this is al jazeera. welcome to the program good to have you with us i'm joanna hall and this is the news hour live from london coming up tonight on spy israel hailed as a symbol of resistance for palestinians teenager had tommy leads jail. zimbabwe's former president robert mugabe intervenes on the eve of the vote to back the opposition candidate. thousands of firefighters battle would have been described as flaming tornadoes in northern california. and i'm in doha with all the day's sports. persons get on thomas wins he's

first tour de france title in paris that in malaysia this detail. a teenage palestinian activist who was jailed for kicking and slapping an israeli soldier has been released from prison seventeen year old had to meet me urged people to continue the fight against his radio keep patients and are simmons has the story from nabil sala in the occupied west bank. we dread jail ordeal much the same as hundreds experienced by young palestinians every year but the case of how to mimi is profoundly different with her mother now the man who shared jail time with her she was greeted by her father i had to mimi is already being portrayed by palestinians as an icon of resistance to the occupation who now let me give all of the modern she spoke on

a range of political issues including gaza and the rights of children in israeli jails to get education and sit exams as she managed to do after pressuring the oath or says later she told al-jazeera she was deprived. i have some rights in jail for entering the sion was really hard i was subject to sever violations the interrogator used scene words to me i'm against there were no female soldiers there and i have a right to that i had to live in target years questioning me also as a minor they didn't even charge family member to be there which was my rights. people are describing you as an icon do you intend to take up politics perhaps and . maybe with time when i'm able am i think about it coming up at this and at some point. the prison sentence was for this head slapping israeli soldiers outside her home filmed by her mother never mind the video went viral then it was arrested a short time later her mother was also detained. a father who spent most of his

life as an activist with several prison terms says he's both proud and sad i had lost her childhood must have been a job she can't live normally i feel i feel some type guilty because we can't in the basin and it's become of the do it and that is wanted to avoid children her father is probably right when he talks about his daughter's life changing for good at the heart of it all is social media the battle over imagery and symbolism and so this is the face the palestinians and the israeli security forces expect to represent more defiance to the occupation. it may be a start and not an end to her actions. andrew simmons al-jazeera. in the occupied west bank of israel's cabinet discussed to me his release the agriculture minister called her a terrorist so. i think israel acts too mercifully with these types

of terrorists and others israel should treat harshly those who hit its soldiers we can't have a situation where there is no deterrence lack of deterrence leads to the reality we see now you can change that we must change that. a fishing boat carrying aid for gaza has been intercepted by the israeli navy and is now being escorted to the port city of ashdod it was one of two boats attempting to break the twelve year blockade of gaza by israel and egypt it set off from palermo in italy a week ago carrying twenty two people including some israeli citizens charles stratford has more now from ashdod. the israeli ministry released a statement saying that the navy had intercepted this vessel because it was trying to violate what it describes as the illegal blockade on gaza he said that the navy had been monitoring and indeed the interception of this vessel was carried out

according to international law it was around about the same time that the old when a zation responsible for this flotilla put out a statement calling on the governments of the various people on board to act immediately now the organization the international freedom flotilla coalition says that it was fully aware that there was a very strong chomps that israel was going to do this that israel was going to stop this flotilla from reaching but he said it was important that it was done anyway as a means of trying to highlight the suffering of the gazans on the international stage and i have just come from gaza today and trying to describe the conditions for the two million people living there is very very difficult fifty percent of the population living in under the poverty line around fifty percent unemployed not enough fuel to power for example sewerage plants rule sewage flowing into the sea

when you speak to the people of gaza you understand how desperate they have become they feel completely isolated. ignored by the international community let down by the palestinian leadership in ramallah. and when you see the protests that we've seen for the last eighteen weeks along the gaza border fence that the. that shows you just how desperate these people are one hundred fifty more than one hundred fifty people killed in those protests so as i say the aim of the this flotilla according to the organization that is put it together is to highlight some of those terrible issues for the almost two million people living in gaza today well it's not the first time of course that activists have attempted to break the blockade of gaza by israel more than thirty boats of made the journey across the mediterranean sea over the past ten years stephanie decker has more on that from gaza.

the so-called freedom flotilla sailed from italy just over a week ago a host of international activists on board all with one aim to reach gaza symbolically breaking israel's navy blockade and bringing with them thousands of dollars worth of much needed medical supplies and. what happened today is that the flotilla was fifty nautical miles from gaza's waters in the israeli navy came and asked them to return they refused and insisted to continue the navy then seize the boat the activists on board were hoping to reach gaza after sunset and if they had they would have received a huge welcome but as expected they haven't been allowed to get anywhere close they've been intercepted by the israeli navy and taken to the israeli port of ashdod thirty one boats have been used by international activists to try to break the israeli naval blockade over the last ten years the only time they managed was back when they started in two thousand and eight since then every single one has been intercepted by the israeli navy its passengers detained and deported the most

controversial attempt was in twenty ten israeli forces stormed the mavi marmara and opened fire killing ten and wounding many more israeli troops say the passengers attack than the controversy in protests which followed calls turkey to withdraw its ambassador from tel aviv in expelled israel's from ankara it was six years before diplomatic ties were restored and israel agreed to pay compensation to the families of the dead subsequent patellas of escaped attack but not interception despite most activists knowing that the israeli navy will never allow their boats to reach gaza they say they will continue to try in order to raise awareness of israel seach stephanie decker al-jazeera gaza well i'm joined now by david keep he's the spokesperson for the freedom flotilla coalition and has previously been on board a boat which was intercepted itself by the israeli military trying to break this blockade good of you to join us thank you for having me on the show can i ask you first of all have you heard directly from any of your. people on board this vessel

and if not what you imagine is going on then well we know from experience pretty well what happens when we're attacked we're not intercepted were attacked and hijacked in international waters a clearly illegal act the first thing that happens is that the occupation navy cut blocks all of the. satellite signals transmitting data from the boats but also satellite phones this is an act of an admission of guilt because they're about to commit something that they know they don't want the eyes of the world to see so when we're responding to the calls from guys and going there to you know citizens of the world grassroots movements to meet these people who are calling for us this for some reason is something when they when they block our boats when they attack our boats and board them and kidnap the people on board in international waters. they know that they don't want the world to see it so our last call was just after one pm local time and you know they had said we're losing we're losing satellite

signal to the world is doing pretty much imminent but now look the activists on board you know one of them you mean one of them you're all pretty well aware i would have thought of the risks and yet you're still prepared to do it i'm thinking of two thousand and ten the mavi marmara ten million people i think were killed on board. it's a high risk pursuit this isn't it it's risky but it's much less risky than it is. the life under occupation in particular under blockade for the palestinians of gaza so these are people who walk to the separation fence every week these are fishers who put the sea in their boats are attacked much more often a much more fatally than international both they've lost many more boats in the international movement so we share a small part of the danger that they share every day weekend we kill decade in decade out under occupation now since this flotilla left no way i think back in may it's doctrine twenty eight different ports right away how much international support has it accumulated on that well this is the remarkable thing we meet is

since the end of. the end of april we've been as you say in twenty ports and we see this outpouring of popular grassroots support from people's organizations across the spectrum in all of these ports demanding that people basic rights palestinians in gaza should have their basic rights recognized in particular right of freedom of movement because they know that it's not right that people can't fish in their own waters that students can't travel to study the people can't travel to get work or healthcare right and they know that an occupation like the israeli occupation of palestine they know that an apartheid regime has to restrict freedom of movement in order to survive and yet what you don't tend to accumulate is high level government support well it comes from below right i mean this is what we see in all of the ports we visited there's this crash which fresher and it's coming up in particularly in the last ports we've been in in southern europe and palermo naples also and even. in northern spain we had municipalities which were passing resolutions in support of us we were voted illustrious visitor by the city of catus

and other we were met by the mayors of palermo naples. and we see that it's pushing up the city of people and pushed it up to the region of a story as if in the end this is this is something comes from the street upwards we don't expect the state governments to jump on on our side we know that where our governments are all complicit our governments are complicit with the occupation so where the governments failed to lead the people have to lift those are all about the question though that if they seize a people led mission leading where governments failed what hope of change without government support i mean it is you and i both remember the change in south africa wasn't led by governments governments or the last on board that was a people's movement for decades before the governments got on board and said apartheid is wrong the same thing is happening with israeli apartheid and the occupation and the blockade it isn't led by governments governments may say words but they don't take action it takes. people to lead people to show the way people to take the risk to put themselves on the line to reach the conscience of humanity and eventually it's moving up it's moving up towards more and more broad social

civil society support and eventually political support that says this cannot continue the book cannot continue and the occupation cannot continue with the freedom flotilla coalition as he will wait news as we do as well of this boat heading into the pool and our second book coming along in a couple having a real couple of those growing retirement david thanks for your time thank you to zimbabwe now where opposition leader nelson chamisa has been reported to the police for holding an unlawful press conference on the eve of elections when campaigning is no longer allowed earlier received an endorsement from an unlikely source for president robert mugabe who said he was the only viable candidate was zanu p.f. leader and current president eminent emerson on guard has accused the pair of striking a deal from the capital harare r m a tussle reports. it's the second time robert mugabe has spoken to reporters since he was forced from office last

november his reappearance before monday's general election was a surprise so was what he said he says he won't be voting for the real exotic vs the party he laid for so long as his successor. is three m. do you see. the. true remembrance or. locked. the leader of the main opposition nelson chamisa says he welcomes every vote he can get it is not made judy is it kind of going to choose what we're going to this election to choose what it is we are going to be just so if someone says they are

likely to have a favorable disposition in my favor we're mine to deny that extra vote that will make the fundamental thing that we want we're much. the ninety four year old says because for office by the artist was unconstitutional it is one of the last of a printer in africa letters from their supporters saying that has influence in the really hot seat and on what he says could influence how some people vote. and the opposition alliance have pulled in relatively large crowds at campaign rallies some analysts say monday's election could be a tight race that was a major weakness might be the fact that he may have some people supporters will be sympathetic to robert mugabe and therefore may not vote for him and may decide to fall for the opposition also some is on the other hand as a primary challenge of having had to have a fire campaign a divided opposition but also not so much of

a campaign in the rural areas as my. president when i got says he's confident he's going to win and that the election will be free and fair international observers have been invited for the first time in sixteen years have said a credible poll could help in international isolation after dick is a political and economic instability. much more yet to come on this news hour including cambodia's ruling party claims victory in an election described as a sham by critics. waters recede in laos but thick mud is hampering efforts to reach survivors following last week's dam collapse and it still has a milton extends his formula one champ. she needed a dominant performance in hungary. fighters of attack the northern mali and city of quito several mortars including

one near a polling station it came as millions of mullin's cast their vote in an election that's been dominated by security concerns amid a growing threat from al qaeda and armed groups the count is under way now president. is hoping to secure a second term but faces a challenge from sixty eight year old shoe majlis see say. as the latest from bamako. voting has been going on small city throughout the day sunday here in the modern cups of bamako and that's contrary to the expectations of some observateur who just a few weeks ago have been talking about the impossibility of organizing this election and should do it and that in view of the tremendous security challenges and logistical problems during the last several weeks some groups related to al-qaeda in the islamic maghreb threatened several times to disrupt this vote and also just a transportation of ballot boxes and voter cards to somebody's most areas where

a big challenge for the government here so today the government can boss that some success has been registered some is events have been reported in the north in some areas around timbuktu the ballot boxes were confiscated by unknown groups a few cases of that happened and also some shelling on a u.n. french base in agony hawk in the north but we don't know about a casualties if there are any casualties in these is students apart from this ferocity other regions of the country no reports of major incidents happening today . iraq's prime minister suspended the electricity minister after weeks of protests against power outages poor public services and unemployment. and instructions continued on sunday in a number of southern cities body imposed curfews and cut internet access in some areas human rights watch has accused iraqi special forces of using lethal force

against the protesters a gunman who shot dead yemen's head of intelligence security for a near port macquarie was killed by masked gunmen no group has claimed responsibility for the attack it follows a recent rise in armed attacks on government officials including high ranking security commanders and intelligence officers well for more now let's talk to a team in sana'a he's the editor in chief of the yemen post good to have you with us this is not the first attack of its car and in fact we've been a string of them going back to mid two thousand and fifteen on security officials and indeed religious officials as well to what extent does this. undermine the government's control or ability to control a principle it's not the prior job. or the last two that years or one hundred seventy one security apparatus or of

which have been assassinated or killed him alone a lot to happen here so it's not a surprise it's not a good view but it's another fun back to the source going to. be at its allies week seriously if. we are serious about making a dent at success story as a result of the of the year who are not is not the case. is not alone there's been at least part of that mission in cleveland and it did not help the case. actually. the. concern over the last couple of months or very back in the last year most of the car and i've been saying throughout the celica matter. is there even a true value than it is nothing for it and it will be

a serious challenge especially. for him. more of a sudden reluctance. in our office from present problems of this country a lot. of will be a challenge. ok i think we're going to have to leave it there it's not been a terribly good line but we got most of what you were saying and thanks very much for your thoughts well staying in yemen the battle for hard day is worsening living standards for fisherman few of them now venture out to sea and those who do are under constant threat from a strikes and naval mines brandy's alexander has more and now paralyzed port survey sailing wish dictions in yemen's key coastal city of her data has cut fishermen off from their livelihoods when the war broke out in twenty fifteen a siege was imposed on all ports controlled by hoofy rebels fischman say they've been targeted by the saudi led coalition ever since if they day too far from the

coast and who think controlled areas they're accused of smuggling weapons. or fishing is not what it used to be we can't go deep anymore we worry about the warships there's so much risk. nevertheless in limited safe fishing areas there are still some fisherman who go out in search of their daily bounty. ibrahim saying set sail but often returns with an empty net he blames commercial fishing by egyptian and you a company's using banned equipment. and we see them in the egyptian in the fisherman destroying the coral reefs they use these big machinery they destroy everything that stands in their way fishermen and their boats in fear of strikes being intercepted by warships or running into who theme naval mines on thursday at least six yemeni fishermen reportedly killed when the saudi led

coalition targeted boats and had data the day before saudi arabia temporarily halted all shipments between the western shore of the babel mendip straight after it said two tankers were attacked by who the rebels the bab amended straight is a strategic passage between djibouti and yemen that links the red sea to the gulf of aden and the indian ocean djibouti is response has been to mobilize its naval forces to deter security threats the now three year war when yemen has left conflicts surrounding the strait a many fisherman either stranded or worse by diesel xander al-jazeera footage has emerged of dozens of refugees and migrants fleeing police after landing on the spanish beat about thirteen migrants can be seen disembarking from a rubber dinghy and running into the sand dunes a horrid beach that's near the city of cadiz they were being pursued by police but the migrants arrived in spain after crossing the straits of gibraltar

a key route into europe from rome. cambodia's ruling party says it's won a landslide in sunday's election paving the way for a leader who sent to extend his thirty three years year rule or twenty parties took part in the poll the main opposition cambodian national rescue party was dissolved last year human rights groups of dismissed the poll as a sham while the e.u. the u.s. and japan refused to send election observers were in haiti has more from plump and this could have been a day of political change for cambodia instead voters lined up knowing there was little chance of that the choice was vote for a continuation of prime minister who incensed thirty three year rule back one of nineteen small opposition parties most of which can't be called truly independent or stay away but i came to vote because it's my right and my obligation every five years i want to see my country develop more. at this polling station in the capital

phnom penh came so car was still on the voter list he's the leader of the band cambodian national rescue party which called for people to boycott the vote this is where kim would have cast his vote if he were not in jail awaiting trial on treason charges this could have been a day of big celebrations for him and his party given they almost won the last election five years ago. the assumption is they became too popular so had to be removed by a government determined to stay in power. it is and our party so we don't want to raise about this matter we wondered what can what you can do for the future of democracy across town the prime minister voted early in an election that was dismissed as illegitimate by many even longtime supporter japan refused to send election monitors there was no. talk of.

easing the war but without any reaction. so not. sharing. among cambodians choosing to stay away was conveyed out who won a seat in local elections last year only to lose it when his party was dissolved he now drives for a living and hopes one day he can reenter politics. i will never give up and i strongly hope that in the future my party can be revived through cambodians voting for it and i believe that come bowden's will provide justice for the c.n.n. r.p. with think is stained purple for those who voted there will be no hiding for those who didn't and may now fear repercussions the government including the prime minister tried to intimidate people into voting even though it's optional another sign say critics of his increasingly all thora tyrian rule that will now continue

wane hey al-jazeera phnom penh. emergency teams in laos continuing to search for survivors as floodwaters there begin to recede official sources say eight bodies have been recovered and one hundred twenty others remain missing following the collapse of a dam in southern province florence italy reports from strong training in northern cambodia it's not just laos that's been affected floodwaters in at a poor province in southern laos are slowly receding but the deluge of mud left behind is hampering search operations lower water levels have made some areas in assessable by boat helicopter flights are the only way into some communities makeshift shelters are packed with thousands of people who fled their homes they've lost everything homes were swept away and farmland submerged when an auxiliary dam at the scipio hydroelectric project collapsed on monday parts of neighboring cambodia are also flooded about five thousand people here in storm trying province

right next to the border with laos were moved to safety on tuesday there's been no reports of missing persons or casualties floodwaters have begun to recede and the water level in the second river which rose above the danger level several days ago has begun to fall the disaster has revived debate about plans by the lao government to boost the economy by building dozens of dams to export hydro electricity to neighboring countries why the dam collapsed remains unclear the minister of energy and mines is quoted as blaming substandard construction and there are conflicting reports about when damage to the dam was first noticed raising more questions on whether the order to evacuate villages from their homes should have been issued earlier lawrence louis al-jazeera still trying cambodia. still ahead on the news. in the news his government urges calm after an earthquake rocks the island of

lombok killing a dozen people. celebrating sixty years since the u.s. began its journey to boldly go where it hadn't gone before but what could the future bring for nasa. and its sport about noticed the body snatcher as his eyes set on retribution after a big win in london. hello there is pretty wet and windy for some of us in europe at the moment about to come as a bit of a shock after all the hot weather that we've had recently but look at all the cloud that's marching its way across the northwest it's pretty soggy across many parts of the british isles the northwestern parts of france and pretty windy as well so isn't all that warm a maximum temperature just of twenty three degrees is expected on monday as that system tries to push further east was though it will break up a bit so what we'll see is rather the cold day all filtering its way eastwards

we'll see eventually the hot air beginning to push its way back northwards again say things are going to get hope once more but for now we'll see some heavy rain over parts of norway and stretching down through the low countries ahead of that is still very hot but thirty five degrees and actually many of us and the eastern parts of europe will be seeing the temperatures over thirty degrees but they could be a few thunderstorms around now across the other side of the mediterranean plenty of settled weather here still pretty hot in chinese though about thirty five degrees north towns hot to him or bad hair on maximum will be held down to around twenty four or twenty five this central belt of africa areas where there's plenty of showers at the moment lots of them through parts of sudan and pushing what a long way north now through parts of chad unusual here but we want to heavy showers. when diplomacy fields and fear sweet then our borders are wide open wide open to

drugs terrorists we've proven the barriers are built to impose division and its will to sixteen instead of being an obstacle to tell wastes into became another obstacle 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. istanbul is known for its history and food today a new generation is shaking things up for root is my everything five thousand six hundred years it's all different so this is all these cultures i'm now on top of each other. we're here to see how the a taking culture and forward. a jeep on al-jazeera.

welcome back the top stories this news out of teenage palestinian activist who was jailed for slapping an israeli soldier has been released from prison seventeen year old tommy urged people to continue to fight against the israeli occupation. presidential elections in mali have been marred by an attack apparently at a polling station in the north of the country. and mortars near the city of kindles so far no casualties have been reported. zimbabwe's ousted president has denounced his former party and the military ahead of elections on monday robert mugabe said he. vote for the country's opposition candidate rather than endorse those who have

quote illegally taken power. zimbabwe's second city as a stronghold of the opposition malcolm webb has been speaking to voters there. zimbabweans will be voting in the first presidential election in nearly forty years with former leader robert mugabe on the ballot paper he was pushed out by the military in november his right hand man took over president emerson and god were and he's the presidential candidate for the rulings that he p.f. party ever since he took over he's been promising to revive the economy and he says he's got pledges of billions of dollars of foreign investment that could soon come in he's up against several candidates but the main opposition contender is here nelson chamisa is also promising to revive the economy he says he'll bring change to tackle corruption and build infrastructure in this town where we are where he says he'll turn it into the new political capital zimbabwe but the key issues for most voters are the economy and jobs. trades clothes on the street to get by

he struggles with zimbabwe's shortage of currency in circulation of wood floor far from the four new sometimes i want to change we need change. yes i something if you speak for you for forty years but let me just say it might have done just magic item says she'll welcome any kind of new leadership oh what do we need to change it didn't you give us that doug does that to doug again being a chant do you think that there are people. night is the. ruling party supporters are in the minority here the opposition of one in this town for many years is a similar story in areas across the country but the ruling party says it's the full base is in the rural areas opposition. says in the past that's because it's been able to use bribery and voter intimidation there but this time the campaign for the

large part has been peaceful the opposition have complained that there are regularities even ahead of the polls with the electoral commission and the ruling party deny that anything on toward is going on. at least fourteen people including five children have been killed in a strong shallow earthquake on the internet indonesian island of lombok or one hundred sixty others were injured when the six point four magnitude quake hit early in the morning indonesia's government is urging everyone to stay calm steadfast and has more from jakarta. it was seven am on the island of lombok when you earthquake struck many ran outside immediately dozens of others were injured by falling good grief when their homes started to collapse some couldn't escape in time. to rest on the neighboring island of bali ran out of the hotels but no earthquake damage is reported there longbox is also a popular tourist destination and nearly eight hundred visitors were climbing mount

when johnny all managed to leave the slopes of the volcano safely but a malaysian tourist was killed when a guest house at the foot of the volcano collapse. no one she was in the kitchen when the quake happened she was packing all of her stuff to return to malaysia. the quake or several landslides and the volcano has been closed to visitors indonesia's one of the world's most active earthquake zones and more than five thousand quakes are recorded every year after this morning's strong tremor more than one hundred aftershocks were felt causing even more panic on both lombok and bali it's the peak of the tourist season and many hotels are full the government is urging everyone to stay calm step fasten al-jazeera. two days of torrential monsoon rains in india's most populous state of killed nearly sixty people landslides in pradesh have destroyed hundreds of homes and large areas of the state

a flooded hole as mall. seemingly endless to wrench rains have flooded streets and the daily luge in the northern state of which are proud has triggered landslides heaviest delays we've recorded dozens of injuries and deaths since friday night a large number of houses of also been damaged animals have been reported dead. six members of one family including children were killed when their home collapsed and home of the famous taj mahal rescue operations are underway and emergency crews are trying to clear roads and provide relief that is. all about civil servants are in the field visiting those affected keeping an eye on the situation we are working together with residents and local officials using pumps to remove some of the water and doing whatever is possible for the monsoon rains between july and september provide much needed water for farmers across india but the annual rainy season is

also responsible for the loss of life and property weather forecasters say more days of heavy rain are on the way well judging on al-jazeera. what is being described as flaming tornadoes destroyed entire neighborhoods in northern california u.s. police say at least five people have been killed by wildfires including two children and is on to has more from keswick california. i want to give you an idea of how bad this fire was we're in the community of keswick california this entire town completely destroyed from the fire you can see these homes here everything pretty much gone the force of this fire is so obvious here and it jumped the road as well the other side of the street everything gone as well this is a community of about five hundred people it was a small town really in the mountains outside of redding california working class town and it's just completely gone look at this these are power lines melted

brought to the ground there can see the force of this fire the ruhr through here and showed absolutely no mercy there are more than three thousand firefighters that continue to work this blaze and you'll see a lot of the smoke in the air still as well step over that power line they're not letting the residents back in here and that's the reason why is because there's power lines still down and the area is still too very dangerous for people to come in here it's still in an evacuation zone we're at right now look at this another example of the force of this fire just ruhr through this car here and this is a fire that's not even close to contained yet firefighters are saying it's so bad that they're really not even trying to stop this fire at this point they're just trying to get people out of the way because there are other communities here that

have not been burned down yet like this one that are in the path of the fire and that's what's really worrying firefighters here. now the u.s. space agency nasa is marking its sixtieth anniversary with the global space race preoccupying us policy makers just as it did back in one thousand nine hundred fifty eight the soviet russian achievement in getting the first satellite into space in one thousand nine hundred fifty seven had shocked the united states and led to the creation of nasa the following year the soviet union followed the success in april one thousand nine hundred one with the first manned space flight when yuri gagarin of course orbited the earth the us was quick to match that achievement in one thousand nine hundred sixty nine apollo eleven made the first moon landing ushering in several decades of u.s. dominance in space well more recently the superpowers of cooperated on projects like the international space station but since the space shuttle program was ended in two thousand and eleven nasa has been reliant on russian spacecraft to get there

and with china joining the party to landing a spacecraft on the moon five years ago nurses future and funding has become a hot topic on capitol hill she had returned explores the final frontier. when president eisenhower signed the bill creating nasa there were fears in washington that the u.s. was being left behind by the soviet union space exploration has always been a matter of geopolitical prestige for the us will be here well we are behind and will be behind for some time in manned flight but we do not intend to stay behind but national politics have been key too and one reason why i can hear it long term plan for nasa has been impossible for example george w. bush directed massa to return to the moon only to have president obama scrap of those plans and direct matter to land on asteroids with a long term goal now donald trump has ordered nasa back to the moon this time we

will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to mars just look at our political leaders keep moving the goalposts changing destinations from asteroids and war. i mean these are long term horizon goals are going to take decades to achieve a lot of. how like one goal the plan is for us astronauts to be back on the moon by the mid twenty twenty s. but timeframes keep being pushed back and it should be noted that the u.s. can't even ferry astronauts to the international space station that alone the moon nasa has been reliant on russian spacecraft since the space shuttle was discontinued president obama pushed private public partnerships with boeing and space x. to create u.s. space craft but they're well behind schedule that may mean no u.s. presence at all on the i assess for a time and liftoff of the space shuttle just u.s. priorities shift for human space travel but that represents just one of four areas of activity for nasa the other aeronautics sons and space technology here

innovation continues with unmanned space travel satellites and space telescopes nasa isn't just studying outer space but the earth to the president and when donald trump named climate change denier jim brandon stein as mass administrator there were fears that earth sciences would suffer but remarkably up to six weeks in the drug brighton stein converted i don't deny the consensus. that the climate is changing and i thoroughly believe and know that the climate is changing i also know that we human beings are contributing to it in a major way this year congress passed the highest budget for nasa since two thousand and nine rejecting the trumpet ministrations attempts at cuts so even as uncertainty and delay characterized nasa's human missions into space for the moment at least the agency's urgent investigations into the state of our own planet are secure she has returned. so how serious are china's chances of catching up with the u.s. and russian space programs while adrian brown has more on that from beijing. history

tells us that it's more than eight hundred years that china's curiosity was space began two hundred years after that they built this place the beijing observatory one of the oldest observatories in the world today it is a museum a permanent reminder of how and when china's space ambitions began in many ways china's space program is a reflection of the country's rapid economic development but china was a late entrant to the space race it only put its first astronaut into space in two thousand and three but today rocket launchers are commonplace and in two thousand and sixteen china actually launch more rockets than russia that was the same year the chinese astronauts spent their longest time in space and also in that year china completed construction of the world's largest radio telescope now this has been enabling astronomers to better understand the shape of the universe and also

potentially identify alien forms of life now in two thousand and thirteen which was the year that president xi jinping assumed office china managed to do what only russia and the united states had done before they managed to land a craft on the moon this was known as the jade rabbit and it was a huge cause of national celebration here in china china has also big ambitions for the future in twenty twenty it hopes to put a probe on to mars and this year later this year it intends to put a craft on to the dark side of the moon something that no country has ever done before now if both these missions are successful they will be a symbolic triumph for china's ruling communist party. well for more on this i'm joined by sarah kratos here in the studio she's a space journalist and astrophysicist l a very much for being with us now sure of course has achieved great things it's also in doing some real tragedy over the

years how see. difficult how important does nasa remain today i think whatever we do and has the space exploration will be iconic i think the way we're exploring space is changing east to be as you talked about about two countries a cold war showing we can do a big thing well that's changing now private industry coming in you know you can think of the moon landings as being the columbus moment and we're now entering into this mayflower moment where private industry would do a lot of the heavy lifting particularly in low earth orbit but for as long as we've been looking at the stars not exploring space nasa has been the public face of space exploration that role will change over the coming decades with international cooperation and private cooperation but i think it be a someday if nasa wasn't associated with space and long may it continue but i want to talk to you about private exploration in a minute but let's just reflect a little more on the past and the irony it seems to me of the way in which nasa was set up as part of this great race with the soviets in space. and yet today it's

a sort of model there is a model of cooperation between the u.s. and the russians in space which defies the relationship on earth another of nasa's achievements i think one of the important things to remember is when you're up in space and one of the greatest things nasa tosses these images looking back at the earth from space and you realize we're just on this one planet you can think the earth is a spaceship you know there are no borders that you can see in space and whereas on earth we've had difficulty collaborating certainly nasa russia and america have difficulty collaborating getting along in some areas when it comes to space the house being collaboration and you know at the moment the only way american astronauts can get to space is on the russian soyuz rocket so it has collaboration space as being something which isn't so significant about the space race and as we continue forward in space that is something which will hopefully help humans on small another great achievement of course was putting those satellites up there in the first place learning the sort of bedrock for our entire digital sort of culture

and existing. you know i think it is sometimes when you think you the space age you imagine we'd have flying cars by now and obviously if we'd carried on with the same momentum as apollo we'd probably have humans on mars by now but we're living in a world which been transformed in space and you look at the space shuttle which nasa around for thirty years they've transformed medicine new way they can grow crystals and proteins in space she gets better medical drugs back on earth they've transformed military surveillance they've transformed the way we look conceive the universe of the hubble space telescope let's talk about private exploration because the likes of the long musk and the richard branson and so on tend to get the headlines we're not so you really hear less and less about nasser it seems today what sort of bird is that about funding is that a risk aversion of a biggest not is the experiments just more gung ho got more money is about thinking a space is the continent in the world you think and want to have we've explored governments have gone in first in private industry going best so we need to stop thinking of space as an industry and start thinking of

a place to do business it's not just virgin galactic and it's not just space x. there's a lot of other people jeff bezos who founded amazon the richest person in the world he's got his own company blue origin which is looking to transform access to space when he can reduce cost of access to space anyone with an idea just like with the internet can do that idea just a quick lot of the sixty more years of not so we won't be sixty million more we could have a universe populated with many more humans so across many thanks for your thoughts . and still ahead on news in sport a bad day at the office for this finnish rally driver rushing out to his own home event. which is the relationship between culture religion and a deeply divided city everything here is overshadowed by politics even the most basic of things food in two thousand and eight al-jazeera traveled to jerusalem to

see a food could cross deep lines of division jewish is doing the dishes it together we cook together they'll be casual the people that love history. rewind street food jerusalem on al-jazeera. corrupt officials have been ousted. and the activists of the chinese village of all can take center stage and on the president of local elections. in the last of a remarkable series filmed of the five years al-jazeera documents from back of a new village committing. rebels to politicians hard won a blue collar china's democracy experiment on al-jazeera.

and peta is standing by with a wish for. journey thank you so much great britain's get i'm thomas has been crowned tour de france champion while alexander christophe of norway put in a superb final sprint on the seans elisei to win sunday's final stage but the day was all about thomas the champagne bottle had already been opened to celebrate his ride into paris thomas who has now won his first grand tour becomes the first welshman to win the tour de france and the third brit of the bradley wiggins and chris froome who finished third this year tom do milan was second british and team sky riders have now won six of the last seven two is. accused once commands a shot sleazy and now all the while flags all the supporters just like. the one that saw a light how was that but just thought about it all and i believe i could be every

one of my day but to do it day after day and for three weeks which is the first i'm a tried and yeah it's just insane and it's just been an amazing year and the confidence and riding the crest of a wave and now going joyous lewis hamilton has made it back to back formula one victories after winning in hungary the brits has extended his charitably to twenty four points off the dominating throughout the race poll then there were reports. the sadie's wasn't expected to do well and hungry but after getting lucky in qualifying lewis hamilton didn't look back on a track that is difficult to pass on and with down terry bought s acting as a road block ferrari could only hope that the silver arrows would suffer reliability issues. instead it was this one losing position after a problem with his front live tire during his pit stop on lap thirty nine a mercedes one to head been looking on the counts that was bought as struggling for

growth will use the advantage of d.r.s. to get past the friend with five laps remaining the german surviving the contect to finish second with brighton and i was leeward quite lucky that he didn't take us out so. yeah i could have had a. i'm just well and then it could have been. a disaster far from ideal are they we had a pretty good bit that i can do from about it like that but. for the next thing that only a lack of downforce from his broken front wing potus crashed again this time heading down your recount of there was no such drama for lewis hamilton he finished seventeen seconds ahead of the ferrari's win and hungry. for a first weekend for us thank you so much. we came in knowing that the prize would be real quick if we can but to come out with these points. with different take is a bonus but. we deserve the high this coming hamilton goes into the summer shutdown

with a twenty four point advantage over vigil in the championship standings he's also well aware that the upcoming race is inspiring monza a much more suited to his car pool planned with al-jazeera. has one rally fernon but it wasn't such a good day for his team mate far from the don't. finish driver the rolling his car just a kilometer from the end of stage twenty ten a claim he is second in the world really charitable of the season after not taking any risks on sunday to finish thirty two seconds ahead of madoff's berg hearing noise remains the overall championship leader despite finishing down in line. after being soundly beaten in the test series south africa has bounced back to win the first one day international against sri lanka in them on sunday so africa were asked to both first officer lanka won the toss fast. did the damage up front and finished with four wickets spin but it's

a brace shamsi also claiming another four three legged wickets the hosts were never able to really get going and were all around for one hundred ninety three in under thirty five overs in reply south africa's captain fifty placea and clinton because both scored forty seven. the match was still in the balance with the proteas at one hundred twenty nine for four but j.p. duminy club fifty three not out from just thirty two balls to see the tourists win by nine five wickets with nineteen overs to spend a. billion white says he wants a second crack at unifying heavyweight world champion anthony joshua of the beating jos of parker on saturday parker was knocked down twice in the fight the first time in his pro career that he has hit the canvas packers' camp left i'm happy after the referee allowed the bigger wide to repeatedly lean on the new zealander the british fighter beating the former w b o world champion by unanimous decision that makes it eight wins in a row for the thirty year old whose only loss was against joshua. unheralded

georgian tennis player nicholas really has won his first a.t.p. tour title and what's more he did it as a qualifier at the german open in hamburg on sunday the world number eighty one was up against three time champion leonardo meyer of argentina the first it went the way of the twenty six you georgian six four but meyer who was heavily favored to win the title bounced back superbly in the second set winning a six loves to force a deciding set it would be really who rose to the occasion taking the thirty seven five and with it the honor of becoming the first georgian to win an a.t.p. to a title. what can i say this final because i'm really close my words are unbelievably hard to over a third so. i think i could have played today my best route. would be to mars some of the i heard very small chances to second most when i used

to and finally just down the road hamburg's green eagle goal of course richard mcavoy was also making history he's won his first european to a title after a seventeen year long wait the thirty nine year old was playing in his two hundred eighty fourth tournament and needed to be made to train the emotional will be additional how these new sink the twenty foot putt for the one shock wave. caps incredible yeah right alongside. seventeen years as a pro thing this is my seventeenth season on an off challenge to a mind to and i'm delighted to have seen the right. and that's all the sport jonah peter thanks very much on that set from this news hour but i'll be back in just a moment with another full bulleted of the day's news so stay with us for that.

in the deprived villages of northern argentina there's one man with a solution to every problem. for engineers self-proclaimed inventor ferdinando and he's crossed a ninety four to seven ford truck no job and just too small for village to far in his latest mission he constructs a much needed refrigerator the drums and fire board viewfinder latin america driving change on i just see it our. conservation is helping kick the stove to recover its snow leopard population to see the results i traveled up to the remote

nature reserve of saudi chat at a touch camera traps have identified a healthy population of up to twenty snow leopards as the technology improves or are finding all these ways in which our guesses are are getting corrected the latest evidence suggests they're more cats than previously acknowledged but the snow leopard trust believes it's premature to downgrade the cats on the international list of threatened species the middle east's most religiously diverse country you still have you don't just communities you don't have one vision for the future you have nineteen of them divided along sectarian lines the confessional system in lebanon has destroyed all the equity real more and heavily influenced by regional allegiances whatever that one prevailing over the other you have civil war so it's always this balance that's a recap following its first parliamentary elections and nine years people in power

investigates the state of lebanon on al-jazeera. after eight months palestinian teenager and activist is released from an israeli prison. hi there i'm jonah hill this is al jazeera live from also coming up zimbabwe's former president robert mugabe intervenes on the eve of the country's election to back the opposition candidate. thousands of firefighters battle what have being described as flaming tornadoes in northern california. and floodwaters recede.