get the place to be a home for these children and they see them become somebody used for even the society fending for themselves. to give me such function. retaliate from beijing as it or does the closure of a u.s. consulate in china. i know that i missed as you take on this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up drama in the skies over syria as a u.s. fighter jet into sends in a rainy and passenger plane. to have a big convention is not the right term donald trump scraps a major republican party convention as u.s. coronavirus case of possible media. and returning to the ring mike tyson sets the

date for an exhibition fight against him around champions which it's true. now china's foreign ministry has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwest and city of chengdu it marks a further escalation in tensions between the 2 while the powers the announcement came just 2 days after washington ordered the shutdown of beijing's consulate in houston texas the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei or had described that concert as as a hub of spying and intellectual property theft while we can now speak truck correspondent katrina you she joins us live from katrina a tit for tat trade off a tit for tat diplomatic war it really seems quite the die lemma for beijing having to respond while risking even more global isolation at this stage. that's right but the way beijing saw it it had to respond to what it's called an

unjustified act from the u.s. they've made no qualms about this this is in direct response to the u.s. decision to close the chinese consulate in houston texas on july the 21st a move which the foreign ministry here has repeatedly called a violation of international law international principles a violation of the agreement the consular agreement between china and the us and move which severely damages the bilateral relationship china has also said that it does not want to see this current situation but it puts the entire responsibility at the foot of washington saying it's also up to washington to now act to either withdraw its move to close the chinese consulate in texas or to create conditions from which this bilateral relationship can improve now we were waiting to hear which consulate would close there are 5 consulates located in mainland china and we also have the embassy of course in beijing there was some chance that it could have been too which is quite a small consulate but chengdu is

a much more significant consulate located in the southwest of china it was founded in 1985 a just a few stops about 6 american officials at the time and 29 local stuff now there about 200 stops working at the consulate in chengdu including about 50 u.s. officials there and they work can verify the various commercial economic and it's also considered quite an important listening post for the u.s. when it comes to issues around that and what's happening in shin junk so this is definitely a blow to biological relationships and once done this will be extremely difficult to reverse and katrina this is also obviously just the latest in what seems to be a spiral now of deteriorating relations here the rhetoric has been escalating to what's beijing had to say about my company's comments. that's right definitely not happy at the beginning a few months ago china's foreign ministry had quite a restrained tauren they would just say that they firmly oppose this or that but these days becoming much more assertive language from the spokespeople at china's

foreign ministry and without quaternion respond directly to my speech and she said that she accused him of having a cold war mentality spreading a cold war mentality and she compared him to us u.s. secretary of state from the cold war in the 1950 s. who one who was quite aggressive in his anti communist stance and then she said that my quote pale was wanting a new crusade against china in a new globalized world which was as futile she says as an ant trying to shake a tree and then she had what seemed to be her own rallying cry against that at least against my compost not the trumpet mr ation itself he said it's time now to peace loving people around the world to step forward and prevent him from doing any further harm katrina you that live for us in thank you very much katrina with all the latest there while the standoff between beijing and washington is also playing out at the world health organization where the director general has rejected

allegations by the u.s. secretary of state that questioned his independence from china. as a says covert politics should be quarantined and he will not allow my pump to distract the organization from its work and 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 governments. we don't want the international community also to be discrete distracted. the u.s. and u.k. have accused russia of launching an anti satellite weapon into space they say moscow fired a project on july 15th person space directorate chief says the move poses

a potential threat to satellites that the well depends on moscow's defense ministry says it was part of an operation to inspect its own equipment now the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted in iranian passenger plane over the syria it says the f. 15 conducted a visual inspection of the 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 altitude during that incident the plane was still then able to fly safely to beirut i spoke to rodger shanahan he's a research fellow at the low institute for international policy and he says this incident could western already strained ties between washington and tehran. yess exertions that. crap from that airline used to ferry the just 6 support for running back forces in the region so that may well have been

one of the reasons why the u.s. decided take a close look at the aircraft to check out where there were passengers on board well it's interesting we have to see what pentagon hasn't said as you pointed out was why they set up new craft. to look at this passenger plane wearers let it blow the other passenger planes fly this route and have a brain intercept live in the past but there is a kind of heightened. tension in a relationship there is always a bit fraught 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 that additional pressure is being 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 gets just adds to the a somewhat volatile mix now the staggering impact of cova 1000 on the united states shows no sign of easing the number of infections across the country has now crossed 4000000 and more than 144000 people have died now president trump has called off the republican convention in florida because of coronavirus fears castro has a story. 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 has 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 but president trump trying to downplay the threat saying that problems and hot spots will all work out your sissie 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 life saving equipment is running out we have no. because we are not anybody to think that a season of who should live or who should die however when you have well he's call a mass casualty situation there are guidelines to be fired or that makes you war you know a more efficient manner and to save their mosque not a bit of people 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 castro al-jazeera washington well the mayor of the city where that republican convention was due to take place says canceling the event was a tough call for president trump and gallagher has more from miami. i was reporting that the sheriff of jacksonville said the city is past the point of no return and

we cannot safely hold this type of event so there were also republican leaders saying they didn't want to turn up because of health and safety concerns so i think as you said this was a very difficult position for the president to make it was interesting that he talked about keeping americans health and safety is a top priority given that he's only recently started wearing a mask himself and his hold was held rallies over the past few months but it's a reflection i think of just how bad the situation is here in florida for him to actually cancel such a massive event and one that will be so personally important to the president i mean it's pretty dire a very dark day for this state with a record number of deaths and for the past 2 weeks we've had at least 10000 new cases every single day that peaked around july the 12th with 15000 cases around 300000 tests have been carried out by the refuge problems with the testing here in the sunshine state people waiting for a 5 hours lining up to get those tests and then waiting 10 days to 2 weeks to get

the results the c.d.c. the center for disease control recommends a 2 day turnaround that is not happening in this state in the reports here so only from people i know they're getting the wrong results. now watch dogs 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 that agents improperly detained and transported anti-racism demonstrators in portland and washington d.c. the police killing of unarmed black man george floyd back in may triggered an ongoing wave of protests against systemic racism and police brutality across the united states. still ahead few here on al jazeera high stakes mission by west african leaders fails to end of weeks long political crisis and muddy. going door to door to graduate the cuban medical students working to track down covert 19. and .

hello there mostly holton drive throughout much of the middle east but at the same time we have had wanted to show some 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 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 of change direction in fact being very humid but really across into cattle 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 fall. north coast of madagascar showers further to the south across what eastern areas wanted to scottish as is to the songs will flow through central areas of the big bell continue through saturday but all the want across south africa is fine and dry and warm in port elizabeth. but. a global pandemic mass protests demanding change economic recession and geopolitical tensions not to mention the small matter of a looming election join me steve clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u.s. politics and society on al-jazeera. holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s.

is room in the while on al-jazeera. hello again i'm a saucy a take and that's my view about top stories here this hour china's foreign ministry has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwest and city of chengdu it comes in response to washington's order to shock the chinese consulate in houston. and u.s. president on the trump has canceled the main republican party convention due to be held in florida next month because of the growing a virus threat the state has been one of the worst affected by the pandemic state the number of infections nationwide posthuman and. the pentagon has confirmed one

of its fighter jets intercepted and iranian passenger plane had to syria to ensure it wasn't a hostile aircraft several passengers were injured when the commercial plane changed altitude during that incident. tons nias former president benjamin has died while receiving hospital treatment for an unspecified illness he was 81 was the country's president and served for 10 years from 1905 he also led several regional peace mediation efforts while he was in office 7 days of mourning happened to catch. now a mass grave with 28 bodies of sudanese soldiers has been found and after a 3 week search prosecutors say the officers were involved in a failed coup against former president amount of shit back in 1990 they were executed in mysterious circumstances after a quick military trial now 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 the she is. now a prominent south sudanese activist who says the president wanted him dead has fled to the united states should be a judge and his family were granted emergency visas by the u.s. government after spending weeks hiding in kenya he says south sudan's president salva kiir ordered the hit squad to kidnap and kill him an allegation denied by the government. has been one of the president's fiercest critics accusing him of profiting chaos in the country to delay elections. thousands of supporters of former president joseph kabila have marched in the democratic republic of congo against currently that felix she said katie the demonstrators accuse him of abusing his power following recent appointments in the army and judiciary she said katie took office last january in the d.l.c. is 1st peaceful political transition since independence. 5 west african heads of state who gathered in mali as 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. threatening to destabilize the region nicholas 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 ikeda and the various parties concerned to bring peace and shortcut to monitor 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 of even a cat and his government to bring him 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 oss 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 of 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 hell 7 years after becoming president critics say he's failed to deliver peace and is unable to unite millions seeking a better future nicholas hawke al-jazeera. all returning to the current virus pandemic and its dealt a fresh bolivia's plans to restore political stability general elections have now been postponed for the 2nd time this year the virus continues to spread uncontrolled overwhelming hospitals and other infrastructure correspondent. one by one vehicle to enter the central cemetery in. 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 people from out of the front 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 or 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 check 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 sporting and now he is dead. a similar situation is ongoing in other cities like the girls will leave you was expected to hold presidential elections in september. last year the country's 1st indigenous president it will not alice 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 that pic of the pandemic is expected to happen later this month. 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 onto 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. and just. well cuba has sent thousands of doctors and nurses abroad to help to combat the 19 on the island also appears to be succeeding at keeping numbers down at home and augustine reports from havana. every morning optometry student as the bomber walks through soviet style apartment blocks knocking on doors. are gone fair and i got out i was in the market are going to. the place you go. at 1st it's annoying waking up early every day going up and downstairs but we have to do

it do you do this voluntarily. one of the assigned it to you at school and you do it. cuba has 28000 medical students have been told they must knock on doors every day if they want to graduate but the country also has the highest doctor patient ratio in the world and across the island family doctors nurses and students are working to track down the virus health experts call it gori is preparing to reopen the cafe she sounded so the island's preventative approach has been a success. humor is doing it door to door every single place whether it's a home a state enterprise a ministry everyone is getting checked in on so 'd it's very block by block and it's organized and it allows the health system to take kind of a snapshot of what's happening and their holes of course you know maybe your active

screener sick one day or something but in my personal experience every single day i think. you know for months that we've had active screening there have been a few days where they haven't come by wearing face masks in public is not a tree those that don't wear them can be fined and those suspected of carrying the virus according to and after returning from the u.s. in march journalist monica rivera was put in an isolation center for 2 weeks and i was a government don't know if. it was like a boarding school they tested to see whether we had the virus we had a temperature is checked 3 times a day and a mosque change daily to. note that it will get the ministry of health detected no domestic transmission of corona virus over the weekend but during the week 16 people have already tested positive students like a 3rd are likely to get a break and it's. at augusta al-jazeera ivana facing now

a kurdish iranian writer who fled iran fearing prosecutor has been granted refugee status and new zealand a straight in your thirty's detained there is a tranny on how can you get his madness island for 6 years after he tried to reach australia which are you there is an award winning book while in detention documenting the lives of his fellow refugees he then went to new zealand for literary festival when he was released last november and has never left. well there's been growing anger and israel over prime minister benjamin netanyahu handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his corruption trial several 100 people rallied in front of netanyahu his home calling on him to step down police used water cannon to disperse demonstrators at least 55 people were arrested in saudi arabia says king solomon is recovering in hospital after what is being called a successful operation to remove his gallbladder the 84 year old model prisoner measured on monday prompting concerns both about his health and the future of the

kingdom earlier on tuesday state media released a video showing south holding a cabinet meeting through a video call from a hospital emergency crews have been battling forest fires raging in southern greece for a 2nd day 25 fighting helicopters and planes have been deployed to contain the flames near the city of current residents of 7 villages as well as tourists have all been about teresa. russian prosecutors are inspecting a facility that's meant to be treating a chemical leak from an abandoned mine it comes after images of large scale environmental damage went viral on social media last week it has the story it looks more like the landscape of another planet those sticks you see in the ground who wants trees in a forest and rushes mountains and soon enough sudley from a couple sulfide mind destroyed everything in its path the miners being close to 16 use but the environmental threats from it has never stopped and last week there was

an outrage across russia when a blow because images of the polluted waters nearby went viral forcing russian prosecutors to investigate. this lake is near the mine a mixture of water and acid flow from the old mine and right into here that's why it's this color. and accident in 1997 caused the mind to floods and it hasn't stopped leaking a toxic mix ever since. so few rick acid reaction is taking place here the acid is continuing to burn everything in the area the soil the trees the grass and fish to all these heavy metals are soluble and shouldn't be in the water. 10 years ago the local prosecutor's office revealed a high concentration of pollutants in the water a special reservoir was built to contain and filter the water leaking from the mine but those living nearby say is has had little effect because he previously there

was a variety of fish in this like but no this is all we have for. sure how can this not be poison all these acids going into the river there's no fish left there's nothing there. all the way to the reservoir the entire bosom is covered clearly not a single plant grew there. was a she said the anger over the mine comes after a major oil spill in the arctic circle forced russian president vladimir putin to declare a state of emergency so they're really good company he accused local authorities of not informing moscow the disaster in may when 20000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a power plant in norris. already one of the most polluted cities in the world it's mayor resigned on monday the design also has renewed public debate over the lack of government action against those responsible but says that goes on it's the environment that continues to suffer sort of. al-jazeera. now the buxom mike

tyson is coming out of retirement the former heavyweight champion has been in training for a week and has teased his fans with tips on social media like this one he's agreed to fight roy jones jr and an 8 round exhibition bout in september tyson is 54 years old and has not fought since 2005. hello this is al jazeera and these are the headlines china's foreign ministry has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwest and city of chengdu it's in response to washington's decision to shut down the chinese consulates and houston katrina u.s. and with 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 town do 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 you was 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 the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted in a rainy and passenger plane over the syria 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 suddenly changed altitude during that incident. 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 west affected by the pandemic on thursday the number of infections nationwide passed 4000005 west african heads of states who gathered and 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 about a case of threatening to destabilize the region regional block echo us will hold a vets will summit on that issue on monday and tanzania's former president benjamin has died while receiving hospital treatment for an unspecified illness he was 81 years old and couple was the country's 3rd president for 10 years from 19057 days of mourning have been declared all those are the headlines i'll be back with an update here on al-jazeera after the bottom line stay with us. territorial social and economic divisions. france has seen some of the

biggest recent protests over black lives matter. is there a world goes to some of its least privileged communities. where treatment by the police is still a contentious issue. paris a divided city on al-jazeera. hi i'm steve clemons and i have a question what will it take to get the united states back on line and back to normal let's get to the bottom line. americans just like everyone else around the world are wondering about the months ahead should we let our kids go back to school face to face what are the risks how many more will lose their jobs or worse their lives will the stock market crash or most folks going to go back to their offices or their businesses or their colleges in other words will life go back to normal anytime soon and what will the quote unquote new.