70 carats it was violently seized by dutch troops who are bullish the sultanate and sent the rough diamond back to the netherlands to be caught into this rectangular 36 karat jam. if something belongs to indonesia they should return it to indonesia but the repatriation of such a valuable item is complicated the descendants of the sultan say it should be given to them and not to the government jessica washington al-jazeera jakarta. your child is there as means the rom the reminder of our top stories of surging violence in the central african republic is forcing tens of thousands of people to seek shelter in neighboring countries the un refugee agency is warning that the needs of the displaced are mounting an estimated 90000 people have been forced to find safety in the democratic republic of congo. is the country representative of

the u.n. h.c.r. in the democratic republic of congo she says the refugees are in a desperate situation. the physical location in which this refugees i write is very vast they are in 3 provinces and. 'd basically very very difficult to reach secondly they've come emotionally depleted some of them this is not the 1st time they're crossing into the yaris see those or even left let. serbs again been to again been displaced so emotionally in a very very hard position. taiwan says several chinese military planes are vented its airspace for a 2nd day the island's defense ministry has reported that a total of 15 chinese aircraft including 12 fighter jets entered the southwestern corner of its air defense identification zone the u.s. state department has called on china to stop exerting what it calls military

diplomatic and economic pressure on taiwan it comes as a u.s. aircraft carrier group president of the south china sea on a mission to promote what the u.s. military called freedom of the seas 11 miners have been rescued in china's northeast after being trapped underground for 2 weeks they were among the 22 caught in the blast at a gold mine at least one miner is known to have died while the condition of the others is unknown. testing is under way in hong kong for thousands of people in neighborhoods sealed off to to a corona virus outbreak people in 150 residential blocks are in their 2nd day of lockdown. and israel is expected to suspend travels the 2 we used to prevent the new covert 19 strain from entering its borders under the proposal that's being considered any international passengers was national permits would be allowed to leave and the country weather headlines more news in the next it's inside story do stay with us.

we'll the games go ahead organizers dismiss reports the tokyo olympics may be postponed again or even canceled so should large sporting events be held when the pandemic still is under control this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm a homage enjoy him when the tokyo olympics were postponed last year organizers promise to hold it this summer as a symbol of victory over a covert 19 but the pandemic is far from under control and people are again asking

if the games can still be held with 6 months to go japan's government has rejected reports that it's considering canceling the world's biggest sporting event tokyo is under a state of emergency to curb surging cases recent polls show 80 percent of japanese want either another postponement or cancelation but the head of the international olympic committee insists the games will go ahead. everybody is really determined to make these olympic games in 6 months from now the light at the end of the tunnel in which at this moment to be are all still in. all the prospects. good to be a working hard. these games the 1st priority will be about to to make them safe and secure for all participants after a year of cancellations some major sporting events are happening again australia's

state of victoria is being criticised for pushing ahead with the australian open tennis tournament in 2 weeks time players have been flown in from overseas and that's when their li 40000 australians stranded abroad aren't able to return because of strict caps on international arrivals now 72 players are in strict warranty an after some people were found to be infected by covert $1000.00 on their chartered flights some locked in their hotel rooms are being creative with training the english premier league has resumed football matches but has issued strict rules on social distancing players have been reminded to avoid handshakes hugging and swapping shirts to celebrate scoring a goal. and organizers of the n.f.l. super bowl insist one of the most lucrative sporting events in the u.s. will go ahead next month so-called virtual fan zones are being set up the number of spectators allowed inside the stadium in tampa florida is limited to about $22000.00 but the n.f.l.

says it won't be held legally responsible if fans catch covert 19. all right let's bring in our guests in tokyo dan or lou it's a sports writer at japan times in milton keynes in the u.k. gail emms is a former olympic silver medalist in badminton and in reading also in the u.k. simon clarke is associate professor in cellular microbiology at the university of reading welcome to the program then let me start with you today i want to talk 1st about the tokyo olympics why is the prime minister in japan insisting that the olympics will go on what are the potential financial costs and the political costs at play if the olympics were to be canceled. well 1st of all thank you for having me the potential costs of not holding the olympics as schedule look the significant surge and which has spent billions new infrastructure in

terms of the news that he is preparing to receive tens of thousands of athletes coaches specials and of course fans this was supposed to be the centerpiece of what has been a massive effort over the last decade to really get the country's tourism infrastructure into gear to create these new sports facilities to modernize a lot of things so to not have the olympics happen it would be a significant blow to the economy and to the nation's morale gail as a former olympian i want to ask you about the effect that this is having on the athletes how is this disrupting their training routine or how is this affecting them on a mental level how difficult is all of this. it is incredibly difficult i'm so glad i'm not a professional athlete right now because i it's hard enough being

a normal person in this situation that we're in this horrible global pandemic there and let alone being an athlete his jewelry his goal for such a long time has been competing for that country and potentially winning a medal at the greatest sporting events in the wild so not only has the president for one year but sports hunting now it could not happen as an elite athlete you know exact dates when your competition is going to be at and then pick games 4 years in a font it's like preparing for the biggest exam of your life you know the exact date the exact time and your sketch show its plans your tournament your training everything is planned for that one moment in time so not only has been put back year so you've got to readjust everything like that as well training but not only physically but mentally as well but now with $200.00 less than $200.00 days to go and you'll still like well is it going ahead is it not and to that motivation it

can be just a little rapid late to degrade saying full stop said you know that want to go out there in on the nz train as hard as they possibly can it's just horrible situation it's just you know your hopes and dreams are fading basically simon from a public health perspective at a time of so much uncertainty when the pandemic is still raging when cope with 19 is ravaging so many different parts of the world. should major sporting events like this really be happening. well it depends of course how you do that and i think to to attend that we can have a law sporting event with a large crowds is a bit of an almost stops and that's just not going to work in the current climate i think you can make an argument that when you can have the event maybe televise it but that requires a really strict quarantining in control of all the participants the athletes in

this case and they've rebuilt the who they might come into contact with and they come really be any chinks in the alma anywhere for the entire program because all the software that might come in contact with the athletes might make contact with potential sources of infection so just quarantining and isolating athletes won't be enough gail i want to try to pick up on what on what simon was saying there i mean how dangerous is it for athletes right now you have these bio secure bubbles as they're being termed which are being implemented for athletes in different countries and for different tournaments in different sports are those effective i mean is this a way really to help reduce transmission and how dangerous is it right now for athletes. well i think you're doing you know every iraqi can do whatever the best they can you know you can only control the controllable is that if what they can

only do what the current scene and the rules allow them to but when you all can pay saying you've also got to compete against the potence you've got so many different effects fatsis and you got to go out there and train if you're in a swimming pool if you're a swimmer you train in a swimming pool there's so many different things that you can't control everything and that is the problem of and this is where you have silence absolutely right that you've got to be absolutely 100 percent such that there was going to be nothing that's going to affect everyone now actually it's all in the you know with the fits healthy younger you know sort of the in that's you know something in that. what i'm trying to present you know that you know we're not going to be you know we're not the ones that are going to affect me die from you know coronavirus but it's about that transmission and here we coming to contact with and post it on and so on and so on so that's the problem. you don't have that 100 percent certainty and then the

actually we you know do you will not play on your mind you don't want that you just want to go out there before your sport you'll race you'll you know if your country and i have to worry about anything owsa now is where it gets best way that it's not just about sports it's a is becomes a big social social question really then when it comes to the tokyo olympics 1st i want to ask you what is the prevailing sentiment from the japanese population when it comes to the possibility of canceling the games and secondly i want to ask you what are the logistical hurdles of keeping players and coaches and spectators safe at an event this massive. currently i think public sentiment is negative recent public opinion polls 'd by kyoto and news and others have shown that only about i believe 20 percent of the public expects the games to believe

that the games should go on as scheduled with the remainder are split roughly evenly between postponing them again and canceling them altogether so currently majority of the public does believe the game should go on in some form or another but certainly there is not that much confidence that they can go on in july as far as being the logistics of being able to safely keep everyone quarantined and safe. it's a massive undertaking we've had professional sports in japan since june they started behind closed doors quickly transitioned to limited crowds of about 55000 eventually moved 'd up to 50 percent of stadium capacity and then quickly as cases really accelerated in early january late december we saw the limits for sporting events go back down again and now we're seeing the rugby top

league has been postponed we're just a league of supposedly going to start next month and it's massive just to do that for one stadium for one day you need cleaning crews you need everyone to adhere to safety protocols you need to test everyone the athletes the team officials the referees and in the j.v. they've been doing that once every 2 weeks roughly in terms of how often individuals are tested so to test athletes officials coaches media fans on a regular basis would be i can't even begin to really speculate on have. much effort that would take but suffice to say that it will be a mess but you're taking. and it's going to be something that they'll strongly have to consider in some form or another simon from from your perspective have the protocols that have been introduced when it comes to sports and sporting events do

you believe that they've been successful in suppressing transmission around training around matches well i think we saw give a little bit of suppressed transmission but i'm going to show you could say they've eliminated it i mean there have been plenty of examples in the u.k. of having track i think probably around the world where there have been instances all well sports teams being affected quite badly and sentence says without breaking the coronavirus so. possible to do it i'm not sure that it's been a successful was really for a large scale event it needs to be gail i want to step back from it look specifically at football turn our attention to english premier league you know there's been over 200 positive cases of coban 1000 since the start of testing in august clubs have been reminded that handshakes and hugs and high fives should be avoided you know there is some growing anger about the behavior of fans and the

behavior of players and some are calling for consequences that they should face consequences for not adhering to protocols do you believe that we will start seeing consequences being met it out because of this behavior. yes and the ship may. actually have a role to play you know they all so lucky the premier league players they are getting to do that so they get into play football they get in to entertain us and as you know i think as a result if they have as a thank you in a way that you you will the lucky ones getting to do us full and many many people are not able to do that job so i will have lost their jobs in this situation we are in lockdown so in a way it should be a representation to say thank you we are going to do our job properly and we are going to respect the rules properly the choppiness exactly it's

a big space that clay that's all program we just you know we you know sports is that we don't grow up we are in a very lovely bubble you know sort of coaches that is manage to do everything for us and we like to have a great side visit playing sports so that's the problem is that mentality maturity and i think if they if the football is that have not attained to the rules should get punished you know if you guys are like kids we're going to be like teaches or authorities and you're going to get that should pay the consequences so yeah do you think it's just not a people that all respected the rules accordingly then is an interesting point that gail's is making there you know and some are saying that you know the fact that football can go on right now in the fact that you know players can train and they can play while so many in society are locked down that that's really starting to wear a bit thin that people are starting to lose their patience when they see you know

well paid highly respected athletes not adhering to the rules that we're all expected to adhered to would you say that's right as well. i certainly agree with gayle sentiment in japan we have not had as many cases athletes have been generally very good about following the various code protocols that have been set up by their respective leagues fans for the daily in particular have cooperated that hearing to a number of rules active support essentially isn't allowed in that a league right now stands aren't allowed to chant they're not allowed to cheer or they're not allowed to sing they are allowed to clap they are allowed to hold up flags but not wave them whole litany of restrictions and they've gone along with it and i think that that is certainly credit to japanese sports fans here and to the

leagues that have instituted these regulations 'd or gotten them to be followed however speaking as someone who covered the rugby world cup here in 22019 that's going to be a very hard task for the fans coming for the olympics and that's going to be a real challenge i think that athletes are in a very high octane very emotional state of mind when they're competing so it's hard to tell them to say well you can't high 5 you can't hug you can't celebrate so how are you going to do that for thousands of athletes as well as the thousands of fans who are potentially in the stadium watching them i think that's a very difficult question look to me like you were reacting to some what dan was saying did you want to jump in there. yeah i just want to say if it's a really be lympics if you can't say that was if it be lympics without emotion you know what this is why it's like painting me in my heart you know this is this is what that one thing you know fully opportunity is where we get all that sporting

montage of the tears the the hugs the stories you know this is what we got why everyone is believe it's the t.v. for that time because we love those moments it won't be an olympics without the how can you have that without that atmosphere and you know the hug from the crowd and you know i still was in a oh-i was just the reason what made the limits see my mom in the crowds you know that my family has supported may who helped me get to where i am you know so representing great riffs and so if you guys if they're not in the crowd is it really an olympics you know basis maybe we might just have to sort of think of it that way. is it really is it just be a tournament of exporting tournament it won't be implications simon and when we're talking about the olympic games i mean is there a calculus that's going on right now when it comes to organizers or or science is

that they're speaking with or epidemiology is where the questions being asked what is an acceptable level of risk when it comes to an event like the olympics. well i think an acceptable level of risk isn't a question for the organizers or politicians really scientists could advise them on how best to to achieve that and of course it does rely on. those organizers and those politicians following through on the advice not just saying there are but i think really you know something like the olympic games that most prestigious takes inventively full year is that you can argue that you don't want any tell you series any outbreaks of kind of ignorant today because of course it will spread so quickly so that i don't think organizers really. couldn't risk that

sort of minimum. was one member of infections if you like because it won't happen it will spread right athletes need in a village they live cheek by jowl way and mix with the organizing stoff. it's just not possible to be able to to shield everybody else compartmentalize everybody if you need to do. i mean then you're at simon talking there about you know how much risk there is when it comes to spreading cover $1000.00 and transmission of coven $1000.00 you know an event as massive of the olympics you also heard gayle in her previous answer talk about the fact that you know with the olympics really be the olympics without that kind of emotion of having the people in the crowd and having so many people packed together witnessing this sporting history. is it a possibility that the olympics could be potentially held in tokyo without the fans what would the fall out from that be i think that there is certainly

a possibility that a closed door games could happen i think that it's a possibility that we could have. got less stick than allowed and they for. international fans coming in and i think it's a possibility that the games could be postponed again i think that there's a possibility that they could be called up. there's a lot that could be on the table. in terms of a an olympics without fans that would obviously make the i.o.c. very happy they would still have their games they would still have their broadcasts they would still get the revenue from that it would be a huge blow to japan which as i mentioned earlier has poured so much into this month long period for both the olympics and paralympics where fans from around the world coming to tokyo and visiting to sit and exploring and go across japan

this was supposed to be the country's shining moment on the international stage. really the biggest event that we will have held since the 2002 world cup and then of course the $964.00 olympics before that so they took to lose the fans and to have took a 2020 be remembered for those empty stands salute would be a huge blow and yes the games would take place but there would be a very large asterisk at the end of them gael there are those of course who believe that you know for fans to be able to watch sporting events you know from the comfort of their own homes that brings about a sense of normality a very you know troubled and uncertain times when a pandemic is raging and they argue that that's the case to be made for sporting events to continue to be held whether or not they're actually spectators out there watching the games live but then there are others who say that it's just too much

of a risk do you think that we're going to be seeing more sporting events being cancelled in the months ahead and what kind of effect would that have yeah something way aren't they i think now because of the hearing more and more about. new strains way the vaccination isn't public as far along as that we want to it's at this stage i think many people thought we would be further ahead in the fascination process you know even if you could all get back leaps and sportspeople getting the facts they should be full. of some people is that mark really writes so there's so many questions than sexy and if there's a new strain war happens if you then cause another way because of a sporting event can you really live with yourself with. that risk and moral is the ethics of the. if. that's what you've got to keep they say you know if you cause another wave of deaths because of a sporting event is it worth it i love sports i love it with all my even my whole

body my whole mind is about sports it's my passion it's been my my dreams and my how i live since i was a little go. when it becomes fit when something becomes more than a sport you have to are safe questions and it's at the end that it's just a sporting events but if you're going to do it you do it properly and you do it because everyone has dedicated and it's because it's the right reasons to do it and you can say that 100 percent the best pitching a sporting event on is what i'm right now we call and say that and decisions going to have to be made it's going to the what do you not want to be in that position because like i'm conflicting all the time a conflict and yes a woman limp is to go ahead because i'm all that you know that you know exactly said i want to stick to my own chant i want to cheer great britain and i want to see people win medals and i will seize full. you know there's also your head going . to be really big there in this you know is this really the right thing to be

doing so yeah it's a horrible situation and every organizing committee whether it's the euros whether it's the the limpets the wimbledon no you know whatever sporting event going on that is what they have to ask themselves is worth it simon i saw you nodding along someone gayle was saying we only have about 30 seconds left let me just ask you are there sports in sporting events do you believe pose a higher risk when it comes to the spread of course in $1000.00. but yeah anything that involves a close it's personal contact rugby would be a really good example. that they are the most active risky sports i mean you can always renew spectators isn't pleasant that is but ultimately even something like formula one where that could be the competitors don't actually meet one another face to face on the grid they were out there opportunities in full and to mix with other people away from the actual events but that's no less important

to the actually going alright we've run out of time so we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all our guests dan or lou it's gail em's and simon clarke and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time of visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me i am a gentleman the whole team here by for now. among

the lower costs dullards also known as untouchables sit at the very bottom of the hindu hierarchy they perform the lowliest tasks such as manually cleaning sewers often with no protective clothing or breathing apparatus people sing ra tour is a valid i don't know if he's taking us to meet some members of the community some of whom he represents kala benvar galas family a cleaner as a husband was poisoned in a sewer 4 years ago 2 of her 3 sons now do the same work despite protections under the constitution doll it's untouchables are treated as outcomes it's many dullards have escaped their predicament by converting to other faiths such as islam or christianity to be g.o.p. controlled state of what the british has prepared a 90 conversion law under which religious conversion would require permission from a state official human rights groups say the law is aimed at keeping delegates in

their place. on counting the cost a trillion dollar man we take a look at president biden's plans to revive the pandemic it on a meat and create millions of jobs thus can he meant fences with america's traditional allies we talked to multiple foreign minister for the view from the. counting the cost on al-jazeera. hello again peter will be here in doha your top stories from al-jazeera the u.n. refugee agency says more than 100000 people have now fled the recent violence in central african republic to neighboring countries foreign forces supporting the government of the cia are have been battling with a coalition of armed groups since last month many of the refugees have been forced to find shelter in remote border regions of the democratic republic of congo al jazeera is melcombe web got exclusive access to one area where refugees say there's hardly any food to eat.