Police operation and forcing chinas new National Security bill. To dominant and too powerful thats whats being leveled against 4 of americas Largest Tech Companies at a congressional hearing in washington d. C. The chief executives of Facebook Google amazon and apple have been defending their Business Practices via video link theyre accused of stifling competition and monopolizing the industry free from regulation this is the culmination of a yearlong investigation by the u. S. Congress detailing how the Companies Avoid liability under the current laws well amazon has been accused of accessing data from sellers on its Online Shopping platform to create its own products when pressed on the issue chief executive jeff bezos says he called to guarantee his company doesnt engage in that activity. Let me ask you mr amazon after access and use 3rd party seller data when making Business Decisions and just a yes or no will suffice or. I cant answer that question yes or no what i can tell you is we have a whole yugant using solar specific data to aid our private label business but i can guarantee you that that policy has never been violated you have access to data that your competitors do not have so you might allow 3rd Party Sellers onto your platform but if youre continuously monitoring the data to make sure that theyre never going to get big enough that they can compete with you that is actually the concern that the committee has correspondent allan fels says in washington d. C. On capitol hill and breaks down the issues that u. S. Politicians want to dress to. Its important because both democrats and republicans see that there is a problem here they see it through slightly different lenses and certainly the republicans on the committee were concerned the boat bias even though this was meant to be all a boat Business Practices and. They carry their job but what is important here is that this subcommittee has been investigating this for more than a year they see there is a significant problem there and essentially this is a short being fired across the bows of the tech giants know that shot was also echoed by the president dont trump seeing that if the Tech Companies didnt do something to stop their monopoly then he would take executive action if congress didnt i well looks as if Congress Might well i this committee has called for further hearings in september and the chairman of the committee who you heard from earlier he said that some of these Companies Need to be broken up some need to be regulated there has to be a change in the law and the legislation particularly in the digital age because a lot of these laws were drawn up at the beginning of last century when there were Big Companies around and they were taking advantage of their position so this is essentially the legislator seeing to the big Tech Companies you really need to get your house in order and if you dont well do. Well turning to the coronavirus pandemic and the death toll has surpassed 150000 in the United States thats the highest number of fatalities in any nation by far and accounts for nearly a quarter of the global the global recorded death toll now 2 of the most populous states california and florida have both recorded their largest single vote death tolls and the 2nd west affected country in the world brazil has reported a record daily jump there and infections and deaths nearly 70000 cases and 1600 fatalities were confirmed just in the past day that brings the total number of infections to more than 2500000 while more than 100000 people have died there. And now some countries and cities in asia praised for effectively tackling this pandemic and now raising the new infections it has now ordered bars and pubs to shops and banned large gatherings after being virus free for months hong kong leda is also warning the city is on the verge of a large scale outbreak and that the Hospital System is at risk of collapsing scott hyla has more from the thai capital bangkok. Vietnam has been viewed as a Success Story during the coded 1000 pandemic through centralized koren teen and strict Contact Tracing the country of 95000000 people had no deaths from the disease with the borders sealed the government encouraged to travel in that but things took a turn for the worse last weekend when the central city of denying it was hit by an outbreak the 1st cases of local transmission in months the city was locked down and domestic tourists were sent home just before the airport was shut for 2 weeks and now there are cases linked to denying in vietnams 2 largest cities noise and even city and even in the Central Highlands the Prime Minister has called on all regions to be on alert wouldnt go to the old provinces under a high risk all provinces should raise the alert level chairman and general secretaries of each province should take action how should the entire political system. One case in the capitol hill no it was a worker at a pizza restaurant who had returned from a trip to denying despite these cases some feel that the government has the ability to control the potential next wave of covert 19. Ministry of health has gained much more experience in combating to a virus and its face weighs this time i think you also pos quite soon because we have experience and in hong kong which so far has been spared from a high number of cases the citys leader is warning of a potential large scale outbreak after local transmissions surged the most strict measures since the outbreak began were enacted on wednesday for at least a week no gatherings of more than 2 people and no dining in restaurants thailand has also been viewed as a Success Story with no locally transmitted cases in more than 60 days to officials are no doubt looking nervously at their neighbors after these recent spikes in cases of 19 thats because the government here has also encouraged Domestic Travel and tourism to help the ailing economy ill just bangkok now the United States has announced plans to pull nearly a 3rd of its military personnel out of germany in an ongoing wral of the defense spending nearly half of the 12000. 00 troops will be moved to other locations in europe including italy and belgium White House Correspondent in the house that expands. Making good on its threat to the us announced withdrawal of almost 12000 us soldiers from germany its a move the defense secretary insists will improve the military partnership between north american and european allies. I think we are we are excited about where were going and what it will mean in terms of our ability to enhance to turn strengthen our straight to the alliance in the process the cuts will reduce u. S. Forces in germany by about a 3rd about 25000. 00 will remain some soldiers will be repositioned within nato countries including belgium and italy the rest will return to the United States the u. S. European command will also move to belgium but speaking to reporters on wednesday outside the white house u. S. President trump offered a different explanation for the move he said it was to punish germany for not contributing 2 percent of its g. D. P. As required for members of the north atlantic treaty organization. But. Well germanys military spending is up its still smaller relative to other nato allies as a driver of europes economy republicans and democrats in the u. S. Congress have long held germany should be paying more for share defense but most oppose removing u. S. Troops from germany fearing it will weaken regional stability and nato is capacity to push back against russia the plan to withdraw u. S. Troops from germany is expected to cost billions and could take years to execute and could be reversed if president does not win reelection in november can really help get aljazeera the white house. Now Hong Kong Police have arrested 4 students for allegedly posting secessionist content on social media in the 1st a Police Operation and forcing chinas National Security you know post for weeks ago the students belong to a group called student localism and are accused of advocating for hong kongs independence the new law grants Police Powers to arrest suspects without a warrant. For some decoration for them so for example they wanted to be a scottish. Country and also. Want to keep all the means to keep doing this strange and finally they wanted to united. Home home. With a view to. That. Well speaking of politics and social media opponents say turkish authorities will be able to censor social media there after parliament passed a new law to regulate foreign platforms the government says the legislation is needed to prevent cybercrime but the opposition alleges it could be used to stifle political dissent and criticism some cause ago who has moved from istanbul. Inside Turkeys Parliament m. P. s voted to pass a law that aims to control what many have said is uncontrollable social media critics say its another attempt to silence dissenting voices and threaten the freedom of expression the government argues the law is needed to enhance they come to belittle foreign platforms. And many are worried since the majority of the Mainstream Media here are already under government control there is no more platform left for free debate trying to learn it is through the whole barrel restriction everything its because they are being criticised on social media we are all against it as often the 1st the bill requires social media platforms with more than 1000000. 00 domestic daily users such as Facebook Twitter and you tube top and offices in turkey theyre also required to appoint local representatives to implement the governments request to block and promote certain content if they dont comply theyll face stiff fines along with possible data speed cuts. Woman rights watch Amnesty International and the un have campaigned against the law on the grounds it would lead to censorship and silence dissent. The governing party and says the new law will balance freedoms and obligations it says it doesnt want the closure of social media providers but wants to end what it considers insults bad language and harrison social media. The governing party insists the new law will balance freedoms and obligations it says it doesnt want the closure of social media providers but wants to end what it considers insults bad language and harassment on social media borders and. This regulation doesnt aim any ban on social media but to protect the basic rights and freedoms of the 55000000 turkish users on social media to protect their information and stop misinformation. In 2016 turkey tightened its quip on the internet after members of the outlawed. Accused of plotting that for years failed to launch an online attack against president treasure john last year dozens of people were detained after speaking out online against turkeys military operations in Northern Syria a senior level legislature but a court asks for user details from that social platform it can avoid sharing this puts the company above judiciary and is wrong everything that freedom of expression must surely be protected in turkey many iran and maintain socalled small groups on social media platforms how they use is accounts what fake names and automated balls to attack their opponents this includes the government opposition and the outpolled groups like the p. K. K. And villain movement for now it is not clear how the turkish government is going to implement its new law but the Rights Groups are worried they could target government critics at the cost of democracy and freedom off expression his solo aljazeera a stumble. Still ahead here on aljazeera we look at whether the peace deal involving yemens Southern Separatists is back on track. Plus anger over rolling power cuts reaches boiling point and iraq. Hello welcome to the look at the International Full cost still have some very heavy rain in the full cost of parts of japan Korean Peninsula and into central areas of china the m i u front still bring you some very heavy pulses of bright not quite as intense or prolonged as it has been recently but the show is still there nevertheless and nothing little further north will be somewhat to weather coming into the south korea for a time pushing into central parts of honshu nudging up into Northern Areas of japan where we have seen some flooding recently a shower still legacy go on into the weekend but not as wise but as i said over the next couple of days pennywise parts showers meanwhile across the philippines lots of cloud showing up here some heavy downpours certainly on the cards as we go on through the next couple of days those showers just grazing the fall north of borneo wanted to show was there into malaysia indonesia is generally fine and dry will be a few showers once again as i would expect into thailand showers continue meanwhile along the spoils of friday its a north east and piles of india into bangladesh running right up across the foothills of the himalayas a boot on pushing up into more the poles seeing some very heavy right and the showers continuing are up the Western Ghats war big downpours coming in here and this lady not in the way a little further north. Came from the countryside to cairo and became part of ive been lying. To say this is different from being the normal aljazeera world meets the man whos been keeping a close eye on residential life in the big cities for decades but who may now be passing into history. To see for all the people he wasnt dormant but hes now managed by a Security Company the doorman of egypt on aljazeera. The. Lets remind you about top stories here this hour the c. E. O. s of Facebook Google amazon and apple have all been defending their Business Practices how do you s congressional hearing theyre accused of stifling competition and avoiding liability under the current law. Brazil has reported a new record daily jump in corona virus infections and deaths nearly 70000 new cases and 1600 fatalities were confirmed just in the past day brazil is the 2nd west affected country in the wild after the u. S. And the United States is scaling back its military presence in germany and what the pentagon calls a strategic repositioning nearly 12000. 00 troops are to be withdrawn and hoff will be relocated to of the european cities the German Government says the decision doesnt make a geo political sense. While the u. S. Department of Homeland Security says federal officers will start pulling out of the u. S. City of portland after months of protests there they were deployed to despite the state governments objections with the stated objective of controlling and he racism and Police Brutality demonstrations but theyve been accused of using Excessive Force activists have been demanding that they leave for weeks local Law Enforcement and state troopers will take over the policing of the protests but our john hendren is in chicago thats one of several of the cities where federal agents have been deployed he says the Ongoing Operations wont be on the same scale as and portland. Chicago kansas city in albuquerque were in this last phase of federal Troop Deployment whats going on now is troops federal agents being deployed to cleveland detroit and milwaukee but thats a very Different Program i spoke to a federal Law Enforcement official here in chicago he spoke to me anonymously but he said that whats happening is theyre really sending in a lot of department of Homeland Security investigators and other people who are here to investigate existing crimes he says you wont see these people on the street there are perhaps 200 perhaps a little fewer here in chicago about the same number in kansas city but the numbers that were looking at in other cities are paltry cleveland 25 detroit 40 to milwaukee 25 of those federal agents so it is clear by those numbers alone you wont see their presence out in the street in the way that we have in portland that they would be investigating previous cases and doing other things from desks behind the scenes trying to knock down a crime rate that has really been exacerbated now the u. S. Has added charges against to form a trust the employees of a 3rd person accused of spying for saudi arabia the 3 men were originally charged with accessing the private information of more than 6000. 00 twas a uses including prominent critics of the saudi royal family theyre now facing 7 offenses instead of 2 including wire fraud and Money Laundering and a cattle says its perplexed that saudi arabia is appealing against a ruling by the World Trade Organization which from the kingdom supports pirate broadcast it be out q now initially saudi arabia claimed it was vindicated by that but says the decision to appeal shows riyadh now understands that it lost the case be out too has been accused of stealing content from qatar based be in sports including English Premier League football matches on the premier league is weighing up a saudi led takeover bid for the Newcastle United club. Separatists in the south of yemen have abandoned their declaration of self for all this is seen as a came towards unity between the government and the Southern Transitional council against their theory the un c m an envoy says the end of fighting as an important step towards peace reports. Show the unity in yemen southern coastal city of chicago these tribal leaders mostly from prison are. Hometown of have a message they wont allow the u. A. E. Back Southern Transitional council to monopolize power in the region despite the group of stubborn separatists announcing on wednesday its giving up on attempting to self rule the globe without libya were here to express unity we are part of the game and we are not all separatists we are all for one united federal government and we are in support of. Throughout history our beyond has been the beating heart of yemen and it will remain so were supporting the legitimacy of hardy and the yemeni republic and peace and stability or against the practices of marginalization and sidelining. The Southern Transitional council says its decision to give up on self rule aims to end divisions and unite to thirtys internationally recognized government against a common enemy both the rebels in the north its agreed to return to novembers saudi brokered power sharing deal with yemens president and he has already named to Southern TransitionalCouncil Leader as a new governor of the port city of aden dealing clue to reshuffle of his cabinet in the 1st 30 days with no more than 24 ministers and stipulates that forces loyal to the Southern Transitional council in aden. Are to leave their positions aden was used as a temporary capital for head after he was pushed out of sun on the aftermath of the 2014 for the takeover then Southern Separatists find his broker cease fire and seize the port city in august last year. Declared a state of him. Urgency to tackle couvade 19 but soon proclaimed so freely need in another southern provinces a move that led to months of fierce pointing to supporters in the south and in the yemeni archipelago. We hope they can reach an agreement weve weve not really pinned their hopes on any agreement being reached simply because whatever comes out of saudi arabia is always linked to them followed by a series of useless agendas with the 2 members of the coalition is pointing to the u. A. E. And saudi arabia supporting different forces in the area Southern Separatist issues the stream. And devastating. Opposition leaders in mali are threatening a 2nd phase of civil disobedience if the president does not step down they say theyll be more protests after the muslim festival of eat president abraham is accused of corruption mismanaging the economy and of failing to contain armed groups the opposition has now rejected several attempts by west African Leaders to resolve that disappears now ivory coasts president is considering standing for a controversial 3rd term in october election opponents say a 2 term limit bars allison were torah from seeking reelection in march which are said he wouldnt run but the ruling party has asked him to reconsider the Electoral Commission is promising a fair balance after a contested 20 tentpole now zimbabwe has agreed to pay 3. 00 and a half 1000000000. 00 in compensation to white farmers evicted from their land 2 decades ago thousands were displaced often violently under the leadership of former president Robert Mugabe half of that money is to be paid in the next 12 months and the balance within 5 years the agreement says zimbabwe will issue long term bonds and jointly approach International Donors with the farmers for farms. Protesters across southern iraq are demanding stable electricity supplies last week temperatures soar to 54 degrees celsius and the increased demand on the grid is causing frequent palekar its so wonderful to reports from the capital baghdad under bugged out scorching sun electricity workers go from house to house to collect their dues government electricity in iraq is heavily subsidized husseins monthly bill is 16. 00 but like most iraqis People Living in this neighborhood only get a few hours of electricity per day during the summer and amid rising temperatures their anger at the government is boiling over alex. Look at me im swishing you talking to me and im full of sweet from 2003 into a no god brought these people promise as a punishment with 0 atrocity sleeps thats a state of the. When the government cuts electricity the family relies on the neighborhoods private Generator Company that costs the family 4 times as much as they pay the government but the power from the generator is not enough to run the air conditioner so everyone gathers in the living room where only an old air cooler and a fan of her responded from the heat next door husseins wife prepares the familys lunch with only a small fan to battle the heat this hour every hour the power cuts and we have to run to turn off all the appliances including the fridge and the freezer if i want to run the washing machine i have to turn off Everything Else its so difficult. The family would be willing to pay more for government electricity if supply was stable some accuse the private Generator Companies of exploiting people by charging high tariffs but this provider says his price does not cover the cost of fuel and maintenance no i think that is the incentive that we are not the ones deciding on the price we charge per ampere thats decided by the mayor and local council and the income is not enough. The poor state of iraqs Power Infrastructure is the result of decades of war corruption and mismanagement rapid population growth has for added pressure on the grid. Its 48 degrees celsius today and in the hour that weve been filming here electricity has cut 3 times the previous electricity minister told al jazeera a few months ago that the government had added 3500 megawatt to the grid since 2800. 00 increasing capacity by 22 percent but many people here say that theyre not seeing the difference on the ground earlier this month the parliament formed a committee to investigate corruption in the ministry of electricity the Prime Minister also announced a deal to import electricity from the gulf but that will take time. And i wish there was a magic solution but unfortunately many years of sabotage corruption and mismanagement cant be solved overnight its not fair to ask a government thats been in power for 2 months to pay the bill for the pillaging committed by previous groups and governments as the power cuts push many iraqis to the brink of exhaustion confidence that Prime Minister mr. Government can resolve deeply rooted structural issues is melting away leaving many iraqis to find other ways to escape the stifling heat see wonderful to aljazeera but get out now german prosecutors are investigating one of the largest accounting fraud and recent history and why a card was an Online Payment Services company which crumbled into insolvency last month after admitting that 2200000000. 00 went missing out on mccain has more from ballin. Until recently this mans company wire card was worth tens of billions of dollars and a lucrative Investment Option now the firm is insolvent and marcus brown and several of his former colleagues are in custody on suspicion of manipulating accounts thats given to conduct up on. The suspects and further accomplices agreed from 2015 to inflate why a card Balance Sheet and sales volume through fake income reported through business with socalled 3rd party acquirers. Wire cards core business was online Payment Processing over the course of several years it expanded its business around the world but it was his activities in asia which raised suspicion journalists like dan mccrum of the Financial Times discovered that the vast sums of cash the company claimed to have just could not be found the business didnt really seem to exist and then we started looking at these accounts what company its sad and these various business deals which it in singapore and other places in asia and really what we found just didnt add up so we started publishing pieces which raised questions about these things and that led more people to get in touch and us to raise more questions about the companys accounts when wire cards filed for insolvency a few weeks ago that share price plummeted many of its shareholders found themselves facing serious losses both going share is a burden based lawyer representing thousands of them it starts with who was a grandmother who has invested some of her Pension Fund Money in a card or maybe just 2000 euros and has lost everything and go it goes up to huge private prisons and also Institutional Investors who may hold 2 digit 1000000000 euro figures or even hundreds of millions of euros the man accused of masterminding the alleged fraud has denied any wrongdoing as can the arts at least it cant be ruled out the wild cards the company grieved party in the case of floridas considerable proportions. On a wider scale the scandal has highlighted the role of the regulators in germany and the behavior of successive governments. The official response here at the finance ministry is a 3 point action plan firstly to strengthen the financial regulator baffin to give it the sovereign power to intervene in Public Companies secondly. The order has regulator half assed through allows it to him. Post sanctions on route prices and finally to oblige all companies to change their order says every 10 years but right now there remain many Unanswered Questions about what really happened with wild card dominic cain aljazeera burnim. Again this is out of there and these are our headlines the c. E. O. s of Facebook Google amazon and apple have been defending their Business Practices at a u. S. Congressional hearing theyre accused of stifling competition and avoiding liability under the current law alan fisher has more on how that play that hearing played out the Tech Companies are essentially saying that theyre very american in that theyre innovative theyre smart and they make big profits and they see that theyve had to be innovative and theyve had to include people because if they didnt they would disappear in the way that 10 years ago if you were talking about the take joint hed be talking about my space and friendster remember them no no one does because of course they fell away when Facebook Google and others took that space so they insist that what theyre doing creates jobs it creates wealth it creates opportunity for many people now the death toll from the carnivores pandemic has surpassed 150000 in the United States thats the highest number of fatalities in any nation by far and accounts for nearly a quarter of the recorded global toll 2 of the most populous states california and florida have also recorded their largest single day death tolls and brazil has reported a new record daily jump there in corona virus infections and deaths nearly 70000 new cases and 1600 fatalities were confirmed just in the past day brazil is the 2nd worst affected country in the wild after the u. S. Hong kong police have arrested 4 students for allegedly posting secessionist content on social media this is the 1st operation in forcing chinas National Security law since a prison posed 4 weeks ago the students belong to a group called student localism and are accused of advocating for hong kongs independence the new Police Powers to arrest suspects without a warrant and Turkeys Parliament has passed a social media law which Rights Groups say will give the government grace the power to increase online censorship sites like facebook and twitter will be required to have local representatives and taki and they also need to store news this data inside the country making it easier to Access Companies that break the law or could be fined or effectively blocked all those are the headlines and ill have another news update for you hit on aljazeera off the inside story stay with us. Loaded for defending the environment the Rights Group Says a Record Number of activists well killed last year so while an environment thats being protected is a. Polo welcome to the program on the wrong call and around the World Environmental activists are being arrested jailed even killed for trying to protect our planet the u. K. Based Group Global Witness has recorded the highest number of murders since it began its annual survey a decade ago 212 People Killed in 2