U. S. House of representatives criticizes donald trump over reports of russian bounties against u. S. Troops in afghanistan. And president calls party faces a setback but its a good night for the greens after a local elections in france. Across the world half a 1000000 people have now died from corona virus and more than 10000000 have been affected a quarter of all those infections and deaths are in the United States which is by far the worst hit country with a sharp spike in infections recorded in southern and western states the u. S. Health secretary is warning time is running out to contain the virus tical hain has the latest. The corona virus is marching through america in Houston Texas hospitals are quickly running out of intensive care beds in florida arizona and texas mobile testing sites are being overrun with people waiting for hours many turned away Health Experts warned this would happen in many of these states mostly republican governors move to reopen businesses stressing the importance of the health of the economy now critics say the Public Health system and a growing number of people are paying the price well the trumpet ministration says there is no connection. All 50 states are opening up again to one degree or another states like florida and like texas actually began to open up in in early may for the better part of 6 weeks john we did not see any Significant Movement but if you look at this tracker showing which states meet the governments criteria to reopen only 4 are safe the ones in red are seen large spikes in cases and now at least one member of the administration is sounding the alarm window is closing we have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly we need to social distance we need to wear fit our face coverings if were in settings where we cant social distance particularly in these hot zones but in many of these states where cases are on the rise there is no mandatory order to wear masks in public and in many ways this is become a partisan issue well the Vice President attended an event sunday where the crowd seemed to mostly wear masks the president has not done the same and my understanding that the centers for Disease Control has recommended the use of mass but not the demand with choir it because they dont want to send the president and that the president should be example you know real men wear masks for the president s part his focus at least on twitter was elsewhere we tweeted this video to supporters yelling white power 6. He appears to have deleted it before leaving the white house once again his weekend spent golfing by some estimates the number of cases that have been reported each day has more than doubled over the last 2 weeks and given the way this virus spread that means the number is likely to jump dramatically in the days and weeks ahead political Haim Al Jazeera maryland brazil is the worlds 2nd worst heads country with more than 1300000 cases over 57000 deaths in response protest as a gathered in brazil on the run the world to denounce president yet both so. The pandemic. As the sun rose over the capital brasilia a 1000 crosses were planted in front of the Brazilian Congress to honor the more than 57000 people dead of so far 1000 in the country but it was also the 1st of a series of demonstrations on sunday against president handling of the pandemic. Groups of protesters in more than 20 countries and in brazils main cities called for his resignation. Cheering supporters in the state of. Without a face mask despite a court ruling that required him to wear one but number of cases in the country keeps rising i reduction in the number of daily deaths in religion was enough for the mayor to reopen stores. This weekend but many customers say they remain worried i think it should be done step by step there can be no crowds everyone should keep their distance we all know our economy is collapsing and we have to get back to work but the viruses and visible so we can only wear our masks. The coronavirus and their mic continues to wreck havoc in much of latin america. Even colombia that had managed to control the spread of the virus is experiencing a resurgence of infections after partially reopening the economy the mayor of the capital is asking president to reinstate the strict lockdown. The numbers are overwhelming but has reached 27000 cases and around 600 dead the country has more than 88000 cases and almost 50000 deaths we need to prepare to go back to a strict quarantine. Staying at home might be the only way to protect the Health System reaching a critical state with something difficult to implement again in this and other countries in latin america with a Large Population working informally hand to mouth the needs to be on the streets every day to survive at least in the. Mississippi senators have voted to replace the state flag the last in the nation to display the confederate battle emblem the votes being carried by the state senate 37 to 14 after being passed by the house earlier many see the current design as racist because of his links to slavery in the south a proposed new design will be voted on in. This update from new york on the significance of the mississippi vote. Its a historic moment really when lawmakers in mississippi on sunday voted to get rid of this flag a flag thats been around for a 126 years as part of the state of mississippi but they voted to take it out at this particular moment because of the recent black lives matter and Civil Rights Movement that has been sweeping over the country after the killing of george 48 in minnesota and so that is the context on why lawmakers were bringing up this contentious flag now theyve been talking about it for several years many people arguing for years that this flag needed to be changed because it did have this confederate battle emblem on it a battle emblem that is often used by white nationalists and in the United States and and its seen as a symbol that does not fit in 2020 now and especially in a state of like mississippi where its over 35 percent of the population is black americans but there was some pushback to it thats why it took so long for this to come about this change there were some that argued lawmakers and others that argued that this flag was part of the tradition and history and should not be changed nevertheless it was with this really historic vote in the senate 37 votes to 14 to remove this flag the last state flag in america that has the confederate battle emblem on it now to go to the governor of mississippi who is expected to sign this into law he said he would sign whatever that whatever the legislature agreed upon and then it will go to a 9 person panel that will come up with a new design for a new flag that will be voted on by the residents of mississippi coming in november. Starbucks is the latest company to pull ads from facebook over concerns that the media giant has become a platform for hate speech the Coffee Company follows other multinationals like cocacola unilever and levis civil rights leaders have been calling for a boycott of facebook saying it doesnt do enough to stop racist and violent content on friday facebook announced it will tag potentially harmful posts forces loyal to libyan well actually if i have to say theyre deploying reinforcements to regions they hold in the center of the country this video from the self declared Libyan National army is said to show fighters been sent to the regions of call for and sirte the u. N. Recognize government of National Accord has pushed back after us forces from the capital tripoli on wednesday arab leaders called for a truce and peace talks between the warring science Sudanese Security forces have arrested at least 122 people they say intended to fight as mercenaries in libya a spokesperson for sudans powerful Rapid Support forces says 72 of those arrested in darfur were from an armed group led by a notorious jonjo we later turn to read fighters fought in darfur in the early 2000 that accused of killing and raping civilians i said the middy daughter that they have not received information at the beginning of this month to a number of citizens in this area have been deceit in the cricket to work mess and beat in libya based on the information we form the joint Security Force and we sent them to various Darfur States we have been able to arrest this group which includes 122 men who use their power to sit down with National Wealth should not be used in this way in february we were at another group of 243 people who were created from various states to work as mercenaries in libya. Malawis opposition leaders been sworn in as president marking a historic result in african politics lazarus or whoever won the Election Rerun with just under 59 percent of the vote the 65 year old faces many challenges on the toss of reports. Lazarus to create a new leader spent time talking about Good Governance and uniting the nation in his inaugural speech the form up into coastal preacha city no said people didnt want him as a president his swearing in came off to months of protests against last years disputed election that left the country its a divided the new president asked malawians to give him a chance to earn their trust with your help. Where were his store and new generations frame. In the possibility of having our government that serve. Not our government our room. A government that is fired. Not a government that if youre in. The government that listens that a government that shows. A government that fights for you im not against. That would mean trying to work with his political rivals supporters a former president. Whos criticized a president ial run saying when i was Electoral Commission you know when i see any c. Made a mistake these are perhaps the worst elections are held in the history of mali and we believe any scene needs to ensure that it will hold the principles of quality elections in milan or otherwise researching a very very bad precedent for future elections in my. Career is promising to tackle corruption poverty and create much needed jobs in one of the poorest countries in the world most of malawis budget comes from foreign aid the greatest challenge now is how do we set things right how do we rebuild malawi and this is a task that is huge great promises were made by the politicians and now it is up to them to achieve those promises or else pay the price at the next elections. Is the 1st time in africa a Court Ordered election has led to victory for an opposition candidate over the decades the continent has sometimes had a turbulent history with democracy some leaders a stage in office for much longer than the mandates required people are closely watching to clear who is promising a new start for malawians but can he deliver. Still ahead on aljazeera why the United Nations is calling for urgent measures to spare civilians in myanmar struck 9 states as thousands flee. And a lot of the action from englands i think cup quarter finals with the way teams have only one for the 1st time in over 13 years. Hello there still a trench continuing through all central areas of china this time of year that my you from begins to nudge a bit further tools and often this is why we have seen in particular the heavy rains in Sichuan Province but just look at this some dramatic images caught as a landslide actually took place now amazingly the no injuries asshole despite these huge slabs of row that came down all the way to 69 people did have to be a really catered to safe places but you can just see how winds but of course these floodwaters are and as we go through monday there is more of the same very likely in the full cost in particular some very heavy rain working its way across the n. S. A. Pushing across into the Korean Peninsula and eventually choose a work its way into Western Areas of japan again this could be some very heavy rain and here is what it could lead to some flooding and some localized mudslides niwa in civil central so that i was the china still those areas of heavy rain but a little bit more in the way of dry conditions now across into india the monsoon rains making very Good Progress this year but same time the downside again here is flooding said the fall north east of india state in particular as scenes of very heavy downpours and you can see here just how much it has inundated these buildings but also many of the villages the next few days the rains will stay across the northeast be whole states as well west bengal and all the while the rains continuing down the west down tools carola. Donald presence on Donald Trump Jr was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton an obligation to seek an investigation seductress did the Trump Campaign collude with russia did you at any time of the urge the former f. B. I. Director james comey in any way shape or form the closer the backdown the investigation into Michael Flynn and also as you will know next question battlefield washington on aljazeera. Heard. You want to know it is either a reminder of our top stories this hour across the world half a 1000000 people are known to have died from corona virus and more than 10000000 have been infected a quarter of all those infections and deaths are in the United States which is by far the worst hit country. In brazil protesters have been demonstrating against president shadid also not of his handling of the crisis theyve set out a 1000 crosses in the capital brazil is the 2nd worst hit country in the world. Mississippi senators have voted to replace the state flying the last in the nation to display the confederate battle emblem many see the current design is racist because of its links to slavery in the south. The u. S. President has denied reports that hes been briefed on intelligence about russia paying taliban fighters to target american troops in afghanistan on choppers or fell into a New York Times article which cited Anonymous Sources saying russian spies paid taliban fighters to kill u. S. Soldiers in a tweet the president called it fake news he says none of his predecessors have been as tough as him on russia that comment was refuted by House Speaker nancy pelosi who accused trump of siding with russias leader Vladimir Putin. This is as bad as it gets and yet the president will not confront the russians on this or denies being whether he is or not his that ministration knows and our allies who were some of our allies who will work with us in afghanistan have been briefed and accept this report just as ive said to the president with him all roads lead to putin he will not he will i dont know what the russians have on the president politically personally financially or whatever it is but he wants to ignore he wants to bring them back into the g. 8 despite the annexation of crimea and the invasion of ukraine Konrad Greenberg is director of the center on National Security at the Fordham University school of law shes joining us now live from new york thank you very much indeed for being with us is this the kind of intelligence that the president would normally automatically be briefed on. Yes if this is a story that actually has some merit to it rich if the New York Times is right it seems to be that of that he would be briefed on it and not just him but his closest advisers would be breach done and we think that there would be some kind of investigation into the validity of it and some kind of sense of how to respond and what to do so if he wasnt briefed on it that too is a problem because if there was a story out there from intelligence sources or elsewhere then its the kind of thing that needs to be brought to the attention of the president and so either way whether he was briefed or not briefed and this actually was information that was in the Intelligence Community in the National Security council alina then either way it doesnt look good for the president is there is a suggestion that this may have gone into his written Daily Briefing and the president is renowned for not really wanting to read. Certain items is it possible that the briefing went into that and hes simply missed it and somebody didnt bring it to his attention. Yeah i mean yes you could say that and there are reports that it was in the p. D. P. The president s Daily Briefing however its incumbent upon those who advise him to tell him what needs to come to his attention and this is a powder keg of a story its in the middle of negotiations going on with the taliban in the middle of an attempt to have a peace deal on the table that is realized there its also part of a story about this constant as nancy pelosi said speaker of the house this constant what is the president of the United States doing for Vladimir Putin and so its bringing together a lot of different standard strands at a very important to time namely the run up to the election and all of the tension surrounding that well so the timing of this is interesting because it came in march right at the top allegedly right at the time when the coronavirus was 1st occupied so much of the attention of the president and his close aides advisors and so. There could be excuses one way or another of why he didnt get this information but there really is no excuse if this information is valid that he didnt get it. Whatever one you want to. Just finally and very briefly how common is this kind of tactic that russia is alleged to have employed in this case. The tactic being this it if in the area of afghanistan pakistan and Intelligence Services who is using who is. To do their bidding which groups its an incredibly cloudy complicated and untrustworthy area and if you study the history of the region over the past many decades knew you theres always a little bit of whos on whose side whos doing what so its not unusual but it is unfortunate and it just highlights the complexity of the region and how difficult it is to know whos really on whose side and whos doing what but when youre in the middle of peace talks you really need a level of trust that this story be trays really interesting to get your point of view in this congress we really appreciated our knowledge as if thank you very much indeed thank you thousands of people in memoirs rock and state have fled from their homes at the prospect of military raids the un says urgent measures are needed to save civilian lives villages were ordered to leave as the army prepared to launch an operation against the out of khan army its a rebel group which wants more self rule for ethnic or heine buddhists they order to evacuate has been called off after the u. K. Australia the us and canada calls for an end to the socalled Clearance Operations refugees and humanitarian groups say the operations are a cover for military crackdowns the military had used the term clearance operation in 2017 when they targeted the hinge a Muslim Minority that led to accusations of genocide chore when is executive director of the Burma Human Rights Network he says raids are still taking place despite the assurances of state officials. What were hearing is that it is just to show that the call of it is not true they have still conducting some operations a lot of operations on the ground and i contacted myself my team also contacted a lot of people on the ground theyre saying that they have been hearing the shelling than hiring and firing and they are so many. Location civilians have been detained to interrogate and bear in mind the interrogator regaling in torturing so they are facing torture because the rock and i think the kind of worries but they are still because they are supporting. An economy konami so they try to create fear and pressuring the population to give them the information where they are about and in the meantime as. We reported within 48 hours for civilian has been killed and there are several injured and also there are a couple of villages the houses have been turned on by the shelling by the military activity and also we are also learning that. 111 month old baby was killed few days ago so the military operation is continuing no matter how the community is crying and talking about it to stop this so this military operation is clearly breaching. You know. Provision measure the International Criminal court of justice has you know ordered them to stop all kind of activities that theyre going to suffer in your community in so theyre feeling breaching this or that. The green party appears to have made a major gains in frances local elections one president in my or my calls party has struggled its the 2nd round of polls for mares and municipal councillors which was delayed because of the coronavirus lockdown theres a bottle reports from. Victory for and go and a 2nd term as mayor of paris the socialist candidate who teamed up with the green party to run on an environmental platform for the city she promised to continue her drive to cut cars and pollution and help the french capitals economy recover from the covert crisis was that this was the list was that this was you know that youve chosen hope youve chosen unity chosen oppose the bradys a city that leaves no one behind it or goes nearest rival conservative candidate. Conceded defeat a former Justice Minister on the Nicholas Sarkozy sheet campaign to clean up the city and crack down on crime trailing behind was aeneas preserve the candidate for president emmanuel macro centrist policy failed to complete its focuses of a message about his unity but i want to thank all president s he swam against the tide to place their hope and confidence in asked by voting for a list i take on board the result. The 2nd round of the local elections took place more than 3 months after the 1st it was delayed because of the coronavirus lock down the Health Crisis and likely factor in the historically low voter turnout many restrictions have been lifted in france which is why these elections can finally take place there are other of course special measures in a polling station mosques are mandatory social distancing has to be respected and everybody who works here is behind a perspex screen across france they would big gains for the greens taking cities including but it was a crushing day for the president s party the fail to win any major seats micro created his republican the move party to help him win the presidency in 2017 but his struggle to expand its supporter base his party has suffered from the unpopularity of my coin self there was lots of trouble in the past 2 years and in the middle of a pandemic you dont expect a reward for the for the government certainly not in france where people are criticizing a lot of the power of the day local elections have little direct impact on the National Government in my craw has played down their importance of the voting in northern france he looked relaxed nevertheless 2 years before the next president ial election his partys poor results offer some indication of how much confidence voters have in his leadership and as such will be difficult to completely ignore the aljazeera paris. Pollens conservative president on 3 do the has won the most votes in the 1st round of the president ial election exit polls show received around 42 percent of the vote hell face his closest challenger or so as liberal or liberal mayor. In a run off next months opinion polls place the 2 candidates neck and neck. To english football now and f. A. Cup holders Manchester City are into the semifinals after an easy victory over newcastle that means that for the 1st time in over 30 years all the quarterfinals have been won by the away side they woodstocks as the action Manchester City completely dominated the 1st half against newcastle who only completed 15 passes in the 1st 25 minutes still it took 37 minutes for city to break through jesus was found in the books and Kevin De Bruyne us called the penalty. Newcastle did improve after the break and should have equalised what gael somehow missed an open goal and that mistake seemed worse just a minute later when Robin Stirling put the game to bed. To no city who may have lost the premier league crown to liverpool this week but could still end the season with 3 trophies theyve already won the league cup theyre still competing in the Champions League and now into the semifinals of the f. A. Cup. Theyll be up against arsenal whove won the cup 13 times more than any other team the gunners went ahead against Sheffield United midway through the 1st half with a penalty Alexander Lakas that was brought down in the books and pep 8 and the rest. Sheffield are actually a place higher than arsenal in the premier league and created more chances after the break they goalkeeper dean henderson nearly equalized with a wind assisted go kick but it bounced just over to the relief of his opposite number asshole did concede to a long throw though failing to clear the ball and David Mcgoldrick level things up with 3 minutes left it seems certain to head for extra time. But arsenal went to the other end and grabbed a victory substitute daniel chaos firing home the winner in the 91st minute 5 to one the final score arsenal on track for f. A. Cup number 14. After that it was leicester up against chelsea in sunday 2nd match leicester were the strongest side in the 1st half but didnt take their chances and they were made to regret it. Chelsea were different side after the break and ross barkley popped up off the bench to school the games only goal. So Frank Lampard team had to wembley well theyll play Manchester United you know it should be no its on saturday each of this years cup quarterfinals played behind closed doors one by the away team is the 1st time thats happened since 1987 david stokes aljazeera. This is all just here these are the top stories across the world half a 1000000 people are known to have died from corona virus and more than 10000000 have been infected a quarter of all those infections and deaths are in the United States which is by far the worst hit country. But the window is closing we have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly we need to social distance we need to wear fit more face coverings if were in settings where we cant social distance particularly in these hot zones. In brazil protesters have been demonstrating against president jedda both sonata his handling of the crisis theyve set out 1000 crosses in the capital brazils the 2nd worst hit country in the world mississippi senators have voted to replace the state flag the last in the nation to display the confederate battle emblem many see the current design as racist because of its links to slavery in the south. The u. S. President has denied reports that hes been briefed on intelligence about russia paying taliban fighters to target american troops in afghanistan donald trump has been referring to a New York Times article which cites Anonymous Sources saying russian spies paid taliban fighters to kill u. S. Soldiers and a tweet to the president called it fake news he says none of his predecessors have been as tough as him on russia that comment was refuted by House Speaker nancy pelosi who accused trump of siding with russias leader Vladimir Putins forces loyal to libyan war have to say theyre deploying reinforcements to regions they hold in the center of the country this video is from the celtic cleared Libyan National army its said to show fighters being sent to the regions of call for and support sources and told aljazeera the sudanese mercenaries loyal to have also been deployed to the regions thousands of people in manaus right hand state have been forced to flee their homes as the army prepared to launch an operation against separatists the u. N. Says urgent measures are needed to save civilian lives those are the headlines the news continues here on aljazeera after talk to all jazeera goodbye. In a highly controversial move israel was expected to onic several illegal settlements in the occupied west bank. As nothing youngs government tests the limits of regional diplomacy and security will this mean an end to the 2 state solution. Israel and its a ship on a judge. Will. See. On february 25th brazil became the 1st country in south america to report a cold 1000 infections. And is the number of cases increased over the subsequent weeks and months its president with fused to take any strong measures. He fought the state leaders who imposed lock downs and mandated social distancing will calling their actions economically ruinous. Also not all still refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the Global Pandemic hes called the virus nothing more than a little flu his priority has been to keep the economy going at any cost. But now