o l g 0. 0, with national chapel. ah, the winter olympics gets underway in banking and made it diplomatic boy caught sand pandemic restrictions. ah, hello, i am emily angry. this is al jazeera live from doha. also coming up, presenting a united front, russia and china say they opposed further expansion of nato. as president vladimir putin visits by ging pressure grows on the u. k. prime minister as 5 of his top

aides resign or within 24 hours. and tackling vaccine inequality south africa uses mid june, adapted to develop its own club and 19 jap. ah, we begin in china where president she jin pain has opened the winter olympics in beijing. nearly 3000 athletes are in strict in a strict bubble though because of carbon 19. no foreigners are able to watch them campaign. and there's a diplomatic boycott in protest against china's human rights record. david strikes has the latest phone she all in. you couldn't go away for more. oh, after a troubled build up the 24th winter olympics have officially begun in beijing. the venue for friday's opening ceremony was the birds mess stadium originally built for

the summer olympics, back in 2008. it's the 1st city ever so spoke the winter and summer games. dear fellow olympians, your olympic stage is set you are for i fear after overcoming so many challenges. but vow your moment this come the moment you have been longing for like the tokyo olympics last year, toby 19 has given these games a different complexion that taking place inside a closed loop system, keeping competitors and staff away from the general public athletes must get tested for carbon 19 daily, and there were no foreign fans with only a small handpick domestic audience allowed to attend. some of the world's best winter athletes are unable to compete after testing positive. this is not tougher than injury because you aren't putting yourself out. let's take the risk, it's just the risk is everywhere around us, and i really feel for those athletes, i can't,

i can't even imagine how it must be to day 4 years of work and then at the last minute. so had that taken away by something that's out of your control. several world leaders have trouble to beijing for the games, but other nations including the u. s. britain and canada had declared a diplomatic boycott over china's human rights record. specifically, its treatment of muslim wages, china to noise human rights abuses. the people's republic of china is perpetrating a campaign of gross human rights violations, including janet sought over the next 2 weeks as an urgent moral duty to shine a bright light on the many human rights violations being perpetrated by the host nation. beijing 2022 organized as say the games will be carbon neutral. oh, venues will be powered by renewable energy. and 5 of them have been repurposed from 2008. but with very little slow, full will. the 200000000 liters of water have been used to generate fake powder for the alpine locations. let's not be name in the artificial snow is used

in a consistent way for decades. you in winter or a competitive sport. what is really important, like for any other activities that we practice is to try to do it in the most efficient way with a lead up to the olympics dominated by politics uncovered. 19, most of the athletes will hope to focus now shift to the action. why as nearly 3000 competitors from 91 nations fight to take home a gold medal. david stokes al jazeera and a pasteboard correspondence. stephen wade has more on that opening ceremony. i was in the 2008 opening ceremony here. 13 and a half years ago, it was 30 to 33 degrees, sweltering hot pack stadium, 91000 people right now back and we have maybe 20 or 30000 fans. we're not sure. maybe 40 percent full and it's below 0. it's one or 2 degrees below 0, so it's a very different different atmosphere. and what are games of course,

are much smaller than the summer game, so they're really not not comparable. but paging is the most unlikely. can have one or lympics, but in 2015, 6 european countries who should have had or could have been dropped out too expensive or political problems. yeah. to see what had was left with motley cars, extend, and beijing, they chose beijing. beijing, i think was more surprised than anybody. so the games are here, the run up to the games have been filled with contention. the weaker the genocides is going on in northwestern chin. john, the region here has occupied the press. the chinese have tried to avoid it. they see has tried to avoid the sponsor. they've tried to pretend like they don't see it . i think everybody will be glad like usual when the game to get started. the focus goes on, the athletes and the politics probably will be put aside. however, it's very possible with an athlete term may speak out, or we have a lot of contention for these 2 and a half weeks while we're engaging among those that the ceremony is russia's

president vladimir persian moscow's deteriorating relations with the west chalk sta incentive stage. as persian held at talks with his counterpart, she jin ping in by jing in a joint statement. they said they opposed the expansion of nato and cold on the lions to ditch what bay cold, cold, where war approaches certain the zulu stirring hook machine you doing? you as for our bilateral relations, they are developing with the spirit of friendship and strategic partnership and reach an unprecedented level. is there an example of upstanding relations which are both sides to develop and support each other? at the same time, it comes as tensions between kia and moscow shown. no signs of thawing. russia has massed more than 100000 troops in ne ukraine's border. both countries have also been holding military drills. russia has also beefed up it's gas if it's offer of gas supplies to china. meanwhile, the u. s. in europe have threatened moscow with unprecedented sanctions. if ukraine

is attacked, unless you additional station are all producers prepared, a very good solution of hydrocarbons applies to china for today's meeting. and we made another step forward in the gas sector. i mean the new deal to supply china with 10000000000 cubic meters of natural gas from the far east. se katrina you is in beijing with more on those talks. what we were really looking for was any specific signal from china that it would support ukraine now, from this joint statement, we haven't heard from bay june yet, but what we're hearing from the kremlin is that china really still on paper wants to maintain its neutral storms. but there are some statements within this state, which implies strong support of russia when it comes to its policy in ukraine or its actions on the ukraine border. they joined them and said that each country supports each other's foreign policy, that no country should improve its security at the expense of others. and also the

both countries of per unilateral actions towards specific countries. i think really this relationship have to main dimensions. one is political, these countries definitely a lot in common in terms of the ideology and i think specifically what they're both very tired of and what they both oppose is a world order under which the u. s. is the dominant power. so i think during this meeting, what they're doing is showing how strong their partnership is and also showing the world, perhaps a potential counterweight to the u. s. and other european powers. and of course, the other dimension of this relationship is very practical. it's based on the economic and economics and trade. china is russia's biggest trading partner. they did about $12840000000000.00 and trade in 2021. that's an unprecedented volume of trade between the 2 countries, and that's only set to increase russia back to separatists in easton,

ukraine have set up training camps for young people. instructors, say students being taught about patriotism and self defense. charles traffic reports from the town of mackie of these teenagers, some of the 5000 members of a youth movement in the pro, russia, separatist controlled region of east in ukraine. they are all still at school. you know, me roughly translates to army of the youth instructors. many of them form a separation fighters say they teach patriotism and how to defend the self declared republic. dimansky john 8 years of conflict with ukraine remains unrecognized by any country in the world. even its main baccha, russia, the students. it's also a range of skills including martial arts, 1st aid and assembling, and disassembling weapons,

which we are not allowed to film. 14 year old christina joined 2 years ago after her cousin was killed during fighting between the russian bank separatists ukrainian army just over the ocean. it's very painful for me when i remember she was like, my brother i joined because of his death because i wanted to remember those last in the war, especially. we don't want to make the same mistakes that we did when the soviet union was attacked in world war 2. murals in the school. kartel celebrate russian history and cultural figures like the novelist and poet alexander, pushkin. a map shows crimea painted in the colors the russian flag. so i started to come on doing today's class is about the victory of soviet forces over the nazis. and the bustle of stalingrad considered one of the bloodiest battles in history, claiming around 2000000 lives. the manager to the cliff that i don't unami

feels like my 2nd family, my 2nd home when you go through so much together, you become very close at the bit of the white nash, but the develops are patriotism. we remember and a proud of our predecessors and i want to eventually serve in the army outside students prepare for a mock battle. we split into 2 opposing sides and fired each other using laser guns and stacks of tires as cover. but this isn't just again, this might look like fun, but of course it has serious implications. and it's important to recognize that there are similar youth groups on ukrainian government control side also being trained like this. there they, it's whole, the danger is what the crane is described as russian expansionism with its roots in the soviet past. here it start to tell the children that the danger isn't ideology that has huge residents with both the young and the old. they are

working. ok he no. the near work for susan. ukraine is not our enemy fascism. is it the enemy? and 2014. when the conflict started, we were standing up against fascists. like our grandparents did, we can say we have enemies. our only enemy is fascism. we don't want to just to make fresh isn't our friends. but christina and her friends are too young to fully understand how history can be manipulated to serve military or political ends in any conflicts. if you could almost as away on the abandon ruins of homes and places where children once played destroyed in 8 years of war with no peaceful solution in sight, a conflict into which the young on both sides of being drawn, shall stafford al jazeera. don't ask. still ahead on al jazeera back in business

valley re opens to all foreign visitors after nearly 2 years, attend demik restrictions and rescue as in morocco, rice to say the 5 year old boy stuck in a well the way day. ah ah, look forward to brighter skies. the weather sponsored my cattle airways. we seem to enter the another wet phase of the rainy season, throat. se asia from the cellar trough philippine southwards to so away. see cross borneo, sumatra, and job the orange top shout of the big one. so, flooding is likely in southern sumatra. and java, the rains are reaching up into the southern part of thailand. once again. there's also more ray on the coast of vietnam. you'll notice in this ne monsoon, beyond that we're still in winter and significant winter. the snow is not being

brought in by blizzard conditions, but his or continuous frequent. so shares all way up and down the west coast of homes through the mountains and in ha, carter west that the sun's out. it's cold, but the sun is out minus 3. and so some snow in the middle of china, but not very much to be asked in the sun's back out in hong kong as it is and remains. so in beijing, at least the next couple of days in india, a quiet moment ne monsoon almost disappeared. so the rains coming by different method, and it's the ne, we'll see a few showers in snow up in the mountains, which means things of settled down the northern plain alerts slightly, all it was. air quality is pretty poor. and for about 24 hours, a shamar will start blowing again down the gulf, bringing dusty conditions with it for the weather sponsored by katara always. there was a time when the aka bank go river flowed were enough to sustain lies in the

northern colour. harry desert all year round, but that's changing. we for no 3 men in different parts of the alcove and go down as they faced drought, wild animal and man made threat in the constant fight for survival risk in it all. botswana on al jazeera ah ah. hello, you're watching out his era. i'm emily angland, a reminder of our top stories this our 24th winter olympics has officially begun by jang is the 1st city to house to both the summer and winter olympics. the build up

has been dominated by covered 19 restrictions and diplomatic boycotts. the games are also happening as tensions over ukraine or high between russia and the west. russian president vladimir putin easy in china, moscow and by james say they oppose and nato expansion. they accuse it of cold war approaches u. k prime minister bars johnson is facing pressure to shore up. he is premiership as the so called pot against scandal deepens. 5 aids have now resigned, including johnson's chief of staff, private secretary and director of communications. another a, the head of policy said she quit because of a false accusation. johnson made against the later of the opposition. and this ice conservative em pays confirmed to have sent a letter of no confidence in the fall. as johnson jonah hold has more from london,

the initial responses after those resignation on thursday were pretty unkind towards the prime minister. one former foreign secretary said he become toxic within the party. another unnamed cabinet minister was reported to saying it feels like the end. it's all falling apart well, those abuse and that's a particular view that we have heard in recent weeks. another view, the opposite view comes from another unnamed cabinet minister, also reported on friday morning is saying he promised action on mondays. you mentioned that to clean up the downing street operation. the action has begun and more is planned over the next 48 hours. and the problem with that view is that while 3 of the 4 in fact now 5 resignations, there's benefits on friday. i'll talk more about that in a moment, while 3 of those resignations were connected in a variety of ways with the party gave scandal, including one of them, the private secretary, martin reynolds, who wrote the infamous, bring your own booze, email. the 4th the resignation you mentioned them on the road is quite different.

she, a person more loyal to the prime minister than most he's been at his side for 14 years, the head of the policy department downing street hers. and indeed, the other person from her department this morning were resignations of principal following that false accusation in the commons. against this time of the labor party leader johnson said, as director of public prosecutions, he had failed to prosecute the peter file. jimmy's hovel. well, mooney remote wrote that was unacceptable. a partisan a tax scarlet. she said not part of the normal cut and thrust of politics. he'd asked him to apologize. he didn't so she decided enough was him enough and she has gone northern islands high codes, his checks on the food from great britain should remain in place for now. that suspends an order from a minister to hold customs checks. the european union says order says that order breached the north and island political. an agreement between westminster and

brussels, signed in 2020, to implement bricks. it is aimed at avoiding border checks between northern island and the republic. a violent name by ease in london and explains why the northern island protocol has parliament in disarray. the latest term, the court in northern island has put a hold suspended checks on food and farm products coming from the mainland. great britain into northern island. until there is a full judicial review, which is expected next month, but on the ground. those checks haven't stopped in practice because officials were waiting for legal clarity. now the agriculture minister for northern ireland, edwin boots, whose from the democratic unionist party, ordered a hole to the checks on wednesday after months of his party, protesting about the northern ireland protocol. and then on thursday, we saw the 1st minister of northern island pull given actually resign. and he said,

but the protocol had undermined a key part of the good friday agreement, which created the conditions for both peace and for power sharing. in northern ireland, the part that he was worried about is that they have to govern with the consent of both the nationalists and the unionists the resignation of paul give. it also means that the deputy 1st minister michelle of niel from the main nationalist party, she fain, she's also gone as well. so it leaves northern islands with no executive. and if there's no executive ministers can carrying, can carry on doing the jobs. but key decisions can get made. there is paralysis. fighting between rival rebel groups in colombia is making it difficult for politicians to campaign for next months. congressional elections. the term for full control of cocaine trafficking, and other lucrative crimes, is overshadowing the political battle for power. alexandro ramp,

yet he explained. farmer and congressional candidate to join us live the horror of columbia conflict. first hands a local victim leader. he is running for office, for a special electoral district piece, created to give a voice to under represented people like him. but the return of violent confrontation between arm groups in at ok has made campaigning impossible vicinity . i meant there were some we are just sitting still trying to work in the village, talking to friends, knocking on doors when possible. more than 60 people have been killed since the beginning of the year in a conflict between 11 rebels and dissident groups of 4 or 5 gravels. we had planned to follow giovanni, handing out flyers and visiting a perspective voter. but as we were leaving, he had a change of heart. but he said, yeah, when i was, i don't think we should, it would be

a nice thing for me to take you around town and be on the news telling people what my plan is. what i want to do if i win, but right now will put us at risk the little campaigning that is happening is limited to the main urban center. that's because all candidates are saying it's just too dangerous to travel to rural areas, even on main roads like this one. because the groups are known to set up checkpoints at any time. the situation is also affecting regular candidates. older cassidy's was running for a traditional seat in the house of representatives has campaigned in at alca for years. and this is momentous that we are putting our lives in the crossfire to campaign. and we accept silencing ourselves and confinement to try to sustain democracy. but unlike a man, he says, the situation is as bad as at the height of the conflict. he's running most of his campaign on social media go. yeah, it was organizing a meeting in for tool is impossible going to the town of life where i was

a teacher and getting 4050 people together, also impossible. the local human rights official says political and social leaders have become the main targets of the arm groups and then pop in thought on paper. everything is great. the government is full filling its obligation to the victims who can vote and these elections. but the reality on the ground is the opposite. when people can't exercise their rights, when i'm running a political campaign in the conflict written region like alco was never easy. but this time was supposed to be different. instead, threats in attacks or once again silencing this already marginalized voices. alison that i'm pity and jesse, you know, and south african pharmaceutical company has designed, developed and produced the 1st m r n. a cove and 19 vaccine on the african continent. it's part of a world health organization project to support poor countries to develop their own

vaccines after major pharmaceuticals refuse to share their technology. african used publicly available information to copy the sequence of the madonna m r in a job and develop its own vaccine without the company's approval. wealthy nations have bold up most of the world's vaccine supply. while the vaccination rise in low income countries is about 5 percent petro to blanche is the managing director of african. she says the breakthrough will have an impact beyond the pen to make because at 19 is the catalyst. we bullying and demonstrating capacity and capability as we've just done with this 1st vaccine production. although at glasgow we will then build capacity and build process is to also look at the t b lesser fever and other diseases of relevance in low low and middle income countries. pulling this capacity and capability will empower lead 1000000 of countries to produce their magazines. we were not receiving tick technology

transfer and we had to develop this on our own, which is good for the team. the fact that we had the opportunity to forward innovate working from the sequence, which is great because that is a learning exercise that bulls substance. the other point is that we were moving much faster than would we would have moved. it was if it, if there was a technology transfer. so anyway, we grateful that we had to move and, and, and empower ourselves. we are looking for support on the sky up and we are getting fantastic technical support across the globe from organizations and have already done some skyler. and we believe that in the next 6 months we will scale up and we will produce gm is good manufacturing practice vaccine ready for clinical trials. and that is the savings that eve african and we have to demonstrate as an hour back seen meets the quality and safety and efficacy standards of the based vaccines in

the world. madonna, by on take that to the general public wolf support. receiving a vaccine which is localized in africa for africa. southeast asian countries, a welcoming bank, vaccinated international tourist. this month thailand is resuming a quarantine free entry program and the philippines will do the same next week. jessica washington reports from the indonesian island of bali where direct line have restarted for the 1st time in almost 2 years. not long beach, near valley, southern coast is a populous thought for surfing and dining this couple among the few foreign tours already. all my god i i thought about this place many so many times before. so incredible. it's relatively quiet, but that may change soon. but let's look at,

i really want to see barley like how it was before. back to normal. late last year, indonesia allowed tourists to travel to valley if they quarantine in the capital to count as no international direct lines to barley have redeemed for the 1st time in almost 2 year old visitors must complete 5 days hotel quarantine, but they won't be confined to their rooms in the hotel, they can use any facilities and the hotels had we have, i had a dresser on the pool with the beach despite perhaps others, southeast asian countries are also trying to attract foreign visitors again. but unlike indonesia, thailand and the philippines have no quarantine requirements. the highly anticipated reopening is dolly comes as cove at $900.00 cases rise again in indonesia, but authorities say they anticipated the increase and are better prepared. the 9

president, joker widow, says indonesia hospitals and health workers are reading bucket, overshadowed by the pandemic, extra st. too soon to say whether the reopening will be a success. well, i think the regions in a state of flux, we've been waiting almost 2 years. there's been a big period of uncertainty locked downs. people have tried to open and hasn't worked out. the tourism officials in barley said the island has had enough time to prepare for international visitors. and we want to show the outside world. the valley is very much ready to success of the reopening depends on whether foreign tourists feel the same way just to washington out of here, sunny rescue. tame say they're close to rescuing a 5 year old boy who fell into a $32.00 mated dave. well in morocco, 3 days ago. he's alive,

pitches as rescue is work around the clock to reach the child. they say they help defray him within hours, if not sooner, the tour engaged and be has more on the story. a camera is lowered down this well. and shows 5 year old ray, an alive but unable to move. he's been trapped since tuesday rescue teams or giving him food and water. 3 pipes watha come up, but lam more on you on a bottle. i managed to communicate with the child and asked if he could hear me. there was a response. i waited for a minute and saw that he began using the oxygen oxy. him. the accident happened in the north american village of a grand rescue team say they can't widen the well to reach him as it's too dangerous. so they using diggers to strip away the earth to the side of it. it's an agonizing wait for his family. nobody aliya barrow, norman, when he disappeared, i prayed to god, and i begged him to get him out of that well alive and safe. i pray to god to ease

my pain and he is in that hole of dost the rescue has gripped the nation and beyond. hashtag saver an has been trending on social media across north africa where they love it. it's the 4th day that brian has been under ground. we're asking the authorities to bring him out. he's been down there too long rescue team say they're close to rescuing ran. a police helicopter is on standby to take him to hospital victoria gate and be al jazeera. ah ha, you watching out his ear these the top stories this hour, the 24th winter olympics has officially begun by james the 1st city to host both this summer and winter olympics for the build up has been dominated by covered 19 restrictions and diplomatic boycotts associated.