♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the al jazeera news hour, i'm in doha and top stories. israel's dome intercepts palestinian rockets as fears of a ground offensive grow. israel attacks gaza from the area and the sea, 50 targets hit in overnight strikes. afghan presidential candidate abdullah rejects results of what

he calls a rigged election. they launch more air strikes in afghanistan and hundreds of thousands flee the fighting. ♪ israel and hamas exchanged another round of rocket fire, these pictures show israel's defense system intercepting rockets over the city of ashdod. israeli military says it bombed 50 sites inside the gaza strip including homes and also called up hundreds of reserve soldiers to the border and medics say at least 13 people have been injured in this latest round of attacks, some palestinian residents were warned to leave moments before the air strike. >> translator: 3:20 a.m. we got

a call from the army and asked us to leave the house, we all evacuated the house and told the neighbors and all of us left our houses and attacked ten minutes after the evacuation and the house is totally destroyed. >> reporter: john is in gaza, joins us live and john we understand in the last couple of hours there has been renewed activity and bring us up to speed with that. >> that's right, the numbers you gave a while ago sammy are probably slightly out dated and if you look at the horizon behind me we have seen smoke through the morning and some of those have been rocket fire going out, some of them have been clearly air strikes coming in. in addition to all of those injured this morning, in the past few hours, those 13 you spoke of there have been 30 palestinians we are told injured overnight. that house that we saw there, you saw in the video was completely devastated and one of at least four houses struck overnight in a new tactic and israel says this is part of a gradual campaign that they are

expanding. defense minister said this will take not days. well, that means this could go on for sometime and we know there are some 1500 israeli reserves that have been called up for a potential ground invasion and that could of course escalate this conflict further and we are told by hamas officials that there is no cease fire in discussion right now and that is because there is no intermediary party like egypt who took on the brokerage role so firing keeps escalating with no end in sight. >> we are hearing reports of israeli troop mobilizations and tell us where that seems to be going. >> reporter: well, those troop mobilizations have worried people here because they are concerned about a ground invasion in gaza all along and do not want to escalate the conflict but people believe israel is up to something big and see the israeli tanks,

artillery and manpower in the gaza border and you cannot sit here without hearing the escalation and booms and pops, it's something people are accustom to in the shops and still people walking around in the middle of ramadan doing daily business but there is no doubt this is a city, this is a region under siege. >> all right, john is live from gaza for us. now mark is a spokesman for israeli prime minister and joins me live from jerusalem and good to have you with us and first of all can you confirm reports of israel that benjamin netanyahu has ordered israeli army to prepare for a ground defensive in gaza? >> reporter: the government has instructed the army to be ready for a variety of contingencies, to be ready to meet the different challenges that could arise. our goal is clear. our goal is to free the people of israel, our civilian

population from those incoming rockets from the gaza strip, that will stop. >> does that include preparations for a ground offensive has, in fact, netanyahu ordered the ground army to prepare for a ground offensive? >> reporter: we have instructed the military to be ready for all options. we will do what is necessary to protect our civilian population. just yesterday we had more than 80 rockets coming in at our civilians from gaza, over the last few weeks we have hundreds of such rockets and warned hamas this had to stop and we are acting to bring this to an end. >> yes, let me put the question this way, do you think it's likely you will send ground troops into gaza? >> reporter: i could only say all options are on the table. the most important thing is to free the people of southern israel from those incoming rockets, hunldz -- hundreds of incoming rockets and no body

would sit and face bombardment day after day and week after week and we will act to protect our people. >> can you tell me how you plan to do that? has israel tried to go into gaza and end the palestinian ability to resist occupation to fire rockets and here we are back again, how do you -- what is your strategy this time to try and change that? >> reporter: this is not about ending resistance and they pulled out of the strip and went to the international frontier and no israeli settlements in gaza and no reason that rockets should be fired from gaza to israel and it's because of hamas, an extremist organization. >> they have a siege on gaza and control the air space and electromagnetic sphere and you do recognize that in the west

bank and elsewhere? >> reporter: i recognize that gaza has a hostile relationship with both neighbors, with both israel and egypt and that is because hamas is a radical, brutal terrorist organizations which is linked to other terrorist organizations in the region and not unlike other extreme groups like isis in iraq and lebanon and quite willing to sacrifice their own people on the altar on a extren extreme j agenda and the people of gaza and israel do not want to see the ex escalation and it has been forced upon us by hamas. >> i will quote you what an israeli told me yesterday and he said that any military action in gaza would be the equivalent of trying to take an aspirin for cancer. he said the solution is to end the occupation. so my question really is: is

that not really the key here? >> reporter: i think the key here is making sure that extremist, terrorist of hamas and other target civilians and if they want to talk about ending the population that is what we did in gaza when we pulled out, returned to the international frontier and took down settlements and we should have peace from gaza if i were to believe that narrative. the trouble with hamas, hamas denies the jewish state the right to exist in any frontier. and hamas says that every israeli civilian, man, woman and as we saw last week children as well, legitimate targets for their terrorism. so of course we are totally in our right under international law to act against hamas and protect our people from these incoming rockets. >> we can go around in circles. perhaps here since you are talking about war crimes and targeting of civilians let me quote you what joe stark of the human rights watch described the

destruction of palestinian homes of something of a war crime. do you think it's appropriate for israeli forces to be targeting palestinian homes and air strikes we can see now pictures of destroyed palestinian homes in gaza? >> reporter: as you know and you report it yourself on al jazeera we made a maximum effort to avoid human casualties and people were warned in advance we were taking the structure from hamas where activity is conducted. >> where people live if you have given a warning and if you think that maybe somebody living in the house may have connections with a hamas is it okay to destroy a home that houses women and children as well and leaves them homeless? >> reporter: first of all it's not that we think. we know and i have not heard hamas deny those targets were not hamas targets. if we want to talk about war crimes there is hypocrisy because hamas everyday is

committing a double war crime, first of all and you reported this on al jazeera and know it's the truth they target israeli civilians and saw it on the kidnapping on the west bank and see it with rocket fire on israeli civilians, they shoot at our cities, at our townships and farms trying to kill incents people, war crime. they also and maybe it's more evil they deliberately embed themselves in the palestinian population on the gaza strip putting infrastructure in hospitals and schools and mosques in the middle offensive yanukovich neighborhoods deliberately exploding people as human shields and i'm sure you can confirm that fact and in so doing that is a double war crime and hamas should be held accountable. >> we have to leave it there and thanks so much mark. and there is more on the latest developments on gaza on the al jazeera website and you can see it by clicking on the link on

the home page at al jazeera.com. afghan presidential candidate abdullah rejected results of the elections and preliminary results show opponent is just over 56% of the vote. and he told supporters the ballot was rigged and said he was the real winner. >> translator: yesterday the results of rigging were announced. i'm refusing the results of the rigged elections. ic icon -- i condem it and do not accept it. >> reporter: in the press conference or meeting he sounded like a man on the verge of declaring his own government, is that where he is going with this? >> reporter: you know, the people in that hall, thousands of people who came from all over afghanistan he said wanted to declare his government today but he did not. he said he asked them to give him a few more days to solve all

this and promised he would make sure all the valid votes were counted and all the unclean votes were thrown out and would like to see 11,000 ballot boxes reexamined for invalid votes. he accuses his opponent with the election commission and the presidential palace of colluding against him and stuffing ballot boxes and says there are as many as 2 million fraudulent votes cast in the runoff election cast last month and wants to see them reexamined. and ghani ahead by about a million votes and say the first results which came out yesterday are just provisional right now and not final results and abdullah is convinced she the rightful winner. >> what about the steps that will pay and what will happen with intervention by the u.s. secretary of state john kerry and perhaps moves made in the coming hours? >> reporter: well, we are waiting to hear from ghani in

the next few hours and abdullah is looking forward to secretary kerry's visit and he spoke with kerry and president obama by telephone and said he received assurances from both of them they would help a fair outcome to this and he is looking for that visit. secretary kerry to come here later in the week to try ran moderate things and secretary kerry did issue a statement early today saying if a parallel government were announced which is what abdullah supporters wanted it would jeopardize u.s. aid to afghanistan and that is a critical thing, afghanistan relies on international aid for its survival and everyone is watching carefully and want a peaceful transition and timely transition of power, the election and final results are due on july 22 and inauguration of a new president due on august second and i think everybody, afghans as well as secretary of state kerry and the international community engaged here wants that all to go peacefully and on time.

>> all right, jennifer glasse is live from kabul. now pakistan fighter jets launched strikes as part of offensive against the talibon and targets on tuesday were in the area of the north and says 13 taliban fighters were killed in the attack. hundreds of thousands of people have fled the area, the majority have fled to the pakistan town of bali where they say the displaced are putting a strain on resources and we have the update from the city. >> reporter: the people of banu are getting ready to go because it's the month of ramadan. as you can see the markets are brimming with people, last-minute shopping before the prayer and when people conjugate to break apart inside their homes. this is a city with a population of about a million. however, since the crisis in the north that forced over 500,000

people to flee their homes, the city's population has suddenly shot up. in the bizarres we talked to the people and how they feel about the igps that are now in their towns. >> translator: the locals are helping by providing food, clothes and whatever they can offer to help these people. >> reporter: we also talked to the people from the north who are spending their first ramadan outside their homes, away from their village's and also seeking shelter. >> translator: we left everybody behind and came to bonu and many of us are living in schools or with locals who are sharing everything with us including their homes. we have nothing and are at the mercy of the law. >> reporter: so as far as the igps are concerned, it is a difficult time. but banu and its population is always supportive and we are

told that majority of the people who have fled have sought refuge with friends and relatives in banu. >> much more still to come on the news hour including the court releases most of the asylum seeker rs returned to the country by the army and a woman pays a high price for her husband's acvision and the count down and brazil will take on germany for a place in the world cup final. ♪ saudi says three bombs landed in the border with iraq and there are no reports of injuries or damage. as yet it's not clear who fired the mortars or from where. and leaders of powerful sunni tribes say they want to remove

maliki from power and they cooperated with fighters from the group known as the islamic state and we met the tribes and sent this report. >> reporter: this was an attempt to show that the rebellion in iraq has a face and self declared islamic state is not alone on the ground. the tribal leaders gathered in the capitol of the kurdish region in the north. in iraq tribes hold sway and no one here is concern with attempts by iraqi parliament to form a new government, for them the sunni politicians in baghdad do not represent them or community and they have thrown their weight behind military council which was created in sunni provinces earlier this year. >> translator: all the fighters on the ground are sons of tribes. we have created military councils. they are made up of people from the former army of sadam and military council was born from the tribes. >> reporter: a group previously

known as the islamic state in i rack is also fighting the iraqi army. it is not just fighting. it is also declared iraq a part of what they call their islamic state, stretching across into syria. there are well-trained force that may share the short term aims of other sunni groups but not the moderate ideology. they are careful not to criticize the islamic state but at the same time they are not pledging allegiance to a group claiming sole authority on the ground. these tribal elders say the future of iraq will be decided at the ballot box but only after they get rid of what they call maliki regime. it began in 2013 when they took to the streets in a number of provinces and say their community has not only been marginalized but targeted by the government of maliki, the army responded with force. more than a year later they have pushed the iraqi government out of the sunni heart land and

don't just want to replace maliki, they want to reform what they call iraq sectarian political system and end iranian and american influence in their country, that is their goal. and even though the self declared islamic state group is not part of their military council they don't plan to take up arms against it, at least not just yet. >> translator: we will not feel the awakening again and will not fight on behalf of americans or iraqi government and all groups have the same enemy and putting differences aside for the greater cause. >> reporter: some of the men did take up arms against al-qaeda in the past and now say they have regretted ever having cooperated with the u.s. and the maliki government. the self-declared islamic state may be a thorn in their side but for now the focus is on what the sunni rebel leaders call deliberation of baghdad, i'm with al jazeera. three al jazeera journalists have spent 192 days in an egypt

prison and last month fahmy and greste were sentenced 7 years in jail and mohamed was given 7 years but received additional 3 because he had a spent bullet with him picked up at a protest site and they are helping them and we demand the journalists be freed and ukraine is promising to rebuild the city after taking it back from rebels and we report on the people who stayed behind during the fighting. >> reporter: on the outskirts of the fallen separatist and stronghold it's clear the final battle was hard fought. no doubt the ukrainian army is wasting no time, the vehicles and soldiers move on after days after regaining control of the city. these are the people who live through months of shelling and attacks try to get back to normal life. the minister of internal affairs paid them a visit, the people asked them about the way

forward. >> translator: it is clear that if russia stops supplying tanks, supporting the separatist and stop sending foreign fighters the situation will be over in the next two weeks. >> reporter: and she stayed in her apartment block to help others who could not leave and it was shelled several times. >> translator: we hope as they promised the government will help with our homes and left with our hopes, we lived here for 41 years. we have no where else to go. >> reporter: and it's under the control of the central ukrainian government many soldiers who fought here in the last three months are headed south for other battles and officials are telling us the battles will be much different than what happened here, the tactics for the separatist fighters and the ukrainian army have to change. hundreds of retreating separatist fighters flooded south to donsk and it has a concern over civilian casualties is greater and the ukraine army

needs a different battle plan. in broad daylight monday three main roads were blown up and this one is 30 kilometers north. ukrainian army leaves the scene of one battlefield as viktors but head to a new one that could very likely have completely different rules. scott in slovonsk ukraine. >> they returned to shrolnaka have been released by the police and intercepted by australian authorities by the indian ocean last week and the police are still holding five people who are accused of facilitating the journey, 153 other asylum seekers are still in australian custody and we have more from the city of gali. >> reporter: there is a variety of outcomes from those 41 asylum seekers processed through the local court here, nine minors

dismissed by the court, five who have been identified as potential facilitators of this failed voyage remanded in custody with further proceedings and the rest released on bail. we have heard personal stories from relatives waiting for the asylum seekers here and one man saying he had not heard from his father in a month and they called him yesterday and said he is in custody in a det detentin center but he knows he was planning on getting on a boat and heading to australia and what is interesting is what people are telling us on the ground, the majority were economic migrants and seeking a better livelihood in australia and that is a key to stress as well and many of them were not trying to escape persecution or trouble in their own country,

these are perhaps the human faces of a global issue of people smuggling and one australia worked hard with neighbors like shrelanka and the region to deal with boat people and the issue of human trafficking across the seas. first japanese prime minister to address the parliament and visited the australian memorial on the first day of visit and met his counterpart tony abbot and talked about boosting defense ties. >> australia and japan have now freed ourselves from one layer and are now moving towards a new, special relationship. >> reporter: hundreds of thousands of people meanwhile have been ordered to evacuate their homes in japan as a powerful typhoon moves over and the storm is weakening but still

causing winds of more than 250 kilometers an hour. let's get more on the weather especially that storm with steph and it's still kicking up a fuss, isn't it? >> the worst is over and i can show you the satellite picture showing you a huge area of clouds that gradually worked to the northwest and it's on the island now and you see the eye did not get that close to it, it was around 240 kilometers to the southwest, that is good news because the eye is where the worst of the winds and the worst of the weather is still. and on the islands there were certainly strong winds and also some very heave rain as well and now that storm is going to continue its journey towards the north. after a few hours though it's going to take a sharp turn towards the east and edge its way towards kishu and it's weakening and will continue to do so and when it makes landfall the winds will be 130 kilometers per hour with gusts of 160 or 170 so it will be far more

imaginable. this is the equivalent of a category one hurricane when it makes landfall. and more manageable for the winds but the amount of rain will cause major problems and this is because there has already been an awful lot of wet weather across this region. this is a storm weather front with us for the past few days and certainly given us very heavy downpours. in two days we saw 177 millimeters of rain and the average for this time of year, for the month is 270 so it gives you an idea we are seeing a lot of rain already and the ground saturated and will cause flooding and landslides too. >> thanks, washington state in the u.s. is on a high you could say and joined colorado in legally selling marijuana for recreational use. allen reports now from seattle. >> reporter: the empty cases you see are ready for product. >> reporter: james can't wait to fill those cases, open the doors of cannabis city and start

selling but there might not be enough weed to go around. he will start with ten pounds sold by the gram. >> that gives us 2200 packages so the first 2200 people. >> reporter: done by wednesday? >> that is the prediction. >> reporter: throughout washington's marijuana industry there is concern demand will far out strip supply this first week pushing prices up. >> we will be in that range of $15-$20 a gram. >> reporter: 20 licenses will be issued this week and only a handful of shops including cannabis city are expected to open. >> a lot of red tape, you know, and a lot of hoops for the producers and processors to go through and boy we had to jump through hoops with this but the hoops those guys jumped there has been a lot. >> reporter: this is one of the pinch points in the supply system and another place where we get an indication that the big pot roll out will be a

distributel out and one of two companies approved by the state for testing marijuana products before they go on sale. and ed is the founder and coo and ed shouldn't you be swamped right now testing recreational samples. >> we should be. >> reporter: what is happening? >> delay in licensing process at the end of last year and people, producers and processors are not ready. >> reporter: we don't have enough pot. >> we don't have enough pot. >> reporter: colorado's pot lift off was a huge retail success and first day sales estimated $1 million and the state had a booming and well regulated medical marijuana industry and the switch to refeel recreational pot was smooth. in washington medical marijuana is virtually unregulated and isn't written into the new law so the business of legal pot for fun has been built from the ground up. growers and processes got licenses in march and in many cases the first legal crop hasn't been harvested.

>> it's hard to get running and the places i get product from are those people and they are still struggling. >> reporter: store owners and regulators expect a bumpy beginning and expect supply to ease in the months ahead. >> reporter: more on al jazeera and the career of stefano as football mourns his death. football mourns his death. ♪ when you run a business, you can't settle for slow. that's why i always choose the fastest intern. the fastest printer. the fastest lunch. turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant.

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you are watching al jazeera's news hour and let's remind you of the top stories now. at least 13 people have been injured in israeli air strikes on the gaza strip and army argeted 50 sites including homes and the palestinian faction launched more than 60 rockets at four israeli towns. afghan presidential candidate rejected the early results from last month's runoff election and put him be hurricaned -- behind the rival. air attacks and they killed 13 fighters and hundreds of people have fled the area and they are in the town of balu and putting resources under immense strain. and as the prime minister benjamin netanyahu has pressure

for a tough crack down on hamas and stephanie has the view from southern israel near the border of the gaza strip. >> reporter: the sound that all is not well here. this is the region council and it lies next to the gaza strip. we are told this is outgoing israeli artillery fire and increase in rockets landing here and mayor says israeli government needs to do more to contain it. >> translator: governments security ministers and prime ministers have come and gone and the rockets keep falling. we need to understand there is an army and policy and we need to know how to use both arms, there is no choice and seems in the face of terror you need to beat it on the head and remove the 12000 missiles they have underneath the ground. >> reporter: there is a steady stream of rockets being fired across the border. gaza lies over there in the distance and it's isolated by a wall and palestinians there have no control over their border and fighters there say firing

rockets is a way they have to resist israel siege. and he lived next to gaza all his life and says in his opinion the israeli government isn't doing enough to move towards peace with their palestinian neighbors. >> waiting for both sides especially from our side to do something, to understand the other side, to respect them, to respect the operation, to respect the clarity. you don't have to agree with this. you don't have to accept it but you can respect it. >> reporter: the view is not a common one here but seeing both sides are here to stay he argues that the only way to move forward is to dialog and not by military action, stephanie decker al jazeera southern israel. >> let's goat more on the situation the pakistan where hundreds of thousands of people fled military offensive in north wazirstan where we have been reporting and we have the u.n. coordinator from pakistan and joins me from the capitol

islamabad and a lot of people going to banu, what sort of assistance, if any are they getting there? >> sammy they are receiving support from the government and since the 23rd the u.n. ngos are supporting the government's response, food aid, healthcare, water, sanitation. we are obviously trying to build up to respond to the needs of a huge new displaced case load. >> the numbers are huge, aren't they, 800,000, what sort of mobilization would be necessary to deal with that sort of figure? >> well, the u.n. and ngo and the authorities were already responding to the needs of 900,000 displaced from other agencies of fata so we extended that

that as -- assistance to the half million and it's a multi sector response where we need access and we need to help the over burdened people. >> do they have a place to sleep, when you have 800,000 people on the move, do they have blankets, stuff like that? >> we are distributing blankets, shelter materials, kitchen sets, everything that we can provide them to help them survive this initial phase of the displacement. but we are still very much in the emergency phase. there are about 1200 schools that are already housing the displaced families. in addition to the house communities in banu and kahn and tanka and other areas here. >> and we understand also that some people have actually fled seeki seeking refuge in afghanistan

and what happened, i imagine their circumstances may be even more dire? >> i had reports from the colleagues the other side of the border of something like 112000 estimated displaced from north wazirstan and they are still trying to gain access to all of them to assess needs but they are responding in the same way the authorities here supported by the ngos are responding in pakistan. >> we will leave you there and thanks so much neil wright and taliban has responsibility for suicide attack that killed 16 people in eastern afghanistan. four nato servicemen and two police officer and 10 civilians are dead in the province and nigeria government says it's closer to finding more than 200 school girls abducted in april

by boko haram and taken from the town of chabawk and made arrests in the case. >> we are close to finding them and we found a number of leads and we have identified in the course of this exercise and that is why this leads to the arrest of the intelligence, chief of intelligence of boko haram and also some of the female kutas and mothers and so forth and so on. >> reporter: military helicopter crashed in vietnam and killed 19 people and it was minutes in a training mission when it came down in a small village 40 kilometers west of hanoy and cause of the crash under investigation. millions of people in indonesia will head to the polls to elect a new president and it's a tight race and voters face a choice

between the governor and former general and we have more from jakasta. >> reporter: it's probably the most anticipated election in indonesia, the race between two candidates who could not be more different. a narrow margin here also called a furniture maker before he entered politics and his popularity rose when he was elected governor and because of his hands on leadership and visits to poor neighborhoods. >> translator: he goes to the markets to see how the people are getting by. i think he is great. >> reporter: and he would have easily become the country's next president but a strong campaign by the rival, the former general has made this a tight contest. >> i am confident we are going to win because we are organized.

we are organized with social and organized the party. >> reporter: but his rival is confident too. and he was the late president's son-in-law and a special forces commander accused of ordering the kidnapping of political activists in the late 1990s. his popularity rose after he portrayed himself as a decisive leader that indonesia needs and the accusations against him prompted media out lets to endorse him. >> concerned if he is the next president he may turn back the clock and take us back to the different era. this came from his own campaign and used the symbol and he even states he doesn't believe

democracy for indonesia and it's a western product. >> reporter: in a rare interview on indonesia television he says the fears are unfounded. >> translator: what they are trying to do is to scare the people. but of course we cannot turn back the clock. history is history. we learn from it but we will move forward. >> reporter: it's expected turn out will be unusually high and both candidates say they want to combat corruption and eradicate poverty and make indonesia stronger and self sufficient it all comes down to their approach and the contrast between them is dividing the nation. a lot is at stake, indonesia elections polorized the country and people who have never voted have signed up and because the race is so tight fears of intimidation, violence and fraud is increasing and they will now decide who will win this political battle. i'm with al jazeera. german councillor angela

merkel is in china with a visit to strength enbusiness ties between the two countries and accompanied by china on the visit of the temple of heaven in beijing and held talks with the president ping. one of kirkistan's activists is in jail, four years after the violent ethnic clashes he was sentenced to life in prison for insighting violence but his wife says he is being silenced for speaking out against the persecution of the minority community. and we report. >> reporter: it fills the empty spaces of her home with pictures of her husband, children and grandchildren and says it makes her feel like she is not alone. her husband is in jail. her kids fled the country. after the ethnic riots four years ago and now they are too afraid to come back. >> translator: i live alone. it's very difficult. i dream he is near me.

my children and grandchildren are near me drinking tea, just simple happiness and he is in prison and my children are not here and i'm alone and see people in the village sitting together when they are old and i want to do it too. it's very sad. >> reporter: her husband campaigned for rights of a minority in kirkistan and the people feel forgotten in their own country. >> translator: they are afraid and cannot say what they really think and even know police extort money from us. >> reporter: this was the land of their fathers and she says she is not going anywhere. she tends the garden and sends her husband pictures so he doesn't miss anything and feels at home when he is back. while we were there we called him and he told us he misses his wife very much and it's difficult to be in prison at his age. but even so he doesn't regret being an activist. >> translator: there is no

person like my husband. some people say that he is sitting in prison for all respects. >> reporter: and even though they have been married for decades the thought of her husband still makes her giggle. she travels to the capitol to see her husband once or twice a month. it's difficult to come home without him. she says there is a chance he will be home soon but for now she makes him homemade jam with fruits from their garden for the next visit. southern kirkistan. >> reporter: plenty more ahead on al jazeera including we see a controversial festival in spain from a medic's point of view. and in sport facing germany without their star striker, and fans are nervous as well as excited. ♪ >> talk to al jazeera.

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♪ all right, let's find out what is going on in sports atlanta and here is robin. >> thank you very much, the first world cup finalists will be decided with brazil to face germany and all the pressure rests with the host as we report. ♪ for a nation that spent so much money on the world cup lifting the trophy could be the pay off.

but first making the final will be no easy task. brazil will be missing star player ruled out of the tournament with a fractured vertebrae in his back. >> translator: we have a group to work on difficulties, be certain that we will play for us and mainly for the goal from the beginning, to get to the final. >> translator: i don't think brazil is a team that relies on this, it's logical he is the key player but i think the other players will overcome his absence because football is a collective game where the team relies on everyone so the team can win. >> reporter: fifa ruled that columbia's man that made the challenge doesn't have a case to answer. german boss love calling for the referee to take a aroun around him. >> translator: i believe these brutal fouls have to stop because otherwise we do not need

people, we will have other types of players that will go out to destroy. >> reporter: brazil and germany are the two most consistent sides with eight titles between them and brazil lifted the trophy in 2002 when they beat germany in the final and the germans are appearing in the semis for a fourth consecutive world cup, the first nation to achieve that. >> translator: for us it's a challenge to play against the host and of course you have the experience of previous tournaments but then again every match is different and judged differently. >> translator: germany is very balanced and let's not forget the german team has been working to prepare itself for six years. the work of all these years is shown in the results. >> reporter: brazil are impatient in 42 successive home matches dating to 2002 but none mattered more than this game, a nation of 200 million awaits and

i'm with al jazeera. anxiety, nerves over all of the above and there is no doubt brazil will come to a stand still for the match against germany and we report from there. >> reporter: at the market famous for its cheese nervous brazilians stock up on snacks ahead of the semi final against germany. >> translator: we will be eating a lot especially our nails says this woman. >> reporter: brazilians are as anxious as they are excited about facing such a strong opponent without their star striker who suffered a fractured vertebrae in the quarter finals. >> translator: we are nervous because both teams are very good but the absence is a heavy blow. >> reporter: brazilians know their team will need more than skill, which is where this man

comes in. at the market in rio he lights candles in a replica of a football pitch with brazil's team including the ailing one. >> translator: i will wipe my hands over him like this, he is looking great here in his little corner together with all 12 and lots of luck, lots of luck so brazil wins. >> reporter: for good measure he will tie the legs of one of the german players. back at home people tell us they have a better weapon. >> translator: we didn't have mar but we have 200 brazilians who will be cheering for our team. that is their strength. >> reporter: so this crucial game the german team is wearing red and black jerseys, precisely the colors of one of their most popular football clubs and people say they are furious and they are wearing those colors and it will increase brazil's

desire to beat the germans. a few meters away we wondered if the german fans are feeling intimated. >> i think they are welcoming us well and even the beer tastes like home so not at all. >> reporter: but now nervous smiles and laughs all around, mixed with a suspense that is almost unbearable for brazilian fans as they face the unthinkable prospect of losing the world cup on their own soil. i'm with al jazeera. i would love for you to join us for the 2014 update, a draft of absolutely everything going on world cup and on the air at 1540 gmt, under five hours from now with correspondents from rio, berlin and getting a sense of how fans in germany are ahead of the semi final. this is on display at the stadium to allow the public to

pay final respects and recognized as one of the greatest footballers of all times and alfredo di stefano died after suffering a heart attack a few days after his 88th birthday and we look back at his career. >> this is an overused one but perfect way to describe alfredo di stefano and forever associated with the great madrid side of the early 50s, stefano named the blonde arrow turned the club in one of the world's leading sides, winning the top competition five times. >> translator: alfredo di stefano changed the history of this club and also changed the history of football. he helped the transformation of real madrid in the world sporting institution and he is real madrid. >> reporter: born in buenos ares and playing for three countries and it was achievement that club levels brought

worldwide fame and scored 307 goals in 396 games for madrid and included 49 goals in the european cup and a record that saw him mentioned in the same breath as pila and mara-donna and they said of him sad to learn and my favorite player a legend is gone. the man himself was always very humble about his achievements claiming he never deserved all his accolades and the president given to him by madrid and tributes pouring in would suggest most football fans rounds the world would feel differently and i'm with al jazeera. >> a court approved a preliminary settlement that would see thousands of former nfl players compensated for concussions related injuries and the judge's ruling is two weeks

after the nfl agreed to remove the 675 million cap on damages in the revised settlement and there is still a pay out formula for retired players based on age and 75 million set aside for testing and 10 for medical research and education, the players' lawyers are covered to the tune of 112 million by the nfl and total pay out amount is set to be 870 million. the trial over the 2 billion sale of the team of los angeles clippers and he was a no show at the proceedings at the court and his estranged wife shelly is ahead of the sterling trust and trying to sell to microsoft boss and his legal team is trying to block the fore sale of the franchise. . >> translator: he has been clear about that and doesn't want to sell the team and i'm

not going to beat around the bush and i understand his opinions and comments and things he has done which have been made public are not pop popular. >> translator: we were anxious to get sterling here to face the music and he keeps delaying and doing what he can to keep the family from the 2 billion the family is entitled to, why? because of his ego. >> catch up on the sport on the website, al jazeera.com and details how to react with the team and that is sport for now and that is the latest. >> thanks, roland and now thousands of thrill seekers in the spanish city for the and wall bull run and nine days people will be racing with bulls on narrow cobble streets and

thousands are injured every year and we met one par medic who works at the event. >> i think it's like a drug. i mean, for them we are here, very happy to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to be in our office and then go with the people and i think something that you feel inside. we are right now 150 people across to run and displaying different points. we are working here in the last 25 years and every morning i am excited to come here. you listen to the rucus and as you know as the bulls in the street.

one condition and we go to the hospital on the first part there and we have young people in one city and there are two million ways to live with the party and we feel the festival more inside because it's something more religious. it's religious festival in the region but people from outside also. >> reporter: that brings us to the end of this news hour and we have more, another bulletin of news coming up, in a couple of minutes and do stay with us here on al jazeera. ♪

>> al jazeera america presents >> it's a beginning of a new life for me... >> can't keep running from everything... 15 stories, 1 incredible journey >> edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america >> strehl launches a military offensive overnight, bombing targets in gaza and building troops for a possible ground invasion. president obama is responding to the latest mideast escalation. >> pushed back by the ukrainian military, burning down bridges and gathering in donetsk to make a final stand. >> the immigration controversy heats up as the white house announces thousands of migrant children will be deported.