in the field means i often get to witness, not just news is breaking, but also history as it's unfolding probably from serbia, asia hungry directly. one day i might be covering politics and we're actually covering protest. what's most important to me just talking to people, understanding what they are going through so that i can convey the headlines in the most human way possible? 0. we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. ah, this is al jazeera, ah, hello and welcome. i'm pete, adobe. you're watching the news out life from coming up in the next 60 minutes. trying to stop the contagion. the delta variant is spreading fast across se asia

with more record infections being reported. central, china's worst flooding in recent years, provokes anger and scrutiny about the government's failure to prepare for the disaster. the rain has used, but millions of people after rustling to deal with the devastating flooding, which is what many cities and pounds the french president emanuel macro calls and urgent national security meeting. after reports, you may have been targeted by israeli spyware. thousands of people gather ethiopian capital to show their support for government troops fighting integration . i'm on the richardson at the tokyo olympics were on the eve of the games beginning. the man in charge of the opening ceremony has been fired. me we begin in se asia where the highly contagious delta variance of cobit 19 is

feeling infections across the region. now this is denise via the epi center of the outbreak. in that particular continent, it's reported nearly 1400 deaths and 35000 cases in just a day, but testing rates are low and those numbers could be much higher. in thailand, there's been another record day of new infections too. but there aren't enough vaccines. the nation's vaccine institute has apologize for not buying enough jobs and is now promising to join the global kovak scheme and in south korea, which was arrest success story. last year in containing the brick cases have been rising at an alarming rates more than 1800 new infractions were reported in just one day. the 1st up is jessica washington. with the latest from jakarta, indonesia has now passed more than $3000000.00 cases in total. what we have seen on the positive side is that the government has been able to ramp up testing, and they were able to test 200000 individuals in one day, which is

a market improvement. however, still way of the target of trying to test 400000 people each day. and you can imagine that in a country like indonesia, there are 4 people who would struggle when there is a strict lockdown and many all doing it tough, particularly across your carter a java and many parts of the country. but epidemiologist say that the government must strongly because the situation is continuing to wasn't intensive care unit in hospitals, but only in chicago, not only in java, but across the country are stretched. and we're seeing concerning signs of health care system across the country and more regional provinces, including a west hub for with the, with the health care resources are certainly not what we have here in jakarta. and the numbers that you mentioned earlier us concerning, as they found the fact that into these are now is asia covert epi center. they don't represent the reality on the ground because of low testing rates. some local data agencies using data from cities from provincial governments,

say that the actual just told was likely to be greater than one. the governments numbers suggests in thailand has been another reco day of new infections. more than 13600 people have tested positive in the past day. but as we've been saying, there aren't enough vaccines, the nations vaccine institutes offering that apology for not buying enough jobs. it is now going to join the co banks bank, seen that sharing scheme. tony chang. now from 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 impact the thai government when to introduced new anti cove . it measures a couple of weeks ago, i slipped in a bill

a 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 were 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 its coven 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 so 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 at time i 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 we've blown, well past those figures where we saw anti government protests on the street last year. i think the 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 protest thought, again, i think the government is very nervous. in the meanwhile, south korea has reported a record 1800 new code 1900 cases in one day. the contagious delta varying fueling the search there as well. the latest numbers include 270 sailors who are flown home from an anti piracy mission overseas authorities and considering expanding restrictions. and so, and it's neighboring regions from so is rob mcbride, that crew has now had to be flown back at 2 south career out of 301 crew members. 271 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 are 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 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 role that in neighboring japan. so here the host city of the olympics, of course, like no other is seeing its highest number of infections in 6 months. to more athletes of the limbic village have now tested positive. there among 12 cases linked to the games and einst on thursday brings the total $287.00 took you itself as seeing its highest number of cases in 6 months. the city does remain under a state of emergency with competitive facing unprecedented restrictions on their movements. while the threat of infections is not the only problem clouding the games just 24 hours before the opening ceremony, its director was sacked off. the organizes were made aware of a joke, he told about the holocaust during a comedy show in 1998. can you guys can tara korea? she was a member of the opening ceremony production team had in the past,

due in his own performance said, lines said, walked a painful historic that as such, the talk, your 2020 organizing committee today has dismissed him. kurkoski guy. we just a day before the opening ceremony and i apologize deeply to all the people involved in this event and also the japanese people. i would like to extend my sincere apology. elsewhere south africa is also struggling with the search and infections, the vaccination campaigns. there is making progress with a record quarter of a 1000000 people getting jobs in a single day, but so far, only around 7 percent of the population as received at least one dose. south africa is the worst hit country on the african continent and health experts, a warning of a potential rise in cases after protest last week. last, speak to out to serious from the miller, who's in job workforce this for me to what's the central issue with such a slow rollout of the maxine program. well, the concern really is just that how slow it's take. i'll slow it's been to actually

kick off in full force. you've mentioned a quarter of a 1000000 people being vaccinated every day, but that's just been in recent days. and of course the concern regarding these recent riots was not necessarily super split events because we've seen one or 2 in recent weeks which have been concerning. but in this particular case, it's been a while the suspension of vaccinations in certain areas particularly was the natal him coating, which was hit by those riots last week or some of the clinics and places that people could go to receive a vaccination, have to suspend their services also because health work is couldn't get to those particular sites because of those riots. and they also impacted the delivery of the much needed vaccines. and also in terms of the treatment of people with covert 19, there was worry around the delivery of oxygen which already there are difficulties in having oxygen delivered to specific areas. but the government has said that

everything has returned to common and returned to carbon because of that they can resume with those services. the vaccination rate has increased significantly. the government had aimed at around 3 getting 300000 people a day vaccinated. and also just regarding the riot, one of the leading experts in terms of research is said, it's too early to tell if those super split events where people will and moss and there was certainly was no social distance thing. if that would impact the numbers, not so far. so the africa has seen a decline to some extent, at least 5 percent we can week regarding be in fiction numbers. but till the africa is still in the middle of a 3rd wave, and we're hoping which has been the percentage of that 3rd wave. and there is concern just around how infections might rise in other provinces in south africa. so me to, thanks very much for me. the middle of the talking to us from john, his book will still come to here and then use our, including the pentagon,

sends the alarm off to the taliban. recent gains in afghanistan. well, us horses finalize their with role and find out why the global car industry is growing up a site for you. minium may be harming communities in guinea and depleted us men's basketball team gets a much require booster head of the olympics. that story, coming up later here on your news. ah, china is deployed as military to the province, the central region in china struggling with the worst flooding in recent memory. at least 33 people have not been killed. 800000 displaced is adrian brown. an image of normality turned upside down. like a giant scrap yard, abandoned cars block a tunnel in central gen,

joe roads transformed into rapidly flowing rivers. where in some areas boat is the only way to get around. the cities inhabitants are used to typhoons, but they're still coming to terms with the scale of this week's deluge. it was the heaviest rainfall in 60 years. on tuesday, more than $200.00 millimeters fell in just one hour. on state tv, the images have been more uplifting. rescuers bringing young and old to safety. some of the estimated 800000 residents have been displaced. the emphasis is on the positive work being done, not on those who died. doubtful can are teams of rust in many places. we are carrying out towns like blasting and flood diversion, flood, fighting and rescue, as well as mass evacuations. the underlying message, the party will protect you. on social media though,

there's anger at why local weather forecasters fail to warn residents properly. the city lies in a flood prone area. the provincial government reportedly spent more than $8000000000.00 building defenses that were supposed to prevent disasters like this happening. now more extreme weather is selecting the area. a typhoon is bearing down on china as eastern coast and could make landfall this weekend. adrian brown, al jazeera hong kong. while other correspondence katrina, u, as in she g yang, in hanna province with a look at what's going on there. the rain has used, but millions of people are still struggling to deal with a devastating flooding, which is what many cities and towns san i'm student chung as city on the north and on and 2 rental rain hit this region on wednesday. just passing the provincial capital of young joe in the space of just 2 hours. 26 centimeters of rain was

dumped in this area. now, many houses in the rural areas in the northern outskirts of this region collapse as a result of the torrential rain and half a 1000000 people will live, relocated to safe areas. now we're just standing the beginning of a highway which leads to the main area of downtown job. this area has been unable to get rescue workers and teams have moving parts to try to clear the area. and they're also getting food and water. people will be stuck in their cars, our authority, say $3000000.00 people have been affected by the severe stones and it's close to $100000000.00 worth of economic losses. now as the clean up continued questions are being raised as to why people living in home, and we're not adequately warned about the severity of the storm before. but the government is choosing instead to focus on rescue at the expense or any criticism of the timing of the disaster online and on social media. and there's been more

severe weather in other parts of china to a tornado read through a village near fording. city in the northern have a province killing at least 2 people at tor, through houses and scattered devry across the nearby road system. relief workers are trying to restore power to that area. the pentagon is expressing alarm about the rapidly worsting security situation in afghanistan, the most senior us general there says the taliban now controls nearly half of the countries. $400.00 plus districts that coincides with the continued pull out of us troops fighting between afghan government forces and the taliban is intensifying that the 7 people were killed in the southern province of kandahar on wednesday. it happened during schilling, but in the military and taliban fighters is more of what general mark milly had to say about the taliban advance. i would tell you that as of today, more or less, i guess it's about $212200.00. 32 in that range. 2 hundreds of the district centers

are in taliban control. it's about half of the $41900.00 that are out there. you've got 34 provincial capitols in ghana stant. none of them have been seized as of today by the taliban. although the taliban is putting pressure on the outskirts of probably a half of them. 17 of them in fact. and what they're trying to do is isolate the major population centers. they're 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 months 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 that are consolidating their forces. diplomatic as a james base is in cobble with more on the general comments. he's telling us what we already know, but it's still significant. it's significant because afghan officials have been concerned about the media narrative, the idea that the taliban are winning,

and they believe that that is causing fear. among the populations, cues for passports and visas. people moving around the country is also affecting the morale of the afghan security forces. well, it's not the media saying it this time. it is the most senior member of the u. s. military saying, yes, it's not a foregone conclusion. that the taliban are going to take control of the country, but it's certainly one of the possibilities. there's still the possibility of a negotiated settlement between the african government and the taliban, but rather bad scenarios are returned to warlords across the country's breakdown. in parts of the country's country, so very worrying picture presented from the highest levels. and depending on what you heard in talk about the mental to the taliban. that's clear the games they've made the territory. they've taken the board posts they've recently taken, which is very difficult for landlocked country. we've seen a lot of fighting in the last few days. we think because of the ead religious

holiday, one of the taliban going to do off the eat all they going to look some of those district centers. some of those provincial capitals were 17. he mentioned were the taliban all around the edges. are they going to try and take those sort of provincial capitals, or at least some of them? the french president, menu macro, has called an urgent national security meeting to discuss the pegasus spyware scandal. it follows reports that monsieur macro and several government ministers were targeted for phone hacking by an identified moroccan security service. morocco has denied those reports and trash about the now from paris. since these allegations emerged on tuesday, we have heard extensively from the lease, say, from the french prime minister all cast x. he will say, of course his allegations are something that cannot be tolerated. and that fool investigations are being launched into these allegations to see whether or not they

are verified. so it's in that context that the french president is holding this meeting with the cabinet to discuss, of course, these allegations, the main one being that the french president actually had one of his mobile phone selected as a possible target by american intelligence services. a target that could be put on the survey and not, not only the french president phone, but also his former prime minister edwar and iep, and more than a 1000 ministers, a very serious allegations. indeed, as you can imagine, we can imagine that the french president is talking about these is talking about how to put in pub, stronger security as well. we know that a more moroccan authorities have denied these allegations they did. so 2 days ago they continued to do so, but it is not the 1st time that a french president has been put, apparently under survey, and they were allegations against the us a few years ago, putting former us a former french presence on this events. well,

india is one of at least 11 government clients of n s. so that's the company behind the pegasus programming of a linked database of 50000 phone numbers. hundreds belong to indians. the most prominent is the opposition politician role gandhi. his number was targeted during parliamentary elections in 20182019 others include dozens of journalists and election commission, official business men, diplomats, and even to ministers in the governments of, nor under moody, a former supreme court stauffer who had accused the ex chief justice of india of abuse was also targeted justice now member of parliament with the ruling party, elizabeth parent and picks up the story from new delhi. where the press club of india were journalists holding a protest following reports to the funds of more than 300 indians, including journalists, was hacked using the israeli made pegasus by where now the project, the director of the government. because pegasus is classified as a military grade cyber weapon,

and it's found to say they only sell their technology to better governments for the sole purpose of saving lives and prevention, criminal and terror acts. but the list of people in india who follows allegedly hack include not just journalists, but major opposition figures a former election commissioner, a top political strategist, business people include ministers and the current government, including the information minister. now the founders of the and the news website wire are among the more than 40 indian journalist who's fun allegedly hacked was also one of the 17 media organizations around the world. would you conducted the investigation into how by way was being used in various countries. this is much one of the founders had to say go to either the ends of friends or not already owner. that is one of the one that didn't come in on

the board problem. they want to get to the bottom of it. now the government and that there is no evidence not support us, nothing allegations and that there are an attempt to undermine the monsoon session of india's parliament, which began on monday. but the country main opposition political policy of the congress and many others. calling for an independent investigation into the report, given how serious allegations officials in madagascar say they've stopped a plot to assassinate the president on re roger lena. according to the attorney general, there several foreign nationals and citizens have now been arrested. no further details were given out last month, the military set, it had prevented an attempt to kill a top general there. who is the president's right hand man. thousands of people who rallied in addis ababa to show their support for philippine federal troops fighting in the northern region of to gripe because called on the philippines to be unified

against the rebels in to grey. the accused them of using child soldiers. it comes as the conflict has widened to include fighters from neighboring m hara, and a far regions to growing groups claim thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. katherine sawyer reports now from addis ababa people coming very early in the morning we started hearing them from all will tell us wrong fi, say t a. m. and thousands of them showed up. and the speakers really was castigating that the grand defense is saying 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, the, if you can, national army has already withdrawn from t drive, 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 dry in the last a few months south, thousands of people have been killed. many have been displaced. the un, i said up to 400000 people are suffering. so i'm in like condition 1800000 on the brink off, i mean, and 8 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 to the situation is still very di ended. the global demand for aluminium is expected to rise in the coming few years. the metal is used to make everything from cars to cutlery, but a report from human rights watch says law school mining projects in several countries. a homie local communities, as well as the environment. guinea has the world's largest reserves of boxes. the

raw material required to make an opinion. the report says excavations or destroying land and limiting access to food and water. the report says, ethically sourcing, the metal has become a problem for the car industry, which is expected to nearly double its demand by 2050. china's invested billions of dollars in box light mining was limited regulations, entire communities have been pushed out to make way for big mining projects. nicholas hark picks up the story. this is what is left of booky in guineas maritime region. gone? are the mahogany trees is the rare species of chimpanzees and the patty fields. the industrial extraction of box like the or for aluminum, has turned a whence green oasis into a lunar landscape void of life. the water is poisoned by industrial chemicals. this destruction in pollution in one of the world's poorest countries, is to extract aluminum to manufacture where the automobile industry called clean

green powered electric cars for rich nation. as a result, thousands of villagers in book you have been forcibly displaced from their home. among them, mohammed summa, a rice farmer, now living in the city in what feels like a prison cell. he says, congress, you know, there is nothing left but dust to eat. we have lost everything. we sometimes go 2 or 3 days without food since the chinese took our land. our life is misery. human rights watch says that the displacement of people constitutes a violation of human rights. they hold car manufacturing companies responsible thing. they have failed to address the abuse with their aluminum suppliers. mining has taken farmland destroyed field, cut off water sources, and coated houses and fields in dust. as guineas, mining industry expands. the government's capacity to oversee the industry must keep pace. guinea has the largest reserve of boxes in the world. much of it is

untapped. it could be a formidable source of revenue for a country where most live on less than $2.00 a day. critics of the government to cues politicians of turning a blind eye to the environmental damage in exchange of kick back. some people in this be clear real poor country. we are withered money companies are not complain with the social and environmental regulations, but it isn't so easy for us to shut down this industry for the violations. to me, last week, the european commission voted to band the sale of vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel. by the year 2035 electric car sales are already on the rise. so is the demand for bach site in trying to solve an environmental problem. it seems automobile in mining companies are universally harming the environment, altering this precious landscape. nicholas hawk al jazeera. ok, let's pause for your world whether with kara, hello there,

let's look to the middle east and levant, and up in the north. things are looking a lot settled, it's down in the south was seen that cloud bringing rain particularly heavy it to west in areas of yemen. we could see more flooding here, whether rain does fall particularly heavily, and it's also affecting areas of amman musket likely to do some showers and storms as we go towards the end of the week and the weekend. but up north, it is looking a lot fina and why are we going to sion now wind blowing in here, and that's kicking up a lot of dust creating hazy sunshine for q 8 and for katara. now those rains as you can see them getting a little bit stronger on saturday, across western areas of yemen, and they do whoa, look cross into the horn of africa. the open rift valley seen some of the showers and storms be going to saturday. it's nigeria, that seems some of the really heavy rain. we could see flooding in the north west. we have seen flooding in the northeast, so we'll keep an eye as those rains are expected for rather heavily. and as we move down to southern africa has been rather cold chilion wet across cape town. but that

cold front is now pushing off to the east is gonna be lots of sunshine coming through. and we are going to see the temperatures pick up over the weekend. still come here on the news for you. cuba facing a search in corona virus infections. we'll get an update on the situation. and around the pro region. drug companies reach a landmark settlement for their role in the us opioid epidemic and in sport, or you can to a weightlifter who disappeared in japan mix is way back home details coming up in about 15 minutes. ah, the native as it breaks the culture production across the north, nigeria, greens and serial production about in steep decline with detailed coverage that demands the not you've been made. i know many times before now that allowed

a desperate because they say that situation is much worse from around the world. and these external, the 5th person, since the government is following the process and the case. and.