he's re introducing animals to the grasslands above, starting with the living creatures that planning to resurrect an extinct species and put this approach. they've our world witness wisdom of hypothesis on al jazeera blue. when it comes to russia's warnings, russia is failing. ukraine is succeeding. the u. s. pledge is more military aid to ukraine during the highest level american visit achieve since the work began. ah, this is al jazeera alive from dell hines, eddie navigator also a heads a manual micron becomes the 1st french president in 20 years to be re elected,

but has major challenges ahead. china's fight to contain covered 19 beijing's biggest district begins testing more than 3000000 residents. after dozens of new cases, a political newcomer defeats lavine as 3 time prime minister and parliamentary elections example suggest a landslide victory. hello rosa is failing in ukraine. that's according to the u. s. secretary of state who's just wrapped up a visit to keith during the trip. antony blanket and secretary of defense lloyd austin also said the u. s. will continue to provide weapons to ukraine to help it fight the russian invasion. this is the highest level of face to face meeting between cheve and the white house since the war began. lincoln also said you as diplomats would start to return to ukraine from next week. russia is failing, ukraine is succeeding. russia has sought, as his principal aim,

to totally subjugate ukraine to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. that has failed. it sought to assert the power of its military and its economy. we're forcing just the opposite. military that is dramatically under performing an economy as a result of sanctions as a result of a mass exodus from russia, that is in shambles. i sure would mean of key via the game during that move down. we're happy to see you and keep in this important moment for our country. we're grateful that the united states is truly helping ukraine's. i want to say thank you personally to president biden, for his support for ukraine's ebony and the support of the american people by them . an opportunity at their sam was the priority of this meeting is weaponry, as will support from the united states and our partners in your us. it's all about the strength of our army. and the 2nd issue is the sanctions against the russian federation because of the full scale terror, the russians were waging in our and hun trigger. so that visit by the top here us

officials comes as russia continues it's bombing campaign in the east of ukraine. charl stratford is joining us live from leave and that's close to the front line. charles, what is the latest on the fighting where you are? well, we are just south of the town of leman in that direction. the reason we're pointing the camera down here towards the city of savanski because of ukraine and military positions in that area. we were here yesterday where there was a lot of heavy shelling on that town leman. it is the closest town that he's being contested now by the russians in the grange, the closest town to the city of savanski, and he's a new front line. there's been a lot of heavy sharing in there. we understand there are civilians still trapped inside the local authorities. just saying that there is some sort of evacuation ongoing evacuation effort to get the remaining civilians out. the reason why this is important is because leman is, as i say, the closest to savannah,

but it's one of what we understand are 3 fronts, 3 areas where the russian forces are trying to push towards the city of slow bands, which i say is behind me. the other areas, an area called ism, which is further west from here, russian forces pushed down west of called a cave. a few weeks ago they took control of the town of him. we know that there is heavy fighting in that area as well. now to the west of is you, we understand there is a new front that has started as well. a push by the, the russians to take control of villages. south west of is you, you basically have a 3 prong move by russian forces. now, trying to get to the strategically and large city of the events which is connected about 15 minutes drive away from another large city of criminals. now these are 2 of the largest cities still under full ukrainian control in the eastern don bass

region. that can be very interesting to see how today's events unfold. we know that the ukrainians are putting up a hell of a fight defending those positions elsewhere in the east. the military authority in new ganske, the region of lou gantski saying that the whole region now is without electricity. and there is showing ongoing in multiple towns when i say towns, these are more like larger villages across the region of lou ganske, the military authorities. they're saying that an oil position or oil terminal in the city of the town of lucy chance was hit overnight for the 3rd time. there's also been heavy shilling in the region of done that because well, specifically around the city of the nets, which we know has been held by separate is forty's pro russia separately, schools since 2015. the ukranian authorities around on it saying that at least 5 civilians were killed over night air. and also

a new development with respect to an area called a region called zen oppo risha, which is frankly a long way away from this eastern section of the country. there are reports that there is a push from the south west of ukraine, russian positions. they're heading up into the upper risha towards the upper region city towards denise pro. so there is a gradual we understand a gradual moved by russian falls. he's coming out of the east, coming out of the north towards coming out of a south west towards, as i say, big cities that have so far not self, that kind of heavy shilling and heavy bond. bob and the dogs have such as disney pro. and zach parisha, so that has been a lot going on overnight. and as i say, the ukrainian military in this area, very concerned indeed. ok, thank you so much. charl stratford is reporting for us from new york lehman the now in minute micro has been

reelected as francis president, he comfortably beat for right challenger marina pen. but he acknowledged voter as this satisfaction with his 1st term. with almost all the votes counted, macro has an estimated 58.54 percent in that presidential runoff. while the pound leader of the national rally party has 41.46 percent. let's get the feeling from paris and bringing bernard smith. he's joining us from the french capital, bernard marine with the mandate not comfortable margin of victory. manual micron is now promising significant social reforms, raising the retirement age, amending and changing, adjusting unemployment benefits. i'm making it easier to hire and fire workers with me to discuss this is some k u la. i've listed on the space here in paris. i, thanks very much for joining you. first of all, the reforms that micro wants to push through how important economically are they

for? they are important, but it's also important to know that he did do quite significant reforms already over the past couple of years and from actually doing relatively well, especially compared to other european countries. unemployment is relatively low inflation, as compared to other countries. france has been doing quite well, more international investment has come and so he will continue on that path forward . the legislative elections coming up in june. he needs to win control of the assembly behind us. how will he be able to do that will meant them stay with him. i mean, history has shown that normally since the constitution has been reformed to have the family election after the presidential elections, presidents always when a majority. but obviously, as we all know, the country is quite fragmented, so it will need to be seen and confirmed. he needs that majority in order to be able to implement his reform. if he does, then he will have an avenue in front of him because they will be his 2nd. and last

monday, the french, a lot of the number of french took to the streets not long into the 1st to protest reforms, particularly to the retirement age. and the rising fuel prices, how sensitive this time round need be to the street, or will be free on the streets or friends play an extremely important role, especially when they're not happy. for example, fuel prices pension reform, every french president that had an attempt at reforming the pensions have to draw back his reform as a result of the frontage on the street. we will be in an environment of high inflation with a huge impact on purchasing power for reforming pensions will be timing, i think, from the streets. okay, and can we just talk a little bit about france? 2030. this plan to re industrialize front. how important for macro and is that project and for friends, considering everybody sees him as a very sort of liberal type of precedent?

yeah, i think that will actually be one of his my priorities. so to invest 30000000000 years between now and 2013 interest to p to industry. so this is about transport about the carbon is ation, but health care. and the idea is to bring critical industries back home. so back to france, something that we're seeing and other countries happening as well. and it's of this idea to move towards more strategic autonomy in a world where the pandemic and now also the war in ukraine has shown that dependencies that exist some take. thank you very much for speaking so, so the elections are in june from time to the far left. candidate john loop manager wants to try and win control of the assembly to force micron to make him prime minister. but as we heard, they are often, the momentum remains with the presence and his party should have a chance of winning. but we'll be back in june to see how about that. all right, thank you so much. bernard smith, reporting from paris, still ahead on al jazeera,

we have the latest on the trial a fate circus. businessman was one caballo who spent 5 years behind bars without a conviction. ah, i think board is about to hit quite badly by daily thunderstorms, a growing even the satellite picture in the going of land because of the heat that fed by the moisture all around. and this is the area where you see the orange top, so particularly deep thunderstorms. now extend into the central and southern philippines. so potential for flash flooding is here. so little bit dry for the sas, but not bone dry job is also pretty sherry sumatra to the left. so it goes up through plenty, malaysia, and it's thailand, se asia into china in particular is a scattering of showers. not quite as big. tropical australia also have been very wet recently, but look at this massacre that stretches in an almost linked system down to south

australia warnings. a giant thunderstorms be around for a couple days in queens and in south australia and then a take your debut on that into new south wales and beyond. maybe even a c t significant undersold over an area which, as you probably know, is still pretty seldom just outside sidney. so expect more potential funding, at least in the west. it's still warm in perth, but those was it was that shower, although shall come through on a cold front. and so some rain probably welcome in western australia asked for new zealand. yes, a southerly breeze, but it's not cold. the sun is doing its work. enjoy a couple of days ah, with ah,

with ah, ah, ah, oregon the top stories on al jazeera us sectors there, dancing, blinking has promised ukraine's forces continued support from the us. he met the ukrainian president and keep on sunday, along with the defense secretary, lloyd austin, french president of under a micro has been reelected comfortably beating fall right challenger marine the pen . i close acknowledge the dissatisfaction with his 1st term while the pan says

she's in a good position for upcoming parliamentary elections. china is racing to track a coven 19 outbreak that may have been spreading in the capital for a week. mass testing has begun and beijing's largest district char young home of more than 3000000 people. people have been buying up essential items amid fears that a wide spread lockdown may be imposed. katrina, you has more from beijing. people here and aging our stream, lay anxious and nervous supermarkets across the city, especially in the eastern part have been stripped of many of their supplies of people panic, buying over the weekend of people think that any day now locked down could be announced. and this is because the authorities in the city said that they were 41 cases reported in charl young district, which is actually where we are located in the past few days. now 41 doesn't sound like a very big number, but they say that the situation is particularly concerning because these cases have

been, they say, spreading silently throughout the capital over the past week. and because of this, we've seen 28 neighborhoods put under lockdown that at least 20000 people confined to their homes. 1200 had been identified as close contacts and they were swiftly moved to quarantine centers for isolation. now authorities say that they're going to conduct 3 rounds of mass testing in china. i'm district this week, that's about 5000000 people who have to be tested 3 times over the next few days. and they've also discouraged any form of travel international. the city, especially with the upcoming may public holiday, which starts on sunday, which goes for about 4 days and is really typically when a lot of families leave the city for travel. well, let's discuss the effectiveness of locked down strategies and bring in michael baker, who's running us from wellington. he's a professor of public health. the university of chicago under member of new zealand,

covered 1900 technical advisory group. welcome to al jazeera sir. so if the government goes ahead with this lockdown, how effective do you think it will be in the government to saying, well, the situation is urgent on grim who cura from wellington? yes. well, we know that lock downs can work, but the challenge is, what is the strategy? because elimination is with very well for countries across the asia pacific region for the 1st 2 years of the pandemic. and we had very effective vaccines, but it's very hard to sustain. now with the arrival of the i'm a con variant, which as we know is ferociously infectious. and also, we know the balance is shifted now with high vaccine coverage. many of the worst affects the pandemic can be managed. so i think the real question is not so much with this particular outbreak can be stamped out with a lockdown. but it's really what is a long term goal in china. right. and what i mean,

what do you understand that to be than the long term goal? what are they trying to do here? well, i think it's been very clearly articulated, because it seems very unlikely that any country can eliminate the kind of candy orient long term. so therefore, you have to say, what is your strategy? and what's happened in this region is a number of countries that have been in a very similar situation to china. i think in particular, singapore strategies you see and hong kong to some extent eliminated, devise urea effectively for about 18 months kept mortality really low. and now transition to mitigation approaches along with during high vaccine coverage. and that has been quite manageable with kit the fatality risk from this infection down to lists and one in the thousands of point one percent listen point one percent. and we can see a similar approach in hong kong wasn't quite so successful. the problem there was

they hadn't vaccinated enough of their hourly, so they had a very intense on the cron outbreak. but they unfortunately had around 9000 dis from that. so i think china now has to decide what profits going to take. i imagine that some kind of orderly transition to mitigation would make the most sense. and where you are in new zealand. i mean, you know, some people say that new zealand had a successful strategy of implementing sort of sort of the, the 0 coven strategy. but, but that, as we all know, was abandoned. why the shift tell us about the new zealand experience yet? well, i think 2 things motivated. the shift. one was that the pandemic was changing, and we found with the doubt of different and the in particular, the owner convenient. it was extremely difficult to stop at, at the borders and also to stamp out outbreaks and museum. so those strategies started to lose your effectiveness. but the other thing was that we discovered,

and we found really with very high vaccine coverage, particularly in the elderly and also taking real care and aged care facilities. we've been able to keep our fatalities really low. i mean, this is still, i mean, no strategy has no risk and it's still that big uncertainty, things like long coded the fact we could get new vienna that are more lethal in the future. and elimination may and possibly become a great strategy. again, if we get more of the vaccines. ok, we'll leave it there. thank you so much, michael baker for joining us from wellington elections in slovenia. delivered a shock and a new prime minister. the opposition candidate, robert galard from the freedom movement party won the most votes. the newcomers now expected to form a coalition government. his party won nearly 34 percent of the vote compared to 24 percent for its conservative rivals. this is a major to feed for the outgoing prime minister ayana's young child who's accused

of pushing the country to the right. casper lou badge has more from the civilian capital debiana. this was supposed to be a tie through between the robert drop from freedom movement and prime minister deanna found shot by robert go up on in a landslide. one of the reasons is that he has a lot of new orders who weren't went to the election before. on the other hand, pianist, the answer was criticized for suppressing media for suppressing civil society and organization. so civil society are going into the 3 selling people for 12. so the very high turn out is one of the key issues in the selection in 2018. there was a 53 percent walters coming out. now it's very close to 70 percent. if we expect that the rubber to go up will form a government which other left the parties. on the other hand,

you honestly showing staying a position. he's a political vector and he's he will be waiting for his next chance. he was prime minister for 3 times and he couldn't do it the 4th time. so we are expecting that the parliament will have less parties. it would be easier for rather go up to form a government. the 1st verdict in one of several trials and me and marz deposed civilian leader has been delayed on so she was arrested by the army when it sees power more than a year ago. she's facing a series of corruption trials, so she could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. she's accused of influencing the 2020 votes to win a 2nd term. and often florence louis has more from qual, i'm for. while this is the 1st of several corruption trials she faces, and for this case there is a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison that carries a much heavy attend the other cases. and the other trials i have going on against

her. they were for relatively minor offenses with much shorter, maximum prison terms. and she has been found guilty in those cases ranging from possessing on license walkie talkies to beach and corona virus, ruth and rather sadly, she was sentenced to prison in those cases. for many people watching this case are expecting a guilty verdict as well. now in this particular case, she is accused of having received bribes from a former yang, gone chief minister. his name is pure, maintain, and he was considered a process of suji considered by some to be a possible successor. now, a few months while a few weeks after the cool that he appeared in a video broadcast on military run tv, saying that he had given gold and us dollars to on time to g as bribes. and in october last year he testified in court. now of the time where did the video appeared, many people had denounced it as fake, but then he appeared in court in october. and so he seen as a key witness in this case. and many people are expecting on fancy g to be found

guilty. partly because of this, but also partly because of the way the other trials have been conducted as well. the way the gender has conducted the other trials. of course, many people have also denounced the cases against authenticity as politically motivated and designed by the jury to ensure that she cannot stage a politically a political come back. a verdict is expected on monday in the trial of the turkish business, final fun casala. he's been held in prison for 5 years, despite not being convicted cavellas on trial along with 15, others on charges related to protest in 2013. they were initially linked to the development of stumbles. guess he part. he faces life imprisonment if found guilty, sent him because of all glue has more from a stumble. oh swan, kabbalah was the one who organized the gives the protests and nationwide protests which turned out to be anti government protests in 2013. that's why he's accused of trying to overthrow the got elected government debt,

which means targeting the constitutional order. and according to turkish law, ad this crime is described, deserves aggravated life sentence. however, there also my osman couple has been behind bars already more than 4 and a half years without any connection. and his supporters, a, his friends are asking, demanding his release. i have spoken to some judicial sources since friday they, they've been to a but they have been also telling me that i release an acquittal doesn't seem possible as this file has been criticized by international environment, international organizations, the opposition european council of human rights. a very important international human rights watchdog, and they believe that this case is highly politicized because of the government is fry. as for them, the government is trying to silence the descent. and that's why if a life sentence is given to these people,

this can also harm took his relations with the u. s. specially thinking that a turkey, that european council member, a turkey turkey can be suspended. but some argued that since o smock abala has been behind bars for more than 4 and a half years a quarter, according to turkish laws. a person who is behind bars for my fears, without that conviction can be released pending on trials the european union and india have agreed to set up a trade and technology council to improve relations. the decision came during a visit to new delhi by european commission president ursula underline her trip as part of a pushed by western countries to encourage india to reduce types, russia that supplies most the 5th weapons engine government has refrained from explicitly condemning moscow's invasion of ukraine he was president, is accepted an invitation from prime minister and tele bennett to visit israel. the white house says joe biden will travel there in the coming months,

which your leader spoke on the phone about the situation at ups. i'm off compound and occupied east jerusalem. heidi joe castro's following developments from washington, d. c. he nor this really side gave any date as far as when this visit would take place. but both countries indeed confirming that by an accepted bennet's invitation and in bed, this would happen quote, in the coming months. this announcement of following that phone call between the 2 leaders in which 2 important subjects were raised. one being the tension surrounding the alex, a mosque in jerusalem, where clashes between palestinians and israelis, security forces since april have led to hundreds of arrest palestinians. and on friday reports of some 57 palestinians, injured by israeli security forces. the white house read out of this call saying that president biden told bennett that he was taking note of the ongoing efforts between israeli and palestinian officials to lower tensions and ensure

a peaceful conclusion to the holy season of ramadan. now the other topic here, of course, being iran with bennett office saying that he asked biden not to the list that you ronnie and a republican national guard as a terrorist organization, as it's currently listed. now this is a something that is ro considers as the largest terrorist group in the world. detailed at the white house read out of this phone call left out instead saying that biden and bennett discussed the threat posed by ran and its proxies. germany is finding to strengthen a system of bunkers after rushes, invasion of ukraine. the interior minister, once old, based on shelters upgraded. the country has about 600 such bunkers, fossil reports from berlin. in a city with a law unto magic war, history like berlin, you don't have to look far to find old bunkers. in 977,

this subway station was constructed as an atomic bunker to protect 3 and a half 1000 people from a possible euclid attack by the soviet union. behind his door, the cold war seemed still very real. every people come in here should get a few things, which is what she needs. she needs 2 rolls of toilet paper for 2 weeks. a piece of so a towel and a boat and a cup. the bunker was designed so people would have enough oxygen, water, and food for 2 weeks, hoping the worst radiation would be gone by then. for decades, the government maintained hundreds of these bunkers. and since 2007, nobody spending a cent anymore because they believed in germany. the threat is over. not many in germany had expected just a few months ago that something like this would possibly be needed again,

an underground emergency kitchen, well hidden behind the concrete walls, but with a threat from russia becoming more real in people's minds. some here realize the country is not ready. not only have old bankers be neglected, many have been sold and found new destinations like this one, which now is a museum for asian art. others have turned into galleries, nightclubs or private houses. the nearly $600.00 bunkers, the government still owned. i'm not ready for use. according to military experts. it was b reusable. within a particular financial constraints, they're going to have to spend money. this whole thing is a very expensive undertaking. the thought of needing to seek shelter in a bunker field. unreal to some of those who just finished a tour overwhelming to see how dark it is, how,

how the feeling must been in the war when you hear outside the play in the bomb. we've had so many decades of peace in europe. this is a very difficult situation. i hope there will be a peaceful solution to all of this. even in the heat of the cold war, berlin could only protect 27500 people in its bunkers on a population of 2100000. so the government's plan to upgrade them is seen as a way to reassure it citizens, rather than aiming to offer protection for every one step, fasten al jazeera in berlin. ah, hello again. the headlines on al jazeera, us secretary of state antony blinking, has promised ukraine's forces continued support from the white house. he met the ukrainian president and keep on sunday along with the u. s. defense secretary lloyd austin.