some people magician has been said that you can make an elephant disappeared. i have many of the brazen example i've seen the men who sell football just ah, in a holy and historic site revered by christians for centuries. now under the control of rebels in ethiopia as north ah, hello, i am, i am noisy and london. you're watching al jazeera, also coming up on the program. flames and gulf suburbs, north of the greek capital. as europe's heat wave continues to generate record

temperatures. a message of unity and reconciliation from iran, new president, major domestic and foreign policy challenges lie had to drive to go electric in america, president joe biden unveils plans to make half of all cause 0 emission by the year 2030 ah hello, welcome to the program we begin in northern ethiopia, where to grind rebels have seize control of the ancient town of la bella, a significant holy site for millions of orthodox christians. in recent days and weeks, the conflict has spread, forcing tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. t piano fighters have been targeting the strategically important a foreign region of ethiopia, as well as m horror, which is where the town of labella is located. for the rebels. it's

a symbolic victory, but it's also a significant incursion. south labella is a unesco world heritage site and it say cred for millions of ethiopian orthodox christians, it's fame for it's 12 century rock hewn churches. violence initially broke out in november when the ethiopian prime minister had sent troops to fight the 2 great people's liberation front. the group dominated national politics before he came to power. by the end of that month, the prime minister had declared victory saying the government had captured the regional capital mikella. but the conflict took a turn in june when the to grind forces had continued fighting to back control of mckelly and government soldiers were forced to withdraw from the area since then, rebels have pressed into the far region in the east and then i'm horror in the north, displacing more than 250000 people,

webb has more on the story now from nairobi, residence and others have told us that fighters from the degree region of entered the historic town lot better. there were rumors that they were closed on local residents over the last week, some of the residents that they've had gunfire at night, but they say normal to, to hear some gunfire at night there. but in just in the last few hours, resident said they could see the, the gray and people's liberation from finances getting close. and then just to show a while ago, they say, can control of the town to town with a population of 20000 people. but it couldn't be of great religious and cultural and historical significance, a 100 years old, full of ancient church and in a holy site, 4 years millions of orthodox christine. but it is also, as will appears to be a significant incursion on the part of the grand people's liberation funds from the

north, coming into the territory of the enemy. they've been fighting with a mar of militia to the south, and now it seems they could taken control of the town as well inside the enemy, parents. even careful to remember that in this conflict there on contingent front lines to speak of the people control town here and the other control the town that we can't we can't get how much surgery is taken. but certainly this is as far as we've known, they've take taking the town into the enemy's territory so far that conflict could have been spreading into the m r afar regions in the last few weeks when he turned to developments in chad where 24 soldiers have been killed not attacked by suspected bulk around fighters. it happened on an island in the lake chad region, boca ram and arrival splinter group have been using the area to launch attacks in chad and neighboring countries. last year, at least, a 100 chatty and troops were killed during an assault by the armed groups form

a chinese president address de b died in april during fighting against rebels in northern chad. ah, hot dry winds and high temperatures keeping wildfires burning across southern europe. thousands of actors of forest have been reduced to ash in several countries with ancient sites in greece. now risk in turkey, more than a 180 separate blazes have been recorded with one that threatened to coal 5 power station. it may last causing a great deal of concern that plays ease now to control. but 36000 people have been evacuated in the same area fires of laid waste more than 20000 hector's of land on the italian island of sardinia with blazes. continuing, calabria and sicily government minister now says 70 percent of the fault of human

action and temperatures. of it, 45 degrees celsius in greece, fighting flames that came perilously close to the site of the ancient olympics that blaze was for back. but another in the northern suburbs of athens has been rekindled. 3 significant blazes are also burning on the island. the area that has been no deaths or injuries, but there is widespread destruction of buildings and countries already shrinking forest greece as prime minister is warned of more difficult days ahead with winds full cost of pick up and for the heat wave to also continue evacuation orders have been made on thousands of villages. same basra isn't an eighty's. now athens were here just above the national road, a major highway, a corridor that runs north and south along the length of the country and fire rescue teams have been using it as a kind of trench to try to fight the fire, to try to keep the fire from crossing this line to try to hold it back from

spreading across the highway and into dry parts of the area here on the other side of the highway and spreading into the greater athens area for our rescue team so far have been successful. however, we've seen that these fires seem to have an unsafe level appetite, at least on one occasion since we've been up here, we've seen the fire jump across the highway. immediately rescue workers reacted down the flames. the helicopter came in and dropped water over the flames. and pushed it back, but we have to say that the temperatures over these fires are so hot that helicopters had to start flying lower and lower and has have had to start of flying . well, past sun down even though conditions are dangerous. and that's because the water that they were dropping simply evaporated before it hit, it would hit the ground. and so we've seen helicopters making lower and lower flights to try to keep these flames from crossing the national highway. however, it has to be said as soon as they put out the flames on one side of the foothills,

the fire seems to spread and grow in another as it comes further and further down the hills. people here are just watching and waiting, worried that their homes might be next. and there's definitely concern that fire rescue teams definitely have another long night ahead of them to try to keep the blaze under some kind of control. i want to go to the united states now because california is largest active, while fi has wiped out much of the community in the north of the state, according to evacuated, most of greenville central business area has been destroyed, with st. lights melting in the extreme heat. known as the dixie fire, it's been burning for about 3 weeks, said by high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity. and then there's also another wildfire in kind of fornia right now it's, it's forced thousands of people to flee as it burns 160 kilometers south of that. dixie fire, the river fire scorched at least $2400.00 acres of land. with 5 crews only able to

contain a 3rd of it. and just to of a 100 active places, bunning mostly in the western united states. 2021 is predicted to be california is worst fire season on record. well, john henry is my 1st from quincy in california, that's just less than an hour south of greenville. and so the carrier is really facing historically dry conditions. what's it like where you are? well, you can see the plume over my shoulder here. that is not a cloud that is the smoke coming from the dixie fire. and as a matter of fact, that is right over the town of greenville, which burned last night. this is a fire that covers an enormous expanse of territory. it is the largest fire in california right now. yesterday, it was the 8 largest fire in california history. today, it is the 6 largest that tells you a little bit about how that has been fueled with over 60 kilometer per hour winds.

and that is what helps sweep it over the town of greenville. and even as i was standing here waiting to talk to you, i got an alert on my phone big yet another town is being evacuated nearby. so one by one, these towns are facing this tragedy, as this fire expands and it is only about one 3rd controlled by firefighters. i asked the public information officer here how long this fire would go on. he said there's really no telling because the conditions continue, high winds and very, very dry conditions here. so what you get is little twigs become tinder for these fires and that goes for the trees as well. there's so dry, they really can't resist it. and some of these are started by lightning strikes. what we heard in the past 24 hours was a power company. pacific gas and electric says it believes that it sparked this fire with its equipment,

and that fire has no end in sight. the town of greenville had 800 people. we are told that it is pretty much destroyed. we're going to go look for ourselves soon, but so far we have not heard of anyone who has been injured or killed. it seemed like they all evacuated. indeed, that will come as a great relief. the images of greenville were just 6. it's extraordinary, really, the land completely scorched and we are seeing these heat waves and drought reach in historic records not just are in california, but in other places across the west and u. s, and i suppose that makes it much honda for the fire fighters to get it under control. that's right. there are tens of thousands of firefighters battling bout 100 blazes across 13 states and the western us and the conditions are like that. all over, scientists believe that this is part of global warming. that creates the volatile

conditions, the high winds, the lack of rain that is fueling these fires. and if that's true, that means we're only going to see more of them as the planet continues to warm up . there is, believe it or not, a bigger fire than this one right here. just north of the border in oregon. so these fires are happening all over the place. the public information officer i talked to earlier said the number of fires we're seeing isn't terribly unusual for recent years, but it does seem that the number of fires and the intensity of them is growing. all right, thank you very much on hand and reporting his life from quincy in california, which is not far from greenville, which is a seen a great deal of destruction from that wildfire. thank you, john. you all with al jazeera life from london to lad. my grandmother, she called me to see you come back the whole express do, ran from bella. ruth,

to tell her side of the story. ah hello there. it's all about the brutal heat that's been plaguing the south east of europe. in particular, we've seen record breaking temperatures for greece and for turkey, and this was the scene in athens. it was engulfed in smoke from wildfires that are continuing to burn in those hot and dry conditions. continue on friday, not just here, but for turkey. for north macedonia, albania, and southern areas of italy where we are seeing those wildfires continue to burn, but things do change on saturday. with a change of wind was seen the temperatures, it dipped down slightly. and when we look at the 3 day for athens will be nearing the average by the time we get into saturday,

there's also some wet weather on the way for parts of turkey. and there's weather in the west. if we take a look, we can see some pretty heavy thunderstorms and downpours, affecting eastern areas of france moving into switzerland. we could see some flooding where those rains are heaviest. we've got unsettled weather for the british mile. thanks to a swirling weather system and scandinavia, seeing temperatures dip down and remain rather cool, thanks to a weather system, bringing the wet and windy weather with it. but further down south, it does remain rather hot and dry. and it's a similar story in egypt with the temperature at $42.00 in cairo. ah, in the wake of the criminal, a race, right? how much can someone take before the clock? the fight recognition is crucial. we needed corner heads to prevail, broaders and heads of table that was said about religion and the thing that was

a community one was to be just respect to al jazeera explores the history and struggled of the lebanese community in australia. once upon a time in punchbowl on al jazeera oh the the main stories now rebels from europe is war to region of dr. taken control of the town of lally, baylor unesco world heritage site, and also a sacred place of pilgrimage. millions of christians in the north of the country, fighting into gray, has been getting worse and recent weeks affecting the neighboring regions of har

and afar. and chad $24.00 soldiers have been killed and attacked by suspected buck around fights as it happened on an island in the lake chad region. and 5, fueled by a heat wave of raging and grief with 3 significant places burning on the island of ed via greece's prime minister. is wanda of more difficult days ahead with wind full cost to strengthen now to iran, the countries new president has taken office with a direct stance on us as a direct on some us sanctions and his countries nuclear ambitions. ibrahim race, he said that he would take steps to lift the sanctions, which have devastated the country's economy. he insisted the iranian nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. but he enters office at a time of height and regional tensions. the iranians, this nuclear program is phase for these full pays for the nuclear weapon has

nothing to do with the policy. the strategy of iran, the breast shows and sanctions will never let down the iranian people we will defend our right inside and to fic development sanctions. on the iranian should come to an end while out there as ali hashem is falling, the story force from tehran. the main takeaway from brain rice is features that is going to concentrate more in front of foreign policy on regional neighbors . he said he's going to extend his government extended hand of friendship to regional neighborhoods at the same time with respect to the rest is going to listen to initiatives to solve the nuclear problem problem. however,

with respect to the nuclear program, it's not going to be at any time other than a peaceful program. this is what this is what you said 3 times. and then you repeated that this country you would always prohibits producing, you can reference. this is on the foreign policy side from the other side, the side internal side was also trying to say, this is going to be the conciliation governments. that's extend that had to all the people to all the lines of thought in the country. moderate reform. if this is, this is a way on another attempt in order to spot and you phase or the said, the country it's facing, you're trying to make prices before the country is also in the middle of really falling. busy threats, as he said, and there are a lot of challenges on this, on this front. so this is what you see was trying to present himself to

the people fit on and also put out to the foreign, maybe attendees. the party that rose to prominence during tunisia revolution has softened its storms on the latest crisis facing country. the enact parts either rashid, the 100, she says the current political turmoil is an opportunity for a form different tone to one who struck last month when he accused the tunisian president of staging a true case said, froze, parliament sank, the prime minister and ban public gatherings. after mass protests, he still hasn't announced a new government. sam kimball is a journalist based in tunis and brings us more. this is in contrast to the parties earlier statements, which are called the actions a, a coo and separately critique the actions. now, the members of the party, it seems,

some of them were dissatisfied with the course of the discussion on the party politics as some members of the party less than meeting midway through. today, there's been another development this morning at the sac prime minister. he's embassy, she was seen in video at the national anti corruption authority declaring officially declaring his assets and properties. and this is after an absence from public view just before the president's declarations on july 25th. and this has this wage, some worries about his whereabouts. now the u. s. is aiming to have electric cars make up half of vehicle sold in the country by 2030 us president joe biden is expected to sign an executive order on this on tuesday. it will also propose new vehicle emission rules to come pollution over the next 5 years bite and coal includes battery,

electric fuel cell and plug in hybrid cars that also have gasoline engines that go to mike canada, who's following this in washington. so perhaps some bold ambitions here tell us more about what biden is proposing. well, it's a massively ambitious project that includes the economy foreign relations. the environment basically at the hartford is that president biden will be signing an executive order, stating that all the cars in the us, half of the cars from the u. s. must be electric by 2030. now he has got the backing of the major auto manufacturers on this. in fact, they will be joining him at the white house. the fee of those companies, importantly to the head of the auto workers union will also be standing next to president by then what he makes us announcement. but it goes much further than that . he's returning to a bama era transmission regulations, which were basically done away with them to the trump administration. he's also

introducing environmental measures to reduce a tailgate gases to enforce a reduction in those gases. now this is significant because exhaust emissions that com for 30 percent of greenhouse emissions within the united states. but this is a massively ambitious plan and also to see how far reaching it is. another level to the project is to ramp the u. s. as battery production facilities to improve the production line at present some 70 percent of the world's batteries are made in china bite and wants to turn this around. he wants to create more employment. he says, within the united states, he wants to produce a batteries more batteries in the united states. so this is a project that involves, as i said, the environment with the case of natural gas emissions. the economy obviously providing more work he would help. and also foreign relations can taking on china in terms of competition on a particular aspect of production,

which is the production of batteries. so it's a very far reaching plan which could have many attendant problems. the 1st of which is likely to be the auto manufacturers insistence that they get a massive sum from congress to help to stations. they require they say at least another half a 1000000 charging stations throughout the country. they will also be looking for tax rebates to be able to get to that 50 percent production figure electric cars. so it's a huge project involving lay is off manufacturing foreign policy and environmental changes. thank you, mike. mike can reporting just from washington global crone of ours cases have now passed the 200000000 mark fueled in part by the contagious delta variance. and is infection has continued to rise, access to vaccine still depends on where you live. world health organization is concerned, the wealthy nations of administered a 100 doses,

a 100 people when poor countries have just one and a half doses per 100. so it's urging which countries to pause on plans to roll out booster vaccine shots. despite this, germany and france will start giving those boosters, they're working on rolling out the doses to the elderly and the vulnerable from september. the u. s also said that it's preparing to give boost as if needed. meanwhile, in japan, there is anger, is the corner virus infections that rise faster than ever. the lympics host city toko is recorded 5000 daily cases for the 1st time, more widely. japan's government has now extended emergency measures to 8 more regions, and richardson has more on this now from tokyo. the numbers are escalating very quickly. i was standing hit a few days ago talking about the fact that daily tases wedding 3000 for the 1st time. now we're up to 5000. the state of emergency here in so care has already been

extended until the end of the month. that's significant from a sporting perspective, at least because they were hoping to allow fans and spectators in after the start of that event. it's still possible, or they could get them in the final few days because apparently picks runs until september, but it's looking increasingly unlikely. and the reason covet 19 figures have been relatively low until this point. a lot of people think is because of their personal sacrifices and nots government policy. the vaccine rollout was slow. the back story, there was it in the 1990. the japanese government was found liable for the side effects to 2 other inoculations. so there was a very slow process of approving the vaccine and then you have the state of emergency as we've discussed. although it sounds extremely dramatic. it's a request for people to stay at home and not go to the office. it's a request for restaurants and balls to close early. it's not a law or an oldest with a bit of condemning fatigue setting. and it's perhaps not surprising that some people are following those rules quite as closely as they might once have done, particularly when that same government is also allowing the olympics to continue.

so this line that the organism maintaining that there's no provable link between what's happening within that's quote unquote, by a secure bubble of the lympics in the wider community. it is increasingly difficult to maintain covered 19 left thousands of people unemployed and homeless in bangladesh. aid work is there. say the most alarming aspect is the number of children in need of health. at a time when food banks are in urgent need some struggling to stay open and extended restrictions haven't helped capture lopez, diane reports. this is one of the few food charities still operating on the streets of darker. in a day it will feed more than 2000 people, many unemployed because of covered 19, they include security guard drivers and domestic workers. and among the group, there's also more homeless children. we just put our money and i can tell to the

adults that there is no food. but how can you tell that the little children over the last year and a half kids who come here? they've become our family charities, like men cannot depend on donations. when bangladesh for shut down because of the pandemic last year, there were hundreds of volunteer groups. but corona virus, the t test that in people are now let's willing to donate. not everyone here is without a job, but many have seen their earning slashed a little over a dollar a day. money. i'm a poor man for months i've been suffering the effects of locked down. there is barely any income. that's why i come here to eat without guilt. as the delta vary and fuels assertion inception, some people have had to leave their jobs and take care of their relatives. many businesses, schools and government offices have shut down and hundreds of thousands of people are now unemployed. around 4 and a half 1000000 people in bangladesh work in the textile industry. but corporate 19

has force many factories to close. while the government has allowed some to reopen a full recovery, seems a long way off. for workers, there are some hope, but they don't know how long it will last. they got them going here we can eat without worrying about the next day. before i knew about this place, i spent 2 days lying inside, a pocked bus, literally starving. many are left wandering the streets of the bandwidth as she capital, hoping charities like the can provide with often the only meal of the day. a little bit of the young al jazeera, alabama russians friend who refused teams order to fly home early from tokyo has spoken publicly for the 1st time since arriving in poland. christina, seaman of sky refused to fly home on sunday, telling japanese believes she was being sent against her will that ruth says she

was removed from the olympic team because of her emotional condition. but the 24 year old and says she was singled out criticizing the people that coach her on instagram and now fears for her life. she is in poland on humanitarian visa, and says she's looking forward to starting afresh chapter when it was in some code. sure. and some from our teams, they come from my room and they say that i should say that they have some injury and come back home. if i will not do it, then it can get some problem in my country. and they don't know which one problem, but after this day they also come to my room to say that i have no chance to run 20 meters and i should to come back to home and it's not their decision to to do it. and when i got my closest and go to the car, my grandmother, she goes to see you come back home because on the tv, this is a lot of for,

but worse about use it. you have some mental health problems and maybe you can go to the hospital and you know, i feel myself much better here. i feel the same and 50 and a lot of people support me here. and my husband, he is already in a road bike, hard to support him, so i read him today and he will be here, maybe with me. i just waiting on a quick look at the main stories now. and rebels from if you're appears will turn region of pig ry of taking control of li, baylor unesco wild heritage site. it lies in the hall region and it's really a sacred sight of pilgrimage for millions of christians. it's fame for it's 12 century rocking churches. fighting into gray has spilled into name.