in this film we go back over the last 500 years of all my history of tribes gore's rebellion and colonization and explore how and why oman still plays an important regional role today. the u.s. and china take aim at each other during high level talks in alaska with accusations of grandstanding and a cold war mentality. gallops the whole robin watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha also coming up tanzania swears in its 1st female leader samir salute her son takes power after the death of john mica foully also giving up said astra zeneca another shot

european countries resume covert 900 vaccinations after the job was suspended because of safety concerns but shrouded in secrecy china tries one of 2 canadians accused of stealing state secrets in a case seen as politically motivated retaliation. but with the program us trying to talks are due to wrap up with a closing session in the coming hours after a fiery start on thursday sitting across the table from each other in the u.s. state of alaska the 2 sides traded barbs and a pointed display of how tense relations remain our diplomatic editor james bays has more from anchorage. this is a meeting that will shape future relations between the world's 2 biggest powers relations that are currently at a low point good afternoon. and welcome normally opening remarks at events like

these are brief and polite but the u.s. side went on to list their specific concerns and change our hong kong taiwan cyber attacks on the united states economic coercion toward our allies the. anees response was long and just as frank the foreign minister wang ye said you don't welcome guests with sanctions a reference to the black listing of 24 chinese and hong kong officials in the hours before the meeting his senior colleague politburo member yang jiechi was clearly unhappy. well i think we thought too well of the united states we thought the u.s. side would follow the necessary diplomatic protocols he went on to complain about regime change in the middle east and the us is own human rights record and yet the challenges facing the us and human rights are deep seated they did not emerge over

the past 4 years the slaughter of black people the problem existed for a long time police are the words slaughter was not translated into english for those in the room by the chinese delegations interpreter on one second please journalists were about to be ushered out when the secretary of state made it clear his delegation wanted to speak again i just made my 1st trip as i noted to panic south korea. i have to tell you what i'm hearing is very different from what you describe. i'm hearing deep satisfaction that the united states is back there were reengage with our allies and partners i'm also hearing deep concern about some of the actions your government is taking a confident country is able to look hard at its own shortcomings and constantly seek to improve and that is the secret sauce of america alaska is a midway point just over 6000 kilometers to beijing just under 6000 kilometers to

washington d.c. this was a meeting that was supposed to build bridges what we've seen here could be a welcome clearing of the air or perhaps the beginning of a deepening of the division it all depends on the crucial talks which now continue behind closed doors james al-jazeera and courage katrina here on china's reaction from beijing. china's foreign ministry spoke this afternoon laying the blame for this tense atmosphere solely at the foot of washington china's foreign ministry spokesperson john lee jen said china was invited and then promptly the us open the meeting by starting with what he described as unfounded attacks on the chinese side he said it was impolite and the chinese officials had no choice but to fire back he also acknowledged the atmosphere in the room and said that it was dramatic and that there was a court smell of gunpowder in the air is what he said now i think the key thing to

remember is one of the whole months of chinese president xi jinping has leadership here is really trying to come from a position of strength has made this promise to the chinese people since he's been in power that china will no longer be looked down on by the west and i think this was a very much the point of strength that chinese officials wanted to convey during the opening statement that they made during this alaska encounter just as us were playing to their own audience china was playing to their is the 1400000000 population who are becoming increasingly nationalistic and it seems to have worked over the last few hours you've been monitoring chinese social media and they have been a lot of nuance of approval and applauds for the chinese officials comments saying that they made their point known and they came across as strong but as john legend china's foreign minister. china's foreign ministry spokesperson said this afternoon

that opening meeting was the appetizer and we're still waiting on the main course so we're going to be watching closely to see if any progress can be made. the afghan government and the taliban have reportedly agreed to speed up peace talks russia has been hosting talks in moscow which have been taking place less than 2 months before the deadline for american troops to pull out of the country now the u.s. russia china and pakistan have urged the warring sides to reach an immediate cease fire this meeting here in russia follows months of intra afghan peace dialogue in qatar we had it in months of negotiation with the americans and the dignity that they will draw in 14 months and these that time is now going to end if they do not call. that end that means they continue after that it will be.

well ation of the agreement that way lation would not be from our side but it would be from the outside. so in that case if there is action of course the reaction alexy klebnikov is the middle east expert at the russian international affairs council he says the talks are moscow's way of showing good can be a reliable mediator. it's not the 1st time moscow hosts this talks. it's been a while several years russia's hosting intra afghani talks back in 201-900-1000 this attempt is in no way the. competitive track but it's more of a simple mentoring and i think it's just goes in line with moscow's overall overarching marketing of itself or strategic marketing of itself as a broker or as a mediator which is able to provide econd in the end platform to convene all the

both parties. into the conflict to try to ease the way towards the compromise of i don't think mosque who has any expectation about that the parties can strike an agreement within you know weeks or lake several months but of course. major goal is to activate the diplomatic activity and to you it was all available diplomatic tools moscow is also trying to preserve this channel of communication with with washington especially against the backdrop of the deteriorating. u.s. russian relations over the past 5 yes and it's important channel and moscow wants to showcase that they're still able to maintain dialogue with knighted states that they still have issues which they can try to settle together

him and see through rebels of his a saudi oil facility in the capital riyadh now an official source in saudi arabia's ministry of energy told state media the drone attack calls a controlled fire but no injuries they also said the supply of petroleum wasn't affected. now for that war to learn was our armed forces have conducted the operation with 6 drones the targeted and aramco facility in the saudi capital riyadh and the target has been hit with precision. tanzania has a new president and she's making history salute who hasn't was sworn in during a ceremony in dar es salaam and has become the country's 1st female leader and she succeeds john mica fairly he died at the age of 61 item i could remain is a former president of the tang any law society she says president has and is looking to try and unify the country in tanzania what we refer to your years as an

inherent president. which means that she is completely responsible for whatever policy that she wants to put in place some kicked and subject only to the party money system. we saw during the fully era was a complete disregard of the party manifesto and the. system policies it was basically a one man show so it will be interesting to see what she does in future will she go back to the party money sesto will she then make this part of the policy or will he go out on a limb and come up with her own policies or will she continue ringback with the model for the policies i hope to see a more independent somebody has to know who i hope to see after me has to go back

to the foundations of how party and because that is predictable and what we need at the moment tanzania is predict. several european countries are resume that astra zeneca vaccinations after suspending the jobs because of safety concerns now europe's drug watchdog said on thursday that the vaccine is safe and there's no evidence linking it to serious blood clots the agency said its benefits outweigh the risks but it could not rule out a link to a rare clotting disorder we farka is in london with more on the vaccine rollout across europe. well the big 3 economies are regime things 1st so france germany and italy although france has suggested that it only be given to people over the age of 55 for the time being we know that next week portugal spain and the

netherlands will also regime using their job as well although spain has said that it that certain categories will not receive it presumably those who are most vulnerable or those most at risk of blood clotting we know that denmark and sweden have said that they need a few more days to work out whether or not they will will resume it whether or not they will sustain the 2 week pause in using the oxford astra zeneca job or we really have to to wait and see the overall message so very much is that despite how many vaccines may be available in europe there is still a dire warning that it may not be enough to avoid a peak in cases of wait a 3rd wave that was the message for a march from germany's health secretary and we we now also know that the german government are in talks with the russian authorities to potentially license the use of the sputnik v. vaccine it has been proven safe by the european medicines agency but it hasn't been

widely licensed for use across the continent that's still down to individual states to decide whether or not it should be used for very last the hungry is one country that has approved its use and we are starting to see restrictions that easy. well still ahead here on al-jazeera cricket's ties with malaysia and kicks out its diplomats we'll tell you what's behind the latest breakup and the challenges facing health workers in getting has a title of recent of. the stories after the break. another active weather story systems on its way out through the himalayan plateau mongolia the gobi which means the winds picked up again in beijing friday a windy dusty day but saturday the wind is still there is

a much cleaner one temperature wise down to 12 by saturday up to 18 by sunday's wind direction changes the real cold air states the north of beijing all this time so snows it's way too hard invited rostock even to north korea there's a bit of a gap obviously and then you pick up the rays early for spring rain but that's what it looks like to me and it is significant rain on its way through japan last saturday and sunday a southerly breeze has plenty of moisture there and it comes up against the cold which means yet more snow potentially for the temperature this time beijing is 30 degrees the wind has lightened as you know and to fairly clean wind here but it could well be pretty dusty in cheyenne same time showers are becoming lighter so still widespread throughout malaysia and indonesia are coming to the end of the significant rainy season so it's no surprise to see that another westerly disturbances through afghanistan and northern pakistan that will show itself eventually even in places like lahore but certainly islamabad the forecast is

pretty stormy actually thunderstorms the next 3 days. welcome to down from every one of this. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax and enjoy the perfect break in your journey. and when you leave with a smile we know law day's work is done qatar airways welcome to our home.

what about you watching officer of the cell run a reminder of our top stories the u.s. has accused china of threatening the international order while beijing has washington to stay out of its internal affairs the 1st face to face meeting of the by the administration got off to a testy start also the afghan government and the taliban have reportedly agreed to speak at peace talks russia has been hosting talks which are taking place less than 2 months before the deadline for american troops to pull out of the country and tanzania has sworn in its 1st female president as some here so move to her son succeeds john mica foully who died at the age of 61 tanzania's are watching to see if her son will take strong action to stop the spread of coronavirus. north korea has cut ties with malaysia for what it calls a hostile act and subservience to u.s. pressure that's a response to a court ruling extraditing a north korean citizen to the u.s.

on money laundering charges john yang says is politically motivated awards the united states will pay a price ties between north korea and malaysia have been strained since 2017 when kim jong un's half brother was killed at kuala lumpur international airport rob mcbride has updated from seoul. north korea of course is suspected of using all sorts of illegal activities overseas in overseas countries to get access to funds or to goods that it's not meant to have as a way of getting around international sanctions it has reacted very angrily to this particular case branding this as an unpardonable crime by malaysia saying that all of these charges are completely trumped up that it is a pure fabrication it's gone further though by saying that behind this is the united states that this is a part of some sort of u.s. inspired conspiracy saying that the u.s. itself will pay a price now of course u.s. north korean relations are very much in the news at the moment coming straight

after a very high level u.s. mission to northeast asia as the new bided administration formulate its policy on how to deal with north korea as far as malaysia itself is concerned traditionally it has actually enjoyed relatively good relations with north korea one of few countries that has been fairly easy for north koreans to go to malaysia or do business that of course changed and relations were downgraded in 2017 with the notorious poisoning and killing of the north korean leader's half brother kim jong nam at kuala lumpur airport when he was made with a nerve agent apparently a plot inspired and carried out by north korean operatives relations improved somewhat since then but now with this latest round there is according to north korea a complete breakdown in diplomatic relations china's 1st trial of 2 canadians charged with espionage has ended without a verdict being announced business minute my calls for appeared in court in the

southeastern city of dunn on friday diplomats were denied access to the proceedings sparkle and former diplomat michael quartering were arrested 2 years ago it was a move widely seen as retaliation for canada's detention of our executive and main one joe on the request of the us. we're unable to have access to to the courtroom we were also on able to have access to michael schiavo himself before the trial. but nevertheless the trial has now concluded. there has been no there's been no pronouncement of a verdict. so that leaves it unclear what has transpired in the courtroom and we're remain frustrated about that but then nonetheless we will continue to work diligently for the immediate release of michael's fabric and michael whose hearing

will be on monday well drew thompson is a visiting senior research fellow at the leak or new school of public policy he says the detention of the men is heard china's public image. it's difficult to know what the timing intentions are because again trying to system is so opaque and this isn't being driven by. a regular legal process but more about political directives from above so it's tempting to think that this decision to hold the trial around the same times as the us china talks in alaska taking place that somehow there's there's causation i'm not entirely convinced of that but it is possible that that will make it much more squarely on the agenda so the fact that they've been under under 'd arrest for over 2 years without any evidence being produced or any progress so far does indicate however highly political position of the 2 cases now

what's not particularly good course is that china's just violated their bilateral consular treaty with canada which grants the ambassador or the consular officials access to their citizens including in a case like this of a trial so those are both some of the more disturbing aspects of this but there could be a sort of lining and there is the potential that china recognizes that the detention of these 2 these 2 people is really been quite a disaster for china's public image hostage diplomacy has completely failed in getting canada to release. joe and it's turned off the entire least raise concerns amongst the international business community about the risks of. detention a completely arbitrary detention so they may be looking to cut their losses find that you can ians guilty and then deport them immediately afterwards and in the back to their families. pupper new guinea is to close schools restrict movement and

make masks mandatory as part of what the government is calling aggressive interventions to create a virus infections hit record hoy's this week bryant has. a new temporary hospital ward for papa new guinea's capital port moresby the city seen a spike in corona virus cases in recent weeks even some health workers warning of what they call a covert tornado heading towards the country's fragile medical facilities there are only 2 public hospitals in the capital one is shut down the other is said to have 70 percent of its staff work or isolating that hospital's chief executive told local media he thought they were prepared until the most recent surge what we are concerned about is just how. the emergency department in the hospital. had to crazy or not ward private patients in addition. they didn't get

apartments we're told is just for private patients and it's very difficult. they say actions. the island nation managed to miss the worst of the pandemic last year but hundreds of new cases have been reported in recent weeks it's forced the government to take action announcing that from next week schools will close mask wearing will be enforced and mess gatherings will be banned. gatherings like this one just last friday a state funeral for former prime minister michael somare a man often called the father of papa new guinea. somehow they expect say they watched these scenes in horror describing it as a super spreader event with potential for disaster the escalating outbreak seemed kompany guinea's neighbors chippin new zealand says it will send more protective equipment to the frontline health workers while australia is pledging 8000 doses of the astra zeneca vaccine and calling for the european union to step up as well.

it's not right for the bates countries in europe to deny the supply of vaccines to developing countries who need it desperately like pump and you know we'll do our bit by the frightened as we are and and for the broader so i won't be out of pocket but i will be helping a country that is in desperate need of receiving those vaccinations. with only 55000 tastes conducted out of a population of almost 9000000 it's the what the true rates of infection a much higher those on the ground say a rapid response is needed before the outbreak gets out of control and exam brian al-jazeera. health officials in getting say they're facing a challenge in talking a recent outbreak many in remote communities are refusing to get vaccinated because they don't trust the health care system and often rely on traditional healers nick reports. for traditional healer to billy mu this cocktail of natural remedies using

plants soil and a mysterious liquid is more efficient than a vaccine made in the lab he says it can fight off even the most contagious and fatal of viruses a bola. the truth is real vaccines people have dogs saying it might even hurt them and attract more sickness honestly i'm already backs unaided by traditional medicine after a nurse died of a bola in february the un delivered 36000 a bowl of vaccines to contain an outbreak in guinea's forest region but only $3000.00 doses have been administered so far among those refusing to be vaccinated is shop owner did a good event the who says she's more afraid of the vaccine then a bola and i think every new country i'm not going to take the vaccine my i don't know what's in it why should i trust health workers in 2015 more than 11000 people died and 20000 were infected after the virus spread from guinea's forest region to

neighboring. leone at the time health workers wearing protective suits were attacked kidnapped or even killed out of fear hospitals were seen as a place where people came to die not to heal getting ministry of health says it's now better prepared but overwhelmed we have a covert 19 epidemic now you bowl on top of an outbreak of these rules and yellow fever and we need help from our partners to contain the outbreak it's in this. institute in neighboring senegal that scientists detected the virus from blood samples of relatives of the nurse that died from a bullet then put it inside this machine the machine and multiplied it and found to this genetic sequencing scientists made an extraordinary discovery 5 years after the last outbreak the same bull a strain has reappeared the virus has not jumped from animals to humans as

previously thought by scientists but survivors of the virus are carrying a ball and some are are knowingly spreading it into networks with. we. we need to keep a close watch on the border survivors with thoughts. because they carry the virus in the body fluids they are to keep population to contain the outbreak but the good news here is that we have a vaccine that works. the challenge is not the lack of medicine but the lack of trust in health services and communities where medical providers are too often absent this has now become the main hurdle in bringing and then to the you pull the outbreak in getting dickless hawk al-jazeera. u.s. president joe biden is expected to meet asian american community leaders in the state of georgia on friday after a shooting spree killed 8 people 6 of them were of asian descent striking phase the racially motivated rob runnels households los angeles. the american flags at the

white house were lowered in mourning for the 8 women killed in georgia on tuesday 6 of whom were of asian heritage around the country asian american communities are reacting with shock and anger to the rising number of hate incidents i feel scared at all times and you know. that alone and sometimes i have to log on the street at night and then yeah it's scaring me and i hate the fact that now my wife my daughter my mom my knees they all have to sort of watch their back just because of the way the asian american studies professor ki a young park says race and gender stereotypes they have d. human eyes the victims in the killer's mind they are seen as really passive and suppleness saved or hypersexual lives will be 5 or exactly saudis

or you don chipp or even the a bale of british some are fighting back in san francisco an elderly chinese speaking woman was punched in the face then beat her alleged assailant into submission with a piece of wood sending him to the hospital. at a congressional hearing lawmakers of asian descent spoke out this hearing was the one dressed over and made of our community center find solutions and we were not like you take our boys away from us barely 3800 expectation a crime in just a year old mom it was step by the works of former president donald trump the sop to shift the blame. or all right all right response to the. units racial slurs from. georgia law enforcement officials say they are still investigating the suspects motives but indicated he was acting out of sexual guilt feelings rather

than racism and yes there was a really bad day for him and this is what he did many asian americans reject that explanation that upsets us and our community is the fact that sheriff's department who basically sort of. was on the side of the perpetrator and the criminal that actually killed 8 people 6 of them being asian woman to dismiss that as a sort of like he was having a bad day president joe biden will travel to atlanta on friday to pay his respects and meet with community leaders and elected officials robert oulds al jazeera los angeles. to what you know is there with me the whole romney reminds of all top stories the 1st u.s. china talks on to the by administration got off to a confrontational style.