america held up a mirror to itself. what would it see in a sense, race is the story of america. what's working and what's not. lot of people were only talking about that. it wasn't at the top of the agenda. if america can handle multiple challenges on multiple fronts, we need to go back to school. the bottom line on al jazeera. ah, this is al jazeera. ah, hello, i'm barbara sarah. this is the al jazeera news, our life from london. thank you for joining us. coming up in the next, the 60 minutes, a democratic transition put to the test, eager voters in began via joined the cube to elect their next president. the french president, visits saudi arabia, saying he will work with gulf states to end the diplomatic route with lebanon. plus, i'm from the the mila as a vaccination,

san say in johannesburg as the south african government is trying to drive up vaccinations amidst a 4th wave of coven 19 and growing concerns around the army corps variant bag corey belongs. a religious icon returns to its home in the pool for decades after it was stolen and taken to the us. and i'm far as mile with the sports news lie from our fif arab studio. everyone, plenty of goals and saturdays games wins earlier in the day for morocco and algeria, and now for egypt as well with possibly the goal of the tournament. so far, there's game against today. ah, in what's being seen as a test of the gambia as ition to democracy?

polls have closed in the 1st election since former president thea john may fled the country after 22 years and power incumbent president had them a barrow is seeking another term, but he faces 5 rivals, including his former political mentor, who sent who they're both nearly a 1000000 people from a population of 2 and a half 1000000 are registered to vote. with results expected on sunday, acquitted re says more now from the capital one jewel. the turn out was really, really important. talk to can be important. he was tell you that this election is very important and significant in many respects. this is the 1st time they voted in close to 3030 years with lots of freedom of choice, lots of freedom of expression. they were in fact p. s. of things going wrong during the campaigning period. nothing like that happened on election day. there was a few incidents not violent incident and wait, but we are waiting to see exactly what happens tomorrow when the election results i

was expected to be announced. you missed the counting of the pilots and seeing the models in practice. what is happening right behind me. in fact, police officers election officials who after counting the ballast and ceiling this boxes, initially this here is where the marble is placed or put into the box and goes in there and rings a bell. and then at the end of the voting process, everything is counted here. now the process has been concluded. what's happening right now is that these officials are the ceiling of the drums, the ballot boxes i call the ballad drums, yes, talk to ceiling, them. they're taking them to our correlation center, why they're going to meet up with the election of fishes who have, might have concluded their voting process. and then the results of all the sentence will be tied together. they have about 1500 centers and more than 7000 election

officials have been used to run this particular election so far. what we hear is that the elections have been peaceful, largely people in most parts of the gambia and voting has ended officially and counting its continuing, especially in those areas have started late security forces in marley have been sent to the scene of an ambush in which at least 31 people were killed on friday. women and children were aboard a truck which gunmen sprayed with bullets and then set on fire. near the town of multi leaders of the transitional government are vowing to do everything necessary to catch the attackers in the rest of sal region. where attacks linked the i sal and al qaeda are common, but neither group have so far claimed this attack is the opiates prime minister has called on young people fighting for the t gray people's liberation front to surrender, and not take part in a war without a goal fighting is now reported to be limited to an area between the towns of fatty

and dessie. the government says it's making progress and has captured more towns. state media reporting the t p a left has lost all of its positions inside the afar region. but the rebels leader has denied that his troops are withdrawing and has called the governments claims war propaganda of ally of e in war there is progress and regression. this is the nature of war. the recite that we have seized, and others that we've evacuated. and within the framework of the strategy that we set, we withdrew from some positions and we re deployed. this is not because of military pressures changing these positions was our decision. french president of manuel marconas in saudi arabia, where he has joined a phone call that's been hailed as an important 1st step towards resolving a rift between the kingdom and lebanon mccormick. crown prince ma hm had been salman, and the leaders also spoke with lebanon's prime minister. it's the 1st such communications in saudi arabia, other gulf countries, and lebanon, became locked in

a diplomatic dispute. on friday, lebanon's information minister resigned, hoping to ease that dispute. inflamed by comments that he made about the war in yemen. now g mccarty underlined the importance of the call with micron and been selman. said a hoarder has more now from beirut. there is no doubt the new page has been opened and the relationship between lebanon and saudi arabia, a phone conversation between the saudi crown prince mohammed, and the lebanese prime minister. and as he mathee, of course, the french president crow mediated. and so it really helped bring about this, this development. it is the 1st time a saudi official speaks to me since it was appointed prime minister in september. it really is a change in strategy and policy on behalf of the our policy has been for us. it is useless to engage with a government that is controlled by the iraqi and back has the law,

and the government is dominated by has the law along with its allies. so now the crown prince, speaking to the prime minister of lebanon, the prime minister of lebanon, tweeting that this is a new beginning. it will help revive relations with a fraternal a brother of brother brotherly relations. because we have to remember golf arab states, where the traditional allies of lebanon, we talk about this latest crisis that led to saudi arabia and several gulf states severing diplomatic relations with, with lebanon. but the relationship has been strained for years from what saudi arabia percy's is. the iranian control and domination over 11 politics. so our 1st step has been taken saudi arabia now showing that it is willing to engage at least what the prime minister. but it's too early to say whether or not the relationship as it used to be will be restored. despite the growing reach of the only constraint

of the corona virus, the world health organization says no debts have been reported so far. but in south africa, the on the con and delta strains are fueling a force wave with the government. now scaling up it's vaccination campaign for me, the miller reports from johannesburg. this is one of a few 100 vaccination centers in the halting province in south africa. and how ting has been hardest hit by the rise in coven, 19 infections, between 70 and 80 percent of new infections across of africa in this province alone . and that is why authorities are saying that people need to get out and get vaccinated. there 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 dropped to about 36 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 kron variant. and the greatest concern that 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 are having to be admitted to hospital . now becoming ill after contracting cove at 19 this recruiting a number of students $12.00 to $17.00, 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 parents coming in as families. so there has been that we have seen an optical, a number of infected, the kids at the surrounding schools over years where i think parents are exercising portia 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 south africans are

getting 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 sub african population has been spooked by this new ami kron variant. and more people are coming out to get a job. the former queen of the netherlands, beatrix since tested positive to coven 19 the dutch royal information service released the news shortly after thousands of people march through the city of utrecht to protest against corona virus lockdown measures. the government introduced title restrictions a week ago on top of an existing partial lockdown. the country has been reporting record cases of coven 19 recent demonstrations of turned violent in the netherlands . but this march was held without incident australia to is facing resistance

from a section of people who don't want to get vaccinated. thousands have been protesting in rallies, both for and against the coven vaccines. more cases of the omicron variant are being detected across the country. gillian wolf has more o calling for their freedom in melbourne. large clusters of people on the streets of one of the shrill is biggest cities waving the flags of many countries. demonstrators who now colace, truly a home demand, a reopening of their communities, but oppose a mandatory vaccine. i was teaching for 30 odd ease and vaccination was always of a voluntary thing for parents and kids to make it all strictly the key just just so we have to just learn to live with this and get all the things my conscious cape locking us down you know, just because there's a new variant that always be in your variance. fyodor john a person who realizes the freedom jasmine, certain social responsibility astray,

lia, which largely close its borders when the corona virus pandemic began is now dealing with an outbreak of the army chrome variant. the new emergency is further testing government efforts to boost the economy following kobe locked downs. i expect us to see further spray communities 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 teeth to understand how this barrier works in highly vaccinated countries. in the state of victoria were full vaccination has become mandatory to access most things. it is the unvaccinated who make up the majority of people in hospital with cove it. but most australians are in support of vaccine jobs. with nearly 90 percent of every one over 16 being fully vaccinated. at the moment there's lots of anger. i'm after this coven crisis. and i think it's being directed at the wrong side. we're seeing, you know, health care workers being intox, you know,

books up workers and it's really important. i think that we say actually the majority of us did support these health restrictions that saved millions of people's lives. and the majority of us actually do stand in social solidarity with each other. i. oh, for a country who's covered rates pale in comparison to other developed nations for these the se trillions. the time to return to normal is long overdue. gillian wolf, al jazeera, coming up on al jazeera, 150 people arrested after a man accused of blasphemy, is beaten to death in pakistan. prime minister in wrong con, calls it a day of shame. political protests in venezuela anger after a court case ends the run of a leading opposition candidate. and louis hamilton takes pole that the saudi arabian grand prix after escaping a penalty. for hawking, the track fire will have that and more later in the program.

ah. but 1st, the us says iran has back tracked on compromises it made and talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. but that washington will push on with its diplomatic efforts. a senior state department official says that while parent is asking for more concessions, it may be an opening position. she ever fancy has more from washington dc. you might be thinking of these, these talks in vienna, they're on the rocks. the u. s. is going to walk out and storm out. it's like blinking suggested they already did on on friday, which was going to be delayed by what everyone else was saying. who was that the talks? but in fact, when you, when you talk and listen to this background briefing by an anonymous to you state department official, we had a very different turn. it was a real commitment to the tools. yes, you said the iranians came to these talks. they remember got all the compromises

that already been made. they made no new constructive proposals. i just also moved from us and so on. but what kept on coming out from this, this official was a commitment to the tools. there may be some dramatic activities. so you wouldn't rule that out, but it was that we will carry on carry on talking while emphasizing that, even as the u. s. is talking, they do have the punishing sanctions on iran, which is great such humanitarian problems for the country. so i live up to try and short circuit the, the sense in the near columns, and in fact, just of the, the, the mainstream democratic body that, that the, by maybe being soft on iran though you say, can you just show them? no, no, we're making them suffer. we're making the people that are on suffer. but we want to talk at the same time even if they're being in trans. and a palestinian man has been shot and killed by israeli forces after allegedly attempting to stamp and his railey. the attack took place just outside damascus gate in occupied east jerusalem on saturday. video shows israeli police pointing

guns at paramedics and preventing them from treating the palestinian israeli medics, however, were eventually able to treat the stabbing victim, who was later transferred to hospital crashes between palestinians and his really nice erupt. and shortly after harry forces has more now from the scene in occupied is truthful. well please say that this was a stabbing attack, or they released cctv video of a palestinian man walking across the crossing behind us here. and then being followed by an ultra orthodox his really man, the policy man turned and started striking the altar orthodox man. it was impossible to see from those images whether or exactly what he had in his hand. but police say that this was a stabbing demand. and confronted is really security forces. he was shot and fell to the ground is what took place after that though, which is promot such outraged, especially among palestinians, social media. they continued to fire at him from several meters away,

as he lay almost motionless on the ground. now these really prime minister natalie bennett, has praised the security forces, saying that they acted with speed and did what was expected of them. however, one of his own ministers, this is a broad coalition government, a left wing minister, a palestinian israeli himself has express concern call from investigation, said the police should only fire to save life, not to take life. and there are calls from the opposition saying that this was an extra judicial killing. russia has stopped exporting coal to ukraine, saying it has too much domestic demand that this year. okay, of depends on moscow for the resource to help our it's electricity stations, ukraine, as long as used rush of using its vast energy resources as a weapon. now there are fears about blackouts as winter temperatures drop. shall stratford reports now from threats in eastern ukraine, home line close to the front line in easton. ukraine. bind such as this one,

have helped fuel industry in the don bus region and across what was the soviet union, the over a century. but ukraine remains dependent on russia to meet its energy needs, especially coal, which is vital for fueling ukrainian power stations. in 2014 pro russia, separatists seized control of the majority of the mines. further depleting, cranes access to coal. decades of neglect means much of the mines infrastructure is close to collapse. yarbrough, though not just thought the equipment we have is from 1958 lack of investment and government negligence is one of the reasons why we face a shortage. things could be difficult this winter. another problem is that russia caught ukraine's coal supply. last month. russia has recently stopped exporting coal to ukraine, saying that there's just too much domestic internal demand,

all the natural resource. some analysts so describing this is nothing short of blackmail. and an effort by russia to weapon eyes, it's vast, natural resources as a means of putting pressure on ukraine. and it's not just cold. russia is using to try and control your grain. these a gas pipelines similar to those that transport russian gas across ukraine to europe. europe relies on russia for around 35 percent of its energy needs. and ukraine gets paid transit these, which were around 2000000000 dollars last year with those days on nearly over the non stream to pipeline, which is expect you to be opperation next year, bypasses ukraine, instead transporting gas from russia to germany on the baltic sea. russia trying to lead to divide europe for russia better energy relations. ready

was different states separately rather than with then go the european union from your perspective, this means that russia will have has free to disability station in. ready between more actively germany has warned russia not to use its gas exports as a weapon, but has been criticized by other european states and ukraine for exposing key to more economic pressure for moscow. silas say, russia's aim of trying to keep ukraine inexperience, influence is impossible. it is simply not possible to have that sort of control away our neighbors. we've all with the investing huge resources military as well as economy because in b and as i see on russia, i think it moscow and age to modify its aids. because very simply, natalie winter is just beginning. yes is so worried about the potential electricity

blackouts that it's been forced to start importing coal from as far away as the us and columbia. so my goal is to say economic and energy pressure from russia will continue. because the more ukraine talks about future nato and e u membership, the more moscow sees red jaws. dr. al jazeera towards eastern ukraine. for the some pakistan have arrested a 150 people after a mob tortured and killed a sri lankan man accused of blasphemy. he was a factory manager in cl called in the east and was attacked by employees. the prime minister in mankind described it as the country's day of shame and says he is personally overseeing the investigation. come al. hi. there has more from islamabad, shock, waves and condemnation, a cross bargain on even the religious right. leadership has criticize what did

stage was indeed an act of injustice when factory worker in an industrial down in seattle called doug mattered into their own hands, killing a longer manager. he told them that day should clean up the factory. he apparently, according to the board, tried to remove some stick from the machinery, read an inspection what to do. and i thought it was a strong reaction from the factory worker to our tag, the manager, then a mob alleged him and his body was burn. soon other protested, also came on the said, the police force, of course, were not able to control the situation. the country, the prime minister, said that the nation head bowed in shame over this incident is called for an inquiry and exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the horrible act. and that industrial down pockets on foreign minister also said that they entered in

brilliant deed, be investigated $150.00 people have already been arrested. an investigation that under way, which of course are being overseen by the countries prime minister, mister brown han, him says, while the most serious acts of blasphemy and pakistan carry the death sentence, there was a record number of allegations last year, 200 cases, according to the center for social justice, perhaps the best known cases that of as the a b, b. she's a christian woman, accused of blasphemy by her co workers and in 2010 was sentenced to death. after a decade of international pressure, she was eventually acquitted. and she now lives in france, in the summer there was outrage. after an 8 year old hindu boy became the youngest person to be charged with blasphemy. crowds burned the hindu temple when he was released on bail. the charges has now been dropped, but the cases are often taken up by vigilante crowds. between 19872020. there were

at least $78.00 extrajudicial killings. well, our leader i spoke to, i missed the internationals south asia campaign or ramelle marie dean. i asked her for her reaction to the horrific attack in cl called on friday. what had been interesting has been the sift condemnations that have come from all quarters, including the d. b. that was the group that the mob was tracting slogans for. so it really so shows that there, but unfortunately, this managing isn't the 1st and all the norm will it be the last is fox and isn't follow to these combinations with swift and proper investigations and accountability for the perpetrators was speaking of combinations. even the prime minister of pakistan name or on con, has said that this was a day of shame for the country. now a rest has been made it. but what do you make all the way that the mob reacted? or perhaps how many people didn't actually react as this man was being lynched. i

mean, i think something that really come through with the way that the events via today is the fact that some of the main bubble changes of the, of the killing of the lynching. fairly confident and not to go and speak to the press right. often with their faces on camera, which makes you believe what makes you understand that these people didn't think what they did was a crime. and that is exactly what an environment that enables impunity can do. so even though as the rest of being made, the fact is that in the boss, as we've seen in the case of the honda with a 23 year old student, the sentences with some of the bridges were actually reduced as the, as the case went through the court system so that even if we have as, as a quick response in the funds to sheila, sheila government statement that have been made these arrest can be they look like

good optics right now. but unless the follow through with proper accountability starting with they've got that should be in place bending reveal of the black for me lot. they might just be just that. so what kind of safeguards would you want to see in place? i think that it's important that there's an interim measures that are put in place bending reveal of the blast, which is, which includes the fact that people who are not even witnesses do an event that might lead to a black me allegation, can actually find a report that the accused can be arrest without even a warrant. and this all creates his environment where people can actually be given a death sentence, not it's not him by the court of law by then certainly in the, in the community that they live in. just because somebody, you know, without a blast and we back me activation went back the most of the mom to settle bus those goals. but do you think, having seen the number of arrests and many of the condemnations that we've seen

come from the highest political quarter is, do you think that this case might be a sort of step in the right direction when it comes to change? we can hope we can hold because we've seen similar condemnation, similar as we've all been here before with national con, which is the only difference right now is that the actually distance itself from this incident? so other than that, we can only hope, wait and see, but an international certainly be watching. still ahead in this news our o serves push back against one's the cell of learned to a minute. giant, bethlehem's christmas tree lights up bringing hope of an economic revival in a city hard hit by the pandemic. and in sports, while celebrations of the arab compass, palestine go one that 0 up against saudi arabia that they hold on. we're going to

find out we're fine. ah hello there, let's look to europe and there's more wet, windy and wintery weather on the way this week. and those cold conditions are going to bring temperatures down across central and northern regions. but the south isn't gonna escape, we're seeing that wet and windy weather continuing to plague in the mediterranean. but for some day it's going to be the northwest. the seas really chilly conditions come into play. we've got a weather system in moving into iceland. we're going to see heavy rain and snow and by the time we get into monday that will slam into britain an island with some of the heaviest snow falling in scotland. now those wintry conditions push across into scandinavia, so snow from norway as well as the denmark. we are going to see the temperature come down for sweden and the baltic states in the days to come. it is gonna feel

very chilly. indeed. now the south doesn't escape, as i said, we've got those wet and windy conditions pulling into france and northern parts of spain and heavy snow. here it clears by the time we get some monday, but it's going to pick up for italy once again. the south thing a lot of that wet weather as well as coastal areas of adriatic sea and the balkans is going to see a winter re mixed blow east. by the time we get in some monday. now it's wet or weather for grief. from tuesday we are going to do that rain effect, nor areas of africa. ah, whether it's cute and cuddly in australia, wild and ferocious in bangladesh, birth rise, we dress is the balance between endangered wild life. and then noisy neighbors. that 1st and about forest right there. and there's nothing between the how you have,

unless i'm a human habitat learning to live together on al jazeera, how many people here have seen a tiger like bigger? oh, really. i am vicious artistry adventure a short documentary by african filmmakers from beneath kenya and algeria in the alley minium village throttle queens. this is when we get to let her hair down and the cane africa direct. on al jazeera lou ah ah,

i remind her now of the top stories on algae 0 votes are being counted in began b as.