asteroids make a close approach to earth this year is flying past the planets as we speak the asteroid named 2001 f. 032 is estimated to be 500 meters wide it's traveling unusually fast at 124000 kilometers per hour scientists say it's too far away though to pose a threats space agencies around the world have activated network of telescopes to study the rock. the headlines on al-jazeera this hour a child is among 7 civilians killed in northwestern syria after an underground hospital was shelled by government forces it happened in the rebel held town of west of aleppo about $600.00 attacks on health facilities are taking place in 10 years of conflict in syria waters continued to rise across parts of the australian state of new south wales

a natural disaster has been declared in some regions after the worst flooding in decades nicola gage has more for windsor north west of sydney the thai communities have been inundated by flood waters as this weather system. down across many different regions where in which is just west of sydney the main breach across the 2 sides of talent is completely covered many roads are becoming blocked and when seeing these in many different highly populated areas all along the coast from port macquarie to newcastle regional areas like towers and thousands of people have had to evacuate as these river systems are rising u.s. president joe biden says he'll be heading to the southern border as soon as the country struggles to manage a surge of undocumented migrants trying to cross from mexico nearly 20000 adults and more than 9000 unaccompanied children are estimated to have crossed the border

in february a huge spike from the previous month. the u.s. secretary of defense has met the afghan president during an unannounced visit to kabul lloyd austin says his main reason for visiting was to hear president bashar gandhi's concerns that's ahead of a deadline agreed with the taliban to withdraw u.s. troops by may the 1st corona virus infections are surging across much of latin america and powered why every single i.c.u. bed is full the health system is on the verge of collapse a nighttime curfew is in place across the country there have been violent scenes in the broader city of bristol during demonstrations against bonds to give the police more powers to deal with nonviolent protests a police vehicle was set on fire some demonstrators climbed on top of them. we'll have more news in 30 minutes time right here on al-jazeera for now it's inside story.

the games must go on but the tokyo olympics and paralympics won't have any foreign fans so how will this affect the athletes and what about the businesses and japanese public banking on a slice of olympic glory this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm how much the olympics and paralympics thrive on one thing international sports fans but after a year of delay they won't be in tokyo when the games finally begin only japanese

fans will be allowed into the stadiums organizers say it's to prevent the spread of code $1000.00 and ensure the public safety it's a major blow to the athletes as well as the businesses and sponsors who spent billions of dollars to be part of the greatest show on earth david stokes reports. for the 1st time in the game's history there will be no overseas friends in an effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus we have to take a decision so which are may need secret respecting who these dry rooty of the safety of. this is largely been driven by the japanese public recent polls have shown a growing skepticism about holding the games and in particular letting foreigners in during a global health crisis in their own easier we thought we should make a decision early because of accommodation and flight reservations there were also request domestically for making

a decision as soon as possible. set to cost $25000000000.00 the tokyo games are already the most expensive ever and the absence of foreign fans will make a further dent in the budget tokyo's hotels restaurants and other businesses will miss out on valuable trade and around a 1000000 tickets already sold abroad now need refunding british fans just in reid had tickets and flights booked but he's looking on the bright side if you're sat on your sofa watching it you know you can record it in your own time watch what you want to watch you can flip between the 2 you can get as many events as you want so i would. have lost but i will still be watching it with it and around 4500000 tickets have been bought domestically but while japanese fans are expected to be allowed in the venues will almost certainly operate at a reduced capacity. athletes like to tell him how it continued to train all around the world and organizers still have the massive challenge of bringing in more than $15000.00 of them for the olympics and then the paralympics. the next big test will

be the olympic torch relay which is coming up on thursday starting in fukushima 10000 runners will crisscross japan over the next 4 months to reach the opening ceremony on july 23rd local crowds just like their foreign counterparts are being asked to stay away. david stokes out 0. i all right let's bring in our guests in tokyo dan or the wit sports writer a japan times in manchester the teller won it as british taekwondo olympic medalist and in shizuoka seijiro takeshita dean of the school of management at the university walker welcome to the program. latoya let me start with you what kind of an impact is this having on you and what kind of an impact you think this is going to have on the rest of the olympic and paralympic athletes. i mean less is we'll have a lot of this is going to be a very different a little pigs from what we're used to as

a veteran of the last 2 games london in rio one of the best things about it was that that support overwhelming home support even in rio the amount of brits that came out to support the athletes that made him feel at home it was absolutely incredible so it would be very strange going into an olympic games without there. however you have to accept it's going to be a strange games but it's also been a very strange year so with that being said we just have to get on with it and be grateful that the games are still happening in a boat so what we can do but our best performance possible and that's the least what i'm going to be doing then how much of a financial blow is this going to be for japan and how much of more of a burden is this going to be putting on japanese taxpayers. this will be a significant financial blow to the country there have been some estimates saying that the loss of overseas fans to the games could cost as much as $2000000000.00

that's on top of all the money that's been spent preparing for the games you have the tourist industry the tourism industry that was really looking for a significant windfall from these games where you have sponsors who are expecting to reach out to all the fans who are attending and all of that money all the tickets have to be refunded all of the hotels all 'd of the tourism related businesses restaurants they're all going to take a severe hit and the taxpayers are likely going to have to shoulder some of that so you're oh do we know how much of a hit corporate sponsors are going to be taking as a result of this and are they eventually going to see a return on their investment. well many of them are starting to back off her in the last several polls suggest a 73 percent of genghis public is against or not willing to hold the olympics this year postponing it is mainly their wish 40 percent of corporations feel that way

another a 60 percent is still trying to have a go but obviously with the consensus public not being there obviously they're going to back off that said the direct implication i don't think is as big as people claim because 70 percent of revenue comes from broadcasting right and 20 percent comes from sponsorship which not all of it is going to erode away so it's not as bad as i think you know many people you know want to frame it but i think there will be a lot more negative legacy that will come the other is we were trying to build a new legacy particularly as far as invalid tourism is concerned. as the other gentleman has depicted right now. and this is going to be a very big blow for the japanese because we were so much looking forward to this olympics ok olympics are special people might say bay but this really was seen as an ignition point to rejuvenate japan as it did 914 previous to all the vix

away from our last 2 decades of economic stagnancy so this is going to have a lot of blow not only in the economic terms that you can see in the numbers but also on the psychological side as well the talo as i understand it a limping in paralympic athletes are not going to have to be vaccinated in order to enter japan but they will have to get covert tests throughout the games they will have to get a covert test before departing to japan and once they arrive there what have you been told about what it's going to be like. i've been told the same as you but there won't be any mandatory vaccine does the case right now anyway and you know we just heard about all the covert testing and the bubble i mean after the who just had very very confident about the i.o.c. and the japanese organizing committee of the do everything they can to make sure

this is the safest olympics ever i mean that is the rationale behind what happened in the programs in the 1st place so i'm confident that that side of things going to be ok just is just a little bit of a shame that the atmosphere and the i guess the buzz and feeling of having almost chorus coming in to japan is going to be gone because in truth it does make a big difference not just for the japanese fans but the athletes as well then the organizers say 'd that barring international fans from attending the games from going to japan that that's going to make the games much safer and more secure for the participants for the fans that are there for the athletes but considering what seijiro said which is you know this polling of late which suggests that up to 80 percent of the japanese public may be against holding these games all together. is what the organizers are saying right now is that allaying some of the fears that

people have. absolutely i think that if you look at the polls the biggest reservations that the japanese public has gets the games are in regards to the games i should say is holding down as planned with fans from overseas and i think that getting rid of that component not allowing overseas fans will to some extent relax some concerns that people have should be noted that of course foreign residents of japan will be allowed to attend the games it isn't just a ban on foreign fans so some countries especially those of the significant populations in the country here in japan i should say they will be represented i'm sure that they will have plenty of supporters in the stands when the time comes so you're i want to look a little closer at some of the things you were discussing in your previous answer and and kind of focus a little bit more on on the economic collateral damage of all of this i mean for

example how is this going to affect businesses in japan that are counting on tourism. well tourism was one of the star player the japanese economy. this was one area where all the estimates are exceeded. particularly with the imbalance boost that we were seeing particularly throughout 201422800 just before corona. and this would have a very positive knock on effect to the japanese economy because it's not only the tourism but it's also the post tourism many people would have an interest in japan and japanese products and move by these things after the 0 home. there would be a rare nest of returning back again there's a lot of what one would call a lot of fringe in effect that would really cause a lot of good synergism in the economy as a whole so target was becoming

a very big pillar of the japanese economic growth and as we saw in 2001000 rep we were all cup it was of great success and the japanese tend to be a very good horse at these things so obviously 2020 took a lot of this was seen as one of the very good i should say start a point to get into the new dimension of growth of having 2 or isn't as the major pillar of the japanese economy so this from that point of view this situation is a very big blow to the industry and related industry as a whole then i just saw you nodding along quite a bit to some what's said euro is saying did you want to jump in. yes i covered there at the world cup for the japan times and it was an incredible experience to see how 'd warmly the country received the 10s of thousands of fans who came for those 6 weeks and looking back at that time you really did think that this was

the set up for the olympics and you could really start to feel the optimism among the japanese public especially among those who had been rather cynical towards the olympics so having experienced that in transitioning from that $29000.00 to the co that era and to where we've arrived at now is incredibly disappointing and that was a huge accomplishment for japan and the olympics were supposed to be even bigger and better so from that perspective it's a huge loss the tal you mentioned a few moments ago just how different the atmosphere is going to be at at these olympics and the paralympic games and i want to ask you as an olympic medalist i mean what is it going to mean to you to be in that arena with so few were number of fans with an atmosphere that's much different than previous olympics i mean what's that going to be like for you i mean. we were just for

me i was going to stay focused on my job and that's secure in gold medal for myself and obviously for team g.b. it's going to be different you allude to there japanese fans are notoriously light and quiet compared to western band so that's going to be a massive culture shock to the athletes who have been completely in japan before they're going to see is going to be very very different without the influx of parklands to make that noise about what we normally would expect especially in a combat sports however it is what it is i'm pretty sure that i say when i get that gold medal and i want top of that podium it's still going to feel pretty good wherever the the crowd is making lots of noise or not under spokes on that and i'll definitely still be a good feeling for you know how i'm pretty sure it will be seijiro let me ask you

what are some of the political consequences that could happen as a result of all this i mean there must be politicians in japan that are really fearful about about their political futures right now correct. absolutely there's some of the reasons why they have come to this decision i mean if you can imagine resurgence of you know all the coronavirus particular corona variant type that we're seeing right now if we see a resurgence of that because of that took over because you can understand what kind of disastrous political implication that would cause so obviously i think the politicians of counted that in and also the fact that the actual income itself is relatively secure again by the sponsorship and also the broadcasting rights so i think that that's one of the reasons why they've come to this conclusion said the japanese tend to be extremely conservative we tend to have the highest level of risk avoidance and this is another negative thing because right now many of the

japanese i don't always see nations are most skeptical towards taking measures to fight off this virus vaccines in fact 30 percent of japanese are against having vaccines because they're doubtful about the the side of the secondary effect that they're getting weather reports about so you can see what kind of conservatism that's that is swirling in the air right now and under that kind of circumstance i think will be very difficult for the politicians to push this to have the foreign you know i. say spectators coming in because it may be able to control the players and the related people but certainly not spectators so i think this was also very much a political decision as you point out the tallow what has the last year been like for athletes especially when it comes to the disruption of training regimens due to

covert 19 restrictions i mean how difficult has that been to cope with. it was extremely difficult at 1st before going into the 1st lockdown when we didn't know if the olympics was to be postponed or not we were hearing so many rumors so much speculation so it had felt like you were training in limbo which is very different for athletes professional athletes we are very goal focused so we know we're all working toward it every time and we work towards that hard work and dedication every day when you know the goalpost feels like it's going to be moved it was difficult to train and also of course not have an access to facilities that we weren't going to train or on one leg do when you feel like you're trying to put a biggest sporting event of our lives what we've worked for our entire careers and

you know which were trained at home with no equipment so it was very difficult very great and now that we're in a better situation where only athletes most places are able to train in elite the selectees however we'll see in a 3rd way going across europe currently i mean i believe italy. france. canada. and europe are all across the world will see in a way it's potentially happening and going into lockdown once again the olympics only been 4 months away it is a concern so i'm in a very fortunate position actually be taken under where i can still train but that's certainly not the case across the board so i think having equal access to training facilities is going to be a massive massive concern across the board and one other thing is because of occasion because the one thing that nobody's really mentioned in most the qualification 12 months last year while postponed or canceled both qualification 20

years will have not happen but the majority of the sports so here we are almost out on the biggest sporting event all time. time and most athletes still haven't had the opportunity to qualify and some athletes still aren't even able to train so this is just the tip of the iceberg there's so many more problems to solve qualification training facilities it needs to happen very very soon afterwards but the being even more pickled than we are now tallow are you in any way concerned that the games could be postponed again or canceled altogether absolutely when it's happened once before i mean let's face it we we never expected it to happen. you know that have a cost bowl of this is so unusual so it is definitely. a concern across the board with all athletes i've spoken to. a major worry is the messages that we received from the i.o.c.

and the japanese organizing committee is that there will not be another postponement that if the olympics cannot happen the shuttle that they have now it will be cancelled which would be a nightmare for all have police who have been training in a lifetime for this moment and or people across around the world who were looking to visit libya games as sort of a beacon of hope that we're coming out of this this pandemic this crisis is global crisis so a counselor lympics would have so many implications just like the other gentleman so not just economically but psychologically not just for the athletes but people all across the world it would feel like a disaster if the olympics got canceled but it's a reality that. that could actually happen with this. need to say other then what does the local demand for tickets look like at this stage and how much

will japanese fans be able to make up for the lack of so many foreign fans. that's a very open question right now before the pandemic roughly 4 and a half 1000000 tickets have been sold in japan in november and december they held a refund period about 8 100000 tickets were refunded so that leaves roughly 63600000 still sold the if the availability of those tickets has not been decided yet there are local reports that then use could be kept at 50 percent fail capacity to allow for physical distancing and that would quite severely reduce the number of tickets sold and i've even read reports that they could have a 2nd lottery a real lottery if you will to determine who among the ticket holders would get to keep their tickets there's going to be a lot of complications of course some events such as gold medal events have been

oversold 'd while the preliminaries and such have been under sold so we don't know what's above 50 percent what's below 50 percent or if 50 percent will be the limit to 0 then was just talking about some of the complications i suppose one of the more complicated things right now is how to arrange refunds for all those foreign travelers who've bought tickets who've booked hotels i mean how is that going to be done and how long might it take and who ultimately bears responsibility for this. well as for the service industry itself i mean we're seeing quite a lot of bankruptcies see at least so i think that would basically exacerbate the situation and also the language barrier that persists and quite a lot of things in japan. for example the payment methodology contractual methodology they're quite different from that of the west were what we

call the situation where the us was able to sustain its livelihood of minimally species because they were so apart from you know the mainland and japan has that phenomenon in many aspects of the economy actually so i think that would a fortune and bring further complications to various you know. people who were trying to reach around which is another very unfortunate thing because that would basically calls a slowdown of repression of people coming to have this this country still so under cultivated as far as tour it was concerned i think and it had such huge potential i think and therefore i think you know the minister of complications or you know these figures that you comedy may certainly hurt various issues or regression of people coming back japan in the future the talo we've spoken about

so many things that can do so much anxiety for athletes and yet i hear you speaking about all this your outlook is so positive and i'm just curious how difficult it has been for you to maintain that focus to look forward to hopefully winning that gold medal and to maintain that positivity. well for me when times are bad i tend to just try to focus on what i could control alternately the olympic correspondent. because the pandemic everything that's happened over this last year if it hasn't been any of our control so what i have been able to control is my my fitness my hard work my dedication to my training and that gives me positive it's it and although we have some problems and some issues to go over right now the message we're getting right now is that the olympics is happening so it that it's

almost like a beacon of hope for me if the olympics does happen and i'm able to go i'll be extremely grateful but it is happening under any circumstances if for whatever reason it doesn't happen and it gets postponed again or as we said before most likely it gets canceled then it is what it is we are in the midst of a global pandemic and as tough as it is as an elite athlete to admit this this pandemic is shown us that there are more important things in the world than sport so if sport has to take a back step or while then so be it however until the remaining positive i'm still visualize it and that gold medal been hung around my neck sometime in july 2021 that's a good thing to visualize at a time like this we have run out of time so we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all of our guests dan or the it's the taliban are mad and seijiro takeshita. and thank you for watching you can see this

and all of our previous programs again by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page at 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 in the whole team here i found out. worked at al-jazeera english since its launch as a principal presenter and as a colorist bonded with any breaking news story to hear from those people who would

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home and untold stories from asia and the pacific on how to see and. this is all desire i'm dating you know with a check on your world headlines a child is among 7 civilians killed in northwestern syria after an underground hospital was shelled by government forces it happened in the rebel held town of a lot of aleppo about $600.00 attacks on health facilities have taken place in 10 years of conflict in syria and the latest one is the 5th such attack this year according to the international rescue committee or a burden monthly reports. appear.