the central parts of china that will slide its way out into the open waters was the far south of japan but for the time being is fine and dry with plenty of warm sunshine into the weekend. 0. hello i'm maryam namazie you're watching the news hour live from london coming up in the next 60 minutes tanzania's president john that mug of food he dies off to 2 weeks of speculation that he was ill with covert 19. or warnings of very high transmission rates in all regions of brazil after its deadliest day yet.

president biden tells migrants not to come as republicans accuse him of fueling this in unaccompanied children crossing the border. and despite curfew rights in a child benefit scandal exit polls put the dutch prime minister mark worser on course for a 4th term. 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 new zealand retain its tailings america's cup the oldest trophy an international sports. bar we begin the news hour with breaking news from tanzania where the vice president has announced the death of president john magaw foody at the age of 61 he hadn't been seen in public for more than 2 weeks and speculation was rife that he was seriously ill with the coronavirus it was

a vocal skeptic of covert 19 me and criticize for doing little to protect his people from the virus al-jazeera is catherine soy looks back at his life. soon after taking office in 2015 president john palmer mughal fully made a name for himself across tanzania as a leader committed to fulfilling his promises of reform many people called him the bulldozer because of his no nonsense approach to fighting corruption and wasteful spending which had plagued the country for decades he made it his mission to cut down on civil service expenses and boost infrastructure projects including the development of a really different cities while many tanzanian see mughal flee as a popular leader who tried to help the poor and bring economic stability he's critics accuse him of being a populist dictator who changed civil liberty lows and presided over a government using heavy handed tactics to curtail freedom of expression the media

political opposition and the l g b t community has also faced international criticism for how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic his government refused to put in place world health organization particles refused to release statistics of the disease or to start of vaccination program instead asking tanzania's to pre and use law called preventive remedies. john michael fully leaves a checkered legacy some will remember him as a symbol of consistency and decisiveness others say he's decisions affected the very essence of tanzania's democracy and in the middle of a pandemic the health of its people catherine soi. catherine joins us now on the phone from nairobi in neighboring kenya as we were hearing there despite the denials that. a virus he hadn't been seen in public for a couple of weeks at least until the end of february i think what is the reaction

likely to be to this news. well high in miami this is definitely huge and very sad news to a lot of consonance who have been waiting as you mentioned for those 3 or so weeks for any information about about president john palmer mughal fully he went missing in action back in february after his last public appearance and that's in the room started coming in that he's unwell those rumors that he's in a hospital in dar es salaam that he's been brought to a hospital in kenya has been taken in the average well we had from the opposition leader to do list some saying that the government has to come out clearly to say where fellini's how his health is we had for many people and sources online saying that he was in critical condition and you know last tuesday that's

when the rumors very strong that he had passed away in a hospital in dar es salaam but the government kept quiet and government officials who came up with saying that he's not well those are rumors in fact last week just this earlier this week several people are arrested for just saying that the president has passed on through a lot of tanzanians while waiting for such an announcement it doesn't come entirely as a surprise but many people there will be devastated because despite everything people have been saying that you know his critics have called him a dictator as you had in that story that people saying that he has been very heavy handed on you know opposition voices on his critics and the one many times and love him and they will be devastated that for fact and so this announcement of these death was made by he's the vice president's own salute this evening tanzanians obviously starting to grieve so

a very sad moment for tanzania this evening it is interesting that you say even in the midst of the covered $900.00 pounds. endemic that he many people in the country are going to be devastated with his passing given that he was such a robust code 19 denier and had faced criticism from the world health organization and others for not doing enough to protect people from from the virus how tell us more about how he is likely to be remembered. well absolutely i mean let's just start we've covered 19 a lot of people have been saying that she was hospitalized with 1000 complications the vice president in had announced and today said that he had. had complications and she was at need to be in a hospital in dar es salaam on the 6th and most march with that problem we know that he has a long standing heart problem in 2019 he also disappeared for about 2 weeks again

which had complications but then i mean coming back to what you mentioned about condit 19 she's handling of that disease has gained a lot of you know criticism not just from the w.h.o. but then from opposition leaders in tanzania and also leaders here in kenya as well i mean he's been criticized for example but the president of kenya also mentioned how you know the government of tanzania is handling a coronavirus the president said that tanzania does not have coronavirus he said he the government has not been giving a nice the to sticks of you know cases concerned cases of coronavirus but in the reason it's months and the reason weeks we've seen more and more people getting sick that we know of government officials for example who are hospitalized with coronavirus some of them have died we know of the finance minister for example who was recently and was in hospital and when people started talking about him and saying that he's been intense

a care unit that doesn't brought him out of his hospital beds to address the country thing that he's not well but we could see that he's clearly and well we kind of could verify that even if it will corona but a lot of people have been talking about it and have been questioning how the government is handling a coronavirus in that country so if indeed the president died of the disease which the government denies then it's going to be an indictment to the government on how the government has been dealing with this disease. because a lot of people in tanzania have been worried a little to a lot of times when you have been worried i mean it kind of funny is what maybe it is. and you got it what have been what are you doing what how you know the president at least government has handled this issue. all right thanks very much catherine will check in with you a bit later catherine sawyer joining us there from nairobi kenya. all the pan american health organization is one that brazil has

a very high rate of cova 1000 transmission in all of its regions brazil reported 2841 code related deaths on tuesday its worst day of the pandemic and has just recorded another 2648 deaths in the last 24 hours more people died from the virus in brazil last week than any other country all spittal beds and nearly full in more than hoff of its state's health organization called on the government to improve protections for its people as go live now to rio de janeiro and speak to monica monica. and we were speaking a great deal about the di a situation in the region of mouse where hospitals running out of oxygen tell us about how the rest of the country is now struggling to cope with this surge in the virus. and that's exactly it marian the many doctors here have said that one where is the brazil is having

right now is transforming the whole country and it's. in all and almost all of the states and brazil. there are established commission there was an intensive care unit so what's the situation that we have in sumbawa which is brazil's richest state. ok so i think we've got that up for a while yes sure we can we go back now i don't want to come please continue. so as i was saying in some follow which is brazil's largest richest state there were over 80 people that died in line waiting for a bed in intensive care units so it's no longer just an issue of money now switches

in the north and the amazon region it's a poor state it's something that has spread to the whole country and that's what really is keeping people worried not only in brazil but in neighboring countries as well countries that have borders with brazil so they're worried that this that the virus and its new variants can spread easily if nothing is being done and up doesn't present a model for example is still against curfew he says that states that have taken these measures governors are acting as dictators he says the vaccine should be the solution. so today he also changed his health minister we're having the 4th health health minister in brazil since the pandemic began a year ago but many here say that if the command of the leader of the country does not change his point of view or or his plans it doesn't matter if you keep changing

health ministers because there is no ford made it effort in the country to fight the pandemic. thank you very much. now india's prime minister narendra modi says the country needs to take quick and decisive steps soon to stop a surge in corona virus cases there the health ministry reported nearly 29000 infections on wednesday the highest number of data cases since december the federal government has blamed crowding and people not wary loss for this india has the world's highest tally of infections off the united states and brazil as you were just hearing that. well here hundreds of millions of europeans could be able to travel around the continent from this sama if an app on their smartphone shows they've been vaccinated proposed by the e.u. commission the digital green pos means freedom of movement being restored from june but some e.u. countries say it's too slow and then there's been criticism from the world health

organization which opposes the idea because much of the rest of the world is behind on vaccinations domenic cain has our report now from berlin. almost sunny parisienne morning patrick hill but walks his dog has recently been vaccinated and has the badge to prove it but he would welcome something more official. a covered 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 smartphone 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 men but for some e.u. leaders that goes neither far north 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 as a. vaccine certificate is essential to make travel easier and it's important that it's digital because only a digital certificate makes it easier to check in at airports 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 rexx a nation is not widely enough where level 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 dominant claim al-jazeera. well as the rollout of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine remains on hold throughout much of europe britain's prime minister is saying it's the job he'll be having or is johnson confirmed you've got the astronomical job very soon as he voiced his confidence in the vaccine to parliament or than told the european countries have now stopped using it because of reports of blood crossing in some recipients just as covert cases rise around the region on wednesday the world health organization reiterated it starts that it is safe the investigations are ongoing and then germany has been defending its decision to hold astra zeneca vaccinations after it led to the biggest states france italy and spain also pulling out of it the german government stressed that the move is only precaution rita is entitled these decisions that we have made sure transparency ensure that the concerns are being

taken seriously and examined and is soon as these concerns are cleared up the vaccine can be used again without hesitation at the same time however the decision of the federal government shows that the trustee now control mechanisms is justified mechanisms work this is showing by this action that is why this step could also strengthen trust it could strengthen confidence that the vaccines we are administering the vaccines that have been approved a good. the suspensions have already left many people wary of the vaccine these people in italy were keen to show which came to know which job they would be receiving. could be the vaccine the makes me. i'm a little more worried because my wife is due to receive astra zeneca but. that's not speak to chris smith a consultant for all ages she joins us live from cambridge how would you define or describe the risk of a blood clot from the astra zeneca vaccine. oh mary well it's very important to

take seriously any kind of side effect or risk with a medicine including vaccines because that's how we make sure that the sector is accountable and safe and that the public trust it but at the same time is really important that the response that is made in response to for instance the association of a particular outcome with the drug is dealt with proportionately and when you have something as severe as the risk from coronavirus stopping the rollout of a vaccine is an extremely serious step to take because we know that that will directly translate into more cases of the disease and that will inevitably translate into more deaths from the disease so you've got to be extremely sure that you are taking the action that you're taking because otherwise you will literally be causing more deaths than you're saving easing based on numbers a lie there's no there's no relation between having the vaccine and developing a clot that's right astra zeneca republish some dates as a sort of rebuttal to this and that the numbers that are circulating point out that

the risk of having a blood clot is about one in a 1000 in the general population per year now the number of blood clotting disorders that have been identified among people who have received astra zeneca is vaccine is $37.00 the number of people who've had the vaccine is 17000000 so if you divide 37 into 17000000 you get one in 460000 so in other words if they don't know 1000 versus one and half a 1000000 right and so even caps late it really well in terms of how do you then explain the reaction the political reaction to this. well there's a couple of things going on one is that these are not just common or garden blood clots that are being associated the people who are saying that there needs to be investigations are saying that actually there's a certain type of blood clotting involving the blood vessels in the head which are more rare and they appear to have seen

a few more of them then you would be comfortable saying and so they're saying perhaps there is an association so we should investigate but what's happened inevitably is it's like a political domino effect because once one country then turns to its leadership and says well we've got this potential observation we should do something about it and investigate it so they say ok let's suspend the vaccine well then the next country in line is of course going to turn to their leadership and say but they're doing it while we and as a result they then are forced into a very difficult position and having to defend in action or they're proactive and say well ok yes you're right we better investigate too but let's not lose sight of the fact that for every and the mr to stick was actually reported on french national radio yesterday i haven't checked the figure myself but it sounds plausible the commentator i heard said that for every 100000 people over the age of 50 that you don't vaccinate for a day that translates into at least another 5 deaths from coronavirus but that's

not reflected in public opinion is it how do you then convince people that it's safe to take the virus that the vaccine because of course they might just exactly right yeah exactly and this is the real worry because we've got a number of cases in the european community where there's a huge surge italy is back in lockdown germany has enormous problems on its hands with the numbers of cases and when you get surges of virus you also get higher risks of getting variants of the virus that will then sidestep the immunity conferred by vaccination so it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy so we need to restore. as quickly as possible and get the vaccines on track as quickly as possible because at the end of the day getting the levels of circulating virus down to as low as possible as quickly as possible is our way out of this because the less circulation of virus there is the lower the likelihood of variants emerging that combine past those vaccines and someone you

know said to me earlier today you know this is a pandemic everyone's at risk everyone is involved and it's not over till it's over for everybody and that means we've got to move fast almost everywhere and that means keeping people on side with with respect to vaccines that's an absolute priority thank you from cambridge university chris smith joining us. here with the news hour live from london well still ahead a man arrested for killing 8 people at 3 spies in atlanta tells police he saw them as temptations he wanted to eliminate. and in sport the english football association gives its reaction to the damning report into historical child sex abuse within the game. the a. now the head of u.s. homeland security has pushed back against republican criticism as he was questioned by a house committee over a surge of my clients at the mexican border i 100 majorca said his department is

working around the clock to manage the situation president biden's administration is struggling now to accommodate a growing number of children crossing the border alone alan fisher has more now from washington. there's an increasing number of people turning up trying to get into the u.s. through the southern border that's put president joe biden on the defensive didn't have to say quite clearly don't come yes i can say quite clearly don't come a we're in a process of getting set up if you don't leave your town or city or community on capitol hill members of congress question the new homeland security secretary he recently went to the border to see the situation for himself republican see the surge is coming because the biden ministration threw out several trump immigration policies are irresponsible radical and their actions by this administration we are seeing an aesthetic crisis unfold during a pandemic the situation at the border continues to get worse every day with

inadequate action or even proper acknowledgment of the severity of the situation president biden has stalled border will construction ended the policy that means refugees must stay in mexico will applying for asylum and while most migrants are still being turned away unaccompanied children are being allowed in a 100 my office has been homeland security secretary for just over a month he refuses to say there's a crisis at the border he says the trying to fix a problem created by 4 years of trump policies a crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9 year old child out of the hands of his or her parents and separate that family to deter future migration that to me is a humanitarian crisis. and what the president has committed to and what i am committed to and execute is to ensure that we have an immigration system that works and that migration to our country is safe orderly and humane. the hearing didn't

just concentrate on immigration it will be filmed like that during his evidence the secretary said the biggest threat to the us wasn't at the border but it came from domestic terrorism it was he said the most persistent and lethal threat to the whole money and resources would be moved to deal with that immediately alan fischer al jazeera on capitol hill. well joining us now via skype from washington is no fresca he's an immigration lawyer is served as deputy assistant attorney general in charge of immigration at the u.s. justice department under the obama administration how do right now is a hearing in athens report that thousands of children effectively in the custody of the u.s. government how do you explain why they are spending more time in these jail like facilities than is permitted by law the issue is there are 2 steps in the process

saying of unaccompanied minors when they enter the united states the 1st step is there initially operand there and they're supposed to be screened where their fingerprints are screened and then they're supposed to be moved on to a shelter that is run by the department of health and human services and then that 2nd location that shelter is supposed to find a suitable of bulk the place the minor the problem is the shelters are overflowing and all that with them accompanying minors and so if there is not a shelter to place the unaccompanied minor to the minor has to stay in the custody of the customs and border protection at their facility and those facilities are in no way equipped and the people for longer than even 24 hours much less the 100 hours that we're seeing right now right so from what you're saying they simply don't have the they don't have the capacity to process these children you visited one of these facilities a couple of years ago didn't even in 2016 what one of they lie. well so the short

term customs and border protection facilities are facilities you would never want to be in for a one hour much less augured hours they're very cramped there's just a bench as there is nothing there's nothing comfortable in there at all there is a toilet and the toilet has a sink of the top of it it's very unlike demick and you would never want to be there for even the slightest amount of it and so the idea is now they're trying to move people out of those facilities as quickly as possible they may then done makeshift tents and warehouses and convention center of but again all of those places where you have people sleeping on mats on the floor they're not sleeping in any kind of environment that you would think would be a normal environment that normal people would be accustomed to sleeping in these are quarters with lots and lots of people with no privacy with no i. don't know sort of normal facilities that you would think of as

a sort of welcoming reception shelter there just temporary because the i.d.f. are trying to move people on and so the idea is how can the capacity be ramped up so that the folks that are being processed are being placed in these kinds of facilities so from what you're saying it seems unlikely and you president in the white house but not much has changed on the ground the agency practices remain the saying well they need to build that capacity what has changed on the ground is that those unaccompanied minors were even being excluded at all from entering the united states under the previous administration now they're not being excluded they're being allowed to enter and make their claim so that's a huge difference but the difference that hasn't changed is that the infrastructure was not put in place to match that new policy and so that is what we're saying is a huge problem. leon fresco thank you for joining us on the news hour.

now exit polls from the netherlands show that the prime minister is strengthening his party's position in the 150 seat parliament it is the 1st major european election since the coronavirus pandemic began here's how the numbers are looking right now so as expected as people's party for freedom and democracy the v d appears to have won the greatest number of seats at 35 democrats 66 is the most improved party and also winning in extra seats to make it the 2nd best of form it will this party for freedom looks like it's losing 3 seats giving it 17 overall. so let's go to a set of austin whose accounting station in amsterdam so it looks as though results coming out as expected with. going to on course for

a 4th term in office but he's going to have challenges not least i suppose in terms of forming a coalition. exactly as expected the prime minister margaret and his favorite a party the center right party has won the election with 36 according to the exit polls we have to be a bit careful though because the exit polls are sad to be less reliable than in previous years because a lot of male votes have come in and they are not calculated in these exit polls the actual counting is happening right behind me so that was not a surprise for the 1st place but the 2nd place has been quite a surprise and i'm going to talk about this with political scientists a lot of ink from the university of amsterdam thank you so much for joining us so no surprise of course with mark with the being the winner of these elections that was predicted he has been the leader of this corona can that make and that gave him

a quite a bonus absolutely that the 2nd party a $66.00 democrat $66.00 score plus 8 seats in parliament which is a historic win why did that happen it's a huge prize it is like 20 percent of the votes right now for the 66 it's like 5 percent it's boys again it's huge and really big surprise because up till a few days ago disinterested it was still a loss in the polls and a lot of things changed in the past couple of days really was the final debates. leader made a very strong performance was appreciated a lot by a few worse so it really seems that this exchange has been gaining momentum really regularly in just a couple of days yet the interesting part what you said about the last debate last night she was confronted with here will this from the freedom party the anti immigration party anti islam party he basically accused her for wearing a veil when she was meeting people leaders in iran and he called her a traitor how do you think the way she reacted really had her winning these these

seats i really think this could have played a quite a big role you could really see that. she was emotionally distressed but still her response was really strong to worth your fielders and historically 66 have been has been benefited from fleshing wish the freedom party they've been presenting themselves as the anti freedom party in a way you can see that a lot of people who dislike get real there's votes 46 states especially these kind of confrontations that's been happening for a lot of years is a former you and diplomat the senior u.n. diplomat but she also announced that she wants to be the 1st female prime minister in the netherlands is this now coming closer yeah well we have a tradition in the netherlands that the biggest party delivers a prime minister which is the favorite in this case it's not an official rule but it's a tradition so most likely margaretville be prime minister but certainly maybe for a distant future she's become a step closer to that goal you think she had this kind of prime minister. who are

basically attitude during the campaign i think i would say that's been her attitude at least. it's been very much what her campaign has been about it's about presenting herself as a potential next prime minister focusing around female leadership about firing women this core team of her campaign and it's seems to be working out as this is then that unless we have to build a coalition right the parties will have to build a coalition that's how it works and tomorrow and that will start immediately you think a different kind of government will come out of this well 1st of all the 1st thing i think will happen is that margaret will seek for a majority for his grown up balls he has already said that's very urgent we can't wait for the formation was done but i think all right after debts i assume that's a fever d.s. the largest party and the 66 as the biggest winner will take the initiative to get her in the formation and then there will still need for one or 2 other parties in order to have a majority in parliament thank you so much for these insights so yes very interesting that coalition building will be happening starting exactly again

tomorrow at 2 o'clock here in the netherlands they will have a meeting little. the leaders of the parties and start building this this coalition the official results of these elections will only come out on friday but as we know that the exit polls are quite reliable here in the netherlands thank you very much from amsterdam step boston. now police say the man who attacked 3 spas in atlanta georgia on tuesday has told them he was not motivated by racism 6 of the 8 people killed were women of asian descent the shootings come a time when rice's against asian americans is on the rise and they shaken the asian community on edge or castro has mall. still little is known about the 8 victims killed in the atlanta asian spa shootings only that 6 were asian women police would not say wednesday whether they had worked at the spas but did say that

the suspect 21 year old robert aaron long had targeted the businesses but he does claim that it was not racially motivated he apparently has an issue what he considers a sex addiction and sees these locations as something that allows him to to. to go to these places and into temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate police a long has confessed to the shootings and is scheduled to appear in court on thursday atlanta's mayor says there is no evidence the spas were cover for sex work we certainly will not begin to blame victims and as far as we know in atlanta these are illegally operating businesses. experts say the stereotype of asian spas doubling as brothels is another facet of the anti asian racism growing in the united states the group stop a.p.i. hate formed in response to the rise in xena phobia since coded has collected nearly

3800 reports of hate incidents toward asian americans in the past year i think there's a lot of fear and trepidation right now and you know you've seen it over the past few months due for us seeing our elders being attacked certainly folks are scared some communities have formed citizen patrols in response to the uptick. in random violence against asians and they've expressed anger at law enforcement's refusal in some cases to call the attacks hate crimes police in atlanta say they've yet to decide whether to use the label for this week's killings we've received a number of calls about is this a hate crime we are still early in this investigation whatever the motivation here i'm going to be married to her. very. very concerned because you know i don't speak. italian can be near to. the right number one

think it's going to be very very strong. president biden says the f.b.i. and the department of justice are involved in the investigation. castro al-jazeera washington. secretaries of state and defense are in south korea are on the 2nd stop of the asia tour secretary of say anthony blinken openly press seoul to join the u.s. in keeping china as a question in check and addressing north korea's human rights violations country's defense ministers also pledged to what together to resolve north korea's nuclear threats in the past half hour the north korean news agency reported that the u.s. had tried to make contacts several times but any attempts would be ignored until what's it called hostile policy such as when a tree trails were dropped. the u.s. or ok lawrence which has been stuck for hours who are serving over 70 years removed and are employed it is the linchpin in security and prosperity

who are now with the phrase you are free and open the door for civic region and across the world. well the top u.s. and chinese diplomats are due to meet alaska for 2 days of high level talks from thursday's the 1st face to face meeting between officials from the 2 countries since the bite an administration took office and comes amid deteriorating diplomatic relations let's get more from our diplomatic editor james spaces in anchorage alaska could be an awkward meeting james. well relations have been really really bad and there have been people talking at the end of the trumpet ministration of us being at the verge of a new cold war the u.n. secretary general is described the possibility of a break between these 2 nations as having global effects calling it the great fracture but i do think it's fair to say that both sides would like a better relationship the u.s.

secretary of state and city blinken has said that they want to deal with things with the chinese on a case by case basis they know there are some issues where they totally disagree and those include the human rights issues involving china itself the issue of the week as the issue of hong kong the issue of taiwan the south china sea those sort of issues they know that they are going to have real problems with each other they are potentially adversaries on those issues they know there are other issues where they're going to be competitors and those are the economic issues the trade issues that president trump used to focus most of his attention on but they also believe there are other issues most importantly climate change but also regional issues myanmar mike be an example afghanistan might be an example where they can actually work together and try and make progress for the benefit of all the world so it's going to be very interesting to see how they managed to get through this meeting it will be an important meeting i think that will set the tone right so in that case

expressing any levels from this meeting james there a concrete outcome. there will not be told by u.s. officials there will not be a communique there will not be decisions i think it's very unlikely we're going to see any sort of joint press conference might well not get any press conference at all we might just get written statements of of how things have preceded this is very different from an event i covered it was a few weeks later than this 4 years ago in florida admire a lot. no because the 1st meeting with the truck administration of course was done by president trump himself with president xi that was actually quite a friendly meeting which led eventually to a real deterioration in relations this time they're trying to do it as a team effort is more of a process and they're hoping that will have a better outcome thank you very much james bays joining us there in anchorage

alaska. now to me in mali where the most powerful but it's monks association is called on the military to end its crackdown the government appointed organization accuse an armed minority of torturing and killing innocent civilians on 180 pro-democracy protests have been killed by security forces since last month's co protests continued across the country on wednesday with reports of police firing bullets in the city of yangon. lebanon's president michel aoun has called on prime minister designate saad hariri to form a new cabinet immediately or step aside so someone else can howie said he'll visit but if the president fails to approve his cabinet there should be early presidential elections lebanon has been without a government now for almost 5 months as it sinks deeper into economic meltdown. shock after shock each day bs and the concern grows because of the inability

to have the simplest means for an honorable life they are worth on it is a determined an honest call for the prime minister designate to immediately take one of the available to options it is no good to be silent or stay behind high walls maybe save lebanon. one of iraq's religious minority groups which has survived the centuries is now rapidly disappearing mandaeans say security issues have forced many of them into hiding a solid range of aid has more now from baghdad as follows mark a sacred ceremony known as the banjo festival. hit men women and children submerge 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 sabahans in iraq they are the followers of

a monotheistic religion which predates islam and christianity but if you come here every year for either the bunge or a 5 day festival where everyone dresses in white you must change into the special robes and head to the river. they pray before being baptized in the chilly water of the 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 have. i like meeting friends and playing here i like this festival more than others because we get but ties in the water. after the baptism food is served but just cooked using clay from the riverbed during the budget 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 mehndi and see all good comes from a world of light and all evil from the world of darkness. is the religion is grand

chief priest. mandirs and 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 here we believe in charity for the poor the running water gives us purification the religion forbids any part is with god. killing which craft our holy book says don't go to the which is a magic they are lies. 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 a 5th to 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 this is a they're happy to have returned home but can a minor 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. 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 river bank. and demand the government to take your farm as an ancient religion religious harmony gathers people and interfaith relations promote 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. back that. south africa's zulu king will be buried in a secret private ceremony on thursday morning the burial will be followed by a statement this king good will died last week at the age of 72 and the law has more now from. we'll be laid to rest in a ceremony earlier hours of thursday morning a sermon ingold the pride our only men will participate and what is king with him is a good tradition is that his place of period will be remade secrets this is based on royal traditional zulu custom it's important that he's the real 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 good rules relatively big stick if expected there will be a smooth transition for the people here have come to pay their respects. these are just a few of the. various that will be present outside and around the palace through the evening and into the early hours of those the morning. on all the stories are following the right hailing up will give its drivers in the united kingdom for workers' rights meaning they will be paid the minimum wage and holiday pay a move follows a loss in the ukraine the u.k. supreme court a month ago the court said it had been wrongly classifying it's more than $70000.00 drivers a self-employed the decision is likely to have big implications for the nation's so-called gig economy and which companies sidestep u.k. employment laws i am point people on short term contracts but some of the try this feel the company is not going far enough. well it's a step in the right direction but. as we supposed to be paid from long

to log off not just when the passengers in the car so there's few things that they need to trust in and i'm looking in. to that on this news hour from london going to take a closer look at afghanistan's national sport. that's coming out which i'm a very shortly and. on says that they can but i said it was. singing for joy after beating a ban on afghan girls regain the right to perform in public.

gemma's hand out the sport thank you mariam the english football association has offered a heartfelt apology to survivors of child sexual abuse in football off to 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 the peace between 19720058 concluded the f.a. was too slow to put sufficient protection measures in place the report also said there were known to be at least $240.00 suspects and $692.00 survivors. during the period of my review i found that the f.a. . did fail young kids between the period of 9095 the summer after the summer of 9095 and may 2000 there was an institutional failing by the way they acted for too slowly in developing their child protection arrangements once they were aware of

child protection being a problem within the school and they should have done more to keep children safe. f.a. chief executive mark bellingham called it a dark day for the beautiful game and says the f.a. had no excuse for its failings i would like to start by an apology on behalf of the whole of the english game to any survivor of child sex abuse in football and their families we should have brought a child protection policy in place we should have trained people so they knew how to deal with queries we should have a card a culture where people could report instances and people were aware of the risks that were out there such as we have today we have to hold hands up and apologize for the mistakes of the past make sure we don't repeat them but that's not to say that football is not in a safe environment today it is. apc global sports correspondent dr harris told us that while the report has made several recommendations there's a strong feeling that it's not gone far enough it's really

a story over the report where either children won't believe or thor it is turns a blind dying did not act on rumors or indeed clear allegations even when the police often came to them and asked them so acts 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 certainly a pro that's been called a dark day for football barcelona's any president has promised to do all he can to keep leno messy at the club joanna reporter was sworn in for his 2nd spell in the job on wednesday after securing the $150000000.00 bank guarantee he needed before being inaugurated and one of his 1st tasks an important one is persuading messi to extend his contract to be on the summer. don't know me. i will try to convince leo to stay with us that is a must do tosk i will do like him he knows that whatever he does will be ok but we will try to make him stay because he is the best player in the history of football and my apologies for saying this right here and right now but you know of my love for you also loves you

a lot. faslane and messi not in this season's champions league anymore and sell a spanish side at that's committed to heading out as well there was no down against chelsea in the 2nd leg of their last 16 tie they try out to nail aggregate stoppage time there and defending champions up by munich they will be in the quarter finals that they face and that's a $21.00 and they won that 162 on aggregate. there's been another setback for the organizing committee of this summer's a tokyo lympics with the man in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies resigning hiroshi is exactly has stepped down after making a derogatory remark about a female entertainer in japan who he suggested could be part of the opening ceremony team new zealand has successfully defended sailings america's cup thanks to a 73 win over italy's luna rossa these are pictures of their fans watching back on dry land including thousands or clones fired up harbor skipper peter burling and a limping champion who also won the last america's cup in 2017 was there to pick up

the trash. now will finish with some great pictures from afghanistan and one of the country's most popular sports especially our cameras captured 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. 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 was grab the ball and then drop it into the opponent's goal. or not it was going to be the moment when we thought the cash game has a lot of meaning for us when our people were fighting with the enemy in the past they were using these types of horse the game is 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 and that the liberal swinging of whips and boots of them have one of the i mean 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 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. an ancient and dangerous sport with a role to play in building a more peaceful future in afghanistan david stokes our jazeera. that is from a maryam. thanks jan actually has been a chorus of protest by girls in afghanistan as well. who actually helped overturn a ban on singing in public. signs are there who are and they care they're certainly those are her words or her say where there's nothing has started to go the whole month of using the hash tag i am my song girls share videos of themselves singing after the kabul region's education department said female students over the age of 12 could no longer perform in front of mixed audiences when men's rights groups say it was reminiscent of the days of taliban rule dr ahmed nasser son last as the founder and director of the afghanistan national institute of music and says is as

an important and powerful tool for overcoming division within the country. afghanistan is a country which was in war over 40 years and the people of afghanistan today needs more didn't think it was to benefit from the healing power of. just that you link or whatever music that will contribute to the well being of the cities of our of afghanistan who will be a new word or another we're affected by years of war trauma touched by the same gun it is music can also be just between different nic what you know in the style. that existed in afghanistan during the last 40 years on that set the news hour but i'll be back in a couple of minutes with all the latest on our breaking news story this hour from tanzania the president john mcafee really has died at the age of 61 after repeated denials that he was ill will have more on that in just

a couple minutes stay with us. what should americans be thinking and doing right now there should be about ideas they don't care about their work is all they care about is making money china is not going to be left out of the calling for the bloated defense budget to be cut the bottom line on us politics and policies on the reflect on the world. is off to new zealand's deadly mosque shootings one

o one east returns to christ to find out how those most affected are coping. and surviving a massacre on al-jazeera when the news breaks 4 months ago janine onions was president of bolivia now she's under arrest when people who need to be heard more than 11000000 people infected hospitals in brazil is struggling to cope al-jazeera has teams on the ground the last time voters long duk to cast their ballots in the central african republic an attempted coup was taking place to bring you more room mood when documentaries and life meet us on at dawn line. zeroes here to report on the people often ignored but who must be hurt how many other channels can you say will take the time and put extensive called into reporting from under reported areas of course we cover major global of france but our passion lives in making sure that you're hearing the stories from people in

places like palestine libya yemen the sahara legion and so many others who go to them you make the effort we care we stay. on the air. news. the president of tanzania john my good foodie dies off to 2 weeks of speculation that he was ill with coded 19. below i maryanne demasi and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program 24 hours after its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic brazil reports a record $90000.00 coronavirus cases. the e.u. on.