people's livelihoods over 100 countries by funding projects in a rape sectors. ranging from infrastructure to health education. these initiatives ultimately help to eradicate poverty. and promote sustainable development. al-jazeera. hello there i'm hala my he did this is the news our live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes the european union is proposing a covert 19 digital green pass to ease travel restrictions within the block. do you know vladimir putin you think is a killer. or do u.s. presidents joe biden criticizes russia's leader and says rather be

a putin will pay a price for meddling in last year's election. elections are underway in the netherlands opinion polls suggest prime minister mark routers party is on track to win and police in the u.s. state of georgia have arrested a man they say opened fire at several spars killing 8 people most of them women of asian descent. i'm german ashworth sport an independent review has found the english football association did not do enough to protect children from sexual abuse and it new zealand to retain its savings america's cup feel this trophy in international sports. well we begin with the coronavirus pandemic and several developments on the vaccination. pains are round the world and europe the e.u.

has proposed a so-called covert 19 passports to help ease travel restrictions within the block the digital green pass would provide proof travelers have either been vaccinated recovered from the virus or had a recent negative test in south africa the certificate will make sure that the results are what shows the data and is the minimum set of data mutually recognized 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 minimum. well in south africa there's been another setback for the astra zeneca vaccine a new study shows it's less effective at protecting against the south african variants this growing alarm across latin america about the increasing number of covert 1000 cases particularly in surely no despite it's the nation having

a successful vaccine rolaids and brazil is experiencing a near total collapse of its health care system as intensive care units run eyes of capacity or will go live to latin american editor in santiago later but 1st dominic cain has more on the plan for e.u. coronavirus passports almost sunny parisienne morning partly casual but walks his dog patrick has recently been vaccinated and has the badge to prove it but he would welcome something more official than it does a covert 19 health pass would allow us to travel to get back a little bit of freedom by june those wishes will be a reality because the european commission plans a digital green pass which all e.u. residents would have on a smart phone proving they have either been vaccinated recently recovered from covert or had a negative test with this digital certificate we aim to help member states

reinstate the freedom of movement in a safe responsible and trusted mina but for some e.u. leaders that goes neither far nor fast enough we want to but we don't want to wait for implementation by the robber will take the 1st steps on the national level the health minister will give a news conference on thursday outlining the necessary legal basis to introduce green stick it in austria as early as april many in the tourism industry welcomed the e.u. proposal. vaccine certificate is essential to make travel easier and it's important that it's digital in because only a digital certificate makes it easier to check in and out. it's no good if there's big queues and lots of bits of paper on the flip side the world health organization is urging caution the requirement for certification of vaccination as a requirement for international travel is not justified as vaccination is not widely enough vailable and is in equitably distributed throughout the world having

a certificate on a smartphone is clearly going to transform the way people travel across the e.u. but in order to work as a proof of vaccination the person must 1st have been vaccinated and so far at least comparatively few europeans have been dominic kane al-jazeera. but let's get more on this night from thomas loaning or he's executive director of epicenter works that's a digital rights organization and he joins us by skype from the u.n. or i could have you with us on the program would you say in principle that these passports are a good idea. thanks for having me so it's a very complicated question because ultimately i think when it comes to international travel such a document already exists in the form of to w.h.o. yellow immunization passport the vaccination passport that has been around for decades which is internationally recognized and very cheap to roll out and

certainly to you wants to establish some form of digital program here. but the main argument that we would like to introduce is that this is not just for international travel you can already see the name which is the same as in israel. certainly some member states will use the system to also open up society and for example give privileges to people that are vaccinated that had to disease or recently have been tested well that well that's going to happen anyway you could argue whether the government sanctions it or not there's a well known case of a plumbing chain in the u.k. that have refused to hire anyone unless they can prove they've been vaccinated in terms of. it's not necessarily a digital issue it could also be a moral one but one which there is no answer to the question you mentioned that w.h.o. yellow passports do you think even reversing to that would work because you do have

states that are refusing to accept travelers who haven't been vaccinated with a specific vaccine. of course you're right and in international travel we have systems for many many years and you could even increase the security of yellow w.h.o. nation passport or follow graphic stickers for the cause of a $1000.00 vaccinations that but it does could even have the name of the person engraved it has been vaccinated so there are ways to build on a truly international system but if we really want to do to stitch and i i can only speak to the privacy aspects of the system so i think there's a wider debate to be had whether we have to medical evidence for such a system whether it's ethically what we want to society but purely speaking from a privacy perspective it is possible to roll out such a system without many negative side effects for the privacy of people because it's not just the fact that it's you have your own health information in that system if

we really used is for every restaurant for every museum for every hairdresser that you go to then of course also to information about the movement of people could be collected in the wrong architecture of that system so do you think this is just a technical question for the european union then to be able to protect against privacy breaches because at the end of the day if you're asking people if they've had a vaccine i mean that they're going to have that is a breach of privacy because you're giving up information about your health status surely there's nothing really you can do to counteract that so are you saying this is purely on the nuts and bolts of how the e.u. rule there so it's a bit together the digital infrastructure or do you think the privacy question is one which should mix the entire thing. i think you have to strike a balance here. do you have the experience last year of being late to the party

when it comes to contact tracing applications because it was more apple and google to sets a standard than the european union and now they want to be early now they want to get it right and current proposal that you has announced today is definitely going in the right direction it's better on privacy than the solutions we've just seen in germany and in austria but it's really about the details and certainly we have not seen the details today those are left for dedicated acts from the european commission. right now we've only seen a framework from the e.u. that saudi about the freedom of movement from people and it's only left to the member states deciding what how the vaccination or immunization passports are used in other parts of society and those uses will also need national legislation ok so lots of details still to be find their great to get your input thank you so much thomas long ago there joining us from vienna. well listen get

a check on the situation across in latin america america and so the newman is in santiago. let's just start where you are in chile the voice of the vaccination has been going quite well but cases are searching there why is that. it's a very complex situation i mean it's really paradoxical in fact as you say the rollout has been remarkably successful. nearly a 3rd of the to be of population has already been vaccinated at least with the 1st . more than 5000000 tilia which is a quarter of the population or more than a quarter of the population already has been vaccinated but the real problem is that you need 80 percent before herd immunity he says and in the meantime a lot of other things are going wrong 1st and foremost traceability is not as

successful as it should be and that's the ability for the health system to trace the people that an infected person has been in contact with or all of the people and that that's key in order to control the spread of the pandemic people are tired of being in locked in their house they're tired of the restrictions so they're starting to disobey a lot of those restrictions that have been imposed by the government ignore them in fact all together and there hasn't been too late to imposition of that as well and finally there is a government policy that has focused much more on containing this pandemic than on actually eliminating it and they bring lax to a lot of the policies that are ordered to take into account people's for t. pandemic 15 the need for holidays with we've been in summer here although the days are rather cold day and when people came back with their holidays the number of them that has just went by i. have hospitals at that week. all of the sudden in

fact i have to turn away patients and so it is a very serious situation indeed is a tricky situation in chile but it's extremely concerning what's happening across with brazil they're struggling with the covert situation in that country the health health service really seems to be close to collapse or can you tell us about what's happening in brazil. absolutely if things are difficult here they are much much worse in brazil 1st of all the president the leader of the country has systematically attacked all the measures such as vaccinations wearing face masks social distancing he's rubbish all those he's already now bob who is 4th or bowing to his 4th health minister in just a year the new hope for minister was just sworn in on out went out tuesday and held

over to name the policy were made more or less the same and finally now it got more than 5000 or 4 or nearly 5000 people dying a day so the hospitals just can't cope there troubling situation indeed that's the syrian human al-jazeera is latin american editor live from santiago the cea thank you. they're pregnant women vaccinated against covert 19 could pass along protection to their babies that's according to a study conducted last month in israel research found antibodies were detected in old twin c. vaccinated women and their newborns the participants were given both doses of the pfizer vaccine trial will no assess how long the antibodies will last in the babies the study has not yet been peer reviewed dr i mean. researches maternal and infectious diseases he says the findings of the study seem promising. examined women who received the 2 doses of the 5 their 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 is 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 neonates 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 both 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. plenty more still to come on this news hour including north korea issues a warning as the u.s. secretaries of state and defense visits all on the 2nd stop of their asia tour class chelsea put their 12 game unbeaten streak on the line against athletico madrid in the champions league later we'll look at stats in sports. my.

president joe biden has spoken about a number of foreign policy issues during an interview with an american broadcaster including pulling troops or afghanistan and allegations of russian interference in last year's u.s. election white house correspondent kimberly howard is live for us now i can't believe you watched that interview what did we learn about its president biden's priorities in the months and years to come. well he discussed both domestic and foreign policy but it's the foreign policy comments that really seem to be getting the attention on the issue of russia the u.s. president was asked about the u.s. russia relationship and this comes on the heels of a report that has come out from u.s. intelligence stating that russia once again tried to interfere in the 2020 u.s. election as it did in 2016 that it sought to discredit joe biden's candidacy and

this is something that it will not directly asked about the report in terms of the contents of the candidacy was asked more about the relationship and what this means for u.s. and russia relations and so joe biden had some very strong words with regard to that not only that russia will have to pay for some of its actions but also that what it's in u.s. national security interests that in fact the united states will choose to work with russia here's what he had to say you know vladimir putin you think he's a killer. i do so what price must he pay the price is going to pay well you'll see shortly i'm not going to by the way we're going to be able to have 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 you now on the issue of asked can a stand the u.s. president was also asked about an agreement that was struck by the previous donald trump administration that was

a peace agreement worked out between the taliban to allow for part of that agreement the u.s. troops that are still currently stationed there in multiple bases about $2500.00 plus about a 1000 special forces when they would be leaving well there was a deadline put on for that for may 1st and asked of the united states will meet that deadline the u.s. president seemed to cast some doubt about whether or not that would be possible here's what he had to say. 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 a green it's 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. the other big topic covered in this interview the murder of washington post journalist about his shows she the now public report intelligence report that squarely puts the blame for ordering that killing on the saudi crown prince mohammed bin selman joe biden was asked why he did not take action directly against the saudi crown prince he said it's u.s. policy not to in the case of heads of state ok kemba holcombe better bring as the latest live from the white house kimberly thank you very much indeed. change of pace for you now a chorus of process by girls in afghanistan has helped overturn a ban on singing in public. they learn why they get their $30.00 or was 00 cell there's another star. or using the hash tag i am mice

on girl share videos of themselves singing. the regions the homes of education said female students over the age of 12 could nor longer perform in front of next audiences women's rights groups said it was reminiscent of the days of taliban rule well let's speak now to dr nasser sarmast he's the founder and director of the afghanistan national institutes of music and joins us now from kabul great to have you with us on the news are and if i understand this correctly that hash tag started with you just tell us why you started this campaign and explain what it means to you. a lot for my song to go. by the afghanistan mission in such music. one of the major object give of my presence in afghanistan and definitely

that presence that. i got that going to spend nationalist music is ensuring the music arrives in should we all know that the people of afghanistan back in 90 days they've been deprived from their music. their mother love to listen to music the news the. this music or learn or mikkel even when you. were in the company when they come home you don't mind obviously or how 20 years after that so many changes still there are there are elements within the afghan government work trying to turn the wheel of history back absolutely also of how we can keep silent when there is one more this is an attempt to people to silence the people of afghanistan deprived people for good musical i didn't cry out

the the young we were not afghans from the rice scene and they've forgotten and basically deprived from their best human rights and for those of us here and for those of us as i'm sorry to cut you off server for those of us who are privileged enough to have music in our lives every day it's difficult to imagine this absence of music from your life and that's something that certainly many women and girls fear a future they face in afghanistan just sums alone how important the healing power of music is especially to. people who are living in a country that knows its fair share of conflicts. yes. you have the afghanistan is a country which was in war over 40 years and the people of afghanistan today needs more than anything is to benefit from the healing power of. just the healing

power of music that will contribute to their well being of the citizen of our of afghanistan who we knew who are poor and i know it affected by years of war and traumatized by the same time it is music can also build bridges between different it nichole of afghanistan and he'll be defeated and that exists in afghanistan during the last 40 years so music in one it will in money we can contribute to the afghanistan useful just the healing power of music but it's also the ability of music to build bridges between different but also build bridges between afghanistan and that niche that. and also music either part of the identity of an even asia. backing ninety's 19 ninety's afghanistan was or the identity of afghanistan was not complete because they had shot i didn't know afghanistan has been this just that

and the people of afghanistan been deprived of many rights including rights rights rights to have access to music and music. playing music even painting was an issue in that ok and just finally have important would you say it is includes women and girls when it comes to music what difference does it make to afghanistan's cultural scene to have music available not just to men but also to women. that's why we campaign for the really get to come by my song because like sure gender equality in all aspects of life in afghanistan including how it got having access to music and also participating in activities i'm very pleased that 20 years after the positive changes in afghanistan afghanistan. all. we. speak that internationally and

nationally and it become a symbol i mean it's a patient lot of women in afghanistan for the last 5 years ok so a release is a very full all are i'm sorry to cut you off we are out of time better or grateful to you for bringing us this rare piece of good news from afghanistan dr ahmed nasser sunset some us from the afghanistan national institute of music thank you so much for speaking to us here on al-jazeera thank you for giving me this opportunity . that one of iraq's religious minority groups which has survived for centuries is now rapidly disappearing the mundane say security issues are forced many of their members into hiding some of engine fate has more from baghdad as followers gather to mark a sacred ceremony known as the punch a festival. with men women and children submerged in

running water of the tigris river. to cleanse their bodies and wash away their sins this baptism is amending and ritual also known as sabby and in iraq they are the followers of a monotheistic religion which predates islam and christianity. but you comes here every year for either a 5 day festival where everyone dresses in white you must change into the special robes and head to the river. or deny they pray before being baptized in the chinese 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 day and see all good comes from a world of light and all evil from the world of darkness. is the religions grand chief priest. monday ism is the 1st religion in the world we believe in one god who created life anees everlasting holy book is considerable well the 1st books of prophets adam a sheet and yet 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 all line. 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 security and there

is being a close religion. one can only be born into the faith and 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 and the fact that no matter when we left for jordan we thought we will never come back we thought we would never participate in a religious ceremony as again i'm happy to see our relatives and everyone participating in a festival. 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. and we demand the government to take your farm 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 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. but that. still to come on al-jazeera farewell to king zuma a nation pays tribute to the longest serving more mark in the history and in sports the 19 year old who calls and upsets at the dubai tennis championships gemma will have more feet later in the show. it's a tale of 2 halls across the middle east in terms of the weather over the next couple of days most of us across the right of the nation is fine and dry and warming up

nice to be going up to 38 celsius in doha on stay warm even for here that's 100 in found 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 it's in the channels of want to see wintry shallows there in afghanistan stays on the warm side here 36 celsius the friday afternoon that the sunshine stretches down across the u.a.e. your mom and into yemen lossie dried sioux across somalia although a chance of one of 2 showers just coming in here running across central parts so the areas of. 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 them because of what's a weather into the eastern cape that's making its way further east for the weekend . mixing the traditional with the mountain but he knew what to expect ignoring cough divides the only thing with united there was the music greek music blaring through the speakers wielding the power of music to turn up the volume on india's social injustices when i saw the performance or result wow and shake things out we went on stage or something we brought a stage or something witness consciousness collective on al-jazeera. join africa's largest trade and investment and rwanda into african trade track gives me access to more than 1100 exhibitors 10000 visitors in bias and more than 5000 conference delegates from more than 55 countries participate in trade and investment deals

with $40000000000.00 as business and government come together to explore business and networking opportunities at the international exhibition boats to african export import bank and their premium partners the i a.t.f. 2021 transforming africa. the the all. places al-jazeera quick reminder on the top stories for you this hour european union has proposed a coronavirus passport 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. palestinian health officials say $62000.00 doses of corona

virus vaccines are on their way to be occupied west bank and gaza strip include short spy fines or and astra zeneca provided by the un it's called facts program and president joe biden has school question number of foreign policy issues said the u.s. may miss a may 1st deadline to pull troops out of a can of sand also accused russia of interfering in last year's u.s. election. polls will close in a few years time in the netherlands national election opinion polls suggest prime minister mark roots a center by party is on track to win by a large margin as 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 well in a moment step vasomotor is live form amsterdam but 1st let's hear from the tasha butler is following the vote in the hague. a staggering 37 political parties are

competing for 150 parliamentary seats in the dutch general election that has been dominated by the coronavirus 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 well most of 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 general 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 well for right leader good villagers 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 are 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 of our spontaneous and into economic recovery. well let's get more now on the steadfast and joins me now from. step it's always good to be a challenge rules in a general election cheering a pandemic of quite a few people have turned. out the can't sing sense or when are they going to begin finds again he's actually won the selection. well yes the polls are still open actually for another one and a half hours but counting has already started because because of the corona

pandemic they actually gave the opportunity for photos to send in their votes by mail and this is what they are now counting here next to me all these letters that came in from people who are actually above 70 years old they could vote of by mail already in the last couple of weeks and these are nearly $2000000.00 votes that have to be counted and they want to calculate these photos with the exit polls that will come out as soon as the polling stations close in one a matter of hours from now we are expecting the 1st exit polls and of course as we have seen in the polling before these elections prime minister mark rutte is seen as the winner but of course there could be still surprises a lot of people who are still undecided so they might have chosen only at the last minute who to vote for so we have to wait another one and half hours i would say to get a clearer picture of who is actually going to be the winning party of this election

and said we were we had a quick look over your shoulder at the beginning of your law even the ballot paper seems enormous how many people are running this election. it is enormous it's 37 parties this is the largest number of parties since world war 2 competing in this parliamentary elections and that's a real challenge because also due to the pandemic there are many more polling stations they wanted to have spacious areas like this one for these elections and now a lot of fallen tears were actually asked to help count the vote so they have now a lot of volunteers around the country also here counting these votes. as a lot of counting beads on hand they're nice and socially distance it looks like from here steverson we'll check in with you later as the evening progresses but for now thank you very much indeed. now a day after some sharp words from pyongyang the u.s.

secretaries of state and defense are in south korea on the 2nd stop of their asia tour president chief lloyd austin was welcomed by the foreign minister with a military parade north korea's nuclear ambitions are high on the agenda pyongyang has warned the u.s. not to cause trouble in the region. which is. over 70 years removed. region across the world well let's get more now from scott snyder he's a senior fellow for korea studies and director of the program on u.s. korea policy at the council on foreign relations it's good of you to join us from washington d.c. sir it's interesting the reaction from north korea to this threatening.

more tests telling the americans not to cause trouble but the koreans are always warning that they will destroy america i mean are these threats any difference. in fact john statement was really directed much more at south korea than at the united states which is notable the north koreans have been very reticent so far to say much about the biden administration and actually contrary to expectations we have not yet seen a provocation it's possible that the north koreans will follow their traditional playbook and use provocations as a way of testing the biden ministration maybe by launching some kind of. missile or something like that. but so far it's been relatively mild and the biden ministration is really in the middle of their policy review but this trip is

focused on china and so the big challenge with south korea is juggling biden mr xi priority on china with the fact that south koreans are very focused on north korea at this so would you say that china is much more of a concern to the united states right now than any potential threat from north korea and what does that say about the current state of relations between the u.s. and china. well i think it's pretty clear that the biden missed ration has sort of identified china as one of the major priorities and strategic challenges for u.s. foreign policy the entire unfolding of this trip. going back and beginning with the quad summit last friday. is all focused in preparation for the u.s. trying to dialogue with her in a while. later this week and also for the biden mr ation building a coalition among like minded alliance partners is critical in advance of that

meeting i think that's exactly the reason why we have 2 cabinet level representatives and and south korea this week in advance of that meeting and they do think it sensible what the biden ministration are doing with this visit by which shoring up support from allies let's face it we're never going to turn the back on the nights of states snubbing china and then inviting them to alaska and what's not normally the something is time if you. yes i think that this is a very interesting strategic framing and we'll just have to see how it sustains itself and i think that the critical issue is going to be what comes out of the china meeting but going in it seems to me that the biden missed ration is looking to confront where it can cooperate where it must. and. you know essentially try to frame

a relationship that can be both adversarial and cooperative at the same time and they need allies in order to be able to do that successfully and they will be very interesting to see how that pans out it's as we wait with bated breath for that is scott snyder joining us there from washington d.c. great to get your thoughts thank you for talking to us here on al-jazeera thank you so much. yes president joe biden has condemned the killing of 8 people at 3 massage parlors in georgia 6 of the women killed were of asian descent do you know or speak . italian you can feed americans. for 5 months i think it could be very very strong. but i maybe no conviction this morning from beijing over from the killer. for a new sort of from as the investigation proceeds from the f.b.i. and from the justice department so and that's. more to

say when the investigation is complete. they will police have now arrested a 21 year old suspect in atlanta so they're investigating whether or not it was a hate crime the charlotte 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 and now 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 descent yesterday with a tragic day. across our state and as many of you all know there were several victims who were tragically killed on yesterday. and our thoughts and prayers

remain with phil's families police have arrested a 21 year old and charged him with killing 8 people they are 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 ministry confirms that 4 of the victims were of kareem to seemed i know that many we've received a number of calls about is this a hate crime we're still early in this investigation so we cannot make that determination at this moment he made indicators that. he has some some issues attention sexual addiction and. may have frequent some of these places in the past and things but as chief indicated there's still early on crimes targeting asian americans have risen dramatically since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic organization stop a p.r. hague has detailed 3800 attacks in just the last 12 months more than half were

against people of chinese kareem to st president joe biden interesting issue in a speech last week place prison coming to harris reiterated her concerns calling the shootings 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 while police try to unravel whether this was racially motivated or not it's a sensitive time for asian americans who feel increasingly vulnerable ballasts. well let's go live to gallagher who's following the story from miami. the police the president the vice president's there holding judgment on whether or not it's a hate crime saying the investigations are under way but you were listening to the press conference our earlier what more if we learns about this attack at this stage

. well what we're learning is mostly coming from the 21 year old man that was arrested for carrying out these mass shootings killing 8 people and he's apparently told investigators that he had been to these mass arj parlors before now you heard one of the police officials say that he may have been some kind of sex addict and in the words of one of the investigators was trying to eliminate temptation one of the lines that wasn't just in the piece was that he was possibly heading from georgia to here in the state of florida to potentially carry out attacks on similar businesses we know that his parents helped the police with that fairly rapid arrest after they saw his picture on social media and called the authorities but at the moment as you heard president biden saying he's going to hold off on any judgment until this investigation is completed all the indications

at the moment are if the shooter the suspected shooter is to be believed at face value that this wasn't a hate crime but clearly the asian american community in this country are on a razor's edge at the moment with so many attacks happening since the beginning of the pandemic a couple of democrats blaming president trump's rhetoric when he referred to the curve at 19 as the china flu saying that that's just fired all this these attacks up so it is early stages an investigation the man who has now been arrested will appear at an arraignment on thursday and the police across the nation are promising asian american communities that will step up their patrols in these which are pretty fragile communities at the moment given the amount of attacks we've seen over the last 12 months very troubling stuff indeed and they're bringing us the latest from miami and thank you. and say that for kazoo the king will be buried in a secret private ceremony on thursday morning the private burial will be attended

by close male family members by a state memorial service. this is where they see me died last week at the age of 72 he'd been in hospital for weeks to treat diabetes with his health concern for the worse for me to miller has more from the go my. thinking will be laid to rest in a ceremony oh the hours of those people and the ceremony will be private only men will participate and what is killing with them is a good tradition is that his place of burial will be remade secrets this is based on royal traditional zulu custom it's important that he's going to place remains private as to avoid any concerns around potential witchcraft and also around any potential succession battles we don't expect that to be the case with regard to the king goodwills well a teeny big stake it's expected there will be

a smooth transition for the people here have come to pay their respects. these are just a few of the. new warriors that will be present outside and around the palace through the evening and into the early hours of thursday morning. so come on al-jazeera will take a closer look at afghanistan's national sports was cache that's coming up after the break break gemma.

the e.u. the old.

it's time for the sport here's gemma thank you have the english football association has offered a heartfelt apology to survivors of child sexual abuse in football after a long awaited report found the organization did not do enough to protect children the independent review which took 4 years to complete focused on historical claims of abuse between 19720058 concluded the f.a. was too slow to put sufficient protection measures in place the report also said that there were going to be at least $240.00 suspects and $692.00 survivors f.a. chief executive mark a building and called it a dark day for the beautiful game and says the f.a. had no excuse for its failings while the organization has vowed to learn from its mistakes its to protect future generations a piece global sports correspondent rob harris told us that while the report has made several recommendations there's a strong feeling that is not gone far enough. it's really

a story over the report where either children weren't believed or thora to turn the blind dying did not act on rumors or indeed clear allegations even when the police often came to them and asked them to act there are recommendations in the report including the appointment of someone on the f a's board to particularly look at safeguarding matters there are recommendations for more spot checks across clubs across the country and checks on things like overnight trips because in some of the cases highlighted in this report albeit the investigation stopped at 2005 there were concerns about when coaches had young players at their home as youth players and also the report highlights more modern concerns about things like social media which can also be used for grooming we are hearing some criticism from survivors in fact that there are no individuals really named in terms of action should be taken against criticism against those at the f.a.

from the time that this report covers and they think in some ways the tone is a bit like not being hard hitting a nothing and also there are still potentially cases to be pursued but there certainly is that approach that's been called a dark day for football. team new zealand has successfully defended sailings america's cup the oldest trophy in international sport and they did it on high waters off the coast of orcon and he needed one more win on the 6th day of racing against the italian challenges that luna rossa and i set way stand by 46 seconds to wrap up a 73 victory over all these ilands a cave in 1000 members of extremely low so there were more than a 1000 spectators but it's out of the water to celebrate alongside them. and there were even more fans that watching back on dry land including thousands i don't cleanse viaducts harbor skipper peter burning at a live picture of you also when the last america's cup in 2017 led his team through the crowd said to miss the trophy which is 170 years old is the 4th time that new

zealand have won it by heavy favorites to reach a 9th the champions the quarter final in 10 seasons later the defending champions take a 41 lead into that round of 16 2nd leg against lots that series coach admits the tar is as good as ever but by ins at least on a says they can't afford to be complacent. does. the fact that we have scored some goals in the 1st league doesn't mean that we are through already if we don't prepare very well this might backfire very fast because they also have a very strong team and also have very good players that's why each of us is highly motivated and takes this match seriously. it's a lot closer going into the other game of the night with chelsea holding a one nil 1st leg lead against athletic since thomas it were took over as head coach at the end of january chelsea are unbeaten in 12 games. i'm very very sure

that we need another top performance that we need to be very very focused and concentrated at the same time we want to play a high intensity match because we're used to play high intensity matches and we want to be hungry to score. in the same time in choices competition and do what is needed to win a big metal like this 19 year old yannick senna has cause an upset at the dubai tennis championships he beats the number 4 seed roberta batiste in the 3rd round the italian he was the youngest player in the top 100 of the world rankings took the 1st set 64 he lost the 2nd to them won the decider 75 to reach the quarterfinals but help play out so. now we're finished with some great pictures from afghanistan on one of the country's most popular sports gushy our cameras capture some of the action at a recent tournament in kabul david stakes reports. to the untrained eye this may

look like a chaotic tangle of horses and humans arms and legs but this is because catchy and here in afghanistan it's the national sport was played 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 going with the 100th of a cash 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 guts. it's certainly physical with riders wearing protective clothing and that the liberal swinging of whips and boots of them afghanistan i mean everybody. else 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 joint winners. support 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 our jazeera. now more later.

all that said for me and that scene is here in doha overnights maryam namazie and our colleagues in munson will be with you on the other side of the break but i. jumped into the street there was going on a. global community when i don't have all the misinformation i think we all want to . be part of the debate don't ever take anybody's one word because there's always a difference when no topic is off the table we have been disconnected from our land we have been disconnected from who we are who would love to he. be part of today's

discussion this stream on out is there. it's one of the world's most powerful and dangerous criminal enterprises central to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people and behind the deaths of many more exceptional access to some of its key players reveals the in the workings of an organization telling the name to many as the blood alliance inside this in a low a cartel part one of a 2 part investigation people in power on al-jazeera in new delhi take advantage of the relatively often weeks of toxic small stopped people from venturing outside institutions uprooting hobgood say air pollution is leading to more severe cases of the coronavirus and more deaths from it and nowhere in india is the situation was bad and dandy the number of. desperate situation of the indian

government set up a new commission to monitor sources of pollution across 5 states health experts and bob mentioned this and been warning for months that the easing of the law would lead to an increase in pollution and the impact that would have on those because of 19. ready. the e.u. unveils plans for a vaccine passport scheme to allow travel to resume around europe this summer. and warnings of very high cova transmission rates in all regions of brazil after its deadliest day yet. a low i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program president joe biden tells migrants not to come as republicans accuse.