Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240713

The u. K. Government comes under fire from the opposition for its response to the pandemic during a virtual session of parliament. As many of us stayed home environments getting a bit of a break just in time for the 50th Birthday Well tell you why the fight for the plan is as important as ever this year. The us has called for iran to be held accountable after teheran successfully launched its 1st military satellite irans revolutionary guard says the country is now able to monitor the world from space washington has accused iran in the past of using its Space Program as a cover for Missile Development from teheran so the reports. On wednesday morning the world a will to news of a secret operation carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary guards from a launch site in iran central desert it successfully used a 2 stage rocket to put its 1st military satellite in space. The newer or light is now 425 kilometers above us orbiting earth the head of the revolutionary guards says it gives irans military new strategic advantages or that. It is a necessity for such powerful Defense Forces like the revolutionary guard to have access to advanced capabilities today the powerful armies of the world have no comprehensive defense plan if they dont have a place in space for today we can monitor the world from space and it means boosting strategic data for the i. R. G. C. It putting the satellite into orbit gives us the technological advantage of it and its also a powerful asset in the intelligence war in iran has put satellites in space before but the success of the nur comes after several failures in recent years its expected to be used for intelligence gathering secure military Communications Navigation and reconnaissance whatever leaders need to support from the sky irans military assets on earth and the satellite is in the days only technological development. The difference between the satellite and previous ones is that its propulsion the uses a combined solid and liquid fuel only a few superpowers have this capability and only a few countries the rest are consumers of this technology. Its a proud moment for irans revolutionary guards. The group suffered a major setback to its reputation after the accidental shoot down in january of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 all 176 people on board were killed since the beginning of the 21st century iran despite diplomatic and economic isolation has managed to develop the Technology Necessary to elbow its way into an elite club along with rivals like the United States and israel as well as allies like russia china india iran is one of only a dozen countries in the world with the homegrown Rocket Technology to launch its own satellites into space seen basra the old a 0 to one. Lets bring in our White House Correspondent kimberly how for more on pumpin those comments how the big question of course is how does the u. S. Plan to hold iran accountable for launching a satellite yeah and so far the department of defense has not offered any specifics even though that is what the secretary of state promised however i can tell you that just the last hour or so Kellyanne Conway advisor counselor to the president told me that lit iran should consider the tweet the Early Morning tweet on wednesday by the u. S. President to be a warning that tweet of course reading in fact that. The tweet from the president i have instructed the United States navy to shoot down and destroy any and all iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea the department of defense saying that the United States has the right to do what they believe is necessary to keep its people safe heres what the u. S. Secretary of state had to say a designated terrorist organization launched a missile today. And leave to the part of defense to talk about the details about that but when you talk about the u. N. Security Council Resolution 2231 i think every nation has an obligation to go to the United Nations and evaluate whether this Missile Launch was consistent with that security Council Resolution i think it remotely is and i need i think iran needs to be held accountable now again top officials at the pentagon saying that the u. S. Has the right to defend itself and iran should be careful of its interactions if the u. S. Sees any hostile act it has the right to respond it believes including with the use of lethal force once again coming out of the pentagon just as we heard in the white house not so long ago is that iran should take these actions on the warning by the u. S. President seriously they say specifically this is a warning to our adversary all right good stuff after we can believe how White House Correspondent. The u. S. Secretary of state is also commented on israeli plans to imax the west bank might pump aoe said the move is a decision for the new government in israel to make were glad that theres a now fully formed government in israel as for the adaptation the west bank. Theres really will ultimately make those decisions as thats an israeli decision and we we will work closely with them to share with them our views of this in a private setting. Our aforesaid is in west jerusalem joins us live from there so harry these comments come just as israels put together a new government hows it likely to interpret these words. Well yes i 1 think it will be seen as a signal of support for israels new Prime Minister or a continuing Prime Minister in this new government Benjamin Netanyahu might pompei are also saying that the United States welcomes this unity government between netanyahu and his former opponent benny gantz i mean if you go back to january which is when the trump peace plan was announced that was really the imprimatur of approval for annexation of large parts of the occupied west bank by israel and Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that he wanted to get on with that straight away but the brakes were put on by jarrad cush the president s son in law shortly afterward saying that there had to be this mapping procedure involving both u. S. And israeli officials delineating exactly what areas around the settlements how much of the Jordan Valley and so on was precisely going to be annexed so the brakes were put on the some extent there but now 2 things have changed we have this this signal from the u. S. Secretary of state which in some ways it is something of a restatement of the u. S. Position but more crucially we have this government and as part of this government the 2 sides negotiated away any chance of a veto over an accession by benny gantz he had long called for other International Bodies to be consulted and involved in any moves towards an accession and now it is solely the province of Benjamin Netanyahu to bring it to the cabinet and indeed the Israeli Parliament the knesset any time from july the 1st onward so it could be if there are these discussions as pompei referred to in private between the u. S. And israel and they get the green light in most and they get the green light from the knesset sometime in early july it could be that that things start moving pretty swiftly. Thats the view from west jerusalem with her forces there lets thank you ms continue this though with brian joins us by skype from ramallah in the occupied west bank and i guess palestinians there must be bracing for impact given what harris said about potentially what july things picking up. And they know that they have been issue of annexation has been used a lot in the campaigns of most contenders now that they are themselves in one unity government one was talking about working that move out with the International Community one that said you know with advocated for an immediate annexation so felt finians have been warning the world really that israelis are Going Forward with this move which is considered illegal under International Law weve spoken to the p. L. O. As member of the executive committee and then ostrov who says that the this announcement by secretary pump aoe not only encourages israel to continue its actions but gives us a cover really to annex and steal more land secretary pompei who himself has the remarks in the past has been seen as very pro israeli including considering the illegal israeli settlements which are in the occupied west Bank Including East Jerusalem he said that the us no longer considers considers the 2nd meant as illegal and indeed the u. S. And israel have been enjoying a very good relations namely between President Trump and Prime Minister netanyahu weve seen the u. S. Move its embassy to jerusalem considering it is way to capital shut down the p. L. O. Office in d. C. As well as cutting the funding for the honor roll which is the United Nations organization that deals with refugees so all of that comes as i mean this is the mark happening today doesnt come as a surprise for many palestinians but indeed it takes the story to another level it it seems that they israelis are been given more of the green light to continue their actions on the ground of course we know must say that for palestinians living under occupation in the west bank the situation might not. On the ground as they are already doing on that military occupation to end but they still feel that israel is moving forward a swift as possible under the tenure of trump to kind of see what can be done and what is there and can get away with really in the era of. Thanks so much nina abraham. Now the United Nations has previously condemned the an extension the Spokes Person for the secretary general said it was not clear whether the pump aoe statement gave israel a green light im not in the analysis business but what i can tell you is that. We have in the past both the secretary general and his or mr blodgett offer have expressed great concern about possible addicks a shared new law unilateral moves. There are major opposition and i do expect mr lighton off to take. A brief to say more on this at his briefing this week in the security council. Point rabbani is coeditor of an online magazine specializing in contemporary middle Eastern Affairs he joins us by skype from washington d. C. Good to have you with us so looking at the composition of this new Israeli Government do you expect that this is going to be seen as a green light and its going to perhaps speed up the annexation plans. In a word yes it was always clear that. Period of maximum danger maximum opportunity for israeli annexation of west Bank Territory it was going to be between the conclusion of the israeli elections and the conclusion of the american president ial elections now almost a year into the process israel has a new government its in avowedly an explicitly an exit an exception Us Government and at the same time you have the administration in washington which as noted in your program is now through the voice of secretary of state my campaign and others openly encouraging israel to proceed and proceed swiftly with an accession part of this is also throwing red meat to trumps evangelical and pro israeli base ahead of the upcoming president ial election partly because perhaps some pale salivating over the prospect of armageddon and perhaps playing a personal role in a given has fanatically religious fundamentalist views and so on but its very clear that this is moving forward israel is moving forward and it is doing so effectively with the open supports of the United States do palestinians have options in how to respond to this. Yes they most certainly do have options through their own. Failures over the past 2 decades they have significantly fewer options and they otherwise would have had among their options of course are a revocation of further cooperation and coordination with israel particularly in the security spear the renunciation of the oslo agreements internationalization of the question of palestine by taking it to the United Nations to the International Criminal courts and other International Agencies and 1st and foremost by mobilizing its own people and resources around a credible and Effective National strategy whose fundamental objective is achieving national selfdetermination through confronting. Israel an International Arena and elsewhere rather than seeking further and deeper cooperation with this ongoing rabani thanks so much. Play more still ahead on the news hour including we hear from french doctors and nurses worried what lifting the lockdown will mean for them plus. Waving the red flag how the poor in colombia are calling for help to get them through the coronavirus crisis. The u. K. Government has again come under fire for its response to the pandemic this time by the new leader of the opposition it happened during the 1st virtual session in parliament 700 year history labor leader care starmer particularly focused on shortages of personal protective equipment for Frontline Health workers and the number of tests being carried out somethings going wrong and this a pattern emerging here we were slow into look slow on testing slower protective equipment are now slow to take up these offers from british. The Prime Minister said this is a National Effort and hes right about that so in that spirit can i ask the price of the 1st minister to commit to working with the opposition to identify and take up these offers from british manufacturers for protective equipment i dont accept his predecessor we could slow were going to buy the scientific advice the chief scientific advisor the chief medical officer at every step along the way if he thinks he knows better than they do with the benefit of hindsight then thats his decision but that is not the way we proceeded and its not the way we will in the future or rory challenges in london he says the new leader of the opposition has made a confident debut in parliament. Is a former lawyer and hes a former chief of Public Prosecutions in the u. K. And he was bringing some of that kind of forensic style that forensic expertise to bear in Prime Ministers questions today pushing the governments pushing dominic robb the man whos standing in for forest johnson at the moment on various issues the lack of public. Personal protective equipment for Health Care Workers being one of them this testing response to the testing being another he was saying that this is a matter of life and death asking. To confirm how many Health Care Workers have died in the coronas epidemic so far down the graph admitted that 69 Health Workers have died but he didnt have the figure to hand for the number of care workers people who work in Retirement Homes etc to hand one of the key things that. Was drilling into. This claim that the government has at the moment that it is ramping up testing for n. H. S. Workers and other people around the country that. Its capacity is now worth 40000 saying hold on a 2nd it doesnt matter what the capacity is if youre only doing 18000 tests a day which is whats being done at the moment you can talk about capacity till it till the cows come home but what really matters is how many people are actually getting the tests they need Spains Parliament is set to vote on a government proposal to extend its nationwide lockdown until may the 900 has already started easing some restrictions children can go for walks from next week and some factory and construction workers have returned to their jobs nearly 208000 people have contracted the virus in spain at least 21000 have died. All right lets get more on that and whats expected nationwide we can join martha joins us now from skype or should say from madrid via skype so marta we heard the last few days about the easing restrictions in spain and now parliament wants to extend the lockdown put it all into perspective which direction of the going. Well it looks like spain is moving in the right direction and the number of people infected has still increases in the past 24 hours which we reduced sort of the full 1000 new infections from cop in 1004 more than 400 new fatalities at 2 percent so not the big numbers that we were hearing 2 weeks ago so things are working out a little bit better today the Spanish Government is split posing 30 extension all the state of emergency lockdown until may 9th and its a formality because he already has the support on the back the back of all of the Political Parties what most of the Political Parties and so these will pass along and the new extension will begin on sunday and this extension comes with new measures as you mentioned children below 14 will be able to go out for a walk with an adult for at least 11 mile or one kilometer away from their homes and at least for one hour or so this is a new measure and he said i mean so the lock down because the children were banned to go out 6 weeks a year in lockdown in spain all these children wanted to go out for a walk and exercise and so these this making things a little b. C. S. What the government is talking now is theyre preparing for the next day said better sign to the spanish Prime Minister it says it working for the new a scenario that will be around to meet me that will mean that the escalation of the lockdown he said that these has to be slow and gradual if we have to be very cautious they dont want to misstep and he has given all the power to the Health Minister it will have the power to take any measures and to give steps forward or backward depending on this new infections or the death toll also it will depend on the region how these lockdown measures are released or are at least it will depend what region we have to remember that. That either and that alone you have in the regions with the bigger impact on the corner of outbreak and for these reasons the lockdown will not be the same nationwide so well have to keep an eye on it and see how it works out to day. The more of the temporary morgue that was set out in the ice rink in madrid because all the Funeral Homes were overwhelmed it has been closed down after hosting 1100 hopes of right martha thanks for that. Health officials in france are warning the virus threat remains at a high level that in response to government plans to begin easing restrictions next month president emanuel macron says the long down measures will be lifted in small stages from may the 11th but there are concerns about how this will work. Planes. Docked about all day long is the head of Emergency Services in a hospital in the small town of law in northern france with limited resources staff have adapted the hospital to treat coronavirus patients. Weve used plastic sheeting to separate spaces to reduce the risk of infections more than 20000 people have died in france since the start of the Health Crisis the death toll rises each day but the number of patients in intensive care is slowly diminishing the french government says from a 11th it will loosen the Strict Lockdown but dr de lorme says it will be a while until this hospital is back to normal. The last months have been exhausting in my department to doctors and several nurses had coronavirus weve had no visibility on when the crisis will end or how long well have to work this because for us the confinement doesnt mean the end of the coronavirus emergency. The french government hasnt provided details of his de confinement plan those are expected at the end of april nevertheless some businesses are getting ready managers at this car factory have put in place protective measures for workers in Case Production is permitted to resume. Staff will have the temperature taken and if its too high they will not be allowed onto oversight until the french government reveals its full day confinement strategy many people in france will simply uncertain about their futures they dont know when theyre going to be able to go back to work when schools like this one will reopen or when it will be possible to once again walk in the streets freely without a permit. Well some people are looking forward to restrictions being eased others are cautious. Because they made. Various. Its possible to do but only the people wear masks and with strict conditions. The government says the life in france after the lockdown will not be the same as before and for months to come people will have to take precautions until a way is found to control will stop the spread of corona virus do not hospital staff know that the crisis is far from over its actually about lower aljazeera moamar oh france or elsewhere in Europe Germany has announced it will start Clinical Trials of a current virus vaccine 200 Healthy Volunteers will be tested the number of new infections in germany has gone up for the 2nd day in a row earlier this week lockdown restrictions were relaxed slightly less choice between lives and livelihoods has become ever more difficult for governments worldwide as the us all price shop compounds the Global Economic crisis the International Monetary fund says total global losses due to the coronavirus pandemic will be 9. 00 trillion dollars economies will shrink by minus 3 percent in 2020 developed economies have been badly hit and the i. M. F. Estimates they could for by as much as minus 6 point one percent more than 22000000 people are out jobless in the United States the highest unemployment level since the Great Depression of the 19th thirtys with more than 2600000. 00 confirmed cases the World Health Organization is warning outbreaks are only just beginning in some parts of the world the w. H. O. Chief says there are worrying trends in countries which are more vulnerable. Most of you in western europe appear to be stable or declining although numbers are low we see warning upward trend in our central and south america and Eastern Europe most countryside is still in the early stages of their epidemics and that will affect it early in the pundit i dont know starting to see a resurgence in cases. Ken is the director of the center for infection and immunity and professor of neurology pathology and cell biology at Columbia University he joins us by skype from new york good to have you with us so 1st of all how promising is it how excited you will be getting at this point about the the Clinical Trials which just starting in places like germany in the u. K. Im very excited about these vaccines are moving more rapidly than they ever have in the past. Really every country that has access to back Seen Technology is now trying to produce them and our hope is that theyre going to come available become online in less than a typical timeframe that we see for vaccines what youre talking about when you say when youre in the typical timeframe and its moving fast in terms of months what are we looking at there are people who are talking about rolling out back in 12 months which it really would be unprecedented every year we do something similar we can blend of viruses but thats a variation on a known vaccine in this case were making something from scratch so can it be pulled off you think. Can i do believe this is true i think that some of it he estimates 6 months 8 months are not realistic but a year i think can be done and this is because were going to be truncating the time that it usually takes to validate these vaccines were already doing the safety testing in normal human volunteers will be moving forward with africas he trials and well going to start producing back seams with the with the notion that as theyre proven as we get more sense as to which ones will be successful we can bring them into production so that at the end of the day when theyre probably proven theyll be ready for manufacture and distribution well this is in a form of again in that light from a medical perspective on the stand you know 12 months isnt a long time to develop a vaccine from a people though you know for guys people locked up in their homes. A year before a vaccine might even be available sounds like a lot a long time what do people do in the meantime is there any way to benefit from some of the initial dots or is that jumping the gun i think we cant i dont want to jump the gun but what we are going to be doing and this is already happening around the world is relaxing some of the stringent measures weve taken for physical distancing to control the outbreak and the way were going to do this is by testing and testing and more testing identifying people who become ill identifying their contacts who might be at risk for spreading the page and further and getting it under control in that fashion there are some kinds of social things that we do now they were not going to be able to do for a long time like kissing people on the cheek and shakes and such are going to go the way of. The buggy whip unfortunately but i think that we will be moving toward more normalcy there are some areas that are going to be very slow to come back stadiums movie theaters musical theaters where people are very very tightly together we can begin to move i think toward getting back to work and having certain kinds of events where people have some sort of separation between them as long as they wear appropriate personal protective equipment all right whats happening in the meantime the medical standard in the sense that i did a bit of research and theres more than 30 treatments that doctors are giving out for covert 1000 patients and im wondering you know the basis upon which a doctor decides that especially since you went through this virus and thankfully recovered ryan what was your perspective better as a patient not just as a you know overall a just. Well doctors have a lot of flexibility if they think something makes sense to them and they discuss with the pace in the side to proceed thats something over which you know Public Health authorities have no control we however really want what we call a double blind trial which is randomize where some of the patients receive one arm of the trial which may be a drug that we think is active others receive Something Else and we do this in such a way that neither the basing nor the doctor know what the patients going to receive we then have what we call a data safety monitoring board which very carefully tracks the results in real time and if one arm of the study appears to be either associated with harm or benefit we stop the study and we shift those people who are not receiving the benefit of the drug or who are getting the deleterious effects of the drug we shift them to the other are this is the way we do science with double blinded trials and its very important we do this last week there was a report out of brazil that suggests of the people who received high doses of chloroquine had a higher risk of death as a result of cardiac after maladies so these things are not always as safe as we think we are as they are based on what we think is biologically plausible we need to do the work and we need to do the science. One of a beautiful words toward to end on that is to the work in science thanks so much in that can. My pleasure piers and still to come on aljazeera concern in pakistan over the governments decision to open mosques during ramadan. Hello once again we still have some disturbed weather across the middle east but it should quiet down as we go through the next this long line of cloud thats been producing some wet weather into the eastern parts of saudi arabia some heavy right into Western Areas of yemen we have seen flooding that will tend to wait as we go through the next few showers creeping across iran pushing towards afghanistan further north some rather wet weather there just spinning out of turkey into northern parts of iraq for a time move out of the way you can see the system just around the eastern side of the mediterranean some very strong winds blustery conditions and heavy showers that makes its way further race which will pick up some very very windy weather across the egypt as we go on through friday and these blustery showers will create their way a further east which in the process even all the parts of africa because the windy weather pushing into egypt further south it is generally dr coles the usual showers there around the into the whole of africa possibility some flooding there into parts of east in ethiopia into somalia heavy showers theyre going to linger just around the gulf of guinea into a west africa heavy showers lingering kenya into uganda because some very very heavy rain also affecting eastern pos of tanzania. Desperate for a better life millions of peace. Well of sought refuge in europe but. Sometimes their dreams of sanctuary all realized but sometimes disenchantment and hostility drives them home. People and power goes to the north german city where a humane approach to integration is proving surprisingly effective assimilation nation on aljazeera. For 30 years the red cross has provided a lifeline for afghanistans physically disabled one i want to meet through remarkable paper risking their lives to help the decided in war torn afghanistan on aljazeera. Be the hero the world needs right now. Washing. Welcome back youre watching aljazeera time to recap our headlines the u. S. Says iran will be held accountable after attack irans elite military unit the revolutionary guard successfully launched its 1st military satellite into orbit. The u. S. Secretary of state has said and exiting the occupied west bank is a decision for israel the plan was put forward by israels government ahead of elections earlier this year settlements are considered illegal under International Law. The u. K. Government has again come under fire for its response to the pandemic this time by the new leader of the opposition it happened during the 1st virtual session in parliament 700 year history. Or the end of the week muslims around the world will begin fasting during the month of ramadan is usually a time for family gatherings and gatherings for the faithful of the pandemic is presenting new challenges in saudi arabia prayers will go ahead at the holy cities of mecca and medina but with no worshippers every year in indonesia millions of people travel to visit their families during this time this year theyre not allowed to make that journey in turkey public meals abandoned the government says it will consider closing streets of people gather from a stumble across all who has more on the preparations. Turkish citizens are getting ready for a 40 curve here that will begin at 00 local tonight and will be valid for 4 days across 31 cities including istanbul in turkey and people are preparing to buy their foods from the supermarkets thats why they are waiting in line and here as you can see people are Wearing Masks and they are trying to preserve the source of distance which is that this 1. 5 meters but they want to be ready for a 4 day lockdown actually in the spine the lockdown the supermarkets will be open to morrow thursday and friday from 8 am to 2 pm local time. And the bakeries will be open on the weekends including the pharmacies and other medical centers this is the 3rd curfew that turkey is implementing what is different about this is that this is for 4 days combining a National Holiday with the weekend when the 1st curfew was imposed to reach that goal for for 48 hours covering saturday and sunday it was a kind of chaos it especially in istanbul because it was announced just 2 and a health hours before it was imposed thats why people were panicked they flocked to the supermarkets and they violated all social distance details and other protection and it is against the koran the virus thats why the government wanted to be sure that everything is in place this time people do not get in panic and they dont violate it here or in the measures theyre corona virus measures thats why people are trying to. Buy their needs just a few hours before the lockdown and to spend the 4 days at home with their families. There is concern in pakistan over the governments decision to keep mosques open during ramadan doctors of the government to reverse the decision they say large gatherings will increase infections and overwhelm the Health System but the Prime Minister says its up to individuals to make their own choices. Do we forcefully tell people to not go to mosques and if they go will the police put worship is in jail this does not happen in an independent society in an independent Society People use the independent minds and then decide what is basic for the country and what is not. Argentinas creditors have rejected a government proposal to restructure its foreign debt a 500000000. 00 payment was due on wednesday when the government says it will not be able to make was a small chunk of the 80 3000000000. 00 it owes to foreign bondholders and investment firms missing the payment raises the possibility that argentina could default on its sovereign debt for the yes 9th time its economy has already gone through another year of recession worsened by the pandemic throes of joins us now live from one osiris where the army has stepped in to help this tribute food aid and so tereza if the words default sound familiar theres a reason for it are we looking at that word somewhere on the not too distant horizon. Well most certainly well let me tell you where we are right now this in my bones in great one off site is around 10000000 people live here and the fact of the military is present in an area such as this one giving away food to thousands of people shows how sensitive the situation is in argentina how much argentinas Economic Situation has deteriorated in this past month i was at the farm and the suppressant of argentina was one of the 1st and leaders in the region to impose i lucked out and that has had a devastating effect in this economy but for the president the big priority was to save lives because it believes that this countrys Health Care System would not be able to cope with a big crisis that could be caused by a corona virus so as you just said the word default is on every newspaper and on every models here and i didnt know this dates basically because the government was expected to pay over 500000000. 00 of interest the government has said that they wont do it right now that they cannot afford that argentina does not have the money that it needs that money to be able to cope with whats coming next in this country with corona virus argentina from now on has one month to make this fame and and if it doesnt pay well in that month then it would be default once again for this country theres intense negotiations between argentina and creditors so anything could happen in this coming month but most certainly its going to be a very intense one. To roots of any of the pictures for us from the cyrus. Colombias government has announced a long down there will be extended until maybe 11 is confirmed more than 4000 cases and almost 200 deaths for those of us on the m. P. s who reports people are going hungry in bogota all 4 of these struggling to reach all those in need bins have devised a novel way to draw their attention. Island cry for help red rags pieces of cloth even shirts signaling that inside behind those windows theres a family and. They have become a potent symbol of the effects of the lockdown on the most vulnerable colombians a visible measure of the daily rise in poverty and hunger. Father of 2 young girls says the rags have multiplied across his neighborhood home to many people displaced by colombias internal conflict like most he lost his work and so how is paying 3 emptied out. Often to be a down to eating once a day at the beginning neighbors to help us with some food but now they also run out the government says stay in stay in but we cant eat boards or tiles. The government and municipal torrie to say some help is on the way a 1st payment of 140. 00 for each family in need but no one here has received that yet. So some of built barricades with stones and burned tires this sign says there are starving people today i mean youre right we are hungry there are babies dying of starvation because the aid hasnt arrived im here in the morning at night at all times and nothing is coming helping the roughly 20000000 work in the Informal Sector requires a colossal effort on the part of the government and at least until now it seems like there simply isnt enough help or is taking too long to reach many of them. The city of bogota says it spending 55000000. 00 in aid delivering bags of food door to door yet despite the efforts the mayor recognizes the delay. We already sent money 2280000 families and 1700000 bags of food and even with such a money. A mental operation in 3 weeks we are still missing people i and theres another National Disease complicating the efforts corruption government watchdog entities found evidence of money embezzlement and thousands of contracts meant to combat the crisis i think that what we have now in colombia is actually 3 pandemics the coronavirus hunger and corruption what this virus is showing us is just how in a quick google and on just our social and political system its was a crisis upon a crisis this seems impossible to keep up to as the needs continue to pile up i listen to them. Well still ahead on aljazeera choosing the best picture of our planet from space in honor of earth day. Now half a century ago the 1st earth day mobilized millions of americans to fight for the protection of the planet this year i made the Global Pandemic the battle this particular importance now. Earth day a question of survival with c. B. S. News correspondent walter cronkite. But it made you think day in American History as i live today the grainy story of the day half a century ago fashionable 5th avenue was off limits to automobiles and april 22nd 1970 across the United States more than 20000000 americans took part in the original earth day that was one in 10 of the population of 170 in the United States pollution have become a really serious problem simply breathing in the air in many of our major American Cities its like smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day rivers are catching on fire birds are going extinct and and there was a great upwelling of protest against that and it developed into a protest movement that continues to this day empowered by its early success and it led to an era in which we passed a clean water act in a neutral species active Marine Mammal protection act and Toxic Substances Control Act we banned leaded gasoline we banned lead in paint it was just a remarkable period of environmental accomplishment. 50 years on the threats posed by the Climate Crisis are even more pressing. For one thing its evident modern day pollution has made thousands more vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic we know actually the Climate Change is one of the drivers of condom ics as well as being a superior disruption to it is he to produce enough food to protect our cities from floods and storms and rice and. Now on earth day there are calls to seize the opportunity to recalibrate after the pandemic has passed. I think were seeing a ramping up of focus within the financial world and i would say some really interesting and positive signals it really in in the last few weeks from governments saying that they are going to actually come out of this crisis you know way that leads to a green much green a much stronger economy. Given the variety of threats we face much depends on how we come back from covert 19 because its become very apparent the way humanity treats the wealthy as a way of reflecting how the world treats humanity they knew that back in 1970 nic clarke aljazeera. Peter thompson is the United Nations secretary general special envoy for the ocean we delighted for him to join us by skype from london good to have you with us so let me ask you 1st of all the coronavirus i mean its given the planet i guess you could say the break that we couldnt have dreamed of right here or 1st are. Going to revert to 70 percent. Of the ocean. So yes pandemics are not the way to mitigate Climate Change but we can certainly see by just looking outside of windows and seeing the sky. There are. Jet streams you know. Change is definitely possible. How much of these changes brought on by the current virus not as you said not to you know celebrate pandemics but how many of if we can say some of the Positive Side effects of kind of ice will remain once lockdowns lifted do you think. I think a lot will depend in the way that we choose to build. From the Ocean Community you know build back into a recovery do you actually see that there i mean do you believe that were going to go back to a greener kind of lifestyle and any any gains will be long lived. We have to invest know in. In ways that we havent invested before obviously d. Were going to do that is my question. But are they i mean do you think what do you see any signs that what i see going to do that i mean thats youre right thats what we should do but are we do you see any indications that thats what were investing in. Its too early to. See those but we will see them very soon the recovery road is not far off you know and the important thing you know is to get across the argument for the fact that we need to have this very approach to the future rather than going back to the arrows of well. We should remember of course its not just Carbon Dioxide emissions in the air thats an issue we shouldnt forget the seas the oceans plastic pollution i mean how is the pandemic impacted that sort of issue. Well i think as you rightly pointed out im going to go to temporarily. But quickly go back to the old ways but not of course if you are. The main enemy in all of this is anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas emissions were talking about the ocean but were talking about diversification were talking about all was storms that were seeing around though its all our Greenhouse Gas emissions and so if we build back better into a. World where we are looking at Renewable Energy and so on then we will be facing a Better Future and we will make something good out of this trauma what youre going to do is been through over the last few months suddenly have so when looking back on it earth day began in the United States thanks to a conscientious u. S. Politician a senate selden izing teach ins president nixon joined in support of the event planted a tree in the white house 20000000 americans were mobilized to come out do you think the Current Us Administration is living up to that Great American heritage with its stances its taken. I dont comment. On individual governments but we were americans all the time in fact ive spent my day on of the. American poor on there has been a huge i think the American People gauge. The perils of Climate Change as the rest of us you know as much or i wont push you on that i think. He was can read into it what they will has earth day this is the 1st 50th anniversary has been a success but still unfortunately here not in the in the you know in the headlines about problems of pollution well the house pulling out of International Agreements it doesnt sound particularly positive. Oh look at my ive been involved know in this ocean action work now for about 4 years and i can see that there is much greater awareness no you can see that every every country that i go to the government has policies in place this was not the case 5 years ago. So i think that people are engaged that do realize that 21st century greatest challenge is about mitigating Climate Change and that you know if we dont do that were going to be faced pandemics and famine. Wildfires and hurricanes and all the rest is going to come time after time but if we fix things and now then we do give security to our children placed them in jeopardy thats a nice positive thought too and giving security taught children lets fix things now peter tomsen been a pleasure speaking to you thanks so much thank you very much for the view from space is not one many on earth will see for themselves but now nasser is holding a competition that will help people experience out of this world science harding explains our planet hasnt looked at this healthy and decades with fewer people on the road our air and water has become cleaner and clearer and the effects are visible from space now says earth observatory has been documenting our world for decades 20 years of photos show the changes in the atmosphere land air and water from the himalayas to south america. Nasa has launched a competition for the public to vote on the top photos to celebrate 20 years of learning about our rounds around the sun as a way to commemorate earth day many of these images were taken by astronauts or satellites Scientists Say they are important in understanding our world we are. Going through a crisis. Also exacerbated by the fact that we have this now threatening human kind and making us feel really feel our fragile. And then we feel now not on the opportunity but the treasury to fire environment voters can choose from lunar eclipses volcanic eruptions or water wonderland the effects of Climate Change are also among the top snapshots of some astronomers i know the uniqueness of our environment i know there are billions and billions of planets out there but like the earth broady not many. Which makes our presence here now a miracle so we have to preserve. The competition is now down to these 2 photos ocean sand behind from 2002 and reich ok reps from 2019 the winner will be announced later this month. These images from space to show us how 7000000000 people impact our planet and how it continues to have an impact on us were harding aljazeera. Greenhouse gas emissions from australias devastating bushfire season this year have exceeded the countrys average annual emissions the government report estimates at least 830000000. 00 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide were released between september and february but it goes on to say Climate Change could impact the forests ability to recover. You can get much more on all those stories weve been telling you about if you head over to our website aljazeera dot com you can see our a front page there with one of the lead stories the situation with coronavirus deaths in europe were back at the top they are. As the world battles the corona virus and millions of infections stars have tested positive for the corona virus with countries in lockdown and the threat of a Major Economic crisis if you want to block the global g. D. P. Could be around 9 trillion dollars well bring you the latest developments from around the globe prosecutors say theyre also seeing price gouging on vital medical supply coronavirus and special coverage on aljazeera the oppression of an ethnic minority and me in my bag many tangs the intention was to make sure that rangers will no longer entitled to either basic rights or Citizenship Rights in a new documentary aljazeera explores the history and motives behind the systematic persecution after him and me and my. Exile on aljazeera. A history of guerrilla warfare a place on the global stage. The people gaining strength their revolutionary zeal knowing no bounds but did a series of violent acts by their splinter groups damage the palestinian cause or ensured survival chronicling the turbulent story of the struggle for a palestinian homeland p. L. O. History of a revolution on aljazeera really understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter what we use in calendar for that matter to you. The launch that blasted irans 1st military satellite into space or washington says to her on must be held accountable. For watching ill just their ally from london im dead you know also ahead of us secretary of state says the annexation of the occupied west bank is a decision for the new Israeli Government to make. In the u. S. And europe or fortys face a major challenge how to ease lock down restrictions without