american and chinese diplomats wrapped up a tense round of talks with the u.s. secretary of state saying that your sides are fundamentally at odds over a number of issues. watching al-jazeera live from i had quarters and you know gates are also coming up . even attacked. president biden visits georgia to support asian americans days after a mass shooting raises concerns about anti asian violence and brazilian president are asked the supreme court to reverse local coronavirus long downs despite

infection numbers reaching record levels. and their long dormant volcano springs to life in iceland spilling lava down to size its. fellow high level talks between china and the us that began with an acrimonious public exchange have now wrapped up in alaska without any significant breakthrough as had been expected the chinese delegation left without taking talking to international media but senior diplomat yang jiechi told state media the discussions were candid constructive and beneficial but admitted they still have differences and u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken made similar remarks saying the 2 sides are at odds over a number of issues our diplomatic editor james bays has been monitoring the talks from anchorage. time what we saw at the start of this meeting was

a very rare public and law exchange of views and very different views they were the meeting though ended with much more moderate comments from both sides who said this was a constructive meeting the u.s. state of the blinking though made it clear there was still very big differences we certainly know who knew going in that there are a number of areas where we are fundamentally at odds including transactions. with regard to hong kong tibet increasingly taiwan as well as actions that it's taking. in cyberspace. and. no surprise that when we raised those issues clearly and directly we got a different response. secretary blinking also made it clear though that there were issues where the 2 countries interests put it intersected those included the

climate crisis north korea afghanistan and the iran nuclear deal the chinese spoke to 2 chinese media very said these were candid struct and helpful meetings but one year who's the state counselor and foreign minister added that you the u.s. should not underestimate china's commitment to defend its sovereignty or among the issues raised by the u.s. was the 2 canadians detained in china over espionage charges on friday the trial of businessman michael spain for ended with no verdict canada was denied access to a decision condemned by prime minister justin trudeau space or and their former diplomat michael corvet were arrested 2 years ago the case is widely seen as retaliation for canada's the tension of why way executive main ones do at the request of the united states. do you serve you know from the beginning we worked

with families with our partners and directly with the chinese government to underscore that this arbitrary detention of the 2 michaels is unacceptable i want to thank all the different countries around the world who supported our initiative against this arbitrary detention and i also want to thank all our allies who took a stand even with their bilateral conversations with the chinese government in order to raise their concern with the situation to the u.s. president says asian americans have been attacked and scapegoated joe biden and vice president khalil harris urged everyone to speak up against it crimes after meeting community leaders in the state of georgia their visit comes days after 8 people were killed in a mass shooting there 6 of the victims were women of asian descent adding to existing fears about a surge in racially motivated tax during the pandemic. they've been attacked like a scapegoat harassed they've been virtually assaulted physically its own killed documented incidents against of hate against asian americans have seen skyrocketing

spike over the last year hate and violence often hard in plain sight it's often met with silence that's been true throughout our history but that has to change because our silence is complicity we cannot be complicit racism is real in america and it has always been xena phobia is real in america and always has been ultimately this is about who we are as a nation. this is about how we treat people with dignity and respect and also the right to be recognized as an american. not as together not as them. but as us.

carney's the co-founder of stop a p i hate that's a group formed to address racism against asians in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic she says women are bearing the brunt of asian violence. we launched up a p i hate exactly a year ago on march 19th of 2020 because we saw this emerging trend of hate incidents against our community members sadly within a few weeks we got several 100 incident reports that number continue to group grow through the spring summer and fall months and now today we're at the point of 3800 incidents from all 50 states and the district of columbia so we're using that data to help inform the public and policymakers so we understand what's happening to our communities and we do believe that it can help to drive policy so that we have the solutions we need to prevent this from happening in the future it's

clear that there has been sexualized violence against asian american women and that was on display on tuesday in this hateful act where the perpetrator sought out asian american women at the 3 salons that he visited and so it is concerning for us that women are being particularly targeted at stopping a.p.i. hate 68 percent of the incident reports have been made by asian american women so we know that sadly they're bearing the brunt of this hate and violence. brazil's president is taking several of his country's states to court to try and force them to overturn lockdown restrictions jay or both state governors don't have the authority to impose new rules even as infection rates hit record highs more than

1000 new cases were registered on thursday the 1st time that barrier has been passed also narrow says he wants people to have freedom but health leaders 'd say the hospital system is collapsing in some areas monaghan a campus in rio de janeiro and describes how hospitals are coping with the high level of admissions what we've been seeing is that the hospitals are getting overcrowded but not just in rio we're just not just here rio is even better than in a better place than some of the thing is it's across the country so it's from the north to the south in the richest states in the poorest states everywhere and not only that in 18 states now they're afraid that they'll run out of sedation medication for intubation intensive care units and so they're very worried about everything there are no beds there not enough doctors nurses now there's maybe not enough medicine so that is why also

a recent poll showed that 8 out of 10 brazilians believe that the pandemic is out of control. finland has suspended use of the astra zeneca vaccine as it investigates 2 cases of blood clots earlier other european countries resumed using back seen on thursday europe's drugs watchdog confirmed the job is safe and there's no evidence linking it to an increased risk of blood clots the barca reports. out of storage and into people's arms the french prime minister was amongst those receiving the oxford astra zeneca vaccine on friday in an effort to restore national confidence in its use although the french health authorities are only recommending it for people aged 55 and over. from the beginning i always thought that the vaccine was safe so maybe the people are in a panic but there are always side effects and germany and italy have also restarted

their rollout of the oxford vaccine the netherlands and portugal will follow next week so too will spain although certain groups will be excluded so eden and denmark said they needed a few more days to decide but germany's health minister warned that vaccines alone won't be enough to prevent a 3rd wave of the virus many e.u. countries are extending restrictions introducing new ones germany says it's currently in talks with russia to secure supplies of its sputnik vaccine pending its approval by the e.u. . numbers may mean that we cannot take care of our opening steps in the weeks to come on the contrary we may even have to take steps backwards. in from 16 regions along with paris are going into a month long lockdown schools will remain open but non-essential shops will close and travel will be restricted in the french capital more people are in intensive care now the joining the 2nd wave in november new covert variants of force

president to manual mccrum to change his strategy the virulent strain 1st found in the u.k. now accounts for 75 percent of french cases more than 25000000 britons have had at least one dose of a vaccine so far in hospitals doctors surgeries and special vaccine hubs like this one the government says it's on target to give every adult in the country at least one dose by the end of july despite a $4000000.00 short for from a factory in india it is enviable progress and the european union knows it with the oxford astra zeneca job now reapproved the e.u. must move quickly to make up for lost time the fark out 0 london a long dormant volcano is has begun erupting in iceland southwest situated in the middle of a pen insular between the capital reykjavik and the international airport no

evacuations have been ordered but a no fly zone has been set up with all flights in and out of the airport halted the eruption had been expected to happen tens of thousands of small earthquakes in the past few weeks it's the 1st eruption in this part of the country in almost 800 years. a u.s. judge has rejected an attempt to postpone the murder trial of a police officer charged over the death of george floyd os week the city of minneapolis agreed to pay $27000000.00 to floyd's family lawyers for child and had argued the highly publicized settlement jeopardize his chances of a fair trial video chosen nearing on george floyd's next part global protests last year john hendren has more from chicago and says the judge wants to keep the case running on time. judge peter cahill is a no nonsense guy who wants the trial to run on time and in the same place it started in minneapolis so he is denied the defense's request that he delay the

trial and move it elsewhere the idea behind that would be that you would have a jury pool that would know less about the case and therefore theoretically be less prejudiced but as the judge said everyone around the globe knows about this case and therefore they're not likely to get a different jury pool by doing that so the case will go on as scheduled he says with opening arguments on march 29th the judge also made one other key decision saying that the arrest of george floyd in 2019 a separate arrest would be admissible in this case but only in so far as it effects his medical condition the crux of the case is around how george floyd died the prosecution is saying he died because for 8 minutes and 46 seconds officer derrick show of and knelt on his neck causing him to die and the defense says in fact it was a combination of factors that according to an autopsy he was on fentanyl and methamphetamine he had a heart condition and he had kovac 19 in all of those things the defense says contributed

to george floyd's death the prosecution is likely to put it in perspective by saying this man died under a police officer's need for the act for a crime allegedly of trying to pass a $20.00 counterfeit bill. still ahead on al jazeera challenges facing health workers in guinea is they try to tackle a recent outbreak. as the deadline for the withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan approaches talks to work out the details become ever more difficult. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored plan qatar airways another blast of dusty wind has gone through beijing has gone through its becoming

a lighter when but it is under active systems fraught snow to the far north east of china briefly it's touched north korea and it will touch her carita and then to the south of that what looks like early spring rains on the way light in china rather more active through most of the bigger islands of japan is that head that turns into the wintry weather which you'll see in hawkeye's forecast wise that means sapporo we see a drop down to temperature lives snow showers all muddy then return to not quite no better weather choose to his coming up to spring thames go up and down quite a lot and we're also covers the end of the rainy season for indonesia the still widespread showers are not quite as heavy as they have been recently but still there and there's another west wave producing snow now afghanistan on the far north of pakistan that will keep wandering eastward and will disturb the air in the north of india as well new delhi's going to forecast a pretty windy weather on saturday with a small chance for some storm then maybe rain comes in by monday none of which i

think will increase or improve the air quality that much for most of india is quiet few showers down in the far southwest. qatar airways. al jazeera has investigative unit take she wants the comfort of course but if you had actual victims who had survived torture detention and feign this was the cause of my arrest revealing the illegal dealings of the surveillance industry here in france if. all you're doing these are the nuclear weapons of to 21st century al jazeera investigation is.

going to top stories on al jazeera this hour high level talks between china and the u.s. have now ended in alaska without a significant breakthrough both sides head out of the other's policies in front of the cameras really tensions over human rights and economic power. the u.s. president as asian americans have been a time scapegoated joe biden and his vice president have been visiting the state of georgia talking to community leaders people were killed i'm out shooting on shoes day 6 of the victims were women of asian descent. volcanoes working in iceland southwest a no fly zone has been set up with all flights in and out of the airport the eruption had been expected. presidential candidates in the republic of congo have held their final campaign rallies ahead of an election on sunday many opposition politicians are boycotting the polls and right groups rights groups say there is no

space for a democratic process malcolm webb reports from the capital. they call him the emperor. and after nearly 40 years in power 77 year olds any sense whom queso wants 5. his rule of the republic of congo is lighted by crises and corruption scandals which he says he'll and. will put an end to even more realities which i call corruption theft laziness and indiscipline and absenteeism do you understand. a lot of the people here don't really look like they're paying a lot of attention to the president speak it's normal for people to be paid to return political rallies here in congo and given a knockout 30 really the ruling party has enough resources to do that on any private scale. no expense was spared here at the final rally of his campaign

a french public relations company helped to run it but not everything followed the script. when people started chanting and the curfew is in place to prevent the spread of covert. didn't have anything to say about it. some opposition parties and politicians are boycotting the election others are in jail after disputing the results of the last poll. with ts on is one of the 6 opposition candidates running this time he's a former finance minister of sas who inquests is government. all of our money is outside the country is it normal living here in our country but our money is outside you know in which accounts in private accounts. some in the political opposition and rights groups say there's no space for

a democratic process. most fear to speak out about it. he's one of few who does nobody believes that the market is the dictatorship and therefore only a country where. human rights are violated so you cannot conceive of this country as being a democracy i mean people are in jail you will be running for election in jail for this is not a democracy at all. she people expect an outcome other than sassy requests are being announced the winner. the last handout of the day was soft drinks and water thrown over the fence of the nearby ministry of foreign affairs congo's billions of dollars of oil revenues haven't helped most of its people hope it has made things even harder people say the only time politicians give anything is jaring elections malcolm webb al jazeera russellville republic of congo. health officials and they're facing a challenge as they tackle the recent break people in remote communities are

refusing to get vaccinated they don't trust their health care system and prefer traditional healers reports. traditional healer to move this cocktail of natural remedies using plants soil and the 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. truth is real vaccines people have dogs saying it might even hurt them and attract more sickness honestly i'm already vaccinated by traditional medicine after a nurse died of a bull 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. who says she's more afraid of the vaccine then

a bola. i am not going to take the vaccine and while 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 sierra 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 on top of an outbreak of legals 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 thanks

to this genetic sequencing scientists made an extraordinary discovery 5 years after the last outbreak the same a 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 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 outbreak in getting dickless hawk al-jazeera. at least 9 protesters have been killed in myanmar

join the latest rallies against the military coup. a local rights group says more than $235.00 people have been killed since the military seize power last month the u.n. is condemning the military's increasingly violent tactics saying a unified international response is needed scott hardware has more from bangkok in neighboring thailand. we saw a bit of a standoff with protesters and police and security forces what had happened is we've been seeing a lot more around the country particular where there are bigger cities the protesters are building these barricades and that's where the kind of usually have a face off with the security forces tear gas is fired and then it escalates usually to live rounds and that's what we saw in this central command mar city of on what happened is that it seems as though while the police were trying to take down the barricades the protesters approached and then that's when this violence took place

in the least 8 people there were killed there were some smaller protests again around me and mar as well we know at least in one case in the northwest one person was killed when there's a confrontation with security forces as well indonesian president is has called for a high level meeting of the aussie on this is the bloc in southeast asia 10 nations to discuss what's been going on in myanmar and when you look at it it's very interesting they've kind of indonesia has taken a leadership role if you will in the region in trying to get reach some kind of political political solution to what's going on to me and mark but it's a very tall order to tall task because normally see on don't really interfere with each other's internal matters as they say but indonesia is trying to break that tradition one thing needs to be said the nations that neighbor and have a lot of relations close relationship closer than internees if they find it it's going to be a little bit more difficult to have these kind of discussions particularly nations like thailand who has a lot of trade and a long border with me and more so that's an interesting to see how those

discussions if those high level discussions actually take place. the afghan government and the taliban have agreed to speed up stalled peace talks after a meeting in moscow less than 2 months before the deadline for u.s. troops to pull out of afghanistan charles reports. the moscow meeting between members of the afghan government taliban representatives and observers from various countries including the united states and china is one of 3 international conferences on afghanistan to be held before the 1st of may that's the deadline by which all remaining u.s. and nato forces must leave the country the agreement was made last year between donald trump's administration and the taliban but it's reported new u.s. president joe biden has other ideas and may propose an interim power sharing government in kabul which would buy time for more comprehensive peace talks this would possibly allow the u.s. to keep an estimated $3500.00 troops in afghanistan beyond the may the 1st deadline

but it's not about a spokesman at the moscow conference warned what would happen if u.s. troops are not out of afghanistan by then they should go because if they do not go. that means they are. continue after that it will be a. while asian of the agreement that way lation would not be from oversight but it would be from the outside around $1000.00 u.s. troops have withdrawn from afghanistan over the past year pentagon leaders reportedly oppose a full withdrawal saying thousands need to remain in order to support afghan forces and conduct counterterrorism operations washington and kabul wants an immediate cease fire but the taliban says it will negotiate that only as part of peace talks with the afghan government rushes efforts to mediate comes after year long

negotiations in concert between the afghan government and the taliban stalled with its well distorted we call on the united states and the taliban to continue to abide by the provisions of the peace agreement supported by the un security council . attacks by the taliban have increased in recent weeks rights groups say there has been a marked rise in the number of targeted killings of government officials civil society leaders and journalists especially women the taliban launched a wave of attacks in december in the north and south of the country nato says there were more than $2500.00 civilian casualties in this 3 months from total to december last year more than $800.00 people were killed. the joint statement after the moscow meeting said all parties involved pledged to accelerate peace talks didn't claim is that the fighting against foreign troops ok now let's talk let's say chief peace work to get there if to give that in peace maintaining our own different

views but at the same time make a commitment that we don't just go to violence we do in big and there are terrorists moves now that the 2 of us in pursuit of our political agenda if the recent surge in violence is anything to go by and we no concrete agreement to the negotiating table on how to stop it we are still a long way away from that. al-jazeera. well it's been a difficult year for most but a report on the happiest countries suggest the pandemic hasn't crushed people spirits' finland has topped the list for the 4th year in a row followed by 8 other european countries and new zealand the report ranks 149 nations and asks people about social support freedoms corruption and generosity it suggested finland's relative success in curbing coronavirus may have how it's. i think everywhere in the world and in finland us well of course people have been

suffering and the pen damage has really costing society and concrete problems but again i think in finland and in the nordic countries people are really lucky and have been lucky because the society still supports this sort of the system of buffering these kinds of shocks most people don't have to completely worry about losing their livelihood or not having access to health care. television the headlines on al-jazeera our high level talks between china and the u.s. have now ended in alaska without a significant breakthrough both sides had out of the other's policies in front of the cameras revealing tensions over human rights and economic power. we certainly. knew going in.