yo rog here more intense wildfires that the best case scenario is this when people need to be heard and the story told it was exciting to have this icon of the blind be shown to everyone with exclusive interviews and in depth reports the approaches awful damage the vitamin al jazeera has teens on the ground to bring you more award winning documentaries and lives. ah and to mon solves a, he fled the country ousted president. go to buy a raja pox, a returns to sri lanka. ah,

i'm on the inside. this is out there life and doha, also coming up the u. s. approved a potential $1100000000.00 on sale to taiwan, the angering china. the wednesday, clear, watched old warms fighting around ukraine's upper is your power plant still poses a grave risk prompting expense to be based out the facility permanently. ah and legend, serena williams loses in the 3rd round, the u. s. open in what is likely to be the last month. ah, shoreline because disgraced. former president is back home less than 2 months after he fled during the nations worst economic crisis since independence got to buy. a raja poxel was blamed for pushing shore lanka towards financial disaster. the

government ran out of foreign cash reserves and was unable to pay for imports, leading to shortages. roger pack so returned early on saturday, flying in from buying coke. he had left following unprecedented protests. michelle fernandez had the latest from colombo, the return of the former president go, toby, roger, parks has happened very quickly. no one expected him to return a when he literally fled the country on a military jet just a few weeks ago. now that obviously was the peak of the public protests that had lasted for many, many months under the bat banner, go to go home as 3 angry and frustrated. people are sort of took their frustration and their anger's. it's built out on the streets. they blamed the former president for the state of the country, had fallen into, obviously, in its worst economic crisis since independence. now that overrunning of the

presidential residents with the president inside at the stage, and then him being evacuated to safety. all sort of calvin entered in him, making a very quick exit from the country. but since then, obviously he's been in 3 different countries. are seeking a, his options are in many, many others as well. and it just seems that he was checked mated at every turn. the countries that did horsed him, obviously these were temporary stairs. there was no talk of political asylum or anything like that. but the last place he was in thailand, the authorities we here had told him that he should confine himself indoors because there were security risks of him going out. so on his return, i hate, which was confirmed by the public security minister to me when he was at the v. v. i p lounge of the airport on arrival there. he said he was very relaxed. now. good . i'll be roger potter has moved into an official and provided government bungalow,

obviously his right as a former head of state. and what his options are in the coming days and months will remain to be seen. his obviously relinquished office. but he is a very much part of the roger pock sir, a clan, and the family. and they haven't given up as far as their hearing in terms of politics. marry him, young is executive director of the u. s. council on shoreline because she says the challenges of the former president facing criminal proceedings on non existent well within sri lanka. certainly there will be no attempt to hold him accountable because the current president, ronald, with, from a singer, came into power basically said he would be agreeing that he would, would protect go to buy a roger pox. and so that's something of the agreement that they have and because his party b as no p p is still in power very much in power. there's really no,

there's no hope that i would see in, in the, near or far future, where he would be held accountable with industry locker. we will have to see how it goes forward and whether he decides to stay quiet and work behind the scenes and make sure that he and all of his family members stay safe or whether he actually tries to come back in some way. i think that the, the, the protesters are going to wait and then give some time to the government to see whether it be very recently signed agreement with the i m f will actually change things on the ground will improve the economic situation. but they are very angry about him having returned and they want the elections. and that's not something that the government is likely to give them any time soon. the us state

department has approved a potential one point. $1000000000.00 arm sale to taiwan package includes anti ship missiles radar systems pension has been high since u. s. how speak and nancy pelosi visit to the last month was in china to conduct military drills around taiwan. china claims the island as part of its territory will find gold, is in asia, political risk, unless he says it's not unusual for washington to sell defensive homes to type a. and the us does provide weapons to taiwan and it's done so for many, many decades. part of this is always political or of a public relations value. so at a time when china has increased its military exercises near taiwan to increase the threat level, the u. s. announces to shallow a, to be prior to sale is relatively small. it's relatively small number of. busy missiles, most of the money is for the maintenance of existing radar facility. one thing that

the buy in and before the trump administration has, has struggled with versus their previous, the previous american ministrations, is whether to punch the sales together. or just to announce them as in when they're needed. so the thinking earlier seem to be that we know trying to be upset. so we'll just announce news every few years. and we'll throw together a whole bunch of different weapon systems that taiwan had requested and will deal with china, his anger. but i think there's going to be some criticism as well that this announcement, given it's relatively small sized, really isn't much of a difference for taiwan. security, the military here, the civilian leadership, you're in taiwan, as well as us policymakers, again, also across several administration. some struggle with. so should the focus be on the larger weapon systems like tanks and howitzers, or should it be instead be, are things like missiles and mines and taking the battle to,

to the see where the air or even to china, which would involve using weapons that us typically has not sold to taiwan, or rather than preparing for a battle here on the streets of taiwan and the the head of the u. n. 's atomic watchdog says he is worried about ukraine's upper region. nuclear plant tape is inspectors will stay at the site permanently from now on rafael gaus. he has just returned from a visit to the facility. it was captured by russian forces back in february, and has become a focus of deep concern with fears. ne, by shilling could cause and nuclear disaster. april alexander reports now from keith. the head of the united nations international atomic energy agency has arrived to vienna following his visit to ukraine's besieged separation nuclear power plant and had this to say, i was able to see myself and i my team impact

whole markings on, on the bill, days off of him so we miss that the 50 off the policy has been violated, not once, but said settled. raphael grossi flatly denied that russia who occupy the power plant, denied him the right to move freely, saying he was given full access by the russians to the site. and was able to inspect everything he requested to see, he also confirmed his agency would keep 2 staff members at the plant permanently. and that the, i ha, that would issue a full report in the next week on their findings is not earlier on friday. sh, moscow again accused ukraine of showing the power plant was but reserved at judgment on the i ha, mission, good reach you should. we positively view the fact that despite all problems and

difficulties caused by the ukrainian sides provoked of actions, the mission has reached the site and started work. you are aware that the team will stay at the site and continue working. that's why it's still too early to assess hooks. but what's most important is our mission is that the miss is expected. susemski's plants condition a nuclear security. ukraine contended to visit was staged, managed by russia. key accused russia of intimidating ukrainian nuclear plant workers. i 8. yay! inspectors were accompanied by a man in a suit later identified as a russian adviser to roster tom the russian nuclear agency that's further evidence for ukrainians. but the inspectors were not able to work freely at the plant without russian interference, as gross. he suggested in his press conference ogrinas on bill of said little shall demilitarization of the territory of the station is the goal. and it is bad that we

have not yet heard the appropriate messages from the i. e. a, despite the fact that we talked about it with mr. grossi during our meeting and key, if it was the key security point of our agreements, it was outlined clearly, demilitarization and full control by our nuclear workers. in it's clear, ukraine wants the nuclear power plant to be demilitarized, and russian troops to leave immediately. but the i. e a doesn't even have the means to enforce that. it also doesn't have the mandate to determine who's responsible for the showing. it's a complicated situation. and very volatile and changing, seemingly not day by day, but our by our gabriel's hondo. how does it keep now? well, they economies that form the g 7 group of nations have agreed to set a price cap on russian oil, hoping it will hit moscow's ability to found the warn ukraine. g 7 finance ministers. also, i hope the cap on crude oil and petroleum products will help reduce global energy

prices. russia has responded saying it will stop selling oil to countries that agree to a price limit. meanwhile, russia gas problem has announced that it will not resume gas flow through the north stream. one pipeline, to germany, off to a 3 day shut down. the company says an oil leak was detected and repairs and needed . the european commission says the move is on the fallacious pretenses and confirms rushes unrelated. reliability as a supplier for president emanuel micron has ordered all nuclear power plants in the country to be restarted before winter will be used to reduce pressure on the electricity grid and help tackle rising energy prices. natasha battle reports for several months. more than half of frances 50 sakes, nuclear reactors have been shot for maintenance work, but they will be restarted in the coming weeks in time for winter,

said frances energy minister, after a special cabinet meeting to discuss the energy crisis condo, hector, from that 32, react desert holt, including some because of corrosion under restrictions, and others for usual maintenance. adf has committed to race, start all reactors by this winter. we are following this situation very closely with weekly briefings on we're careful that this timeline is fulfilled. france is one of europe's top energy exporters and relies on nuclear power for 70 percent of its energy needs. but the shot reactors of pushed up french power prices and fueled concerned that france would not produce enough power for itself or it's european neighbors, as they wind themselves off, russian gas. but pioneer russia says that in addition to restarting the reactors, frances made other contingency plans. look without m auntie sheep, the government has been anticipating the situation for several months. we have

secured out gus dogs. they are currently at 92 percent. and so we can now say that we have almost achieved our goal. 2 months in advance. the french president emanuel michael, i had called the emergency cabinet meeting. michael has repeatedly said that people in france must be prepared to face a difficult winter. miss asher butler al jazeera paris still has on al jazeera flooded farm land and sea don, where 15000000 people are struggling to get fate until he will soon vote on a draft constitution described by many as a model for the future. we'll take a look at human dose as it ah, the journey has begun. the 3 full world copies on its way to catherine book,

your travel package to day. hello, the weather is set fast, fine and dry. lots of hot sunshine across the yard, middle east, at the moment, the rabbit peninsula, essentially sunny and settled. we do have one or 2 showers to just crop up once again, just around the southern end of the resi. but elsewhere, as you can see, thus they largely drawn on places that it will state right in pakistan, still very hot just around that east side of the but it's rainy, damascus getting up to 41 celsius and we are touching 30 bay route and also for jerusalem over the next couple of days. now to make a way across northern parts of africa or the dry weather here as well. one or 2 showers in the northern areas of algeria, maybe the far north east of morocco, plenty of showers across central africa. the, the latest pulse of easily waste is pushing out. so for nigeria, bring some heavy downpours across. been in togo, easing over towards gonna kill faso as well. some larvae shout still in place there just around the gambia. not too many showers into southern africa. we have got some

rather wet weather, still affecting central parts, the democratic republic of congo, seeing some lively showers, longest spells of fright. what a 2 showers a possibility to east past tense near but nothing too much to speak of could further south. they go. it is largely dry wet weather will make its way into cape town for monday, and 10 cooler cats are airway official ally of the journey. talk to al jazeera. we ask for the rebound, you speak of his really come and get a high cost for airlines. and the industry, what's going wrong? we listen, you were part of the armstrong in the 1970 s. if you have any regret, know, we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera . what's most important to me is talking to people, understanding what they're going through here. it just either we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. ah,

ah, the me welcome back here watching out. as a reminder, our top stories is our shoreline because disgraced. former president is back home, less than 2 months after he fled during the nations was economic crisis since independence goes by roger packs and was blame for pushing for lancaster with financial design. the real estate department has approved a potential one point. $1000000000.00 arm sale to taiwan. china is threatening county measures. pension has been high since us hound speaker. nancy pelosi visited taiwan last month. the head of the u. n. atomic watch dog who's just returned from ukraine's up at region nuclear plants as team members from his team will now be station permanently. therapy is any continued shelling in the vicinity could cause

a nuclear disaster. the head of pockets dawns largest. charity is warning of the stress of famine of the devastating floods destroyed crops and livestock. more than 1200 people are now known to have died in pocket stones worth ever flooding. disaster survivors the facing water born diseases. the southern provinces sinned is bracing for further flooding. next week, focused on blames climate change for the recent heavy monsoon range that triggered the floods. a member of the box cuz i can see a very big family looming very close, very soon. they can see it for stages right now that people have been hungry for a week or even 10 days. let me tell you again that despite all efforts, we haven't been able to reach 90 percent of people here. but this is a very alarming situation. efforts gets turned to rains and floods in sudan have destroyed tens of thousands of acres of land racing fears of food insecurity. more than 100 people have died. thousands of homes have been destroyed. hipaa morgan

reports from missouri. our de la himself has spent the last 4 months tending to his farms hoping to profit from his harvests. but when torrential rains and floods hate to dance da 0 state, much of his land was submerged, destroying the crops house in arbitrary as him was. i had, we have about 1300 acres there were formed to season drains and flows have covered about 300 acres. all what is completely destroyed is a complete disaster. some are trying to train the water, but as a farmer, this summer season has been a complete loss. heavy rains and floods have affected more than 90000 acres into 0 state home to the largest governmental agricultural project in sudan. more than 130000 farmers grow crops, such as corn and cotton for the country and international markets. but rain and floods have affected that, as well as the economy of the state authority see hundreds of thousands of dollars

worth of produce have been lost while northerners, whether numbers are in custody, as farmers. this is a loss for us. this season, i'll not be having anything to sell the corn and anything of a planted is gone. i've lost more than a 1000000 susan is pounds, because of the flooding hood and farmers income are not the only concern. the flooding of farm lands comes at a critical time for sudan. the united nation says a 3rd of the people in the country are about 15000000 are already struggling to get enough food. and with flood waters covering tens of thousands of acres. that number may rise even further. kezia is known as the bread basket of sudan, supplying half of the crops it needs any disruption in that supply could raise market prices in a country where more than half of the people live in poverty authorities. they've put plans in place to reduce the impact of floods. he has more than half of the year, one said and hollow. we will split up the farming cycles to make up for the losses

. the farmers have incurred the amount of lands farmers plant on during the winter season will be increased based on the area of land that has been destroyed by the rain. how about the lacy but farmers like our de la feared the lands may not recover in time for the coming season and they may suffer more economic losses. he will morgan olga 0 to the to see the rally has a constitutional process in a south american country. captured so much international attention, a chinese new jobs constitution. the proposed document will be put to the vote on sunday, many of describing it as a model for the future. yet in chile itself, reason polls suggest it could be rejected and sundays referendum from santiago, a latin american ed is salisia newman. it's not unusual for hollywood actors like mark ruffalo to win on domestic politics. but why does the

star of the hope care about chile, specifically cindy's referendum on whether or not to approve an ambitious new constitution. earlier this week, who follow tweeted that the proposal represent hope to the world. one that has more equality and humanity and thoughtfulness and and so i know a lot of great people worked on this and the world's looking towards you has a model to address the change of climate and the need for great democracy. so lots of love and we are watching closely, not just actors, but in hundreds of intellectuals, scientists, environmentalists, human rights activists, economists and feminist from every continent. haven't dorothy chillies, draft constitution, which they describe as cutting edge. one of them is professor rich brandt. the

constitution opens a space to rethink how the economic model, the social model and the role of indigenous peoples, the role of women, et cetera, et cetera, and should be in the society of the 21st century. the constitution would be the 1st to specifically acknowledge climate change and environmental protection and guaranteed gender parity. it also introduces structural political and social reforms, such as guaranteed health, education, and pensions, as well as broad recognition of indigenous rights. and many international observers may always have jillions, like the land to vote against the new constitution. there are many reasons from this information about what it really says is that it is too radical vague, and that it will not guarantee civility in this country. sebastian, edward says,

the devil is in the details. it's a very, i'm even never cried in the world political system which will create a lot of instability and uncertainty. and if there is uncertainty, there is no investment. the constitution has poor raj, chile, even as the majority of greek, the socially unequal country needs change. how much change though seems to be the issue. you see in human al jazeera santiago, serena williams has been knocked out to the us open in what is expected to be the last match of her 27 year career as a tennis player. she was eliminated 2 sets to one iowa told me on which, who was 2 years old when william's 10 professional in 1995 during her career when he was 123 grand slam titles, a record in the open era. a speak to melissa lauren's co bet. she's

a sports jennison, author, serena williams, tennis champion, sports legend, and cultural heroine. she joined us from central florida. thank you for joining the program. many 41 years old and a match that last nearly 3 hours. there's no doubt really is that the serena put in one memorable performance tonight. absolutely. she seemed to be running on fumes. so talk us through the match. what did you think? well i think the when she dropped the 1st boat cuz she was up, you know, serving for that 1st set. and that's the biggest difference between vintage serina and post pregnancy, serina is that really used to close those type of matches out when it was on her racket when i broke her. that's when i realized i'm like ok. serena's really struggling and she had a big lead in the 2nd and almost last 2. so i think she was going to allow, i mean,

she's only played about, i think that was like 6 to match of the year or 7th mat total. so she was, you know, trying to play herself into shape which she used to be able to do. but you know, bother, time is undefeated. there wasn't much expectation from her. i was walking into this tournament, but she proved everyone wrongs and she, i mean, she has self said she didn't have any to anything to prove. and of course she didn't. oh, absolutely. i will run that. she came back as late as she did. and the way she looked in cincinnati thinking, she's probably going to go out in the 1st round. i definitely didn't give her much of a chance. in that 2nd round in the way she played tonight, i mean, she forced oslo. you know, people said, you know, she was unseated, but the only reason she was seated is that they weren't awarding points at one

building. so her opponent was much better than the seat that she had. now she didn't enter the sport quietly, did she at the age of 17, she didn't look the part. she ended up changing the part. tell us what she's done for the representation in tennis or her in venus. and they actually serena's 1st professional match was at 14, she got in right up under the new rules that the cap reality rules that won't allow players to go full time at age 14, you have to wait to their 16. so when she and venus arrived, they actually changed the way the game was played and who play the game became the best athletes were playing women's tennis. not just the best tennis players, and that changed a lot. and now they've changed it so much that today you had cocoa golf, playing madison keys to black women and race was not the big deal. it was that it

was 2 americans and one of them was going home. so serena and venus made it so common to see 2 black women competing at these tournaments that it's no longer a big deal that you have so many black women in the main draw so much to talk about . but unfortunately, we're out of time, but really get to talk. see melissa melissa lauren's co bet sports, janice, speaking to us from central florida. thank you. thank you. on saturday, nasa's most powerful rocket ever is due to blast off to the main out. the 1st attempt with thought and by engine issues earlier this week launch is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to florida's cycle space coast and is charles traffic reports. it's a tourism based region, desperately needs lift off the final lift off of atlanta shoulders of the space

july. the 11th 2011. and you the, the last space shuttle launch, the beginning of what many commentators clue americas decade long space program slam on the kennedy space center laid off more than 7000 workers. and space enthusiasts who filled restaurants and hotels and lined the shore to watch launches disappeared, but not as reinvigorated space program and a boost from private companies like space x and blue horizon means florida's so called space coast is alive again. i'm just happy, it's booming. the way it is, i'm happy they got the program going back up now and having people come out and enjoy with us. so i think a full several rocket launch is carried out each month including space x carrying star link internet satellites. more than 12000 civil servants, private contractors and others now work at the kennedy space center. almost as many

as those employ during the heyday with the shuttle programs go right on a mission to prepare for the next era world, co operation in space. hotels and restaurants of filling up once more, it excites me that the people are still excited enough in this country to flow here to see it. they still look at it as historic, and i hope we never lose that. ah, you know, it's obviously good for the space program. it's good for the country and certainly good for the city of titusville and of our county. you know, we're back in, oh and is the kind of the saying goes, now we're going to the moon. nasa says it sent to launch the are to miss moon mission on saturday after problems with an engine cooling system, delayed lift off last week. space coast spectators will be again packed along these florida shores. john stratford, i'm to sarah.