ah, be the hero, the world needs right now. i must, ah, ah, thousands of people gather in the few p and capital backing the government's handling of the crisis in t g. right? ah, i'm hello. this is al jazeera life from doha. also coming up, the pentagon, son, feel our master, the taliban. recent games or us troops finalize their withdrawal from of janice done. trying to stop the spreads. the delta variance is spreading fast across these

asia. more records infections reported fans more athletes test positive for covert 19, just one day before the talk you lympics opening ceremony. ah, thousands of people had rallied in at the south of us to show their support for a few peon federal troops who are fighting in the northern region of t. grey speakers called on the philippines to be unified against the grow and forces. they accuse them of using child soldiers. well, this comes as the conflict has widened into neighboring hara and of our regions to growing groups claim more than 50000 people have been killed in the conference. well last night, catherine sawyer. he joins us for me as a sub catherine, tell us more about this rally. while people started

coming in here on medical square. they rarely just ended about half an hour ago. so people say coming very early in the morning, we started hearing them from all will tell her on fi, stacy am. and as you said, thousands of them showed up. and the speakers really was castigating that grand defense for sustain that they've been using children as soldiers and shields. they also accused the international community, including the international media of bias smith in the coverage in favor of the 2 grand leadership. now, if you can, national army has already withdrawn from t grier, but it has been accused by numerous human rights organizations and has been accused alongside every trend. soldiers were deployed to that region as well as forces from the neighboring. i'm higher region accused of human rights abuses, atrocities committed into grow in the last

a few months south. thousands of people have been killed. many have been displaced . the un stays up to 400000 people are suffering in like conditions. 1.8000000 on the brink of funding and really are still struggling to get to a majority of the people because infrastructure has been destroyed in some parts. and i mean, in other parts fighting is going on. so the situation is still very di ended. it is indeed it's interesting, the international media being criticized for coverage when they've not actually be the load in g t gray given the restrictions and the the situation that what more do we know about what's actually happening in this region? yes, it's very difficult cause to cover this story highlight because all sides are trying to control the narrative and access to, to grow. now it's very difficult, especially areas that are being controlled by the 2 grand defense forces. but what

we've been hearing is that in the last few days, there's been fighting going on in both the areas between a fiery john and t. grey was hard from the gray leadership saying that what they've been doing, confirming those incidents and saying that what they've been doing is trying to push or fight us from another region called or a male who that the grand leadership saying and was advancing into that territory we've had from the administration of a far region saying that it had deployed troops again because the grand fighters were trying to access to enter the afar region. these are regions that were not before involved in the conflict. and that is what is worrying. many people were seeing more regional governments sending and seeing that would you send that irregular, irregular forces to fight 50 grand forces and people are saying that they're very worried that this conflict is taking a very dangerous as to make direction. ok,

catherine. so i lie from the few p and capital. thank you. catherine police in south africa are investigating 168 cases of murder in relation to last week's riot . seeing how tang and causal in the tall provinces, 276 people were killed during the days of on rest. the violent force initially sponsored by the jailing of former president jacob's humor, but spiraled into one of their anger. but the economy and inequality of the protest, so police numbers, shops were looted in factories sent home form. the pentagon is expressed an alarm of the rapidly deteriorating security situation. in afghanistan, the senior most u. s. general says the taliban now controls the half of the countries. $400.00 plus districts of this coincides with the continued polite of us troops fighting between

afghan government forces and the town lavonne is intensifying. at least 7 people were killed in the southern problems of kandahar on wednesday. that happens during shelling between the military and taliban fighters. here's more and watch general mark milly had to say a boats the telephone advance. i would tell you that as of today, more or less, i guess it's about $212213.00 in that range. 2 hundreds of the district centers are in taliban control. it's about half of the for the 1900 that are out there. you've got 34 provincial capitols in afghanistan. none of them have been seized as of today by the taliban. although the taliban is putting pressure on the outskirts of probably about half of them. 17 of them in fact. and what they're trying to do is isolate the major population centers that trying to do the same thing to cobble. and roughly speaking,

the order of magnitude. a significant amount of territory has been seized over the course of 6, a 10 month sort of thing by the, by the taliban. so momentum appears to be strategic. momentum appears to be sort of with the tell him the afghan security forces. there are consolidating their forces . let's get more from our diplomatic ads, sir james, base his life for as in campbell, james, who was this message of alarm a dance? because surely, no surprise that the taliban would gain groans after us. troops left the country. it's no surprise is what we knew, but i still think it's significant because some african officials have been very worried about the narrative that the taliban is winning. they believe that that's affecting the civilian population, fear among ordinary people. they think it's affecting the african security forces affecting the morale this time, though, it's not the media saying it and reporting these facts that we've seen on the ground. it is the top military officer in the united states,

the top member of the us military, who is saying this and saying that strategic momentum is with the taliban, making it quite clear that there are a number of scenarios. he's saying it's not a foregone conclusion. that the taliban are going to take over the country, but it's certainly one of the possibilities. there's also still the possibility of a negotiated settlement between the taliban and the african government. but he talks about other scenarios, a return towards across the country and breakdowns in parts of the country, all very worrying. and so if the end game in afghanistan is unclear, as mark merely was saying, what do you think we should be looking for? and the days and weeks ahead i think it's a very, very crucial time for us kind of stuff with facing right now on the battle front. well, it's the holiday taking place right now. and this seems to be a little bit of a reduction in the fighting, but one of the taliban going to do after the reduction in the fighting. they

already control most of the key border points and that it's very difficult for the african government. the government of a landlocked country, all the taliban. now going to start targeting some of those urban centers. he talked about, they are about half of them on the outskirts of those cities when they start to try and take those cities. then you've got the diplomatic dimension of this talks are going to resume, we think in doha, in the coming weeks. we also know the going to be important talks concerning cobble airport and if cobble airport can't function normally, then the whole question of what the international community, the aid workers, the humanitarian community, the embassies here and cobble can continue to operate. so i think the coming weeks and months are going to be crucial, possibly t for the future of afghanistan. ok, james base, that life has incredible. thank you. james. china has deployed the military to her

non province. the central region is struggling with its was flooding. in recent history, thousands are expected to help for the search and rescue efforts. troops of birth to nearby dumb to be juice, the risk of more flooding. at least 33 people have been kills, and 205 people have been evacuated. half of those killed stock in underground railways, in john jo, city of streets, subways, factories and farmlands, have all been effected. adrian brown has more from hong kong. the area that is affected by flooding lies in an area that is prone to this sort of thing. in fact, we know that in the last few years, the government spent something like $8000000000.00 on flood prevention measures and kitty. those measures have not worked on social media. today's a good deal of anger being expressed by people wondering why the weather forecast, who's got it so wrong? why was it they weren't able to predict this?

once in a millennium event, we've seen a lot of images also of weary and traumatized survivors still coming to terms with the scale of this deluge and the devastation is left behind. it's worth pointing out. the ginger is also the center for the world's biggest i phone assembly plant. now a spokesman says that so far, the flood is, has no direct impact on their operations. as we speak, a typhoon is bearing down on the eastern coast of china and it's due to my land full in the next couple of days. so yes, more heavy rain could be on the way, which means that's going to, i think, further hamper the rescue operation that has been taking place. the relief operation and also raise concerns about the dam levels. because john joe is a city that is ringed by times and the pair lay,

the people's iteration. army has deployed engineers who so far managed to stabilize the situation at one of those dams. but so far they been unable to do the same at some of the other dams at that circle that city. and there's been more wild weather in china, a tornado rip through a village near boating, city and northern. heard a province killing, at least 2 people. homes were torn apart and fabric, scattered to local woods. really for cars are trying to restore power to the areas . a hong kong court has jailed 7 men for their role in a 2019 attack on approved moxie protest. as for the 100 people dressed in white, the tact civilians and reporters with fixed and poles at the train station. and right patients whose consulting with the tickets and in another hong kong court hearing for employees from the pro democracy use paper apple daily have been

charged after their arrest under the cities a year old national security law. the former edison writers were charged with conspiring to collude with a foreign country when danger, national security, apple, bailey calls last month fencing the papers $26.00. you run me to edwards, have been under pressure from a new national security law that restrict criticism of the government. so heads here on al jazeera, cuba faces a surgeon corona virus infections. get an update on the situation there. underwrite the region and opposition. members in townsend, he had demand answers after police arrest them. liter of coming up to the break. ah

hello. notice you, it's all about the heat said cross at british sheil, here's our temperatures on thursday, london, $27.00 degrees. we're still hanging onto whether alerts just for how high the heat is. now, in terms of that precipitation, we can find it toward eastern sections of ukraine toward the south east of russia on thursday. we've got a bit of cloud cover towards central areas of the continent, so that's going to keep your temperatures lower, where a temperatures are very high. we'll check in toward spain right now and look at this madrid 37 degrees. seville could potentially touch 40 degrees as we head toward thursday, keeping this theme of heat going toward turkey. we set a new high temperature ever recorded in the country toward the se, pretty close to the border or syria there with a high of 49 point one degrees. and here's her temperatures on thursday. we've got some rain across southern shores of the black sea is stem bull may catch a few spits of rain with the high of 29. the heats also a factor as we head toward morocco. look at some of these temperatures here as well

. mara cash $45.00 degrees and also for algeria alger is getting up to a height of $37.00 across the gulf of guinea. we've got our usual pulses of rain stretching across into sierra the own on thursday. that's your forecast. the when freedom of the press is under threat in oh, you just because i thought genuinely about your thoughts towards the making government step outside the mainstream. there has been a implement here just some of access points. shift the focus, the panoramic that's turned out to be a handy little pretext. the prime minister clamped down on the press covering the way the news is covered for listening post on i just oh

a. this is al jazeera, quick reminder of our top stories. this are phases that people have around the age and added some of us to show their support for fuel p and federal troops. fighting into right it comes as the conflict has widens to include the neighboring honda and the regions. china has deployed its military to her, and province. central region is struggling with its worst flooding in recent years . troops of burst nearby dam to reduce the risk of more floods. at least 33 people have been killed. the pentagon is expressing alarm about the rapidly deteriorating security situation. in afghanistan,

the senior most us general fest taliban controls nearly half of the countries $400.00 districts. meanwhile, the head over the canisters reconciliation council is expressing confidence in the republic future of de la de la spoke to al jazeera and put the taliban leverage on the grounds. taliban cannot convert the whole population of upon the son into taliban. kind of a nice ation of on the sun is not acceptable. yes, of course they feel at this moment that deb out hand militarily on the ground and that will not last that way. i'm sure. i'm not talking about days and weeks that we're talking about the course of time because that see this and from our history there is no peaceful settlement. unfortunately, the world will continue. and as a result of the war, tinge will change and it will go and to hand that part.

if you're talking about the survival of the state, i think i should say that yes. while when the slide makes it public, that is opposition. there are different roofs which are not happy with our conduct, but they criticize us. they are unhappy, but they're the same time a dagger with the principles in the principle of a public one person one vote. and so to another principles. and if you're talking about the survival of the state, yes. and you can watch the fool interview with subdural abdulla in our next talk to al jazeera at 430 gmc, this saturday. the u. s. and south korea have called for renewed diplomacy and dialogue with north korea when it's nuclear program. the statements came as the us

deputy secretary of state met 1st cream leaders, including president min jay and few young has so far refused to resume talks and protest against what it calls us. hostility will south korea has hit another daily record for its number of new corona virus cases, which are more than 18 hundreds. the more contagious down to vary into stealing the search. the latest numbers include 270 sailors who phone home from an anti piracy naval ship, sailing abroad. authorities are now considering expanding restrictions and so, and it's neighboring regions, or mcbride has more on the corporate 19. i break in south korea. that crew has now had to be flown back at 2 south career out of 301 crew members. 270 won't have now tested positive. that's a staggering 90 percent. but even if you strip out that number, this is still a very significant rise. we've been seeing for the best part of 2 weeks more than

1000 new cases per day as this 4th wave has really taken a hold here with some predictions that will soon be thing well over 2000 new cases . the day before the authorities get on top of it, we're already in the capital area around sol, the highest level of the social distancing restrictions. there are some indications that these same level of restrictions will have to be extended to other parts of south korea. and with some predictions that the authorities here of just underestimated the virulence of this delta variant. this slightly better use is that of course, because the vaccinations have been rolled out aimed at the more vulnerable group such as the elderly care homes. we are seeing significantly few deaths and also hospitalizations where around a 3rd of the population is now had at least one job. but that has focused attention on the 2 thirds of the population who remain unvaccinated. again,

fueling an ongoing debate here in south korea about what we've seen as a relatively slow pace of the vaccination rollout. the delta variance is driving up cases in thailand, which just report is another record day of new case numbers will in 313600 people have tested positive in the past. se thailand's national vaccine institute has apologize for not buying enough facts. seems it says it's not looking to join the global kovacs vaccine sharing scheme. tony chang has more form. bangkok we saw a government ministry coming out over night saying that we're asking celebrities not to criticize the government on social media. he said that their voice is amplified on platforms like twitter and facebook, and they should be very aware of what the public, the information the public is receiving. in fact, the thai government went to introduced new anti cove. it measures

a couple of weeks ago. i slipped in a bill that gave it new powers to limit or so called misinformation. in fact, the wording is actually any information which might cause the public to panic regardless of we're actually true or false. and we've seen them acting on that today. overnight. a young tie wrapper, criticize the government on social media today, she's being called into the police, but i think it illustrates how sensitive the government is about it's covered response. there is a growing criticism here of the government of the vaccination problem program about about the number of infections we're seeing, which have risen very quickly in the last couple of months. we even saw a protested back on the st. last. we can now at the moment, people are very concerned about going out in public, although than all being banned. during the daytime, there is a strict curfew at night. most people are trying to stay at home as much as possible at this time last year. tyler was doing remarkably well. daily infections

were in double digits for the whole of 2020, the whole total number of code fatalities was just 61 while now have blown. well past those figures where we saw anti government protests on the street last year. i think that gun was rather saved by the fact that it had responded or was seen to respond very well to the pandemic this year. if those protests start, again, i think the government is very nervous. indeed. it's one day until the start of the summer olympics and talk you and organize the say, 2 more athletes at the olympic village. i've tested positive for corporate 19. there among 12 cases linked to the games and i stone thursday, bringing the torso to 87 took you itself and seeing its highest number of cases in 6 months. the city remains under a state of emergency with competitive facing unprecedented restrictions on their movements. and richardson have more from tokyo,

i think what the organizers would say is that it's a sign that their systems are working. that athletes are testing positive, that close contacts of being charged. and that is because of the systems they have in place. and that the idea that that could be a 0 case olympics was, was somewhat fanciful. but there are all concerns. there are concerns from some of the athletes representatives we spoke and see brought the type of tests that lead to taking on a daily basis. they're taking rapid results, anti jen tests which own, quite as reliable as the sort of gold standard p c r test. and they're all concerned that some of the cases might be slipping through within the athletes village. although national associations pretty much sleeping in their own sort of bubble, their own sort of isolated area actually are expected to share rooms. there are concerns also about the levels of insulation in some of those rooms from some of the epidemic. ologist of waste spoken to and the devil often in life is in the details. before the athletes came to the dealer fix, they have to sign

a legal wave and nothing entirely unusual about that. but it was a special clause included this time around to cite basically the i c was for going any responsibility from any fall out involving cobit 19 and that it was the athletes that would have to take ultimate legal responsibility for anything that happened to them. while they're at the lympics, so that run some accounts to the idea that the c repeatedly says that they are hosting a safe, unsecure against cuba, is racing to vaccinated population as it faces. its 1st major wave of corona virus infections. an average of 6000 cases are now being reported every day. john homeowner's in mexico city and has this update on cuba and the winds, the latin american region. this late stage independent mccuber is experiencing its 1st real wave of coven infections. the country managed to hold out quite a long time against viruses as a result stricter warranty procedures. remember,

this is an island nation, and also largely shutting down is tourism industry. even though that had a big economic impact on the country, but now it seems that the relaxation of their own, the restrictions and also new strains of the virus meant the more and more people started to get infected in cuba. the numbers have been creeping up and now the health authorities say that transmission is elevated. now, cuba has one hope in on this, and that's the home grown vaccines that the island has been developing. the health authorities say that they're very efficient at the very effective and at the moment they go about 30 percent of the country population with at least one days. now hoping to really roll those out false. so that by the end of august about 80 percent who have themselves vaccinated, they can try and control the spread. so cube at the moment, struggling with that. and it was actually one of the causes of the protests on the

11th of july in the country. now across latin america as a whole thing, just sort of in the balance. she got countries like this will mexico know so other countries like chile, we've had a vaccination drive, it's been relatively successful. but you've also got country, like haiti, and home do us that have one percent or less of people being vaccinated. most drives are just starting now. the regional arms that will help organization says the latin america and the caribbean as a whole. only about 15 percent of people are fully vaccinated. there's a long way to go here, as covey continues to strike drug manufacture. johnson and johnson and 3 separate distributors, have agreed to pay $26000000000.00 to resolve thousands of claims for their role in the u. s opioid epidemic the lawsuits for broad point state and local governments, which accused the companies of letting the painkillers reach addicts through

illegal channels. gabriel elizondo reports from new york. robert canter was addicted to opioids for 3 years. it nearly killed him. all my relationships collapsed. my finances, clap, my health, everything on wednesday faced with mounting law suits, johnson and johnson, the largest maker of prescription opioids, plus 3 other of the largest distributors, agreed to a proposed $26000000000.00 settlement announced by coalition of state attorneys general. today's actions sends a message to drug distributors and pharmaceutical companies. we simply will not accept this type of behavior. opioids or a class of drugs naturally found in opium. poppy plants that are then used in illegal st. drugs like heroine, but also in some prescription medicines, like highly addictive painkillers, such as oxy, cotton and bacon and fentenol, a synthetic opioid as much as $100.00 times more potent than morphine. america in

the middle of an opioid epidemic. a half 1000000 people died from opioid drug overdoses in the last 20 years. 93000 last year alone. and state say, it's the pharmaceutical companies that produce the opioids that are mostly to blame, not only for the loss of life, but also for the huge financial strain that it puts on local governments and their health systems. in a statement, the company said it had deep sympathy for every one affected by the opioid endemic but added. the settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrong doing, and the company would continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve. i don't think that 26000000000 is announced just to end the calendar. the united states has with addiction and overdose,

but it could save a lot of lives as for canter. he feels the settlement now is better than going through more lengthy litigation. it's a victory because we have to balance the amount that these distributors and johnson johnson are willing to pay versus the amount of time that's going to be lost. so we can get these dollars for treatment. it might not be the end of the settlements. prosecutor said they are investigating other companies with involvement in opioids and are leaving the door open to filing more lawsuits. gabriel's ando al jazeera new york. ah. this is al jazeera and these are the headlines. thousands of people have rallied and i just had the bones to show their support for the fuel pin governments troops fighting in t grey. it comes with the confidence has widened to include neighboring horror and for regions.