a secret trial is under way in china for a canadian citizen accused of espionage consular access has been denied on national security grounds. he's been arbitrarily detained and now we see that the court process to the south is not transparent. hello i'm daryn jordan this is not a 0 a live from doha also coming up homes up rooted in thousands move to higher ground

the worst floods in the heart a sentry battle australia's new south wales. demonstrations at dawn protesters in myanmar trying vainly to avoid more bloodshed at the hands of the military. and more freedom of movement japan live say coronavirus state of emergency ahead of the tokyo olympics but it comes with a warning. a secret trial is under way in china of a former diplomat from canada whose detention has stoked tensions between the 2 countries senior canadian and u.s. diplomats turned up outside court to show solidarity for michael covering who is accused of espionage he was arrested in december 28th seen soon after canada detained a while executive men one job another canadian michael spadeful has been held in china on similar charges his trial ended 3 days ago without a verdict. despite. the international agreement 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 hearing repeatedly repeatedly but that access didn't deny. as you know. 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 let's get more from katrina you in beijing china what more do we know at this stage about michael called riggs trial and the significance of these 2 cases internationally. well this is now the climax of what has been a long drawn out process for michael covering and also for michael spade or the 2nd

canadian businessman who's also been trialled in dun dong they were both detained in china on december the december 2018 but it took another 13 months after that for them to be formally arrested and then another 5 months for them to be formally charged with spying and also providing intelligence to outside sources that's more than 800 days now that they've been detained with very little access to the outside world apart from letters to loved ones but little else canadian officials were granted monthly consular visits to them but because of card those visits will pause and they've been highly critical of we just heard of these 2 cases in the way they've been handled the canadian government has called them arbitrary political and unacceptable they said that they've been given very little access they haven't been given access to the trials today for example and they've also said that they've been given very dubious access to chinese lawyers and that's crucial because in communist china the communist party controls the court system and 99

percent of all criminal cases are found guilty now these cases i've had huge ramifications for the bilateral relationship between canada and china which has deteriorated since the arrest of these 2 men and it's also attracted a lot of attention other governments this morning we also had more than 20 diplomats from other countries including the u.s. u.k. australia other european countries stand outside the court where michael coverage was being tried to show their support of him being released and also the international community are also watching this case very closely this is sent chills down the spines of many people doing business in and out of china both michael covered and michael spann of all known quite well in the x. back munity here they were living here for a number of years and many companies are going to be watching to see how this is going to potentially affect their future business relationship with china and of course many world leaders have also been watching this more snow. u.s. president joe biden who said that he stood in solidarity with canada and was

pushing to have these 2 men released and he said that human beings should not be used as bartering chips because it is widely believed that this is a case of hostage diplomacy yeah and as you say you could see that this is turned into a major diplomatic spat between canada and china how much is this being linked to the ongoing detention of chinese all executive men 10 or many people do you believe daryn that it is directly linked now mung when joe was detained in canada on the 1st of december 28th that's just 9 days before these 2 men were detained in china now she's the daughter of rendon favorite prominent businessman here in china he's the founder of while way a huge chinese telecommunications company which sells mobile foreigns and 5 g. networks to clients around the world and at the time she was the c.e.o. for of this company now china says that her arrest has nothing to do with the arrest of the canadians but they have unprompted raised her case when questioned by

foreign journalists about these 2 canadians and what it is important to remember that her conditions of arrest a vastly different she's been allowed to stay in her vancouver mansion surrounded by family and apart from a g.p.s. tracker on her ankle is allowed to come in gore for most of the day as she pleases or to continue live for us there in beijing katrina thank you australian government has ordered emergency evacuations along its east coast after the worst flooding in decades and natural disaster has been declared in some regions the torah gets into reports. days of unrelenting rain have left parts of australia's most populous state new south wales underwater homes ruined and lives destroyed. trees. property damaged. by the rain and trees. at least 40 flood warnings are in place and tens of thousands of people have been ordered to

leave their homes and those move on the way this potentially is a very dangerous situation that everyone needs to understand the magnitude gravity of what could become over the coming $2440.00 i doubt the bureau is not giving us cried advice around the potential right for that is coming and that's obviously very perplexing considering all the catchments sucked at the moment it's a year since unprecedented bushfires burned across this region they followed a prolonged drought that led to sydney introducing water restrictions now record rainfall is causing chaos the premier of new south wales says the state is experiencing a one in 100 year disaster i just want to say to everybody across the state who is currently living in fear and anxiety that all of us are thinking of you some communities who were battered by the bush was and now being battered by the floods

and date drought prachi that and i don't know any time in assets history when we've had these extreme weather conditions and such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic and with weather experts predicting more rain for much of this week many people say they feel they're at breaking point victoria. or nicolas cage's in one of the hardest hit communities speaking to people affected by the flooding through . well this is windsor a town just west of sydney where it's been raining for days and floodwaters continue to rise at this behind me is the main bridge through the township and as you can see it's under water there are buildings inundated and people have been told to evacuate and extraordinary scenes like this present right along the new south wales coast from port macquarie to newcastle where homes are being destroyed some being swept away down the river and many livestock being swept away as well

it's of course causing distress to many people here in new south wales will speak to greg now who's in windsor what do you think about some of these scenes that we're witnessing in new south well it's just a rendition of between the fall and the floods and the grass. it's just affecting everybody and tens of thousands of people have been affected by these floods incredible have you been told to evacuate and many people in western sydney are leaving on a day but we've got a potential. coming up if they've got to cut the power of the water off there's only one bridge at the moment one road and one road in the future we will know and . they. will these things are quite terrifying in some areas they haven't same floods like this since the 1960 s. in some areas but run full is setting records here and floodwaters are rising the weather bureau has said that the worst could be yet to come so far and the military

has been called in to help with some rescues many people have been rescued after being caught in flood waters and thousands of people are out of. because they can't go back home president joe biden says he'll head to the u.s. border as soon as it struggles to manage a documented migrants trying to cross from mexico biden as the order of the last much of former president trumps policies that led to children being held in cages nearly 20000 adults and more than 9000 unaccompanied children are estimated to have crossed the border last month a huge spike from. 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 may not mexico's measures to limit non-essential travel on its southern border with the tomato 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 travelled to the united states at least 4 more protesters in manama been killed by security forces as mass demonstrations against last month's military coup into the 8th week police to use live rounds against demonstrators in mandalay who rallied at dawn to avoid a confrontation with security forces tony chang reports from bangkok. protesters in money and central men shelter as the security services advance but there's little they can do in the face of the onslaught separate these protesters was shot in the head. in men today doctors came out to protest their express intention to avoid a confrontation with security forces as they marched and chanted for

a return to democracy. but a crank down came later in the day the rider on this motorbike did. voids being shot as the police moved into our open late district in east mandalay as protest to shelter behind sandbags it's clear they've prepared. to sling shots fireworks and petrol bombs they're trying to fight back. to give themselves time to escape. but resistance is almost futile against me and miles forces some cracks have appeared however several groups of police fled across the border into india rather than open fire on their own people. we feel safe but we heard from some sources that the indian army was searching for us and wanted to send us back to me and we are not 100 percent safe here now the must live in hiding scared they could be sent home and they offer a chilling insight into the orders of those enforcing the crackdown. that would be

ordered to arrest torture to protest so we have no choice but to leave our country outside nationals living overseas a keen to show their support more than a 1000 students and workers gathered in taiwan to commemorate those who have died but at this stage they can do little more than watch as their homeland is to implode tony ching al jazeera. plus also to come here on al-jazeera including must stop but doubling down brazil's president takes a fresh swipe at lockdown instructions. plus the container shortage that sending the global shipping industry into trouble waters and that stainless.

rubber officially in spring now as we should watch out for tornadoes and you might think well it's still cold over the mountains the high plains and wish to bring you moisture from the gulf so we get a frontal zone there it is our drawn it in so that's where the action should be now in the immediate future doesn't look so bad says be more snow in colorado there will be showers forming up in the in the southern states maybe in texas as well and they do look like they could grow but at this stage not too dangerous to temperature contrast isn't that great that's not to rule it out completely assisting expands in the showers go for the reason for the south that does look potentially dangerous that's one to watch as we get closer to tuesday otherwise it's just simply re throughout the midwest and the still more snow to come out the rockies the california coast by this time it's looking fine and sunny with a bit of a breeze and as to a bit of a breeze the trade winds blowing through the caribbean but it's generally fine with the most part few showers in his plan euro as you can see and there's been some rather wet weather recently in honduras and down towards solved over that's

becoming less and less of time goes on but there are bigger showers in south america they've caused landslides from flooding in peru and they could do the same again here and amazonia but rio has drawn warm. for afghans with ties to international organizations. this rate has never been greater. left exposed by the withdrawal of foreign troops. may be the only path to 15. in the nation makes home feel ever further away. bill part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick amount of our top stories here this hour senior diplomats from canada and the u.s. have turned up outside a chinese court to condemn a secret trial of a canadian citizen canada's been denied access to michael coverage was arrested 2 years ago over spying charges. waters continued to rise across parts of the australian state of new south wales the natural disasters been declared in some regions of the worst flooding in decades. yes president joe biden says he'll be heading to the mexican border soon as the government struggles to manage a surge in undocumented migrants nearly 20000 adults more than 9000 unaccompanied children are estimated to cross the border in february a major increase on the previous month. now

a child is among 7 civilians killed in northwestern syria an underground hospital was shelled by government forces it happened in the rebel held city of that's just west of aleppo about 600 attacks on health facilities have taken place in 10 years of conflict in syria more but not reports but. a place meant to care for people and keep them safe the becomes a scene of chaos the hospital was hit by mortars fired from a syrian army outpost. bloodstained survivors who carried out and treated elsewhere i mean it's not enough going to a child and health care workers died in the print about that day for the cubs to go of all of the medical staff were shocked this is the result of targeting this hospital the civil defense came and cleared the patients who are staying at the hospital and we have vacua to the building and medical staff and the injured. al-jazeera correspondent has some reporting from the scene said the hospital is now

empty and unfit for purpose this hospital provides medical services to more than 10000 patients every month the artillery shells fell here early this morning at the main entrance to the hospital. the hospital is called arabic the cave it was built underground for better protection against attacks but it wasn't enough. it's not the 1st time it's been targeted in 2018 al jazeera visited days after a bombing. the talk to share the facilities location with the u.n. hoping to avoid being hit. it's the 1st at the incident that happened only we are only in the 1st quarter of a year so somehow it's really really sad to see that these how you are so this is how we in fact. so many times by sharing all these cordon needs the u.n.

saying that these hospitals should be protected under international humanitarian law. neighbors to providence the last major areas held by rebels they and vast numbers of civilians accorded there by president bashar al assad's forces and their allies the on paper being put under the protection of a cease fire signed in march 2020 between russia and turkey but it's continually violated. those killed have been buried near a type city more craving for a country that suffered so much devastation. lured by the money al-jazeera. court has confirmed former interior minister mahmoud abbas soon as the winner of last month's presidential runoff was on 155 percent of the vote the results were fiercely contested by the opposition with violence in the capital claiming 2 lives . next month to mark the country's 1st transfer of power from one democratically

elected leader to another. japan has lifted a state of emergency in tokyo as pressure mounts on the government to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control ahead of the olympics under the measure imposed in january basel restaurants have been closing at 8 pm while many other businesses have switched to remote working but with infections creeping up just 4 months out from the games experts are warning against complacency 1st bring in tina brett she's an associate professor of politics at suffolk university and joins us via skype from tokyo tina good to have you with us here not just the us so how significant is the timing of this lifting of the state of emergency in tokyo given that the games are only 4 months away. yeah i think it's undoubtedly ties to the olympic kind table many new content can actually seem like arbitrary about the state of emergency has been lifted now we're looking at figures for the number of

daily cases in the weekly average is that cases that are pretty much the same as they went to weeks ago when the state of emergency was extended well they have come down from 10 to january well we asked how the state of emergency imposed so i think a lot of people are very concerned about the games coming to tokyo. and the government push to prioritize the games about robin consensus something that's really upsetting a lot of tokyo like 80 percent of people in the city say they would prefer the games to be cancelled don't they span yeah and how much of this team is being driven by politics do you think because many critics will say that look you know the japanese government is rushing the lifting of the lockdown just because it's desperate to see the games go ahead. absolutely i think that's the narrative that we're seeing among the japanese public it's well i mean this time last year the government was very slow to introduce any kind of emergency measures because it was worried about the impact on the olympics and probably in that school

a number of cases in tokyo surging last spring in a way that was unnecessary i mean given the examples of countries in europe and elsewhere that very much seems to japanese public that this is political and that's reflected in the approval ratings through government ministration yet it's worth reminding our viewers that these olympics been tainted by a series of scandals with a succession of different an im think officials being fired recently tina how much is this undermining the olympic effort in japan and perhaps the integrity and the value of the games yeah i think the scandals are something that really created a sense of disappointment among the japanese public who were very enthusiastic about the games originally thousands of people signed up to be volunteer nationals to help. and spectators and following some of the sexist remarks that committee president mr mori you know lots of those olympians resigned said not an indication of how people feel on top about the original logo for the olympic games here in

tokyo with the plate your rights and the 1st design all the olympic stadium came in and an idol touring casket how many people sort of full of him and it also rather example to twain that that wasn't something that people take it wanted to see her permanently as a fixture on ask i i'm just a final thought you know for you go i mean japan has just announced that no foreign spectators will be allowed in to attend the games because of the pandemic and that means i guess it's relying heavily on local fans so what do ordinary people there make of all this do they even care about the olympics now. i think most people think it's not the right time to hold the games although as you say foreign foreign spectators happen from attending the games there's still a concern that thousands of trainers that start going to be coming to tokyo. increase infection rates as people certainly very concerned about this of health implications of holding the gains and i think that really is that putting quite a dump their arms around was their intent here to read great to get your thoughts

thank you very much indeed for talking to us here at al-jazeera thanks jennifer. now intensive care beds and paraguayan are full as the country sees a steep rise in tobit 19 infections the authorities are scrambling to find more beds while the military has offered to help out the 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 19 virus and 3700 dead. there my. 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 it is 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 maxine sent by china to colombia came with this message from the chinese president xi jinping who would she go but she would feel 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 covered 1000 outbreak the 2 countries have been working in solidarity and anti pandemic cooperation. but most ordinary people

are still waiting peru has passed the grim milestone of 50000. and dead even there are no respirators there's 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 dead residents are being urged to stay indoors to stay away from crowds with even the famous beaches of rio de janeiro close to visit is. what osiris brazil's president has renewed his attacks on restrictions imposed by state and municipal governments jabil tomorrow has repeatedly pushed against lock down measures in favor of the economy despite a devastating 2nd wave of infections celebrating his birthday with supporters he told them he would fight for their freedom. if anyone thinks that one day he will

give up our freedoms in their mistaken some torrents have taken away many of your freedoms you can count on our armed forces for democracy for freedom i would do anything for my people an emergency curfew has been extended for a week in miami beach in the u.s. state of florida following concerns of a partying crowds during the pandemic unruly and mostly moscow's party goers have converged on the destination for the spring break holiday the mayor dan gelber says students have been flocking to money beach after florida's governor called the state away sense of freedom from covert 19 restrictions the city's police chief says is becoming too much for officers to handle now the pandemic combined with a shortage of shipping containers has led to a global transport crisis china is ramping up production of containers to meet demand but as sarah clarke reports from hong kong the delays are expected to continue for some time yet. it's one of the busiest and most efficient

international container ports in the world connecting to more than $600.00 destinations worldwide last year hong kong handled around $18000000.00 containers but over recent months port activity has slowed but the shipping industry facing a shortage of containers in asia and that's triggered a surge in costs it's gone up considerably i mean it's almost got $54.00 times so maybe a container from asia to europe or to the states so people are just going to have to get used to paying them the shortage of containers is not only triggered a rise in prices but also caused a heavy backlog in asia with some exporters struggling to get products to customers china is ramping up contain a production to meet the demand but it can see a shift from services to goods during the pandemic continues to drive up production and exports from asia so the shortage is in asia because the problem is we are

expat exporting more so it is in asia the pandemic has also impacted stopping numbers at ports and it's compounding the problem limited availability of truck drivers and dock workers manes it's taking longer to unload and pack the ships that's creating floating traffic jams at ports around the world this means that containers are being staying outside for longer periods of time. we're finding that there's empty containers in hell stranded all over north america and europe australia in the middle of nowhere just waiting to be returned but there's not a truck or a chance to take it back to contain the shortage and the pandemic has caused major disruption to world trade analysts say the crisis shows no sign of easing just yes it's a global supply chain crisis sure we think it's going to last through to the 4th quarter possibly through to the end of this year in some degree or another think it's going to improve for sure but i think it is going to be

a fact of life for most a 2021 if that's the case the shipping industry will continue to pay premium rights with consumers bearing the brunt of the higher costs sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera senior diplomats from canada and the u.s. have turned up outside a chinese court to condemn a secret trial of a canadian citizen can and has been denied access to michael coverage was arrested 2 years ago of espionage charges katrina you has this update from beijing and canada has been hugely critical as we've just heard on the way these 2 men have had their cases handled here in.