benefit scandal 2 months ago is europe's 1st major vote since the start of the pandemic and will be a test of the government's policies. of course when the facts change this is you'll

be an issue and so it collectively you will of course defections of the senior to them and to another if you're working very hard to apply the ones we have. and to make the most of the success out of which of course looking back the last 10 years to have been so i'm very sure you should and we have to do which also moving forward and at the same time i'm proud of some of the things you're competition as a country not just me but a collective. that's actually butler is following the votes in the hague. a staggering 37 political parties are completing 450 parliamentary seats in the dutch general election that has been dominated by the corona virus pandemic voting has in fact been spread over 3 days to allow for social distancing people have been allowed to vote on bicycles and in calls here in the northwestern town of all the people are voting in the local library and i think at this moment most important thing it's held the health situation where moderates are the prime minister and

center right party leader is hoping for a 4th term in office despite the fact that he resigned along with his government in generally over a child benefit scandal number 2 has voted in the hague he looked relaxed and confident we'll never know what happened so that's a way to focus on well for right leader good villagers are also voted in the hague we all steam if the coronavirus pandemic hand overshadowed his anti islam message we are in the middle of a pandemic so most people are for good reasons and i share that concerns about health care they're also concerned about the normal routine life you know not only the economy but also indeed. immigration well whoever wins this election they will have some tough challenges ahead they'll have to try and rapidly form a coalition and help navigate the country out of the current a virus pandemic and into economic recovery and say after some sharp words from

pyongyang their secretaries of state and defense are in south korea on the 2nd stop of their asian tour answered chief lloyd austin was welcomed by the foreign minister the military parades north korea's nuclear ambitions are hardly on the agenda pyongyang has warned the u.s. not to cause trouble in the region. we are ok alliance which has been stuck for several over 70 years remains are in play here is the linchpin of. security and prosperity when we. are free and can go to preserve a region and across the world yes homeland security secretary of the 100 more yarkas says facing a panel on capitol hill on the recent influx of migrants at the us mexico border it comes as president joe biden's ministrations struggles to accommodates the growing number of children crossing the border alone u.s.

customs officials say they encountered 29000 people in february by merely a 3rd on the previous month. police in the u.s. city of atlanta are investigating the most a behind the killing of 8 people with 3 massage spouse 6 of the women killed were of asian descent authorities say a male suspect has been arrested it's us vice president come the harris reacted to the shootings calling them tragic the investigation is ongoing we don't yet know we're not yet clear about the motive but i do want to say to our is an american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people but knowing the increasing level of hate crime against our asian american brothers and sisters we also want to speak out in solidarity with them and acknowledge that none of us should ever be silent in the face of any form of hate. the men on motorcycles of attacks

a group of civilians in the share killing at least 58 people it happened as people were returning from a livestock market and bernie banton go near the border with mali these hackers also destroy you know by structures used to store grains the government has declared 3 days of national mourning. 10 years into serious conflicts in the still no political settlement or transition process syrian president bashar assad has been accused of failing to engage in you had led talks that would eventually weaken his hold on power he may have won the war but he rules over a failed state properties on the rise and people are hungry and say no hunter reports. you know 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 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 are eating just bread and dried meat is a luxury there is hunger and there is anger at the regime but people can do anything but charlotte 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. to get. 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 is a central issue of the conflict many say there can't be a settlement or reconciliation with more than half of the country displaced syrians . they're not on.

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 ringback increasingly being described as a failed state with no international legitimacy set up for their beirut. one of iraq's religious minority groups which is survive for centuries is now rapidly disappearing the monday in say security issues of forced many of their members into hiding for some a binge of aid has more from baghdad as followers gathered to mark a sacred ceremony known as the bunch of festival. hit men by men and children submerged in running water of the tigris river. to plant their bodies and wash away their sins this baptism is a mending and ritual also known as sab ians in iraq the followers of a monotheistic religion which predates islam and christianity but if you come here every year for either bunya

a 5 day festival where everyone dresses in white you must change into the special robes and head to the river. deny they pray before being baptized in the chimney water ritual it's time for reflection. the grandfather explains the belt worn around the rule is made with 61 threads representing 61 angels but he loves being here and i had. i like meeting friends and playing here i like this festival more than others because we get back ties in the water. after the baptism food is served but just cooked using clay from the riverbed during the bungee festival all food must be washed in the river and they must drink from it as well their patriarch is john the baptist called prophet in arabic. and men day and say all good comes from a world of light and all evil from the world of darkness. is the religion's ground share a priest. monday is miss the 1st religion in the world we believe in one

god who created life anees everlasting our holy book is considerable well the 1st books of prophets adam a sheet and yet here we believe in charity for the poor the running water gives us purification the religion forbids any part is with god adultery killing which crossed our holy book says don't go to that which is a magic they align. but for centuries they were considered heretics and in the digital age their faith is linked to spells and sorcery they want to dispel the myths about witchcraft and magic being associated with the gnostic religion so their numbers are barely a 5th of what they were before the 2003 invasion because of iraq's security and there is being a close religion one can only be born into the faith in marrying into their religion is forbidden and the population has dwindled even further because thousands have taken refuge elsewhere for safety. and her sister left iraq because of airstrikes and war today they say they're happy to have returned home but then

a minor when we left for jordan we thought we will never come back we thought we would never participate in the religious ceremonies again and i'm happy to see our relatives and everyone participating and i. mr. festivals like this bring people together there are fewer temples but because of the pandemic only outdoor gatherings are allowed. instead of restoring places of worship the iraqi government even wants to take away the small base of rituals on the riverbank people whom we demand the government to take your farm and noted as an ancient religion religious harmony gathers people and interfaith relations promotes respect and humanity we have suffered in other provinces from persecution in targeting of our people nearly 2 decades of violence neglect and indifference have destroyed iraq's rich heritage and one of its ancient religious groups fears extinction unless its traditions and people are protected some of the job with al-jazeera back that i'm

a finish there is some great pictures from afghanistan and one of the country's most popular sports books cache our cameras captured some of the action at a recent tournament in kabul david still reports. to the untrained eye this may look like a chaotic tangle of horses and humans arms and legs but this is just catchy and here in afghanistan it's the national sport a hit for hundreds of years it has some similarities with polo it was catchy translates as goat pulling in traditionally a dead goat is used as the ball at this tournament in kabul an artificial goat might have leather was used instead and to score a rider must grab the ball and then drop it into the opponent's goal. and i'm not good with. the cash the game has a lot of meaning for us well people were fighting with the enemy in the past they were using these types of horse the game has a long history but even my father and forefathers they don't know exactly when it

started. some believe the sport could have its roots in a time when rival tribes would steal each other's goats. it's certainly physical with riders wearing protective clothing amid the liberal swinging of whips and boots of them have won astronomy and i mean. that this is a game which can bring all of gun people together in one place we have people from all of these and backgrounds in the league all of them love discussion this is the 1st time that we've had teams in the league from all around the country it brings me so much joy to see it. this week long event involve teams from 16 provinces the final match lasted 5 hours with nothing to separate the conducing kandahar teams who were eventually named joy when as that i was on. sports in afghanistan is very important because we are surrounded by war there are explosions and suicide attacks every day there are few chances for the people to just have fun this is

a sport which brings all the people together it unites everyone was an ancient and dangerous sport with a role to play in building a more peaceful future in afghanistan david stokes out 0. this is al jazeera and these are the headlines the european union has proposed to coronavirus passports to help ease travel restrictions within the block the digital green certificate would provide proof travelers have either been vaccinated recovered from the virus or had a recent negative test this certificate will make sure that the results are what shows the data and it's a minimum set of data mutually recognize.