me, do you want to help save the world? needs into your own. ah, ah, this is al jazeera ah, unwelcome mind, pete, adobe. you are watching the news out live from coming up in the next 60 minutes. the omicron variance of corona virus spreads to more countries and drives a rec, court number of infections in south africa. i'm somebody the miller at the vaccination say in jo hannah's but as the south african government is trying to drive up the vaccination amidst a 4th wave of covert 19 growing concerns around the economy area and

a new chapter in the can be as democratic transition, nearly a 1000000 people vote in the 1st presidential election since the former leader young jam a left office. the french president emanuel maxine says, a joint e u diplomatic mission is being considered enough canister on the rules out political recognition of the taliban. and a warning about a water emergency in garza with the lives of millions of palestinians, especially children at risk. and i'm far as small with this for me. why, from our fee for our cub studio. and it's far more for morocco as they keep up there. hot, boring fruit tree again. jordan increase be ah

me crohn's, it's a word we all her probably for the 1st time just over a week ago, but it's been dominating discussions of government leaders and scientists all over the world. it will take weeks to find out more about this new heavily mutated cobit 19 very, and its effects on people and existing vaccines. but we do know that army kron is spreading fast. the strain was discovered by south can. scientists in the 1st case was identified in neighboring botswana. zambia is the latest country on the continent to detect it has been found in at least $41.00 other countries and territories, including the us, mexico and canada. in europe, belgium, the netherlands, and germany with some of the 1st nations to report cases of the new strain. it's also been detected in the gulf in countries such as saudi arabia and the united arab emirates, as well as parts of asia, india, singapore, and malaysia are some of the countries to report cases of micron. the variance has

also been detected in other south eastern and east asian countries and further away in australia, 13 cases of micron have been found there and more are being investigated. the world health organization says no death of a crime had been reported so far. and vaccines continue to offer protection against the variant, but in south africa, on the chrome, as well as the delta variance is fueling a 4th wave, and the government is scaling up its vaccination campaign to meet mila has more for us now. from johannesburg. stay has been somewhat of an uptake in terms of the number of people coming out to get vaccinated. it's quite clear that the detection of the new army con variant has spoke people at least to some degree. those who might have been hesitant, or perhaps those who were unsure of the safety of vaccines. currently, we only have about 42 percent of those people in south africa who are eligible for a vaccine taken up at least one job. but that number drops all the way to 25

percent. people who've received both jobs so far. but i'm, we're bringing a brain. we're tal. i, he is one of the organizers of this specific vaccine center in johannesburg. a brain we, we've seen more people coming out to get vaccinated or what has the turn out been at the center or 2 that have been quite encouraging the turn out. so we have, are opened the site last week, saturday and, and, and, and to speak saturday as well. and was in a steady optic in the number of people coming in for vaccination towards the end of october, the number of people coming in that was tapering off. so we decided in november to close the vaccine center and reopen it in january. because i think there was a sir. level of infection were very low, and i think it was a general level of equity towards vaccinations. but since the onset of the fought way, you've seen a nice optic in the number of people that want to come either to complete the 2nd shock of the pfizer vaccine, or those that haven't been vaccinated to come and take at least one shot of the of the vaccination,

are you seeing an increase in the number of young people coming out because the government has said that figures are showing that children under 5 are especially vulnerable. they, though aren't able to get a vaccine in south africa at this point. it's only children over 12. have you seen more families coming out and more children wanting to get vaccinated? yes, certainly. so last week, saturday and this week we've seen a number of students 12 to 17 since it was open to to that age group a month or so ago that has come in now for, for the vaccinations coming in with the parents coming in as families. so there has been that we have seen an optical, a number of infected, a kids at the surrounding schools over years where i think parents, i exercise in caution and those were a little reluctant or uncertain. nothing are now encouraging. there's the, the 12217 still coming for the vaccinations now to europe, where despite concerns about a micron and a large number of infections caused by the delta various, some are resisting restrictions imposed by their governments. in the netherlands, hundreds marched to show their anger against the rules limiting opening times of

shops, restaurants, and sporting venues, the spiking cases during the winter months. the outgoing german chancellor, anglo merkel making a final appeal before leaving office for people to go and get vaccinated. more than 64000 cases were reported there on saturday. one percent of germany's population currently has cobit 19 life now to bureau in london and our correspondence following the european angle of things today. first on the news, rory challenge. so roy, this kind of push back against vaccine mandates. it's not just continuing, it feels like it's building almost well, i think if you're looking at the protest that took place in the netherlands today, nothing like the kind of scenes that we saw or a couple of weeks ago when protests against plans to bring in a sense of a vaccine passport system, restricting the use of many businesses to those who are on vaccinated. that brought

some very high temperature protestors out on the streets. we saw brian saying essentially going on in parts of the country. by contrast, today's demonstration, a few 1000 people. edu tract, much lower key and much more peaceful sat and they bought the anger is still there and essentially it's against what many people in the netherlands and across other parts of the european continent as well. feel our governments bringing in measures that are not democratic, not constitutional, and essentially against their freedoms that they expect to have a citizens of, of the european union. and that's what's going on in the netherlands at the moment . it's, i think happening in other parts of the continent to, within demonstrations, in austria as well, expecting some in spain. later in the day, i say that these are probably minority perspectives. and that's

a most of these countries. many people feel that these are still necessary measures that need to be taken to bring the pandemic under control to get the sense that where you are, rory, that for ordinary people who live through the past almost 2 years now. a corona virus, we've all almost reached kind of saturation points. we can't absorb any more. we can't live with restrictions and there is a distinct feeling, i guess of. no, we've just got to get on with life, bring it on. we'll deal with it. we'll deal with it at some point down the road, perhaps. if it gets us, even if it doesn't gets us. but you cannot take us back to lockdown. you can't shut the restaurants, the pubs, the gyms, the cinema, the theaters, all the stuff that people last for so many months. yeah, i think there's a, there's a degree in which many, many people are just fed up with all thing. and as he say, there is the perspective amongst some that this is just a situation that is

a reality now. and he's got to put up with it and move on in the best way that you can. i think that's the perspective in the united kingdom. it's certainly the perspective from the government, which is very low to bring back the kind of restrictions that we saw earlier on in the pandemic. in other parts of the continent though, while you are seeing a move back towards proper lock downs. again, austria has brought in a proper lockdown, and germany is bringing in measures which are certainly heading in that direction with seeing stretches being brought in now, which are are going to prevent the use of various businesses from people who are on vaccinated and possibly we're heading towards mandatory vaccinations, anglo merkel in the last of her podcast that she has given 660. she's done by the way, over the course of her leadership of germany. the last of hers before she hands over to show the new incoming transfer. she,

germans to go out and get vaccinated. she said, take this malicious virus seriously. she went on, we are in a very serious situation in some parts of the country can only describe it as dramatic over filled, intensive care units, severely ill. people, you have to be flying across germany to get the care they need get yourself vaccinated. she adds, it doesn't matter if it's a shot or a booster. every vaccine helps germany, of course, is in the midst of its 4th wave of this pandemic omicron coming over the horizon. i think there's a big fear in germany that things are going to get worse before they get better. rory, thank you very much for a challenge. the correspondence in london, what like germany, australia to is facing resistance from a section of people who do not want to get vaccinated. the people were protesting encounter rallies, both for and against cobra. vaccines. with demonstrations happened as a cluster of a new army cron variant was detected there it is likely spread is threatening

government plans to get the economy moving after lockdown. gillian wolf picks up the story, the calling for their freedom in melbourne. large clusters of people on the streets of one of the shrilly is biggest cities waving the flags of many countries. demonstrators who now call us truly a home demand, a reopening of their communities, but oppose a mandatory vaccine. i was teaching for 30, and vaccination was always a voluntary thing for parents and kids to make it compulsory teams. the kids we have to just learn to live with this and get on things like conscious locking us down. just because it's a new very angelo must be in your areas, you're going to realize is the freedom joseph social responsibility really, which largely clues of borders when the corona virus panoramic began is now dealing with an outbreak of the omi chrome barrier and the new emergency is further testing

government efforts to boost the economy, following covey locked down. i expect us to see the spread community spread within australia and other parts of the world, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing because it will give us a lot of opportunity to, to understand how this various works in highly vaccinated countries. in the state of victoria were full vaccination has become mandatory to access most things. it is the and vaccinated who make up the majority of people in hospital with cove id. but most of the trillions are in support of vaccine jobs. with nearly 90 percent of everyone over 16 being fully vaccinated at the moment there's lots of anger after this covert crisis and i think it's being directed at the wrong aside. we're seeing, you know, health care workers being intox. ah, you know, books up workers and it's really important. i think that we say actually the majority of us did support these healthy fixes that saved millions of people's

lives. and the majority of us actually do stand in social solidarity with each other. oh, for a country whose coven rates pale in comparison to other developed nations. for these australians, the time to return to normal is long overdue. gillian wolf, al jazeera bank to europe in greece, the government facing a misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. there infections there are rising and rising fast. the government has made it mandatory for those over the age of 60 john saragossa. his reports now from fella nikki, in northern greece, in the fight against covey. 19, this is the government's expeditionary force. bobo vaccination squads of founding out to villagers across northern greece, where infections and misinformation run high. at the village of mon, the las maria cook too, is getting her 1st shot. she works at

a local fruit canning factory with $250.00 people, some of whom refused to be vaccinated. another, i guess they didn't want to do it because of what they heard about a micro chip been put inside you that controls you. that was the main reason. others think the vaccine is a financial hoax or that of yeah, yeah, and i value when a new vaccine comes out the experiment for 10 years and then put it into production . that's how it usually happens. as soon as this pandemic happened, they produced a vaccine, so the multi nationals could sell it, or am i lying? most don't believe such theories. in fact, at motherless, there aren't enough jobs to go round to brought to florida university. the 1st time they brought 40 shots on this time. they brought 37, but we expect more did him. since october daily infections have tripled to about $6000.00 and daily deaths to about 90 government statistics show that 90 percent of these deaths are among the unvaccinated to reduce deaths. authorities are trying to

increase vaccinations. the meter is telecom use. the regional health director is pairing up with mayor's priests and even football teams to ensure a good turn out for his vaccination vans and dispel myths surrounding the vaccine. williams, with a lot of a lot of people, came to the village square just to see what other people's vaccination would be like, because they had heard that you might get dizzy or fall over. but the government is using the stick as well as the carrot, starting in january unvaccinated people over 60 will pay a monthly fine of a $120.00. the 1st such penalty in europe. the government's concern for all their cove and sufferers stems from the fact that they are the most vulnerable to the disease. people $65.00 and over, make up just 12 percent of coven cases and grease. but also half of all hospitalizations and 83 percent of deaths, the unvaccinated are being punished in other ways to their band from indoor

restaurants, bars, theaters, and jims, and have to present a 48 hour rapid test to enter banks, government buildings and non essential shops, the idea is to preserve an open economy for the 62 percent of the population that is fully vaccinated. there's been a fourfold surgeon vaccination bookings. the hope is that greece will quickly close the vaccination gap with the rest of europe. jumps are opal us al jazeera felony, g. lots more still to come for you here on the news are including turkey announcing plans to come spiraling inflation. but will they work at a serious contender for the knockouts that the u. m. m a action and much more coming up in sports with awe. in just under 2 hours from now, the polls will close and can be as closely can text contested presidential election

. it is the 1st election since ja jeremy was as did in 2016 after 22 years in office. the incumbents adam a borrow, is seeking re election despite promising to step down after 3 years, he faces opposition from the former vice president st. dubbo initial results are expected on sunday whether interests has more for us from been jewel. the key feature of this election i in the numbers a record number of presidential candidate fix in total, including the incumbent as well as the number of voters turning up for the election . 6960000 people have registered to participate in this election here in columbia and observe us believe that most of them will turn out to vote. and we've been seeing that since the morning hours with practitioners at this number as the day progresses. what is being used here in the gambia is the model system of voting. the movement of water from caea. they will be validate validated by the election

official sitting right over there and then the pot to representative will be watching closely. what's happening on ink when you're clear on your fingers are dipped into an indelible ink. and then the voter comes to this lady here who very fives and then issues a balance. in fact, they are not using balance paper, they are using the model. this is called the model which they voter would be given, can use that. and then the voter will go inside that room to cast that balance into one of the 6 boxes prepared for the election. now that makes the sound that sound signifies that the board has cast or how own balance. however, the election commission is telling us that this could be the last time this system will be in place simply because the number of voters is increasing and the number

of candidates are increasing. each of the ballot boxes that is painted in a different color with a photograph of the contestants labeled on that. and because you see more people coming out to stand for election, that means that it's falling station. they should be that the call number of boxes, which is more expensive according to the election commission. so they thinking of reverting to the global system was issued to a voter and then they go in that capital balance. the result of this election is expected to be within 24 hours. in fact, after the close of security forces and molly had been sent to the scene of an ambush which killed at least that he won people on friday. women and children were on board a truck which gunman sprayed with bullets and then set on fire near the town of multi leaders of the transitional government of having to do everything necessary to catch the attackers in the rest of hell. region where attacks linked to iso and

i'll keita are common. the french president says efforts are underway to open a joint european mission in the afghan capital cobble during the visit to castle emanuel mack long. so the plan would allow several european ambassadors to share a building when they return to cobble micro. also thank catherine for his role in helping evacuate afghans during the takeover by the taliban. the show will be here today or representation of canister is being done by our investors from paris. but we are thinking of an organization as you know, among several european countries. and so our approach would be in conditions that have yet to be identified with the idea of having a common location for several european. so where are investors and our administrators could be present? let me remind you, this is a different demarche from a political recognition or political dialogue with the taliban. our correspond rob mcbride has more for us now from couple. we are still waiting for a response from the taliban administration here, but given the deteriorating situation,

i think they would welcome any kind of diplomatic moves that would help them out at the, at the current time. it's not just recognition for recognition sake, but of course, what that would mean in allowing afghanistan to get the release of these funds that have been frozen to get access to financing really to help out at what is a deteriorating economic situation. i mean, we had a few days ago, this announcement that the world bank, for example, was pushing for hundreds of millions of dollars to finally be freed up to be sent to afghanistan to help out the situation here. but given the situation in dire predictions about the deteriorating humanitarian and economic situations, as we get into winter, really a lot more needs to be done. it does fall short of recognition people here. and i've got this done, understand that i think what is interesting is that as a member of the, your opinion, france seems to be not acting just on its own, but could well in setting up an office. here i bring other european nations with it,

which is that they got a people here excited that they could lead to a wider, wider diplomatic efforts from more european union countries. coinciding with this announcement, there was also been the arrival of 40 a 1000040 tons of aid from, from france. also, this comes after there has been all sorts of help from the taliban administration. or allowing at least the evacuation of up to 100 french national, some 400 afghans who had linked with the french and military continued here over over the years. so they don't seem to be all sorts of dealings going onto the background that we are not privy to. hope would be from the taliban perspective, that all of these gestures from it. it's part. 1 when it comes to these evacuation flights might lead potentially to a wider diplomatic overtures from more western countries. ok, let's bring in julie norman now. she's a lecturer in politics and international relations at u. c. l. if you join us on

skype from london to norman, then not officially recognizing the taliban. but if the french a driving setting up a mission, they going to be working with the taliban? that's a given. so what's the difference between working with the taliban and not recognizing the taliban? we hear from france and the you is really trying to thread the needle between giving the taliban that the gym is see that comes with recognition and having some kind of on the ground presence to deal with most specifically the humanitarian situation, which is deteriorate and quite rapidly, the you see this as being somewhat necessary in the short term for 1st of august or voting or military and crisis, but also for the long term for avoiding a failed state. and from avoiding other states, such as china, russia, ron, getting, getting a foothold, it's difficult, but it's not unprecedented. it's important to note russia, china, or other states have also maintained diplomatic presence. isn't there embassies

without formally recognized in the taliban? so it's tricky, but it's not something that hasn't been done before, and it's something that we see different states doing while they try and engage pragmatically on the ground. ok, the key word there, i guess, is pragmatically. so this is pragmatic engagement notion to put words into your mouth. does this represent step change and does it take? not the taliban, but the people of afghanistan, one step closer to getting access to the money to the funding that the un secretary general was talking about 68 weeks ago when he was saying, look, you can set up some sort of trust funds. so we're not giving the taliban money, we're giving the country money to get them through the crucially difficult winter months with that's right. and that's what the you and also next week the world bank is going to be looking to do to see how can some of these funds get to the 40000000 account civilians without going directly to the taliban. so some of those funds are expected to be released in about a week. and again,

these movement towards potentially having some kind of mission word to suggest steps in that direction as well. the important to note this comment from chrome came after last week, you conducted talks with members of the taliban, about this idea, because of the planetarium situation. so this is where the focus certainly is. monsieur macro likes to leave his fingerprints as an international list on various locations around the world. you know, 34 or 5 months ago he flew into one of the one or 2 of the african countries, made a speech of the former colonial power then left and apologize. that was kind of acceptable to most people. maybe not old people, but in the context of what's going on here and, and get this done. why him and what do the french get out of this? well, we're seeing a crow and taking a leadership role on this for the e. u. and in some ways, this is stepping into way, something of that sort of vacuum left by the united states with the us not really being on the humanitarian side of this, from a crone is trying to take

a leadership position, especially with germany going under a leadership change right now, and we're chrome trying to, to brain france really as the leader in the you for leading on humanitarian issues . in particular, mccall also has an interest in security in the region as well. when reason he was in carter in the gulf this week was to find a security deal with the u, a. e. so for friends, there are security as well as communitarian concerns behind the scenes that are prompting some of the engagement. okay, we must leave it there. julie, thank you so much, william and talking to us from u. c. l in london. then mr. macro is in saudi arabia right now for talks with the crown prince. mom had been cell mom, these pictures coming to us life miss, you. macros says the visit is vital for dealing with multiple crises facing the middle east, but human rights groups of criticize the trip. it comes 3 years after the saudi journalist jamal herschel, she was murdered and dismembered inside the saudi consulate. in istanbul, us intelligence says the killing was approved by the crime prince. mom had been

selma still to come here on the news are for you, the u. s. president issues a stern warning to russia as moscow continues to build up troops on the border with ukraine. sport, one of the world's most recognizable music stars gets a closer look at catalogues will come from regions details later on. here on the means. ah hello, there will have a look at africa in a moment, but 1st to the middle east, and we're seeing some very unsettled conditions across the mediterranean, thanks to a weather system. that's bringing some really wet to and windy weather to parts of turkey, pushing into cyprus, and it'll move into lebanon. so we'll have showers in syria on sunday. is going to monday. that's going to move across iraq and is gonna turn rather wintry across

northern areas of iran as we go into next week. but further south, it is looking largely fine dry and settled. a change in the wind is going to drop the temperature slightly in places like doha, but it is looking largely fine and drive it further west was seen, a shower was pick up around coastal areas of the red sea. and as we hop across to northern areas of africa is gonna get very wet indeed for coastal areas of algeria to new zia. look what happens on monday. we'll have some of those strong winds blowing into libya as well as egypt and temperatures. here are slightly below the average for this time of year. now as we had to southern africa, we've got some storms pulling into tanza, near weather, weather as well stretching all the way from angola across southern botswana and on to south africa. so it's going to be a rather wet and windy start to the week for johannesburg, but the sunshine will be coming back through for cape town this week. that's the weather update. ah,

as a kenyan, i watched these scenes with horror as a kenyan some money. i feared the backlash ethnic somalis had long been the target of intimidation and persecution. in kenya, almost every woman was it. mohammed a dow travels through his homeland to reveal have his people and family have been subjected to years of brutal discrimination. just typical of the way. ready we are treated in a country recall our own al jazeera correspondence. can you hear it? anticipation these rising. excitement is growing. as cattle a ways brings your favorite teen to cut off for the fee for arab comp 2021. brightness is in the air, light sore is juan, and to reach new heights. join us in cattle from november, the 30th to december. the 18th booked the old package. now at canton a ways dot com.

ah ah, welcome back. it's exactly half past the hour. these are the top stories here on the news. our south africa has confirmed more than 16000 corona virus infections in the last 24 hours. health officials, the roach and people to get vaccinated the army cranberry, and has now been detected in 41 countries. the cambia is holding its 1st presidential election since young are jamie, was ousted in 2017. adam barrow is running for reelection. despite a promise to step down. after 3 years, the french president says efforts are underway to open a joint european mission on the afghan capital cobble during a visit to cattle emanuel. michael said the plan would.