beginning of the month tens of thousands of people have been sent to hospital in many cities across the country where the temperature has really risen to forty degrees celsius salami reports now from the capital to care so japan is fighting back against the heat wave that is striking many parts of the country at least twenty two thousand people have been treated in hospitals for heat stroke but you know why they are might not have others unless it's so hot until now i've never switched on the air conditioner all day in my house and it makes me think what would happen to us if there was an electricity blackout in the us. on monday afternoon the temperature in your city north of tokyo was recorded at forty one point one degrees celsius it is the highest ever in japan. some people are trying to use the heat by turning back to the old tradition of. or splashing water. even talking as governor. then event to encourage people to do the

same. to me so they. are not splashing water may not have much of an effect but it could reduce the temperature by a few degrees this kind of activity and people communicating with each other will help them cope with hot weather. then but it's a dented heat wave could impact japan's tourism industry kyoto city has canceled its famous month long gone month so the festival for the first time since it started in one thousand nine hundred eighty six even some schools are canceling summer classes because the water temperature is reaching thirty three degrees the organizers of the talk you are twenty twenty one in big games whites are plating the two years going down announced that most of them are phones willis thought as early as six in the morning to avoid the summer heat. japan's meteorological agency

says the heat wave is likely to stay until early august with daytime highs well above the average in many areas around the country. and the u.n. refugee agency for palestine is cutting jobs hundreds of them provide critical a to palestinian refugees and it's also the second largest employer in occupied west bank and gaza about one hundred twenty five people were notified immediately of their job loss the decision comes after the u.s. suspended more than half of its i new funding to the agency child strafford has more. the un's refugee agency here in gaza saying it's having to make these cutbacks in these redundancies because it simply doesn't have enough money it says that not enough money has come through from donors or even from an emergency peel appeal that it launched of course the us in january decided to cut under his budget

by a around sixty five million dollars the un's special coordinator for the peace process is urged donald trump to put those funds back into an risk caught highlighting just how important they are of course these job losses not only have a huge impact on the families of the people that work for enron but of course right the way across the gaza strip around a million people in gaza depend on on roads aid and assistance basically to survive here so it has a massive impact it's understood that under is in need of around two hundred seventy million dollars just to keep its programs working in two thousand and eighteen and so this year so this is a huge blow to not only for as i say the employees that stand to potentially lose their job but full hundreds of thousands of people across gaza and of course it

comes at a time where we've seen the biggest escalation of violence between hamas and israel since two thousand and fourteen and israel's land air and sea blockade on gaza continues. now the leaders of the world's major emerging economies are meeting at the annual brics summit in what could be an event dominated by donald trump's trade agenda this is the tenth summit for the bloc that consists of brazil russia india china and south africa it was established to challenge the west dominance of areas like trade but the member countries have sometimes struggled to establish a united voice overcoming protectionism is said to be the major focus at this summit in johannesburg as a number of major world powers are in borrowed in trade wars with the u.s. . as our correspondent in johannesburg in south africa and you're in santa not you in in the northern suburbs so i mean we've already mentioned the fact that this this meeting the tenth is likely to be dominated overshadowed by the assurances

coming from the white house but how much is that the case is there anything else on the agenda. while that is going to be a huge topic with the u.s. daily to start a trade war countries like china will start looking to new alternatives markets to try and buy and sell their products received thirty in the last few days china has been visiting some as in countries it's been putting out of money on to the continent for example it's promising to give south africa fifteen billion dollars for infrastructure development projects is also doing the same. and so i think we'll see a lot of that is china try to find other markets try cement itself not just an accident in other countries as well what you'll likely see when the summit in does we won't see leaders openly criticizing donald trump all see them come out as united force say they go to work better together and they're trying to increase

trade between themselves much like it was the year wasn't that long ago was it really that the whole notion of bricks became a reality it was a phrase was that it was coined by the former head of goldman sachs. at the time it was imagine that these bricks these are massive emerging strong economies could have almost taken over the world it hasn't happened has it particularly for i'm thinking of brazil and indeed where you are south africa where they've had immense problems. exactly the struggle to find a unified voice in terms of trade agreements for example but also some of these countries are issues with their economy so that's a good result for example have high unemployment rates high inequality rates all those things to also try and overcome another problem because of the also going to be facing as they go forward is i suppose how to find a way to work together as one unified force they do have a chance now to do that but a problem one person said here was from india to the issues how these countries

have is that of bad governance the indian delegation said the chinese for example are coming into the country buying a lot of land displacing the poor and if anyone tries to challenge that they are arrested or they are taking care of so a lot of people are saying that one hindrance to the brics bodies is the lack of good governance the lack of cooperation of spearheads human rights for example so they say what it is good that you have this alternative to the i.m.f. and the world bag these bricks leaders must be held accountable and they cannot be allowed to get away with human rights violations for example all right terry for now thanks very much indeed because we'll go back to harry and johannesburg as soon as we see. the south african president start his remarks well as that meeting gets underway u.s. president donald trump has called terrorists the greatest he prays live is in a tweet and he's already imposed imports of these these levees on imports of steel

and aluminum and as he does that of course the european commission president claude younker is jew in washington ahead of the meeting mr trump called for both the u.s. and. the e.u. to drop all tyrus barriers and subsidies meanwhile in mexico the incoming president andres manuel lopez obrador says he had a letter from president trouble which want him to speed up negotiations to rework the free trade agreement known as nafta and that comes as leaders in latin america pledge to accelerate the process of free trade in the region and that move is being seen as a direct response to growing u.s. protectionism alright let's speak to done huang now who is an analyst at the economist intelligence unit unit's access china service she's joining us now via skype from the chinese capital of beijing the world in the world of trade if you like it is in a certain amount of turmoil at the moment no doubt deliberately so as

a consequence of donald trump's imposing levy is left right and center but out of chaos can come up or to nitty do you think that this is providing a good opportunity for the brics nations perhaps to to to reboot and come together . is there live provide some outlets for the brics countries to a closer in some issues like climate change or open markets free trade but overall i still think that preexists quite a loose institution each member one very different things if anything in this backdrop of trade tension china is the target not any other members and for china and russia they have very different pursuit when it shows us and china and india deep down they don't like each other much so overall china is not really the most unwelcome face in a lot of those countries because of its aggressive investment under the name about a road so it might as well actually push some countries like india and russia more

closer to the us to the united states that's interesting because in the in this whole sort of trade dispute that's being ratcheted up by donald trump he has articulated some concerns about the way china does business that in in fact others share as well and i'm thinking maybe the african countries which have raised concerns about chinese investment which nearly always they say disregards transfer of technology and other such more long term investments. right absolutely it is the one of those rare coins of convergence for you as for europe for african or other countries to get to come together so after you think china is sort of some sort of common enemy because china first of all has a very aggressive investments in many countries and some of those projects have involving environmental degradation labor disputes things like that and for china

is a rose initiative it's made in china twenty twenty five are way too aggressive for it to about the world so overall i just don't think it's a very easy way for china to lead the brics. but i do think there are some rooms for improvement especially in the financing and the money tree corporation front all right let's flip to the other side if you don't mind and have a look at this impending meeting between the president of the european commission. and president trump both of them obviously very strong characters younker is particularly should be saved particularly free of speech and is likely to come out with some some gems when it comes to when it comes to confronting president trump who he's a known and he's known to be in opposition to the trump way of doing things so that could be very interesting to. oh absolutely and i think in the car tariffs it is on the top of that it. is the most traded in manufactured goods and really important

to europe but i don't think the u.s. would cave much in that regard but again when it comes to china the two sides might have more common ground under the name of investment screening because the united states has already wanted to increase the scope of six years on to more scrutiny over china scene that's meant and for europe it doesn't have the investment screech screening per se but many countries already have the political backlash over chinese investment so in very in about a few years then we can see that actually chinese investment are not so welcomed in many of those countries as it has claimed done wang thank you very much indeed interesting to talk to you live from beijing. now rescuers in greece fear they may find more bodies after wildfires swept through coastal areas near the capital

athens so far the number of killed is seventy nine but the government has declared a state of emergency and many of the fires are still burning the barker is in the seaside resort town of marty where twenty six people were found dead. with ferocious intensity the flames tore through homes cars and livelihoods. and the wildfires quickly turned deadly. locked in a final embrace dozens of bodies discovered in the popular seaside village of marty east of athens families had huddled together for safety but found no escape. early this morning we discovered three other victims further away this place where unfortunately there are twenty six people men women and unfortunately children see . cars with the keys left in the ignition the doors open and first aid supplies

left on the seats picture emerges of people abandoning their cars and trying to escape on foot. within hours large parts of marty had been destroyed survivors described running for the sea to escape the choking smoke military and coast guard vessels along with dozens of private boats join the effort to rescue more than seven hundred people from the beaches some survivors were discovered at sea here in the resort town of marty nearly every block nearly every street there are signs of devastation like this charred cars lined the streets the fire was so intense here it's even melted the metal on some of these vehicles and some locals who have returned to inspect what's left of their properties in every fourth or fifth house here seems to have almost been completely destroyed but where do you begin thinking about rebuilding and as emergency crews supported by the military go from house to house and as coast guards inspect the sea the fear is the death toll

could rise to. the. you mean me. today greece is mourning and in memory of those who perished we are declaring three days of national mourning however we should not let that overwhelm us because this is a time to fight to be unified and courageous your bun up all early in the hot dry weather fires burn on the other side of athens to there was panic as greeks looked for their neighbors the flames. this is a coastal town an hour's drive west of the capital. try to limit the destruction but it was out of their control. an appeal for international help has resulted in additional resources being dispatched from spain and cyprus to deal with the worst wildfires in more than a decade in two thousand and seven more than eighty people were killed as fires

raged across the country for days this year a dry winter has again cause tinderbox conditions with one hundred kilometer an hour winds fanning the flames for greece in peak tourist season the fires are a danger to it's fragile economy only adding to the toll of a tragic summer. east of athens. right it's time for the weather now richard will have a look at why these greek wildfires have been so deadly. it actually takes a bit of detective work and got a network of. group will migrate colleagues who are nailed it because my initial thought about this was that it was due to thunderstorm activity but that isn't the case and one small farms get going they generate their own winds and it becomes a almost a completely different be so let's move in have a look at what we got well you heard there in the reports the death toll is quoted in excess of eighty it was summer between sixty five and eighty when the

peloponnese far occurred back in two thousand and seven with financial damage of more than two billion dollars at twenty eighteen writes well as we're hearing our claim by these far as opposed to the east and the west and we have reports of very strong winds well looking at the general picture there's nothing special in terms of the risk of far there's no drought on the far this wasn't particularly elevated but having said that there are no rain measurable rain since the tenth of july and the temperatures are running about one and a half to greese above average so what we think happened was that very high temperatures we had incredibly low humidity which all makes for you know very fast moving wildfires but we got this report of gusts of wind to one hundred two kilometers per hour which i was a bit suspicious of and that was probably generated by the fars themselves but i think what we had was a strong westerly wind don't we call a phone effect where the winds excel right on the downward side that's what produces strong winds and then once you get a wildfire going it could then move at ten times about speed. thank you very much

indeed phil to come on this al-jazeera news hour why the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei is facing difficult questions about donald trump's recent meeting the phantom a bit in. the electoral in zimbabwe have been accused of bias ahead of a landmark vote. and how this flare found in thousand the middle of a transfer five between two european rivals. i have the details in sports. an insider's perspective just six months ago we were at the brink of a war of the real donald trump i think he makes comments that he probably shouldn't make from the former campaign national security director dollars in a class all by himself and for the thirty years i've known donald he creates his own reality maybe his son goes head to head with j.p. coolidge and there has been no evidence that shows collusion if that's not

collusion if that's not working with russian what is owned al-jazeera i was imprisoned for twenty one years based on false allegations that just made in the last couple of years there's been a number of high profile exonerations of the wrongfully convicted based on police and prosecutorial misconduct you can check me for gun check much well i don't really but i don't have any going to do nothing if the prosecutor is going to seek convictions for the sake of seeking convictions prosecutors dangerous exploring the dockside of american justice the system with joe burden on al-jazeera.

congress take a look at the top stories here on the news the polls have just closed in pakistan's tightly contested general election despite a suicide bomb attack and political violence on the thirty people including children were killed earlier near a crowded polling station just outside the city of question the capital of baluchistan province suicide bombers have targeted a government health city in southern syria at least one hundred people are feared dead in a way to the city it is a pocket of territory held by ice all strange responsibility for the attacks. local media in laos are reporting that at least nineteen people have died after a dam collapsed on monday and evacuation was ordered after the government was notified of cracks in one of the supporting downs of many living nearby did not have enough time to escape. now on top stories today not of course is the election in pakistan voting was suspended in one constituency in baluchistan

province off to dozens of people died in a suicide bombing that's going to name has mall. eisel claimed responsibility for this suicide bomb attack outside a polling station in quite doesn't kill another suicide bombing in the same province earlier this month at a campaign event killed one hundred forty nine people including a candidate in pakistan has deployed eight hundred thousand security personnel across the country below while bhutto's adare one of three main candidates for prime minister said the. voters would not be deterred the diaries mother former prime minister benazir bhutto was assassinated in two thousand and seven. in baluchistan is an attempt to disrupt the political process but people will not be affected by this they will come out and vote in full force. the story could help form a coalition government if no party wins

a decisive victory opposition leader imraan khan has campaigned on an anti-corruption platform and is popular with young voters. this is the first time we've had the chance to defeat the two parties who have been in control here and those who have been taking turns at power in this country for the past thirty years. the other main candidate is shahbaz sharif the brother of former prime minister no wash who is in jail charged with corruption. i appeal to the nation to come out to polling stations cost the votes and change the destiny of pakistan and make a great prosperous and progressive country make it great in its real meaning. election observers from the european union are monitoring polling stations there have been widespread allegations of rigging and concerns that the military is engineering the outcome analysts say no matter who becomes the next prime minister

they can't remain in office without the military backing natasha to name just the. right less so to share his in the pakistan capital he's director of abdul wali khan university. so overall generally how would you say these important elections were conducted on the day. apart from the huge lost in quota generally the comparison was peaceful the pulling was peaceful and millions of people turned out on the streets to the polling stations to cause the vote still there are long queues of people waiting outside polling stations even though the time polling time has ended so the turnout was good we can't say how much worse how much was it until

a few hours but the election went smoothly doe there will be problems will be questions about the slow polling process about the mismanagement certain levels at polling stations but in in few hours from now we will know what the waters have decided do they want to have the continuities of it controlled democracy are have they voted far more powerful more in the empowerment of civilian government and the parliament because this was the question which was the main question in this election we all know russia really the deposed prime minister wanted more power for the civilian government he wanted to have and he wants to have more say important policy and internal security while the pakistani traditional. system there is a more kind of tyranny in touch to the system there they want to keep parliament as

a junior partner and a form of control democracy what they see should continue during this transition period in which they think when the politicians and the parliamentarians will be ready to take or control of pakistan then we can have a democracy a model of democracy and so this election in my view is about where. pakistan is going to follow the shanghai cooperation countries model pakistan is now a member of that organization or if you thought is going more towards western democracy with some indigenous colors ok well what do you make then all of the rather serious allegations that actually the result has already been decided and that largely the political. machinations of pakistan have been manipulated by the military and that their idea is to show when iran can these are

very serious allegations and you know there are people with credibility such as the human rights commission of pakistan such as. you know observers and also international media and media i mean pakistani politicians saying the same things all i know what i give you and now we'll see what the what they are what the polling results say if it is very you know dramatic in the sense they're a party which is you know slash two very small number of seats and if they don't get enough seats which they are expecting they should get then they will be i think some kind of you know unrest struggles questions after the elections so i don't see political stability in pakistan all right after this election should i spread out i thank you very much indeed. the two separate is fighters have been killed in india

did ministered kashmir after a gun battle with security forces a fighting happened then and then nag when a neighborhood was cordoned off and officers began searching homes the killing of the rebels led to protests against indian control india and pakistan each of minister part of kashmir but both claim the entire region. is involved lee the main opposition leader has accused the electoral of thor it is of bias just days before the vote the first for it since the ousting of robert mugabe nelson chamisa says monday's presidential election is set to be fraudulent but his party will not boycott the vote he's up against president amazon men and god and his zanu p.f. party. what we have results to do is to make sure that we do what they are free and the players. must be defeated defeated in terms of the overwhelming

sentiment in the country that we are not going to allow them to get away with murder literally and metaphorically what does it mean what it does mean is that on monday that it will july it is independence day for the second republic we are going to be voting overwhelmingly meanwhile the u.n. has said that even though the levels of violence are not as high as they have been in the past the treatment of female candidates has been particularly worrying. we remain remain concerned however the increasing number of reports particularly in some rural areas of voter intimidation threats of violence housman and coercion including people being forced to attend political rallies there has also been the worrying use of disparaging language against female political candidates more now from our correspondent malcolm webb in the capital harare. nelson chamisa leader of

the main opposition alone has announced that he will proceed in answering monday's presidential election in spite of the opposition having grave complaints about the process they forwarded to the electoral commission they say among several things there are serious the regularities with the ballot papers with the polling stations and with the voters registered they said the electoral commission has ignored these complaints with the electoral commission and the ruling zanu p.f. party say that process is being followed and everything is legal but she says in spite of the problems a boy called is not an option. president transformer lawyer has released an audiotape to u.s. media in which they seem to be discussing a potential payment for former playboy model now michael cohen recorded what appears to be a conversation with trump in twenty sixteen a few months before the presidential election this was weeks after a tabloid newspaper paid former playboy model karen mcdougal one hundred fifty

thousand dollars for her story about her affair allegedly with the with mr trump they then never printed it. nine days after the helsinki summit in the white house is still hasn't released any of the details of the one on one meeting between president trump and president putin that will be one of the questions put to trump's top diplomat as he goes before a senate panel on wednesday our state department correspondent ruslan jordan has more. when u.s. president donald trump went to helsinki and said this about russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen election it's my people came to me dan coats came to me and some others they said they think it's russian i have president putin he just said it's not russian republicans and democrats were outraged by never thought i'd see an american president throw the intelligence community under the bus like that

absolutely disgraceful a disservice to america he blamed everyone except russia secretary of state mike pompei o goes before senators on wednesday to try to explain what happened some experts say pompei or might have a hard time doing so but they don't know what trump talked about with putin in that meeting it was it was just the two of them and translators. and things are emerging every day that are clearly coming as a surprise even to some of tom's closest advisors in fact it's been moscow that has revealed what trump and putin discussed behind closed doors the syrian civil war north korea's nuclear weapons program. joint counter-terrorism operations in the middle east the crisis in eastern ukraine and crimea arms control treaties and the charges russia is undermining the us political process but some analysts say

despite their anger republicans won't put as much pressure on pompei o as one might expect many of them are up for election in the mid-term elections it's more important for them to stay in power than to act on principle no matter what happens in the hearing there is a growing consensus on capitol hill that trump is permanently changing the u.s. is global authority changes that could take years to repair rosalyn shorten al-jazeera washington. the u.s. government is also a federal judge to allow for the quick deportation of undocumented immigrant parents once every united with the children it has until thursday to reunite families separated under president trump so-called zero tolerance policy castro reports on the toll that policy is taking on families trying to cross into the u.s. . it's over forty degrees celsius as the sun beats

down on the u.s. mexican border atop a concrete bridge connecting the two countries a few dozen families huddled under what little shade they can find some have been here for three days the heat is unbearable but we've already suffered to get here this man and his five year old son are from hundred us they travel twenty days to make it this far near steps from the u.s. now they're waiting to claim political asylum eleven kerio center where they tried to make us leave to intimidate us but we aren't moving once a person steps foot across the middle of this bridge past these orange cones they will technically be standing in the united states and there they are guaranteed by law the right to make an asylum claim the now for the first time of the nearly forty years that this law was written many people are being denied that chance u.s. border patrol agents are here making sure they do not pass. good living let me beg

them to let us pass because the heat is suffocating the children why are you guys not allowing these asylum seekers to pass and i'm not allowed.