in as can zinnias 1st female president after the death of john. talks between the world's 2 most powerful countries are about to wrap up but the negotiations got off to a fiery start with the u.s. and china accusing each other of human rights abuses and trying to bend other countries to their will the summit is being held in anchorage in the u.s. state of alaska midpoint between the 2 countries capitals the white house says it knew the talks would be tough but still wants to work with china well our diplomatic editor james bays is live from the summit in anchorage so james there's been a tense start to the talks certainly some strong language it was exchanged about 24 hours ago but it's all continued behind closed doors what do we know so far and are we likely to find out what is actually be discussed. well i think we're going to find something out at the end of this meeting certainly we've been told by u.s. officials that things have been more constructive behind closed doors the chinese today briefing foreign ministry briefing in beijing was still pretty negative about what happened here. they are think the talks which have been underway for about 2 hours. today back in that room behind me. looked like they might be breaking up pretty soon in fact we have the security here just going through some of the bags of the journalists with the suggestion to me that perhaps we might hear some words whether we we were always told there would be no joint statements and i think that is unlikely but who might speak to us depends on this meeting and the pens or most daws when they open and clearly if we are going to have statements as i suspect from each side separately then obviously they will have their own spin on how things of god and some of what they're going to be saying in each case will be aimed at their national audience so they'll be a bit of deduction listening to both sides to see how this is gone and whether what we saw here at the open exchange was a clearing of the yeah. frank exchange of views and they move on or whether actually that was the start of the deepening of the division of chinese u.s. relations which after the 4 years of the trumpet ministration is certainly at a low point absence bit of an all time low and i guess we always knew that nothing concrete was likely to come out of this meeting but i suppose it's the start of a dialogue now that there is a new administration at the white house. well whatever relationship these 2 countries end up having they have to have a relationship these are the 2 most powerful countries on earth the 2 members of the u.n. security council there are issues where they have to work together you got another important climate conference at the end of the year in glasgow in scotland these are 2 important countries very important countries when it comes to climate change there are other issues regional and international issues where they have a key bearing on things for example afghanistan the u.s. is trying to push peace talks in afghanistan china is important in that region is a neighbor of afghanistan the same with me m r the u.s. and many of its western allies of pulled by what's been going on since the 1st of february and the military coup and they are marc shiner again a neighbor an important regional power and most people believe they probably have the most sway over the generals who are running things and the crackdown in that country so these 2 could 2 countries the u.s. and china have to find a way to work together on some issues but whether that is going to be grudgingly and whether they're going to find a set of ground rules where they can agree to disagree on some issues and work together on others as the pardon ministration are hoping we will have to watch very closely and interpret the words that are. going to be coming out of the 2 sides when they finish their formal meeting and of course we'll be crossing live back to you james when that happens for the moment james bays of diplomatic editor thank you. one of those talks of course anthony blinken the u.s. secretary of state is president is present and speaking to reporters outside the white house president joe biden said he's proud of secretary blinken he was also asked about relations with america's other major rival russia. very very very very very well you know but it. was. a brutal border for. our viewers watching. your. coverage. biden and his vice president come on harris so in the state of georgia after the deadly shooting of 8 people in atlanta on tuesday they're due to meet with asian american community leaders 6 of the victims were women of asian descent adding to existing fear is all from a surge in a racially motivated attacks during the pandemic the white house says the president will offer support and hear people's concerns. but just the day after european regulators said that it was safe to use finland has stopped the use of the astra zeneca vaccine it comes after 2 cases of blood clots but elsewhere prime ministers have been making their way to vaccination clinics in a bid to show just how safe the jab needs barker reports from london. out of storage and into people's. the french prime minister was amongst those receiving the oxford astra zeneca vaccine on friday in an effort to restore national confidence in its use although the french health or to use a commonly only recommending it for people aged 55 and over. from the beginning i always thought that the vaccine was safe so maybe the people are in a panic but there are always side affects. germany and italy have also restarted their rollout of the oxford vaccine the netherlands in portugal will follow next week so too will spain although certain groups will be excluded so he didn't and denmark said they needed a few more days to decide but germany's health minister will not back seems alone won't be enough to prevent a 3rd wave of the virus many e.u. countries are extending restrictions or introducing new ones germany says it's currently in talks with russia to secure supplies of its sputnik vaccine pending its approval by the e.u. starting fights. the rise in case numbers may mean that we cannot take care of our opening steps in the weeks to come on the country we may even have to take steps backwards in from 16 regions along with paris to going into a month long lockdown from this evening schools will remain open but non-essential shops will close and travel will be restricted in the french capital more people are in intensive care now than joining the 2nd wave in november new covert variants of force president to ban your mccrum to change his strategy to virulent strain 1st found in the u.k. now accounts for 75 percent of french cases also getting his vaccine on friday the british prime minister boris johnson the oxford astra zeneca jab naturally more than $25000000.00 britons have had at least one dose of a vaccine so far in hospitals doctors surgeries and special vaccine hubs like this one the government says it's on target to give every adult in the country at least one dose by the end of july despite a 4000000 doses short for from a factory in india it is an enviable progress and the european union knows it. with the oxford astra zeneca jump no reapproved the e.u. the speed quickly to make up for lost time the. london so that's a situation in the u.k. in europe meanwhile brazil's president is trying to get the supreme court to reverse coronavirus restrictions in force by state governors this despite continued soaring infection rates in the country around 90000 a day with 3000 daily deaths monica in a key of his life for us in rio de janeiro a worrying figure is there of course when it comes to infections and that's what i've also done as chances of getting the court to reverse those lockdowns. well that's something that still needs to be seen more and more governors though have been taking measures. to restrict to restrict people walking around to restrict a crime or is just because the situation is very worrying 18 of the 27 states say now they may have a shortage of agents which are used in to beijing and care unit so they're all taking measures to restrict people walking around and big the here near the janeiro they have just decided to close down the beaches not so much because people say that you're not supposed to exercise or anything but because many people take buses very crowded than here now that it's lovely and it's the weekend time and so all states are taking measures and i think if it will continue to take them because they have their intensive care unit full and there's no solution for that. and does. it just remind us and i know it's i guess it's difficult to really assess in an accurate way but what do most people sink obviously no one wants to be in lockdown but do you get the sense that most people agree with that what he's trying to do it would be a popular thing to pursue. people are divided you'll have to find the doctors people on television will be telling you that that know that this is wrong scientists have been calling for a nationwide lock down because they say that it doesn't make sense just to close down one city in a country the size of brazil or people are traveling back and forth all the time so the new variants are spreading rapidly across the country and that's on one side now the people on the streets many of them say we need to work because brazil has been had emergency aid since january so for people and there's a lot of informal and bonamy so these people want to be about working they don't want to shut down and so it's you have both sides and president knows this has been each talks to these people when he says governors are killing they're going to starve and that's what he has been thang. monica with the latest from what it is and i don't monica. papa new guinea is closing schools banning mass gatherings and making masks man the tree that's part of what the government is calling aggressive interventions after corona virus infections reached record highs this week neighboring new zealand and australia have pledged to help alexi o'brien reports. a new temporary hospital ward for papa new guinea's capital port. the city seen a spike in corona virus cases in recent weeks even some health workers warning of what they call a covert tornado heading towards the country's fragile medical facilities there are only 2 public hospitals in the capital one is shut down the other is said to have 70 percent of its staff work or isolating that hospital's chief executive told local media he thought they were prepared until the most recent surge what we are concerned about is just how. the emergency department in the whole hospital was b.s. it had to crater not war card patients in addition i have. a pretty good apartment so we're told it's just a mutually for private patients and it's very difficult so they spy ship. the island nation managed to miss the worst of the pandemic last year but hundreds of new cases have been reported in recent weeks it's forced the government to take action announcing that from next week schools will close mosque where it will be enforced and to mask the rings will be banned. gatherings like this one just last friday a state funeral for former prime minister michael somare a man often called the father of papa new guinea. somehow they expect say they watched these scenes in horror describing it as a super spreader event with potential to. disaster the escalating outbreak seen powerful new guinea's neighbors chip in new zealand says it will send more protective equipment for frontline health workers while australia is pledging 8000 doses of the astra zeneca vaccine and calling for the european union to step up as well it's not right. for the bates countries in europe to deny the supply of vaccines to developing countries who need it desperately want public we do our bit by the frightened as we are and and for the problems so i won't be out of pocket but i will be helping a country that is a desperate need of receiving those votes which. with only 55000 tests conducted out of a population of almost 9000000 it's the what the true rates of infection a much higher those on the ground say a rapid response is needed before the outbreak gets out of control next year brian al-jazeera. still to come on al-jazeera a judge refuses to delay the trial over the killing of george floyd a black man who was that sparked a summer of racial justice protests and givings battle to convince people that the ebola vaccine is safe as the country fights to stop its outbreak from spreading. now this is disappointing still all the clouds coming down from the north the north is always cold temperatures are below where they should be for this time the if the most of europe to be honest we're in single figures really from central france all the way to the east and long way south as well where it was nice and warm inspiring we've got a best 11 in madrid nearly 13 gibraltar and 11 in london was accompanied by a cold wind now there is more sunshine around admittedly there are outbreaks of rain sleet or snow on their way through eastern parts of europe but the obvious active weather is this blue stuff the rain throughout the mediterranean particularly focusing and we're talking about saturday in italy the southern balkans northern greece and turkey but prague and czech republic shows how cold it is a lot he's breeze because snow on saturday it only gets up to about 5 by monday and the average is about 10 for this time of the year and that is that record light snow its way through it's rather more persistent in the baltic states middle and it's followed by the normal the wind no warming here and here's a disappointment over the balkans for example so the forecast for poor greta on today actor is an overcast one getting colder again the average is 60 and you have 8. welcome to down from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes . so you can relax enjoy breaking news. and when you leave with a smile we know our day's work is done cats are always welcome to our home. the you. had in mind are now of the top stories on al-jazeera high level talks between the u.s. and china are set to wrap up after an unusually heated public confrontation both sides hit out on the other's policies and front of the cameras revealing tensions over human rights and economic power the french prime minister has received the astra zeneca vaccine after european regulators the clear that safe but paris and 16 other areas are going back into a months long lockdown just hours from now and brazil's president is taking several of his country states to court in a bit of overturn lock down restrictions that's despite new case numbers hitting a record high of more than 90000 stores. a u.s. judge has rejected a request to move the trial of the former police officer charged with the murder of george floyd judge peter cahill said there would be no benefits from moving the trial elsewhere because it's already received extreme amounts of publicity that lead lawyer had complained that a payout of $27000000.00 to george floyd's family from the city of minneapolis had jeopardize the impartiality of the jury across to john hendren who is in chicago it is so many aspects of this trial which technically hasn't even started already proving i guess so tense already what is the latest john. well as you mentioned judge peter cahill he is a guy who is not putting up with any nonsense with any effort to changes trolly wanted to start on time and as planned in minneapolis so he is denied a defense motion to deny to delay the trial and he's denied another motion to move it the idea behind that would be to find a general jury that knew less about the case and was more impartial but as a judge points out everybody around the globe knows about this case so there's no point in moving it as he told one juror who wanted to know how long she would be out of work he plans to finish this trial in the allotted 4 weeks that is pretty much what he's done in the jury selection right now they have 13 jurors 12 regular jurors and one alternate and they're racially mixed because minneapolis has a racially mixed jury pool one of the issues with moving that would be via took it out of town you would most likely in minnesota have an overwhelmingly white jury that happened 30 years ago in the case of rodney king and when i had a largely white jury 9 out of 12 did not convict the police officers in his beating there were riots in l.a. and across the country the judge wants to avoid that in this case and the crux of this case is how george floyd died the prosecution is are you arguing that he died under the knee of derrick chauvin who held his need on there for 2 minutes and 46 seconds as floyd gas for breath and said he could not breathe the defense is arguing it was a combination of other factors that he was on drugs specifically fentanyl and opioid and methamphetamine that he had heart trouble and that he had covert 19 and they are saying all of those factors contributed to george floyd's death. john hendren with the latest from chicago john. at least they protesters have been killed in the latest rallies against the military coup in me and my. crowds faced off with security forces in several cities the military and police have used increasingly violent tactics to suppress the protests at a local rights group says more than $220.00 people have been killed since the coup in early february well scott had so has more now from bangkok in neighboring thailand. we saw a bit of a standoff with protesters and police and security forces what had happened is we've been seeing a lot more around the country particular where there are bigger cities the protesters are building these barricades and that's where the kind of usually have a face off with the security forces tear gas is fired and then it escalates usually to live rounds and that's what we saw in this central myanmar city of on what happened is that it seems as though while the police were trying to take down the barricades the protesters approached and then that's when this violence took place in the least 8 people there were killed there were some smaller protests again around as well we know at least in one case in the northwest one person was killed when there's a confrontation with security forces as well indonesian president has called for a high level meeting of the aussie on this is the bloc in southeast asia 10 nations to discuss what's been going on in myanmar and when you look at it it's very interesting they've kind of indonesia has taken a leadership role if you will in the region in trying to get reach some kind of political political solution to what's going on to me and mark but it's a very tall order to tall task because normally see on don't really interfere with each other's internal matters as they say but indonesia is trying to break that tradition one thing needs to be said the nations that neighbor and have a lot of relations close relationship closer than they find it it's going to be a little bit more difficult to have these kind of discussions particularly nations like thailand was a lot of trade and a long border with me and more so that's an interesting to see how those discussions if those high level discussions actually take place. well of journalist with the b.b.c.'s me and more language service is feared missing an online statement says reporter was taken by unidentified men in myanmar scapel told the u.k. based broadcaster says it's deeply concerned for his safety more than 30 journalists have been arrested since the military coup in early february. health officials in guinea say they're facing a major challenge in their bid to tackle an ebola outbreak many people in remote communities are refusing to get vaccinated because they don't trust the health care system instead nicholas sachs reports on how they often rely on traditional healers . or traditional healer to really move this cocktail of natural remedies using plant soil and the mysterious liquid is more efficient than a vaccine made in the lab he says it can fight off even the most contagious and fatal of viruses a bola. truth is real vaccines people have dogs saying it might even hurt them and attract more sickness honestly i'm already vaccinated by traditional medicine after a nurse died of a bull in february the un delivered 36000 bola vaccines to contain an outbreak in guinea's forest region but only $3000.00 doses have been administered so far among those refusing to be vaccinated is shop owner. who says she's more afraid of the vaccine then a bola think of an economy i'm not going to take the vaccine and while i don't know what's in it why should i trust health workers in 2015 more than 11000 people died and 20000 were infected after the virus spread from guinea's forest region to neighboring liberia and sierra leone at the time health workers wearing protective suits were attacked kidnapped or even killed out of fear hospitals were seen as a place where people came to die not to heal getting his ministry of health says it's now better prepared but overwhelmed we have a covert 19 epidemic no u. boat on top of an outbreak of these rules and yellow fever we need help from our partners to contain the outbreak it's in this best institute in neighboring senegal that scientists detected the. it's from blood samples of relatives of the nurse that died from a bullet then put it inside this machine the p.c.r. machine and multiplied it and found to this genetic sequencing scientists made an extraordinary discovery 5 years after the last outbreak the same bull a strain has reappeared the virus has not jumped from animals to humans as previously thought by scientists but survivors of the virus are carrying a ball and some are unknowingly spreading it into a quest for the. love we think. we need to keep a close watch on the ball a survivors with thoughts. because they carry the virus in the body fluids they are to keep population to contain the outbreak the good news here is that we have a vaccine that works. the challenge is not the lack of medicine but the lack of trust in health services and communities where medical providers are too often absent this has now become the main hurdle in bringing and then to the break in getting the cliff hawk al-jazeera. turns anea has its 1st female president some yes who has a son has appealed for the country to unite and move forward after the death of her predecessor john mcglynn 40 but she's taken over from one of africa's most notorious covert 906 who for a long time that night is that corona virus was even a problem in the country many awaiting to see if a sign will now push for the government to finally obtain vaccines catherine soy has more. who hasn't tanzania's fast female president and a native of the semi autonomous region of zanzibar was solemn as she made her 1st speech as leader she said the circumstances around has swearing in leave little to celebrate. it is time to consider each other show each other love our unity mentor now his humanity and patriotism and tanzania and values president salue who is not new to tanzania's politics but the late president john mccain fully surprised many when he chose her as his running mate in 2015 she remains loyal to him but some in the country say her leadership style is different where you could appear impulsive and combative she is believed to be more thoughtful and likely to listen to advice many are hopeful she'll continue with model foolish development and social projects and his 0 tolerance for corruption but also change where he fell behind i hope to see more independent. i hope to see us and we will go back to the foundations of party. because that is. what we need. is a predict that. bush inherits a country that has been on the mend economically analysts say she faces a difficult task of restoring democracy in peoples' rights which the late president was accused of eroding she also needs to gain the confidence of tanzanians many are watching to see if she'll change the strategy of how the government has been handling the coronavirus pandemic last year controversially declared the disease had been eliminated his government refused to put in place proper protective measures and has rejected a global vaccination rollout for now will the focus is a burial of john mark foley a man who leaves behind a checkered and divisive legacy he'll be buried next thursday in chattel his rural home in northwestern tanzania catherine soil. king and more on that story and everything else that we've been covering here on al-jazeera on our website there it is the address al jazeera dot com. i am. now reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera a high level talks between the u.s. and china are set to wrap up after on unusually heated public confrontation both sides hit out at the other's policies in front of the cameras revealing the tensions between the 2 the u.s. secretary of state began by outlining his deep concern about human rights abuses and economic coersion his chinese counterpart hit back.