none of those things are going to help climate change, but also taking as much action as we possibly can on improving water quality for the great rates. 3000 separate, leafs and 900 islands make up the great barrier reef. but with 50 percent of the reef already gone. many question whether you nascar's move will make much difference. lord, those man, the al jazeera. ah hello, this is al jazeera and these my headlines. iran has accused us of interference after washington said fridays presidential election was neither free nor fair. the biden administration has described the when by form a chief justice abraham racy as manufactured. joseph jabari has more now from the iranian capital, tara president likes that is abraham bracy,

even though he is coming into office in august with one of the lowest voter turnout in the country's history. it is seen as an attempt by western powers. that is specifically the united states to try and tarnish his image within the international community. and that, that is something of course the officials here say is unacceptable. they do not want any kind of comment or interference by the us administration in iran. internal policies, spain, 5 minister has pardoned 9 caselanos separatist leaders who had been sent to prison . they were convicted of sedition in 2019 for their role, and a failed independence. the tree is elia, conservative opposition parties in madrid, se they'll challenge the pardons in court while the opposition candidate in armenia is a snap election says he has evidence of fraud in sunday's verse, and we'll take it to the constitutional court from a president rather contrary. and was defeated by prime minister nicole passion. yes'm. meanwhile, provisional results for your appearance,

general election are expected. later on tuesday. there have been allegations of irregularities and not all regions were able to vote including t gray, where there has been months of fighting some opposition groups, claiming the ballot boxes were tempted with the president of the philippines as threatening to jail. people who refused to be vaccinated. against the current of virus or rigor, detached a warning, his warning contradicts health officials. you say the program is voluntary. the vaccination drive has been making slow progress. hong kong last pro democracy newspaper, apple daily looks set to close the good by saturday. last week, police rated its offices and arrested senior executives for what they called collusion with a foreign country. well, there's the headlines. they'll be more news after the stream. stay with us. from talk to al jazeera, we can, the army were attacking ringo, and now they're attacking everyone in me on my do you regret? well, it's like we listen. absolutely. nigeria with a woman present,

it would be great. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on algae sierra. ah, i am from you. okay, to dale the stream, we are featuring 3 stories and one shot in ethiopia will elections be free and fat? how dangerous is the delta cove in 1900 variant. as parts of the world start opening up a rapidly mutating covey very, it has doctors and scientists alarmed and the mysterious has that syndrome wouldn't be out of place. and a james bond film, it has the medical community puzzled, and it's tough for us to maintain a former c i. a agent joins us to tell us what he knows. there's a lot to get 3, but we want you to be part of today shows that you can post your comments and questions right here and i do to chat. we begin in ethiopia.

but as being propagated by the government as a country's 1st free and fair election is proving to be anything but resorting the repressive tactics to ensure a fixed electoral outcome. utopian federal and regional authorities have imprison thousands of opposition leaders, their supporters and decisions, many of whom have been subsequently tortured or killed. several of the main opposition parties are boycotting the elections, so as not to legitimize them. when these elections in ethiopia, mount the 1st electoral test for prime minister abbey ahmed, who came to power in 2018. but there's concern about how free and fair elections will be. despite assurances from the prime minister, while millions of ethiopian have already voted, voted in take right or not. and voting has also been postponed in other regions due to logistical issues and security challenges that was make sense of everything that's happening. we're joined by zacharias to other friendship. i know you can

handle it that can i? if i saw some video of the prime minister i made earlier today, and we will ask him about all these elections free and fair. this is what he said on camera. so we're going to get out of this year's election in many ways is much better than previous ones. what i want to say is all opposition political parties, what are they lose or when, who are competing in this election by trusting the people and government deserve to be honored. all forces who participate in this election by ignoring noise from outside deserve honor. the electoral board will determine the results, so we will see the result together. hyde or not sucker i. so these electrons were tallied as being the one the most democratic elections that if you would ever experience or to date your take. well, with regards to jokers fledgling democracy, i think the, the standards or the bar has been set pretty low when you take into consideration

that the past 5 elections held in the country where neither deemed free or fair by independent observers. however, this time around there is perhaps the most troubling aspect of it is the fact that there is a dearth of political representation in these elections from the top 10 opposition parties by a number of candidates. fielded, 8 of them are based in saba and how their support bases in d'silva. they have very little reach outside of the capital city. so the capital city which holds something like 5 percent of his yoke, is $110.00 or $120000000.00 people is lower presented but entire regions of had their prominent representatives and political leaders excluded systematically, rounded up jail to or, and basically forced out of the polls. so while there are some, there still remains a lot to be desired with regards to well job is democrats process has their classes

on youtube. so tad says, despite its shortcomings, this is by far the 1st free election, ethiopia ever had, at least from what my family and friends experienced and witnessed. so most of the elections as for the current, this current round of elections, most of the voting it's have happened. most of it has happened by now. what are you seeing? what are you hearing this? this is the, the, the best so far that we've had some ethiopian society. well, as i said, the best does not necessarily mean adequate when you may highlight again that the country's 5 previous elections were neither free and fair nor fair. so being the best of, of elections that are, that are some par, isn't necessarily something to be fitted or celebrated. we do need to take into account that something in just a, just

a little bit under 20 percent of the seats that were supposed to be contested. today will go uncontested, either because of the civil war into gray security situation in different parts of the country, or suspected voter irregularities in regions such as the somali region and so voting, there will be timber. i'm glad you mentioned that sacrifice because i'm wondering what impact that will have on the overall elections. once all of the results of being tally, have listened to this comment and come right off the back of it. please. particular interest is the election will not be taken place in about one constituencies in the countries about $105.00 and reflect 7, whether it is not to be taking place. they think differently than with people as table regions. there's somebody the question in front of us now is will the

elections address the legitimacy problem face or the boarding party? well, that's a good question. but for instance, to address or question directly even to some of the region as peaceful as it might be. perhaps one of the most prominent parties that was slated to compete and provide the regional government with the stiffest challenge of the poles. the o n ls itself has something like over a dozen of its members detained and currently incarcerated. so they have been unable to truly express and take part in their own you know, what are the democratic rights rights that are supposed to be enshrined in the constitution? so even if polls were to go on schedule, it's unclear if they would have had any significant impact on what seems to be a projected regional government and ruling party victory their christ. i'm just looking at prime minister on twitter feed and he's he mentioned voting. he took

pictures of voting, but he's also in the last 12 hours so, so post date, images of, of a new bred factory talking about infrastructure as well. this is, these are all the issues, the other issues that are not resonating internationally, but are they important within ethiopia? of course, for the international headlines they to grow, complet is making the news, but elsewhere around the country. what are the issues that people are concerned about when they're voting? what are you hearing? well at this point in time, you feel as facing numerous crisis above all the most dire of them is the the ongoing civil war, which is now in its 7th month in the northern region to gray. and it led to thousands of dying and something like 90 percent of the residents there needing emergency food assistance. however, the topic of to grey, the topic of the war,

there has been systemically excluded from not only any serious representation at the polls, but even from televised electoral debates that took place over the course of the past few months. the issue was brought up and as i said, that's the most troubling aspect. because far too many of the more prominent parties are featuring up the elections. do not shy away greatly from the ruling party in terms of ideology. and thus, there isn't too much in terms of an attempt to really challenge the, the government, and handle the security crisis that horizon alarm. thank you for being on the same day. we appreciate your insight now from you, if you appear to a global covey, very that on try to become the well to most dominant strain. he's thought to donita back to a physician in india showing how concerns if it does that many

44 to 70 percent most transmissible. then the 2nd, it causes a more severe disease with pile hospitalisation treats this can open the whole system of any country like a digital code. it is affecting most children as compared to the previous periods. i biggest concern to dissuade is, is that additionally same thing we do is i think division, we need to do the same for every individual at the shop. so i think the cdc needs to revise it all my policy are mostly in, relates to individuals as far as the gradient is concerned. now joining us from geneva. we have daughter maria van cocoa. she is a covered 1900 technical lead at the w h. o, a health emergency program, he's a right person to ask about a cobra 19 variance. i know that you've talked about this quite a bit and we're hearing about that quite a bit. this very and how would you describe it to the general public?

what is going on? things 1st of all, for having me on the show. this delta variant is a dangerous variance. the stars covey to virus and it's natural form. it's in its ancestral form. it's dangerous to begin with. and any variant that has mutations or a constellation of mutation that has increased christmas ability, that has the possibility of causing increased rates of hospitalization. we don't yet have any indication of increased severity, but increased transmission means that more people can be infected quicker. and if you have systems that are overwhelmed to begin with, and you have more cases that are coming, that are needing a hospital bed, your health care system which is already overburdened, is going to be even further overburden. and that can lead to more deaths that can lead to many more problems that societies are facing. so this is a dangerous virus to begin with. and a more transmissible one makes our control measures that much more challenging. and

that's what we're worried about. we're worried about 18 months into a pandemic. the world is exhausted. i'm exhausted, you're exhausting what it's like. we're running a marathon and a full sprint on uneven terrain, through a very dark tunnel. and now we have these twists and turns, and it's something that we expect because the more the virus circulates, the more it has a chance to mutate. so this is convergent evolution. this is what is expected. but this makes our job all of us because every single one of us around the world has a role to play that much harder. but we can still do this. we can still in this if it's a delta very, that means that way for variance that we know of all the others out there, dot maria that we should be concerned about. you said that this is a natural part of, of a virus. it's going to be more we might even run out to greek that who knows, we will, we will probably run out of the greek alphabet so we will have more letters that will be there. but keep in mind, these are there for variance of concern. the alpha beta gamma delta delta varied in

the one that's most concerning right now because it has even more, it's more transmissible than the alpha variant that be 117, we have 6 or 7 variance for the interest that we are tracking at the global level some of these variance of interest may become variance of concern, which means they have demonstrated increase the verity or trans miss ability. but some of them may fall off of our lift. we may follow them for some time and they may turn out to be not as i hate to use the word concerning because they're also turning. but we have a global system in place. this is what we want people to know about out there is that as the virus changes, we're working with scientists all over the world. all. and i mean all over the world, not just the high income countries, but high and low income countries to track the variance, to improve genetic sequencing. so that we have better eyes and ears about which mutations are out there. what is out there. and we have a system in place to assess these mutations. not all of them are important. some of them do not, you know, confer any fitness to the virus. and so that it,

it transmits more easily and some are quite detrimental to the virus itself and they die out. well, we have a global system in place to track them and then to inform our public health and social measures, our vaccines, our diagnostics, and the good news is our public health and social measures work at individual level measures. our i p. c measures our diagnostics work, our vaccines, work against even the delta variance, but we do need few people to get the full dose. and if your vaccine that you are offer gives you 2 doses get that 2nd dose. but we'd vac and around the world. we do not have vaccines reaching those who are most in need. less than one percent of low income countries have had people vaccinated, and that is just appalling. and so we're working on that through our kovacs partners to be able to increase that. but we need to vaccinate those who are most at risk, people of older age, people with underlying condition. and most importantly, our frontline workers,

people who are out there that are carrying for sick individuals putting themselves on the line. so there's a lot to do. the summary on youtube, one of the questions was how do you avoid the coverage del delta variant? and is that even possible to avoid it? well, there's a lot that you can do to keep yourself protected to one. if you're offered of axes, get vaccine when it's your turn, take your turn advocate for vaccine acas efficacy vaccine, excuse me, equity around the world. but know what your risk is every day the virus is circulating at an uneven rate around the world. some countries have controlled cobit with public health and social measures, even without vaccination. so know what your risk is every day, and take measures to lower your risk. avoid crowded spaces where a mask make sure it's over your nose and mouth. make sure has good filtration, make sure your hands are clean when you put it on and take it off. make sure you have good ventilation when you're indoors is as simple in some situations as opening a window to have good,

clean air. come in and out. take the steps that keep yourself safe, all of that works against the delta barion. we need to be conscious about what we do every day. and we, and our loved ones need to take steps to prevent us from getting infected, as well as if we are infected to pass the virus others. so it's surveillance is contact tracing and isolation, it's good, early clinical care. there's no reason why people need to be dying from cobra 19. we have tools right now that could prevent people who are infected from developing severe disease with good oxygen, medical grade oxygen with dex, the met the phone for people who are severe and critical for good clinical carry, good clinical care by trained, protected and respected health workers and so there's a lot that we do what we do for the regular, the industrial far as koby to virus. we need to do for the delta variance, and we need to be really vigilant about what we do. it's not over unfortunately, doesn't maria? i know you have a lot to do. we really appreciate you taking time off from your for your regular

job to talk to the world and to have a stream many. thank you very much. now can you imagine living with a brain injury that causes dizziness ringing in your ears and headaches, but no one believes you. more than 130 people suffer from what has been called the valid syndrome. it was 1st detected, 5 years ago by staff working the u. s. government in cuba based upon the evidence at hand. i think that we can conclusively state that those events that occurred about 2016 represent an intentional and directed attack against the personnel. over 2 questions remain. the 1st is what was the issue that was used to incur these effects and 2nd weather. this is now part of a larger program directed not only against united states, governmental personnel, but perhaps against the united states population at large. and later, both of these questions, i think it becomes apparent that what is needed is developing a program that seeks to mitigate these effects,

develop sense of preparedness and prevent future attacks of the sort and to share his experience with us. mark polymer. a palace is a retired c i a officer mark. i'm just going to ask you very pass the question straight off. what are your injuries, tell us where your head will be here? i think it's really important that you know, i get a chance to tell my story. you know, my injuries right now are, are a headache that hasn't gone away for 3 plus years. i mean, it's pretty extraordinary chronic pain. but i've developed ever since that 1st terrible incident in mach down december of 2017. but this is chronic pain. it never goes away. you know, it's a gunnery, it's also cause some, some mental health concerns for me. but boy, it's been a long journey and it's just, you know, 247 a headache never left up. what happened to mark? so i woke up, 1st of all, i was actually with a routine business trip. i was a senior intelligence officer. i was going to visit our m as in moscow,

and i also had scheduled meetings with russian government officials. you know, even though you know, religions might not be great between the us and russia, just like in the cold war between us and the soviet union, we still talk to each other important and adversary open. but i woke up in the middle, the night early on in the trip with an incredible sense of vertigo. the room was spinning. i had been in iraq, afghanistan, i shot my life has been at risk all over the world. this was part of the most terrifying experience in my life because i really had no control over what was happening to me today. you told me your superiors that you were in pain. what did you think had happened? did you, did you immediate thing? ok, this is some kind of espionage that is happening to me. well, it's a great question because my 1st inclination was, well maybe maybe i was, you know, i had some kind of food poisoning. something was really wrong and it tends vertigo, was when you can't stand up. and i felt like i was going to be the room was

spinning. the problem that kept get, kept going on. and by the time you made it back to the state and then you know, into early 2018. no, i start developing more health health problems, which were things like, you know, brain fog and i lost the ability to drive. i lost my long distance vision, so i did go to the medical staff because clearly something really bad. it happened . we just didn't know what it was and you know, my, i didn't think of what did happen to my colleagues of havana back in. and so i was initially screened for that, but now the doctors of the time did not believe i looked like them. so essentially they dismissed me and then became a flight for not just you, but several of your colleagues, other people impacted by, by whatever it was that was making you sick. this true backing brain injury for it to be recognized that it wasn't, it was in your head, but it wasn't a mental illness. it was something genuinely going on. why did it take so long? so this huge question because there's 2 things that happen when someone get injured

. of course you want to find out what, what happened, what occurred. so in the us government was certainly curious on what happened, but the bottom line is i and others were sick. and so this was just kind of basic leadership is that when, when employees who, you know, you have responsibility for get l it, they have to get health care. and, and for me it was almost a betrayal because when i was a officer for 26 years, i had done a lot of unusual things. but i always did so knowing that the leadership would have my back if i ever got jammed up, the bible was with injure and they didn't. and so that you know, that was a really bitter pill this while. and so, you know, i really asked for health care for quite a long time and then ultimately in october of 2020 i just had to go public, which is really an incredible moment for me. i mean, i've lived in the shadows for so long, but i needed to get to a place called what the reason, national intrepid center of excellence, the world, one of the world leading to guy programs i had at the agency for months to be there . they refused,

so i finally went public and i didn't put enough pressure on them to, to send me to walter reed, where i went, i spent about a month between january, february this year and there for my brain injury program. so i need to say that you are the author of a new book, co clarity in crisis leadership lessons from a cia. i'm wondering if, if it's right now is a crisis situation for the c i a because what you're describing isn't it basically a weapon? sure. so, so i think that, you know, obviously this is high in the importance of what, you know, not only both the u. s. government has to tackle because as you sent me in production, it's been over a 130 officials who have reported symptoms. and so this is, this is something insidious is going on and putting, putting people at risk, their family risk overseas. and people are questioning whether they should they should really serve abroad because this is such, such a strange occurrence, which is what is going on. but there is some hope at the end, and i think it is a leadership story. i wrote my book or the cathartic experience to write

a book on leadership, ironically because the leadership did not really well. but there's a, there's some, some positive things on the horizon. the new director bill barnes is taking a new tack. i think he is a great leader. this is part of my passion. now what i talk about he is he has committed to helping me and others. he's committed to get to the bottom of this. and i think the new administration has turned the corner, but there is a way to go. and, and once again, i think, you know, for, i have had this incredible journey from tells us all through the shadows to almost they help your advocate now. you know, that's part of my reality now. and i can break that. and i know i really just want to see, you know, my colleagues who are been injured get better. not the probably, somewhere, somewhere in the well his watching this interview and i'm bring delighted that you're not going to annual pain because whatever they did, it worked. and it's working, what's your message? oh boy, you know, look, i see a officer i spent

a lot of times it's really tough places. i think there's a long list of enemies i had, you know, interestingly enough, and this is just kind of i think a lot of a lot of us feel, you know, we have our adversaries in the world. and so, so you know, whether it was, you know, everything from al qaeda to the talib on his ball and the list goes on. i know i did a lot of work in the field. i actually, you know, while, while i do want to find out of course, who is responsible for that and my inclination and i think others is that the russian government is responsible. you know, i have a kind of a different view of this because ultimately i became more upset and more disillusion that my own government was not given me and others health care. and so i work in the national security field. i know we have enemies, but i didn't expect that you know, those the senior levels of the various medical department that would actually deny health care of us who really were injured. and so that, that was a moral injury that i think a lot of us suffer while we're at the end of the program. we wish you the very best and swift recovery. hopefully,

thank you to everyone who joined us on youtube. thanks to i guess as well. let me just remind you where they are on the, on the twitter, we have mark, we have dr. maria and zacharias. thanks for watching. phoenix i ah use go from one to home was kept, was what rooms were made? it turned into a nightmare of a rest in georgia by johnson footballing legend, eric tend to introduce his cloud, your temporary,

one of the special views that up for their beliefs, whatever that cost. football rebels on al jazeera, the latest news as it breaks, a significant number of the 32 attacks carried out in the quarter of 2021 happened in nigeria civic toys walk as with detail coverage. president biden was fund policy is the buying close allies and partners, and then with the united position deal with problems from around the world. the government says they are aiming 70 percent of the population by the end of the year . across the world, young activists and organizers around them are motivated and politically engaged. we were the one for life on what was going on. and the way that most means to me did the generation change is al jazeera is looking at fresh ideas for the transformation of global politics. the day we do the work of making sure that our

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story. we are your voice. you knew your neck out here. ah, this is al jazeera. ah, hello, i'm patterson. this is the news. our life from joe hop coming out of the next 60 minutes around the president elect makes his 1st address to the nation. as to hon accuses the us of interfering and fridays presidential election year and expresses concerns about security. and i've got to stand as a taliban makes the military gain the head of september's withdrawal of.