to inform motivate and inspire. the world is watching on al-jazeera. to have a big convention is not the right term. donald trump scraps a major republican party convention as u.s. coronavirus cases cost $4000000.00. hello again i'm not start here today and this is al jazeera live from also coming up drama in the skies over syria as a u.s. fighter jet intercepts an iranian passenger plane. a high stakes mission by west african leaders fails to end a week's long political crisis in mali. and overwhelmed by covert 1000 bolivia

postpones general elections for a 2nd time this year. a staggering impact of craven 1000 on the united states shows no sign of easing the number of infections across the country has now crossed 4000000 more than 144000 people have died president trump has now called off the republican convention in florida because of coronavirus fears or castro before the world's richest nation has now surpassed its 4000000 known case of coping 19 and it's feared the number will only soar what's important about that is the steamroller that it is. the acceleration that this have. the rate of new cases is trending upward in 39 states with

a record number of deaths reported in florida that's where president trump had planned to speak before a massive crowd at the republican national convention in august an important moment for his reelection campaign but now those events are canceled i care deeply about the people of florida and everywhere else frankly in this country and even in the world who would be coming into the state and i don't want to do anything to upset it 143000 people have died of the corona virus in the united states and medical experts warn many more deaths are to come those numbers tend to rise about a month after an uptick in cases the president trying to try to downplay the threat saying that problems and hot spots will all work out you also see a lot of the country is has has no problem whatsoever trump also claims states have all the emergency supplies they could possibly need despite pleas from some doctors that lifesaving equipment is running out we have no.

gods we are not anybody to be got decision of who should leave or who should die however when you have where he's called i must caution the situation there are going to be fight all of that makes you war you know more efficient minute and then last bit of meanwhile the u.s. economy nears another precipice with expanded unemployment benefits expiring at the end of the month and he vixens resuming at the end of the week congress will debate yet another rescue measure in coming days. al-jazeera washington. well in breaking news we have just heard that china has informed the united states to close its consulate in the city of chengdu now it comes just a day after the u.s. asked china to close its embassy in houston texas while u.s.

secretary of state my company has also called the chinese consulate in houston a hub of spying and intellectual property theft his announcement comes a day after the government ordered the closure of that consulate it's all part of a wider investigation and which federal agents have been tracking down visa holders and more than 25 cities who they suspect of concealing ties to the chinese military the u.s. justice department has charged for chinese nationals with visa fraud will obviously be bringing you all the latest developments on this developing story now watchdogs in the u.s. department of justice and homeland security say they'll investigate the use of force by federal agents during recent protests democrats say agents improperly detained and transported anti-racism demonstrators in portland and washington d.c. the police killing of unarmed black man george floyd and may triggered an ongoing wave of protests against systemic racism and police brutality across the u.s.

. now the united states and the u.k. have accused russia of launching an anti satellite weapon into space they say moscow fired a projectile on july 15th britain's space directorate chief says the move poses a potential threat to satellites that the well that depends on moscow's defense ministry says it was part of an operation to inspect its own equipment. well the standoff that we've been talking about between beijing and washington is also playing out of the world health organization where the head has rejected allegations by the u.s. secretary of state that questioned his and dependence from china to drugs that had him get re-assessed says that politics should be quarantined and he won't allow mike compare to distract the organization from its work in fighting the global pandemic. focus and the focus of the entire mission the entire organization is on saving lives if there is one thing that

really matters to us and which should matter to the entire international community it's saving lives and you will not be distracted by these comments. we don't want the international community also to be discrete distracted well without coronavirus coverage still in schools and south africa will be closed for 4 weeks presence around a poser said in a televised address to the nation that it's important schools do not become sites of virus transmission the country is corona virus infections are rising at one of the fastest rates in the wilds south africa now has the 5th highest number of infections globally a quarter and a virus storm has indeed arrived as we said it would with the provinces of the isn't cape how doing and why is it or not are experiencing

a rep it dries in infections even as the country braces for the difficult weeks ahead it is significant that more than half of those people who we know to have been infected have now recovered. well the pandemic has also dealt a fresh followers in bolivia's plans to restore political stability general elections have now been postponed for the 2nd time this year while the virus continues to spread uncontrolled overwhelming hospitals and other infrastructure correspond to reason for reports. one by one vehicle then to the central cemetery led by us the cars and vans are carrying victims of covert 19 relatives are not allowed inside the cemetery. in the sandia nation coronavirus cases have soared in recent days collapse in many hospitals and funeral

services in bolivia's capital with people from other going forward in the last few weeks things have collapsed we don't have coffins and the only help we're getting is with cremations families don't want to deal with the fact this has exploded we're doing what we can. outside this hospital relatives of the victims have been forced to bring their own oxygen for family members only 40 say they have no oxygen or supplies sylvana brought her father in law to the hospital in a van the 56 year old man died in the vehicle while awaiting treatment. we were at another hospital and he turned blue and started throwing up we asked a nurse to take him out and pay attention to us then we came here with him in the car nobody is allowing us inside he just died he died in the car he was a half human he was sporty and now he is dead. a similar situation is ongoing in other cities like bans and the girls will leave you was

expected to hold presidential elections in september. last year the country's 1st indigenous president it will morales resigned from office after weeks of protests over an election that international observers said was marred by irregularities since then interim president any 9 years has been leading the country 2 weeks ago she tested positive took over 19 on thursday election officials postponed the election until oct 18th the pick of the pandemic is expected to happen later this month. when this electoral tribunal is asking citizens state powers political forces civil society and the media to accompany this decision to show their respect for institutions and their commitment to democracy and the sense of common good former president evo morales said on twitter postponing the elections is a mistake and an excuse by the interim administration to hold on to power elections

are crucial in bolivia to bring down the political tension that exists in the country since moralist up down from office but the dramatic situation caused by the pandemic has changed priorities at least for now. i'll just. the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted in a rainy and passenger plane over syria and says the f. 15 conducted a visual inspection of the modern airplane from a safe distance to ensure it wasn't a hostile aircraft the move was said to be aimed at protecting coalition troops in syria several passengers were injured when the commercial plane pilot abruptly changed to altitude during that incident the plane was then able to fly on safely to beirut well let's to get into this a little bit with roger shanahan he is a research fellow at the lowy institute for international policy and he joins us on skype from sydney roger i want to start with the practicalities of this a passenger jet flying over a conflict zone meets a fighter jet how common is this is there some kind of protocol they're meant to

follow really each individual one normally determines what the safe routes to fly between going out and going is we really don't know what my. considerations are in that regard but. certainly going over to complete there is presumably the money airplane has of course sign declared flight path by my understanding a few commercial carriers are still flying over syria and have been for some time and we're not seeing fighter jets scrambled every time they do what's your reading of this could this be regarded as a hostile act. what i would get from what we know this is a regular route there's another aircraft the search will use only other aircraft do exactly the same route last week i believe that it doesn't appear to be intercepted we don't know the circuit exact circumstances other than what central command has

told us that it was a routing. inception just over the short trip it was a craft the aircraft says that it took a base of 0 graft lastly didn't appear to do so i think we're going to have to wait for a few days to find out if the aircraft took place it or that he actually during crap took advice direction why it did so and just in the flight or at grafters any close enough there are some measures or so off roger the pentagon has been saying this is an attempt to make sure it wasn't a hostile aircraft but i do believe that modern air has previously been linked to tehran's revolutionary guard even sanctioned for that and it's also been banned from several european airports uses accusations that. cross from that airline are used to ferry logistic support for iranian backed forces in the region so that may well have been one of the reasons why the u.s. side and take a close look at the aircraft to check out where there were passengers on board.

well as we've been saying relations between washington and tehran aren't exactly rosy what impact might this have. well i think it's just another. small. interaction between. the 2 countries. and you know the pentagon appears to be playing this quite down the line and say nothing about the actions of the aircraft or we're getting from the iranian side as early reports the 1st report was that it was unusually aircraft it was an american aircraft so ok we're going to have to weigh it as a symbol for a few days to find out exactly what actions the civil airliners pilot took if there were injuries onboard sound 00 result of his actions are going up to work out why he took those actions there has been a lot of speculation roger we've been seeing these mysterious explosions and iran over the last few weeks and now this given the stability of the region is the

timing here a coincidence. well it's interesting we have to see. you know what the pentagon hasn't said as you pointed out was why they sent up their craft. to look at this passenger plane wearers a little below that other passenger planes fly this route and have a brain intercept lou in the past but there is a kind of heightened. tension in a relationship that is always a big fraud as you pointed out an explosion at natanz nuclear facility or a range of fires at industrial plants some of which are explained by accidents others of which appear to be a bit more mysterious so there's a sense that that something is perhaps in that hasn't been implied before the additional pressure is going put on iran i'm not sure that those 2 are linked but

the problem always is when there's a heightened. series of tensions and actions that something like this just adds to the a somewhat volatile mix and it everything down to perception and rogers had a hand there speaking to us from sydney and there lowy institute thanks so much roger for being with us great to get your insights on what bush. still ahead here if you are on al-jazeera from breck set to an unprecedented health and economic crisis britain's bars johnson completes a tumultuous 12 months in power. i know they're mostly hot and dry throughout much of the middle east but at the same time we have had one or 2 shots and thunderstorms and some rather more persistent rain across the southwest of yemen but have a look at these images coming out of western areas of side you can see here the

skies that fairly clear this was a passing shower with hail and some or all the heavy rain as you can see here in this particular region in fact the some flooding on of the road there and again that came down with some hail a fairly quick to clear the scattered thunderstorms but there are quite a few them possible again as we go through friday heavy rains the south or society again those western areas of yemen so santa could actually pick up some flooding in the streets meanwhile the dust in the sun continues to blow the winds a change direction in fact feeling very humid pretty across into bahrain of the next couple of days a temperatures of 41 sells it fairly much warmer with the humidity meanwhile to the north it is hotter but it should be a bit drier 47 is the high in baghdad then down into southern africa we're still watching this possible tropical cyclone which is to the north and getting closer to northern sections of madagascar some pretty strong winds with this will begin to impact that far north coast of madagascar the showers further to the south across more eastern areas wanted to scottish as is to this on shore flow through central areas of mozambique they'll continue through south

a bit all the while across south africa it's fine enjoy a woman port elizabeth. jump into the stream. this generation will have to create its own democracy with social media on hand will online be part of the debate. let me put some comments to you when no topic is off the table is taking on all the systemic problems that people have suffered not only now but for decades we are going to need to transform lives the way we can skew the way we do business if we're going to adapt to climate break down this street on out is the era.

of again i'm not here today and that's remind you of our top stories here this hour u.s. president donald trump has canceled the republican party convention due to be held in florida next month because of the coronavirus threat the state's has been one of the worst affected by the pandemic and on thursday the number of infections nationwide ponced food in the end. the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted an iranian passenger plane over syria to ensure it wasn't a hostile aircraft and the move was said to be aimed at protecting coalition troops in syria several passengers were injured when the commercial plane changed altitude during that incident. and china's foreign ministry has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu it comes in response to washington's decision to shops the chinese consulate in houston. another 1400000 people have filed new claims for unemployment benefits in the u.s.

just in the last week it's estimated up to 30000000 people could now be out of whack republicans are preparing to reveal a one trillion dollar rescue package which democrats say isn't adequate and as gabriel elizondo reports from new york many have spent months out of work still waiting for official help. before sunrise hundreds of people lined up outside an unemployment office in midwest city oklahoma they've all lost their jobs amid the economic recession caused by coronavirus and are now waiting to get help and be laid unemployment checks dieter blakely used to work at a hotel casino in milwaukee wisconsin she was laid off in march and has yet to receive for unemployment benefits it's been over 3 months with no income i've been really stressed lately. bills are piling up i

worried all the time and. sometimes i went it got to be a little bit of a habit too when i woke up in the morning to look at my front door and see if there was an eviction notice on there but deidre blakely is just one of more than $50000000.00 americans who've lost their jobs since a pandemic hit the u.s. in march congress passed a pandemic aid package that included an extra $600.00 a week for anyone left unemployed by the pen demick the problem the money still hasn't reached many who need it so why are so many americans still waiting for their unemployment money i posed that question to jesse rothstein the former chief economist at the u.s. department of labor he said the federal government and state governments are facing in tidal wave of unprecedented demand and that the systems set up in the 1970 s. to distribute unemployment money simply have not been updated and can't keep up

when you triple or quadruple the volume of claims that come in the system the computer systems can't keep up and to the extent that people need to be involved we don't have enough people to keep up. and so that the whole mechanism of the system is set up for a time that's very different from now and that leads to difficulties in getting out in times like this and with the pandemic still spreading across america and more states closing down again after reopening it's feared the unemployment lines could grow along with the frustrations of those still waiting for help gabriel's andu zita in new york well let's get more now on that breaking news out of china the order from the foreign ministry to close the u.s. consulate in the city of chengdu our correspondent katrina you joins me now live from will have her trainer a tit for tat trade war now a tit for tat diplomatic ward seems what's the sense from beijing it seems they're

not really trying to avoid escalation here. no that's right we expected that they were going to close a u.s. consulate we just weren't sure which one it was going to be there was some mumbles that it could have been where we are which is a smaller consulate but they've gone with the consulate in chengdu which isn't the southwest of china which is a more important point to it which services a few provinces in that region in china they've released quite a lengthy statement saying that this move to close this consulate the u.s. consulate there is in direct response to washington's decision to close the chinese consulate in texas in houston on july the 21st they say that this move was in violation of international relations violation of principles of international wall that it also was in violation of the u.s. china consular convention and gravely harmed u.s. china relations and simply for china it says and i quote it was a legitimate and necessary response to this unjustified act by the u.s.

now the statement did and with china saying that it does not want to see this current situation it seems to say that they feel that they've been forced into this corner and they have to retaliate in this way but in terms of what they've called a grave damage to u.s. china relations they put that solely at the feet of the u.s. saying that they're responsible for this and it's up to the u.s. if they want to withdraw they should withdraw any move to put bilateral relations back on track is now in their court so they're saying this is washington our move we're doing exactly what you're doing we do not want things to go down to even to get even worse but now they're waiting on what washington will say in response to this and we'll be waiting here and is there as well katrina you there for us in thank you very much katrina. moving on now and tanzania's former president benjamin has died while receiving hospital treatment for an unspecified illness he

was 81 was the country's 3rd president and served for 10 years from 1905 he led several regional peace mediation efforts while he was in office 7 days of mourning have been declared now a mass grave with 28 bodies of sudanese soldiers has been found and on demand after a 3 week such prosecutors say the officers were involved in a failed coup against former president omar al bashir back in 1990 they were executed in mysterious circumstances off to a quick military trial earlier this month another mass grave of trainees soldiers was uncovered it's believed they'd been trying to flee a camp in 1980 officials have been looking into human rights violations under bush's rule now 5 west african heads of state who gathered in mali's capital have failed to reach a deal to end that country's deepening political crisis weeks of protest calling for the resignation of president abraham back

a case that threatened to destabilize the region regional block echo us will hold a virtual summit on that issue on monday nicholas haq reports. nigeria senegal ghana ivory coast and the share their presidents on an extraordinary mission in bamako aimed at ending mollies political crisis similar to we are here to meet president and the various parties concerned to bring peace and ensure that moderate terms of the path of stability for the sake of the whole region. outside their meeting demonstrators supporting opposition leaders who might he remains missing after being abducted during the parliamentary elections in april it is time for these african heads of state to intervene in the actions off and his government to bring back to his family safe and sound as soon as possible in his absence and unprecedented protest movement calling itself the m fine among its leader. but also

leaders of the opposition in civil society all calling for president. to resign. police fired bullets in july as demonstrators attempted to set fire to the national assembly building roadblocks and seize control of the national t.v. station the west african regional organization echo osce made a series of recommendations on sunday to end the crisis including setting up a new constitutional court to rule over $31.00 contested parliamentary seats in creating a national unity government but the m 5 rejected the recommendations and demands that the resignation of president. they are blaming crisis in mali to the issue of the 2nd round of the legislative elections i think this is a fundamental mistake the main issue is that. when he came to power in 2013 specific pledges which is ending the war in the north millions of millions fled

years of fighting between mali's army and armed groups linked to al-qaeda and i still in the north and center of the country it turns in mali in neighboring countries continue despite 14000 french and you had troops based in the. 7 years after becoming president critics say he's failed to deliver peace and is unable to unite millions seeking a better future nicholas hawking al-jazeera. a kurdish iranian writer who fled iran fearing past accused has been granted refugee status in new zealand very special he was held on pup and you get his nana's island for 6 years after trying to reach a stray he went to new zealand for a literary festival when he was released last november and has never left. award winning book while in detention documenting the lives of his fellow refugee. now it's been one year since boris johnson became the british prime minister he took office on the promise to deliver breakfasts but found himself leading the u.k.

through the coronavirus crisis under some and looks back to rather than 12 months. johnson always wanted to be prime minister and this mantra made it possible we can get brakes done now his arrival in downing street came with ruthless sackings all of the top jobs went to his pro bricks and supporters and bricks it was done it split the country and the conservative party. but then within a month came the biggest crisis facing any prime minister in post-war u.k. history 19 how did johnson handle it certainly has a lot of question marks around it there's a widespread acceptance and probably thinking government that the u.k. maybe locks down too late and has been slow to come out of that before the virus struck johnson was absent from 5 crisis briefings i've shaken hands can decide that

i was at a hospital the other night where i think the review the record if you create a virus of patients like shook hands and everybody yet the prime minister himself became a covert victim narrowly escaping death polls show much of the public sympathy for his plight wane rapidly it was reaction to blunders costing files of lives such as frontline health workers without protective gear and no attempts to protect the elderly in nursing homes and add to that johnson's refusal to sack chief advisor dominic cummings who broke down rules. talks over a trade deal with the e.u. was stalled and johnson refuses to break his promise not to extend talks into the new year is certainly a very. alters if you like to believe in what they see as a clean break that has been best for the british economy in the long term it is

also the brics referendum in 2816 taking center stage in another major issue facing johnson and his government johnson's government is accused of refusing to investigate what the report calls successful russian interference in u.k. democracy watch out for this man kiran starman to pile on the pressure here the new leader of the labor opposition party he's leading in the polls and many in the conservative party see him as a serious threat andrew simmons al-jazeera. again this is al jazeera and these are the headlines china's foreign ministry has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu it's in response to washington's decision to shut down the chinese consulate in houston katrina you has more on china's decision. expected that they were going to close a u.s.

consulate we just weren't sure which one it was going to be there was a some mumbles that it could have been rouhani where we are which is a smaller consulate but they've gone with the consulate in chengdu which is in the southwest of china which is a more important point to it which services a few provinces in that region in china they released quite a lengthy statement saying that this move to close this consulate the u.s. consulate there is in direct response to washington's decision to close the chinese consulate in texas in houston on july the 21st they say that this move was in violation of international relations environment violation of principles of international law u.s. president has canceled the republican party convention due to be held in florida next month because of the coronavirus threat the state has been one of the worst affected by the pandemic on thursday the number of infections nationwide pasta 4000000 the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted an iranian

passenger plane over syria to ensure it wasn't a hostile aircraft the move was said to be aimed at protecting coalition troops and syria several passengers were injured when the commercial plane suddenly changed altitude during that incident. 5 west african heads of state who gathered in mali's capital have failed to reach a deal to end that country's deepening political crisis weeks of protest calling for the resignation of president abraham back acacia threatening to destabilize the region. and tanzania's former presidents benjamin who has died while saving hospital treatment for an unspecified illness he was 81 was the country's that president and said for 10 years from 19057 days of mourning have been declared well those are the headlines and i'll have much more news here at the strain stay with us the u.s. is always open for a few people all right the world that's been going on for a number of hours but you can pick up the report tony for an international

perspective the crikey your global audience how did it impact their life this is an important part of the world and i see it is very good at bringing the news to the world from here. they're welcome to the stream home edition i'm josh rushing sitting in for that here replaceable to me ok and i'm coming to you from my home today in fairfax virginia and i have a question for you well 1st let's talk about your watches on you tube look over here see that box right there that's actually a live view to chat and we have a stream producer there now waiting for your comments in your questions so that get them to me and i can get into the panelist during the show so i hope that you engage here in that you're actually a part of this with us and do it right there in that box ok now i have a question for you right off the top of the show who wants to live in a full on police state with with can.