not time, i've covered wars revolutions, elections on military who is from the for venice of correct. so the battle fields around most of our job is to get to the truth and empower people through knowledge . ah, this is al jazeera. ah. hello barbara sarah, this is the al jazeera news, our live from london. thank you for joining us. coming up in the next 60 minutes. the delta variant is blamed for a surgeon corona virus cases. in the u. s. infections there have jumped more than 35 percent in a single week. 3000000 infections in, in denise via the epicenter of southeast asia outbreak,

the w h o or just the government to impose a strict are locked down. the global shock wave from the pegasus fi where scandal and urgent security meeting is pulled in france after it's revealed, the president's phone was targeted and the entire forest signed communities wiped out in guinea as the race to provide electric powered cars. the speeds up to 70. and how would you support the main football competition? kicks off a particular lympics plus an historic moment for great britain with mohammed b becoming the 1st muslim, chosen to carry the british flag at an opening ceremony. ah, we begin the news hour with the corona virus pandemic in the rapidly rising case number is across the united states. the average number of daily new infections is

now nearly tripled in the space of 2 weeks. around 90 percent of patients being admitted, the hospital for the virus have not received a vaccination. once again, us officials are having to consider whether it is time for americans to start wearing a face mask again or white house correspondent. kimberly how kit has one. renewed warnings from the white house urging all americans to get vaccinated. as cases of covert continue to spike up 35 percent from last week and death up 26 percent. the delta barrier is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strain. it is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses mellow and i have seen in my 20 year career. the us centers for disease control says 83 percent of all new u. s. cobit cases are linked to the highly transmissible delta variant. for now, the white house math policy has not changed. currently only unvaccinated people

need to wear a mask, but officials are discussing whether to change that. so if you're an area that has a high rate and low rate, the vaccination where delta cases are rising, you should certainly be wearing a mask if you are on vaccinated. the white house is also continuing to work with social media companies to tamp down. and what it calls, vaccine misinformation there remains skepticism in the us, particularly among conservatives, about masked effectiveness, and whether covert vaccines are even safe. if people have questions about it. let's answer the questions. let's not say, oh, you can't put any information out. i think what would really have people have greater trust provide all the science provide all the information with 97 percent of all cobra deaths in the u. s. among the unvaccinated. the biden administration

is boosting investments in cobra testing in areas where vaccination rates remain low. 1.6000000000 has been allocated for testing in high risk settings like prisons and homeless shelters. 398000000 has also been added to help small rural hospitals reduce infection. but already the spike and covered cases is being felt economically. the number of americans falling jobless claims hit a 2 month high last week. 419000 americans filing for benefits as the delta various threatens president biden's promise of a swift economic recovery. kimberly health hit al jazeera, the white house for more. let's cross the heidi show castro who is in washington. d . c. for as the us that seem to almost get the coven pandemic under control. but now i think, would we really hearing a shift in tone from the government and medical officials?

how concerned do you think they are? absolutely. barbara. there is a stark shift in town. if you'll recall, just a few weeks ago, the white house through so called independence from cobit, it's celebration on the south long just to mark also the nation's independence day . and now just a few weeks later, we're hearing these concerns. these warnings as cases rise in all 50 states, and as the daily number of deaths in the u. s. is at about $250.00, almost virtually all of those deaths among the unvaccinated, and we're seeing hot spots that directly correlate to low vaccination rates. and those number of hostile ways, hospitalizations, and deaths, that's happening. the states like louisiana, missouri, and florida. and if you look across the board in the united states, 40 percent of people who are eligible to receive a vaccine at this moment are still not vaccinated. and that is despite the warnings

that we just heard from the cdc director about the aggressiveness of the delta very and, and despite her today, calling this time period, another pivotal point in the pandemic for the u. s. barbara, how does your cast her with the latest there from washington? heidi, thank you. well, let's look at the pandemic around the world and south africa is also struggling with worsening numbers. the vaccination campaign there is making progress with a record quarter of a 1000000 people getting their shops in one day. but so far, only about 7 percent of the population has received at least one dose. south africa is the worst that country on the continent and health experts are also warning over potential rise in cases after large crowds gathered during antique government protests last week. for me to miller has more enough from johannesburg on the speed of the vaccine rollout. all the south african government had to hope to vaccinate

about 300000. and they almost reached the target by almost 250000 in the last 24 hours. and that is a record for south africa, especially given they've been concerning the last week or so, given the disruptions here around some of the riots that we experienced in the provinces. of course we're going to tell and hoping in that vaccination centers were the work they were suspended at least for a few days and all the government says everything is back to normal. also what seems to be driving this particular record is that vaccinations have now opened up to people. so to 5 years and older and it seems based on the trends we're seeing that the younger the individual is the keynote they are to get vaccinated. we did see some reluctance from people over 60 years old, so the government is really pushing for the registration of people over the age of 35. and while it did have a process in place that people would have to make appointments, they receive

a text message to confirm that appointment the now accepting walking and ultimately the ministry of health saying it's all about getting people vaccinated as quickly as possible. the numbers continue to be of concern. it has though dropped, of the 27, sorry, of the people who are testing 27 percent of them seem to be infected by covert 19. but there seems to be some relief in terms of the 3rd way that's being experienced in south africa currently. and indonesia is now the epicenter of the latest wave of corona virus, in se, asia fueled by the delta variant. it's reported a record $1400.00 deaths in just one day, but testing rates are low and the true figures could actually be much higher. the world health organization has urged the government to introduce a strict are locked out. here's 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 and these are, there are people who would struggle when there is a strict lockdown and many all doing it tough, particularly across chicago. java and many parts of the country, but epidemiologist say that the government must strongly because the situation is continuing to worsen intensive care units in hospitals. but only in jakarta, 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 chicago, her and the numbers that you mentioned earlier, it's 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, right? some local data agencies using data from cities from provincial governments, say that the actual just told is likely to be greater than one. the government's numbers suggest anton easiest president has ordered the military to intervene in the nations corona virus. crisis. vaccines are in short, supply and san piedra has been reported. the health center is across the country. the health minister has also been fact, as cases continued to serge mohammed fall reports the 16 at the vaccination center in tunisia, capital impatient clouds. i've tried to force the way to get coffee. 19 vaccine sale be good for me. it's mandatory. it's a vac. seen covered. it's a serious disease. and personally it scares me though, of your model and you come here for 3rd time. you wait

a long time and then you go without getting a vaccine. it's not normal that there is only one vaccination center in a state because the people wild boar. what if we don't go look in your forty's, if you cannot find solutions for us, let us search for solutions for ourselves. this followed highly controversial decision by the ministry of health to provide vaccines for everyone about the age of 18. at the same time. it has led to stampedes of 9 vaccination centers across the country, raising fears of a sharper ice in inflection, prime minister machine. she fired his health minister for what he described as a clear case of mismanagement policy. not quite the least that can be said is that the decision is wrong and you have noticed it's repercussions on society. tunisia continues to face some of the highest good 19 infection rates in the world. it's rocking 3rd off to quote on the media with about $200.00 deaths

a day. according to official medical sources. nearly 18000 people have died in a country of 12000000. many hospitals have run out of beds and oxygen. medical stuff are overwhelmed. there are reports of patients dying in the absence of proper care and body staying unburied for joe. and i did the peak. we had daily surgery. we even have 50 patients at the same time in our covert unit for hot. how shed emergency room and suits? well, a maximum capacity varies between 18 to 20 patients. yeah, yeah. you know, doctors are losing hope in the whole nation health system. everyone is losing hope, but we're here for our patient. we tried to do our best for them. cases continue to so everyone seems to want to be the 1st to get the vaccine, but with limited stocks, fewer than a 1000000 have received the 2 jobs so far. that's about 8 percent of the tradition

population of the situation. he has 3 good solidarity and c, as across north africa with neighboring libya, losing its border and other countries sending medical supplies to help prevent the humanitarian disaster. hum, advice, or dizzying japan capital tokyo has hit another 6 months high of new cove in 1900 cases just the day before the olympic games opening ceremony. almost 2000 positive tests were recorded over the past 24 hours. that's the highest figure since mid january, and that's the spite tokyo being under a state of emergency for the past 11 days. and to add further problems, the director of the opening ceremony has been sac after footage emerge of him telling a joke about the holocaust during a comedy show 23 years ago. and the richardson has the latest from tokyo. we get towards the opening ceremony, even in the best of times, there is a degree of public reticence and concern about the games and how much they cost and

will really be any meaningful legacy when these games finish. hey, we are on the eve of the opening ceremony and the show director has being fired and this just piles on top of the previous control receives we've had, we mentioned the, the composer for the opening ceremony having to step down earlier in the week. let's not forget in february. sure, maury, the president of the organizing committee. he has to step down after making sexist comments. so really, it's been one problem after another. and hey, we have this balancing act where the government's the organizing committee, the international olympic committee are all hoping that once that ceremony gets on the way public opinion starts to shift. and they've really got to balance the spectacle of a $100000000.00 show with the seriousness of the situation facing tokyo in japan, in terms of coven 19 we're here in, in. so carry that the heading co 19 levels. i've not seen since january coming up

on al jazeera, this news, our seeking a united solution to an ongoing problem calls for european agreement on asylum seekers. the growing threat of face junk rocket scientist want to solve a problem that's out of this world. and that the tokyo olympics, that you can, that asked leave who disappeared finally gets his marching orders, details coming up and forth. ah, china has deployed. it's mainly free to hunan province, the region struggling with the worst flooding in recent memory. at least 33 people have now been killed and 800000 displaced between the you has more now from changes in who none province. the rain has used the millions of people are still struggling

to deal with the devastating flooding, which is what many cities and towns dan, i'm still showing as city on the northern non province and to venture rain hits this region on wednesday, just off the 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 the 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 been moving off to try to clear the area and they're also getting food and people been stuck in the cause our authority say 3000000 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. and it's sensory, any criticism of having a disaster online and on social media. protests over water shortages in iran have now been ongoing for week. a number of demonstrators and one police officer have been killed. the demonstration started in the oil rich province of cruises stand on the waters of the gulf and also bordering iraq. there is been violence reported several rallies, according to local media to la derek. the process of being held in several other cities. as a rad suffers its worst drought in 50 years, it runs president, her son, ronnie, has responded to the unrest with a warning matter dumas school system rule. of course, we must distinguish between the people of who is a stand and a group that sometimes chance incorrect slogans. a few 100 protesters are not the

people of crew to stand out. it's their natural right to talk is protest and even take to the streets within the framework of the law. meanwhile, some people might use this opportunity and an evil person might join the protesters and use guns and shoot and killed one of our dear countrymen, u. k. border authorities have intercepted more migrant both trying to cross the english channel from france. the passengers have been brought ashore for processing . the number of undocumented migrants reaching britain in small boats so far this year has surpassed the total for the whole of 2020. the u. k government is working with friends to increase the number of police patrolling french beaches and has committed 73000000 dollars to support efforts to prevent illegal crossings. and the german chancellor anglo merkel has called on e. you said to set up a common asylum policy that focuses on taking in people who faced persecution at home. but she had made the union is far from establishing that murder call,

also criticized bill of ruth for sending migrants across the border into this. when ya in response to e. u. sanctions saying the move was unacceptable. well, the smuggling of people across borders is big business. it's hard to determine how large the industry is because it is so secretive. but the united nations office on drugs and crime believes that about $6750000000.00 a year is generated by criminals smuggling people on 2 of the principal roofs, from east north and west africa, to europe, and from central and south america to north america. the fees charged by smugglers are different depending on the point of origin. it could cost about $2000.00 across from mexico into the us or $10000.00 from countries beyond the mexico. and about $55000.00 people are told to be smuggled from africa into europe each year

being smuggled from as it is in the jail to libya and then on to europe. could cost about $2.00 to $3000.00. will ill? yes. hi. this is chief of the human trafficking and migrant smuggling section at the us office on drugs and crime me joins us live now from vienna. so thank you so much for joining us here on al jazeera. i mean, how much bigger is the sort of people smuggling becoming both? i mean, we've mentioned the 2 routes from latin america to the united states and of course, from african, the middle east to europe. thank you very much. smaller, you have big business. you're measuring already so much of it, and i want to say that the figures are to measure from our own reasons, relates to all the fraction of the global profit that these criminal gangs are making. and the, the flows are usually from the low income countries towards the more often in

countries and crisscross the world, the $6.00 to $7000000000.00 a. to mention this for about 30 router that we examine a couple of years ago. but this, we're talking about hundreds of routes that doesn't criss crossing to reach is for mister west from north to south and from different actually quite a different part of the world to other parts of the world. of 2 issues often get confused and that human trafficking and migrant smuggling. so i guess perhaps they might overlap the in some cases. what do you think the best ways it could be both that a national lab level and you wide may be in trying to combat this? micros money needs to be distinguished from irregular migration and the, the criminal syndicates are operating on margaret networks and these are the ones need to be targeted. the smugglers are operating on either of us in an on the hierarchical structure or the operate on small groups puffing in my dress for one

into the other. along this margin into grounds that you mentioned are distinct crimes. but often the brothers were at the measure. they become quite confused this, for the migrant that having to handle, the smugglers become often abused. they are exploited. we have given up before extortion, we have sexual slavery, we are talking parcels. so it becomes very difficult to distinguish. and this is one of the titles of the countries are facing when tried to deal with these 2 crimes. we just heard a little earlier that angular mark holy is calling for the you to have a sort of unified approach to this. now it's interesting that she's going to be stepping down in a few weeks because we know how unpopular that idea is in europe. but what do you think should be done that an you why level that might fight against people smugglers? the international cooperation is key to address amongst might be i would like to come in particular on your policy or any other state. his name is mike,

my name is across the board of crime. so one country cannot fight. so there needs to be cooperation, needs to be cooperation within europe, the needs to go to be cooperation with the countries, the needs to be cooperation with countries of origin and was just traveling because the trafficking his money and that was excuse me, operate a little longer sometimes they bring people from asia to europe, from asia, to, to other parts, to africa, to the america. so from the america to europe. so it's a very, very complicated crime that cannot be addressed in one single region. so the solution is more international cooperation. it blows closer, formation, changeable, countries be hard to know, but how big part of the, the economy of the countries of origin a, if you will, can people smugly, migrant smuggling, sometimes be the just smuggler networks. i'm not, i'm not, they transfer their networks. so it's in the process to not go into the local

economy, they go into the hands of the scene because they are traveling to other types of crimes or for the profit, or to do to want to increase the profit of the penal networks. sort of the size of the crime. other said this is miss is the one that i describe. i mean $7000000000.00 per year in the only capital of foods shows you the, the extent of the over the, of the crime, profit of the criminal gangs. and these are actually the budget of small countries . ok. and in the process we're going to have to leave it there. but thank you so much for talking to us about an issue that unfortunately we will be having to go back to again and again as there is no solution and fight right now. the chief of human trafficking, migrants smuggling section at the united nations office on drugs and crime. thank you. frances president has held an urgent national security meeting to discuss the pegasus spy, where scandalous follows reports that the phone of mine was. mccaul was targeted by

israeli spyware. on behalf of american intelligence borrower who denies the reports and plans to file defamation charges and investigation as the widespread use of spying technology from israel's and as oh, group claims that hundreds of journalists, activists, and political leaders and several countries were hacked. natasha butler has more now from paris. will french president in monro, mcroy held quite a lengthy cabinet meeting with his ministers to discuss these allegations that had merged earlier in the week. that moroccan intelligence services may have tried to target one of the french presidents mobile phones and not only his mobile phone, but that of his former prime minister was felipe. and also more than a dozen ministers and dozens of journalists in france. now the least they put out a statement after this capital meeting, they say that of course,

the lease and the president and taking these allegations very seriously indeed. but they are urging caution because they've launched a full investigation to try and see and verify exactly what the situation is. the present we are told is following this investigation very closely. indeed, the lease. i also think that the president has exchanged and changed his mobile phone numbers and the security has been stepped up. so to come on al jazeera, this news hour supporting the troops ethiopian style, thousands get behind the government forces in their ongoing t gray conflict. a choice between the past and the future. white development in liverpool has called the city a coveted un listing and the depleted us men's basketball team get so much needed boost for the olympics. ah.

hello nessie. you were talking about an abundance of sunshine and high heat for the british shells. so we've got a heat wave going on for the 2nd time in 5 days. northern ireland set a new temperature record this time it's up to 31.3 degrees. meantime in the republic of ireland, they're doing what they can to keep cool. jumping into the irish sea here, and temperatures have been equally as high. now we're going to shake up and change up this weather pattern as we head toward friday. so we've got a weather maker move it in 1st, it's going to impact western areas of france. and by the time we can, so the weekend this will push into the british isles. next we're going to go to spain because we've got some high temperatures here as well. so cordoba, 40 degrees. that's what we've got your pencil, the in for friday after turkey. now and we've got some showers for the southern shores of the black sea, a high of 30 degrees, and it's then bowl on friday. over to morocco,

we're going to keep this theme of high heat go in. so merrick cash $46.00 degrees will be the high alger is algeria europe, to $36.00. and if we look around the gulf of guinea, that's really where we're going to see the, what is whether across africa. so, particularly for the ivory coast, heading towards sierra leone on friday. so for him, he's got a high of 27 degrees for you in the forecast. ah, ah, we tell the untold story. ah, we speak when others don't. ah, we cover all sides. no matter where it takes a police fan here again, my eyes empowering in pasha. we tell your story. we are your voice. you knew your net back out here. got one of the fastest growing

nations in the world, ah, on a contract, needed to open and develop into national shipping company to become a team, middle east, and tough for trade and money skillfully enough re key is up to about filling up from it says, connecting the word connecting the future got cut to gateway to whoa trade. ah, ah ah, reminder now the top stories on al jazeera corona virus cases are surging in the us

. the number of daily infections is nearly tripled in the space of 2 weeks, or 90 percent of patients being admitted. the hospital for the virus haven't received. a fascination in the knees is now be at the center of the latest wave. the corona virus and southeast asia, a few of the by the highly contagious bill to variant the world health organization has urged the government to introduce the strict law entities. your president has ordered the military to intervene in the nations coven faxing roll out at the reports of some piece that health center health minister is also being fact, as cases continue to search. the african union is asking for cove in 1900 vaccines to be made on the continent. just 16000000 doses of been distributed among a population of 1300000000 because of restrictions on shipments from vaccine producing nations. on wednesday, pfizer and biotech announce plans for.