Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240712

And. Become specifically for the fish you know. And feasting and cattle is waters why its the perfect time for the seas gentle giants. I mean for you francis extend barely to the top of the its only in lead you very sure the points 6 goals were so short and those 7 points clear. Well we begin this news hour with wide ranging i. Q. Zation is of russian interference in the fields of both Health Research and politics the Cyber Defense organizations of 3 nations are placing blame on hackers associated with russias Intelligence Agency now brisson the United States and canada all say russian activists have been trying to steal information on covert 1000 Vaccine Research in Canada Spy Agency has now warned health. Ization is to take action to protect themselves from hackers meanwhile the u. K. Says russia also attempted to interfere in its 29000 general election by publicizing the leaked documents related to a planned Free Trade Agreement with the u. S. They were in turn used by jeremy corbins campaign against Boris Johnson and the kremlin is denying both of those allegations and all of this comes ahead of a much delayed report that the u. K. Is expected to release next week that looks into alleged russian interference in the 26000 bricks that Referendum Campaign and also the 2017 general election well lets now speak to paul brennan who is and london for us paul plenty to cover him lets start with this latest allegation of russian hacking around 1000 Vaccine Research and this is a very fast moving story what do we know at this stage. Well whats happened is that just 2 or 3 hours ago Britains National Cybersecurity Center issued an advisory its a 14 page document i printed off part of it and its an advisory to companies to say that there is a. Organization called a p t 29 it is most likely as in more than 95 percent probability linked to the russian intelligence agencies and during 2020 according to this advisory a b. 29 has targeted various organizations involved in covert 19 Vaccine Development in canada the United States and the United Kingdom whats important to say is that this advisory has been produced not just by the u. K. Its been produced in conjunction with the Canadian Intelligence Services and with 2 of the u. S. Intelligence Services National Security Agency on the part of Homeland Security as well and essentially what its alleging is that maybe 29. 00 sometimes known as the jukes otherwise known as cozy thats probably as most for a 1000000 a well known Hacking Organization has been conducting widespread kind of vulnerability scanning of large numbers of organizations governments think tanks health care. Some of the organizations that they are deliberately targeting during the course of 2020 organizations involved in trying to devise a vaccine for corona virus and on that basis this advisory has been issued and the reaction politically has been very strong indeed. Whos the foreign secretary of britain has described this as completely unacceptable he accused the pavior of a. B. 29 as it describes the selfish interests with reckless behavior and yes the a big backlash here about the revelations that have been included in this advisory paul there is so much else to discuss as well it does seem that moscow is very much on the minds of those investment stan downing street these days now allegations of poll interference in 26272019 can you break this down for us. Well its yes its a snowball and its a big snowball thats been rolling and gathering momentum throughout the day it actually started with dominic robb the Foreign Sector of the u. K. Issuing a unexpected statement before this advisory about a. P. 29 came out a written statement saying that there was evidence that Russian Hackers have been involved in trying to influence the outcome of the 2019 general election here in the u. K. On the basis of extensive analysis said mr robbs written statement the governments concluded it is almost certain that russian actors sorts to interfere through the online amplification of illicitly acquired a leaked government documents what were talking about here are leaked documents about u. S. U. K. Trade negotiations that were taking place those documents were seized upon during the general Election Campaign by the Opposition Labor Party and used to show what labor were claiming which was that the n. H. S. The Health Service would be up for sale in inverted commas if the conservative party won the general election which they did the allegation from the government is that the russians saw these documents online and tried to promote them try to give them a bigger audience in the hope that that would influence the outcome of the election and youre right theres a wider context here as well as in the sense that there is a report due out from the u. K. Intelligence and Security Committee a Parliamentary Committee a long awaited long overdue report so many will say about whether or not there was russians or parents in the bronx it voted 20162017 general election so thats 3 separate general elections sorry 3 separate votes elections where russians are either accused of or were waiting to see whether russians were involved in election tampering essentially paul brennan there for us in london breaking all of that down for us thank you very much paul well we can now speak to Patrick Diamond hes an associate professor of Public Policy at queen. Mary university of london and he was also the head of policy planning in 10 downing street under both tony blair and gordon brown he joins us now on skype from london and mr diamond i want to pick up where paul just left off there there are multiple allegations of russian interference on multiple fronts so starting with this report that were expecting soon its been kicking around for some time now but we havent yet seen it officially published you have a sense of just how damning its contents are. No its difficult i think to know in advance of the publication exactly how damning the revelations in the report will be but clearly the implications for british politics british democracy is very serious as you were just saying in the report this sense. I repeat series of votes in britain 2016201729 c. Ruled by potential interference by russian actors i think as explosive implications really for british politics and democracy is conducted i understand that its not just about exactly what activities russia pursued but also potentially about the way that theyve gone about things on social media with Cyber Espionage and i also say about influence through money potentially compromising institutions how damaging could this be potentially also for people in power. Well its as i say at this stage hard to know exactly what the revelations will mean for the careers of individual politicians and we should say at this time that theres no particular revelations being made for example about the Labor Party Jeremy Corbyn i think that the implications are more generally once the british politics and democracy under sense that perhaps our democracy is being threatened or imperiled by this russian interference it should also be said that its very unlikely that the interventions had any significant effect on the result you were just discussing for example the 2019 general election where of course the Opposition Labor Party used documents had allegedly been acquired through russian sources to try to undermine a conservative policy on the national Health Service of course the conservatives then went on to win that general election very successfully likewise in the 2016 referendum on breaks it where of course again its alleged that there was russian and ference its very unlikely that the outcome of that referendum is in any way explained by that russian intervention so i think we should be somewhat cautious about simply as humane that these kinds of interference is necessarily have a definitive consequence for democracy in politics so well is aiming and then on implications of british politics this report has been delayed for nearly a year now and is really only being released amid a bit of political wrangling within the Intelligence Committee how does this play out for the conservatives here. Well be the circumstances in which the report has been borks. Clearly has race a lot of questions about why exactly the. Report was not released earlier the author of the report of course Dominic Grieve who was an attorney general in the previous conservative administration is now lacked parliament and who got into a series of arguments with Boris Johnson and the current government over breaks it there is a loss of control to see a lot of speculation about why the report has been held back as long as it has having said that though there are many who speculate that the the revelations wont be particularly significant will damning the report tell us probably many things that we know already had to have done and then associate professor and Public Policy at Queen Mary University of london great take you inside here on out of there thank you for joining us a pleasure thank you. Well speaking of hacking twists is investigating a major breach of its systems which allowed the posting of fake messages from some of its very famous uses they include u. S. President ial contender joe biden former president barack obama and amazon boss jeff bezos hackers from a big coin scam operation targeted employees to gain access the joy of getting the reports. The fake tweets were only on screen for a few minutes but long enough for people to capture screenshots of several before they were removed which is confirmed and identified hackers broke into the accounts of high profile politicians tech company 1000000000 as and celebrities in a scam apparently designed to leo people into sending money to an anonymous bitcoin account twitter followers were offered 2000. 00 for every 1000. 00 they sent this was an account all about opportunity and what youre seeing is you know very high profile people reach a lot of people very quickly because you know something that can be turned into cash very quickly anonymously so i think somebody found a very clever way to extract a lot of money from people in a very quick amount of talent that might also be a demonstration of twitters weak Security Control as campaigning steps up for the president ial election in november a contest in which twitter is likely to play an influential role u. S. President Donald Trumps account which has more than 83000000. 00 followers was not among those hacked chief executive jet doocy said tough day for us at twitter we all feel terrible this happened we diagnosing and well share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened i think were probably very lucky that people who took a very very chose to use it as a crude scam really i think it could have been very much more impactful. I cant really imagine different ways it could have played out i think were quite lucky that responsibility has been surfaced in way that was relatively benign the bitcoin account mentioned in the fake tweets received 12. 9 bitcoins by the end of wednesday equivalent to around 114000. 00 roughly half that in bitcoin was withdrawn from the account the same day Victoria Gate and b. Aljazeera. Now facebook the e. U. And the u. S. Say theyre studying a ruling by europes top court which scraps a data sharing privacy agreement the decision prevents Tech Companies from transferring european citizens material to the u. S. Alexei obrien reports the case was called Facebook Ireland and shrooms 4 words that could have major Global Implications sram says all that and privacy activist meke shrimps so were really really happy with his judgment he launched legal action against facebook and its European Headquarters in ireland arguing his darter wasnt protected when it was transferred to the social media giant servers in the us. The case went from ireland to europes top cotton oxenberg where judges agreed with him 5 Commission Implementing decision e. U. 2016 well of on that 50 is invalid. The court has ordered the scrapping of an agreement called the previously shield which was supposed to keep the doctor of european customers safe when it was transmitted across the atlantic not because many u. S. Tech companies are obliged to give some access to government surveillance the court found that safety cant be ensured this has been seen as the way in which the European Commission has bowed down to u. S. Influence and the court of justice claims that this is not enough so what happens now with the Privacy Shield is that a lot of data transfers are going to have to be stopped. Max rahms has been here before this is the 2nd major data deal thats been spiked because of him the 1st was previously shields pretty serious are called safe harbor the cases stem from revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden that the u. S. Government was snooping on peoples online data and communications i think the only solution we can possibly see is serious surveillance reform in the u. S. Because that now becomes a business interest in the Silicon Valley will simply realize that either in the us laws are going to be changed to a certain extent or they will literally have to move a lot of their operation to europe and even split their systems into 2 parts the u. S. Government says its deeply disappointed by the latest decision on facebook in the European Union a study in the ruling i know such as us and businesses seeking surance today on both sides of the atlantic so let me be clear we will continue our work to ensure the continuity of safe officials. Who are doing up hold another global data sharing mechanism used by thousands of companies for things like Cloud Storage payroll and finance while the e. U. And the us must now work out a new way to share data the court stressed that all previously watchdogs must do more to keep users material safe elixir brian al jazeera. British court of appeal has ruled that a schoolgirl who travel to syria to join eisel shouldnt be allowed to return to the u. K. I mean a baguette who is now 20 years old had her citizen or about has citizenship revoked back in 2019 she wants to return to challenge that decision. Is hanoi and he believes the u. K. Will have a hard time arguing that she poses a real threat or i think is for the government to convince the court shes such a Security Threat that. She mustnt be allowed into the u. K. Laws without losing her citizenship and thats going to be somewhat difficult when the u. K. Government accepted 400. 00 resumes some of which were male voices and who salvage a bed in itself in poem and accepted some of which were not in significant risks themselves so when you compare the people the type of people who are governments admitted have come back already as a 15 Year Old Girl who went to school to isis and by all accounts spent her time as a housewife if 3 children. Then one has to wonder what is the Security Risk that that person poses and some of the leaders feeding the issue is well which country would take somebody in these circumstances where. The u. K. Government has expressed this strong desire not to have back the all been about this is whether its even legal more than potentially quite innocently be burdened with somebody who is not their problem so unfortunately s. D. F. And the Kurdish People find themselves having been allies of the u. K. Or america burdened with u. K. Citizens and foreign citizens whove got nothing to do with. There is plenty more ahead for you on this news hour including how state television and ethiopia got it wrong about the giant new dam which is infuriating the neighborhoods. Bouncing back from the coronavirus slump its better news for chinas economy but whats the problem with Consumer Spending. And in sports and night of celebration in portugal as the Football League title is decided. As a by johns foreign minister has been sacked for what the president calls meaningless negotiations with neighboring armenia thats as more fighting broke out on the border despite both sides saying theyre trying to find a peaceful solution at least 16 people have now been killed since sunday tension between the former soviet republics has been escalating for several years over the disputed region of nick on a car back well we can now speak to our correspondent robin forester walker hes covered this conflict extensively and he joins me now live from tbilisi in neighboring georgia robin now that azerbaijans foreign minister is gone where does that leave any attempts at resolution here. Well thats thats hes being replaced of course it will be another foreign minister taking his state. Of but mr had a lot of experience in the role hed been in it since 2004 thats you know 16 years he knew the inside and outs of the negotiating process the technicalities of course all the personalities. The organizing body that conducts and holds these talks is run by the oversee and chaired by the u. S. France and russia and then now that hes gone somebody else will have to be starting afresh of course he wasnt the policy maker that would have been president and its been mr decision signaling his displeasure at the peace talks negotiations not leading anywhere for azerbaijan not resolving the disputed territory of new going to care about weve had this breakout in fighting weve seen precedented scenes of as aries. Entering the parliament in baku and calling for war and this looks like a step by mr lee of towards placating the National Mood being seen to be doing something and finding a scapegoat perhaps in his foreign minister the calling for the sides to come back to the negotiating table but weve had another confirmation now of the of another azeri servicemen losing his life and so for the time being. The fear is that theyll be more of this kind of low level conflict and more more people dying in the coming in the coming hours and days unless. A cease fire can hold here. Rather than for us to walk across all those developments for us from tbilisi in georgia thank you very much. Ethiopia says it has not started filling the reservoir of africas largest despite reports the increase in the water level is being attributed to seasonal heavy rain and a natural part of the construction process on the blue nile river ethiopia has told sudan the dam gates have not been closed both egypt and sudan fear reduced Water Supplies downstream and dont want the river dam until a binding agreement is reached the 5000000000. 00 dam has caused nearly a decade of tension now between those 3 countries the Hydroelectric Project is the centerpiece of ethiopias bid to become africas biggest power export and ethiopia is the source of the blue nile which flows through sudan and then merges with the white nile flowing through egypt the european government says at full capacity the dam will be able to turn on the lights to 70000000 ethiopians who have no electricity but egypts 100000000 people who rely on the naafa 90 percent of their water especially for agricultural irrigation mohammad valve has more now on the confusion surrounding the status of this project. Its difficult to know whats going on at the damage because there was no access to it by International Media no experts are visiting no foreign delegations are visiting the damn site so we can only hear from the europeans and they said something when they came back and said Something Different we can only analyze that particularly this this situation since yesterday a situation of confusion at least for people outside the chopper can benefit each opens they want probably to test not only the dams capacity if indeed they try to fill it they began to fill the lake thats a technical test for the dam itself whether it works or not and this could be the biggest or the most important test because there were concerns technically speaking about whether the dam can really support this idea of you know holding up to 74000000000 cubic meters so a test will be good a test or saw of the actions of the countries downstream sudan and egypt and the International Community and particularly the u. S. And the u. N. In the world bank who have been partners in the negotiations to resolve this dispute so they can gather a lot of. Conclusions from what happened yesterday and thats going to benefit them going ahead because they have to know what to do in these tough negotiations. Now gyptian president out of hot l. C. C. Has been approved to send military into libya by a delegation of tribal leaders they support ward cleaver have to end his offensive against the u. N. Back to administration in tripoli the request comes from the rival to Brooke Administration the president released a statement just saying egypt will not stand idle in the face of any moves that pose a direct threat to an egyptian and Libyan National security. Well the United Nations is warning that time is running out for a derelict oil tanker stranded off the west coast of yemen for 5 years now but i think Yemeni Government and her fighters lay claim to its valuable cargo and neither side is budging but the truth is are promising to allow a u. N. Safety team on board to prevent a giant oil spill or about an early reports and oil tanker in trouble in a troubled region the rusty vessel named safe has more than a 1000000 barrels of crude oil on board its been stranded of the russe a salt terminal on yemens west coast for more than 5 years only ship with valuable cargo is contestants between yemens internationally recognized government and the hooty enemies one rots in the sun the u. N. Deems the tankers so unsafe that it could wreck ecosystems and livelihoods for decades if its called the leaks if the spill werent really you know occurring extreme arms. Project at 1600000 yemenis would be directly affected every Fishing Community along yemens west would see their livelihoods collapse and would suffer substantial economic losses. Favor with previously owned by yemens government and seize by the who it is of they seize control of the capital sanaa in 2014. Yemens government wants the tank back the proposal consisted of 3 stages 1st assessment and necessary repairs to basic maintenance and facilitating or you extraction and 3 disposal of the tank and that all potential revenue from the sale of oil is to be used as a contribution to paying salaries so the servants in yemen. The government of yemen have agreed to this and the hoosiers have not saudi arabia attacked the port in 2016 as the whities attempted to retrieve the shipment of oil 800 is what killed the port was targeted again by the saudis in 2017 the whoses say theyre allowed to un team of engineers on board in the next few weeks the tank is ungood near one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes and not far from the port of her data which is a lifeline to 2 thirds of yemens population but the u. N. Is concerned and all spill could prevent aids deliveries. If the tiny dont leak out a new dimension to a conflict that led to the suffering of millions. Another 1300000 unemployment claims happened filed in the United States last week new jobless claims have been mostly steady over the past month after falling over men early june as many states opened up their economies are now reopening as are being caused amid a surge in corona virus cases. Well the fortunes of the American Airline industry nosedived when coronavirus cases hit the u. S. And lines were given a bailout with 25000000000. 00 and exchange for an agreement not to lay off wackos that deal ends in september and 1 and line has already announced massive cuts john hendren reports from chicago. The u. S. Airline industry has returned to Turbulent Times as a rise in new infections stalls its recovery it does the news i because i was just on the seat with 3 people and i was like really tight the july 4th Independence Day weekend was the busiest since the pandemic began the passenger numbers have since dropped off now united is cutting 36000 jobs nearly half its u. S. Staff and others could soon follow you know i mean the streets doing traffic this way all it will be able to serve may change service us. All while a lot of people. Thats. I dont. Know. Airlines are trying to combat coronavirus fears by requiring mess its American Airlines reminded senator ted cruz after this picture appeared on twitter he says he took it off to drink his coffee as is allowed delta and others are leaving middle seats empty the united an american or not this senator wants to make the empty middle seat mandatory. Between each delta flight the entire cabin is sprayed with disinfectant and white top to bottom but your safety could depend on the passenger in the next seat certainly we cant do all the physical distancing wed want to on an airplane so you know theres no such thing as your risk. In europe and elsewhere a drop in covert 9000 cases has airlines slowly recovering but in the u. S. The industrys decline has reflected the rising arc of the virus. The Airline Industry was reverberate throughout the economy the european plane maker airbus plans to shrink and here in chicago boeing which was already having trouble with a recall of its 737. 00 max plane sold only 20 planes from april to june that compares with 149 in the previous 2nd quarter making it the companys worst quarter since 1963. Industry analysts say the key to recovery is persuading passengers theyre safe so the solution is for people to be not going to get it right to see their for. Hire change its normal die prematurely with no vaccine expected before 2021 getting all these planes back in the air could take years John Hendren Al Jazeera chicago. Castilla had here on aljazeera a matter of life or death in iran how a hash tag campaign halted the executions of antigovernment protest ends. And in support an unwanted fly past for organizers of an afghan motion raising event in the United States. Hello the mostly hot and dry throughout much of the middle east the winds fairly strong as well so quite a bit of sand and dust over the next few days or you will notice is this huge massive cloud here streaming off the west coast of india that has got an air of air pressure within it that will bring the rain towards the coast of oman not making much progress on friday is that is good about the heat the strong winds up blowing sand and it is the temperatures generally in the mid to high fortys celsius and to the north of there in turkey still wanted to show that a of course a seen some recent flooding with some very heavy rain on friday pushing into Western Areas of georgia that should die away as we go through the 1st day of the weekend but youll notice there is a system bringing the rain across into these coastal areas of amman and we could have some heavy downpours at times this could actually lead to some localized flooding but in terms of the sand and the dust not as much. On saturday then down into Southern Africa plenty of activity through Central Regions out towards the gulf of guinea but we are now enjoying a rest by those recent storms into south africa so through friday it is fine and dry as a warm day ample to those of us 23. 00 degrees celsius plenty of showers quite a strong chill flow into mozambican those showers will continue at those coastal areas all the way up tool somalia similar story today and more showers into eastern areas of madagascar. The coronavirus may fold just to change the full bot of head to head for the time being but that would stop me doing robust interviews with challenging direct questions in a u. S. Election year ill be seeking accountability from both sides of the political spectrum on whos to blame for the horrific coronavirus desktop on how to fix the Us Health Care system and whether the war of words with china is entering a new and dangerous phase join me made the awesome 1st special series of head to head on aljazeera. Growing up in harsh and unforgiving circumstances children learn to play dangerous games they exist in the studies that the story the heroes taking more and down by frustration and broken promises young men living under the constant threat of imprisonment it took me to the jeep and blindfolded me the time for them to regain control of their lives is when the boys returned prison live. On aljazeera. The. Hello there on the stone thats remind you of our top stories here this hour the u. K. Says state sponsored hackers from russia involved in trying to steal information related to private 19 Vaccine Research British Security of Officials Say that research from the u. S. And canada has also been targeted moscow denies the allegations. A British Court of appeal has ruled that a schoolgirl who travel to syria to join should be allowed to return to the u. K. To me in a bag im hired have citizenship revoked in 2019 shes challenge to that decision. And azerbaijans foreign minister has been sacked thats as more fighting broke out on the border with armenia despite both sides saying theyre trying to find a peaceful solution at least 16 people have now been killed since sunday. Well lets now turn to our top story here on alleged russian interference we can speak again col he is a former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for transnational threats at the u. S. Central Intelligence Agency and he joins us live from boston again thank you for being with us weve been hearing these repeated allegations about russian interference on multiple fronts let me ask you how sure can we be that it is russia and how they managing to do this. Well i will bet my vast life savings that this is occurring theres no question whatsoever that its occurring we know its not a secret now for decades the then soviet union and since then the russians intercepted literally every telephone call made in the United States and with computers you can process code identify words that are of interest and so on so this is just routine we also know that even after the fall of the berlin wall of the end of the cold war that the russians maintained as many Intelligence Officers operating in the United States as the cia employed global so their effort has not diminished whatsoever theres no surprise at all that they are there stealing things that they want and the top priority for russian intelligence and chinese intelligence and other intelligence agencies towards the United States is Technology Scientific know how intellectual progress and so its no surprise that well weve also seen potential interference now in the 2016201729 extension 000 votes in the u. K. Well be getting more details about that in the coming weeks but do you get the sense that there has been a shift in tactics here are the russians becoming more sophisticated over time. Well i wouldnt say either a shift in tactics or in an increase in sophistication i would say an increase in the level of activity thats something that surprised me is in interviews ive done with British Networks i have raised the point for hears that it is known that the russians Elephant Service interfered with the bricks of vote and that was not a well received statement which shocked me frankly because that is like burying ones head in the sand what has happened what has changed is that what amir putin starting about 2013. Changed his policy in and ordered the Intelligence Services to gage in a more systematic aggressive series of actions to destabilize elections and to. Disrupt russias rivals which is the European Union nato United Kingdom france United States alone glenn as you say if activity from the russian it is rattling out how then can countries protect themselves and can they protect themselves at all well yes and no the answers are that you need a robust Counter Intelligence service in the case of the United States as the f. B. I. The cia and other intelligence components of the United States government also have Counter Intelligence. Functions and roles but the primary one is the f. B. I. So thats one step you take to you need to have an aggressively informed and. Careful private sector you need to engage with google and amazon and choose the company and they need to have very robust in particular in todays world Cyber Protection measures and then the 3rd thing is that you also have to exact a cost you dont just say oh please stop this we have found your hand in cookie jar you can cause them pain too and its a its a cool reality that through mutually assured pain danger that other countries may have a 2nd thoughts and you need to be able to as Great Britain or the United States or whomever to act upon the other countries too and then you can both be restrained poss need fantasy to again call the former deputy a National Intelligence officer and the transnational threat Trans National threats im sorry at the u. S. Central Intelligence Agency always great to take you inside here on out of there again thanks for being with us here now iran is reported to have halted the execution of 3 protesters to amass a social Media Campaign demanding a reprieve the men were given death sentences following their arrests during antigovernment protests. And more than 7000000 tweets using the hash tag and do not execute a cent following that decision may some bare of ashes a political analyst at gulf states on a less aches and he says the government wanted to make it clear that it would stamp out dissent. That decision to execute these 3 young people was basically why the government was basically a at. Intimidating terrorizing. Seemingly dissatisfied and restive population in the face of increasing Economic Security environmental and social challenges that are rooted in systemic corruption mismanagement and. Incompetence of the government so basically the government is trying to send a message that the co it the coercive force is very much at hand and available and if people take the streets to protest against certain policies they will be dealt this very group falls the 2nd point though is that this ashfaq was very much produced spontaneously and on a mass scale a why people were activists and journalists mostly inside iran. Battle so shows how the society opposed arnette basically collective level the policies that the government is syrian get asshole and the rule now china is the fast major economy to report growth since the start of the 1000 pandemic government statistics show an unexpected 3. 2 percent increase in the 2nd quarter thats after the while the 2nd largest economy suffered its worst something nearly 50 years during lockdowns some industries back to normal but Consumer Spending remains down our correspondent katrina you has more from beijing on just how the government explains this economic turnaround. Well the Chinese Government has attributed it to being able to control the corona Virus Outbreak now we did have a new cluster in beijing at the end of may beginning of june that was very concerning so many neighborhoods put back into lockdown but since then some draconian measures put in place by the government seem to worked and now were back to Single Digits in terms of no local transmissions in the last few weeks also the government has been ramping up their spending of infrastructure as well weve seen new rail projects of the building projects subway stations built in beijing and other major cities and the government has also been making it easier for businesses to borrow money from banks to invest in their businesses so these a the reasons that the government is stating that weve seen this 3. 2 percent increase in g. D. P. Growth which is quite a sharp turn around from the previous quarter where we saw 6. 8 percent in terms of a contraction the 1st in decades Chinese State media here today on those they are celebrating this saying its a success it proves that the chinese measures to contain the current virus have worked then its also a beacon of hope for other economies that are struggling at the moment but of course we have to take this figure with a grain of salt because its impossible to verify these government figures but it is true if you walk around the major cities here in china certainly in beijing it does appear to be business as usual shops and restaurants are open many people are back to the office and even Domestic Travel is starting to resume now taiwan has held a new military drills meant to show off its readiness to defend itself against an attack from Mainland China president sighing when says the war games are important to show determination from abroad reports from seoul. As tensions increase with Mainland China a defiant show of strength by taiwan its latest military hardware on display much of it sold by the United States towers undertaken significant investment in military assets over the past few years and these operations give time on a real opportunity to to see and to evaluate their systems to evaluate their chains of command and see how their operations would work in times of crisis in times of peace. In times of in times of conflict Disaster Relief for instance the annual live fire drills held since the 1980s test the islands ability to fight off an attack from its far more powerful neighbor the exercises include air defense and followed by incursions by Chinese Military aircraft in recent months watching the war games taiwans president sighing when who is riding a wave of popularity for taking a more defiant stand against beijing and why the hong kong exercise is an annual major event of our military and it shows the combat power of our troops we want the world to see our determination and efforts to protect our country. Chinas growing territorial claims in the South China Sea are being resisted by the United States secretary of state mike pompei o describing the claims as completely unlawful as u. S. Warships continue their exercises in the disputed waters incurring the wrath of chinas government. Well we urge the u. S. Is stop stirring up trouble in regards to the South China Sea issue and to not keep going further down the wrong track china will continue to resolutely safeguarded sovereignty and safety set against the background of worsening relations between washington and beijing taiwan can be assured of its continuing support from the us but with these exercises also trusting in its own ability to defend the island if necessary but of the bride aljazeera. At least 213 people across south asia have died over the past month and floods and landslides caused by the monsoon rains there at least 4000000 people have been affected a fad of bangladesh is under water after the rains caused widespread flooding and more than 3600000 people have been displaced just in indias some state. Well in the United States the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to spike with over 67000 new cases reported on wednesday meanwhile the white house says distancing itself from a Senior Adviser scathing op ed attacking the countrys top Infectious Disease expert mike hanna reports. Weeks of failed white house criticism of dr Anthony Party culminated in an all out attack by Peter Navarro President Trumps economics adviser in a newspaper column here cuse the Infectious Diseases expert of being wrong all the time dr fox he responded in a magazine interview saying the country needs to stop this nonsense and focus on the surging virus rather than political games referring to the white house dr fox he said its only reflecting negatively on them President Trump insisted Peter Navarro was speaking only for himself were all in the same day including dr felt you have a very Good Relationship with dr g. And were all in the same team we want to get rid of this mess that china sent us so everybodys working at the same line that were doing very well this rosy view of the crisis has been one point of disagreement between the president and dr funky whos warned of grave consequences from the beginning of the pandemic but i think if you talk to reasonable people in the white house they realize that was a major mistake on their part because it doesnt do anything but reflects poorly on them that there was also disagreement about the easing of mitigating measures as President Trump urged states to open up as quickly as possible and dr felt she advised against large gatherings of people while President Trump went ahead with a Campaign Rally in tulsa last month one of those who attended was oklahomas governor kevin stood and hes become the 1st u. S. Governor to test positive for the virus. The latest point of disagreement is President Trumps insistence that schools open none should chill discounting dr fox he said vice that the metrics of the pandemic in each area should determine if or in what manner students should go back to school thats an opinion shared by many teachers concerned that their own safety is not being taken into account in the administrations desire to return to normal its not only dr fogey who no longer has the presidency or the administration has ordered hospitals to send all coronavirus data directly to the Health Department here in washington not the centers for Disease Control in atlanta effectively sidelining the body that has been at the forefront of the battle against every previous pandemic in an apparent bid to end public concern about dr fall trees diminished role the Vice President tweeted about the latest Coronavirus Task force meeting here at least still appears to be listening to what dr fox has to say mike hanna washington. Force is next here on out there and and you bend to same to stay on top of that friend 9th consecutive italian title and you will be here with that story straight. Well it is now time for sports and i see theres been some excitement on the football plenty of goals in its events are suffering a bit of a setback as they look to secure a 9th strike syria on the League Leaders shared the points and 6 goals was to swallow so much like reports. It was the night of. The drama has serry our leaders eventis faced 8th place us all away after dropping points in their last 2 matches it looked early on at least that you they were finally in for an easy ride have goals from danny low and then gonzalez are going gave them a 2 goal cushion within the 1st 15 minutes 5 busses swallow whove taken points from last year one into in recent weeks were not going down without a fight was phillip jurisich pulling one back just before the half hour mark the home side then turned the much on its head early in the 2nd half 1st Dominico Berardi got them level with Francesco Caputo giving them an unlikely 32 lead just moments later. That advantage only lasted 10 minutes though alexander getting u. V. On level terms with about 25 minutes left to play swallow did push for a winner but just couldnt pull off the opposite 33. 00 the final score another starter for you ventas as they look to seal a 9th School Better in a row so hell malick aljazeera. Well after that result events as have extended their latest 7 points and the top of the cycle that could be cut to 6 if in 2nd but spell lights are on this thursday last series title hopes dented again by drawing no mail against utilize it. Around which it could secure the Spanish League stance for the 1st time in 3 years in just a few hours entertains the downside of one all 9 of their games since the league restarted a win against villareal would give them the championship for a record 34th time if their closest rivals barcelona fail to beat off the sooner than rail will be champions regardless of their results. Portside have secured the Portuguese League title they did so by beating sporting lisbon to no means they have an unassailable 8 point lead over 2nd place benfica with syrians of matches to go. And liverpool missed out on the chance to set a new points record in the English Premier League a pair of defensive aerosol amusing to see what an asshole the reds needed to win all their remaining games to be the 100 points by man city 2 seasons ago i was going to fast forward your franchise apologised for breaking safety protocols ahead of the 2nd test against the west indies archer dropped from the same for breaching rules designed to give all players safe from coronavirus the world cup winner stopped off at his home on route c. Manchester from southampton following englands defeat in the 1st test archer now has to spend 5 days in isolation while england batting 1st at all trafford after the win these one the sauce england caps injury scoring 23 and his return to that same home side of progress 212 for 3 australia have named a provisional squad for a limited overs tour of england in september the details of the trip yet to be finalised juta carved 19 the series would be australias 1st cricket since the coronavirus pandemic brought sportswear halts in early march. Were hopeful we were up to me but there are. Who are. We doing that we are. Alive now. We want to we want. Our. And a Confederate Flag was flying over an american most are racing circuit before nascars allstar race the flag has been officially banned by nascar due to its links with slavery and racism this fly past was organized by a Group Opposed to the ban of the 1st time since the coronavirus lockdown a limited number of fans were allowed to attend this particular race. Ok looking financed thanks so much andy well castles waters host some of the largest gatherings of whale sharks in the wild they are the parents biggest fish and research has found that they come here to feed on the abundance of fish eggs in the waters stephanie death at decca got exclusive access to head out to sea and swim with his gentle giants. For scanning the waters but not for these playful visitors. Think. Theyre going to have more with the element of. Weve traveled almost 2 hours off the qatari coast to find these majestic animals the whale shark the biggest fish in the world and they gather here in huge numbers mohammed el jaida the head of the Whale Shark Research project here explains the biggest emitter we recorded by a drone is 350 with one shot but in our database we have more than 600 record the. World record. A bucket list moment as they say. Our 1st glimpse of these enormous gentle giants. Its hard to describe the feeling of swimming alongside them watching them feed a feeling like tiny insignificant yet privileged guests in their world. Camera man nick porter and i surface after swimming with them for the 1st time. In a critical. Week for. The scale of what we are witnessing only really becomes apparent once you take to the sky and why do they come here the main thing in this area is the temperature the war you see if you go 5 or 6 kilometers out of this the water temperature is about between 32 to 34 average 32 degrees centigrade in this area here. About 2728. 00 its the best or the ideal temperature for fish to breed so when they breed or spawn here the shark comes for the brought in you know they come specifically for the fish you know the caviar you know. Part of the shark family they are filter feeders and they are categorized as endangered unsurprisingly mostly due to mans activities. Research had been going on into this population since 2010 together with some of the Major Energy Companies but has been put on hold in the last few years the local teams are keen to get things moving again back on the boat so how was it just unbelievable to see how many will sharks. And this area here also eager to join us on our trip. A qatari world traveler he has never seen such a gathering before and the maldives we were to go in and spend 4 hours to spot one will show one will sharks and the money and then he and his like everywhere everywhere only miss will shock. The doctors as though there were the other one is coming that theyre not going i mean saying its not enough something you know you sleep now and then hurt them but its her 50 maybe degree and here the water is below 30 feet im not in the country now we get back into the water its hard to end such a unique and special experience for now there is no way for the public to come here but were told its being looked into raising awareness could also be a way to ensure more protection and more research into this whale shark population. It is a privilege to host these graceful sea giants and we all have a jiechi to play our part in protecting them Stephanie Decker aljazeera of the qatari coast. That is a tremendous if and this news and they dont go away ill be back in just a few minutes with more of the days news here on out is there. A Global Pandemic mass protests demanding change economic recession and geopolitical tensions not to mention the small matter of a looming election join me Steve Clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u. S. Politics and society on aljazeera. Reporting in the field means i often get to witness not just news this is breaking but also history as its unfolding crossing from serbia to hungry to read one day i might be covering politics and the next around my covering protests. But whats most important to me is talking to people understanding what they are going through so that i can convey the headlines in the most human way possible. We believe everyone has a story worth hearing. Stories of life. And inspiration. A series of short documentaries from around the wilds. That celebrate the human spirit against the odds come up come to something. Aljazeera selects change makers. As protests rage over Police Brutality and coronavirus grips the nation campaigning on the election trail has been forced to take a back seat will the president ial candidates ever hit the road and sell their brand of politics to americans before the vote follow the u. S. Elections on a. Russia is accused of trying to steal back scene days after the coronavirus and a vote meddling in the u. K. Moscow denies the allegations. And again im the star of the attack and that is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the british woman who went to syria to join eisele when she was a schoolgirl with the right to return and challenge the removal of her citizenship. As about jons foreign minister is sacked as fighting continues on the volatile border with on media