for some of the world's most threatened animals and joining the call for an. earth drive. that. people. on. board. this was. this was. the state has failed to meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable. the arguments from both sides have been heard a jury must now decide if former police officer derek chauvin is responsible for the death of george floyd. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london also coming up

russian opposition leader alexis ever only is transferred to a prison hospital made growing international concern for his health chaotic scenes in new delhi ahead of a 6 day lockdown as india reports almost $274000.00 new covert infections plus. nasa successfully flies a small helicopter on mars the 1st powered flight by an aircraft on another planet . a jury in the u.s. city of minneapolis is beginning its deliberations on whether former police officer derek chauvin killed george floyd after 3 weeks of witness and expert testimony they heard final arguments from the prosecution and defense they now have to

consider 2 murder charges and one charge of manslaughter the prosecution asked the jury to consider whether george floyd would have died without their show even kneeling on his neck for 9 and a half minutes they argued that this wasn't an example of policing but murder he begged george floyd begged until he could speak no more and the defendant continued. this is salt. when he was unable to speak the defendant continued when he was unable to breathe the defendant continued beyond the point that he had a pulse beyond the point that he had a pulse the defendant continued this assault 9 minutes and 29 seconds. when the ambulance arrived but ambulance was here. and the defendant continued he stayed on top of him well the defense said that

there was a lack of evidence to prove chauvin was guilty beyond reason it reasonable doubt asking the jury to consider if their children acted reasonably as a police officer the standard is now what should the officer have done in these circumstances it's not what could the officer have done differently in the sight circumstance the standard is what were the facts that were known to this officer at the precise moment he used force and. considering all of the totality of circumstances and facts known to the officer would a reasonable police officer. reasonable police officer have. some of the arguments they are from the prosecution and defense but let's remind you of the 3 charges they're actually in faces the 1st is unintentional 2nd degree murder with

a penalty of up to 40 years in prison prosecutors have to prove that his conduct was a substantial calls all factor in george floyd's death and chauvin was committing a felony assault is also facing a 3rd degree murder charge that his actions caused floyd's death with recklessness and that this regard for human life and then there's also the charge of 2nd degree manslaughter which require a sprue for the chauvin caused the floyd's death through negligence scott live now to share britannic see who is in minneapolis for us and has been following the trial a trial that lasted roughly 3 weeks and perhaps a final day that ended up being longer than many of us were expecting. right an hour and 45 minutes or so for the initial. statement of the prosecution statement of the 2 hours and $45.00 also for the for the for the defense followed

by a shorter. much longer than we expected i think usually you do expect. that the closing arguments to the point but the point about the prosecution was making was rather to be succinct if you boil it down which is usually believe your are a trial you could understand what was going on in fact they repeatedly mentioned that a 9 year old girl at the scene did understand what was going on about why she told her to get off of them and said this is a repeated point don't get confused by all this other. information it's pretty clear that it's not coincidental the george floyd died having been mel torme for 9 and a half minutes by derek shaven but for the defense the argument was about reasonable ness not only what reasonable doubt might mean because that's the only thing that they have to prove have reasonable doubt and at least one juror that chauvelin was

the major factor in floyd staff but also what would a reasonable officer would do in that situation on the defensive because any of the evidence we've given you a reasonable and we invoked alien but we haven't we've just said floyd was not a well man he was a drug addict he had hypertension you have an enlarged heart that was carbon monoxide from a tailpipe nearby these are all possibilities that could have contributed and been made to a causal factors in his death and there it show been was not unreasonable to be attempting to subdue george forward given the chauvinist drug addiction his size and the crowd that had been gathering around them so the point from the defense is reasonable knows yes it may not look good on video but all of the things that trayvon was doing was allowed by the police manuals so it's not attractive perhaps but it is allowed. we it's just it is rather fastening that he used so much video that the defense lawyer because it would seem that it was the major plank off off

the prosecution's case but but the the defense was clear that look don't be confused by this this 99 minutes 29 seconds in fact the 60 minutes 59 proceeding about 9 minutes 49 was just as important and they were all reasonable arguments for why shaven did what he did. she ever can see with the latest in minneapolis as she had thank you. well ron sullivan is a professor of law and director of the criminal justice institute at the harvard law school and he joins us now by skype from newton massachusetts. sir as always thank you for being with us what did you think of those the lengthy final statements from both the prosecution and the defense does it help to be more succinct when you have i guess summing things up for the for the jury or why do you think they were both so long. i think both were too long and i absolutely agree

with you and i agree with sheila that they seem to go on and on and on the ideal closing would have been at about an hour that would have been plenty of time to sum up everything the reason they went so long i'll share a little secret with you the hardest thing for any trial lawyer to do is sit down that is a tough skill for lawyers because they want to be sure that they've got everything that they wanted to say in front of the jury the risk of that though is that the jury becomes either board or annoyed but again this critique is alone the mortgage and both sides trying to really solve it case i guess both lawyers knew that they really had the eyes not just of the country but the world all of them in that this case is you know it's become so symbolic and now it all hinges on the jury which of course also in any came up i think eric nelsen of the fence attorney mention that there has been so much media attention how can they exclude it was

there an option to not have a jury in this trial and do you think that maybe for these specifics in might have worked better. so there is an option very briefly the 6 the mim it to the u.s. constitution guarantees every criminal defendant in this sort of case the right the constitutional right to have a judge a jury trial now the defendant can waive that right if you want to and in some states the prosecution has to agree as well to have a jury trial i'm not sure about minnesota but at a minimum the defense has to waive this constitutional right to a jury trial would it have been better i think not for the defense and i agree with milstein's decision to. to assert the right to a jury trial if you had a judge a judge would be very technical in looking at this and i think that that bodes well

for the prosecution there are 3 chances 3 bites at the apple 3 separate claims under which children could be convicted and i think there's more than enough evidence for at least one of them what the defense is hoping is that they can can bit's one juror and they have 12 chances to do that that there's reasonable doubt and so the odds are much better with the jury that with the one judge. this trial obviously comes at a time when there's quite a lot of mistrust towards the police and also towards the legal system do you think that now that the u.s. is seen this trial has seen their show then go up against some pretty serious charges do you think that the perception is that justice has been done though do you think all of that hinges on what verdict the jury come back with. clearly even if unfortunately the latter it all hinges on what this jury comes back with there

is massive distrust particularly among black and brown members of the community and that this trust is earned it is earned from the fact that in the united states police officers are rearly rearly rarely are convicted of homicide so i don't think people will be satisfied unless and until they have a conviction in this case and the reason is they're going to think quite reasonably that my goodness if this videotaped evidence is not enough to convict nothing innocent when you say conviction deeming to the highest murder charge. that's a great question are not sure i think that a conviction on any of the charges will see she ate a lot of the disquiet around the country if it's on the lowest count the manslaughter count in after children receives

a very late sit and i think people will be upset but not as upset is is if he if he were to be acquitted on everything so i think some conviction will do a lot of work to quailing some of the upset around the country. professor of law and the rector of the criminal justice institute at the harvard law school sorry as always thank you thank you. russian authorities say opposition leader alexina valley has been moved to a prison hospital they describe this condition a satisfactory the kremlin critic has been on hunger strike for 20 days in protest that not being allowed to be treated by his own doctors or russia rejects the growing foreign concerns about neverland these health and warns the supporters that the protests they are organizing will be considered illegal burnet smith has more

from moscow vladimir region prison hospital number 33 these were alexina valmy has been transferred. the lawyer for the 44 year old opposition leader says after 20 days on hunger strike drinking only water is klein situation is only getting worse or bitter and he looks sad so sad he's getting finner finner than he used to be he walks with difficulty he has no strength alexei is one of his doctors he's not been allowed to seize patient but going by his latest record says no valmy is at risk of kidney failure recent just released his health is already in higher then or now and every day the risk increases the longer person stays on hunger strike the deeper the metabolic disturbance has become and the harder it is for them to get back to normal because a long hunger strike list to damage of all their bodies organ functions is serving a 2 and a half year sentence for embezzlement that he says is trumped up he was arrested in

january after returning to russia from germany he spent 5 months there recuperating after almost being killed by what the germans say was poisoning with a banned nerve agent his cases added to moscow's international isolation. russian diplomats have been expelled and the u.s. and e.u. have imposed sanctions for allegations of cyber hacking election interference spying and the occupation of crimea we are very much worried about the health situation unleashed in the valley yesterday we issued in a statement of behavior the 27 member states ask him to write on the site it is to provide. the health care he needs and they are responsible for their safety net and he says he'll stay on hunger strike until a prisoner forat is allow him to see his own doctors alexina supporters have asked people across russia to come out and demonstrate on wednesday evening the square in

moscow is supposed to be one of the places where they're going to gather and it's already being fenced off russia's police have advised people not to come out and protest burning. al-jazeera moscow. meanwhile a ukrainian soldier has been killed by separatists in the country's east fighting has escalated in recent weeks undermining a cease fire agreed last year stratford sent this update from of d. f. can you hear the funk line ukraine's foreign minister dmitri labor called an e.u. member states to impose new sanctions on russia to try and prevent a further escalation of fighting in eastern ukraine but it seems as if those demands have been denied the chief diplomat in the e.u. joseph borro said there were no new sanctions planned for the sign being nor were there any new plans for more russian diplomats to be expelled but he expressed deep

concern about the troop buildup the russian troop buildup on the ukrainian border the russian military buildup in the ukrainian border is very concerning that is more than 150000 russian troops massing in deucalion borders and engage in creamier the risk of further escalation it said didn't we have to commend the ukraine for its. christer a response and we urge russia to discuss late. and to diffuse dench you see early evening here in the town of town about a kilometer off from the front line and what you can hear there is the sound of shelling the shelling started i suppose about hoff an hour ago we're not sure whether it's incoming or outgoing but it's fair to say that there are many people

in towns like base right the way around the frontline that are very concerned that violations like this of a cease fire a cease fire that was silent signed in 2015 and which both sides being accused of committing there are concerns here by people that these violations spiral out of control and especially in the context of such a huge russian military buildup on the ukrainian border. 20 czech embassy employees who were expelled by the russian government have left moscow they were ordered out in response to the check expulsion of 18 russian staff over explosions at an arms that post 7 years ago the government said it suspected russian intelligence was behind the attack in particular it's thought to have involved the 2 russian operatives accused of a nerve agent poisoning in the u.k. still to come in this half hour politicians a sports executives and fans cry foul after 12 england spain and italy stop

football teams announce their own breakaway. however we have seen some huge downpours recently across northeastern parts of australia thunderstorms rumbling away here around a month's worth of rain for some just around cannes we saw a 189 millimeters of rain in only 24 hours i'm afraid there is more where that came from it stays very wet around that northeastern corner of queensland much of australia is looking fine and robin noticed some wetter weather just creeping its way in across the southeast of victoria tasmania seeing some rather wet and windy weather as we go through the next couple of days the rains continue further north whedon's day more heavy downpours coming through here further flooding concerns

could see some flooding concerns just pushing towards the ceiling with some heavier rain coming in here over the next couple of days hopefully a little dry by the time we come to thursday all come with a top temperature of around 21 degrees look up towards cannes and i'm afraid it is still raining more heavy downpours into the northeast of australia now right in the forecast for japan over the next day also looking fine and dry warm and sunny temperatures in tokyo at around $26.00 celsius some pleasant sunshine sue across the korean peninsula seoul it around $23.00 degrees $25.00 there for beijing we have got some rain is to central parts of china but fine to the south. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives. other stories. providing a glimpse into someone else is what. we were called to fight.

inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. i am the voice we are the folks. who witnessed it on al-jazeera. the in. time for a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera after 3 weeks of witness and expert testimony the final arguments have been made in the trial of the former police officer accused of killing george floyd the jury is now considering its verdict russian opposition politician alexina valley has been moved into a prison hospital on day 20 of his hunger strike the authorities have described his

condition as satisfactory but his own lawyer says he appears a very well. there is being shock and outrage around europe after 12 of the top football clubs from england italy and spain announced plans for their own league it's been condemned by politicians sports executives and crucially fans as a move fueled purely by greed the super league would guarantee the team's qualification and hundreds of millions of dollars but isn't a varchar reports it could also hurt the spirit of the game. hours after some of the continent's richest clubs threaten to split european football into the sport's governing body in europe you wafer hit back hard saying you were expelled the clubs players from future european championships and world cups i can't stress more strongly at this moment. in the footballing world stand united against these

graceful self-serving proposals we have seen in the last 24 hours from a select few clubs in europe that are fuelled purely by greed above all else on sunday night 12 of the continent's richest clubs revealed plans to form a european super league rivaling you a 1st prestigious champions league pass alone and we are madrid and athletico have agreed to join in spain in italy both ac and into milan have signed up alongside eventis and 6 clubs in england's premier league also want to join manchester united city liverpool chelsea arsenal and tottenham the managers of the teams have been dodging quick questions let's be honest i'm employee of this club and i trust this club and my chop is very clear so i'm maybe not the right person to ask the internet i'm just a manager and i'm prepared to coach my players under any circumstances the plans 11

prompted this intervention from the british prime minister we're going to look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure that this doesn't go ahead of the way that it's currently being proposed so far no teams from france or germany including the current european champions by munich plan to join the new league but 3 more clubs are expected to sign up or set to pocket more than 400000000 dollars when they do it a project funded by u.s. banking giant j.p. morgan seriously in the midst of a pandemic an economic crisis football clubs at national league level going bust nearly furloughing players clubs on the edge in league one and 2 and these lobbying assume calls about breaking away and basically create more great. joke the super league clubs want to start as soon as possible but the premier league league and syria all joined us in condemning the move so too have many fans

competing clubs face being booted out of their domestic leagues several television broadcasters were also refusing to abandon you wait for a national league to join the new project but if it does go ahead football single sporting pyramid from the lowest grass roots teams all the way to the top might never be the same again leave barca al-jazeera. a 6 day lockdown has begun around a new delhi as india continues to set new records for daily covert cases just 2 weeks ago the country recorded almost 97000 cases a day around the 1000 on the country's peak last year or the week later infections that surged to 168000 that day and now india has reported nearly 274000 confirmed cases in the last a day and more than 1600 deaths victoria gate reports.

india is in the grip of the 2nd wave of cave in 19 and nowhere is that being felt that it is hospitals there are shortages of beds oxygen supplies and medicine adult to say this time they've seen a change in who is being admitted to hospital what we're seeing and this is all a. personal experience is there are younger patients who are being admitted to hospital. and are more strict than the type of disease that young patients usually have which is my to moderate india reported 275000 new cases on monday that's the highest daily tally in a country that's now the 2nd worst affected in the world. scientists say a new variant with a double mutation may be driving off infections in most cases we've only seen one area of the virus mutating from the original virus in this case we have 2 separate

me taishan sites which is really concerning because as you know you know every time that we have a mutation we're worried about increased transmissibility increased threat of death and lack of ability of our vaccines to work despite the rising cases political and religious gatherings are continuing in many places last week 3000000 hindu pilgrims bathed in the ganges river for the festival and millions more voted in local elections in the state of a pradesh. i think the guard was let down or just by indians but by indian leaders massive election rallies were held. and subsequently the massive don't festival of whom all want to be doing 2 words massive search in the city of ghaziabad the creditor awful so some families had to cremate their relatives on the street and with a new variant with

a double mutation to contend with india faces many mood difficult days ahead victoria gay to be al-jazeera the mayor of cape town says firefighters have contained the fire that's ravaged the slopes of table mountain strong winds had fanned the flames and prevented emergency crews from losing l.-a copters buildings have been destroyed at the city's university and residents were evacuated from suburbs under threat. now it's a trip no helicopter has ever made before a nasa craft called ingenuity has made the 1st successful flight on mars it's the 1st time that engineers on earth of operating then flown an aircraft on another planet or a burden man leave reports. ok matt our data. on. the excitement from these nasa scientists and engineers was clear as they made space

flight history these still images from mars show ingenuity the 1st how to cope to ever to fly on another planet and then came the video it's granted at 1st and then shows us covering our 3 meters above the arson surface and then touching back down is amazing brilliant you know there are indeed making a difference i guess or greater mars is not yet over isn't just a 1st rate by. the united nations take a moment off to the best of both the world and more from our resonating. ingenuity took off from the dusty red surface of mars this desire crater early on monday but the data took several hours to reach a milestone for spaceflight that nasa scientists compared to the 1st flight on earth by the wright brothers in 1903 technology demonstrations are really important for all of us you know it's really taking

a tool that we haven't been able to use and put it in a box of tools that is at the elbow for all of our missions going forward at mars if we really want to explore the red planet explore possibility of past life present microbes and things like under different conditions are. going to need to travel quite a distance which a helicopter like with absolute reality. flying a helicopter or drone is a seemingly simple task on earth but engineers aren't used to flying them on mars. the flights can be affected by many things the martian atmosphere is very thin and so it's more difficult for the helicopters one point to meet a rotary plates to lift itself up and the. in its test flight on earth scientists had to create conditions similar to mars the ingenuity weighs 1.8 kilograms on earth but only 0.68 kilograms on mars its batteries can

also be affected by temperature on mars that's an average of minus $53.00 degrees celsius. engineers he isn't alone it hitched a ride to the red planet on nasa's perseverance rover which touched down in february and will soon begin to explore the mars surface engineers he is expected to conduct more flight tests with the hope that one day it can travel further as part of nasa's quest to find any signs of life on mars nor about a man the al-jazeera. reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera after sri weeks of witness and expert testimony a jury is now beginning its deliberations in the trial of the former police officer accused of killing george floyd the process.