a global community on al jazeera, we understand the different types of cultures across the amount of what moves wilson, news and current. does that matter to you? oh, i this is al jazeera ah hello, and welcome on pete adobe. you're watching the news. i live from my headquarters here and coming up in the next 60 minutes, the analytics and an opening ceremony like no other offer a year, long delay, the world's greatest athletes come together at the games officially begin fighting

words from the taliban. the armed groupons, there will be no peace in afghanistan on until certain conditions are met. hospitals in lebanon are on the brink of running out of fuel, within hours, put in the lives of patients of brisk and rescue workers in central china and province. the still trying to find survivors after the worst flooding there in recent history ah, is just gone. 13 gmc would begin in tokyo, where the greatest show on earth has finally now got on the way postponed last year because of the global pandemic. the 2020 summer olympic games are a symbol of global unity and national pride. and during these, unprecedented times, a moment when the world's greatest athletes show their strength, solidarity, and courage. more than $11000.00 of them from $200.00 nations will be competing with us cases under unprecedented restrictions. the parade of nations is on the way

this hour in what is a nearly empty stadium. there are a small number of foreign guests and dignitaries of the ceremony. the u. s. first lady joe biden and the french president and manuel mackerel among them. the most expensive summer olympics in history is deeply unpopular among the people of the host nation, nearly 80 percent of japanese people say they are against holding the games. during this global health crisis live now to al jazeera andy richardson, who's in tokyo for us. so andy, just looking at the initial scene from the opening ceremony, it just looked so different. it really did sort of scale down socially spaced and subdued. so what i mean opening ceremony is you can take them or leave them to an extent. some people would question the wisdom of the best of times of spending upwards of $100000000.00 on a enlarged firework display. but they do often set the tone for the games,

often shift public opinion back behind the games in these organizers really do have a huge job to do if the majority of the people of japan are going to turn around that preconceptions about what's happening here in tokyo and get fully behind the games worth noticing. actually you were talking about the parade of nations. countries to g, q stand, and curtis done directly answering the national stadium. almost none of their fleets were wearing facial masks. now ahead of the games, media athletes were handed something called the olympic playbook. effectively list of rules and regulations about what you can call and do. there's a lot you can do. one of the things you can do is take your mass golf in a public place. any time you can tell you mass golf is if you are sleeping, eating or competing. so already the challenges of trying to maintain the safe and secure games is that describe how they are coming to the for. and they'll be some interesting questions at the 1st briefing of the international olympic committee

tomorrow to see what the sanctions both countries could face. because in theory, athletes what's hold ahead of the game, so you don't follow the rules, you could be kicked out of the olympics and here we are in front of billions of people around the world. millions of people around the world. and 2 countries have come in, not wearing facial mask in the effectively we ought to be called the cobra 19 games . if we're looking for positives, i think gender parents is the one thing that we're seeing this opening ceremony. 49 percent of athletes. these olympics will be female, that's the highest number we've ever had. and for each country coming in to the national stadium, the 1st time there's an option of having a male and female carry the flag in most countries with doing that some positive take out of it. but also just a lot of tension and uncertainty around tokyo on a night when it should have been a nice celebration for the country. and we start seeing the full on competitions taking place, those track and field events inside the stadium and such an odd situation for the

competitors. because not only do they have to those faced masks and social distancing, but they don't kind of move in, feel picked village for a period of 4 or 5 or 6 weeks. they, they fly in 4 or 5 days before their event. and then once that or event has taken place, 2 or 3 days later, they're gone that they're on a plane home. maybe that's right. and it's, it's another one of the reasons why the athletes so many tonight is somewhat scale down because the, i think that's all the not allowed to arrive in the athletes village until 5 days before and then 48 hours after that they have to leave it so it's not exactly going to be the usual atmosphere of, of celebration and conviviality around the athletes village. i don't. so death leads living under this constant fear of getting covered 19 or in a situation at the opening ceremony tonight, whether surrounded by athletes from other countries. if one of those athletes does

subsequently test positive, covered 19, they could be identified as a cause contact and, and then who knows what they have to train in isolation. they have to go through repeated p c r test. and if that happens on a day of competition, that 5, a dream of competing at these games goes up in smoke so, so much tension and concern around these games, not just for the organizers, but also for, for all the athletes involved as well. and the many things we'll talk to later, i'm sure, in the meantime, thank you and richard and they joined his life from the olympics in tokyo. last, more still to come for you here on the news are including how long should you wait between your doses of a cobra? 19 vaccine will tell you about the lakes findings. and we'll have the latest on the scramble to see people stranded by monsoon flooding in western india. as the death toll continues to climb. and with those games underway, temperatures are too hot to handle for one competitor in tokyo, that's coming up with joke in regular sports bullets in here on the news. in

several hospitals in lebanon, may run out of fuel to power generators. within the next few hours, they say power cuts can last at least 20 hours a day. so they're relying on generators to keep the hospitals running. but there are real fears. this is putting patients' lives at risk, especially with the pandemic. lebanon's dealing with an economic crisis to made worse by the recent resignation of the prime minister designate thought, how do you re earlier we spoke to dr. phil as abbey, as he works at the rafi career hospital in beirut. he says the situation is the worst it has ever been. we cannot continue like this and we are putting a lot of patience in harm's way. especially considering that we are seeing the surgeons in the number of new cases yesterday, live and report with one of the highest number of cases since 7 months. and it's clearly that our ice use are also receiving motivations. so electricity now is more

critical then and then has more now from beirut. the situation is critical. they need diesel fuel. hospitals are saying that they can no longer use their generators, and they need to use the generators because the state does not provide more than 2 to 3 hours of electricity a day. this country is in crisis, the country is falling apart. there's a breakdown and state services and the diesel fuel is also needed, not just for hospitals for bakeries as well. the bakeries are saying that as of monday will no longer be able to make breads. and restaurants and hotels are saying that we're going to have to ask our clients to leave because we're not able to provide any power of the state to pay to electricity sector. if i just show you this is one of the main public hospitals, more and more lebanese are relying on the public health sector because they've lost their job. they've lost insurance, they can no longer rely on private health care. so all this strain on the public

sector which has for decades been neglected by, by the authorities. if not just a question of diesel fuel manpower nurses, doctors, they're leaving in droves because of the economic situation. their salaries are now worthless because of the collapse of the local currency. and it's not just that the hospitals are not able to import medical supplies and medicine because this country imports more than 80 percent of its needs and this country is close or nearly bankrupt. you need dollars to do this, the central bank is using up its foreign currency reserve. so the situation is dire and now hospitals are saying patients' lives are at risk if the government is unable to secure diesel fuel. indonesia has reported more than $1500.00 corona virus, deaths in 24 hours. that's the new record. it also registered just under $50000.00 infections. the countries become the epicenter of a surgeon cases in se, asia fueled by the highly contagious delta variant. rapidly rising kirby 19 cases

have led to a declaration of emergency in the australian state of new south wales, half the country's population has now gone into lockdown. as the outbreaks built into other states stay at home orders in sydney, likely to be extended beyond the current end date of july, the 30th neighboring new zealand for suspended, quarantined free travel with all of austria for 2 months. the so called travel bubble was already paused for new south wales victoria and south australia, the prime minister just into order and is wanting of the increased risk to travelers, interview about health issues. there is greater risk now from the delta variant than it was when we open the quarantine free travel arrangement of the frame. yes, it is the government's judy to keep the site from carpet 19. and we continue to believe that the strongest health response is also the strongest economic response . this approaches to us while to date. so to is our willingness to adapt. cognitive changed, and so we must

a longer gap between doses of the fires of vaccine boosts effectiveness against corona virus. that's according to a new study led by the university of oxford. while it revealed a strong immune response anywhere from $3.00 to $10.00 weeks between shots that identified an 8 tweet gap between those is as a sweet spot. the trade off in that longer interval as a drop in antibody levels between the 1st and 2nd doses. and importantly, the study noted was the decline in antibodies needed to fight off the delta variant . but regardless of the dosing shed, your research is said to fire a shot generate robust immune responses. let's talk now to susanna dunnahugh. she's a professor of infectious diseases at the university of oxford and also joint chief investigator in the study. the study is known as pitch. she joins us from oxford, santa donna, he welcome to the news out. so does this mean that one has less protection? if you had dose one of pfizer on day one and those 228 days later.

right. hello. and we'll 1st hold to say, this is an immunology study and we're waiting for further studies and effectiveness . and what we found was, on average, if you had to show to dosing interval and you had lower anti bodies, but this is our population level. so i think 1st of all, i'd like to say that to judge by the bit vaccine in very good to inducing and mean responses. and if you had your prize back in on a short dosing info, don't worry it's, it's a great back scene. we just found that the u. k. strategy which was to give along with the strategy which was based on and knowledge of back seems diseases and how long the gap often is better. and also as a way to quickly job as many people as possible. if one dose actually ended up giving higher antibody levels and how does this react to the delta variance because

that's the coming variance and that's the, that's the variant that everyone seems concerned about. yes, so the delta baring is very much the dominant variant in the u. k at the moment, what we've done this when we let it neutralizing antibodies and they are induced by the vaccine. but again, the delta barrier, they're, they're a bit lower. and 2 jobs is definitely better than one against the delta variance. so really it's a balancing point. you just, you had originally been 12 weeks ago and they've been brought to 8 weeks just to try and balance and trying to get the best results for the population. because unfortunately, the bars doesn't seem to be going away. and so we want this to last into the winter and against the fact that there's a lot of sales her engine in the u. k. at the moment. what is it that is unique about defies a vaccine in relation to the study that can't be applied or is not

a clickable to say the astrazeneca vaccine? yes, so some of the principles of general vaccine principles in the ass just then vaccine trials that she spends the longer those scenes full was better for both back and effectiveness and for the immune responses. so there are some things in common, but the different vaccines in the candy been given to slightly different populations as well. does this mean that even if ones had the 5, the vaccine one should maybe start thinking about a top dose, a booster shot, maybe 6912 months after you had shot number one? i think we don't yet know, and i wouldn't want people to get too hung up on and going down because that's what i'm going to do. say you bought the car, have high level vanity bodies for every bug. it's ever been back to me again. what happens is he didn't have memory and you'll be so memory. so if you can to the

virus, you'll be able to quickly make antibodies. so if you healthy and you had to show that might well be enough, even if you're on the levels that seem to be below are ok down. i think it's a different matter the same people who, because of health reasons might not respond well to the job. and this clinical studies going on in the you get a moment to look at giving a start shot to people. ok, we must leave it there. thank you so much, professor susanna donna, he, johnny as the from oxford a member of the taliban negotiating team says there won't be a lasting peace. and i've got to start until a new governments installed and cobbled at all sides. agree on taliban fighters have been seizing many areas as the last of the us and nato forces leave afghanistan. sewell, shaheen says the taliban does not want to monopolize power, but it will only laid on its weapons. once the government of strife ghani is gone.

let's talk now live to our diplomatic, assert, james base. james. if they don't want to monopolize power, what else would you call it? well, certainly what everyone wants, i think on the international community is some way to have a negotiated settlement between the african government and the taliban. some way of sharing power. and what they'd like is to restart those talks that have been taking place in doha. and that currently adjourned, great deal of effort to try and get that back on track and get that going. there has been a meeting recently with the deputy heads of the taliban political office in doha of the salon. mahaffey and representatives of diplomats from the e. u. u. s u n. and katha. now many of those diplomats, in addition to getting the talk started, think that the best atmosphere for the talks is to have a cease far ton about and reluctant to have a c spot. at this stage,

they say the proposals that the african government have put on the table so far are unacceptable. they won't not won't re consolation, but they won't set entering. they won't come come n harbor c spied and we will continue our waterman as it is. so that's the also not realistic approach not to pragmatic approach. it is necessity that all avalon should have are, should eagerly upon a new government. and that was meant would replace the new this couple administration. and that was meant will be acceptable for us. and to add that up months another television spokesman later clarified those comments, making it clear that the taliban is not demanding. the president ref gone is

removed or stands down before a ceasefire. that's not one of the conditions that demanding before a cease for out there understands what taliban want in order to have a seat far for them to greek to a c swap would be for all the prisoners being held by the african government to be released and that will be difficult. moved by president gone. he got a lot of christians last time he released prisoners and also for all of those taliban members that are listed by the un under the sanctions committee to be de listed is the driving force or the dynamic here, james to the taliban. a kind of a, a leverage desire to build or maintain, or carry on building on the basics of political credibility with everyone involved in this process. whilst also at the same time laying out their stall of their demands and not budging an inch because they seem to kill to don't they on each side,

whether it's the ceasefire or the peace process or the peace process or the ceasefire . the taliban know that they have significant leverage at this moment, much more i think than the us expected them to have because of the very significant gains that they've made in recent weeks. i think the un, sorry the us was not expecting the taliban to make these moves. and interestingly, the u. s. has actually been involved in recent strikes now, but told you the u. s. carried out as strikes and i've got a song, a few months ago would be no surprise, but they haven't done it for some considerable time. and it is significant because of the 1st strike, since the vast majority of us troops pulled out of this country. in fact, the strikes weren't called in from i'm going to stop. they were called in by the us central command. we understand they hit targets in a number of provinces including kandahar province. another bit of news for you pizza,

the african govern government heralding the fact they've taken back one district in herat province in the west of afghanistan. they're saying that's an important sign of that fight back. but it is worth telling you that is one district out of we believe, $213212.00 that the taliban control out of a total of $419.00 districts across the process of chemist on james. thank you very much. james bayes are diplomatic, added to the in column one person's been shot dead, 2 others were injured during process against water shortages in southern iran, heart dry conditions and the province of couldn't son made this. he has water supply problems, even worse than usual security forces, say, quotes unknown gunman, open fire people who said they wanted to protest about the su israel high court has asked the government to clarify its position on the bedouin village of con i'ma by september. it's one of dozens threatened with demolition across israel and the

occupied west bank. they're not recognized by the state and their people, the facing force displacement, an exhibition. and tell me eve is highlighting the scale of the problem. a sort of a bill, hamid now reports. it's been destroyed and we built 190 time since 2010. the village of allowed to keep home to, to re bed when tribe in the negative desert to one of the so called legally unrecognized villages. in israel, they are barely any standing constructions left, but people still live here among their ancestors in the vans and trucks. but fellow, we go lower, that they don't acknowledge anything bed when he's villages have been recognized since the days of the ottomans. and then the british, the tribes existence well before the creation of the state of israel, what do they think the tribes came down from the skies a week ago? i know this is how a lot of keep looks from above. you can see the marks of raking bulldozers that

took down homes and smoothed the land plans are made for forests to replace the village. these images are part of an exhibition base, really photographers, mickey craftsman, and shut tape it. jeff ski cold anti mapping to create the not turn at the way of talking about maps. yes, we believe that they, they stay doesn't want us to see or to understand where to, but it's still on villages and the green line. and in those days, what's happened daily in don't recognize beds when villages. yes, they don't want us to say that's my name ben. jeff skeet took thousands of pictures by drone and then super imposed them to provide high resolution images that show a reality that is uncomfortable for many israel like palestinian villages. the dark spots on this picture raised to the ground in 1948 when israel was created. this is the spot where that picture was taken. now somewhere there,

they used to be the village of jim mamma. we can't figure out where exactly from this vantage point. it's all been covered with agricultural land. one of the many ways to raise palestinian heritage from inside the borders of israel. land confiscated uncovered. here they used to be the village of sour. now a training base for the military, i was surprised. how much isn't though there was such an effort to remove those places not only from maps, but also from reality. in each place, there was something that we can find cemetery, walls or stones that would indicate that there was something there in the past. also from the discovery is through the connecting of those cases. it's what the people have had in could face at any moment. plans and a works for it to be replaced by duley built israeli town with the same name. other

places like handle asthma are also under threat of disappearing. the pictures of craftsmen and jeff ski now irrefutable proof of their existence. meet al jazeera in southern israel. she jane paying has gone to tibet. the 1st visit to the region by a chinese president in 3 decades inspected a train line under construction and met buddhist monks. in other regions, paging has stepped up controls on religion and education and bets. excel. tibetans accused the central government of religious and cultural repression. clean up operations are on the way in the central chinese city of zhang joe, which was hit this week by the worst flooding the region has experienced in recent history. of the cities in the region are under red, alert as rescue team search for survivors. katrina, you reports now from change all the rain and john joe may have east but flood waters are still submerging major highways. just one reminder of the devastating

storm which struck central china earlier this week. teams are working hard to pump and clear water from relying areas. the city is more than 7000000 residents are struggling to resume normal life. many neighborhoods like access to running water authorities have set up temporary out the water stations. li jenny says he's grateful he was safe at home when to rental rain lashed the city is 3 weather safer to stay indoors. that's the lesson i learn. then just things happen unexpectedly. our people need to be more cautious. this kind of tragedy who, having avoided, we bought them, people are so coming to terms with the loss of life and loss of livelihood caused by what authorities have described as the worst on 4000 years, many businesses remain closed. internet and phone connection is unstable. jose famous clock tower is frozen at 5 pm. the time electricity was cut off during the

height of the storm on tuesday. getting around, the city is still very difficult be entire. subway system remains closed with tunnels full of water. taking us away during the storm was extremely dangerous. hundreds of people were trapped encourages as flash, floods quickly filled the underground system. in keeping with chinese tradition offerings has been bird at the entrance to the station. to honor the 12 people who died underground, commuters are sharing harrowing details of their experiences waiting for rescue teams to arrive many beliefs they would not devise. in rural areas, some were rescued after 3 days of being stranded. the army has been sent to reinforce vulnerable dance and reservoirs. meteorologists say the worst weather has passed, and many here are waiting patiently for government disaster relief for the flood waters to recede and for the sun. finally retained a treaty, you all to 0 job jo. munson reins of triggered landslides in western india,

killing at least 35 people flooding left thousands of people stranded with parts of my roster estate badly. it that i'm poor, have eased but rescue teams have been struggling to reach areas, cut off by the flood waters from new delhi, elizabeth koran and reports on the rescue operations in the areas hit by the land. slides. officials are hopeful because after at least 35 deaths on 3 landslide and not sure that's what my daughter was phase lead of. the chief minister without talk of a has said and around 30 people are missing. he also said that the national disaster response force has been having a lot of difficulty reaching some of the worst effected areas because of the damage to rows and to bridges. because the flood waters are now starting to receive. and that heavy rain has slowed down somewhat. they hopeful that everyone involved in the rescue efforts and national disaster response for that also, the army,

the navy, the coast guard, i'm going to be able to get to the people who remain stranded more than a 1000. people have been rescued in different parts of my austria. many of them have been from rooftop from the top on top of buses on highways. shipping the close to town of chaplain, which is home to about $70000.00 people. that is where the rescue efforts focused on now, half of it is flooded and that's in the district of my get. it was received at the heaviest rainfall in july, in full t years. now elsewhere in my austria and the financial capital min, by in fact, another 2 people have died. an 8th injured off, the house collapsed off the heavy rains and over the last week and seen 30 people die in and around by the cause of the heavy rain. that's the situation in austria, but we're also seeing heavy flooding in a couple of other different states in the country. most notably in the southern states of talent gonna we're hearing meteorologist is saying that the 30 centimeters of rain, it's cold and fat on gardens capital. hydro bob,

the bets the highest rainfall in july and hydro bob in 10 years that the flood gates of the main reservoir mon saga have had to be have had to be released for the 1st time. again in a decade. now the sort of damage was seeing the destruction due to flooding due to land flies. it is common during the since season when the flood really affects the foundations of stretches, which are often poorly built. but we're also hearing from scientists that the frequency and the intensity of the monsoon of heavy rains is increasing because of climate change times whether his jeff hello read off about here is an update on typhoon in for as it's about a 150 kilometers away from ty paid, but look at the impact it is going to have a windows 65 kilometers per hour, and we can expect about $75.00 millimeters of rain from friday rate through into saturday. let's carry on with the tract. as the eye of the storm makes landfall

south of shanghai on sunday and you guessed it, this is going to have a big impact on shanghai potentially. we could see guts as high as a 115 kilometers per hour. then add in about 70 millimeters of brain flooding power outages. that will all certainly be a big concern with this. you know, for northern areas of indo china, we're getting lashed with some heavy rain here as well as we're dealing with remnants of what was i type phone and pack up in this region on saturday. next to india and southwest monsoon has been particularly active toward the west coast over 33 hours, almost a meter of rain and buffer roster. and you know, that made it, it's 2nd whether it's day and over half a century and look at this on saturday. those heavy bouts of what weather continue, not only for the west coast but central and northeast areas and for australia, what toward the south. and it will also be windy as well. still to come here on the news out. and.