rising to a record high of more than 32 percent this year in crime rates, offering with the highest rates of caves at 19 infections in africa, the government phase, the russia more than a 1000 people could help spread the virus. it's awesome to leave the area and a sense, a team of geologists to find out if the stones are clamoring for really all precious diamonds thought of hired. as a reminder, the top stories and 0 the us and russian presidents have described the summit as positive and constructive meeting in geneva was the 1st between that in the fusion and joe biden. since by moved into the white house comes at a time when relations between the countries have been at the lowest for years. and it was brief of an anticipated. shortly after the 3 hour session behind closed doors, the u. s. t. the said there were talks in excruciating detail,

cybersecurity human rights and expelled different screens sca president food and i had a share unique responsibility to manage the relationship between 2 powerful and proud countries. relationship that has to be stable and predictable and it should be able to, we should be able to cooperate words in our mutual interest and where we have differences, i want to present, put and understand why i say what i say. and why i do what i do and how will respond to specific kinds of actions that harm america's interest. the option 3 nysha asked for the overall assessment. i believe that that has been no hosted. on the contrary, the meeting took place in a constructive spirit. we have very assessments on a number of issues, but i believe both sides expressed willingness to understand each other to seek

ways to bilateral reproach. talks quite constructive by yet that we knew incidents between israel and groups in gaza. house linked activists are continuing to fi. incendiary balloons across the garza border into israel. the 2nd day in a row. at least 4 new fires broken out on these ready side. so resumption of the balloon attacks triggered is ready as strikes early on wednesday. the 1st strikes on garza since a ceasefire came into effect less than 4 weeks ago. a column inside a columbia military base is injured. 36 people living at least one soldier in critical condition. the defense minister says the national liberation army, which is the country's largest remaining rebel group, is likely to be behind the attack in kuta as the top stories do, stay with us after the fault lines is up next. as often teams on the buffalo, e. c o p a whole parliamentary elections on june 21. more at state than the result

. the countries ranked my troubles at home and beyond its borders. can this vote set back on the road to peace and stability? ethiopia, parliament reelection on al jazeera, me, the temperature drops in a very low and out of power in the city to begin shut down. right. and how i thought cold february, the lights went out for millions of people in texas as a crippling winter storm down the states power grid. more than 4000000 people were plunged into darkness and left without heat or water. i can imagine that she froze more than 150 people, 900 fries. according to the news, tallies at the debt to much higher is projected to be the most expensive disaster

and exit history. all of this instruction wasn't just from the lack of power, but also from choices made by state leaders. texas is the only state in the u. s, where the power grid is not under federal oversight. instead, there are more than a 100 companies telling electricity of the system, the collapse, than, or the way to the store. but the market in work, they didn't stop 4000000 texans from losing power. those market signals didn't stop 14000000 texans from losing water. didn't stop 200 texans from dying. the market just didn't work. in this episode, a fault lines. we report on the aftermath of the priest it ask if years a deregulation and prioritizing profits lead to the state power grid daily. 2 months after texas went dark, the spring, he could make it hard to remember just how superior the winter storm was. but its

impact and loss are still being felt. she's a good movie, lady name. yeah, that's a great picture. life. oh, actually she was the one for mason brown. shan lot of people in mid february, as temperatures began to drop. rachel asked mary, her 84 year old step mother to come, stay with them but the worst in the storm. and we was trying to get her to come and stay with me. and then i remember saying you're allowed to do worse. they may be ok . so we may share that if she had everything, she need water, food, or whatever. she wanted. the night of february 14th into the morning temperatures plummeted to some reason. hitting lows, not seen in decades of snow and ice accumulated that's when the power began to go

out throughout houston. when did you guys know that this wasn't just going to be a normal storm like that something different was happening. was like the day before because the way that they did on the news it was like, it might be a little bit. yeah. they down played a lot. they did not say that the thing was going to be as big as it was when the kid called her grandmother died. february 15th mary, still have power in her home. about 715 and i, we called again. i was like know where she okay with her lights on to my lights and stuff was off already and she's i yeah, my lights and stuff is on my heater. you know, my, he to say i'm good, but overnight to kill us as the power. and he went out where her grandmother lived . the next morning, rachel received a call from mary's neighbor. and she said, miss rachel, i'm calling you because there's something wrong with your mom. she say, well, i don't was opening it. she just turn around and say, oh she's and i i just

ran and got my brother. i told him i was there and we needed to get over there. and it was this greenly screening call. they said we couldn't touch your phone a say we could get my brother had already turned in his that, oh my god, no. she froze the most. i don't say the whole time i've ever gone up. when she talks about this the far thing. she says she always pray for god to take her while she's asleep. jeff die of freezing to death. i can't imagine just what she might have went through. right. she was asleep. i pray that god took her watching the sleep. because that is a bothers me,

bothers me. i wouldn't want nobody to go to the, you know, the winter storm was one of the coldest texas as seen in years as people blasted their heaters trying to stay warm. the need for power searched the power grid, couldn't meet the demand. so operators began to manage the problem with rolling or short term blackouts. but as equipment froze at both power plants and fuel suppliers, the grid was too stressed. and blackouts lasted for days from millions of texas. for most of the people who died for the storm including murray, the cause of death was hypothermia. emergency workers had an upsurge and calls for carbon monoxide poisoning. as people tried to stay warm in their cars or by using their stove for the carbon monoxide cause. i've never seen apartments full of people getting transport to the hospital who had barbecue pits

and charcoal burning inside their apartment on a normal day, houston's firefighters response roughly a 1000 coms, like the small house fire. but during the winter storm, there calls trouble. as residents tried to find any way to stay warm, so even as houston froze, the city was on fire. and this is at night what transpired. the fire started or by started using whatever means they could to stay warm. and then here's where the freeze comes in. at night and you can see all the fires that are coming in. 2100 runs 3300 runs 2800 runs. now it's starting to drop down to $1714.00. and now we're getting back to 1100, which is pretty typical. your 3 times your capacity right in here. oh, absolutely. we were really stretching ourself then. is it common on cold nights? you have more house fires. oh, yeah, because there's always people seeking to see trying to see seek heat and whatever

they can do to find that houston's emergency workers are used to disasters, since hurricanes are common here. but this year's winter story and the power outages that over to the city and state were different, as long as the electricity is working and they could heat their homes to a somewhat comfortable agree that everything for reason everything was good. but when that kicked in it, it was a game changer throughout the city. when we lost power, the black out started rolling. that's when i knew it was going to get really bad. immediately you lose power, use water. the hospitals have the same problems. there's no where to take people. what was it like for you guys to have to respond to these calls for a little tax and didn't smell great around the fire station? no showers, no, nothing for us either. same wet clothes. i can imagine no, hopeless return your putting back on they got to the point at the fire scene when the fires out when you stand still, it just freezes up. it's a blanket,

see actually take it off like a sweater and late in here. and hopefully it's going to be a little warmer here, but when you lost all the heat, they were just a blanket of ice, but you have to put it back on that's. that's our protection. do you remember the moment you realize the blackouts were going to be rolling? i kinda suspected that when all of a sudden it felt like someone just flip the switch and it was very quiet and everything just kind of went dead. and it didn't come back for about 12 hours 1st time. and i said, you know, i think, i don't know if this was a natural and then it seems like something happens. how long have you been in the car for 39 years? and how long have you been in the 1717 years, and you guys ever seen anything like this? nothing. nothing like this. with this years non stop for for days. the recruit operator would later admit that the grid a come within minutes of a complete collapse since the local and state officials have raise questions about

who was responsible for the black house in suing damage. we've been hit hard by nature this week, but we can't deny that some of this is a man made disaster as well, but we were the depth of the crisis kept the story in the national news. we were told by the state and the power grid that we would experience rolling blackouts of 30 minutes to an hour without rolling blackouts turn to a complete catastrophic failure. as far as we're concerned in the heart of the issue is the power grid and how it's controlled. there are 3 power grids in the us, one covering the eastern part of the country, another the western both under federal oversight. and then there's texas. the only state the us to have its own power, great. 90 percent of the state, as part of it with the restaurant, the boarders still part of the 2 national grants traveling east from houston,

just one county over at liberty county, texas. you're off the texas power grad, you're on the national eastern grade year. they experience rolling blackouts if that but back there during the winter storm was power in water for day 2 decades ago. the texas legislature deregulated the energy market here and went from a state controlled system to a lightly regulated open market. so before that, it used to be just a few entities that you would sale, fell the power and that was your regulated utilities. but after that, in majority of the market, there were hundreds at some point a 3 day or so. those are the retail electric providers, the change, the energy market here was supposed to provide lower prices to consumers. but as did prices for residents have gone up over time, while industry from power companies to their fuel suppliers have profited with

little regulation, texas. we're left with a less reliable grid. by the way, the texas market is set up means that power plants don't have to maintain the backup supply of energy. it is what is known as an energy only market. right? so you are not, you don't have capacity sitting around that you're paying you, you be there and we'll call you when the need arises. the idea is consumers will pay at a cost for reserve energy, and the market will always be able to meet demand except that didn't work during the winter storm when power plants as well as, or hills versus froze and didn't reserve or back up to rely on this wasn't the 1st time texas is created based severe weather challenges though in 2011, a severe winter storm led to rolling outages and prompted state inquiries, federal investigation into what could prevent this from happening. again, you have to build in resiliency into us, into your system. if you don't want this to be repeated. houston's mayor,

sylvester turner was a state representative at the time. after that story, he proposed to bill requiring texas to maintain enough reserve power to prevent future blackouts. but the bill didn't even make it out of committee. that bill, unfortunately, was never given a hearing because the powers that be felt that there was no need to impose these type of mandates that they, they, they chose a market driven approach. and that means what they did with the what the, the policy makers made the decision that instead of mandating. busy adequate supply to prevent blackouts that they would allow the power generators to earn more to charge more when the demand exceeded supply. turner was also part of the legislature when voted to deregulate the energy market and something he supported and added now says nice to a caviar grid, but if you're going to have young grid,

then you have a greater responsibility to make sure that you have adequate supply. power to meet the demand, and you need to make sure that you factor in effect the climate change is real. so you need to build a resilient system. okay? all of those things need to be put in place. if you do that, you can have your own system and you've been responsible and accountable. if you're not willing to do that, then the consequences of going to be huge in the aftermath of the storm. texas is now faced with the question of if and how should prepare for another hard winter. recovering from the storms expected to cost more than $100000000.00. and months later, residents are still dealing with the damage to their homes in their lives. here maddy thing happened like this before. never had been to hurricane i down. i are again army allison but nothing. let the winter storm like this. when,

when the winter storm hit in temperatures dropped water parts frozen burst throughout homes like below 12 degrees is cold and pipes bus in the bath. and i didn't know that i can add it. i knew we had no back yard, but i know at it and i was just gushing and just coming down to the ceiling, just coming down. how long would you without water? back onto march to 30, almost 50 days because i and then how insurance to get the high fix. so i had to wait to someone to come help me right now. okay. would no insurance and unable to afford the repairs and it has been she connected with volunteers working to help homeowners recover from the storage

damage. there still thousands of families across just 2 or just in houston that are waiting on insurance waiting on their application to be submitted for assistance or or waiting for volunteers. yeah. gonna do that with any side here and yeah, the group became working in 2017 after hurricane harvey. and has continued through other disasters, including the winter storm. the freeze cause of a flood from the inside and we're used to floods from the outside. we've had 7 floods in the last 6 years. do you have a sense down here that the climate changes playing a part of this? does it just seem like well kind of weird weather or that this is driven by the larger forces? yeah, i think the climate changing constantly and there's a lot of things that that are impacted between. just having more people living here

. more people living on earth. we're going to have larger swings of disasters. i mean all the disasters are getting bigger. you know, it was so that, that even after that week that we still couldn't get water, they had to wait for the truck to bring water to the stores. it was one and out of water. and people fan. this is not like a 3rd world country. you know, they called to stuff like this, that's what we was going to, that we could not get water, not right. what they're doing. they need to get the right people in there to do what they need to do. so this will never happen again. so you think the problem is the problem of resources, or is it a problem of politics? politics, not resources. not resources, politics. and a need to be more concerned about the people. there are 3 and what,

what can connect the story potential responding to the tissues that manage the grid for storage? the region has been able to operate as its own interconnection. the organization operates, the grid is called her. and her car is regulated by the public utility commission, where the p u. c, who's officials are appointed by the governor, the ability to manage a wholesale electricity market that operates differently for most other parts of the country is proven very effective. giving the top officials of both and the p u . c. reside, not long after the freeze generation, but any real change to make the grid more reliable and prevent another disaster will require action from the state legislature. after the winter storm in 2011, the rule officials warned that the texas crit would be susceptible to another cold weather failure. and one of their main recommendations was winter riding power plants or clipping them for cold weather,

as well as fuel sources. specifically natural gas. but the legislature didn't expect that the legislature didn't require the energy and energy industry to make investments in the industry didn't make those investments. many other companies that failed this year 2021 of the very same companies that failed 2011. i think the failure was in basically taking the company's words forward and the industries word for it. they didn't invest. and as a result, all of texas suffered because the texas legislature only meets once every 2 years. it was added pressure to address the grid failure before this session ended, we're told to leave it to market participants to solve and they keep failing us. right? so just so i could very well if i could, oh, they did failures. so i'd like for you to go and answer to those families who's who lost loved ones in the and say that they didn't sound like during this year session,

the legislature seemed to be making steps to require power plants to winter rise. but that's still not the question of if they would make the same requirement for their energy supplier. namely, natural gas officials have tried to blame renewable energy like wind and solar, including the governor, john. it shows how the great new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america, who went on park lives in the middle of the crisis to blame renewable energy, central gas and oil. but the primary source of energy during the winter and the one that killed the most was natural gas. gas failed more from a total perspective, right? the, the total amount of failure, other majority of that came from natural gas energy generation. and so when supply fell, because well heads were freezing, they weren't able to sell to the electricity generators, and those generators failed addressing that particular failure means questioning

the oil and gas industry, which has a powerful and influential lobby in texas should be more regulated. that would require not only the legislature to take action, but also the texas railroad commission, which has nothing to do with what it sounds like in it's in charge of regulating the state oil and gas industry. the commission itself is made up of 3 elected officials, all of whom come from oil and gas and have been resistant to any attempts to regulate the industry. there is a serious commingling of interests between the regulators and the industry actors and the results that we get. what are sometimes referred to as captive agencies, right? administrative agencies that are run by the very businesses that they are intended to regulate in the wake of the winter storm and the power outages. the commission has opposed any move to winterized natural gas facilities. seeing the problem isn't

them only power plants. it will fill simply cannot run without power making electricity. the best winter's ation tool may oppose any efforts to prohibit them from taking money from the very industry that they're regulating. i mean we've, we've had bills that have said, now you can't take money from the industry when they have pending cases before you never passes and they resisted raphielle. and here is a member of the texas house energy committee. he's trying to push for more transparent railroad commission. so when you look at the railroad commission argument, it seems that they're saying, as long as the supply side has electricity that they will be able to provide. so they don't need to take steps to winter rise, even though after 2011, the federal officials recommended to winters ation. does that, does that argument hold water?

no, i mean it's just inaccurate. and it's, and the only independent parties that have looked at what happened in texas. they've said that we had a major failure at the well had and the gathering lines and the well operations like stuff froze, why? it's not magic. it's not this crazy rocket science because they pull up water in these well operations and they use water and he's well impressions guess what happens, a water, it freezes, not complicated. and, and for them to deny that there were 3000000000 cubic feet of gas that frozen those operations. it flies in the face of science and of all of the independent assessments that have been done on this, including by the federal government. federal economist have said the benefits of winters ation outweigh the cost. but the legislature following the leader, the oil and gas industry has resisted the move. what in the world would it take for texas to actually mandate oil and gas industry?

i've often times wondered the same question and sometimes we operate as a legislature or as regulators as a holy hon, subsidiary of oil and gas. and that's, i'm a 9 sessions into this. and i'm pretty cynical about our ability to move the needle and, and for oil and gas to kind of accept responsibility here. and if, if they don't want to build a pass doesn't pass. so bottom line, the texas railroad commission declined our request for an interview with the only days left in this year, sasha, for rep the legislature finally voted on a bill to address the winter storm. $342.00 eyes and 0 nay's. the conference committee report is adopted. the final bill required power plants to winter rise within 6 months. but when it came to natural gas suppliers, the legislature made no firm requirements for winters ation. leaving any possible

rules to be created and implemented by the texas railroad commission. we have the problem in texas that we are willing to privatize profits and subsidized losses. we are once again say, you know, either tacitly or explicitly that we are okay with private companies making profits from energy production in texas. we are okay with them not providing us a service that is reliable enough to keep the lights on to keep the heat on that we're not requiring them to provide that service. and that is just a very disappointing position to be in. it's also a position at least texas to wonder if the state will be ready when another disaster hits in who will pay the cost? if not. so what would you like to seat change from this? they need to go back and they need to, when arrive everything we need to be, we need to be good with when need to go with floods. i mean, they got

a lot to do. we pay too much money in faxes for them not to do it. they're always saying what they will do and we don't, it doesn't get done, but then it takes all of this a whole winter storm, all winter disaster to now for them to try to clean up what they did. and she was a good person, a very brilliant old guy. she was awesome. awesome, awesome. she was, you tell me, i like to tell me what the people need to look at. it is who's subbed for losing a low? was a sampling. you was negligent. no, man, that's wrong. me go to the from one is a home was kept was what dreams were made. it turned into

a nightmare of a rest in torture by female johnson. footballing legend, eric kent introduces cloud, your temporary. one of the special few stood up for their beliefs, whatever that cost. football rebels on al jazeera, a lot of the stories that we cover highly complex. so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can do as many people as possible, no matter how much they know about a given crisis or issue. the smell of that is overpowering. as all just recall respondents, that's what we strive to do. in the next episode of science in a golden age, i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval period in the field of chemistry, they transformed the superstition of alchemy into the science of chemistry. many of

his chemical procedures, all those which may still be here today. oh wow. science in a golden age with professor jim. and i'll just 0. ah, joe biden. and let me put in wrap up the summer time, had it as constructive and positive, but differences remain awe about this. and this is all your life from joe hop. also coming up counting down to lift off china just hours away from sending the 1st crew to it's use face station. a car bomb goes off in colombia, the president calls it a terrorist.