was. 2 of the world's strongest economies record the sharpest declines on record as a result of the global pandemic. alarms the whole robin you're watching al-jazeera live one headquarters here in doha also coming up hong kong disqualifies 12 opposition candidates from running in september's election as a new security law is used to detain students posting content online. as its tightening border controls are to detaining suspected russian mercenaries accused of attempting to disrupt next month's election. as they

can also seeking answers from mars nasa launches its biggest rover to the red planet in search for evidence of ancient life. to the program the world's biggest economy has shrunk at the fastest pace on record in the 2nd quarter the health emergency that's turned into a global financial crisis saw the u.s. economy contract by 9.5 percent in the worst slump since the 1940 s. now the recent rise in covert 1000 cases there has seen more businesses shut down and another 1400000 people applied for jobless benefits in the past week well also germany's plunged into recession with its economy shrinking by a record 10 percent the pandemics wiped out nearly 10 years of growth and the world's biggest play maker has posted a net loss of 2.2 $1000000000.00 in the 1st half of this year its rival boeing

announced a similar 2nd quarter loss only wednesday. we'll hear more from all will correspond in a moment from paris and berlin but 1st let's go over to our correspondent could be how could he joins me now from the white house and kimberly really the bigger call to be is somebody who the president has prided himself during his term in office these problems to a booming economy to the nation but today's figures are pretty grim. cope with 19 wiped out all of that not only the jobs created by this president but the ones created by the president before him barack obama these are not good numbers for the u.s. president well the headline seems to focus on that sort of us the civic number of 32.9 percent of plunging of the g.d.p. that is a u.s. specific number really the number we should be looking at is more the contraction of almost 10 percent that 9.5 it is still pretty bad even when you look at that

number these are numbers not seen really since the 940 s. but again to put this into context this is a unique situation this is a result of these shutdowns as a result of covert 1000 hitting the united states across all sectors what we've seen has been the contraction in terms of spending by consumers whether it's on cars on clothing at restaurants also exports and a vast mit's one area that did improve we should point out though is in the area of personal finance people not spending their money also many cases getting payments from the government that are running out but this helped in that area so this is a unique situation but for a president trying to win reelection on a strong u.s. economy it's not working out very well lou talking of the election the president has been tweeting about the upcoming vote but it's going to worry politicians on public caloric. the u.s.

president kind of setting a tone with the tweet this morning sensually discrediting the results suggesting that there could be fraud his tweet with universal mail in voting not absentee voting which is good 2020 will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history will be a great embarrassment to the usa delayed the election until people can properly securely and safely vote no president in modern history has ever made that suggestion and to be clear the u.s. president doesn't have the authority to delay a vote there is the potential i'm not a constitutional expert but congress may be able to but i can tell you right now no one is thinking that that's a good idea this is a president who's struggling in the polls next to his opponent joe biden and is certainly increasingly appearing rather desperate in terms of trying to win reelection this is astounding for many and his critics are already firing back

especially on social media at the suggestion that the delay there be a delay of any sort of the vote in november could be how it will want to house correspondent thank you. but it is a bill and he says this and so on but it's like the way it could make things even worse for the germ of the quality. this is the worst quarterly performance for 50 years for the the german economy that refers back to the west german economy rather than to the east german economy but nonetheless it is very bad news but as was alluded to this is needed this needs to be seeing through the prism of what had already been predicted for the quarter and several months ago once the 2nd quarter was underway once the pandemic was really here taking hold of the economy of the country the predictions had been that they would be expected that the commy would shrink by almost 10 percent in the event it's a bit more than 10 percent but not much more than that and so there's very much the

sense coming from ministerial circles that they feel that they've kept a lid on it that they've prevented it from being much worse than they possibly imagined and indeed there are elements certain sectors in the economy that's are rebounding already from the worst. problems caused by the pandemic and the economy minister several weeks ago was talking about his hope that the economy would rebound in 2021 but obviously all of that optimism is predicated on there being no 2nd wave of corona in this country that's why over the course of the past few days and indeed over the course of the past few weeks we've seen a succession of state prime ministers of federal ministers trying to urge caution trying to urge people around the country for not doing things that might cause corona to come back but i'm sure butler has the details all losses from paris.

terrible figures for air bus the european plane made a $2200000000.00 of net losses in the 1st 6 months of this year they've had to deliver half the amount of aircraft in the 1st half of this year that they had planned on and also in the 2nd quarter revenue tumbling by 55 percent so whatever us are saying is that they have had to cut production by 40 percent which of course have a huge impact on the company on staff across the europe who work for us and all the suppliers the whole industry that is always linked to any one company and what they're saying is that this is due of course to the coronavirus pandemic the fact that during the lockdowns people pretty much didn't fly airlines were grounded and even after the restored restrictions have been lifted in some places a line travel has been severely reduced in fact us are saying their visibility for the future is very limited indeed they may not be forecasting in the short term

because the airline travel industry isn't really expected to get back on its feet at least preplanned demick levels until 20232025 so that's a long way off indeed and it's something of course that will affect as i said all these industries that are connected to the european playmakers are bad news indeed out of france today in other news in hong kong told opposition politicians have been disqualified from running in september's legislative council election leading pro-democracy activists joshua won't is one of those disqualified he says it shows a total disregard for the people of hong kong electoral thought to ask the candidates about the views on beijing's national security law and u.s. sanctions the move has been denounced by the opposition as a political witch hunt. for the 1st time in hong kong police of use the new national security law to crackdown on pro-democracy activists online 4 students have been arrested they're accused of posting content that calls for hong kong's

independence from china beijing imposed its controversial law 4 weeks ago the parliament has more from old cong. hong kong is particularly sensitive issue for the u.k. as hong kong used to be a british colony in the u.k. signed a joint declaration with beijing before it was handed over in 1907 and the ambassador had mentioned that to saying it hadn't violated the joint declaration but the u.k. and the rest of the international community see this national security laws imposing restrictions on the hong kong that wasn't within the agreements to safeguard hong kong's autonomy and now we're seeing the hong kong government using that national security law as a way of what its opponents are saying influencing elections these legislative council elections the only even minor democratic process there is in hong kong that are to take place in september about 12 of the candidates the pro-democracy candidates including activists joshua while warring the more radical i would say

activists that were pushing for far more anti government action along with even more moderate established democratic candidates have been now disqualified and the government says it's because partially because they gave they listed a number of reasons but one of the main reasons underlying it is because they did not support this national security law so although we're seeing beijing saying that this national security law should not affect the political sphere spiritual not affect people's freedom of expressions it should not affect hong kong so autonomy the actions that we're seeing and according particularly to the critics of hong kong's government and the opposition camp is that it is you being used very much to limits hong kong's expression and particularly any anti government dissenter activity. china's ambassador to the united kingdom leisure ming hers accuse the u.k. of being responsible for the deterioration in relations between the 2 countries the

says the u.k.'s condemnation of hong kong's new national security law and moves to grant people in the city a pathway to british citizenship constitute interference in china's domestic affairs on hong kong they have been planted this interference from the u.k. in hong kong. which are in turn are china including rank nations against the national security or more as they are change to the policy more being passed or. as tension of a tradition treaty are these moves seriously interrupted ability and prosperity are russia has denied trying to destabilize bellary so hurt of its upcoming election but valerie says it sent mercenaries to inside riots so media are reporting that a criminal case has been launched against more than 30 alleged russian nurseries it

claims they were working with opponents of president. and rest or positions politician mickolus that could hit and blogger. pick one off ski have been named in the case and are both currently in jail that way or as the peña is a fellow at the russia and eurasia program a chance in house which is a british foreign affairs think tank he says this is part of a wider term to hold on to power by looking. actually not so many people in belarus believe that this poll came to belarus to destabilize many people in belarus i jailed on the freight charges and previously below sneath ortiz several times he used possible terrorist attacks as a tool to suppress them a graphic activists during the election campaigns so what most people believe if there's this mass there it's we're going to do that middle east or africa through

ballerinas because of the problems with connections caused by the pandemic so presently i do not see much point for russia to interfere into this presidential election and to send 10 messages here we can imagine that gramley become the measure of what graham it's wants to see as a result of this election that belarus will destroy links with the as that well last winter do sanctions against dollars that bill are civil society will be in the pressure of the political system will be the judge demise that the bill or some economy will be very weak and dependent on russia so actually the question is delivering during this presidential election after seeing what's coming towards because he's repressed everyone now in the country and the west will have no other choice but to tell you some sanctions against you will still have him on al-jazeera scaling back on the hard coronavirus concerns for saadi arabia to slash numbers bar foreign pilgrims from attending. also it's going to speak great harvesting season

but spine take good rainfall and turtles oil business has left a sour taste for farmers those stories after the break. hello there has been some minor flooding recently in japan but really the focus of the seasonal rains a little bit further north for the most part of the korean peninsula and the chinese it is quite rocky now it's no longer the continuous line you can see it's shy was virtually everywhere as you can see however there will be something of a get together this lot for the yellow sea and significant rain seems likely for north korea they're running as fast as the sole i think this is joining saturday again chinese and largely good scattering showers except on the side something's happening inside china see a big circulation so hong kong at least is going to get wet so let's focus also

went for 3 days after other humid start of foggy start on friday is just overcast and miserable now given what's happening in the south china sea that big circulation that tends to draw a lot of the energy problem or sheer away from elsewhere so though we've got a forecast a good chance for the philippines down towards the way say much of borneo sumatra and even political races isn't particularly where java's almost bone dry because the focus is elsewhere monsoon rain there is settle back to a magic spec to be right up in the foothills of the himalayas and then the western ghats. jump into the street and join our global community this generation will have to create its own park or sleep with social media on air not 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 islands that people of color have suffered not only now but for decades we are going to need to transform lives the way kids human it business if we're going to adapt to climate break down this street on out is the arab. world. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera of new cell robin a reminder of our top stories the u.s. economy shrank at the fastest pace on record between april and june it will 9.5 percent as a surge in coronavirus cases saw more businesses shut down and forced millions of people out of work. russia has denied trying to destabilize ballerinas after more

than 30 suspected russian mercenaries were detained in minsk. it suspects the group was plotting acts of terrorism ahead of its presidential election in 10 days time and 12 opposition politicians have been disqualified from running hong kong's legislative election in september leading pro-democracy activists joshua walker is one of those disqualified though it comes as 4 students were detained under the new national security law. u.s. secretary of state might pompei or says the tide is turning on china testifying at a u.s. senate hearing once again said the u.s. closed the chinese consular office in houston because it was a den of spies. our vigorous diplomacy has helped lead an international awakening to the threat of the c.c.p. senators the tide turning 30 plus countries and territories have become 5 g. clean entry banning entry to vendors from their networks when we talked about this year ago that number was in the single digits we terminated special treatment

limits with hong kong in response she's e.p.a.'s action to deny freedom to the people of hong kong and we closed our consul in houston because it was a den of spies the former taiwanese president who oversaw the island's transition from dictatorship to democracy has died meeting we was president from 1988 to 2000 the cause of his death was septic shock and multiple organ failure according to local media he was 97 and had been in hospital since february. the us now has the highest number of credible was fatalities of any nation by far more than 150000 people have died that's nearly a quarter of the entire global tally and its 3 most populous states of california texas and florida have recorded the largest single day death toll mike hanna reports now from washington with more than 150000 deaths in the country the wearing of masks is finally made mandatory in the house of representatives members and

staff will be required to wear masks at all times and the whole of the house on tuesday texas representative louie gohmert had arrived at the attorney general for a house hearing without a mask. he was then admonished for not keeping his makeshift mosque on during the hearing early wednesday he tested positive on arrival at the white house he'd been due to accompany president trump on the crypt to his home state that is now in self quarantine president trump appeared with no mosque during a number of the events in texas seen here in close proximity to his former secretary of energy rick perry also masculist and he continue to hype a vaccine that he is the claims has entered final clinical trials this is the fastest a vaccine has ever been developed together we will end the plague from john we

will defeat the virus the president also continued to defend the video he had retreated earlier 'd in the week from a controversial doctors who claimed there is a fork over 1000 and that face masks are necessary for protection. thank god we are. once again he was publicly contradicted by a member of his coronavirus task force citing multiple studies that the cumulative data on on trials clinical trials that were valid namely clinical trials that were randomized and controlled in the proper way all of those trials show consistently that hydroxy chloroquine is not effective in the treatment of coronavirus disease or cold 19 and in congress republicans and democrats are nowhere near agreement on a new coronavirus relief bill. while millions of american families continue to

struggle with the physical and economic effects of the virus a leading medical organization has issued an urgent warning the american association of medical colleges says and i quote decisive coordinated action is urgently needed to save lives it continues if the nation does not change its course and soon deaths in the united states could be well into the multiple hundreds of thousands mike hanna al-jazeera washington. authorities the australian so to victoria hold tightly locked on measures after a record day of infections and now they reported $723.00 new covert $100.00 cases and 13 deaths the state's the epicenter of australia's 2nd wave of the virus nearly 10000 people have tested positive with more than 300 treated in hospital masks and a mandatory. nasa has ordered

a preservation rock rover from cape canaveral in florida to seek out life on mars but it reaches the red planet the rover will look for bio signatures take rock samples and fly an experimental helicopter over the planet's surface the launch comes on the heels of similar missions from china and the united arab emirates and the reports from florida. we're. launching on a mission to mars this is the start as nasa has most ambitious project to answer the age old question point are we alone. it will take the perseverance rover almost 7 months to reach the red planet and if all goes well place the car sized robot safely in the $20.00 crater once there the rover will spend almost 2 years exploring an ancient martian lake a location scientists say may hold the building blocks to life so one of the key

steps that perseverance is taking is collecting samples that can be brought back to earth in the future and then analyzed with all the trust real laboratories we have which should actually provide us a definitive answer to our question. in a 1st in space exploration the rover is equipped with an experimental helicopter called ingenuity it plans to make several hops above the planet's surface something nasa say will be a wright brothers moment in space ingenuity helicopter on the perseverance rover is one of the most exciting aspects of the mission because this will be the 1st time we demonstrate flight on another planet and that's really important as an exploration tool if all goes as planned this would be nasa's 9th rover to land on mars and so far the most sophisticated perseverance will carry out an experiment to try and generate oxygen down through the martian atmosphere drill for rock samples and most importantly look for signs of frozen microbial life if you keep it. more

rovers you get incremental increases and knowledge but bringing the samples back letting thousands of scientists and hundreds of laboratories look at them that's where the big increase of biology is going to come once the samples are collected nasa plans to retrieve them by launching another mission to the red planet before hopefully returning with them safely to earth what the mission delivers may answer the question did mars ever have life before any of that happens perseverance will have to land on mars our window of time nasa calls 7 minutes of terror that's how long it takes the rover to send a radio signal back to earth the curiosity rover managed in 2012 and if perseverance does the same it will begin a whole new era in the search for life and gallacher al-jazeera miami florida. the annual muslim pilgrimage to mecca known as the heart is in its 2nd day pilgrims on their way to mount arafat but this year it's unlike any seem to fall last year

2000000 people climb the sacred hill this time the pandemic means worshippers from abroad have been banned only a 1000 people will be allowed to perform the hard all of them either nationals or residents of saudi arabia. believes muslims from all around the world have been impacted by that decision here are some of the stories. that really a lot of my i already bought to go to the celebration before going to harsh i voted some religious leaders we made a stage we spent around $1000.00 u.s. dollars is that you're bitching to because normally when we celebrate it we go out but this movie restricted you know. we can do it in our part in our garden event few friends are friends so even children i been restricted to probably. probably out in on each. day i'm no one in your eyes began to get be able to feeling very sad and it worked very hard for hodgson i was selected for highs but it's canceled

due to corona bad arrival back their bathroom one shoulder when i watch mckown t.v. it's sad to see the car without people around it doesn't feel like everything's covered but we still listen to prayers to at least feel those are the last days before. i run a. company tours and we've had several bookings obviously before. but after this covert kicked in the 1st stop the visas and then that's how it was a bit late in stating that they're not going to have anybody go to head to the left my parents and i registered in 2012 we've been waiting for 8 years when it's finally time for us to go. this pandemic happens as human beings we're very disappointed but this is god's will so we accept it. this year i'm not so

disappointed when i failed to leave in 2019 that was devastating i hope in 2021 i will still be healthy then i can go to high. without them. this is because of covert 19 but also because of god's will i did expect that i could go this year but this is happening to the whole world so we just have to accept it. now is the peak a great harvesting season but farmers say barely covering their expenses this year has been particularly difficult because of the pandemic and the economic hardship caused by the israeli blockade to combat the agriculture ministry is encouraging people to buy local produce instead of imported grapes mr hiper he explains this year offered good rainfall and if you're tired soil but grape farmers in the gaza strip are feeling the heat more than a decade of an israeli egyptian blockade has limited people's ability to buy one of gaza's most famous crops farmers hope to sell 7000 tonnes of grapes during the

season from july until september but the supply is higher than demand also been out of a lot of evidence it's a great season in terms of the output of grapes but not many people are buying them so we try to bring the prices down and you can also see the nominee people are selling great sear. garzon grapes have a special taste but i can't buy as much as i used to still i'm one of the lucky ones many people in gaza a poor which means they can't afford to buy grapes and opt for more essential purchases instead like chicken before the blockade gaza's economy florestan exporting fruit vegetables and flowers the siege has made exports rare israel's 3 wars on gaza has devastated its economy and them ridged hundreds of hacked hours of agricultural land. farmers say they will continue to work even if their revenues are low the current prices in the market are way below the cost of production. we

hope that. the quality the quality of our grapes and the cost of all grapes can at least make make up for the lost or the loss of prices and the great market this bargain is not guaranteed grapes imported to gaza from egypt and the occupied west bank are often cheaper than the local produce this is why gaza's agriculture ministry says it's trying to help the farmers by banning the import of grapes during the harvest season. the whole of the israeli occupation restricts our ability to source the needed materials for example we can't import pesticides and fertilizers and israel prevents us from exporting our producer outside of gaza which limits the sectors development. in addition to all of these challenges this year added another burden many sectors

have had to shut down for months because of coronavirus restrictions the closures have stifled an already fundable economy and made these grapes a luxury many can't afford. your child is there with me sell romney a reminder of our top stories the u.s. economy shrank at the fastest pace on record between april and june it fell 9.5 percent as a surge in coronavirus cases saw more businesses shut down and forced millions of people out of work white house correspondent kimberly howell get tons more from washington d.c. . covert 19 wiped out all of that not only the jobs created by this president but the ones created by the president before him barack obama these are not good numbers for the u.s.

president well the headline seems to focus on that sort of us civic number of 32.9 percent of plunging 6 of the g.d.p. that is a u.s. specific number really the number we should be looking at is more the contraction of almost 10 percent but 9.5 it is still pretty bad even when you look at that number these are numbers not seen really since the 940 s. germany's plunge into recession with its economy shrinking by a record 10 percent the pandemics wiped out nearly 10 years of course the national statistics office says it's the sharpest decline it's seen since the 1970 s. experts believe it will take at least 2 years to return to prepare and make levels the world's largest plane maker has posted a loss of $2200000000.00 in the 1st half of the year the sea the fall in demand because of the global pandemic it says that it has cut production of its most popular jet the a $350.00 to $5.00 a month. in hong kong 12 opposition politicians have been disqualified from running

in september of council election leading pro-democracy activists joshua warned is one of those disqualified he says it shows a total disregard for the people of hong kong russia has denied trying to destabilize bellerose ahead of its upcoming election but barely says it said mercenaries to incite riots state media are reporting that a criminal case has been launched against more than 30 alleged russian mercenaries it claims that they were working with opponents of president lukashenko to rest. the forward time when he's president to have us all the islands transition from dictatorship to democracy has died at the age of 97 the tanguy was president from 1988 to 2000 those were the headlines nick clarke will be hit with the al-jazeera news hour in half an hour but next it's the stream to stay with us. 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. a 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 see 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 if your comments or questions in there and back we already have some comments on it go to one right now.