chaos is really in a way uniting millions of residents in the city, regardless of their age group or social economic background or their political views and frustration with many of them increasingly asking how is it possible to go hungry or even dying due to lack of access and food and medical care in china s wealthiest and biggest city. the answer is quite clear, because the country s strongman leader has decided zero covid is the way to go, and it s here to stay. michael? steven jiang there in beijing for us. now in the united states, the debate over mask mandates continues. starting friday, masks will be once again required on public transport in los angeles county. health officials cited cdc guidance that contradicts the reason federal court rulings striking down a mask-free climate on mass transportation. now dr. anthony fauci says the courts should never have been involved.
a lot to walk out for and digest, even outside the competition venues. michael? nothing complex than situation. steven, thanks. steven jiang there in beijing. well, portugal center left socialists have pulled off a stunner, winning an outright sunday majority in sunday s snap election. the socialists took more than 41% of the vote and will have at least 117 of the 230 seats in parliament. the incumbent prime minister antonio costa called the result a vote of confidence in his government and his party. he said an outright majority is not absolute power, and he vowed not to govern alone. well, they are an iconic symbol of australia, but koalas numbers are dropping off for a number of reasons. coming up, what the government is doing to try to protect them. we ll be right back.
given how impossible it is to juggle, they have long pointed out china cannot avoid making a hard choice. china has indeed decided to side with russia despite its public pledge to be impartial in its attempt to play the role of peace maker. if you read the chinese remarks and statements from senior officials to their government spokes men, they really have adopted the russian talking points, highlighting nato expansion as the root cause and also addressing russia s legitimate concerns being a key demand of china and not to mention their firm opposition to all forms of sanctions, michael. all right. great summary there, steven jiang in beijing. jumanna caratachea in istanbul, jim bittermann in paris. thanks to you all. as we enter a fifth day of fighting, the humanitarian toll in ukraine becoming ever more apparent. coming up we ll take a look at the human cost of russia s invasion. that s after the break.
through its main two waterways, the basras and the dardanel straits. now turkey is obliged to do so in certain circumstances under that 1936 montrezl agreement. one of the circumstances is a war. we have been speaking to analysts and experts who say this is not likely to change much on the ground. russia would have probably moved all its naval assets that it needed to move into position already, and there is also a get-out clause of sorts where it can move its vessels back to its bases. what this does is pull turkey into this difficult position where it had to, to an extent, choose a side while still trying to maintain that neutral stance, michael. all right. a good wrap up there from jumanna in istanbul. let s go now to steven jiang there in beijing. it s interesting, steven, china
peak-summer travel season, as well. so, we are starting to see many very popular tourist attractions and airports being shut down with local officials now warning or at least advising local residents not to leave town. all of this, potentially, translating into billions of dollars of lost revenues. and presenting the central leadership here with that dilemma, again, which is how to strike a balance between containing this virus and growing the economy? and so far, we are not seeing any sign that they are going to change their current approach. which is zero tolerance towards locally-transmitted cases. so, michael, do expect to see more lockdowns and a sharp drop in domestic travel here. michael. all right, stephen, thanks. steven jiang there in beijing for us. quick break here on the program. when we come back, the first group of afghan translators are now, safely, on american soil. but, thousands, tens of thousands, wait in fear, pleading to get out of the country. is there a lack