see where the most iconic images of the conflict in vietnam were transmitted to the world. this was the front row seat to the final stages of the war, saigon, caravel, a new episode of war hotels on al jazeera. what's most important to me is talking to people understanding what they're going through here and we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. ah, hello, i'm mariam demise in london with a quick look at the main stories now. voting in some places has been extended past midnight in iran presidential election with the hard line and the judiciary abraham . right. you see why the tip to win, turn out is reportedly low with the opposition parties calling for a boy costs of the poll after several candidates were excluded, as a bag is reporting on this. now the oscillators from

a polling station in solving to ron, these polk stations have been set up in the courtyard of a shrine. now we've been here for around 7. i was when you 1st arrived, there were many people. here we go, okay. it's very hot. maybe more people come out of the sun begins to set, and that did happen. the 100, the people in the courtyard here at one point. but here's the thing, not many of them were voting. we had more people visiting destroying than voting. and those that did vote when we did off them, which way they voted most of them actually. in fact, every single person i spoke to that had voted at voted for natural frontrunner it re me and i've been taking a look at the but what is the number by the have not increased that much in the last 7 hours. so it does look like he's here, it's going to be a low turn out. we thought it would be higher in this part of their on is more conservative, but we have been across the capital. not that many people of voting. and that's because many people are still upset that the state of the call, the economy of the ronnie government and admin administration and how they've

handled the economy, but also the fact that candidates disqualified, they can't really identify anyone to vote for at least those people, the same way from the poles in the lines, the policy and health ministries rejecting a vaccine exchange deal with israel out. israel had agreed to provide a 1000000 doses of the fines of corona vars vaccine in return for an equal amount when its own shipments arrive later this year. but the pallet, sir, no, far as he is saying, the israeli vaccines had an expiration date earlier than had been agreed. and comet . i've talked after the medical technical team's received the 1st patch to vaccine to saving. they found that they did not match the technical specifications that we had agreed earlier. we contacted the prime minister and the decision was made, the deal was canceled and we will remain committed to buying enough vaccines for people and depression 5 to provide the vaccines as early as possible. governments across europe, a scaling back plans. the eas restrictions is the delta variance,

the krona virus spreads variances behind 90 percent of new cases here in the u. k, which are at the highest level now since february. in all the news, at least 11 palestinians have been injured in a confrontation with his ready forces and occupied east jerusalem. this happened to find a prize at the luck. the most compound is ready forces with dispersing protest as he gathered in opposition to the nationalist flag march, which was held earlier this week. i jury is army as rescue to teachers in 5 students from kidnappers, or part of a group of doctor on thursday from a school in the northwest in state of kemi. woman 80 students were taken, and one female student has been found dead. this is the 3rd mass, kidnapping in 3 weeks in our area, gangs of man described as bandits, often stage abduction seeking ransom payments. fidelis and bar is in a boucher with more on the efforts to find students. the major military statement butcher said that the troops were chased after the doctors

and during that process, the waiver to force them to split the those the adopted into 2 fights. and within that period, the teacher and some of the students were one side. and then the other students, the large majority of the other students were on one side. so during that period to do able to also closing on them. and i've tried hard exchange of gunfire. the let go some of these to them, which is the 5 students and 2 teachers. and they're hoping that they'll be able to closing on the band aid and be able to rescue more of them. and al jazeera has seen an advanced copy of a new un report on children. armed conflict meant to name and shame parties, committing grade violations against children, syria government, me, and was military and yemen. susie rebels are among those names in the report. the

bottom line is the program coming up next? oh i hi, i'm steve clements, i have a question. biden's been telling europe and the world that america is back, but do they believe it? let's get to the bottom line. ah, us president joe biden is on a whirlwind tour of europe with a packed agenda. the menus huge, including the pandemic and half a 1000000000 vaccines for the developing world. and then there was climate. iran afghanistan, nato cyber hackers in the future of the western lead order in the face of competition from china. oh, yeah. and then there's what i'm putting in russia to more importantly, buyer wants to signal to europeans that the u. s. got their back after they listen to former president donald trump. tell them they were insignificant and it would be every country for itself from now on a america 1st. but the rest of the world watch the events of january 6th. when some

americans tried to overturn the results of their own election and they still see sitting american lawmakers denying that joe biden 15 months later. so who's to say that washington doesn't do a total, you turn after the next election? will america 1st be back and given all this can biden's, i not trump tour restore enough trust and confidence in us partnership and leadership. fortunately, were joined by people who have all the answers. bruce stokes, who had the transit atlantic research project at the german marshall fund called together or alone, and just came out with a major poll of american and european attitudes and matthew ro, jan sky director of the wilson centers kenon institute, which focuses on russia and europe he's considered one of america's leading experts on russia mat, thanks for being here today. let me just start with, with president biden going into europe. what is europe expecting from this trip? what, how are they seeing america and president biden at this moment from your view?

well, obviously your hands have lingering concerns from the last 4 years. this is difficult period, both in terms of the pressure on the traditional trans atlantic relationship, whether it was trade, whether it was politics, whether it was security, the message from washington very often sounded like if our way or the highway there was quite a lot of 0 sum pressure and zeros, i'm thinking and thought to reverse. all of that, the message is not only we are back, but we're back partners. we're going to build back better. and we're going to put the transatlantic relationship in america's allies and the values that we share at the very center of our approach to the wider world in the set of problems. including of course, russia, china, and transnational challenges by climate change. and then the president has to deal with now you talk to national security and intelligence officials all over the world. you've got one of the cool jobs in washington. i talked to them occasionally, and i do know that at least during the trump administration,

i would even say now that many of these players around the world in that are looking at the security of their country that are looking at intelligence playing out simulations. they're really counting on america less than they used to. will america be with these nations in their dark days? is the big question and i guess i'd like to ask you, i know you're an american, you worked for the federal government, but wouldn't you doubt america? after what we have just gone through, well look, i can, i can only speak from my personal perspective. i am, i'm very convinced by present biden's message that we are at the united states of america is back. because it's not driven by politics. this is not an optics thing. this isn't about winning an election. the election is over, it's one and it's done. this is about the american national interest. and if you, if you read the critical documents that administration has put out, including the interim national security strategic guidance, which is essentially

a national security strategy in miniature. the administration very clearly puts the importance of the central relationships in terms of benefits to the united states. i mean, it is, they felt interested approach and that should be reassuring because it is precisely that self interest that european allies were very concerned about in the trump administration, in the sense of dividing the united states from europe. but i think quite the opposite divide administration has made a compelling case. it is better for the united states. for example, engage with russia to engage with china, to try to solve these transnational challenges like climate or the. if we have our european allies in our asian allies and other partners around the world at our side, that is far stronger in terms of an approach. now, i know you know, russia well and we're going to get to that. but one of the questions you know, came out at a pew research center pole, is that many say the united states is a somewhat reliable partner, but they no longer see it as a model for democracy. russia, of course, has been involved, you know, as

a metal or an american elections in that process. and they may see that as again. but when it comes to that broad issue of how important it is that other nations look to the united states as a model of excellence when it comes to immigration and inclusion, being a security guarantor in the world trying to help those in need around the world. standing for justice, does it were you that this, these pew findings demonstrate real european doubt in the solvency of american democracy? well, 1st of all, you know, i talk your all the time. the message that i'm hearing very consistently is enthusiasm for reengage with united states at every level. obviously, you know, some of the reduced engagement has been the reality. and i'm someone who would literally be in europe, but 10 or dozen times a year. and i haven't been for nearly. ready 3 years at this point. so i think, you know, in some ways the timing is fortuitous. the president is going to be the shark and of despair of the return to engagement between americans and europeans. and that's

all to the good. but the 2nd important point here is this is not about words, it's not about promises. it's not about abstractions. the president understands clearly and has said many times, it's about solving problems that matter to people. so if you want to reassure europeans that the alliance that the transit atlantic relationship is central to the way that washington and americans think about the world and the problems we have to face, start solving those problems and start doing it together. and so the white house message going out on this trip has been really consistent. it's the 3 seat cove it number one, climate number 2 are a challenge. europeans are acutely aware of. and number 3, china, and that is something you're in have increasingly, i think come to share the american view that this is the central geostrategic challenge. our time. let me bring in proof stokes, and he's just put out some new data on the transit planet relationship that the german marshall fund is publish. it's fascinating and bruce,

i sort of see in the data a desire, a pining, if you will, for the old trans had romantic relationship, robust and real, but a while between us and a bit of doubt. tell us about your findings. well, i mean, what we found in the german marshal funds trying to like trans survey was i a revival of faith in the united states. this was reaffirmed by the pew data that came out today. that shows that the, the united states has returned in the eyes of europeans to the levels it was during the obama and faith in you as president, has returned to levels of the above administration. so i agree with matt in the sense that i think there's an appetite both among publics

in europe and among a lease and policy makers to find ways to cooperate with united states. no, i would. i would caution all policymakers that you also hear from fellow policy makers in europe. a hesitancy, a just trust of a nighted stage where we change as it gives a legitimate concerns because we don't know what the future lies for the, the politics of the united states. you will be president, 3 years. nevertheless, the publics in europe are back and that should encourage policymakers on both sides of the atlantic to do it matters, talking about and that is working together to solve shared problems because they also ran a task force for the german martian fund. looking at what we could do together and we came to the same conclusion that matches waste winches. if we wanted to

re commit our publics to democracy and not to succumb to the temptation of authoritarianism, we have to solve the problems that are published. dana fi is the problems they face and if the transit atlantic relationship can work together to solve those problems, this will benefit to translate european american translate relationship and it will benefit faith and democracy. but we need to solve problems for our people, and that's the major challenge we both face. well, let me, let me ask you both. here we'll go. we'll go to math and bruce, but i'm fascinated by the fact i don't mean to be mean about this, but, you know, brock obama when he came in was such a popular president just by being barack obama. he sorta won the nobel peace prize, right. the change in tone, you know, change an atmospheric, he won the nobel peace prize just by being himself, and you sort of wonder,

right now it works so early in the, by the ministration, whether this honeymoon with biden is one of expectation. so let me ask you the tough question. how could joe biden love this up? what could go wrong? and let me start with matt, and i'm going to just tail on matt, you know, latimer put, you know, the russians. i mean, this is going to be a defining moment at the end of the trip. so how could things go wrong? well, i think one very real possibility is that the meeting doesn't happen. so we're little less than a week out. i don't think it's by accident that the meeting with the tail end of a long agenda. you have ongoing crises in and around ukraine and bell ribs. you really agree just treatment of press and the opposition within russia. election of only being the most famous case, but you know, by no means the only one. there are more than $300.00 people that americans considered to be political prisoners and russia. you have americans who are in custody by the russian security state. and of course you have russian hacking that

is ongoing, both private criminal actions and state sponsor and cyber attacks. i mean, i think any one of the not to mention traditional kinetic military is near mrs. wind rush and jets, over by american ships or nearby other american aircraft cetera. any one of these conspiring to the kind of crisis that would be a perfectly rational reason to say what now is not the time, but this made it ru something really hit me from your data that you put up in a german martial fund. you know, seem to contradict each other, but would love to get your quick insights and i want to turn to russia. but, but you have a wonderful little pie chart of, of how american reliability is perceived by the nations you surveyed. now turkey is in there in turkey, is, you know, looked at, there's 23 percent mean right now there's not a love lost between turkey and apparently europe and turkey in the u. s. and the

distrust it exists. but germany is only at 51 percent who believe americans reliable poland is all the way up at the top at 76 percent in this pie chart. but then you flip over to something else that really interested me in your study and says, how involved should the united states be in the defense of security in europe. and there has been a 10 point jump between the last year and this year in germany. 69 percent of germans think america should be involved more deeply in the defense insecurity of europe. so also a 10 point jump from 45 percent to 55 percent in france. so i guess the conclusion i have is the germans are saying on one hand, they don't really, you know, lot of my say 51 percent of americans not reliable, but they do have an expectation and want more. so what am i, you know, are those inconsistent, what's going on there? well, the, the reliability of the us, the numbers are a little higher in the pew survey. so, you know, every server is a little bit different. we know from past surveys that germans

expected america to come to its defense if russia ever invaded. although the germans were unwilling to go to the defense of their own app, nato allies of other nato allies were defended. so there's a little contradiction. the german perception on these things, but i think the real and matt with can speak to this. i think the logical interpretation of why the germans and the french would would, would expect us to help support them militarily and want them to is what happened with russia over the last few years. and said, actually in the last year, the concern about russia seems to me, is growing in western europe. and that's why you see this change. well, let's jump to russia mat. you had a very interesting article that just ran. i'll tell our audience, you can find it in war on the rocks. and in this article, it's sort of

a comprehensive review of russia's portfolio in the world and the portfolio of us russian relations. and if i can, i think the bottom line to your article is take off the rose colored glasses and see things of the are and just realized business is going to be tough as you kind of look at that in that potential that meeting one am, i getting the reading of your article, right? and as you see things like ukraine as you see, things like cyber attacks and the solar winds attack. what are the best ways to maneuver that relationship between 2 really important leaders? when clearly i think they're going to be expectations and biden is going to, you know, try and achieve something. yeah, thanks very much, dear. so. so in that case, you know, the tagline really was just only reset your expectations that you know, don't have any illusions that this is going to be the kind of handshake signing ceremony. friendship reset, transformation. many us presidents have promise on the relationship with russia.

the good news is the one person who needs to understand that understands it perfectly, and that's joe biden. he has gone into this, sending a very clear message that the reason for him to meet with him is that he understand that is necessary to try to put some guard rails on rushes, aggressive and stabilizing behavior. that's a great point. it's something that will be very reassuring and very welcome, i think for america's key european allies. but at the same time, biden is not introducing a laundry list of hoped. ready for achievement, in some kind of renewed us russian partnership because you recognize that isn't going to happen. he's talking about a more stable and more predictable relationship. so how do you get there? i see a couple of major deliverables, neither of which is guaranteed but, but should be possible if this is a reasonably successful summit meeting. the indications are that it could be number one is a strategic stability dialogue. the basic question here is having extend it the

last major nuclear arms control treaties standing. that's the new start agreement for 5 years from this past january. so the last oh, february of 2026. what comes right? 2026 is actually not that far away. and there are a lot of new issues, especially new technologies like fiber you mentioned earlier that have a bearing on strategic stability that is on the risk of escalation to open war between the world to largest nuclear, our russian united at this number one, issue number 2 is, can we rebuild from some of the wreckage of the basic infrastructure literally as we speak, the russian ambassador is not an embassy in washington. the us and bathroom is not in moscow. and frankly, both staffs have been stripped down to a bare minimum. most conflict at this point have been shuttered. we're not able to do basic functions and support services issuing these as you know, the relationship is that it absolutely barebones minimum, worse than most of the cold war and rebuilding fanatic could be both both helpful

and a realistic, clear. i goal for this on it. bearish, let me ask you a question. we just scratched beneath the surface a little bit in look at not just the raw. you know what can go well, but what some of the tensions are. one of them comes to mind is afghanistan. europeans are frustrated that america is talking about just leaving afghan to stand with very little consultation with them. they've been our allies, you know, right there next to us in afghanistan. and they don't see themselves part of the equation. that's one to property, right? you know, the intellectual property right side of the co crisis job by maybe going over with half a 1000000000 vaccines to help give the developing world. but many europeans were critical of president biden saying, let's wave intellectual property rights in this area. they say that's the wrong way to achieve this, and you, you are one of the most knowledgeable people i know on trade. joe biden still has not removed some of the trade provisions and sanctions provisions that would put,

put in place by the trump administration. so how toxic are those lower level issues and do you think any of them will bubble to the surface during this, this trip? my guess is that on the terror acts that may get mentioned in passing, but we have initiated a process of discussions of how we might be able to resolve that issue. so we've kicked the ball down the road. i mean, the real problem and that is, it's about over capacity, the chinese ability to produce deuce more than they can consume. and the fear by our domestic industry and labor force that they will export more to europe and in europe and check for more twice. and that's why we put tariffs on to europe and there are ways to try to deal with this. what are called tariff quotas. that, that you might be able to have to read of that mean the reality is we can't get the chinese to reduce their, our capacity. and after years of talking about this,

the truck administration finally acted and politically, it's very difficult for joe biden to say to the steel industry, into the steel workers. we're not going to afford you this level of protection anymore. but you're right and are allergic issue with europeans for understandable reasons, but it's not at all clear how we resolve that on afghan of stan. i mean there's a little bit of pushback here. i mean, it's true from my understanding that we, we didn't negotiate with the europeans about the pull out. we just announced it. and that the excuse given by the bible people is, well, they should have known what we're going to do because by and talked about it in the campaign. well, frankly, that's not the way to treat your allies. on the other hand, the germans in afghanistan had to be guarded in part by the americans because they couldn't guard themselves. so there's a bit of a which be here about what,

what they expect should expect from us as we make decisions. and i think one of the issues you didn't mention is a question of what happens in the middle east, because i did a series of interviews with, but are now current biden, administration officials before the election. and they all said to a person that we're going to get, we're going to continue to pull out from the middle east. we're going to follow the trump plant game plan on that. and we just expect to europeans to step up and do more. well, that g m f survey, ask dra peons if they wanted their country to do more right in the middle east. and the response was in the single digits among people who said they wanted to do 16 percent, 7 percent, 9 percent. and a 3rd said, no, we want to do less. so there's expectations here of the americans at the europe can

pick up some of the birds in the middle east. right. that is not supported at all by european public's mat. let me get one last question into you. and my question is going to be on russia. we know, and you know, all of us have talked about what drives the foreign policy behavior of other countries. and very often it's rooted in domestic policy and domestic politics. don't usually give that much air time, but i guess my question to is, if we most wanted to influence vladimir putin in russia and put russia on a different course, that was more of a global contributor to peace and stability. what would you do? you know, it's a great and it's a very timely question, steve, not only because of the found it, but because this year is the 100th anniversary of andre soccer up. the great soviet nuclear scientist adventure of the soviet hydrogen bomb and dissident, and you know, one of his main messages is, was and still relevant today that a country that abuses the rights of its own citizens is inherently going to be

a threat to world peace. so the good news is, i think by the administration, understands that there is a linkage between the way that recruitment and the kremlin behaves towards don't people. and the way that russia pose it states and our allies in the world. the bad news is we have limited instruments to change behavior at home. essential to us is we can impose as much pressure as we're doing. it's quite a lot of pressure that we can, there are things to get our own house in order in terms of not letting dark all of our money into american markets can do that we should do for moral reasons. but it views those things and existential survival. issues for his regime, there's almost no level of leverage that's going to get him to agree to say ok. now i'm going to do something to me. what is more likely is the kind of engagement the present by just talking about if successful developing a nuclear arms control strategic stability, dialog dialog on site, restoring some of the basic, ongoing diplomatic contacts. we began to look a little bit more like times in the cold war,

where american presidents were successful in getting out of russia because the russians had a stake in the relationship. and i think that's what i'm interested in. well, listen, thank you. this is one of those times you realize, i really wish i had an hour long show what a great conversation, bruce stokes, with the german marshal fun and matthew ro, gantski of the wilson center. really appreciate you helping to explore this question abiding and you're up. thank you so much. thank you. so what's the bottom line president joe biden keep saying americas back as if the world stood still for the past 4 years waiting for it. of course there's a difference with american diplomacy now. everybody can feel it. his team of already engage in some of the top issues out there like israel palestine. but everybody knows that america has a lot of issues to sort out at home. and there are lingering doubts in america is really fully 100 percent back. france and germany said many times in response to trump's bluster that europe would have to consider going it alone on many fronts. and that'll probably be a strong current of european thinking from now on. at the same time,

it's cheaper and easier to work together on climate change on cyber threats and whoever they consider road nations together. ironically, the challenges posed by russia and china may force the u. s. in europe more tightly together, even if it's not the sturdy alliance, it used to be and that's the bottom line. ah, a lot of the stories that we cover a highly complex. so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can to as many people as possible, no matter how much they know about a given crisis or issue in this area, the smell of death is overpowering. as i just recall respondents, that's what we strive to do. a global pandemic. social unrest, a world under locked down, brought to the knees by the buyer. but now we have a window to like the past to

a bright future. coming to you live from doha. we bring together leaders from all corners of the globe and across all sectors of society. chalk away out of this, join at the top tech, even on the forums powered by blue, with the hello i'm marianna manzona london. wish look at the main stories now. voting in some places has been extended past midnight in a wrong presidential election with the hotline. how does the judiciary abraham, right? you see why the tip to win turn out is reportedly low with opposition. parties calling for a cause of the poll after several candidates were excluded. i said, bank has more now from a polling station in southern town on the police station. they've been set up in

the courtyard of a shrine. now we've been here for around 7. i was one.