now say they're essential to control the virus and receive messages on the scene that we are you know so i was a nurse back who what i am doing is not all that different from mine actually helping others. u.s. vice president mike pence visits one of the worst hit states is the global coronavirus death toll exceeds half a 1000000. others and this is all just 0 a live from doha also coming up removing a symbol of racism mississippi votes to change its flag carrying the confederate emblem following the death of george floyd. thousands flee their homes in may much like kind state is the army prepares an operation against buddhist separatists the

un is warning of intensified fighting. and president mcconnell's party faces a setback but it's a good night for the greens after local elections in fronts. across the world half a 1000000 people have no died from corona virus and more than 10000000 have been infected a quarter of all those infections and deaths are in the united states which is by far the worst hit country but the shop spike in infections recorded in southern and western states the u.s. health secretary is warning time is running out to contain the virus that sickle hain is the latest. the corona virus is marching through america in houston texas hospitals are quickly running out of intensive care beds in florida arizona and texas mobile testing sites are being overrun with people waiting for hours many

turned away health experts warned this would happen in many of these states mostly republican governors move to reopen businesses stressing the importance of the health of the economy now critics say the public health system and a growing number of people are paying the price while the trumpet ministration says there is no connection. all 50 states are opening up again to one degree or another states like florida and like texas actually began to open up in in early may for the better part of 6 weeks john we did not see any significant movement but if you look at this tracker showing which states meet the government's criteria to reopen only 4 are safe the ones in red are seen large spikes in cases and now at least one member of the administration is sounding the alarm window is closing we have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly we need to social distance we need to wear fit our face coverings if we're in settings where we can't

social distance particularly in these hot zones but in many of these states where cases are on the rise there is no mandatory order to wear masks in public and in many ways this is become a partisan issue well the vice president attended an event sunday where the crowd seemed to mostly wear masks the president has not done the same and my understanding that the centers for disease control has recommended the use of mass but not the demand require that because they don't want to send the president and that their president should be example you know real men wear masks for the president's part his focus at least on twitter was elsewhere we tweeted this video to supporters jali white power. he appears to have deleted it before leaving the white house once again his weekend spent golfing by some estimates the number of cases that have been reported each day has more than doubled over the last 2 weeks and given the way this virus spreads that means the number is likely

to jump dramatically in the days and weeks ahead political haim al jazeera maryland . brazil is the world's 2nd war said country with more than 1300000 cases in over 57 fuzz and deaths 246000 infections were recorded in the last 7 days. in response 1000 crosses have been placed in front of the brazilian congress to honor those killed by covert 19 display is also a protest against the president jalal sonata has been widely criticized for dismissing the severity of the disease and showing indifference to the rising death toll on a sunday of m.p.'s he has more from colombia's capital bogota but that was the 1st serious demonstrations both online and in person that people who oppose president here both are not states that in brazil in brazil's

main cities but also across the world in 20 different countries in europe other countries in latin america they are saying that this is a way to try and bring more international attention to the government to the presidency here both matter that they consider both to responsible in its response to the coronavirus pandemic in the country but also dangerous when it comes to brazilians democracy and that's because he was both sinatras presidency has been at the center of a number of scandals accusations of corruptions there are many of them and for the president. in congress to be impeached and so people are 1 2 saying that he's dangerous because many of his allies because of all that's been happening have been calling for an intervention by the military so these protests have been trying to do all 'd of that today while the numbers keep rising the coronavirus

cases in the country well beyond now the main cities. mississippi senators have voted to replace the state flag of the last in the nation display the confederate battle emblem the votes being carried by the state senate 37 to 14 after being passed by the house earlier many see the current design as racist for its links to slavery in the south a proposed new design is going to be voted on in november. joining us live from new york gave this flag has been seen as an integral part of mississippi's history what is the context to all of this leading up to this change. that's right it's a historic moment really when lawmakers in mississippi on sunday voted to get rid of this flag a flag that's been around for 126 years as part of the state of mississippi but they voted to get it out at this particular moment because of the recent black

lives matter and civil rights movement that has been sweeping over the country after the killing of george floyd in minnesota and so that is the context on why lawmakers were bringing up this contentious flag now they've been talking about it for several years many people arguing for years that this flag needed to be changed because it did have this confederate battle emblem on it battle emblem that is often used by white nationalists and in the united states and and it's seen as a symbol that does not fit in 2020 now and especially in a state of like mississippi where it's over 35 percent of the population is black americans but there was some pushback too and that's why it took so long for this to come about this change there were some that argued lawmakers and others that argued that this flag was part of tradition and history and should not be changed

nevertheless it was with this really historic vote in the senate 37 votes to 14 to remove this flag as you mentioned the last state flag in america that has the confederate battle emblem on it now it will go to the governor of mississippi who is expected to sign this into law and he said he would sign whatever that whatever the legislature agreed upon and then it will go to a 9 person panel that will come up with a new design for a new flag that will be voted on by the residents of mississippi coming in november let's listen to the new york bring this up to date on that vote to change the state fly missis. forces loyal to libyan war have to say they're deploying reinforcements to regions they hold in the center of the country this video from the self the libyan national army is said to show fighters being sent to the regions of course and so the un recognized government of national accord has pushed

back after its forces from the capital tripoli on wednesday arab leaders called for a truce and peace talks between the warring sides sudanese security forces have arrested at least 122 people they say intended to fight as mercenaries in libya a spokesperson for sudan's powerful rapid support forces says 72 of those arrested in darfur were from an armed group led by a notorious jungle weed leader john dewey fighters fought in darfur in the early to thousands there accused of killing and raping civilians i said but i want them at the door that they have not received information at the beginning of this month to a number of citizens in this area have been deceit in the cricket to work mercenaries in libya based on the information we form the joint security force and we sent them to various darfur states we have been able to arrest this group which includes 122 men who use their part of saddam's national wealth and should not be

used in this way in february we have arrested another group of 243 people who were created from various states to work as mercenaries in libya. thousands of people i'm in marginal hands state of fled from their homes at the prospect of military raids the un says urgent measures are needed to save civilian lives villages were ordered to leave as the army prepared to launch an operation against the other khan army it's a rebel group which wants more self rule for ethnic buddhists the order to evacuate has been called off after the u.k. australia the u.s. and canada called for an end to the so-called clearance operations refugees and humanitarian groups say the operations are a cover for military crackdowns the military had used the term clearance operation in 2017 when they targeted their own hinge a muslim minority led to accusations of genocide chore when is the executive director of the burma human rights network he says raids are still taking place

despite the assurances of state officials. what we're hearing is that it is just you know the show that they call off but it is not true they have still conducting some operations a lot of operation on the ground and i contacted myself my team also contacted a lot of people on the ground there saying that they have been hearing the shelling hiring and firing and there are so many few locations the civilians have been detained to interrogate and berryman the interrogation. torturing so they are facing torture because the rock and i think the kind they are bullies but they are still because they are supporting. an economy konami so they try to create fear and pressuring the population to give them the information where they are about and in the meantime as. we reported within 48 hours for civilian has been killed and there are several injured and also there are

a couple of villages the houses have been turned on by the shelling by the military activity and also we are also learning that. 111 month old baby was killed a few days ago so the military operation is continuing no matter how international community is crying and talking about to stop this so this military operation is clearly breaching. you know. provision measure the international criminal court of justice has you know ordered them to stop all kind of activities that they're going to suffer in your community in so they're clearing breaching these orders. still ahead a non-zero factional fight in the congolese government over the arrest of the justice minister putting the current president against supporters it was pretty saucer. plus keeping it local border restrictions pushed turkey's tea producers to

turn over a new leaf. hello there's still a trench continuing through all central areas of china this time of year the my you from begins to nudge a bit further tools and often this is why we have seen in particular the heavy rains in sichuan province but just look at this some dramatic images cause as a landslide actually took place now amazingly the no injuries asshole despite these huge slabs of row that came down on the 69 people did have to be relocated to safer places but you can just see how winds but of course these floodwaters are and as we go through monday there is more of the same very likely in the 4 cars in particular some very heavy rain working its way across the n.s.a. pushing across into the korean peninsula and eventually to say working its way into western areas of japan again this could be some very heavy rain and here is what it

could lead to some flooding and some localized mudslides meanwhile into all central southern i was the china still those areas of heavy rain but a little bit more in the way of dry conditions now across into india the monsoon rains making very good progress this year but at the same time the downside again here is flooding said the fall north east of india state in particular as scenes of very heavy downpours and you can see here just how much it has inundated these buildings but also many of the villages the next few days the rains will stay across the northeast be whole states as well west bengal and all the while the rains continuing down the west down tools carola. but. from young idealist. to revolutionary thinkers. from political activism to incarceration in part one of a 2 part documentary soup al-jazeera world explores the singleminded journey. of

the 1st leader of an independent bosnia herzegovina. as a bag of fish from prisoner to president on the jersey. shore. her for. her. you're watching al-jazeera reminder of our top stories this hour across the world half a 1000000 people are now known to have died from corona virus and more than 10000000 have been infected a quarter of all those infections and deaths are in the united states which is by far the worst hit country. in brazil protesters have been demonstrating against president jacques also now those handling the crisis they've set out

a 1000 crosses in the capital brazil's the 2nd worst hit country in the world. mississippi senators have voted to replace the state flag the last in the nation to display the confederate battle emblem many see the current design as racist for its links to slavery and south. 3 children are among at least 10 people killed in shootings in chicago over the weekend and one year old boy was killed and his mother was injured after they were shot at or they were driving home from a long drive at the 10 year old girl died after being hit by a stray bullet and a 17 year old was shot dead after an argument the city's mayor says she's tired of bullying children. the green party appears to have made major gains in france's local elections for president emanuel macro's party has struggled it's the 2nd round of polls for mares' a municipal councillors which was delayed because of the coronavirus lock down elections being seen by many as

a test of mockers reform policies and his handling of the outbreak but that's about the reports from powers. victory for and go on a 2nd term as mayor of paris the socialist candidate who teamed up with the green party to run on an environmental platform for the city she promised to continue her drive to cut cars and pollution and help the french capital's economy recover from the covert crisis was that this was the list was that this was you know that you've chosen hope you've chosen unity chosen a post up 3 days i think today leaves no one behind either goes nearest rival conservative candidate fresh conceded defeat a former justice minister on the nicholas sarkozy sheet campaign to clean up the city and crack down on crime trailing behind was and the candidate for president emanuel macro centrist policy failed to convince voters to have a message about his unit i want to thank all prisons he swam against the tide to

place their hope and confidence in os by voting for a list i take on board the result. the 2nd round of the local elections took place more than 3 months after the 1st it was delayed because of the coronavirus lock down the health crisis and likely factor in the historically low voter turnout many restrictions have been lifted in france which is why these elections can finally take place there are other of course special measures in the polling station mosques are mandatory social distancing has to be respected and everybody who works here is behind a prospect screen across france they would be games for the greens taking cities including lille but it was a crushing day for the president's party the fail to win any major seats micro created his republican the move party to help him win the presidency in 2017 but his struggle to expand it supporter base his party has suffered from the

unpopularity of my coin self there was lots of trouble in the past 2 years and in the middle of a pandemic you don't expect a reward for the for the government certainly not in france where people are are criticizing a lot the power of the day local elections have little direct impact on the national government and my crawl has played down their importance of the voting in northern france he looked relaxed nevertheless 2 years before the next presidential election his party's poor results offer some indication of how much confidence voters have in his leadership and as such will be difficult to completely ignore the al-jazeera paris. exit polls suggest poland's president has won the most votes in the 1st round of the country's election but andre due to hasn't picked up enough votes to prevent a run off poll next month so again your reports. it had been a tight race a battle of ideals pitted between populism and progress but

a frustrated win for the man who. occupied the role for the past by years andre do with tied his fate to the rightwing law and justice party and placed his bet on a deeply conservative often homophobic agenda still he attempted a positive spin on the outcome change will come to come did not target someone still great result is better by far than the one from 5 years ago with 10 other candidates thank you very much for your support but 1st don't foremost i would like to thank my compadre its for the turnout for this massive participation in the election but this was a campaign fought in extraordinary times deferred by the pandemic the vote was supposed to have taken place in may which would have put duty of comfortably ahead of his rivals instead the delay allowed his strongest rival. ski to throw his hat in the ring a pro e.u.

centrist and the mayor of warsaw whose liberal views have at times put him at odds with the country's influential roman catholic clerics. to consolidate his base invoked a nationalist programme condemning the country's l g b t rights movement as a foreign ideology more destructive than communism and under his watch made calls to chew tional reforms that put the independence of the country's judiciary at stake by giving politicians the power to fire judges if they disagreed with their legal decisions. a move that strained poland's relations with the european union he saw it as an assault on poland and the blocs legal system but andre duda also had international supporters who chimed in his populist tactics perhaps hoping an endorsement for the u.s. president just ahead of the election would boost his voting base he's doing a terrific job the people of poland think the world of him and by the way this is

due to the terrific woman terrific woman who we've gotten to know also through our various travels and meetings do this failure to secure an outright win now means that both he and just will face each other again next month but what won't be clear is if it will bring to an end poland's bitterly divided politics sunday diagonal al-jazeera the palestinian political roof attah has welcomed calls from its longtime rival hamas for a unified front against israeli plans to start an exciting the occupied west bank from next month's hamas which controls the gaza strip has called for a strategy to undermine the israeli plan the government of israel is due to vote on by then stay on the i mix a should not all settlements in the occupied west bank including the jordan valley fatah and hamas have been a dog since 2007 after hamas seized control of gaza. israel

has ordered a channel owned by evangelical broadcaster god t.v. to be taken off the air the cable and satellite broadcasting council has suspended the license for shalon of the t.v. it's a hebrew channel run by the group and it's based in the us its critics accuse it of hiding a missionary agenda to convert jews to christianity because obviously it comes at a time when a majority of evangelicals in the us are strong supporters of israel. and its democratic republic of congo's prime minister sylvester has protested that the brief for the rest of the justice minister is longer urged the president to guarantee legal protections for cabinet members celestin toward the u.s. senate a was released after being questioned by prosecutors it follows a disagreement with the president over proposed judicial reforms critics say an attempt to muzzle judges. come on and most of really is with the center for research on the congo he says the movement's calling for reforms is in part due to

president feeling seasick eighty's surprise victory in the previous ballot. i think it's important to look at this crisis mentally from the election and 2018 to 2018 the election we contested by many as being as fraudulent but would actually create it is a deal between the presidents who did not control the state the purchase. who controls both chambers of parliament it controls the military and many other stick institutions reform is actually taking the judicial branch to be now under the supervision of the justice minister and that's predictable i mean the house if i have to speak about the parliament. 350 members of the lower chamber are part of the copula regime while we have 500 member of parliament something for the senate so they have been putting in place laws that will actually change the

judge judicial system works in advantage place in hong kong of arrested at least 53 people during protests against china's plans national security law scuffles broke out following a relatively peaceful silent rally officers use pepper spray to disperse demonstrators who were blocking roads china's top legislative bodies expected to begin a 3 day meeting and it's likely to end act a new law the targets a version terrorism and foreign interference in hong kong set a clock has more. we do know that a delegation from hong kong has flown to beijing to attend amazing and china's really came to fast track and basically on the eve of the july 1st protests which we do expect to rally on wednesday now this is the marking the 25th anniversary of the british handover from a britain great britain to china and as a result every year we see a number of people rally in the streets last year we saw around half a 1000000 people march on hong kong island this year the super human rights fund

which is the organization which attracts the big numbers of numbers of people marching the streets last you get one and 2000000 people marching in the n.t. extradition protests they've requested to have another protest this wednesday but of course the police have rejected their request now there's been no feeling that they're taking it to court for that appeal but we don't expect them to get that passed and clearly the police citing the social distancing regulations and i don't want to go ahead as a result but now basically the national security laws we're hearing about from some local media here in hong kong that the march that you maximum penalty could be position and submission it could mean life in prison we're yet to confirm that but said he would have a local media report that so far i should start with the national security knows what it does it bans acts of subversion foreign interference terrorism and any talk of suspicion and independents who say a lot of people at these protests of recent months calling for independence you might recall seeing some of the flags appealing for secession from china so clearly

these national security though think of the target of these protests is. boeing's grounded 7 through 7 months airliner is a step closer to getting back into the air the u.s. federal aviation administration has given approval for safety test flights to begin as soon as monday 7 through 7 months was boeing's best selling playing bach 2000 flown since march 29th to crashes in ethiopia and indonesia killed almost 350 people. russian mining giant no risk nicholas says it stopped a toxic spill into the arctic tundra and came to light when a local newspaper released video showing contaminated water from a nickel processing plant being pumped into waterways the company suspended employees it says were responsible for a flagrant violation of operating rules turkey as one of the world's top t.v. producers but almost say the state owned companies not giving them a fair price now with a pandemic and border closures that can no longer rely on cheap labor from

neighboring georgia said of course yahoo has more the journey of a cup of tea begins here this is turkey's northern tea grove ingrid in along the slopes of running down to the black sea to get the best quality leaves you have to pick them with care this is the 1st harvest of the year with 2 more by the end of august but the farmers who work for only a short season say they are not getting what they deserve from the state company which by 60 percent of their crops you know is. conditions are better than before we used to receive our money once a year you know the state company pays every month the state has a purchase quota so we sell the rest of the crops to private companies and they beat down the price. most of the tea forms here are dotted along the rock terrain it is difficult to carry the loads of tea in these weighing nearly 50 kilos each from the farm to the village it's

a job people in the area no longer wish to do so since the 1990 s. nearly 40000 workers from neighboring georgia have come here to work in these farms often for lower wages than what the locals would ask for but this year the common $900.00 pandemic close the borders and the workers couldn't come so the salvation was the master should go this garden belongs to my cousin this year i picked his 3 georgians don't pay attention with the job is done properly or not they think the more they pick the more they are when the harvest began in late may the turkish government lifted its travel ban allowing locals who live in other cities go back to their villages for the harvest industrial present it is hunger that georgian workers didn't come but $100000000.00 state in their pockets. we hope to introduce our unemployed brothers from the south to the job opportunities here so money stays in our country we plan to train students from the university on how to

cut professionally for content owners say they enjoy nature while working here with 10 other friends from southern turkey where they don't have many job options across the black sea region some 1200000 farmers factory workers traders and their families make their livelihood from the tea industry and the screen province a phrase that has been the center of the turkish teen dust free since the 1920 s. c.n.n. because solo al-jazeera. this is all disease with the use of the top stories across the world half a 1000000 people are known to have died from corona virus and more than 10000000 have been infected a quarter of all those infections and deaths are in the united states but the shop spike in infections recorded in southern and western states the u.s. health secretary is warning time is running out to contain the virus but the window

is closing we have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly we need to social distance we need to wear fit more face coverings if we're in settings where we can't social distance particularly in these hot zones in brazil protesters have been demonstrating against president desirable so not of his handling of the crisis they've set out a 1000 crosses in the capital brazil is the 2nd worst hit country in the world mississippi senators have voted to replace the state's flank the last in the nation to display the confederate battle emblem many see the current design is racist because of its links to slavery in the south given elizondo has more from new york many people arguing for years that this flag needed to be changed because it did have this confederate battle emblem on it battle emblem that is often used by white nationalists and in the united states and it's seen as

a symbol that does not fit in in 2020 now and especially in a state of like mississippi where it's over 35 percent of the population is black americans forces launch a libyan war logically if i have to say they're deploying reinforcements to regions they hold in the center of the country this video is from the subsequent libyan national army said to show fighters be sent to the regions or called for and so sources told our visitor the sudanese mercenaries loyal to hoffa have also been deployed to the regions. thousands of people in manaus rock and state have been forced to flee their homes as the army prepares to launch an operation against separatists the u.n. says origin measures are needed to save civilian lives and those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story goodbye.

a source of life and called late ethiopia egypt and sudan the tussle over the funding of africa's biggest hydroelectric dam on the blue nile can they find a way to bridge their differences this is interesting. hello and welcome to the program on iran kong for thousands of years the nile has been the backbone of civilizations and a source of conflict the latest dispute is over the largest hydroelectric dam in africa being built anything. the government says it's full $1000000000.00.