they can all hail the lock down, expose a privilege and poverty during a crisis on a jazzy i've been covering all of latin america for most of my career, but no country is alike, and it's my job to shed light on how and why. oh, i an attack in the heart of couple that's fighting between government forces and the taliban extends to several cities. a top off gotten military come out of order civilians to leave last car got at the army trying to flush out taliban fighters. ah madison, this is ally from doha, also coming up huge fires threatening homes and the outskirts of the greek capital

will go live for the latest accusations from our rights group that the death of, of our russian activists in ukraine was a planned operation. and coming home, the historic treasures that was stolen from iraq after the us invasion. ah, we're going to begin enough gannons done where there's been a large explosion in the capital couple that happens near the defense ministers house. that was gunfire following the explosion. there's no word yet on any casualties, but reports say the defense minister has not been hearts are diplomatic, it has james bay's, is there, he's joining us now. james, i understand you were just a few 100 meters away when the explosion happened. took us through what's going on yeah, we happened to be in the car and we happened to be driving in that area and we were just approaching the junction, close to the defense ministers house, about 300 meters away when the bomb went off, it was

a very loud explosion, you could feel a bump to the front of the car. we could see sparks in the air and then a big plume of smoke. so clearly a bomb went off, it now emerges. it almost certainly was a car bomb that exploded outside the defense ministers house, no accurate information yet on casualties. some reports those saying they have been in there is no idea where there been any fatalities. but what is clear is that the parent target of this dismal hum. the defense minister i've got, i've got to start is on injured. in fact, he wasn't at the scene at the time we're told from 2 different sources. and he, in the last that has treated from his personal account saying, don't worry, everything is fine. this is a veteran commander. he's been acting defense minister only for a short period of time. he was previously the chief of staff of the army,

but before the governments and i've got to stand before the gun government and the cause i government and the period when international forces with here he was also a come all day was a come on the with i would show masoud fighting the taliban and before that fighting the soviet union. and all of this coming at a time of extreme tension in afghanistan because there's been fighting across the country, but particularly in law, chicago, the capital of how minds province the army there. as on the verge of munching a major operation, what's going on? yes, it's been the most intense day yet in alaska and local residents said there's been a lot of fighting in previous days, but there's been nonstop gun fall. we've heard from people there on the ground, very concerned about the situation. the battles between the african army who are trying to dislodge the taliban, who are right in the heart of the city. there's been fighting around the provincial

governance compound around the police chiefs headquarters. just update here. couple quite heavy gunfire coming from the direction of defense ministers. house. again, i'll keep an eye on that and tell you a little bit more about the situation in helmand. the important development that happened in the late part of the afternoon was the the african military saying that residents that in their homes, in the center of alaska god and anywhere else that the taliban were present, needed to leave their homes needed to evacuate. now clearly that's because the african military want to try to clearing operation. they don't want to put civilian lives in any danger, but clearly if you get civilians and you asked to leave the homes in, what is an active was own an active frontline that they are, it's some risk and there is also humanitarian problems with the idea of lots of people and love god, we don't know the current population of how many are inside the city,

but it is potentially a city of $200000.00 people that many people being displaced creates a humanitarian problem. it's worth, i think, seeing what the u. n. a has to say about this, and the un humanitarian coordinator for afghanistan was here last week. he's actually on a visit to brief. you and leadership in new york couches are caught up with him. this is what he had to say. at this particular time, we call on everyone to seize the military. still it is when they were been settings. the seas far as the only option to prevent casualties among the civilians . the situation in lush cargo is very difficult. the population is trapped and probably does not have a means of escaping from the city. so that's the latest from the u. n's humanitarian coordinator, and the deputy special representative here in afghanistan currently in new york. speaking to al jazeera, not a little bit of news from new york from un headquarters. the un security council

has in the last hour released the statement about the situation in afghanistan. this is a statement of the been works for some days, and it's a condemnation of the attack that happened a few days ago on the un compound, in harass the western city of harass but the security council also expressing a deep concern about the current high levels of violence and james situation in cuba, you were telling us about earlier, possibly not over yet. we're going to come back to you and find out more details before not james base. thank you very much. indeed, at least for ships have reported they've lost control of their steering in the gulf of a man. there are few details and the cause of the incident is still unclear off of the tank because the queen, in martha, the golden, brilliant jug, pusher and abyss reported they were not under command. now that typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer. laurens brennan is a professor of admiralty and international maritime law at fordham law school. and

he's joining us by skype from new york. it's good to have with us, sir. we do hear about these situations occasionally, but to have 4 ships do it at the same time. what in your experience do you think is going on i, i learned long ago not to leave and coincidences in the fact that 34 or 5 shifts depending on which report which time. and you probably have better information. and you certainly have more detail than i've seen today. strikes me as something has happened. and it is not a coincidence. it would be interesting to know if these ships are laden or not. if they had been at anchor, how long they had been there. and if they had had visitors, but the fact that not under command lights are showing, or, or de signals, jill dar indicates that something serious has happened. i assume the ships are not tied to appear and they're not anchor in that they constitute a risk or hazard to other vessels. and we can speculate all we want as to what

could have happened. whether there were people who came on board and took over the ship or that their mechanical problems, simply the rotors are not functioning correctly. the engine may not be able to turn so that the ship maneuver, et cetera. we have none of those details. so speculation is rampant was the fact that there are 4 at the same place, considering the recent history in this or in recent i'm, i probably really mean year, not days, weeks or months. there, there's concern. i have heard no reports of communications structures, radio or other form of electronic communication as to the detail. and i am concerned, as i am sure, most of the people involved in this, and particularly the london war risk insurers who carefully monitor this and other areas and tankers are particularly troublesome ships. because they tend to be large and present major risk of portion or explosion if there's a catch the, such as

a cohesion much of the in, from much of the information we're getting at the moment is coming out courtesy of the u. k. maureen traffic dot com website including of course, the location for that. how important do you think it is that these ships all appear to have international owners? there are under previous circumstances, of course, occasions when it's easy to, to kind of get some speculation about what, why the, the incident is happening simply because of who owns it. but this seems to ship seem to be owned by a variety of different companies. at least that's how it appears. at 1st glance. absolutely true for 80 plus years, most of the world maritime shipping has been internationalized. it occurred largely and measured to what the united states did as a neutral in the years between 1939 and december 1941. when the united states became a belligerent, there's a history of that before going back to the us,

civil war and on the war at sea. but international ownership is more common than norm. many ships are registered in countries, really are not maritime powers. why barriers one, panama is a maritime power and that's a large, large source. we'd have to look at the actual history of the ships and what the ownership has been, as we did in the case recently with the, the, the alleged drone attack on. and he is rarely beneficially on ship. yes, and off the back of that, we're just looking at some wire copy here that st. quoting it. this is from writers . news agency quoting iran's foreign ministry saying reports of security incidents involving several ships near the u. e coast on tuesday. our quote suspicious, and it is warning against any efforts to create a quote false atmosphere against her for on lauren's brandon. obviously, this is a developing story. we're going to come back to you, i think at some point in the future to try and get an update and during your

opinion and what's going on. but for now, thank you very much indeed. thank you for including me look forward to chatting later. near reco, temperatures are driving large fires in the outskirts of the greek capital. now these are coming up are the pictures from near athens, but a large fire is attracting homes. the prime minister says the country is facing the worst heat wave in 3 decades. far crews of tackled more than a 100 fires in one day was in by savio, joining us now from the great capital zane, the speed and power of the fires, seems to have taken everybody by surprise. just talk us through what you're seeing from where you are. well, the situation here where we are north of the capital, athens is still extremely fluid. what we're seeing is that the number of areas sort a, the number of aerial dropped by helicopters and airplanes of water over the fires has gone up in the last hour. exponentially seemingly the, the,

the planes and the helicopters are trying to do as much damage to the fire they can, while they still have the daylight helping them out with that. what we've seen is that there were 2 observable fires from where we are here now. but witnesses tell us the number of fires at the base of the party, the mountain are much higher, it's unknown. how many fires are actually going. they go out in one spot that we can see and they pick up again in another and then they move. the fire moves like a living thing. we've seen a number of heavy vehicles now going in a bulldozer being taken in, presumably to deal with the fire and with the debris. we've also seen a number of military and civilian officials come through. speaking here, trying to come up with a plan of what to do. we spoke to the deputy governor, one of the deputy governors of the region. and he said that there are hopeful that they'll be able to contain the blaze before sundown. but he says they're not sure that they can what we've also seen as a number of civilian volunteers, continuously streaming in to this area,

clearing the police line and going forward. now we don't know exactly what those volunteers are doing or what they're able to to help fight the fire. we can't go beyond this point, but we spoke in the witnesses. and the fact is that when we see the plans, what we're seeing is that people are losing everything that they have. they're losing their lives as we know at one witness. we spoke to said that earlier this morning he spoke to or earlier this afternoon. i should say he spoke to one of his neighbors who said that he'd lost his house, but he says to us that he doesn't know that if his house is still standing or not, his pets are inside. and he doesn't know what the state of his house currently has been. people here we've spoken to are simply waiting for any sort of information about when they can go back. if they can go back and what is the nature of their homes in their lives. currently are saying thanks very much indeed, that same bus probably bringing years up to date it from just north of the greek capital athens. when in italy,

the coastal cities of catania and scott have also been hit by wildfires. residents and tourists have been told to leave, but the 5 continued to burn. cruise say they've faced hundreds of flare ups and populated areas in the past few days, and firefighters in turkey are working around the clock as wildfire continue to spread and coastal resort times their winds and temperatures. about 40 degrees celsius, of finding 7 fires along the coast. of the mediterranean, and the g and c, at least 8 people have died there in the past week. holiday makers have to leave the hotels and thousands have been evacuated from their homes. and so so does follow the developments in turkey and tell you province. now we are in the, the village of cellar, in tone of windows and untidy province. and it is also one of the worst hit districts in turkey. as of yesterday, this is dee how support because at different locations in this town, the fire fighters are fighting against the flames and the blazes,

if this will edge. and this is what is did the fire started yesterday at for a yeah, me after midnight. and since done, the help of the willis had been turned into the ruins. so the soldiers are, keep in the take him to the villagers out of the will. it's because it's quite risky, but the emotions are very high. people are suffering because they see that the houses that they had the tie of life. and as just burdening down the soldiers, the security forces are blocking the roads to the main town of the good, almost so far there being 156 different locations that reported the wildfires the forest fires and the minister will afford it says that $147.00 of them are under the control, but as of now, 9 active zones are still suffering from the, from the, the fires to the us now for the lockdown is being lifted. the pentagon,

after multiple gunshots were far near the platform, but the facilities metro station. there are reports from the fire department of multiple patients, but the extent of their injuries isn't known, but he said the facility secure, but it's being treated as an active crime scene. members of the public are being asked to avoid the area. so i had an ard to 0. iran, the new president for him. right. the pledge is action and what caused to radical sanctions imposed by the us? ah, it's been undisputed be hot year in iraq, some parts raving peninsula and only yesterday in saudi arabia on the east coast and demand 50.5 degrees was reached. you might think that's not extreme, but it is for a coastal city. saudi arabia, the previous wreck,

was 49 for august. now july beat. it's reco too. so that's 2 months in a row where we've done that. i think the see a bit of an easing from the next day or so not by much admittedly, and still hoss in q 8 and eastern iraq. the breeze is trying to pick up and the breeze is critical very often. but if you run the gulf state data, for example, the house temperature such before 3 and 47 by day. but humidity's, the thing that tells here when the wind drops and you get something off the wall more of the gulf as you will day on wednesday and again on friday than it feels particularly sticky. otherwise, things are as normal partners, high temperatures, few showers, in the mountains, the southwest, saudi and western gemini is pretty dry. now is true at iran, but a few shots around the southern cask and seem likely high temperatures are also a problem, as you're well aware in the southeastern part of europe and in turkey. with antalya forecast be at 40 when the record highs and the breeze is still dry and still blowing

the weather bag energy and change to every part of our universe. or small. to continue the change all around the shape, my technology and human ingenuity, we can make it work for you and your business. ah ah,

what you know, does it a reminder of i told stories they were getting reports of a 2nd large explosion in the capital of couple and i've kind of done. one happened near the defense ministers house that was gunfire following the explosion. there's no word yet in any casualties, but report said the defense minister has not been hurt. residential areas on the outskirts of the great capital are coming under threat from wildfires. thousands of people live in the area. the font being driven by near reco temperatures are used for ships of reported the lost control of the steering in the gulf of amman. that's according to marine traffic dot com that a few details on the cause of the incident. unclear of for zeta, a bell, russian activists who's reported missing has been found dead and ukraine's capital key. if the chinese sheesh calls lead a nonprofit organization based in kiev, that helps bella russians seeing prosecution. it was reported missing by his partner after failing to return home from a run. police have launched

a murder investigation bell at us opposition leaders, atlanta to kind of sky us says she's, we're waiting for the results of the investigation that she believes she could be in danger of suffering the same fate. i understand that you know, i can, i can disappear. you moment, i understand that, but i should do. what time do i cancel because i'm you know, i feel this is this risk will be with the whole future of my fans with the same as all those the fight in the moment. feel the responsibility. i know that even if i disappear one day, this movement will continue without me. ok, let's go back to a couple for more on that 2nd explosion, which we're getting reports of a very diplomatic, get it a james bay's is joining us again now. so james, vis explosion, if it is correct, if the information we're getting is accurate,

coming just within about an hour or so of the previous explosion, you've been telling me about yeah, when it's accurate, there was an explosion because i had it with my own ears about less than 10 minutes or so ago. and all of the activity that we're hearing is coming from the same direction, which is the, the direction of the original blast, the bomb that went off outside the defense ministers. house. it is not clear what's going on in that building right now, but i can tell you from time to time, there are sporadic grounds have gone far. and as i say, we heard another explosion a short time ago. there is little information coming from the african authorities. we're hearing that the after the 1st explosion, that certainly was some injuries were not being given exact casualty figures of the number of people are injured and where there were any fatalities. but what is clear is that the afghan defense minister, we have from 2 different sources, one of them, the ministry of defense, is safe and well and he,

himself has treated that he is safe and well. so we know that the apparent target of this attack is safe. we do not know more details about what is still ongoing, and it appears to be still ongoing about a kilometer or so from where i'm standing right now. yet, james, thanks very much. indeed, that's our diplomatic editor james base talking to us from a couple iraq, the presidents, promising to lift oppressive us sanctions, but not at the expense of giving into foreign demands. abraham or you see has been officially endorsed by supreme leader on a company at a ceremony. interferon a conservator clerk takes power with iran and the grip of a severe economic crisis. the 60 year olds also applies to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. not amendment that. we are going to make sure the sanctions lifted, but we are not going to connect our economy to lifting the sanctions. there are a few issues that the government is facing right now. the budget deficits

investment and the stock market and also controlling the inflation corona virus, and many other basic needs. so i appreciate what the 12th government has done, but we need a short term immediate program to resolve the issues we are facing today. you know, the hash and has more details from tucson, it's cleared from several codes from, from e c, or even from the supreme either before the, the ceremony. today, it's clear that the nuclear talks aren't a priority for them. they're looking more inside the looking more for the regional talks, may be regional security and then comes the nuclear talks. now as we know that from, from different sources, maybe about actually the head of the nuclear team is going to continue his his task as a nuclear negotiator. things for sure. are going to change in the foreign ministry . mama jobs are not going to be the foreign minister anymore. there are several

names right now into ron speculations over a former deputy foreign minister and someone who was in the national security council. what does it want to do? we don't have clear or at least confirmations regarding the names and some people are saying that this might be the government that's going to face the most difficult challenges since the government of hashem fin jenny, that came after the iran iraq war after 989 the u. s. has returned to more than 17000 looted treasures to iraq, dating back 4000 years. most of the ancient artifacts was stolen after the us led invasion of iraq in 2003. the return follows the iraqi prime minister's visit to washington last week. no doubt the walk had reports from baghdad, the be covering memory and identity. this is how he likes for a minister describes the return of these antiquities from the united states,

thus leim some posh. we have received 17321 pieces from the united states, 9 from japan, 7 from the netherlands, and one from italy. therefore, the total number is $17338.00 returned pieces. this year, dated between 3704000 years ago. some of these artifacts were looted from the national museum and dad. others were excavated from archaeological sites across the country. and i will now we have on our side local law of international conventions. and the laws of the countries which our antiquities with smuggle to so smugglers condemned by such laws and will eventually be forced to return the pieces . according to the culture ministry, and most of the pieces relate to trade deal during this medium period. one of the earliest known civilizations in the super tamia. now southern iraq,

one in particular though, was the gamut dream tablet. with text from one of the world's oldest works of literature. during the use of conflict in iraq, thousands of antiquities have been looted, not a killer cal sites, destroyed. many precious artifacts on a still unaccounted for. thousands of priceless items went missing from the national museum in baghdad. after the 2003 us led invasion, an ancient statues and monuments were either destroyed by isolate or under consecutive iraqi governments suffer damage and neglect the thousands of return and artifacts are now back in baghdad. for iraqis, who feared did last a huge part of the heritage to enjoy without doing it algebra. but that chinese authorities are trying to contain and breadth of the delta variant of covert 19,

which is spread to half the provinces in 10 days. at least 6 weeks of completed mass testing and people have been told not to leave their home city. katrina, you reports from beijing. the changing the highly infectious delta variant has broken through china's strict curve. 19 defenses, closed borders. strict locked downs and mass hasting have not been enough to prevent the countries worse outbreak in months. hundreds of cases had been found in more than 30 cities. in 16 provinces, china's leaders say the capital waging must be protected at all costs. several neighborhoods aren't locked down after and sections were discovered last week. flights trains and buses from affected areas have been suspended. residents have been warned not to leave the city to. we quarantines have been imposed. large scale events have been cancelled and public than use ordered to limit capacity. contact tracing teams have been mobilized where a d v. d confirmed close or secondary contact will be current in those who leave

and work with them will be banned from joining any gatherings. and also subject to close loop management by the or what places or local community, etc. and then the outbreak originated, early last month in the southern city of non ging airport. janet has tested positive after cleaning a flight which arrived from russia. the cities, more than 9000000 residents underwent 3 rounds of testing in 2 weeks. authorities have identified a possible supers better event in the tourist hotspot of jungle jet was several cases were linked to a theater performance attended by 2000 people. the attraction has been shut down, and tourists told to stay away. up until july, much of china had recording the record of our cases. the apparent success had been a source of national pride, but this latest flare up of the delta, very interest in question begins. corbett, $900.00 strategy, and put more pressure on the nation's vaccine rollout. sean is current

strategy of 0 tolerance, shooting, prove, we must learn to co exist with the corona virus. we need to accept that it's impossible to be completely free of the verizon for a long period of time. health officials say more than 1600000000 vaccines have been administered so far, but they've ward being vaccinated may not be enough to avoid catching the delta strain. the government has begun vaccinating children and is considering offering booster shots to vulnerable groups. the outbreak buttons, china's economic recovery and its ability to horse spectators during the 2022 winter olympic games last year president, she didn't pain, declared victory over carved 19 a declaration. it seems that was premature. katrina, you al jazeera dating thailand is extended lock times in the capital and 2 dozen other provinces is the delta variance pushes up. the number of cases 29 provinces

have been classified as dark red zones. people in the zones are banned from shopping to other parts. of the country and must be a strict curfew. thailand is also experiencing a major vaccine shortage australians prime ministers rejecting proposals to pay people to get vaccinated against covered $19.00 position has promised to pay anyone who's been inoculated more than $200.00 if it wins next year's federal election in the 20 percent of history and adults have been fully vaccinated so far. prime minister scott morrison says the offer of such payments is insulting on this is all. these are the top stories. there's been a 2nd large explosion in the african capital. the 1st last happened near the defense ministers house in kabul. it wasn't home when it happened was been gunfire following the explosion. diplomatic editor james bays was close to the 1st

explosion. we happened to be in the car and we happened to be driving in that area and we were just approaching the junction close to the defense min.