uninterrupted discussions from london broadcast center. and now it is time to bring our forces home. after 2 decades of war american and nato forces are expected to leave afghanistan together but they won't meet a crucial deadline. who will challenge is there on live from a headquarters in doha i'm daddy you know also coming up a 2nd day of testimony by defense witnesses and derek chauvinist trial protests continue over the police killing of another black man so malia's president signs a controversial law to extend this term by 2 years despite threats of international

sanctions bernie made off the american financier a convicted of running the largest ponzi scheme in history has died in prison. hello thanks for joining us plans for the u.s. to withdraw its troops some of gonna stand by next month are being delayed president joe biden is expected to announce in a few hours that those forces will leave by september the 11th under a deal signed with the taliban the troops were to pull out by may the 1st at the peak of the war in 2001 there were more than 100000 americans in the country and nearly 10000 foreign troops from 36 countries are still serving as part of a nato mission but the u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken has hinted that they may well they may leave as well. together we have achieved the goals that we we set out

to achieve and now it is time to bring our forces home we will work very closely together in the weeks and months ahead on a safe deliberate and coordinated withdrawal of our forces from afghanistan but even as we do that. our commitment to afghanistan to its future will remain followed by germany its defense minister says she'll meet with officials from the u.s. u.k. and france to coordinate their exits a delay in the withdrawal raises questions about talks with the taliban and afghan government which are set to resume in turkey the taliban has said it won't take part until all foreign troops leave but bring in political hay who's joining us from inside the u.s. pentagon a hi there patty so do we expect the president to speak in about 2 hours time what do we expect him to say. well we think he's going to say look i'm the 4th president

to rule over a war in afghanistan i will not turn this over to be a problem for the 5th he's basically going to say america has done its best it's done what it could it's been 20 years it's time to come home now this can is cut can't have come as much of a surprise here at the pentagon because joe biden as vice president made it very clear that he thought to the to then president barack obama that he thought the pentagon brass was trying to back him in force him to send more troops there that said here in the pentagon there is real concern about what's going to happen when u.s. troops leave we've heard testimony in the past that they will only be able to keep their aircraft flying for a matter of months but they're not sure that they'll be able to stand up to any offensive from the taliban but what we expect to hear from the pentagon is a plan for counter search counterterrorism they've said that they want to make sure that al qaeda doesn't regroup there so likely they're going to be looking to a nearby country where they can possibly stage some quick reaction forces possibly still have some intelligence flights over there but as for the $3500.00 troops we

believe are in afghanistan right now the pentagon has just under 5 months to bring them home and that's always a very tricky situation especially if they're facing attacks from the taliban after violating the deal the president trump made on may 1st for full withdrawal yeah so patty how difficult is that going to be for the military to bring those troops home . they have an entire command that is dedicated just towards the logistics of that but of course their security is going to be a very big concern that said it is a fairly small number as you mentioned we've seen up 210-0000 p. troops in afghanistan at one point so this is just 3500 troops but there is real questions about what sort of equipment they're going to leave behind now the president is facing some criticism from republicans on capitol hill and some democrats who really wanted to see him leave a small force there because they are concerned that any gains made by the 'd afghan government especially when it comes to women's rights are going to going to simply be erased now you expect to see by the ministration officials counter with they

still have influence in afghanistan it's a very poor country the u.s. we expect the president to say is going to continue to give them financial aid and they could try to use that as leverage with the taliban in any future negotiation ok patty thank you so much for that update. it's a 13 at the trial of former minneapolis police officer jerry chosen chauvinistic use of murdering george floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes and a case that triggered world wide protests demanding racial justice the defense argues floyd died from heart problems under a drug overdose a pathologist is among the witnesses taking the stand attorneys are expected to wrap up before the end of the week she had her town see has been following the trial from minneapolis the defense is continuing what is the case it began. shews

day that the dark the dark show vns actions were not primarily the cause of george lloyd's that he went to all that it's trying to create that sense of reasonable doubt in at least one juror's mind that it was george floyd's preexisting conditions that led to his death so we have this forensic psychologist retired forensic pathologist retired on the stand who is far as he's concerned says it was george flood voids history hypertension heart disease his drug use but caused his own death not a problem with this particular witness and it's rather interesting is it suddenly being reported that while he was chief medical examiner in maryland he himself was accused of cover up in the case of the death of a 19 year old black man who was smothered by various police officers and actually there is you know there's a case against him right now nobody can see whether that's introduced as evidence or whether that's admissible as evidence but we see the defense then continuing what they began on tuesday trying to say look george floyd was was an ill man

a sick man a drug addict he was potentially new good i mean that we saw the defense try to introduce introduce evidence of police apos interactions with the police the defense also saying that the crowd around. george floyd while derek show but how does. floyd's neck and shoulder contribute to show action so they were perfectly reasonable we're going to continue to see that sort of case being advanced it has to be said though that under cross-examination on tuesday a lot of the witnesses did rather crumble somewhat we're not expecting that many witnesses from the defense the judge saying that he expects closing arguments to begin early next week without all depends on what the defense or the prosecution decides cross rebuttal is concerned after after the defense case for us. south africa says a local study on the johnson and johnson cove in 1000 vaccines showed no major

safety concerns and yet it has decided to suspend its use over issues raised in the u.s. that it could be linked to blood clots the single those vaccine was the only one being administered but it does have other doses on order from pfizer helen reese is a member of south africa's ministerial advisory committee and coburn 19 she says the pause is a matter of precaution. in the south african setting where we live in this 300000 doses we haven't seen this rare condition but because this has been seen in the united states and they're evaluating it now it was thought wise that we just put a temporary hold while the u.s. has more investigation we don't know globally nobody can say at the moment whether this is what's called causal i.e. is it the vaccine that's causing this rare condition or is it other factors that pertain to the individual that might have contributed to this condition such as

smoking for example now we're going to be rolling it up to millions of people and if you see a rare side effect it might be real it might be associated with vaccine but it might just be that once you roll things out to millions of people such conditions will occur that's life and that's nature and that's people's health so you need to be able to differentiate whether this is just coincidence and not causal or whether it really is associated with the vaccine so so that's what's being looked at at the moment but i think that what the f.d.a. has said is that they're being ultra cautious i think many regulators i'm i'm i chair the regulator that richie here in south africa as well we're being very cautious about safety signals and evaluating them that's good news that's reassuring for the public on the other hand as you say is confusing for the public because they say go go go no go that is computing we need to be able to be a short one. india's health care system is struggling to deal with

a dramatic rise in corona virus cases there were more than 180000 new infections and a 1000 deaths on tuesday tough new restrictions are coming into effect in the worst hit state. or india correspondent elizabeth purana reports from new delhi. a long line of ambulances outside a codeine hospital in the state of gujarat inside a patients struggling to breathe and waiting for a bed to become available good roth is one of many states but the hospitals are overcrowded and they don't have enough equipment or health care workers to deal with the current caseload. the ambulances bring in the patients who are on oxygen supply some of them are critical and they are admitted forced as soon as the beds with ventilators are available the patients who are on oxygen supplies to the venturi masks are given that in 108 ambulances. as patients wait for beds the

families of the dead mourn for their loved ones nowhere is the situation as bad as in the state of maharashtra where migrant workers crowded bus and train terminals after more restrictions were announced the closing down of all but essential services has seen many daily wage earners lose their jobs they want to travel to their home states afraid the government might shut down public transport as it did last year. but it's the common man who suffers the most i've come here from with the i have no russian card or any of the local documents all the doors were local and i would russian card will get groceries outsiders don't get anything at all hobble migrant workers feed themselves that's why they're leaving for their villages. state's leader has said he had no choice but to impose the restrictions but that this disease is spreading at a very horrifying base i say horrifying because today's number of positive cases in the state is the highest so far. as $125000000.00 people will only be allowed to go

out for work and shop placentia supplies including groceries and medicines until the end of april as india witnesses the world's biggest surge in cases the health ministry says it will fast track emergency approvals for the pfizer montana and johnson and johnson vaccines that's amid continuing reports of vaccine shortages in the country which produces 60 percent of all the vaccines in the world elizabeth al-jazeera new delhi. still heads on al-jazeera $100.00 days to go until the opening ceremony well the tokyo olympic games go ahead as planned would rise in coronavirus cases on the celebre tory mood in jerusalem on the 1st night of ramadan as its old city bustles thanks to cope with 1000 restrictions.

it's time for the perfect jenin. sponsored player qatar airways. in an interruption to the smooth process of generating spring rains we have this thing developing in mongolia which should be windy dusty and even snowy for some will certainly produce thunderstorms in beijing that eventually the korean peninsula always time the sun is out over japan and the rain proper the spring rains developing once again in southern china is but still it is your granddaughter to fujian and taiwan but she's back in the sunshine the air quality will be good it's colder and it's still quite breezy it will also snowed in seoul but it will get briefly sherry and cooler old reaction weather wise further south is just here more us in the philippines see a tropical cyclone has formed it will be around for a few days it's slow moving so already affected yap with the amount of rain but

it's mostly over the water it does mean there will be very few showers in west papua eastern indonesia that's much drier than it might do this time the year of the big showers further west particularly sumatra it herself truth the next couple of days and what's happening in sumatra indicates what is coming north up through the bay of bengal into southern india it's the start of the rainy season where they always starts rather fit for the but in the north the still snow in northern pakistan and showers new delhi. sponsored by qatar airways most people will never know what's beyond this storm. deafening silence $100.00 informs how it feels to touch. british. people will never know what it's like to work with every breath is precious. which . is not an option. but we're not most people.

all over again the top stories on al-jazeera the u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken says nato allies will coordinate a withdrawal of forces from afghanistan president biden is due to announce he will pull out all remaining u.s. troops by september the 11th that means pushing back a deadline set by his predecessor donald trump. it's day 13 of the trial of former minneapolis police officer derek cho ven a pathologist is among the witnesses taking the stand chair of it is accused of murdering george floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes meanwhile

u.s. media are reporting that a minnesota police officer will be charged with 2nd degree manslaughter in the shooting of a black man during a traffic stop on sunday. south africa says a local study on the johnson and johnson covered 1000 back scene showed no major safety concerns however it has decided to suspend its use because of issues raised in the us that it could be linked to a blood clots the un and some world leaders do not support these so while the president's decision to extend his term in office they say president mohamad abdalla he also known as for my job is undermining the peace process and stability of the country he signed into law a bill a bill allowing him to stay despite opposition from some members of parliament his mandate had ended in february prompting protests and calls for him to step down catherine soy has this update from nairobi. a lot of somalis saying that what the

president has done is problematic on so many levels so he signed this motion into the last night but ideally what's supposed to happen according to the law is that once the lower house passes such a motion they have to forward it to the upper house the senate for approval or rejection so that stage has been skipped we also have had from the speaker of the senate of the upper house who said that they would have rejected this motion anyway because it was unconstitutional there's also a lot of reactions from different quarters we've had from a coalition of opposition presidential candidates and some leaders of the federal states particularly jubal land endpoint land all of them saying that they reject this decision they reject any extension of the presidential term saying that president from joe just wants to clean on to power we've also had from somalia is key donors the e.u. the u.s. and the u.k.

all of them speaking on this in the same tone in very strongly worded statements basically saying mr president if you continue with this we are going to rethink how we do business with you it will be business as usual talking about perhaps saget it set targeted sanctions or some individual states to be stumbling blocks haiti's foreign minister a clojure surface been appointed as the new prime minister his predecessor joseph resigned after an increase and unrest including mass protests kidnappings and killings well 2 days ago a gang kidnapped 10 people including clergy members and french citizens president of anomalies has promised to do more to stop the abductions is embroiled in a political standoff over his term limits protesters angry at the security health and economic crises have been calling for his resignation. ukraine's defense minister has warned that russia is preparing to store nuclear weapons in crimea

andrey to iran to a speaking ahead of an emergency nato meeting which will discuss russia's increased military activity along ukraine's borders bernard smith has the latest from moscow . russia's defense minister says 2 armies and 3 are born units have been successfully deployed to the western borders of russia those are the borders with ukraine he says there are military exercises and those exercises will continue for another 2 weeks if there ever was any real threats of some sort of russian incursion into ukraine that has been significantly diminished by the phone call made on tuesday night from joe biden to vladimir putin in which president biden offered president putin to meet at a summit meeting later on in the year but is being viewed here in moscow as washington blinking 1st in the standoff over the ukraine it's called a very important step according to the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of

the upper house of russia's parliament and the kremlin spokesman says the offer of a summit will be studied although vladimir putin is out already cold finland's president finland hosted the last summit in 28 between russia and the us that was between president donald trump and vitamin puts. the former financier and convicted fraudster bernie made off has died aged $82.00 in a us federal prison he pled guilty in 2009 to orchestrating the largest ponzi scheme in american history cheating investors of billions of dollars he was handed a 150 year sentence for defrauding tens of thousands of people from the 1970 s. onwards the bureau of prisons said he died of natural causes. well black is a former federal regulator and professor of economics and law at the university of missouri kansas city he says made office victims were often members of his own community. made off lied about everything including the size of this fund so that

you can see numbers as large as 50000000000 but that involves completely phony transactions that didn't actually have a party on the other side that was being defrauded so the best guess is somewhere in the range of $17000000000.00 and it wasn't just individuals it was major charities it was major universities and such so. it had a broad impact in particular on the jewish americans because this was a pariah to what we call in criminology affinity for awd it's easier to defraud people that you have something in common with because they're more likely to trust you bernie made off with jewish and he mostly target in fact he overwhelmingly targeted jews and indeed he went after jewish charities and incredibly

famous pious jews like eddie of a cell a nobel prize winner that you know no one if you were jewish could believe that he would seek to defraud those kinds of people and that added of course to his ability to defraud. well china has described its recent military exercises near taiwan as combat dros as an unofficial u.s. delegation arrived in taipei president joe biden sent a former senator and 2 former deputy secretaries of state to meet the island's leadership the visit comes at a time of tense relations with china and just one day after taiwan launched a new warship to boost its defenses on monday $25.00 chinese fighter jets and bombers entered taiwan's airspace and what type a says is the biggest incursion yet its grease and libya's internationally

recognized governments have agreed to hold talks over a contentious maritime agreement between libya and turkey greece says the deal isn't legal must be canceled but libya and turkey this week renewed their commitment to it's it's part of a wider dispute over territory and energy exploration rights between greece and turkey in the eastern mediterranean johnson ruppel this is an athame where prime minister so tuckey's met with libyan officials. greece and libya announced they will negotiate a new maritime treaty that treaty will divide the mediterranean waters between their coasts into 2 exclusive economic zones where each may authorize oil and gas exploration the reason they're doing this is that at the end of $29.00 team libya agreed to a similar treaty with turkey which cuts across what greece claims as part of its exclusive economic zone the european union and greece have called that turkish

libyan agreement illegal and have said that it needs to be a no so libya is now entering upon a delicate process of negotiating a new treaty with greece and renegotiating an old one with turkey the reason it's doing this as the head of the presidential council mohammed all known for you said in athens today is that the past between libya and the european union passes through greece in other words if libya hopes for european union investments that will help rebuild the war torn country it must make good with a member of the european union that has a serious complaint against it so the next few months will be occupied by this delicate process on the part of libya of trying to maintain a good relationship with turkey which remains an important economic partner to libya and trying to open a new pathway of investment with the european union and that means a maritime treaty with greece egyptian authorities have impounded the container

ship that blocked the suez canal last month the ever given was stuck for nearly a week disrupting billions of dollars in global trade be headed this way as canal says the vessel won't be released until it's japanese owner settles a claim for compensation reported to be around $100000000.00. now with $100.00 days to go until the opening ceremony the international olympic committee say they have no doubt that the tokyo games will take place that's despite a rise in coronavirus cases in the country and polls suggesting the vast majority of japanese people want the olympics to be cancelled and they richardson reports. events to mark the $100.00 day countdown to the start of the tokyo games were necessarily low key the city has just raised its coded 19 alert level and government experts say japan is heading into a 4th wave of infections organizers though are resolute in their commitment to the

event going ahead. and had no hesitation inside the games what type place and they'll be the safest games possible. all of the counter measures have been put in place to deal with that to ensure that the public place and all of the other participants are safe we can expect that emotions will run even higher because of the significance of the world being together for the 1st time in a pandemic situation there are so much expectations from the world community $11000.00 at leats will compete at the games the international olympic committee say being vaccinated isn't supreme requisite for taking part but many countries are hoping they will be able to offer their athletes the option of getting vaccinated the athletes in the piece we're going to take the world is going to take you oh so in terms of looking after the health and well being of the athletes and also giving

him that confidence that they have been vaccinated going to be very important that before. the thoughts relay is an event designed to raise awareness and interest levels in the games that the most recent poll of japanese public opinion suggested that more than 70 percent on the event canceled or postponed and matsuyama city has just called off its like of the relay jutes arising coronavirus cases we have medical professionals here questioning why the games are going on saying it's a too big a risk despite all that it is going on it's going on because the international olympic committee lives after elevation revenue it must get these games on television secondly the japanese state has invested perhaps 50. $100000000000.00 in these games prime minister suga i think is staking his claim to perhaps extending his prime ministership are making these games successful so the japanese public cannot back off and so the games go on tokyo sold itself as a safe pair of hands when it won the right to host the games in 2013 back claim is

now being tested in a way few would have thought possible and the richardson al-jazeera now muslims in occupied east jerusalem have celebrated the 1st night of ramadan with prayers inside the mosque it's a very different picture from last year when covered $1000.00 restrictions meant the site was closed to worshippers during islam's holy month harry fosset joined the crowds the 1st night of ramadan and drew slim's old city is bustling a year of coronavirus and the accompanying restrictions took a heavy toll on lives and livelihoods here this has the air of relief and celebration with a common destination in sight last year we were all abandoned to come to our luck some of this year 100 and we are all allowed to go hopefully until the end of the month we can go on because then and a little bit last year we stayed at home they were not prayers this year there's life there are people there are sweet there's. initially the israeli vaccination

campaign struggled to find take up in occupied east jerusalem but recently the vaccination numbers have been going up at the same time as could be cases have been in steep decline allowing for an ever greater reopening there's a real sense of joy of release here in the streets around the oxer mosque and that in large part is explained by the ability once again to pray during ramadan at islams 3rd holiest site but it's also about the ability to experience together with friends families neighbors this very important time of the year after a year of pandemic. last year's ramadan came at the end of the full 1st coded lockdown with some restrictions on movement remaining and now locks are closed to worshippers this time the crowds are back the mosques islamic trust is still instructing those going for prez to wear masks and maintain distance and so far israel is allowing only $10000.00 vaccinated palestinians from the occupied west bank to enter for friday prayers nonetheless for the old city's merchants and snack

vendors there is hope that after a bleak year this year is different. we are very working toward reckon to life. this will be a month to savor every force it outta syria occupied east jerusalem. tel aviv and the headlines on al-jazeera this hour the u.s. secretary of state says nato allies will coordinate a withdrawal of forces from afghanistan president joe biden is set to announce that he will pull out all american troops by september the 11th that means he misses a may deadline set by his predecessor together we have achieved.