al-jazeera. emperors of the online economy the c.e.o.'s of facebook amazon apple and google face a grilling over claims of unfair business practices. and our intelligence is out is there a live from london also coming up the u.s. retreat from a nato ally $12000.00 troops ordered to pull out of germany and a european headquarters moved. virus free for months but now facing a clearly virus reserved get noms government warns the whole country is at risk.

and scaling back the harsh concerns of the growing a virus or change the annual pilgrimage to mecca. hello too big to dominant and too powerful that's what the bosses of 4 of the world's biggest technology firms are being told the companies have become in an ongoing hearing in washington even the u.s. president has joined in the criticism threatening that he'd bring the fairness if congress doesn't take action chief executives of facebook google amazon and apple are all being questioned at a hearing over accusations of anticompetitive behavior together their companies are worth almost 5 trillion dollars but they say they operate fairly and within the rules the politicians leading the hearing say the coronavirus pandemic will only serve to make them stronger. they have too much power these power

steves are preforms competition creativity and innovation and while these don't have promise me still produce some new innovative products you dominance is killing the small businesses and you fracturing dynamism out of the engines of the american economy. alan fischer joins us live now from washington d.c. alan the congressional hearing what could it achieve and how much weight does it carry. well pretty strong words and if companies are phone guilty of and to trust there's always the possibility that we can start an inquiry into them you'll remember that bill gates was in front of the committee 12 years ago to talk about the dominant position then of microsoft that kenna theme was picked up by mark zuckerberg who said look you've got these 4 companies here but if we don't keep innovating if we don't keep investing then in 5 years' time they'll be different companies here talking about the likes of my space remember my space no no many people do but it used to be the big social media platform and it disappeared

because facebook overtook it certainly there is some concern that these companies have used the dominant market position google were accused of stealing directly from riaa rivals an accusation that google denied google was also questioned the but the fact that in the past it had walked away from a u.s. military contract saying that the u.s. military didn't align with google's values because the project was about creating war and then open google up to questions same will hold on a 2nd you see you don't want to what with the u.s. military why you walking with the military in china that was something that google denied they said look we don't have a great deal of presence in china as well mark zuckerberg was questioned about his takeover of instagram and saying look you realize there was a rival you realize it could do damage to you and you went out and bought it that is exactly what andrew trust laws are there to stop he said look we went through all the regulatory late regulatory

a positions but it was found that with the ruki he was reminded by the committee chairman that doesn't stop them being phoned in breach of and tree trust regulations business regulations so there's been a number of quite testy exchanges all 4 c.e.o.'s in their initial. statement said look this is an american dream if we're big it's because we made it in america for successful is because we were allowed to do so in america that is what we do a facebook said that it wasn't dominant even though it had billions of users amazon said look we only control 4 percent of the global retail market if you take the global retail market 4 percent is still pretty big and they say look we face competition every single day from stores like wal-mart as for apple they said they weren't dominant in any market atoll but they continue to develop and innovate products and act as a gatekeeper to let developers in to to sell their wares as well what's going to

happen of all of this or the committee will make a report whether or not congress wants to act and it will be interesting but it certainly opens up the idea that there could be some sort of action against these companies maybe perhaps breaking them up the likes of instagram coming away from facebook but it's clear that there are those in the committee who believe that these giants are too big to dominant and if it continues there could be damage to the u.s. economy and fisher thank you very much indeed. the u.s. has revealed more of its plans to withdraw a 3rd of its troops stationed in germany nearly half of the $12000.00 personnel will be moved to other locations in europe including italy poland and the baltics the country's european military headquarters would be moved to belgium president trump announced his intention to move the troops last month saying germany had failed to spend enough on defense it's

a move that officials say will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete and total $36000.00 american service personnel currently stationed in germany. a white house correspondent committee how could joins us live now committee so a bit more clarity now on the details. now well what we know is this is going to be a mixture in terms of the soldiers that are leaving of army and air force we understand it will be $12000.00 almost in total there were initially 34000 troops stationed there inside germany we know that about 25000 will remain in place now in terms of the timeline we know that this could stretch out and could even take years we also know that it could cost billions of dollars but what's interesting about the timeline is the fact that we have a u.s. election coming up in november what does that mean that means that if donald trump is not reelected this could all go away so it's leaving

a lot of confusion of the military moving forward and if you will kind of holding their breath wondering if this is really going to happen and what kind of support does that does it have in this in the u.s. . well you know again this wasn't a surprise as you mentioned but now the u.s. president making good on that now his argument in all of this is that he's standing up to germany because for a long time he has cautioned me as war them look we need you to meet your the benchmark of 2 percent of your g.d.p. in terms of the share defense spending for nato members and his argument is that they just haven't been doing that they've fallen short of that and that's why he's taking this action what's interesting though is that the defense secretary give a slightly different explanation he said this was not in any way retaliatory what it was was strategic this was to deter russia and also to strengthen the alliance in the midst of all of this i can tell you the u.s. congress bipartisan criticism of the plan by the president because well they agree

with the president that germany should be paying more they're also worried about what this will do to the strength of the alliance and whether or not it will still be able to have that deterrent effect towards russia that is being described by the defense secretary kerry how to thank you very much indeed. john mccain is in berlin and says the german government had been expecting this move for some time. instant reaction from parliament from the conservative chairman of the foreign affairs committee nobody heard an influential member of angle america's ruling conservatives here in germany saying that rather than strengthening nato in europe he believes that this decision will weaken nato within europe and clearly people have been expecting that there would be something like this for some considerable time given the sort of language coming from the trumpet ministration for many years to trumpet ministration angry with germany for its failure to meet

the 2 percent of its budget on defense the interesting thing here is that the fear of this troop withdrawal extends far within germany's so for prime ministers of states which have big u.s. bases in them have already taken the step of writing to members of the united states congress to see if they could do whatever can be done to reduce the damage a withdrawal of u.s. troops of u.s. bases would have on their states within the federal republic and clearly overall the german government is frustrated by the sorts of language it's been hearing from the u.s. government and this step now will not encourage them will not help them in their mission to try to mend fences as it were with the u.s. government. yet now only says every city and province in the country is at risk of a coronavirus outbreak is see a small but mounting number of infections after being virus free for months from

kong and thailand also raising the alarm as case numbers grow in parts of asia which had been praised for effectively tackling the pandemic it's got hardly has more from bangkok. vietnam has been viewed as a success story during the coded 1000 pandemic through centralized corn teen and strict contact tracing the country of 95000000 people had no deaths from the disease with the borders sealed the government encouraged to travel. but things took a turn for the worse last weekend when the central city of the neighing was hit by an outbreak the 1st cases of local transmission in months the city was locked down and domestic tourists were sent home just before the airport was shut for 2 weeks and now there are cases linked to denying in vietnam's 2 largest cities and city and even in the central highlands the prime minister has called on all regions to be on alert but in the old provinces doing high risk all provinces should raise

their level chairman and general secretaries of each province should take action how should the entire political system one case in the capital one know it was a worker at a pizza restaurant who had returned from a trip today despite these cases some feel that the government has the ability to control the potential next wave of covert 19. ministry of hell has gained much more experience in combating the virus and its face waves this time i think you also pos quite soon because we have experience and in hong kong which so far has been spared from a high number of cases the city's leader is warning of a potential large scale outbreak after local transmissions surged the most strict measures since the outbreak began were enacted on wednesday for at least a week no gatherings of more than 2 people and no dining in restaurants. thailand has also been viewed as a success story with no locally transmitted cases in more than 60 days' time if

issues are no doubt looking nervously at their neighbors after these recent spikes in cases of covert 90 that's because the government here has also encouraged domestic travel and tourism to help the ailing economy got either al-jazeera bangkok. russia says it could begin producing a coronavirus vaccine is it is september 2 candidate treatments are being child in the country the 1st could be approved by regulators next month and will be provided to frontline health care workers soon after has been criticism that a push to be the 1st to develop a successful vaccine means corners have been cut the head of the funding bonnie body denied safety was being compromised. still to come out there this half hour 14000000 people at risk of hunger a dire warning as latin america reels from the impact of the credit virus and that nick. and pulled out of portland federal agents will begin leaving the us city it sounds more have been deployed to other states.

however building across much of western europe as we go on through the next couple of days largely clear skies him a big area of high pressure just not going in as we go on through the next couple days that says a little keep the skies clear and that the hot july sunshine will burst through we do still have some wet weather further east this weather system as well front just making as well little further east will be some showers that just around the alps pushing over tools at least inside of russia but coming in behind other tools west has a 5 dry and hot weather service in the past few days in spite of getting up into the forty's that he not going up from spite across france bordeaux touching 41 celsius . on thursday often a high of 32 in paris 27 and rising there for london will get up to 32 in london as

we go on into friday wet weather waiting in the wings will cool things off as we go on through the weekend but still plenty warm enough for the warm weather there across western parts sent to the few showers over towards east biloxi fine dry and sunny right across the mediterranean and across much of north africa plenty a shot was there across central parts of africa i shall was just noting a little further north than they usually do just pushing into the saheli some showers into senegal and also some showers for the gap. but. a korean reporting to the wound there i did hear one journalist documents life beyond the headlines. that certain stories can change us to resist please use to it well you know the history. of germany was a unique journey into what it means to be human the things we came and witnessed

documentary on al-jazeera. the roof. and i'm going to run a top stories here now jazeera the leaders of the largest tech companies in the u.s. are being questioned by politicians at a hearing in washington they're accused of antitrust practices including buying out competitors and unfairly dominating the online advertising market. the u.s. has revealed more of its plans to withdraw a 3rd of its troops stationed in germany nearly half of the $12000.00 personnel will be moved to other locations in europe including italy poland and the baltics.

parts of asia are on high alert after experiencing a resurgence in corona virus infections get now missing case numbers grow after being virus free for months on call in thailand also raising the alarm. daniel muslim pilgrimage to mecca known as the hug has begun but this year is unlike any seen before millions of people usually travel to saudi arabia but the coronavirus means worshippers from abroad have been banned reports. they've been coming in their millions every year from all over the world muslim pilgrims fulfilling a lifetime dream to perform one of their religions 5 main pillars. the sea of people waves upon waves in the gulf in the city of mecca has become an image synonymous with the holy city. but this year it's completely different the coronavirus pandemic has meant the pilgrims are not able to travel saudi

authorities have put on the lockdown they've said only $1000.00 people will be allowed to perform hajj all of them either nationals or residents of saudi arabia. the annual pilgrimage is a huge source of revenue for the saudi government overall there is little transparency from riyadh on how much exactly it brings in estimates put the figure in the billions of dollars. losing out on that as well as all the money from those who would usually perform the smaller pilgrimage of alright during the rest of the year is a big setback i think it's very significant because so here yes and influence in the islamic world is mainly that i've found 2 factors that guest one is being the host and the custodian of the boredom was and the organizer of the mosque and what that ritual and religious ritual is allergists has 2020 has already been a tough year for the kingdom with oil prices reaching an all time low after

a trade war with russia that saw the price of a barrel go as low as 20 $7.00 to make things even worse the covert $1000.00 pandemic has increased economic pressure on saudi arabia even more forcing the government to increase taxes and reduce salaries while many are commending saudi authorities for their decision to prohibit pilgrims to travel to mecca this year there are those who are critical questions are being asked about how the 1000 people being allowed to perform hajj are chosen and will there be a fair distribution of house passes to all nationalities living in the kingdom and so now all thirty's have failed to provide any information. in the past people of scrutinise saudi arabia for failing to deal with the huge crowds that converge on the holy city on far too many occasions people have died due to stampede or failure by the government to safeguard the security like when a construction crane fell on worshippers in 2015 this year the criticism is over

the arts failure to deal with small crowds in a clear and transparent manner. are just. the world food program is warning that the pandemic means millions of people in latin america could get hungry this year and the problem is getting worse it's estimated that up to 14000000 people in the region are threatened with food insecurity as the outbreak adds to economic migration and climate pressures on food supply any of those at risk are informal workers who make up a large part of latin america's workforce. meanwhile in brazil a financial scheme brought in to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has reduced extreme poverty in the country a study found the number of brazilians living on less than $2.00 a day fell by more than half to 3 point 3 percent of the population that's the lowest level in decades the government has been handing out $115.00 a month to informal workers and some small businesses affected by the pandemic has cost the brazilian government $32000000000.00 but the report warns that extreme

poverty levels are likely to bounce back after the final patch in august for more let's go to mayor rapper live in mexico city so this story in brazil is actually one of the rare bits of good news i suppose the fallout from the pandemic but but maybe not due to last very long. at least in the in the short term yes and brazil continues to be a major focus of concern in latin america and let's just run through the latest numbers that we have on brazil right now the country has surpassed 2000000 confirmed cases the number stands at 2000000 483191 confirmed cases of corona virus 88539 confirmed deaths from covert 900 so brazil is the 2nd worst affected country in the world it is the worst affected country in latin america by far no other country comes even close with the number of cases and the number of deaths apart from the united states but you were talking about this new

program will the program that was implemented by the brazilian government which is a stopgap welfare program it basically amounts as you mentioned to about $115.00 a month to informal sector workers at it as a way to offset offset poverty to offset some of the circumstances that people find themselves all across latin america not only brazil given that latin america is the region of the world where so many informal workers reside now this is a program as you mentioned that in the short term has actually been very significant in terms of the progress made in eliminating extreme poverty according to a study by the hit to do about i guess foundation which studied which looked at the data from january of 2022 to june found a reduction from 6.2 percent extreme poverty to 3.3 percent so that's almost cut in half so it does seem like a sort of positive side effect of the of the still worsening pandemic but what

we're hearing from experts is that it's only a temporary solution there is an expectation that we could see a return to the same levels if not worse levels of extreme poverty once this federal funding runs out now brazil's president show you bill so not all is being lobbied by his political allies to extend the federal funding the federal welfare program it's certainly good for politics it's. made for the president who has lost favor with with the population who is not as popular as he was before despite. despite that there seemed this is a possibility for him to actually regain some of that popularity but there are other things in the works being talked about as a potential substitute for poverty relief but again if we look at brazil trying to compare it to any other country in the region is near is near impossible but we're hearing from global health experts is that the entire region as a whole latin america there are no signs that the virus is slowing down in the region there are a few bright spots but contagion countries are really struggling to curb to curb

contagion specifically here in mexico where half the population is informal sector workers so it is a big concern not only the health crisis but that looming economic crisis as well on europe and thank you very much indeed. u.s. federal agents will be withdrawn from the city of portland following weeks of clashes between the offices and protest his oregon's governesses the federal government has agreed to remove the agents in phases they were called in to help control anti racism and police brutality demonstrations but dang it quickly shifted towards their presence and claims they were using excessive force john hendren joins us live now from chicago john what led to this announcement. well that oregon action was widely considered a failure president trump has said it was a success as attorney general bill barr is also called a success but they're very much in the minority it is

a widespread belief that the federal troops who are in oregon who are in portland protecting this one building just a courthouse one square block were actually exacerbating the problem they were confrontations with protesters the governor wants them out the mayor of portland wanted them out and the governor said today that what they're doing now is a phased withdrawal that they're going to slowly take those troops out and they will be replaced with state police protecting that same federal building now what's happening all across the country is a number of deployments the trump administration has called out federal troops going into major cities where there has been violence carried out here is that he is trying to tie this to the violence going on in a company to those protests and really that is not related to the violence we're seeing in these cities i'm in chicago right now where we've got a spike in murders chicago's one of the cities where about 200 federal agents have

been sent but what the trump administration appears to have learned is that portland was not the right approach to take so here what they're doing is they're not having these federal troops on the streets you will not see them they are largely department of homeland security investigators in back room sitting behind desks trying to solve preexisting crimes but i spoke to a federal law enforcement officer here on condition of anonymity and one of the things he said was this happens from time to time every few years and he says he does not expect it to make a huge difference nevertheless president trump announced today his administration as are going to be sending troops to cleveland detroit and milwaukee but the numbers are so small there's no way they could make a difference on the street $25.00 in cleveland $25.00 in milwaukee and just 42 in detroit and john in the meantime the u.s. president has been tweeting about another initiative that he says will reduce crime . that's right the president tweeted i'm happy to inform

all of the people living their suburban lifestyle dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood and what that's all about is there's an 1960 fair housing law and in 2015 the obama administration altered the outlaw with a rule that requires any of these localities that are getting federal funds to make sure to show that they have used those funds to make the area less segregated and more affordable and what the trump administration essentially seems to be saying is we're going to make it so you don't have to worry about low income minorities coming into your neighborhoods in the suburbs it's a blatant ploy it seems this is an important battleground the suburbs are one of the reasons president trump won in 2016 is that in places like the suburbs of philadelphia he won the votes in those areas but polls have shown he has been losing in those suburbs particularly among women so this does seem to be

a blatant ploy for the suburbs 100 thank you very much. 29000 was the deadliest year on record for environmental activists hundreds of people were killed for defending the environment and in some cases for protecting their ancestral lands a report by the environmental group global witness says most of the attacks happened in latin america after more than $200.00 reported killings $64.00 were in colombia and dozens more in brazil's amazon region in the philippines the majority of its $43.00 murders were linked to agriculture that's an increase of more than 40 percent compared to the year before other fault outlines the escalation may be linked to activists becoming more outspoken in fighting climate change illegal mining and deforestation. rachel cox is a campaigner global witness she says government and large corporations are responsible for the increase in violence against environmental activists much of

what is driving attacks in canberra in the philippines is also driving attacks elsewhere in the world communities on the front lines of business projects are speaking out against pollution environmental damage or displacement caused by business projects unethical business culture and global consumer demands together drive a kind of small cost big profit mentality which sees businesses seeking to buy atlanta cheaply and quickly without ensuring affected communities are properly consulted a compensated so behind many of the attacks. trends also in the restriction of of civil space and by that i mean the ability of communities to peacefully protest or voice criticism against government or companies. and we're seeing increasing use of force both by state forces and by private. private

act to kind of quietly sabotage the freedoms of communities that speak out so you know we've seen that particularly when it comes to the philippines in recent legislation that's been passed that the anti terror laws are what you need governments to really label any critics as a terrorist and you know as unbelievable as that sounds that climb activists today can be deemed as a threat to national security we know that just last week members of legitimate human rights organizations people that they were witnesses worked with have seen their faces parted on posters calling them terrorists. opponents say turkish authorities will be able to censor social media after a new law to regulate platforms was passed in parliament sites like facebook and twitter will be required to have local representatives in turkey to deal with complaints and to store users data inside the country but also gives the government ability to remove content from platforms or the government says it will help

prevent cyber crime opposition politicians said it would erode freedom of speech and quick reminder you can always catch up with all news becoming the check out our website the dress that is our dot com and you can watch us live by clicking on the orange live icon al jazeera dot com. top stories around 0 the bosses of 4 of the world's biggest technology firms are being questioned over antitrust practices at a hearing in washington the chief executives of facebook google amazon and apple are facing accusations of anticompetitive behavior together their companies are worth almost 5 trillion dollars politicians leading the hearing so the companies have become big too dominant and too powerful and the coronavirus pandemic will only serve to make them stronger alan fisher has more washington. well pretty

strong words and if companies are found guilty of antitrust there's always the possibility that we can start an inquiry into them you remember that bill gates was in front of the committee 12 years ago to talk about the dominant position then of microsoft that killer theme was picked up by mark zuckerberg said look you've got these 4 companies here but if we don't keep innovating if we don't keep investing then in 5 years time will be different companies here the u.s. has revealed more of its plans to withdraw a 3rd of its troops stationed in germany in a half of the $12000.00 personnel will be moved to other locations in europe including italy poland and the baltics. president trump outs his intention to move the troops last month saying germany had failed to spend enough on defense officials say the decision will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete parts of asia are on high alert after experiencing a reserve in corona virus infections yet now missing case numbers grow after being

virus free for months the country's prime minister says every city and every province is at risk of an outbreak on kong and thailand also raising the alarm and implementing new restrictions after reporting large increases in cases. muslim pilgrimage to mecca known as the hunch has begun but this year's is unlike any seen before millions of people usually travel to saudi arabia with a groan a virus means worshippers of from abroad have been banned rather than praying shoulder to shoulder the rooms have been standing apart and moving in small groups of 20 there's the headline still stay with us the stream is up next investigating the benefits of micro dosing about with more news straight after that you stay with us you can buy for.

hey they're welcome to the stream home edition i am josh rushing sitting in for femi ok if you're watching this on you tube help me out you're going to join the conversation let me show you to that box right there that's a live chat i know people been waiting to get in it already because this topic today is really hot we have a stream producer in that chat waiting to get your comments your questions to me so that i can get into the guest so help me out get your comments or questions in there and backed we already hasn't commented on it go to one right now milan says i was in a subtle side in case study did wonders and should be something everyone for everyone to consume in the right said.