ah, bold, and i'm told stories from asia and the pacific on al jazeera, a lot of the stories that we cover highly complex. so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can. as always is there a correspondence? that's what we strive to do me to powerful blasts in the heart of cobble as the taliban continues. its advance in southern afghanistan residents have in order to leave laska where the army is preparing a major offensive against the group. ah, an orientation. this is al jazeera alive from london was coming up. i can disappear in moments. i understand that exiled variations left feeling even less safe offer

and activists to help people feel better. rouge is found hanged in ukraine and thousands. see their homes as a large wildfire rages just outside athens. fueled by severe heat waves. ah, we begin and i've got to stone where they've been to launch explosions in the capital capital. the 1st half and near the defense ministers house and a busy market square. it was also close to the cities heavily fortified green zone, which is home to government. buildings and embassies. gunfire followed the explosion as the new word on any casualties, but the defense minister tweeted, do not worry, everything is fine. what's going on to charlotte malice, in kabul, they just sound like quite large explosions, didn't they, charlotte? but just as your introducing the story,

there was another loud explosion and there has been sporadic gunfire, machine gun fire for a number of hours. now we understand that 3 attackers has been killed. 30 people have been evacuated and that special forces remain on the scene outside the defense ministers. whole 'nother started around 8 pm. my colleagues were actually on the way to dinner when about 300 meters ahead of them. this explosion went off, the cow is hit by a shock way they will, sparks, they saw a large plume of smoke and they managed to get out of the situation. the defense minister appears to have been the target of this. he wasn't harm at the time. neither was his family, as you said, he twisted afterwards saying, do not worry. everything is r k more gunfire. do you know where everything is? okay, but he's only recently come into this job, but he was picked for it because he has a lot of experience on the battlefield. he's been fighting for more than 40 years with the soviets when he fought the taliban once before. and i'm a child,

sirs. now, to move for the south to another, very tempt situation in home and province in lush conga. the fighting has been ongoing in the city there for 4 days now, but today residents told us that it was the worse that was constant gunfire. and it strikes the taliban, pushed in on saturday and then the ask on air force. the us force has been conducting it, strikes, special forces have been there, but they didn't make much progress. and now the general of the army in helmand put out a voice snores today to residents saying i'd like to to evacuate. because we want to launch a large scale operation here as a report on the chicago lash ca garza capitol of home and province. and in the cross hairs of the tele bomb, after fighting government forces the weeks on its outskirts, the armed group could be on the brink of taking its 1st city. since the u. s. began its military draw down the telephone, published videos of themselves in the center of flesh, cargo,

and at the main market asserting they had control of most of the city, the model for the ones who the enemy is stuck in some places of the city like their intelligence offices, police and governors compound by our taliban are at every corner of the city. now the afghan military is trying a new strategy. after 4 days of fighting with its most elite special forces and pounding the city with it strikes. it is asking all people to evacuate the city to learn some of my just summer. i'm leaving here. all the people have left there is bombing from the air and the tell banner on the ground. the army commanded for home and made the request in a voice lowers that was quickly spread among those still in lush cargo. the no arms misconduct, it will be very hard fighting. we will not leave the taliban life at any cause. i know it will very hard for you and it was very hard decision for me to. i don't want to hurt my people. please forgive us if you will get this place and please

evacuate as soon as possible. analysts and cobble say the strategy is flawed, telling the population to go and not giving them an exact timeframe, and then bumping the hell out of the place and, and leaving the place as, as, as a terrible battle ground. in the same way that we saw pictures of capital back in the 1990 s, it's tens of thousands of people and less car guy. he generals warning many will have 3 hours to kandahar city, close the city, and still held by the government. $150000.00 people have already been displaced off to fighting last month. but it too is contested by the telephone. so many people fleeing the villages confined to place to sleep, not even intent. the situation is so bad. we want both the taliban and the government to stop fighting for gothic stopped the fighting. in the western city herat, the situation is equally fluid. special forces arrived both to the military and

allied vices after the taliban cut off the cities airport last week. even then for a brief period, the taliban got within 3 kilometers of the city center. so it was, it does what the situation is around the country with, with regards to tell about their progress. well they certainly putting pressure on a lot of provincial capital to capital was in the last about multiple so the taliban have taken a huge amount of room land controlling more than half the districts around the country. and so now they are really starting to now that they've got all this rule area, they starting to focus on the cities and then really tighten them off a lot of the provincial capital they can approaching at the outskirts and really stretching the african military's resources. and then they're able to take a lot of those games militarily and the territory they gaining and take those games back to the negotiating table. charlotte bennett's thank you very much indeed. ah,

i don't. tigers thought to have been hijacked off the coast of the united arab emirates, with several other ships signaling they're in trouble. burton's at maritime agency says a potential hijack is unfolding of food era. it appears to involve a bitch min tanker called the asphalt princess for other ships in the area, reported they were not on the command suggesting they've lost power and can no longer steer iran revolution regard. as denied the geranium forces or the allies are involved. last week 2 crew members were killed in an attack on an israeli managed vessel off the coast of oman. jerry northward is a british navy veteran who is a former captain. he's our chairman of a risk management and security company to live from hampshire, here in the u. k. thanks very much for being with us. so this kind of funny, sparse information emerging about always what, what's your impression of, what's going on there? what it does seems that we've got a number of different instances of developed since since last week. i mean,

the one on the master street, the attack on the street with the extremely serious and we seem to have a very serious incident developing now. obviously, you know, it's very already days where we're not seeing too much information i just yet. but it's extremely wiring that in an area like that, which is a very busy shipping shipping lane in and out of the gulf and none of the persian gulf that this kind of thing going on and, and disrupting shipping. and if they have been hijacked as a potential hijack, what are the options for the authorities in the area? but i think once a hijacks taking place is there's not a great deal you can do other than let the events unfold and see what it is the hijackers want to do. if this is something connected with the wrong, then there's going to be some kind of so state intervention that in, in dealing with the iranians. if it's some sort of private hijacking

along the lines we've had previously with the somali hijackers that we're master for the ship owner and the insurance companies to sort out an wrongness denied that iranian forces or allies involved in the ship incident were involved. and they say, it's quite a pretext for hostile action against terror on in the past. what has iran row been in that particular waterway? but of course, with them they would deny, wouldn't they? but they do have past history. i'm quite considerable past history in this area. whether it's planting mines on the side of ships, both anchor and also underway over the years, shooting it ships that are passing through the straits formers and then of course has been the arbitrary arrest of u. k. f. like vessels quite recently. going through the straits of home is some of it's very deniable, probably likely the be arresting of those you have like vessels was not denial is all the radians, did it quite plainly and told me that when they mentioned not,

is it this suggestion that these ships have lost power and they can no longer steer technically is that, i mean is that some who there's probably somebody on board or could that be done remotely to to, to disable is the steering it's very unlikely to be able to remotely disable the shipping ships are not really, not yet anyway, but generally on the internet of things. but the, the spoofing of the automated information system, which is the system that allows all ships to know what's going on around them. because the ship is transmitting a signal of activity. that, that, that signal was changed by something, and that's effectively a form space. so the is the automated information system that was taken over if they hadn't had any dangerous, it's just disruptive. and of course can cause confusion and clearly whoever did it, that's what they're aiming to do. turn off a thank you very much indeed for your expertise. thank you. thank i,

ron is new president says improving the living conditions of iranians as his top priority. and to do that, us sanctions need to be lifted. abraham racy was addressing the nation after winning a formal endorsement to the countries supreme leader to take office later this week . he said he would take steps to get the sanctions, which he called tyrannical, lifted. iranians have been struggling with hyperinflation since the trump white house, imposed tougher international restrictions in 2018. racy himself is blacklisted, and his accounts restricted over allegations of human rights abuses in his past. as a judge. more at mann middle 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 corrode, of virus, and many other basic needs. so i appreciate what the 12 government has done,

but we need a short term immediate program to resolve the issues we are facing today. so to come this off, our growing anger over turkey, the government as firefighters push on with a week long battle to contain walk along the south coast stuff. i never touched anyone inappropriately. the new governor denial as he's accused of sexual harassment and urged to resign. ah hello, great to see we have a familiar pattern setting up across europe, some storms through northern spain, the parent east right through to the else, you know, elsewhere we do have scattered showers, cloud cover and because of that that is limiting our temperature. so for example, london $22.00 degrees going for

a closer look now at these storms and they're taking aim at northern italy, which is an area that is still recovering from devastating flooding. dare. we also have a batch of what weather running through. so vacuum but i want to talk temperatures right now. the heat starting to let go are red weather alerts for those high temperatures across the balkans have now been lifted. sophia bulgaria, $34.00 degrees on wednesday, but the heat wave increase. you know, the greek prime minister has said it is the worst heat wave in 30 years. athens, a high, a 40 degrees on wednesday. now to that wildfire burning and bind, i've got searcy on talia profits crews still trying to battle back. but there, the glimmer of hope here, temperature is falling off as we get toward the weekend, but still brisk winds out of the southeast. so that's a breeze off the mediterranean. it has been particularly white for western africa, banjo the gambia, scooped up 72 millimeters of rain, and will see those storms move east to west along the gulf of guinea on wednesday. that's your weather update. the news

a secret agent claimed by both israel and egypt. well, any case officer who receives potential or double edged will always assume the worst truth or lied, fact or fiction. most of the documents are 40 people. if i did those under laps out there will tell the story of the month of many secrets. i shut my one death to the super spy on al jazeera ah the, the amount of top stories yolanda 0. i've been too large.

explosion is followed by gunfire and the afghan capital near the defense ministers house and the heavily fortified greens. the defense ministers tweeted to that everything is fine. in the south africa, san civilians have been ordered to leave laska, a security forces, prepare for a major offensive against the taliban. at least 200000 people live there. the un says that these 40 people were killed in the past 24 hours. and an oil tankers thought have been hijacked off the coast to the united arab emirates, with several other ships ignoring. they are in trouble of food. gera, managers have been evacuated as a large wildfire creeps closer to the outskirts of the great capital. wooden $300.00 firefighters are trying to contain the blaze, which is currently near an industrial area in a suburb of athens. temperatures of more than 40 degrees celsius and dry winds found the flames of more than a 100 separate fires. prime minister says it's the worst he wave, the country scene in more than 30 is, was go more,

get more from as in bas robbie's on the edge of athens insane or the firefighters where you any close to getting the bays under control. well throughout the day and this fires started shortly after noon local time. and since then, what we've seen is a rescue workers on the ground as well as ariel drops from helicopters and planes trying to drop as much water as possible for the sun went down to try to get the blaze under control. now we spoke to one of the deputy governors in charge of this area and he said that what they had hoped is that they would have been able to get the fire under control. well, before the sun went down, that did not happen. they weren't sure they could, and it turned out they could not make this happen. after the sun went down, the aerial drop stopped and we saw numerous team, dozens of industrial vehicles, dozens of firefighting vehicles, water tankers, military heavy equipment, including bulldozers and a number of teams. go in down this road straight into the fire zone. and what we've

seen is wherever the fire had been put out before it is re igniting again, there were flames just behind us a moment ago you can see a glow of burning fires over the tree line with embers rising up constantly. it's happening to our left and to our right, and all of this area around us keeps going up in flames periodically. now the teams that have gone in went in with water tankers and hosing equipment, and we haven't seen any teams come out as so far. so no doubt, this is a long night playing out here. north of the capitol of athens. we are expecting that the ground crews will continue operations well into the morning. and the me, the worries it's getting close to residential areas or people be moved to safety. yes or what's happening with that's exactly right now we've been speaking to volunteers who've been helping the rescue effort. we've been speaking the people have gone in trying to get people living in these areas out as quickly as possible

. we have heard from people saying that some have been rescued, but some they fear do remain trapped now. we've had no words of injuries or fatalities. we have seen ambulances rushing out of the scene, presumably with injured, taking them to hospital. but so far we do know that there are still people there and they may be trapped due to the fire one man that did get out of rescue workers were helping him recover from overheating. he said, lucky to be have gotten out. he said that as they were trying to escape, they were surrounded by the flames. so it's certainly a dire situation for the people living here. this is an industrial area, but it's also a major residential area. we spoke to another witness who said his friend's house went up in flames just before they left the area and he doesn't know what the state of his own home is at this point. you know terrifying stuff. thank you very much indeed. does this robbery live there at near athens with the report on the wildfire? thank you. now initially, the coastal cities of katana and bas gara have also been hit by wildfire with

residence and tourist. told to leave crew say they faced hundreds of flare ups in populated areas in the past few days, but they started to get some of the files under control from the scar on italy's eastern coast. i'm rainy report, fire brigades, and pest scott on italy, central adriatic coast, struggle to control ablaze in a pine forest. their fate stretched well into monday nights. still smoldering tuesday morning, firefighters assessed the damage and the risk. it took firefighters to day to bring the blaze here and per scott under control. and you can still see the fire isn't completely extinguished by mid day, the worst was over and her scott and the surrounding towns. only a few small fires still needed attention. they don't know if y'all move to it or the fishy layer. they were very high flames. they were tough to put out. we had lots of teams out here tackling them. it's been difficult because we've had 3 months with no rain in the federal taishan has dried up and the terrain is so dry.

we haven't seen such weather in a very long time as you'd like to get on to that. if you go over that bundled them with the danger past lot, i re chatelle lee returned home where 3 generations of her family have ended olive trees in the hills above the sea. they aren't sure if the scorch trees will still produce olives from which they have made oil for decades. this is what she filmed from a safe distance on sunday. as flames blazed through her family's grove, there movie saw the little sham. we saw it all catch on fire. it was a horrible scene. my grandfather grew up here. my father grew up here and i did 2. most of these trees are more than a 100 years old, and i say godaddy on tuesday would be to return to the beach in or toner 48 hours earlier. he had been relaxing here with his family. as temperatures rose and fires approached, he raced holmes for each tooth fell on all this noise. all afternoon and all night

. it was just without garden hose and buckets. we've ended up the flames all night to keep them from growing into a bigger fire. while the situation was largely controlled in central italy farther south and poorly in sicily, firefighters tackled more than a half dozen fires on tuesday. amid 40 degree temperatures and neighboring greece still feeling the effects of a record heat wave was struggling to put out several wildfires. for those like lottery, she tele wants the fires pass. the true extent of the damage will come into full view. adarine al jazeera, prescott of italy firefighters in turkey working round the clock. as wildfires continued to spread in coastal resort towns. these pictures are from the town of boardroom winds and temperatures about 40 degrees celsius of funding, 95 in the area, 5 fighting plains for spain and corporation flowing into help me growing criticism of the government's response. a murder investigation has been launched after

a vocal been russian activist was found dead in ukraine, italy shelf, lead a group, but help people seeing persecution from alexander president on the new cushion because government paying tribute to him in london, the exiled opposition leader said she knows she could also be targeted anytime under simmons reports from london, italy she show of life n, did hear his body hanging from a tree. he set off for a run near his home in kiev, but didn't return. police believe it could be murder disguise to suicide. there may have been a struggle in this office that says there were marks on his face. left knee, head and chest show feels dedicated to political opposition to autocratic rule. in his home country of better was he was working with an organization helping to get housing, food, and work for people fleeing persecution there. he knew he was under surveillance so that his friends for the board lamb. this was an execution vile,

nasty execution of a person who deserves more than any of those people who served the regime of alexander lucas shank, sending to the rest of the exiles in ukraine and elsewhere to sit low, keep their mouths shot. because this is what's gonna happen to you. lucas shut up by his enemies. the last of europe's dictators has ruled the 27 years. but since the disputed election a year ago, he's been cracking down on a physician support. in may a protest lead a roman protest, a which was detained after a passenger plane, heading to vilnius in the way nivia was forced to land the capital of beller, whose security agents had effectively hijacked the plane. the leader of the opposition's fat lana ticket north sky has been on a world tour trying to read night. the western outrage that follow that arrest the case. prime minister boris johnson said he was the 1st to impose sanctions and vowed moral support for the opposition. diplomatic niceties aside though,

the opposition leaders said none of her people was safe, least of all her. i can disappear senior moment, i understand that. but i should do. what time do i cancelled? because i'm you know, i feel this responsibility for the future of my fans with the same as all those sense while fighting the woman feel the responsibility said lunatic. and scott was in washington before arriving here in downing street messaging in both capital. it was the same that more action was needed, but there was no concrete response either by the president of the united states, or indeed the u. k. prime minister. at as far as the president of better, russo confirmed, it appears from events in ukraine, said he seems intent on continuing his deadly messaging. its security agents from bella. ruth did kill 26 year old villa shove. it is indeed

a warning to opposition activists. andrew simmons, al jazeera london, and ben russian athlete at the olympic says, the authorities made it clear she would be punished if she returned home. christina simon was gaia is due to leave japan for poland. after being granted to humanitarian visa. she accused her teams officials of trying to force her to leave the tokyo games early after she criticized her coaches. international olympic committee says it's launched an investigation. beyond the barnyard store. they made it clear that upon my return home, i would definitely say some form of punishment, and that if i refused and ran into 200 mates, race, i would be fired and kicked out of the national team. there were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me with the key phrases when they said that the decision to return home was not taken by us. it was taken by other people and we were ordered to follow through. at the moment,

i just want to safely get to europe. i would really like to continue my sporting career because i'm only 24. and i had plans to participate in at least 2 more limpid game. and if you're in your has ordered it's border guards to turn away migrants trying to enter the country from belarus using force if necessary. while the 4000 migrants crossed from values until a few in this year. most of them from iraq. if union says it's retaliation by veneration president alexander lucas shanker, for the increased european union sanctions after diverted a plane to arrest. a journalist thailand has extended locked down in the capital and 2 dozen other provinces. as the delta variant pushes up the number of cases that 29 provinces have been classified as dark red rooms. people in these areas a band from traveling to other parts of the country and to be a strict curfew. thailand is also experiencing a major vaccine shortage. united states has reached a goal, vaccinating 70 percent of adults nearly a month thought president joe biden july,

4th target. but the country is still recording more than 125000 cases a day, and almost 500 deaths from code 19 through mostly by the highly infectious delta variant. new york's mer is trying to drive the cities infection rate back down by requiring proof of vaccination. people attending indoor venues from middle list people going to restaurants, jims and the theater will have to show proof of vaccination. city based pass. the key to n y c pass will be a 1st in the nation approach. it will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining in indoor fitness, facilities, indoor entertainment facilities. this is going to be a requirement. the only way to patronize these establishment indoors will be if you're vaccinate at least one dose the same for folks in terms of work, they'll need at least one dose. an independent investigation is found that new york

state governor andrew cuomo, harassed at least 11 women during his time in office than any 5 months investigation which included interviews with maybe $200.00 people found engaged in, quote, a pattern of sexual harassment. a women inside and outside of the state government allegations range from unwelcome physical contact to grouping and sexually suggestive comments from cuomo, as well as retaliation against women who came forward with complaints. independent investigation found the governor cuomo, sexually arrest multiple women, many of whom were young women by engaging and, and wanted groping, kisses, hugging, and by making inappropriate comments. the governor denied touching anyone inappropriately in a long and detailed response to the findings. i never touched any one inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances. i am 63 years old. i have

lived my entire adult life in public view. that is just not who i am. and that's not who i have ever been. the us return will the 17000 looted treasures to iraq, some dating back 4000 years. most of them were stolen off to the us led invasion of iraq in 2003. but i can just say several other ancient artifacts. a still missing unprecedented return follows the rocky promised visit to washington last week, where he met us president joe biden. the man is 400 meter hurdles. world record has been smashed in tokyo, where the man who came 2nd calling it the best race ever in an a big history. noise cost and war, home beat his own world record. taking home gold in the time of 45.94 seconds. where i benjamin from the u. s. also beat the previous record, but his performance and you want him. the silver medal gymnastics in the gymnastics

simone biles made her return to the arena, taking bronze in the beam, competition after putting out of other events to focus on her mental health. she's been praised for her willingness to speak openly about it. and thank you for any time on our website. the rest of that is out there were dot com. and if you watch a slide by clicking on the orange live icon under 0, talk. com ah top stories on how to 0. they've been to large explosions in the afghan capital cobble 1st happened near the defense ministers house and a busy market square around the fortified green zone. witnesses of also reported hearing gunfire. there's been no word on any casualties, but the defense minister tweeted, do not worry. everything is fine.