4 wheel can be a unifying, pull water country lydia, or rally on al jazeera. ah, this is al jazeera ah, the time is $1300.00, gmc hello on come all santa maria victor. the news now are on al jazeera buses bring afghans and their families to a military base in the united states that left their home, that fear in town about reprisals for working with american forces. many others are looking for their active i'm showing a balance outside the passport office here in cobble where there's been

a huge surge and application as violence increases across that. and also in the news, the 1st person jailed on the hong kong national security law gets 9 years. a sentence activists say is meant to send a message just a week to the limit games in a corona, virus. state of emergency is expanded to district surrounding tokyo. i'm the richardson at the carol intakes. my organizes has said, some people working on the games have been breaking strict coven 19 safety rules. ah, welcome home. the words of us president joe biden, to those on for the 1st flight, bringing afghans who worked alongside american lead forces during the war buffers have taken them to the fort lee military base in the state of virginia. 221 people and all on those buses. 57 of them, children. 15 are babies. but 20000 others have applied for the f i v. the special

immigrant visa. those who worked for the us governmental military for at least 2 years eligible. the process has been long and complicated. on thursday, though, the u. s. congress did ease some of the restrictions of the requirements, allowing more visas for afghans and provided emergency funding for their transportation and housing. we have got 3 reporters on the story at this hour. a diplomatic get at the james spaces in cobble. we've got alan fisher at the white house. i'll be with both of you shortly. want to stop there. with heidi, is your counselor who's outside the military base in fort lee. but you need tell us about what you've been saying. haughty. come on earlier this morning. the bus is billed with the 1st wave of the translators and their families live here at the portly army base behind me. they are, there are $220.00. some people who will now spend the next 7 days or so possibly

fewer days within this space, getting their final health screenings as required by law, and were receiving their green card and being resettled within the united states. many will go on to join family members and various cities, or they'll be resettled in one of 20 approved resettlement cities. i did speak with a man whose cousin came aboard this 1st flight and in fact, both of them worked as english interpreters for the us military. and they come from a family that has long love the united states. and we're looking forward to providing this service when us troops came into their country. and in fact, there were 5 brothers from this same family who all became interpreters for the us military. the man who came aboard this plain, he was among the lucky one. the family says because he was still currently working with the u. s. government with when the trip draw down was

a now. so he was among that 1st wave to get so coveted tickets. he and his family, his wife and 3 children, a board life. remember there were 5 brothers in the family and of them to still remain in the car. well, they are in hiding their brother. they are fearful that one's the taliban. is the taliban advances on cobble that they will be captured and that they will be killed . and in fact, this flies that arrived represent not even one percent of the people who formerly worked with us troops in afghanistan and their family members. but why, for the special immigrant, eas, still waiting for the process of taking some $800.00 days, on average for each visa applications should be approved and the beer is that's simply time is running out for them. how does your kind of start at 40 virginia? thank you for that. heidi us, president joe biden says this flight is the 1st of many,

his just part of his statement. today's an important milestone. he said as we continue to fulfill a promise to the thousands of africa, nationals who served shoulder to shoulder with american troops and diplomats over the last 20 years in afghanistan. most of all, i want to thank these brave after standing with the u. s. and today i am prompt to say to them, welcome hun. let's go to the white house, alan fisher reporting from there. you know, he made the point there that visas taken a 100 days, there's been this last minute rush for congress to sort of smooth the pathway. none of this was a surprise. the us knew the state was coming and anthony blink. and certainly wanted to make sure when he has been on his tour of kuwait and other countries over the last few days that some of the gulf states might take some of these interpreters for the initial processing. all of those who arrived have gone through this very rigorous process with the department of homeland security waiting in and also the department of defense checking the background of the people and their

families that are coming to make sure that they're not arrest. and so that is what is believe the process and that is why there are so many people still waiting to be process the hope and as far as the by the ministration is concerned, that they can move some of these people to the likes of kuwait where they can wait until the process and then perhaps start a new life here in the united states. many of those who are coming here, they're trying to find family connections. maybe someone is a brother in illinois or a cousin in montana, and that is where they will try and move those families. so there's at least some level of intent in internal support. but lloyd austin, describe this as a moral obligation. he's the defense secretary. he was absolutely clear that the united states had to stand by the people who stood by the united states when they were working enough data center. of course, as we know, the reason that they want to get this done in a fairly orderly fashion. and it was mentioned by joe biden, at a news conference in the last month or so that what they don't want to see are people jumping on to helicopters,

the rest of the u. s. embassy and capital mentoring. what happened when the fall and in vietnam when american troops pill though they are? so they want to make sure that this is organized, that is put together, that they have the money to make sure that the people are well looked after. here in the united states, at the fact that you're buying a couple of times of the statement, describe them as brief, afghans shows what he is as far as his thoughts on. this is concerned, and certainly there seems to be overwhelming support with both republicans and democrats. and how often does that happen in washington that these people not only should come here, be given the special immigrant be this, and be taken care of because of the work and the service they've given to the u. s . military. alan fisher at the white house with that update. thank you, alan. and now james bays in cobble to round things elf and james, you were in a news carpets i think earlier today the u. s. embassy, what was that there? yes, i went for a short distance from here to the u. s. embassy, but it takes you a long time, very 45 building. they will make the points that i think allan, heidi,

of the made the, this is something the us right now. feels that it's got right. it's now got an expedited process, many would say took too long. but they all now hoping to be able to deal with these people who served alongside the american military. but i think it's worth putting all of this in context because in addition to the u. s. military, you have 20 other nato allies here in afghanistan on top of them, serving with staff that international force there about another 25 or so countries and you got international organizations, you got media, you got n g o n versus the amount of people who've worked with the international community here, and i've got to stop, particularly in the capital city council, is a very great number. and clearly the us are only helping a lucky few. that's the point i put, showing that these conference,

the acting us ambassador ross wilson. what's your message to those that have no choice, but to stay a 1st i want to reiterate. we're through this action seeking to meet our commitment to those who made commitments to us and acted on that 2nd to the larger population. here i would say 1st, we continue to to provide strong support to the afghan defense and security forces into the government to defend the people of this country. and to provide the necessary security in which in which they can live in a safe and appropriate manner. james, alan mentioned the bipartisan effort in the us senate to speed things along smooth the process. do you think it will actually really make a difference given the sheer volume of people applying for the special immigrant?

well certainly there is another factor to all of this, which is the security situation is not going the way the african government or the americans would like. you might well have interpreters who are in parts of africa, song we'd find it very hard to get to cobble. let me tell you about the latest on the security situation around candle ongoing crashes in helmand, also in the south, the neighboring province to canada. clashes that we understand there's been strikes again, we believe those might well have been u. s. s strikes, but the real focus of attention in recent hours is actually on the west of africa. stone, harass the regional capital, the part the big city in. i've got a son closest to iran. well, we understand the taliban have been pushing around herat in a number of places, a number of different security incidents. and most worryingly, i think for the african government, according to local reports. is this fighting on the road between harass city and herat airport?

we believe the airport is currently closed because of that fighting. we're also hearing the un compound, which is all that road from the city to the airport has come on the attack. i'm hearing from local sources that no un stuff has been killed or injured. but there were guards working for the african government around that compound, and there are reports that some may have been taken injured. the reports been taken hostage. there also reports at supper, been injured and got one report that at least one has been killed. james bass with an update on the situation of cross f kind of town. in fact, joining us from cobbled thanks, james. so he's, we've been talking about there is this spike in the number of afghans fleeing the country. the un says at this, right? one and a half 1000000 may actually leave by the end of the year. a charlotte bell is not reports from cobbler many are leaving everything behind. before you reached the passport office and cobble you pass the stools of administrators, passport applicants pay them to do the paperwork in 5 years. mohammed s of his down

this he's never been busy. i don't want to get john, go over the status of them. since there's been a lot of violence and the american forces are gone, people don't trust a security situation. that's why a lot of people are applying the most of them are families. they come in, apply with their children, 26 year olds, w lead heading isn't leaving years, but he sees everyone he knows is preparing for that day. that's how you're jango. there's conflict in war in every district. so we're getting passports ready, in case the situation gets worse. so we can go away to a safe place. he's not alone at dawn, this is the queue to apply for passports, thousands a here every day. but the number of people leaving is even more. there is a constant stream of afghan refugees crossing into turkey near the iran border. the un says in the 3 weeks to july, the 15th up to 40 percent more african split without passport. so visas some using

smugglers. turkey detained, 1500, mostly african migrants in one week to make the journey and set up a new life. they need money. so as many prepared leave, they are selling their assets, be un migration agencies is 20 to 30000 people and know escaping abroad every week . and at this rate, $1500000.00 africans could be headed towards europe by the end of the year. for 8 years now, the mohammed naughty and his best friends have meet outside the sky. yes, they sit and talk for hours. so i said, you remember, good morning. we will be alive the next 2nd. so that's why every person right now is in the process of trying to get out of the country. there is no place for afghans in this country anymore. 30 years ago now, the fled to denmark as a refugee, he only returned in 2001 when the us invaded i'm because when the

americans came and brought their forces, we thought we are saved. we thought all this misfortune is over. but now we think that was the start of our misfortune. most prized possessions passed on through families are also being left behind. hum, mohammed faces a conflict of interest as a 2nd hand dealer. he profits from the goods that come his way, but he knows what people are giving up in order to flee. yes. gonna stone? he wishes they didn't have to. charlotte bellis? oh, jazeera couple. just 40 minutes. possibly hour. here is what? coming up for you. new research on the corona virus delta variant appears to show it is as contagious chicken palms. we will hear from the son of motors, motif journalists, journalists, daphne got it. after an inquiry found the government fans responsibility for her death, an sport to us women makes way by claiming not everyone competing in its final may have been drug free.

ah, not a person to be tried on debate. james national security, though in hong kong, has been sentenced to a total of 9 years in prison tongue. in kit was convicted for inciting, secession and terrorism. he was arrested last year for riding a motorbike into a group of police officers while flying a flag, calling for hong kong liberation. amnesty international condemned his conviction as the beginning of the end to freedom of expression in the city. for emily lau, chair woman of the international affairs committee of hong kong democratic party who told us the length of the sentence is designed to send a message. it is a very, very heavy sentence. and if the chinese government wants to send a signal to the home, people about not reaching the national security law, they have really done it quite successfully. and i think many people are being

injected it and, but i just wanted to tell you the game is not over. we will continue to fight for civil and political rights. and in a way, it's just stressing that in the judgement, there was little mention of the protection of civil and political rights, which are in fact in the national security law. so now people just don't know whether these rights are protected at all the boundaries. i'm not very clear and hence it make people even more vehicle. i think nobody like to see mile and chaos. that's true. but we also warn hong kong to be what he was not too long. go of safe by granted. i know 3 city, but that is know, many people, a very, very worried in spite of now we have jubilation in the city. about our swimming is

our friends is winning gold medals and silver medal in tokyo. but the people are very, very worried. they don't know when they will step on the red line and get arrested and may be sent to jail for many, many years. lots of corona virus needs to get through starting in japan where a crisis in the olympics house, countries getting more worrying by the day. japan now extending a state of emergency and restrictions in tokyo until the end of next month, prime minister, your sheet as soon as the virus is spreading at an unprecedented speed. and it is mostly because of the delta variance. the one 1st thing in india, this report now from rub mcbride, with cases spiking tokyo, it seems, has no choice, but to extend it state of emergency through to the end of august. because then you're going to deal with unprecedented speed infection is spreading in the capital

and can cy area the delta variant spreading with strength. and if this doesn't slow down, it will potentially lead to a medical health system crisis. japan is struggling with competing trends. the increasing spread of the more transmissible delta variant accounting. now, for nearly 3 quarters of all new cases in tokyo versus growing pandemic fatigue. with noticeably more people failing to stay off the streets than they did after state of emergency announcements in the past with the seat of emergency being enforced so many times i think people are starting not to take it so seriously. and because of that, there have been more cases at this point. i think there's not much you can do, even if you get the corona virus, i don't want to get infected. but there are a lot of people who can't avoid it. states of emergency are expected to be extended to 3 more prefecture as neighboring, tokyo, as well as o. sucka,

which was badly hit by an earlier wave of the pandemic in the spring when its hospital resources were stretched to the breaking point. the fear is unless this wave can be brought under control of the prefecture as will suffer a similar strain country. it has been recognised that both the infection situation and the pressure on the medical care provision system is extremely severe. and still, even as these games finish their 1st week, protesters continue to demand that cancellation, taking their message to the office of the prime minister. ya, shaheed a suga in this election year, suga may find pushing ahead with these games will cost him politically, with still deep uncertainty over what price japan will bear in terms of public health. robert bride al jazeera. now israel has started offering a 3rd shot of the pfizer coded 19 vaccine president issac talking his wife for the

1st to get their boosters. the extra shot will be for people above the age of 60, who received their 2nd dose more than 5 months ago. is there a launch? what was one of the world's most successful vaccination drives early this year, using mostly d, 5, a vaccine. now there's an internal report from the u. s. cdc for centers for disease control and prevention says the delta variance is as contagious as chicken pox. and a copy of the document obtained by us media shows the variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause the bola, the common cold fees and will flu. and smallpox analysis also indicates people infected with the delta, very carry large amounts of it in the nose and throat regardless of their vaccination status, meaning they could pass it on. so how can we visualize this delta variable? we've got a great website here called covariance dot org, which tracks all the variance and believe me, there are a lot of them. this is an evolving disease as we know, but it focuses, well,

we're going to focus certainly on the top for alpha, beta, gamma and delta. so i'm going to run you through those briefly. just have a little bit of a comparison starting with alpha, which was the one the 1st identified in the u. k. the reason you're thing, lots of lines just say, you know, is that, that's lots of countries. we wanted to get as many countries as much data as possible. and what you see really is a trend with all of those countries, don't you? it went up it plateaued and it came down again. alpha variance is not gone, but it is definitely gone down. compared to say beta, which was the south african varied, quite erratic, and few a line search and a few countries. but the bulk of them you see down the boston, they're in of state, very low as they did with gamma. this was the one we 1st saw in brazil. again, most of the countries there infections quite low that and then we have delta, delta varian which came from india. a spring board, almost if you like, of april 2021. the and all it has done is go up and up, there is no sign of any plan. so yes,

and if we look at this map very briefly from out to 0 dot com, this just gives you an idea of where the delta variant has spread to over 100 countries. but look at this, the us, the u. k. russia, where else singapore, indonesia, even australia, all of those are outputs of 90 percent. the new infections in the past 2 weeks. that's the amount that has been of the delta variance. so let's try to make some sense of all of this with us on skype is oksana physic, curious, a global health adviser electorate university college london's school of pharmacy. so i want to put together on that sort of data, also combined with what we've seen in israel, who said, let's do a 3rd shot or 5 that in your opinion, is that gonna work? is that or how does it work having a suit? because i thought having 2 shots meant you were fully vaccinated. yes. well doesn't have definitely changed the battlefield. and we see that israel is not taking any

risk here by because they have an increase despite having a higher back most improper 2 years. it's already in the world, but they even increase in almost 2002 cases. so they saw a very sharp turn in events due to the delta variance. so while immediately the booster will not really change the directory. so in right now what it will do those when those follow israel hosted by dose, for those who are over 60, you know, compromise individual people who really high risk. and this is because of our vaccine are still affected. 91 percent preventing hospitalization. the effectiveness at preventing transmission from one another. keep falling rapidly, 41 percent for that region. israel,

although the data is still emerging around the do tv and changed profile of the delta, very higher, viable shutting load lo longer duration is in faction. all the factors means that people who are vulnerable will be more at rest. and so that 3rd booster does, i think that the rest of the world is watching here. learn real time about it. ok, so that's the vaccine side of things. let's talk about delta itself, given the vast majority, as i just pointed out on that map, the vast majority of new infections and hospitalizations are coming from delta varied is, is that base is that almost like a new baseline for cove at 19? i know it's an evolving disease. it keeps changing, but now this feels like sort of the floor for it now is, is that a way of putting this? well, i think actually that's a very good way of putting it. we know that filters associated more severe cases

and corvette and not it is more like to hospitalized asians, there been studies that are canada to demonstrate this and in other countries as well as seeing it for there is much more need for oxygen as well as of course in india where this variant 1st emerge. so a lot of that shows that said the previous wild strain and other variance of concern are kind of dying out because this is the super variance is the moment if you will. but it's not necessarily going to be the last of the rest of the world on is going to isn't, have back needed. they don't have access to many vaccines. and that's one side that i'm worried about. because while of course, we need for those who are honorable of israel non to get that top of protection on their health care workers, 4 lines and they are double acting and we

need a new variance. it's the 3rd booster. this is coming from supply back to low and middle income countries. the world trade organization still does not forward leasing patent measures. so it is going to be difficult to fly requirements unless other that the manufacturer joined the effort to back make the world kind of i think it's always a pleasure talking to you and learning from you as well. thank you so much for your time. thank you. now when inquiry in malta has held the government responsible for the murder of a prominent journalist. daphne garcia was killed by a car bomb back in 2017. the inquiry said the government failed to recognize the risks to her life and to take reasonable steps. prosecutors believe a top businessman with close ties to the government officials organized the matter . he though denies any rule, keller roll, i should say,

california routinely exposed cronyism among motives, elite se, let's talk to anderson and that european broadcast center in london. this is quite an admission, isn't it? and it certainly is, daphne carol, on the see a was really an extraordinary fearless, investigative journalist who shook the state to its foundations with her revelations of corruption and business and power politics in the banks and in the law. and order area as well. she was funded by that car bomb in 2017 murdered, to keep her quiet, and now off for tireless campaign by her family live public inquiry has finally delivered its findings. it says the state has to bear responsibility because it created an atmosphere of impunity. it also said that there was a total breakdown of law and order. now,

one of her brothers had this to say about what happened the state months, the responsibility for my mother's mother. i'm not, she should still be alive and i you know, those were you bringing in my son? she should be alive. i'm. it's a, it's a really less failings that led to her to her murder. let's see. revelations were links between business and government and allowing shady criminal figures into the country, giving them residency and even passports. this isn't the end of the story by any means. the family want to see further action taken a whole people to account. the government in an emergency session is going through the implications of this report. right now. the prime minister has already given

unofficial apology, but the promise of reforms, according to the family. and the legal teens, is a major issue because they have to be full transparency. that they want the government to actually appoint a non partisan groupings to actually address the issues of relationships between business and politics, and also a safeguard journalists in the future. furthermore, as the criminal aspect to this, because others have yet to go to trial off to a court case in which one man was given a 15 year sentence for murder, but to others, still to stand trial and a multi business man you organ fennic has also been charged with complicity over the killing. he tried to escape it on your way out of malta. however, he's now back on the island and is going to stand trial that is imminent. thank you

. and her simmons with that report from london still so much she had few on the news out, including this. this will have vaccinated more than 1100 people here, all of the migrant farm workers, and 20 percent of them have no legal work papers. patient is undocumented migrant struggling to get back in 1900 vaccine to new president moved to take greater control of the security services pointed to new interior minister and in for the 1st metal awarded it's track and field competition gets under way at the tokyo and ah, i help them, sorry. should we be about raising crisis harley down to the current government? we bring you the stories and developments that are rapidly changing the world. we live in time in that says, i don't have the baby has the task of fixing

a war torn economy. counting the cost on al jazeera. i know that one human.