al-jazeera. a secret trial is under way in china for a kim a.d.n. citizen accused of espionage consular access is denied on national security grounds just an arbitrary chain and now we see that our class system itself is not transparent. we're watching al-jazeera live from a headquarters and daddy navigator also coming up homes uprooted and thousands

moved to higher ground the worst floods in half a century batter australia's new south wales. our message has been straightforward and simple and it's true the border is closed the white house scrambles to contain a surge in the number of unaccompanied migrant children trying to enter the us. voting for a president of the republic of congo the man in the job for 36 years wants another term of the leading opposition candidate is a hospital with cope with 19. hello thanks for joining us a secret trial is under way in china of a canadian citizen who's detention has stoked tensions between beijing and. senior diplomats from canada and the us turned up outside the court to show solidarity for michael kaur vick who's being accused of espionage the former diplomat was arrested in december. 28 seen not long after canada arrested while away executive man one

joe on a u.s. extradition warrant and there's another canadian michael spade or who is also detained in china on similar charges and appeared in court on friday despite. the international agreement to china has signed under the vienna convention that would allow. consular officers access to hearings for their citizens we are being denied that access we've made we've requested access to michael writes i hear you repeatedly repeatedly but that access team tonight. has you know. that michael covert has been detained for more than 2 years now. he's been arbitrarily detained and now we see that the court process to itself is not transparent well for more on this let's

bring in katrina you she's joining us from beijing tell us more about coverts trial and now underway as we've been hearing and the in the significance off of these 2 cases internationally. well michael covered and michael spay or 2 businessmen have been detained for more than $800.00 days and this these trials for michael spade or his was undone done on friday what we're seeing now is the climax of what has been a very long drawn out legal process both of these men were detained originally in december 28th but it took 13 months after that for them to be formally arrested and then another 5 months after that for the 2 men to be charged. for espionage and providing intelligence to foreign sources now since that time more than 800 days in detention they've had very limited contact with the outside world they're allowed to write letters to loved ones but given little else they did have monthly consular

visits from canadian officials but these were paul's because of corvids and canada has been hugely critical as we've just heard of the way these 2 men have had their cases handled here in china they said there's been a huge lack of transparency china has been very opaque because they've said that these are national security cases they've been also given very dubious access that canadian governments say to chinese lawyers in their cases and that is particularly concerning because here in china the courts are run by the communist party and in criminal cases 99 percent of them are found guilty now this case of course has had huge ramifications for the bilateral asian shit between china and canada which has very much deteriorated but it's also attracted a lot of attention internationally as we've just seen diplomats from several other countries including australia new zealand other european countries stood outside the court today as covered had his cut trial in beijing in support of him

and also it's attracted a lot of attention from the international business community it's really sent chills down the spines of people who regularly do business in china both michael cauvery and michael spear well norman here in the community they had lived here for . a number of years or no doubt many companies are also watching for the outcome of this trial and it's also attracted the attention of many world leaders in particular u.s. president during biden who earlier this year said that he stood in solidarity with canada and was supporting them in their push to have these 2 men released he also said that human beings should not be used as political bargaining chips because it is widely suspected that their cases are linked to the arrest of $11.00 juror who's a chinese executive currently being detained in canada tell us more about that link and why it's suspect to these cases are ling to be weiwei executive.

well mungo was detained in canada on the 1st of december just 9 days before birth michael culver and michael stable were detained themselves in china now under is the daughter of a who is a very prominent figure here in china he's the founder of one of the biggest chinese tech companies huawei which has telecommunications produces more about forums and 5 g. networks the clientele around the world now she was the c f or of at the time of her arrest and she was detained in canada at the request of the u.s. government who says that she was guilty of breaking sanctions on iran now she is currently in canada under house arrest fighting her extradition to the u.s. and the chinese government has been hugely critical of her case but they have denied that there is any formal connection between the cases of the 2 michaels and her case although it is true that when questioned the chinese ministry unprompted

often raises the case and how her human rights have been impeded on when foreign journalists ask about both michael covered and michael spadeful now of course she's being held under vastly different conditions in canada she's been allowed to stay in her mansion in vancouver allowed to stay with her family and apart from wearing a g.p.s. tracker on her ankle to ensure that she doesn't leave canada she's allowed for most of the day to come and go as she pleases ok thank you so much katrina you for that update from beijing australia's government has ordered emergency evacuations along its east coast after the worst flooding in decades waters are continuing to rise across parts of the state of new south wales a natural disaster has been declared in some regions floodwaters have also been spilling over there where a gumbo down which provides much of the drinking water for sydney. this potentially is a very dangerous situation that everyone needs to understand the magnitude and gravity of what could become over the coming 2448 hours the bureau is not giving us great

advice around the potential rainfall that is coming and that's obviously very perplexing considering all the catchments are psyched at the moment so anything that we add on to this has got to fly somewhere and that's from south east queensland right down the new south wales coast and to put into perspective some of the gravity of this is the whole tree napoleon system that if we get right for potentially in the wrong areas the $54000.00 residents that could be impacted so this is a very large event well let's bring in nick against you joining us from windsor not authorized to sydney and how are residents impacted where you are what are you seeing the. well this really is a cross is that some folding across a strategy is based costarring winds just west of sydney where it's been raining for days and floodwaters continue to rise behind me is the main bridge in town and it's under water many buildings are inundated as well and people in the la lying

areas have been told to evacuate but there are extraordinary scenes like this right through new south wales in heavily populated areas from port mccoury coffs harbor and newcastle and now more than 18000 people have been told to leave their homes many people have been rescued by emergency services off to they've been stuck in floodwaters of course many roads are cut off and the devastation as already been saying there are. damaged destroyed one was even floating down the river of course many of these areas people rely on farming in agriculture and many cattle and livestock have been seen flowing through rivers as well many fields have just become rivers essentially some are saying that this is like an inland lake in new south wales so now we have thousands of people who have had to flee their homes who

are going to evacuation centers in different parts of the state and the military have also been brought in to help with rescue efforts but floodwaters are a rush to the moment they're changing quickly and all thora t's are saying to heed instruction and if you need to evacuate evacuate quickly but for some authority is a warning that it is true of life and if floodwaters are cutting off areas you should not be going through them and power could also be cut off in some of these areas with floodwaters quickly rising and i suppose it must be concerning for people that there is more rain for costs. yes so the weather bureau has said that the worst could be yet to come we have a trough over the coast of new south wales and that's expected to mate with another west to weather system of thunderstorms in the north and that's what's creating

this widespread destruction of rising levels and more rain is expected over the next 24 to 48 hours so emergency services have their work cut out for them the government says that this is a serious situation people are in danger and need to heed instruction of course this comes after devastating bushfires hits new south wales last year it's also going through each rouses well so people really are feeling as though it's want to move to the other and it's also coming when a stray leader is of course rolling out its covert 19 vaccine program so that has been delayed while all efforts and are of the waltzes going into making people safe and ensuring that they're away from these flood waters that are quickly rising around heavily populated areas ok and a killer thank you so much for that update from windsor new south wales now the

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 biden has already reversed much of former president trump's hardline border policies that led to children being held in cages nearly $20000.00 adults and more than $1000.00 unaccompanied children are estimated to have crossed the border in february that's a huge spike from the previous month the new homeland security boss says he won't let migrants take advantage of the u.s. our message is been straightforward and simple and it's true the border is closed we are expelling families we are expelling single adults and we've made a decision that we will not expel young vulnerable children. meanwhile mexico's measures to limit nonessential travel on its southern border with guatemala have come into effect high numbers of immigration agents have been deployed to turn back undocumented people especially families the last heavy border

deployment was in january last year when the national guard was stationed to send away a so-called migrant caravan trying to travel to the united states. still ahead on al-jazeera masked up but doubling down brazil's president takes a fresh swipe at lockdown restriction is. fighting for her political career what next for scotland's 1st minister if a review decides she broke the ministerial code. it's time for the perfect jenny. sponsored plan qatar airways now the rain the wind and the snow are disappearing east was through japan then you got a reprieve blast of cold enough for snow showers on the mountains the western side of the mountains in hong shoe but beyond that the sun is out new spring sun the

wind is no longer cold so most of east asia is going to what we're up to 20 in beijing and italy dan says hong kong was cooled down considerably but we're not really much different to average in the clouds increase with a few light shows likely here the breeze is still blowing strongly across the south china seas and now we're going to see it increase in the like into showers in vietnam and to the west of that as a band of thunderstorms on its way through thailand and in towards me in ma there's also yet another westerly disturbance that brings rain or snow also under storms for even hail through afghanistan and pakistan and then increasingly across the funnels of india towards nepal and this has the benefit of some time still to get there and improve the air quality it might do so in new delhi the city rain but not much wind sort of the good will be a very good improvement a few showers still in sri lanka most of the india is dry and it's dry temporarily in the event then the wind picks up and comes with it the dust in the sand was rain

for the lebanon. spoke support cuts at ways of football an adult and a pioneer verse sport he lost the chance to play for his country but won a legal battle that paved the way for a generation of brazilian players footballing legend eric cantona introduces after one scene of penalized by his club for his political beliefs he took power into his own hands and blazed the trail for players rights football rivals on algis eve. former.

again the top stories on al-jazeera this hour a secret trial is underway in china of canadian citizen michael corby he's one of 2 canadians arrested in $28.00 soon after canada arrested a senior y. way executive on a u.s. extradition warrant canadian diplomats have been denied access to coverage on national security grounds waters continue 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. president joe biden says he'll be heading to the u.s. border with mexico soon as the country struggles to manage a surge of undocumented migrants 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. u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin says there is systematic racism in the military in

an interview with c.b.s. news alston said that racial bias exists at every level in the army the u.s. military ended segregation in its ranks 70 years ago yet austin who is black says he experienced racism even when he was a general it doesn't change as you climb the ladder. you still you still get the doubt there are always going to be people because of what you look like that will question your qualifications i would go someplace with my staff and we were civilian clothes somebody would come out to meet the general. and i wasn't the guy that they walked up to. let's discuss this with tim wise he's the author of dispatches from the race war he's joining us from nashville in the u.s. thanks very much for speaking to us on al-jazeera you yourself say that no one should be surprised that racism and bias exists in the military give us a sense off the scale of the problem. well you know i don't think we can say that

it's any better or any worse than any other institution in american life you know a country was founded on among other things the contradiction between liberty and freedom on the one hand whites are monsieur you know other you can't be surprised at every institution law enforcement education job market and military are going to be affected by that by that process we have a small minute i think that a lot of people think you know in the military your service is somehow because everybody who is in the fighting for the same team supposedly they're not going to have these are all issues but we know that sexism and sexual assault and racism and white supremacy it and organized white nationalism are very present in the military as they are and more enforcement all around the country so it's an american problem just a military problem but it's a problem that it's going to be exist in the military because the problem and so what how significant are a lawyer to austin's comments when it comes to racism and is what can he do going

forward i mean he has a top job now the secretary of defense can he change things. well i mean he certainly has to try and lawmakers are going to have to get behind and want to be the truth is we have a lot of denial in this country on the far white americans in particular and white lawmakers especially when it comes to dealing with their even calling systemic racism by its names the fact that we have someone in his position or willing to use that language is obviously very very important but in order to make that real and to do something about that they're going to have to follow through with a promise to literally urge every single service member years even a little bit to an ideology of white nationalists and we have multiple reports now from internal and external studies and surveys that 8 this serving number of persons in uniform as with law enforcement domestic. white nationalist ideology and if the united states is going to be as it claims to be a multicultural where it was the democracy no one who believes in white nationalism

and white supremacy should be allowed to wear the uniform should be allowed to carry a gun and a badge of course that they must be run out per destroy art from the military and those who want to join must demonstrate that they reject entire the ideology of racial nationalism and see if they want to serve in that capacity and it doesn't do that then nothing is going to change you know lawmakers don't allow that process and encourage that process nothing is going to yes so just last month austin did order each branch of the military to look at the threat posed by white supremacy this of course coming after the capitol hill riots and reports that current and former members of the military took part in that scene's will anything come out of that here opinion. well i mean it very much i think depends on the way that lawmakers respond to that kind of admonition on his part we're going to have senators and congress persons and the president and all levels of government decide

that we've had enough with the allowance and the sort of winking and nodding at this kind of extremists and you know in the past when the when there were attempts to even discuss the issue of domestic terrorism or extremism or white nationalism both on the right shut it down so it was an attempt to purge conservatism this is about conservatives this is about fascism in a very an anti-democratic small the anti-democratic tendencies within the military if you want makers get our eyeballs and i mean get behind this it's really the military of these kind of individuals and i think something can come of it that's going to be a man that has to come from the very top levels of government not just from the secretary of defense or from different members of the cabinet but from lawmakers from the president from the senate from congress so ok tim wise thank you so much for speaking to us from nashville you bet thank you. now all the intensive care beds in paraguayan are full of the country sees

a steep rise in covert $1000.00 infections the off already is are scrambling to find more beds while the military has offered to help out daniel simon reports. those on the medical front line in paraguayan have been warning for some time that the health system was buckling under the strain nearly 200000 people infected with the covert 900 virus and 3700 dead. there most of. the health system is currently saturated on the verge of collapse we are fighting to safeguard the integrity and the life of our compatriots. the 655 i.c.u. beds serving a country of 7000000 and now 4 so too are many other beds and the country's military has offered its facilities also supplies are running low in neighborhoods you want me to be in need we've got supplies but not enough to treat the number of patients we are receiving right now we've got more than 120 and more are coming

it's very intense. demonstrators earlier this month protested across paraguayan accusing the north or witches of corruption and mismanagement in the handling of the pandemic. these vaccines arrived as part of the code back scheme to supply poorer countries but critics say it's not enough. there's a similar picture across latin america this 3rd batch of the sin of back vaccine sent by china to colombia came with this message from the chinese president being rude she wrote that she feels he said the vast pacific ocean can stand in the way of the profound friendship between the peoples of china and colombia and that in the face of the copied 1000 elp break the 2 countries have been working in solidarity and see pandemic cooperation. but most ordinary people are still waiting peru has passed the grim on. 850000 bed night and there are no

respirators says no i.c.u. bed says nothing so we have to wait for the patient to die and doctors tell us this from the inside of the hospital when we are out here. meanwhile in brazil hospitals are also reaching capacity nearly 12000000 people infected 293000 beds residents are being urged to stay indoors to stay away from crowds with even the famous beaches of rio de janeiro close to visit. one osiris. brazil's president has renewed his attacks on restrictions imposed by state and municipal governments djerba also taro has repeatedly pushed against lock down measures in favor of the economy despite a devastating 2nd wave of infections celebrating his birthday with supporters who told them he would fight for their freedom as vote counting gets underway in the republic of congo there are concerns about just how free and fair the presidential

elections are there is an internet blackout claims of voter fraud and some opposition politicians either in jail or boycotting the poll malcolm webb reports in the capital of brazzaville. denise. has ruled the republic of congo for most of the last 40 years he wants to stay he voted here in the capital brazzaville. our democracy which is in its 4th day just we can say our democracy is in good health. his most prominent opponent. has coded sent a message to his supporters from hospital. on battling death but i'm asking you to stand up and vote there was a low turnout in many polling stations in brazzaville in parts of the city where the opposition a popular there were more voters and complained to the regularities. voters here

said a ruling party official had taken all the materials from a polling station to his property where they said he was paying people $20.00 to vote for the ruling party. this man says giving money to people to vote for you it's not an election. dozens of armed police came they said they didn't have a warrant to enter the property and would wait to gather more evidence the president of the electoral commission visiting polling stations said everyone should have been able to vote on that. we can't imagine a person with a cat whose name was not on the electoral list but we gave instruction that all those persons must vote. in one of the campaigns for democracy with a group of activists he says people are voting in fear since it was short the situation is threatening and doesn't guarantee a peaceful election i'm sure the result will be contested because the election is not credible the activists say there are many problems with the electoral register

sharyn says his father is on it even though he died years ago they found the names of a couple of his neighbors on the list even though they're long dead young people on the other hand many of them don't even try to register others sell their vote and he says that's because they don't believe that there's any chance an election can bring any change 'd. money played a big part in the campaigns to hear cash was thrown to people as payment for attending a rally of the building. r.t. congo's billions of dollars of oil wealth haven't helped most of its people. all businesses had to close for polling day people were only allowed to move on foot in the internet has been switched off rights groups say that means the counting in tallying will happen in the dark the electoral commission says the result will be announced in about 4 days malcolm webb al-jazeera brazzaville republic of congo

scotland's 1st minister nicola sturgeon is beginning the most turbulent week of her career she is accused of mishandling sexual assault allegations against her predecessor and it's threatening to undermine her relationship and possibly her ambition sake scotland out of the united kingdom so no whole reports from adam. a difficult week ahead for nicholas sturgeon that could see the 1st minister fighting for her own and scotland's political future it may very well be that i didn't get everything right that's for others to judge but in one of the most invidious political and personal situations i have ever faced i believe i acted properly and appropriately and that overall i meet the best judgments i cute she awakes the outcome of 2 inquiries into her government's handling of sexual assault allegations against alex salmond sturgeon's former boss mentor and friend. last

week the leaked conclusions of a cross party parliamentary inquiry suggested she'd given an even accurate account of her meetings with sam and in 2018 to discuss the allegations. but the question upon which sturgeon's job may depend is whether she broke the ministerial code either by misleading parliament deliberately or by promising to intervene on alex salmond's behalf as he alleges she did which she denies parliament will produce its report already partially leaked on tuesday but it's the independent review by sturgeon's own advisor on the ministerial code james hamilton q.c. that will pronounce on that central question of whether she broke the code if so scotland's 1st minister will find herself under intense pressure to resign scotland's future should be in scotland and that is what this debate is a baby the future of our country nicholas sturgeon is determined that scotland

should hold another referendum on independence something prime minister boris johnson has refused the question was voted down in 2015 but brecht's it has caused a rise in support for independence among remain minded scots and anticipated victory for nicolas sturgeon's scottish national party in parliamentary elections this may would strengthen her hand but a crisis of trust at the heart of the nationalist cause could tear it all down go to hell al jazeera edinburgh. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera a secret trial is underway in china of canadian citizen michael core of a is one of 2 canadians arrested in 20 soon after canada arrested a senior while a executive on a u.s. extradition warrant canadian diplomats have a denied access to covert.