ah ah, ah pulls close in the can be as presidential election where votes is osher in a new chapter in the countries democratic transition. ah! blow welcome on pete. adobe. you're watching all to see are alive from our headquarters here. and there are also coming up lebanon and saudi arabia take the 1st step towards resolving a diplomatic dispute with mediation by the french president is ready forces shoot and kill a palestinian man after he allegedly tried to stab in his railey and the army cron

variance of corona virus spreads to more countries and drives a record number of infections in south africa. ah, the poles have just officially closed in the can be as closely contested presidential election. it's the 1st election since yard jamie was ousted in 2016 after 22 years in office. the incumbent, adam barrow is seeking reelection, despite a promise to step down. after 3 years. he faces opposition from the former vice president was in idaho. initial results are expected on sunday at gmail address, joins us live now from been jewel, the capital, all the gambia. so asked me what was at stake in this election basically the presidency and of course we control our and to decide which way it

can be. we'll head in the next 5 years. so like you said in your, into, in the introduction the incumbent is running against 5. are the candidates among them? of course, 2 of the main architects of the coalition that brought him to power and chase th, i'm out of power in 2016 now these candidates are challenging him for the presidency. and it looks like a tie threats for the moment. however, what you seeing in the background is that the final, the last voters i've cast their ballots. now what the game has been using for more than half a century is a unique system of voting. where marbles dropped into a metal box that has a bell. and a moment the, the, the model lans inside the box, it makes a sound to the hearing of the voter election, official security, as well as part of features that has and in many parts of the can be because voting

started on time in almost all the polling centers across the country, i'll go there why incidences of where some of the ballot boxes don't ex, about not wide enough to accept the models. all the crystals that i put inside the must bottle boxes. what people voting on. the ordinary election type is use over the voting on the personalities of the can be in the can be as politicians apart from personality ethnicity also plays a significant role in this election. we've seen that happening during the electioneering campaign where these issues propped up and a lot of concerns expressed before a prior to the elections that this could result into some chemistry speaking supporters of the various presidential candidates. now that has not happened, and with the selections reported as peaceful across the country, people are watching closely to see what happens after the elections after the votes

must have been counted. the vote. charlene will start shortly when these falling officers count all the ballots cost for each candidate. remember, there are 6 candidates running in this election and each one has its own ballot box which is made out. busy in their own colors, without photographs on those are on top of those boxes not to what will guide the voters. so these boxes will be emptied and counted by the office in the presence of security officers, as well as 2 representatives. when this volt counted, they'll be taken to autonomy center where they will be correlated and when the what the result from all parts of guns have been recorded. but just when the independent electric commission will announce the result and say, who exactly is the way, but people are watching closely to see what happens after that announcement is met us, man, thank you very much. shocked me addressed their report in my 1st from banjo. it's a phone call that's been hailed as an important 1st step towards restoring ties

between lebanon and saudi arabia. and the last our, we've learned that the crown prince, mom had been cell man, lebanon's prime minister, and the french president have spoken to each other. is the 1st such communications in riyadh of the gulf. countries and lebanon had been locked into a diplomatic spirits, monsieur macross, in saudi arabia, as part of a gulf 2 on friday, lebanon's information minister, resigned over comments he made about the war in yemen, in the hall to join us live now from barrett. susanna is this the 1st step to releasing the finance the money that lebanon needs so badly? well, not yet. this may be the 1st step to reverse a decision by saudi arabia and several gulf arab states to sever diplomatic relations and imposed a ban on all imports from 11 on releasing money is something else the international community, as a whole, has refrain from bailing love and from its worst economic crisis and decades until

the politicians, the political class, which has been governing the country for decades, carry out much needed of reform, structural reforms, and find corruption. but what has happened and stuff? a new page has been opened in the relationship between 11 on and saudi arabia. you mentioned that phone call for the 1st time, a saudi official speaking to the prime minister. as you may ask since his appointment in september saudi arabia, you know, it's policy was we do not see any usefulness in engaging with a government which is controlled by the iranian back. has bella and its allies. now holding the phone conversation with me, asking me asking himself tweeting, saying that this is a significant development, a 1st step in improving improving relations. really the latest crisis, which was triggered by comments made by the information minister about the war in yemen, calling it to saudi question. it's not the whole story. a relationship has been

strained for years because of what saudi arabia perceives as iran's control over 11 a politics. do you get the sense where you as a monsieur macro essentially was kind of pushing as an open door when it comes to his relationship here with the saudis. if we view that relationship through the prism of what's going on in lebanon, but on the one hand, that's maybe what he's done. but on the other hand, he has been trying now for a year to stop lebanese politicians squabbling not with very much success. it should be said exactly for 13 months there was political paralysis in this country . politicians were not able to agree on a new covenant. they agreed on a new covenant last september. but weeks later, it was paralyzed the guess again by another political crisis. and this time, it was over the judge investigating that. a report explosion has bulletins, allied, refusing to attend cabinet sessions until he is he is removed. but at the end of

the day, every one here would tell you that mach wrong managed to, you know, in one way or another, bring the politicians together to perform the government with the help of yvonne. so this government really a seem as one that was created by the french and the iranians. and the saudis felt that they were left out. what mccall needs to do is pull the gulf in because they need money. you're going to need money to be a lever, not out. you're going to need money to get this back country back on its feet. it's something that gulf arab states are refusing to give us using to bail out as long as politicians do not fight corruption. and as long as they see this country move away from the traditional relationship and has, has, we've got our states towards iran, xena. thank you so much and they're talking to us from bay. we will talk to you later in the news as in a thank you. well, earlier today during the visit to kathy french presidents, that efforts were on the way to open a joint e, you mission and the afghan capital monsieur microns. that the plan would allow

several european ambassadors to share a building when they return to cobble. he also think castle for its role in helping evacuate afghans during the takeover by the taliban. put on the show will do you today or representation of canister has been 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. the army kron variance of corona virus is fueling a 4th wave in south africa. the government is urging everyone to get vaccinated to prevent that spread. to me, the 1000000 out from john is back. this is one of the few 100 vaccination centers in the housing province in south africa. how ting has been hard to hit by the rise in covert 19 infections between 70 and 80 percent of new infections across all the

africa in this province alone. and that is why authorities are saying that people need to get out and get vaccinated. that has been some level of vaccine hesitancy, about 42 percent of people who are eligible for a vaccine have actually taken that up. but that number drops to about 56 percent for people who have taken up 2 doses, who are fully vaccinated. the government has set up a number of drives, door to door awareness campaigns, trying to create awareness around why the vaccine is important, especially because so little is known around the army of variance. and the greatest concern is just how easily it spreads, and that is being reflected in the spike in numbers that south africa is experiencing. one area of concern, while hospitalizations of people has remained relatively low, a number of young children under the age of 5, having to be admitted to hospital,

now becoming ill off the contracting coven. 19 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 their families. so there has been that we have to end up taking a number of infected kids at the surrounding schools over the years. so i think parents, i exercising caution a week ago this vaccination center had about 50 or 60 people coming through every day. and now that number has doubled. so that is encouraging for people trying to make sure that all the africans i get vaccinated. but we've also been to several vaccination centers in this province, some entirely empty, some with people trickling through and others more busy. so there's still an issue around vaccine hesitancy, but certainly a significant proportion of the south african population has been spooked by this new ami called of variance. and more people are coming out to get

a job in europe. despite concerns about ami crone and a large number of infections caused by the delta of air in some resisting restrictions imposed by their governments in the netherlands, hundreds marched to show their anger against new, limiting opening times to shops, restaurants, and sporting venues. the spike in cases during the winter months has the outgoing german chancellor anglo merkel making a final appeal before leaving office for people to go and get the vaccine ball than 64000 cases were reported there on saturday. one percent of the german population currently has koby 19 re challenge is following those developments from london thing if you're looking at the protest that took place in the netherlands to day. 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 the kind of vaccine passport system restricting the use of many businesses to those who are on vaccinated. that brought some very high

temperature protestors out onto the streets. we saw rising, essentially going on in parts of the country. by contrast, today of demonstration, a few 1000 people. edu tract, much lower key and much more peaceful certain dates. but 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 constitution, and essentially against their freedoms that they expect to have a citizens 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'd say that these are probably minority perspectives. and that say,

most of these countries, many people feel that these are still necessary measures that need to be taken to bring the pandemic on the control. now on the other side of the world, south korea, it's the delta strain that's causing a record number of virus infections and death there more than 5300 new cases being reported on saturday, a records 70 patients died and more than 750 people are in critical condition in hospital. the cook islands has reported its 1st f a case of coven 19 a 10 year old boys in quarantine with the virus that is believed to have flown in from new zealand. the pacific harlan nation has a vaccination rates of 96 percent. it shot its international borders completely to keep cobit 19 out. still to come here on al jazeera, the u. s. president is hugely stern wanting to russia. moscow continues to build up troops along the border with crane.

ah how low they 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, a turkey pushing into cypress, and it'll move into lebanon. so we'll have showers in syria on sunday as we go into monday. that's going to move across iraq and is gonna turn rob a wintry across northern areas of iran as we go into next week. but for the south, it is looking largely fine dry and settled. a change in the wind is going to drop the temperature slightly in places like dough ha, but it is looking largely fine and dry. but further west was seen the showers pickup around coastal areas of the red sea. and as we hope across to northern areas of africa is going to 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 was we had to southern africa, we've got some storms pulling into tanzania, 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 she weather update. ah, ah mother nature's gift of colorful landscapes. a strong infrastructure governance arising where investments are waiting to flourish. where greed, tv, even supplied by tradition. doing

where beautiful possibilities are offered. lou, a watching al jazeera reminder of our top stories this half hour. the polls have closed and again be as closely contested presidential election at m. a barrow is facing a tough challenge for reelection in the 1st boat since young jamie was interested in 2016. the french president to manual microns in saudi arabia, where he's an amazon and shift to help sold the rift between the kingdom and lebanon. on friday, lebanon's information minister resigned, hoping to fix the diplomatic disputes with saudi arabia. the comments he made about

the war in yemen. south africa has confirmed more than 16000 corona virus infections in the past 24 hours. health officials urging people to get vaccinated. the only chron baron has not been detected in 41 countries. u. s. president joe biden will hold a video cole with the russian lead of vladimir putin on tuesday. that's just been confirmed in the past few hours by the kremlin ukraine is likely to dominate those talks. washington has warned, it is prepared to take action against moscow. if it invades ukraine, the number of russian troops has been rising along the border on friday. joe biden was asked about the crisis by a reporter i with,

from moscow, he has been at smith. russia one's legally binding guarantee guarantees that nato will not expand eastwards allow ukraine to accede, allow ukraine to join, nor will misses, be placed on ukrainian territory that could be pointed towards russia. russia's issue its concern. its problem is that after the end of the collapse of the soviet union, most eastern european countries joined nato for their own while they saw their own defensive purposes and needs. russia sees that is a problem and a threat. the problem for russia is that it's not up to valuing putin to decide who does or does not join nato. it's up to nato member countries that said,

ukraine's application for membership. the nate has been on the table since 2008. so there isn't any great rush to allow it to join may be one of the reasons being that when one nato member is attacked, it's john to says that others must come to its defense. there is no desire amongst the nato member countries for a full on military confrontation with russia. when that both leaders 1st met together as president back in the summer. that's the summit followed again a troop build up along the border with ukraine. and not summit managed to calm things down, but yes, the bottom ministration says it once a stable and predictable relationship with russia that sort of best it can hope for a while. the sand off in easton, ukraine is making life increasingly difficult for people to receive basic services . as child stratford reports trips that used to take less than one hour can now

take an entire day or even longer. please stand in the cold waiting for instructions from a ukrainian soldier for this is one of only 2 places where people can cross the more than 400 kilometer front line in eastern ukraine. i think that's why i think we haven't been able to freely come and see our relatives and friends for more than 7 years. both sides make obstacles for us. i'm using my ukranian passport and they now say it's not enough for me to cross. i have to go on line. i've been trying for 3 days. many of the elderly and infirm came to the ukrainian government controlled side to collect their pensions, only around a $100.00 a month. the 1st separatist checkpoint is around 3 kilometers down this road. now before the conflict started in 2014 the journey chime from the town of dun misc to here was around 30 minutes. but now because of the complexities of traveling

across the separatist controlled region, many people decides to come via the russian border. and that can take more than a day. nikolai is a company, he's wife to separate his control don't answer. he can't find a nearby hospital and the government controlled side can carry out the life saving operation. he says she needs user research for more than i'm 80 years old and live bruce so much. i hope my children and grandchildren can live a better life. i just hope doctors can save in my why you as they say, hope died last crystal. it's so difficult, it's terrible. this happens to us at our age the checkpoint is only open twice a week. red cross trucks pass carrying tons of aid for around 3000000 people the

you and expects to need humanitarian assistance next year. and that's on both sides of the front line. soldiers tell us they have shilling a few kilometers from here every night. see spot monitors with the organization for security and cooperation in europe. say both sides regularly break ceasefire agreement, signed in 2015. mchale has just arrived from separate, is controlled on ask all my friends who want to leave, and most of my family have left some to ukraine or russia, some to europe. many still there, miss what life was like before 2014. they wait for a seat on the bus to take them across. what's called no man's land feels they never imagined they'd be afraid of before these conflicts started on 7 and a half years ago. chance drop it al jazeera mobile, trotsky, eastern ukraine, palestinian man was shot and killed by israeli forces after allegedly trying to

stab in his railey. it happened just outside damascus gate and occupied. he's too shallow on saturday. video shows is ready. police pointing guns at paramedics and preventing them from treating the palestinian israeli medics, however, were able to treat the stabbing victim, who was later transferred to a hospital clashes between palestinians and israelis. police continued shortly after harry force at joints as live now from occupied east jerusalem. harry, what happened? well, there is a video that's been released by the israeli police a cctv video video, but appears to show the man in questioner a 25 year old palestinian man from the west bank town of south fit. so fit mohammed selim up please saying that he was in east jerusalem illegally showing him crossing the road, seeming to track him as he crosses the road and then turning as he's approached from behind by an ultra orthodox israeli jewish man. and we then see the

man striking him repeatedly the palestinian, striking the jewish man repeatedly. it's very difficult to see whether and indeed what he is brandishing in his hand. ah, but he's certainly striking him then he confronts israeli, put the security forces who then shoot another the the other point about this which is very significant, is that they are continued shots after the man is lying on the ground, seeming to pose no obvious threat to anybody or the police included, but there are further shots fired at him. and so that is what is very controversial about this incident. we do see a number of starving attacks in east jerusalem. there was a shooting indeed in the old city, just a couple of weeks ago with a, a palestinian man linked to hamas, who shot and israeli and was then shot himself. i. so this is not an entirely unprecedented attack by any means,

but the fact that he was shot several times while lying on the ground at some distance from police. or that is the the significant thing here. i think what's been the reaction well, so far we've heard from a number of politicians about this are members of the broad coalition government. we've heard from the palestinian israeli, a politician who is the minister for regional cooperation is our fray. and he is called this or something that is extremely concerning, saying that the police should shoot to save lives, not to take life. or there have been members of the joint list. largely policies is really opposition to call this an extra judicial killing as well. however, the board of forces her head has said that the police acted in the proper way that they have his backing. and indeed, potentially more significantly, the prime minister natalie bennett has said that they acted in the expected way. has praised the the speed of the reaction and so it reminds i think

a lot of people here what took place in 2016. there was another attack at a at a checkpoint in hebron and the occupied west bank again, the attack a lying on the ground, seeming to pose no threat was shot dead by a soldier l. azaria. he was later sentenced to 18 months in prison. again, there will be cause for investigation, doubtless into this case was well, harry, many thanks variables at their report in life am occupied east jerusalem government lands in serbia to sell land to a lithium mining company. have provoked protests demonstrate to say the self will have devastating effects on the environment. the mining giant, rear tinted is waiting for government approval for a 2 and a half $1000000000.00 mining development after discovering lithium reserves. 15 years ago. onion storage reports now from the protest in belgrade, what you can see behind me is the man international highway in serbia. and his mark

that goes to bell ray had been blocked for more than an hour. and actually this is just one of more than 50 locations across the center. we are not, you have been blocked to day citizens of serbia as well as the green activist and the local pollitt. opposition. politicians protesting against 2 laws that have been adopted in the serbian parliament. last vague, they seeing it as a lying ground want for the lead. you're mine of the international company, a real dean dog in our vast areas. sir b, as you can see, there's thousands of people here as well as under the other blockages and the mortar. race is serbia. so far there have not been incidence unlike the last to me, ren are also at the same brought. this happened and as many accidents are cured, especially in our city in charbonneau in less than so be our ran our group off. must people even try to go to demonstrate diversity,

the bulldozers one all day. i see that people here are calling for to day. also is to bring to just these people that have, are dark to demonstrate. there's last vague, but today's brought us by so far is going peaceful. some travel 1000 of people are on the streets of many cities in soviet plots of damage, parts of northern peru, just 5 days after a major earthquake and overflowing river course, severe mud slides on already damaged roads. homeowners, salvaging what's left of their properties. helicopters have helped to deliver aid to those in need. a total solar eclipse has turned daylight into nighttime darkness . in antarctica, the continent was the only place on the planet where the spectacular phenomenon could be seen on a normal summer's day. their antarctica has continual deal from the doctor, but until early april, but the eclipse changed all that, at least just for

a few minutes. an idle that was stolen from the pol in 1984 has been returned from the us, where it was being held in a museum. a procession took the 12th century stone statue called lash me mariana. that depicts hindu gods. back to the temple a tweet last november by us based art historian telling the dallas museum about that the statue it had on display was stolen. but to an f. b i investigation and the return of the idol. ah. 1730 gmc, updating it up. stories pulls of closed in the can be as closely contested presidential election. adam barrow is facing a tough challenge for reelection and the 1st votes. since ja jeremy was listed in 2016, the french president and manuel microns in saudi arabia where he's announced an initiative to help solve the rear.