we're going back to a poor south african neighborhood and tradition come together in an annual competition with the people of color we want on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. this is the news hour live from london coming up. germany is totally controlled by russia donald trump kicks off a nato summit with a surprise attack on germany then the allies double their military spending target . the first images emerge of the twelve toy boys recovering in hospital after their dramatic rescue from a flooded cave. opposition trying to stop this month's election is going ahead if

they are free and fair. and. all of that a full. face off in the wild cup semifinals will be live to moscow later this hour. we begin in brussels where u.s. president donald trump has told nato leaders they must increase their defense spending to four percent of the economic output that's double his previous demand and the alliance is current target launched a surprise attack on germany accusing it of being controlled by russia because it was so much russian oil and gas james bays reports from brussels. never has the u.s. commitment to its nato allies look to the shaky is this even before the summit had started president trump used his breakfast with nato secretary general to attack

his allies focusing on one in particular germany is totally controlled by russia because they were getting from sixty to seventy percent of their energy from russia and a new pipeline and you tell me if that's appropriate because i think it's not and i think it's a very bad thing for nato and i don't think it should have happened and i think we have to talk to germany better the secretary general look taken aback maybe the lawrenceville trying to bite me but the president kept up his extraordinary attack but germany as far as i'm concerned is captive to russia because it's getting so much energy from russia so we're supposed to protect germany's. energy for america chancellor merkel who's just survived a bruising political battle at home had this response to this fresh assault. that's entitled to its months i have myself witnessed that parts of germany were controlled by the soviet union and i am very happy that today we are unified in

freedom as the federal republic of germany and that's why we can say that we make our own policies and we make our own decisions. despite that comment she looked as though the ferocity of trump's words had affected her she was hardly smiling as she interacted with the others. the president and the chancellor of boarded each other out walking at different ends of the procession then what's known as the family photo and we're at a time of family feud as helicopters flew overhead the tension was high the leaders clearly aware of the current divisions are among the most serious this alliance has faced in its almost seventy years of existence. finally when chancellor merkel and president trump actually met the language was much more conciliatory than earlier. versions. perhaps the president decided to back down he's been known in the past to avoid confrontation in face to face meetings or the two decided to declare

a truce for now either way damage has been done to us germany relations and to the image of unity they wanted to project here james pays out at nato headquarters in brussels. is in berlin with a german reaction to chumps. the general tenor of president trump's remarks regarding germany's contributions to defense spending in so far as its role as a nato member country have been negative for some considerable time not just as president but also as candidates and he railed against what he considered to be the insufficient amount of money being spent by the german government the point to make here is that for the german government they have committed to raising their defense spending to the correct ratio in the nato summit in wales in twenty fourteen but both main parties that vied for the chancellorship in last year's general election

very clear that they were not going to reach that kind of target in the life of this parliament frankel americal when she heard the president transfer marks she chose to speak to reporters saying effectively that is somebody who'd grown up in communist east germany she was very grateful now to live in a free country not dictated to by other countries where germany could plow its own pharo politically that's something she thing that she has returned to the question will be what sort of fall out there will be long term regarding the nato relationship to cuba between germany and the united states this summit is a very important occasion for the twenty nine member countries question as i say is what will emerge from it russia has stayed silent over events set there just on it as rory charis explains from moscow. well there's much for moscow to like in donald trump's comments at the nato summit moscow has always thought of nato us imperial projects with its guns basically targeted at russia so anything that

destabilizes the north atlantic treaty organization is a pretty good thing from the moscow perspective however there is plenty to unsettle them as well particularly going into the helsinki summit upcoming with trump and putin due to sit down together on monday now one of these things is the fact that donald trump has painted russia here as the bogeyman as the enemy so that's not going to go down in russia particularly well also donald trump has taken a. russia's energy exports of course russia is massively dependent on being able to sell its oil and gas around the world particularly in western europe and it uses its energy exports as a foreign policy tool so anything that we can that's that ability for russia

is going to be seen negatively here there is a view also this bubbling away in the background here not just in moscow to say but also in western europe that perhaps donald trump has ulterior motives that he's not just warning western europe about the dangers of reliance on russian energy what he's actually done trying to do is create a space for american liquid natural gas exports to be able to come in and fill any void if western europeans manage to get themselves off russian gas. marx makowski is a senior fellow at the land to council and former u.s. defense official he's also the author of flexible expansion nature enlargement in era of austerity and uncertainty he joins us now from washington thanks very much for being with us so what do you make of things isn't trump's attack on america is right at the start of a nato summit what was he trying to achieve anything. you know i think president

trump reviewed his visit to brussels laying out his frustrations over burden sharing and trade imbalances and germany in particular is the main target of his is dire german germany has not been able to fulfill its two percent threshold commitments agreed to in two thousand and fourteen and as a result he wants to take advantage of that inability and show case that allies are not meeting their defense pledges and are free riding on the united states and again chancellor merkel is vulnerable politically also is key in maintaining sanctions on russia which he said differences of views on so i think president trump as expected targeted the chancellor and he broadened that target to also include the fact that russia potentially has germany captive on energy exports which again i think is not necessarily focused on the trumps frustration with germany in nato but his wider frustration with the e.u. and with germany and trade imbalances and so again i think he's using the nato

summit to criticize the alliance and criticize european countries over what will likely be a new front in the u.s. trade war on europe yeah especially as you say he went in saying that they need to spend aim for a full percent of g.d.p. which presumably not going to the not managing two percent now than four percent is a big big us but he also then tweeted later on that they need to do two percent of g.d.p. immediately not by twenty twenty five it doesn't end up with a situation where it was that he's just saying these things and actually in the end he signs up you know the kind of the nature of status quo stays the same old you think this his actions will actually make a difference to these countries and make them spend more. you know one hand i think the president is trying to classically negotiate a real estate deal where he asked for something he knows he's not going to get hoping that allies agreed to two percent and agreed to it in a faster manner than two thousand and twenty four united states itself isn't meeting a four percent threshold and would be hard pressed to do that considering budget

restraints so i think president trump again would be happy if allies met the two percent threshold but again i don't think that he's that concerned even if today allies met all the two percent threshold they would say he would still find a way in criticizing the alliance and in that sense i think it's counterproductive how his statements have soli flow because almost an obsession with burden sharing to me showcases that it makes it difficult for allies particular that having difficulty in their political populations having support for increased defense spending and seeing increased defense spending as simply a reaction to a president that's very unpopular in europe makes it very difficult for some european leaders throughout europe to meet those obligations so in a way he has to do what secretary madison's been doing which is again criticizing but showcasing that progress has been made and doing in a way that makes it amenable for allies to meet those thresholds but i don't think president trump is solely focused on allies nino's thresholds i think he's more

focused on undermining the alliance and undermining alliance unity and when you mention mention undemanding undermining the airlines how solid is nato given what we've we've seen is it something that will survive you think. so i think you have a tale of two summits you have a president whose rhetoric has sought to divide the alliance but in actual practice tomorrow you're going to see some concrete deliverables that were agreed to several weeks ago at the defense minister ariel which will likely be agreed to by heads of state you're going to see a nato readiness initiative which will see more nato military planes and battalions and ships being deployed within thirty days with a target of two thousand and twenty we're going to see two new nato commands one in the united states and one is germany we're going to see a route reinforcement of nato commitment to deter russia would battle groups in the baltics and poland a new focus on cyber a new focus on counterterrorism so there's a lot of concrete deliverables that nato is going to agree do in spite of president trump's rhetoric and the u.s. government again is moving forward on actually increasing u.s.

commitments to nato so in many ways nato remains strong and resilient but absolutely the president has set the tone and i think has exacerbated existing cracks in the alliance that could undermine the alliance and actually could fundamentally weaken his hand in negotiations in helsinki if president putin does not believe that president trump as a united alliance behind him is as the united states negotiates with russia marks mccloskey thank you very much indeed for your analysis thank you. and second world cup semifinal has kicked off in moscow and england already one up as they take on croatia for a place in sunday's final gets fronts we have correspondents standing by in moscow and with excited fans in both countries at the start with andy richardson in moscow

so kind of hope for but it's gone. yes going after just five minutes kiran trippier with with a free kick one of the young players the. england manager has invested in school in moscow today that there were a lot more england fans coming into this game a few more chrysler fans as well that we've seen throughout this tournament generally not been a huge numbers of european fans at this world cup we were at england's first game in volgograd when they took on soon is here there's probably only two thousand maximum founds at that game but at least three or four times that number in moscow at this game they certainly seem to believe that something is happening around the football there is a positive mood around the team at the moment but the players saying in the build up to this game but they have been quite lucky the why the why the draw has played out they've really got to this stage without playing an absolute superpower of of

world football they did play belgium in the group stage but they managed to just play in that game because both teams already qualified for the last sixteen at that point so that they're open to the idea that this is a perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity to get to a world cup final for croatia who've come through two grueling extra time games and penalty shoot outs the last one against the host russia but they weren't just taking on a russian saying they were taking on the whole of russia it felt like in that stadium insult she's just a case now of whether or not they're physically and emotionally able to pick themselves up from going behind in this game but a long white cigar thanks very much indeed andy which isn't and. is in the creation capital zagreb tell me they seemed pretty confident earlier maybe that's rubbed off a little bit now. is obviously when three fears for his silence were good should be silenced in cairo one year later to spare your ego the size of the exclusive tactic to make it work

prior to discharge you are among the bones of a great show you know completely banish all. did you feel even the fear of london because england to this point of the bowl still is playing better than in the film asia so everybody's pretty much quiet in watching what's going on no and the big saying here in the square we'll see even before the game people are saying that the human when the range judge issued the full this boring with the way grandma was raining but it's a little bit as well as the lucky ones find find some children from the language you know use your phone during morning study to the ones who are in some of those shelters but yes as you said that is a good age to know everything you squash fun you'll be playing with a generally general sense chairs but that's it everybody's just watching eagerly watching what's going to finish next and they fall prey should fans focus racial will equalize and then you'll see what will happen to the end of the match.

education think you very much speak to anyone who says that being in finals and in on those high pocket superior all the different atmosphere that. the court got it was a cop killer explosion of joy hilfiger and brings home they don't know who they were basics of they're surprised by what happened a few weeks ago from. one new foster home on the small mall from a very good time away from our expecting great things that we said would say right now on the spot the basics of the house i feel i work for the right story so why are tens of thousands of they were not told one of the biggest festivals across a good because everybody wants to watch this much i didn't think this was right of course we both hope so see but i was going for the post a couple of ways where the fun is to do it for you see the shooting right in the middle of it i think it is a bond that was offered to most business most welcoming so you pushed over over to her car was. expecting to see the place if it drove for

a shot i'm sick i will bring the phone to good folks when the world cup would fall and so the first time they could have a house i want to own one so would my documents in sixty six fifty two years ago. thank you very much indeed a wedding was. still to come on this news hour. japan's prime minister visits the areas worst hit by deadly floods permission to return things to normal as quickly as possible. a landmark virgin island to ban the import of goods from occupied territories around the world including illegal israeli settlements. and sports twenty time grand slam champion roger federer is knocked out of wimbledon missing out on the ninth title details with touch on it coming up.

divers in thailand who helped to bring twelve schoolboys in their football coach to safety from a flooded cave have called the rescue a miracle the first pictures have emerged showing the boys recovering in hospital from chiang rai steadfast in reports. they are looking surprisingly healthy considering the ordeal the rescued boys are being isolated from their parents to reduce the risk of infection in hospital. john gave his son a big thumbs up when he saw him he was one of the first to stop looking for his son who when he disappeared almost three weeks ago. i didn't feel confident that my boy can do this even though he knows how to swim but i'm not sure if he's a good swimmer he only got basic swimming lessons at school but i'm very happy and proud he came out safely he can't wait to hold his son but understands it might take a few more days. the first thing i want to do is hug him all parents have the same

feeling i want to see the face of my child and embrace him and ask him how he feels and how he's doing the five hour long hazardous journey out of the narrow flooded gate system has taken its toll on the children and their coach the commander of the time navy seal divers who played a vital role in the rescue says they were very called mast. the boys got special full face masks with oxygen circulating all the time the divers carried them out and they were wearing wet suits to keep them warm we made them relaxed and calm and slowly moved them out but they were very cold. the complexity of the rescue operation became clear when trucks full of equipment drove away hours after the last cave rescue was completed twenty tons of oxygen tanks ropes lights and food supplies have been fairly underground cleanup has started after a rescue operation unprecedented for its scale and complexity it's been called an

extraordinary example of human strength and resilience family one cave and the rescue of the wild boar soccer team will now go down in history as the moment where the impossible was made possible. to him while their families school friends and everyone else in thailand celebrated their safe return to footballers will have to stay in hospital for at least a week to recover hoping that the first talk with their parents will be sooner than that that fast and al-jazeera john right thailand. japan's prime minister has visited areas hit by the worst flooding in the country for three decades and promised to help survivors by pledging four billion dollars towards recovery. just survivors sheltering in an evacuation center in the western city of courage she keep all forty of the one hundred seventy six people who died in the floods and landslides lived there dozens are still missing a huge cleanup operation is underway throughout central and western japan mcbride

has more from chris sheehy in a perfect year. shinzo rbs visit comes as emergency teams continue to search through debris and destroyed houses looking for some of the people who are still missing thousands of people remain displaced meanwhile thousands more are gradually returning to their homes to assess the damage and figure out how to rebuild for shinzo rbs government this is a chance to assess how it deals with extreme weather events such as this especially if people here believe these have now become the norm rather than freak occurrences japan is already well advanced in preparing for natural disasters it has to be given the prevalence of tsunamis and earthquakes it seems you can now add to that list extreme storms such as this and this visit by a seems to be a recognition of the priority it's now giving to this. china has accused the united

states of bullying and warned it will retaliate against any further u.s. tariffs this after the trumpet ministration raised the stakes in the growing trade dispute by threatening ten percent tariffs on two hundred billion dollars of chinese goods china's commerce ministry called the u.s. action completely unacceptable and warned it will complain to the world trade organization. has announcement is the latest move towards a potential global trade war president trump fired the first shot in march imposing a twenty five percent tax on all imported steel and ten percent on aluminum exempt some countries including canada mexico and the e.u. block in april china vowed to slap retaliatory tariffs on thirty four billion dollars of u.s. imports they came into effect last week then in june the u.s. went ahead and impose tariffs on canadian mexican and e.u. goods mexico announced an immediate tit for tat response and canada has hit back with terrorist worth more than sixteen billion on the us from using its own three

billion dollar response several countries have complained about america's tariffs to the video it could impose further tax measures depending on the outcome are trying to cross from asian brown has more from beijing. well more angry words from china's commerce ministry on wednesday a spokesman saying that the latest u.s. action was unacceptable and that china was shocked saying that the united states was accelerating and escalating the trade dispute with china he warned that china would take countermeasures but didn't specify what those would be but it's got many firms u.s. firms here in china worrying that perhaps the chinese government might start harassing u.s. firms here now china has also said it's going to sue the united states at the world trade organization we've heard very little from the w t o's so far remember this was the organization set up to deal with disputes just like this meanwhile stock

markets here in asia have not been reacting well the hang seng in debts dropped more than two percent on wednesday morning the nikkei index in tokyo dropped also by one percent the markets are worried about inflation and about economic growth china meanwhile is taking measures to try to insulate its economy it's reaching out to other countries that have fallen out with the united states over trade germany in particular the chinese premier has been in germany earlier this week he talked up the prospect of new trade deals between the two countries and next week china will be hosting e.u. leaders at a summit here in beijing where the theme is going to be free trade over protectionism island senate has get its back into a draft law that would ban the import of goods from occupied territories around the world including illegal israeli settlements it was backed by all parties except the

governing funa gael for mr simon kearney said it risked fanning flames in the middle east the bill now goes to committee with the government expected to continue trying to block it. yes but not to the are so to her table that bill france is black she joins us from dublin can you just explain to us what in practice your bill would mean. this ban is about banning goods from the illegal settlements and that's basically what it is and we know that their settlements we know they're illegal under the law and and we know that international law has really really said these are illegal so that's what we're doing here and we believe that banning goods from the illegal settlements is the right thing to do because if we receive them here in ireland it's like receiving stolen goods and israel's prime minister has already condemned this and said the our senate is going to support a populist dangerous and extremist anti israel boycott initiative that hurts the chances of dialogue between israel and the palestinians and they will suggest it

would harm the livelihood of of palestinians who work in the israeli areas what's your response to that well you know can i say that you know we have strong support from the palestinian trade unions so i don't think that's true and they day dave day don't want this to continue they want settlements gone so that they can farm their own land and i and i think that's really important and they want to grow their own economy as well so you know i'm not so sure that that's true am and i know the support that we've gotten from the palestinian people has been phenomenal and you know we have gotten e-mails from so many people even israelis who have said thank you for bringing this bill forward so how likely is any mention the e.u. how likely is it that the e.u. would would come on board with an idea like this because i've so far they they don't do they. unfortunately the e.u. and probably won't come on board but my belief is that back in the eighty's and arland where it led to on in south africa in particular on apartheid and i believe

we can lead in this i believe arlen can lead on this and i believe if we lead on this well their countries countries will follow too and that's why it's so important to me that that was a distinction between boycotting the goods in particular from the settlements and that the idea of a bigger a broader boycott of israeli goods this is absolutely not a boycott of israeli good stis is only a boycott of the illegal settlements because under international law and we know that settlements are illegal and we know that if we receive god's from the illegal settlements that we're we're going against international law and that's all this is about it's not really rocket science it's not b.d.s. and we're just trying to do the right thing and we're just trying to you know be legal here ok francis black thank you very much indeed for coming on the program fresh air time. much more still to come this hour more protests expected in

haiti as anger mounts over the government's plan to raise fuel prices. a german near nazi sentenced to life in jail for a number of killings targeting victims of turkish origin. that is for former world number one novak djokovic battles his way through finals at wimbledon. as the temps . hello again a look at the levant and western parts of asia first of all it's a largely fine picture across the bulk of the region just one or two showers in the extreme east otherwise hot and sunny around the caspian sea thirty eight there for tara again very hot conditions for baghdad in iraq and fine around the eastern side the mediterranean with a saving grace to you got those sea breezes there just to keep things a bit more pleasant twenty nine in beirut should be

a very nice day moving into the arabian peninsula temperatures low to mid forty's generally as you'd expect at this time of the year but also some cloud across southern regions. looks like being quite cloudy through the day temperatures there much lower twenty seven degrees here in qatar the winds are extremely light and that means the humidity is creeping up so temperatures only forty three degrees but the humidity level run about thirty to forty percent it's extremely sticky at the moment as you move down to southern portions of africa weather conditions looking fine for the most properly have got some rain affecting cape town during thursday heading through to friday we should find cooler fresher conditions coming through but it will be brighter elsewhere plenty of sunshine around temperatures there of twenty in harare lots of showers across central parts of africa quite a long way north to see even a chance you might see want to downpours in bamako in mali.

when diplomacy fields and fear sweeps in our borders are wide open wide open to drugs terrorists we've proven the barriers are built to impose division and it's not to sixty's instead of being an obstacle or do always to be to became another obes to quarter to peace in a four part series al-jazeera revisits the reasons for divisions in different parts of the world and the impact they have on both sides walls of shame on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. where every.

one of the top stories here knows there donald trump has opened the nato summit in brussels with a surprise attack on germany saying it's totally controlled by moscow because it buys billions of dollars of russian oil and gas they also told me just to increase their defense spending to four percent of their economic output doubled his previous demond. the first pictures have been released of the twelve toy boys and their football coach being treated in hospital follows a dramatic rescue mission to free them from a cave they were trapped in for more than two weeks. and english fans erupt as the team go one nil up against croatia in the opening minutes of the last world cup

semifinal day. at least ten people have been killed in a serious side bombing and gun battle in eastern afghanistan. ten others were injured when three attackers brew themselves up at the education department offices in jalalabad the capital of our province the gunfight with security forces lasted several hours no group is claiming responsibility but both arsenal and the taliban have carried out attacks there in the past. libya's national oil corporation says it's reopening key oil terminals for enclosures due to fighting between rival groups the tripoli basin n.o.c. so the country's oil production was dramatically hit by the fighting forces led by the warlord holly for have to shut down the ports of rest the newfie and as she did last month after then came to an agreement to hand over control to the internationally recognized government following pressure from the u.s. france u.k. and other regional powers. more anti-government protests are planned in haiti as

pressure grows on president assad and movies to step down their pinafore days of unrest over the government's plan to raise fuel prices in the impoverished nation stores have been looted and protesters have set up. fiery barricades in the streets several people who have been killed governor john doe has the latest in the haitian capital port au prince. the proposed rate hike on gasoline caused great outrage in this country primarily because it affected almost all sectors of this country rate increase of thirty eight percent on gasoline forty seven percent on diesel mostly would affect the middle class that have cars and also business owners that use trucks and cars to move their products through the country but there was also more than a fifty percent proposed increase on kerosene that affects an overwhelming majority of the poorest people in this country they use kerosene rely on kerosene to power

their homes with electricity so that is why you saw so much anger at this and that's why you saw the government quickly backtrack and and at least temporarily suspend these rate hikes but you're still seeing great pressure on this government people are still very upset and he just told us that this gasoline and kerosene rate increase was just the last straw that threw everyone over the edge in their anger they say there is also clear dissatisfaction with this government and dissatisfaction over things like infrastructure problems in the country unemployment and an economy that continues to struggle here. so mobile is main opposition party and thousands of its supporters have been rallying in the capital harare to call for free and fair elections the country will head to the polls on july thirtieth the first without longtime ruler robert mugabe but the actual commission has already been accused of failing to prepare properly for the vote to

prevent rigging and ghost ballots much also has more from harare. opposition leaders on the march in the capital say the voters roll has a lot of ghost of voters on it they say they have proof some names have been duplicated and several addresses and id numbers on the register don't exist they calling on the independent electoral commission to allow them to personally inspect ballot papers before elections to prevent vote rigging while. election organizers say it is possible for some people to have the same first last name and date of birth and for security reasons it's illegal for political parties to inspect the ballot papers before elections should we continue to try and.

given that exercise we've done has failed to build consensus in the first place perhaps we should just stick to our very strict constitutional mandate and exclude everyone these are things that we're going to sit down as a commission and discuss. whatever our voting day at the end of the month will be the first without deposed president robert mugabe on the ballot except for the explosion at president was really in last month campaigning has been incident free so far police say the right up to this election has violence than in previous years and few cases of intimidation have been reported so far the running funny paper denies opposition allegations is planning to manipulate voter numbers by tendering the ballot paper for international observers who were banned by robert mugabe have arrived for the first time in sixteen years the european union says a disagreement between the electoral commission and opposition parties can be resolved. for those.

reasons. provided for it. is the. credibility problem by the main opposition leader nelson chamisa says if nothing is done to resolve the stalemate his party will announce their own final results will vote counting is complete a move some say could jeopardize the credibility of the polls. police in uganda have fired tear gas to disperse protesters demonstrating against new taxes including a levy on access to social media ups around two hundred people marched in the capital kampala to rally against the levy which has provoked widespread outrage from telecoms firms customers ok web reports from uganda. i.

many people here in uganda's capital kampala on tapi about having to pay to use the internet's most popular services i hope the wine a pop star and then p. that a demonstration against the new social media tax crowd quickly gathered. to their first summit at that because it is their proximity i doubt the people of uganda said to me. they don't think that if you're not. just the the president maybe it could be anybody but you can be telling steak to my face in such a media uses have to pay about six cents a day to be able to access whatsapp facebook and other services. president during a seventy said the tax will help to reduce costs that the activists here say it's an indiscriminate tax that hurts the poor most left of the people like you and i i was least wealthy internet users access to dates is kind of on the map if they

have a bit of money twenty cents fifty cents i buy some credit when he runs out the deal with him again maybe for a couple of days i think i should i just think i. would have to just minutes of munching peas came to stop the protest they said it's a lawful demonstrations have been heavily restricted in uganda since anti-government protests seven years ago this time things were no different. meanwhile kiosks for mobile phone payments that is usually busy time quiet they will say subject to a new tax the recent yes' says his to transfer payments directly from one phone user to another become a key part of the economy but the government says it needs the revenue. and us but it is the. with gondo you know so on one hundred i think i'm about bandung. want

a good assumption. we don't want to do it we also know that it's not to be a bad thing. but those who think it is a burden weren't given long to express it police arrested protest leaders. will be wind supporters managed to drag him away the prime minister since told parliament that we don't deal with the the controversial taxes. it's pretty clear that these kind of opposition to them went be tolerated.