we listen i still think that air travel is the safest mode of travel and the spend that we meet with global newsmakers and talk about the stories that matter is there are. deaths from the green a virus in the u.s. support 150000 nearly a quarter of the global total virus free for months but now facing a resurgence of vietnam's government warns the whole country is at risk. unearned status is al-jazeera live from london also coming out the us retreat from a nato ally 12000 troops ordered to put out of germany and their headquarters moved . and scaling back the harsh concerns over the coronavirus of change the annual

pilgrimage to mecca. began in the united states where the coronavirus death toll has now passed 150000 that's the highest number of fatalities in any nation and accounts for nearly a quarter of the global toll medical experts are warning america will see deaths skyrocket even higher if it doesn't take more steps to control a pandemic brazil has the 2nd highest death toll with more than 90000 deaths the country has just registered almost 70000 new infections in one day and the u.k. is the 3rd worst affected with around 46000 virus related deaths confirmed so far why can't i joins us live from washington d.c. so mike this is quite a figure for the united states and

a stark warning from from medics isn't there. very much a stark warning and this is a truly disturbing figure for health professionals and the country as a whole now what is happening is that there's a mixed trend in terms of the spread of the pandemic there is a slight decrease in the rate of infection but there is a marked increase in the mortality rate this of course is highly disturbing and experts pointing out once again that this increase we're seeing in the mortality rate is a consequence perhaps of person to person spreading weeks ago particularly in the southern states while the death rate for example the group called it in the united states through tuesday was the highest since the 2nd of may so once again these mortality rates are climbing sharply this is of course of great concern the issue of mass still under debate louie gohmert a representative for texas actually tested positive on his way into the white house

in the course of the day he's now going into quarantine he was not wearing a mask when he was present in the house of representatives earlier in the week and house speaker nancy pelosi is expected to enforce a mandatory mask issue in the house this evening and more broadly around the country what's being done to try to get the numbers down. well very little unfortunately and everything is being done on a state to state basis and sometimes on a county to county basis now the association of medical colleges which is a very powerful medical organization within the united states has released a statement saying that a national strategy has got to be imposed in order to combat the spread of this virus point sound that needed at the moment is as many as 2000000 tests a day now the tests that are being conducted is hard on this figure it also needs

as well it says proper test. results returned within a matter of hours not within a matter of days and sometimes weeks as is occurring at the moment now the medical associations the report gives the lie to president trump's claim that anybody who wants to get a test can get a test that the test results are very quick that is basically a full sword and what we are seeing is a body like the medical association stepping up and trying to impose some sort of order in terms of combating the virus most importantly trying to get a national strategy put into place rather than doing it piecemeal from state to state so this is a very important message and a very stark warning from the association of medical colleges and that is if these issues are not addressed the death rate is going to climb in the 10s of thousands in the weeks ahead so very stark warning indeed mike and i thank you very much

indeed. well the u.s. outbreak has in part been fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation around queues and effectiveness of face masks and it was an issue raised with the c.e.o.'s of the 4 big tech companies during testimony on capitol hill the chief executives of facebook google amazon and apple were being questioned at a hearing over accusations of anticompetitive behavior this is how facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg responded when asked about the role is organization could play in stopping the spread of misinformation or we do prohibit content that will lead to imminent risk of harm and stating that there is a proven cure for coverage when there is in fact no one might encourage them to take something that could have some adverse effect so we do take that down. fisher joins us live now from washington d.c. allan what have they said about misinformation. well they should really be talking a great deal of misinformation because this is an antitrust hearing which means

that trying to talk about their business practices whether or not these 4 companies are actually strangling innovation whether some of the tams to get on their platforms are so strict that it's stopping smaller companies develop their policies and develop their products as sensually killing competition but they did talk about misinformation because it's something that the republicans have been very keen to hammer on whether or not conservative voices are disadvantaged on social media and also whether or not at that some of the misinformation that is going on particularly around election time can be stopped will mark zuckerberg said that he is a team that tries to enter set anything before it is seen by users he said the at the moment 809 percent of things that are posted that are misinformed well they get pooled don't he would like to get that 11009 percent it's certainly a topic that is going to be discussed more and more as we move towards the election and certainly i'm just watching jim jordan who's one of the senior people on the

committee talking again about the suppression of co conservative voices it's certainly an issue that they want to revisit what was interesting though is that mark zuckerberg was asked about why some of the posts made by donald trump and donald trump jr talking about covert in the last 2448 hours have been taken down mark zuckerberg said i'm sorry i can't answer that that happened on twitter and otherwise that is mainly about competitiveness. it really is that they're talking about whether or not these companies have built up a monopoly mark zuckerberg made a very good point very early on he said look if this had been 10 years ago there have been different companies here and you would talk then about my space and friendster remember those 2 now no one does because facebook just simply swarm them all together but the chairman of the subcommittee a democrat said look there is a real problem here and he had dent defied it right at the start of the hearing.

and you have too much power these power staves off new forms of competition creativity and innovation and while these dumb firms may still produce some new innovative products their dominance is killing the small businesses and factoring in the overall dynamism out of the engines of the american economy. so where does this all go well the committee has already said it wants to hold more hearings in september that means that the committee both democrats and republicans think there is an issue here and essentially this hearing and a tweet we have from donald trump saying if the congress doesn't do something about it he'll start taking executive orders if the tech companies don't realize that there is a problem here and start taking action then the legislators are people who will alan fischer thank you very much indeed. the united states has announced plans to pull nearly

a 3rd of america's military personnel out of germany president donald trump flagged the move back in june amid a dispute with germany over its defense spending nearly half of the $12000.00 personnel will be moved to other locations in europe including italy poland and the baltics a white house correspondent kimberly how critics planes are. making good on its threat the u.s. announced a withdrawal of almost 12000 u.s. soldiers from germany it's a move the defense secretary insists will improve the military partnership between north american and european allies. i think we are we are excited about where we're going and what it will mean in terms of our ability to enhance to turn strengthen up the straight to the lines in the process the cuts will reduce us forces unsurety by about a 3rd about $25000.00 will remain some soldiers will be repositioned within nato countries including belgium and italy the rest will return to the united states the

u.s. european command will also move to belgium but speaking to reporters on wednesday outside the white house u.s. president trump offered a different explanation for the move he said it was to punish germany for not contributing 2 percent of its g.d.p. as required for members of the north atlantic treaty organization. but. well germany's military spending is up it's still smaller relative to other nato allies as a driver of europe's economy republicans and democrats in the u.s. congress have long held germany should be paying more for share defense but most oppose removing u.s. troops from germany fearing it will weaken regional stability and nato is capacity to push back against russia. the plan to withdraw u.s.

troops from germany is expected to cost billions and could take years to execute and could be reversed if president trump does not win reelection in november can't really help it al-jazeera the white house. france is reporting a surge in corona virus infections with more than 1300 new cases confirmed on wednesday the country's health minister has urged the country not to drop its guard against the virus or leave a hole claims the increase is partly due to increased testing france though has more than 221900 cases. more than half of coronavirus patients who were put on a ventilator in germany died from the disease a study of 10000 patients also revealed that those who had to be put on a mechanical ventilator stayed in hospital for twice as long as those who didn't believe research or said older and sicker people were mainly affected but warned

younger people also had serious complications the study also showed that while men were almost twice as likely to need a ventilator the mortality rate between genders was similar. it says every city and province in the country is at risk of a corona virus outbreak is seeing a small but mounting number of infections after being virus free for months hong kong and thailand also raising the alarm as case numbers grow in parts of asia which have been praised for effectively tackling the pandemic scott hardly has more from bangkok. vietnam has been viewed as a success story during the coded 1000 pandemic through centralized quarantine and strict contact tracing the country of 95000000 people had no deaths from the disease with the borders sealed the government encouraged to travel here and that but things took a turn for the worse last weekend when the central city of denying was hit by an outbreak the 1st cases of local transmission in months now 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 went out of the old provinces and doing high risk all provinces should raise their alert level chairman and general secretaries of each province should take action as should the entire political system. one case in the capitol hill no 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 to virus and its face ways to time i think you also passed 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 to officials are no doubt looking nervously at their neighbors after these recent spikes in cases of covert 19 that's because the government here has also encouraged domestic travel and tourism to help the ailing economy al-jazeera bangkok still to come on. $14000000.00 people at risk of hunger a dire warning is that an american real is from the impact of the credit pandemic. dying defending the environment why a record number of tourists were killed. place

aside the weather's quieting down nicely now across southeastern parts of australia are largely fought and dry right across holes actually high pressure ridge chachi it's looking sunny and settled for the most part and things a good deal quatermain to that basin side of the country just around the southwest sydney 18 degrees celsius for getting up to 14 in melbourne but some places a fair weather clap and nothing too much to speak of some of the picture to across the western side of the country so the west to weather the windy weather that's heading across the tasman it's not going slowly towards new zealand we'll see that west of weather events to pushing into the south as we go on through the next couple of days say well to increase the wet and windy but ahead of that laci dry if a little on the cloudy side a fair bit of cloud to ensue which pad at the moment we have seen flooding recently to northern parts of japan we still have a few showers in the forecast here as we go on through the next couple of days that

the my your front still producing some outbreaks of right stretching across south korea into central parts of china notice heavy notice persistent as it has been recently but it's still there nevertheless not just a little further north towards up towards the yellow sea as we go on through friday a few showers there into beijing so the south is going to be rather more the wet wet weather heading its way towards hong kong. but. beyond going fight between donald trump and the golden state because of thrones philosophy he's into everybody going to conflict with california exposes contrasting ideologies on immigration the environment economic and cultural issues promptly is calling attention to the failure of the blue state model the battlegrounds for the 2020 election even impala reports on trump places california on al-jazeera.

term out of the top stories here lounges era a growing of us death toll has surpassed 150000 in the united states that's the highest number of fatalities in any nation and accounts for nearly a quarter of the global toll. 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 the u.s. has revealed more of its plans to withdraw a 3rd of its troops stationed in germany in a huff of the $12000.00 personnel will be moved to other locations in europe. the

world food program is warning that the pandemic means millions of people in latin america could go 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 many of those at risk are informal workers who make up a large part of that in america's workforce un agency is urging governments to expand relief efforts. co-dependent think has just been devastating in latin america who are already dealing with economic deterioration in many different issues but kobe has come on top of it just in the areas where debbie a p in this region alone we've seen a substantial increase in overall 11000000 people that are marching toward the brink of starvation so it's devastating it's why we must act and we must act now so that we can bring some hope to people otherwise you have political destabilization mass migration economic deterioration supply chain disruption in many people starve

in addition to covert itself want to go to money or apple know who's live in mexico city for a really strong warning on hunger in latin america. that's right the message or the warning rather that we're hearing from officials at the world food program is very clear regional governments in latin america need to do more they need to step up and do more to address worsening poverty in the region or else millions of people are going to face food insecurity we heard from the world food program director a 2nd ago talking about this crisis in latin america it's the number one crisis in latin america but the u.n. is pointing out that that millions of people specifically as you mentioned there lauren in the informal sector face food insecurity if these governments are not doing more to address that now what they're pointing to is a sort of domino effect or a chain reaction caused by the coronavirus pandemic this health crisis has led to

weaken and economic crisis which then leads to deepening in inequality in the region all of these things are making food insecurity worse and hunger is a main ingredient for political instability so the u.n. is pointing to a number of regions within latin america certain countries in the in latin america that are hotspots for these types of concerns we can point to central america a region that has been facing years long drought that's not helping food insecurity we can point to countries like wonderous guatemala panama that are showing alarming rates of contagion haiti and dominican republic there's concerns over the outbreak there alarming rates of contagion in countries like peru in colombia in ecuador but none worse off than brazil and if i could just read very quickly the latest numbers on brazil we know the country has surpassed 2400000 confirmed cases the death toll is now 8539 now brazil has implemented

a welfare program that addresses the most vulnerable as we mentioned the informal workers and that's a positive note because these are the folks that are most at risk of falling below poverty and suffering from food insecurity or in when you are up and thank you very much. annual muslim pilgrimage to mecca known as the hug has begun but this year it's unlike any seen before millions of people usually travel to saudi arabia but the crowd of us means less of us from abroad have been banned as 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 religion's 5 main pillars had church. the sea of people waves upon waves and 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 under lockdown they've said only $1000.00 people will be allowed to perform hajj all of them either nationals or residents of saudi arabia manual pilgrimage is a huge source of revenue for the saudi government although 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 during the rest of the year is a big setback i think it's very significant because saudi arabia standing and influence in the islamic world is mainly that i was from 2 factors that cast one is the horse and the costs that will more than once and the organizer of the mosque in washington ritual and religious bridge when it is i'll just as. 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 27 dollars to make things even worse the covert 1000 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 on now or thirties have failed to provide any information. in the past people of scrutinize 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 front on worshippers in 2015 this year the criticism is over

the odds failure to deal with small crowds in a clear and transparent manner. are just era u.s. federal agents will be withdrawn from the city of portland following weeks of clashes between the offices and protesters oregon's governor says the federal government has agreed to move the agents in phases they were called in to help control anti-racism and police brutality demonstrations but anger quickly shifted towards their presence and claims they were using excessive force. the u.s. has imposed further sanctions on figures close to the syrian leadership president assad's 18 year old son has is one of 4 individuals named in the new measures he'll be banned from traveling to the u.s. or holding any assets in the country 10 other entities including a syrian army unit are on the list is the 2nd part of new restrictions imposed under the seas act the u.s. also warned it could blacklist anyone doing business with the government of

president assad until he supports a negotiated end to the country's 9 year war it is time for assad's need list rule works in this above all is what our sanctions campaign is not to bring about a political solution under resolution 2254 is the only credible path to the peace the syrian people deserve iran's revolutionary guard claims to find ballistic missiles from underground for the 1st time state television broadcast footage appearing to show the missiles being fired on tuesday the video also shows other types of project ass trucking a mock u.s. aircraft carrier in the gulf near the strait of hormuz the u.s. military says the launches were irresponsible the 2 countries have been in a state of heightened tensions after the u.s. killing of a senior iranian general in iraq in january 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 out of more than 200 reported killings 64 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. the report outlines the escalation may be linked to activists becoming more outspoken in fighting climate change illegal mining and deforestation the temperatures in southern iraq are soaring hitting a record 54 degrees celsius last week but there's little chance of avoiding the heat when many people getting only a few hours of electricity a day the country's power grid buckles under the demand we are calling on the government to help while the bills from private suppliers rise along with the

temperature it's wonderful to reports from baghdad under bugged out scorching sun electricity workers go from house to house to collect their dues government electricity in iraq is heavily subsidized hussein's monthly bill is $16.00 but like most iraqis people living in this neighborhood only get a few hours of electricity per day during the summer and amid rising temperatures their anger at the government is boiling over. look at me i'm swiss and you talking to me and i'm full of sweet from 2003 into a no god brought these people promise as a punishment with 0 atrocity. it's a state of the. when the government cuts electricity the family relies on the neighborhoods private generator company that costs the family 4 times as much as they pay the government but the power from the generator is not enough to run the air conditioner so everyone gathers in the living room where only an old air cooler

and a fan of her responded from the heat next door hussein's wife prepares the family's lunch with only a small fan to battle the heat the stuff every hour of the power cuts and we have to run to turn off all the appliances including the fridge and the freezer if i want to run the washing machine i have to turn off everything else it's so difficult. the family would be willing to pay more for government electricity if supply was stable some accuse the private generator companies of exploiting people by charging high tariffs but this provider says his price does not cover the cost of fuel and maintenance none of them so we are not the ones deciding on the price we charge per ampere was decided by the mayor and local council and the income is not enough the poor state of iraq's power infrastructure is the result of decades of war corruption and mismanagement rapid population growth has further added pressure on the grid. it's 48 degrees celsius today and in the hour that we've been

filming here electricity has cut 3 times the previous electricity minister told al jazeera a few months ago that the government had added 3500 megawatt to the grid since 2018 increasing capacity by 22 percent but many people here say that they're not seeing the difference on the ground earlier this month the parliament formed a committee to investigate corruption in the ministry of electricity the prime minister also announced a deal to import electricity from the gulf but that will take time. and i wish there was a magic solution but unfortunately many years of sabotage corruption and mismanagement can't be solved overnight it's not fair to ask a government that's been in power for 2 months to pay the bill for the pillaging committed by previous groups and governments. as the power cuts pushed many iraqis to the brink of exhaustion confidence that prime minister mr the mr government can

resolve deeply rooted structural issues is melting away leaving many iraqis to find other ways to escape the stifling heat city wonderful to al-jazeera by the doubt. the top stories around there the current virus death toll has surpassed 150000 in the united states as the highest number of fatalities in any nation and accounts for nearly a quarter of the global toll medical experts are warning america could see deaths skyrocket even higher if it doesn't take more steps to control the pandemic mike hanna has more from washington d.c. . this is a truly disturbing figure for health professionals and the country as a whole now what is happening is that there's a mix trend in terms of the spread of the pandemic there is

a slight decrease in the rate of infection but there is a marked increase in the mortality rate this of course is highly disturbing and experts pointing out once again that this increase we're seeing in the mortality rate is a consequence perhaps of person to person spreading weeks ago particularly in the southern states parts of asia on high alert after experiencing a resurgence in corona virus infections vietnam is seeing 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 hong kong and thailand are also raising the alarm. the bosses of 4 of the world's biggest technology firms are being questioned over anti trust 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 partitions leading the hearings say the companies have become too dominant and too powerful. 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 president trump announced 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. do stay with us if you can people in power part 2 of trump versus california is coming up next a bit more news after that i phone after. 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. the stench of california as progressive stumps on issues from climate change to immigration as long come to appear to my eyes liberal opposition to preston on trump says this puts a launch come back to reveal about the choices facing americans in the coming presidential election in the 2nd of 2 special reports. that's been finding out.