If just down the hall. Theres hong kongs prodemocracy activists just one appears in court queues for conniving and illegal protests last year. So ben iran is now admitting thursdays far at its Natanz Nuclear facility cause significant damage its Atomic EnergyOrganization Says it damage could slow the development of centrifuges used to enrich uranium but tehran says it is planning to update the facility with more advanced equipment sambos ravi has more. What exactly happened at the Natanz Nuclear facility last week its a question people in iran and around the world have been asking since a fire was reported at irans main uranium enrichment facility on thursday a fire incident like this at the centerpiece of the countrys Nuclear Program is easily a cause for global concern but iranian leaders downplay the incident latest satellite imagery however seems to show the scale of the damage whatever the cause is bigger than initial reports seemed to suggest on sunday the spokesman of the Atomic Energy organization of iran confirmed the seriousness of the matter speaking to state news he said enrichment activities continue but the damage was significant enough to slow some work at the facility this incident may create delays in the Medium Term Plan for the development and production of advanced machines god willing we will compensate in such a way that the capacities at the site will be greater than before the Natanz Nuclear plant has been the target of Cyber Attacks in the past at the time iran blamed various western nations and israel iranian investigators say they know what caused the latest incident but cannot release details due to security concerns but military leaders have promised to retaliate if sabotage is confirmed. The incident at natanz happened just days after another explosion at a military base where iran develops missiles on june 26th a gas tank explosion at the Parchin Military complex northeast of the capital caused a fireball so big some to her own residents could see it from their homes on june 30th a fire and explosion at a Medical Clinic in north to her own killed 19 people. On saturday a fire broke out at a power station in the western city of laws causing partial outages on the same day a chlorine gas leak at a petrochemical plant on the gulf coast injured 70 people these were likely just industrial accidents perhaps triggered by rising summer temperatures but the fire at the Natanz Nuclear complex happened in the backdrop of serious incidents that have rattled the country in recent weeks. When their own foreign minister has been heckled by members of parliament and called him a liar during a speech outlining the president s foreign and economic policies. And jobs are if was Briefing Parliament and defending the government he was interrupted several times 200. 00 m. P. s of also table demotion to question president Hassan Rouhani say his policies have led to an economic crisis and lets get more on the attack at the time. Me as a journalist a senior fellow at the center for middle east studies and joins us on skype from tehran and with us loni welcome to the program so it sounds very important isnt it to irans Nuclear Program so what does this attack mean on its ability to keep producing. The main cicelys the story enrichment of the uranium in the run and i think more than. The. Building in the facility i think the place or is the sense that the place that this has happened is of significance the spokesperson for the rons Atomic Energy organization said he said the damage really has been significant but he said that in developing and producing the machine this might have some mid term impact but i have been checking from the officials and sources they say that it has not had an impact on the enrichment activity of the country it is yet consuming given the facility but what they have been talking is about development of mines. Machines in the country and as weve been seeing that in the 1st place we saw that spokesperson not Atomic Energy organization but talking and giving details about the instead then but later on about the cause of that instead then we saw that this folks personally the National Security council was giving some explanation that this indicates that there might be some. Takes to this issue and this might be just might not be the only limit to technical aspect right there 1st is it being very open about this and you know saying that this will slow development of the centrifuges why while they say being so open so frank. They have said that they have been investigating those causes and they have some lesions but i think the delay in announcing those conclusions is due to that they want to decide what kind of reaction depending upon what type of thing lucian they have are going to have so i think they are buying some time deciding what kind of reaction to this issue and the men that want to have been seeing some life in israel or are there is talking about this both seeing that should be seeing this issue to israelis and i think. There are reasons to say that this has not happened by israelis at least by 5 turns or less missiles but why do you think that the mccain were referring to reports in the New York Times where he says it is ready planted a bomb is ready planted the bomb that it was a field Team Involved in this so you think that is not the cause. It can be possibilities i think the likelihood of an act of sabotage when its from inside or outside can be more than that but for israel as i think is really a few shows for the past as well as so the officials they have been talking about bringing that conflict inside iran in order to speak. Been someone in the past i think physically they have been unable to bring that conflict to incite you rent importers but by making these comments or speculations they somehow want psychology bring that company to the country iran has been under economic pressure and there have been relatively political problems in the country but in these times people they have been arguing that at least we have security in the country and i think by jesus peculations or measures they want to undermine this element and distilling among the rich and then people in order to bring pressure from the public toward the elite in that country. We appreciate that i have a slightly speaking to us from tehran thank you or lets move on to the surging number of cave of 19 infections worldwide with nearly 11 and a half 1000000 people now confirmed to have had or have the virus in india has overtaken russia to become the 3rd worst hit country in the world its reporting nearly 25000 new cases every day in australia the border between its 2 most populous states thats due to close on tuesday theres been a rise in coronavirus cases in victoria prompting the decision to shut the border with New South Wales indefinitely. We have done mispriced on Health Advice and especially given the fact that when our nation catch those high number of cases back in february and march the vast majority of those cases will survive the say strapless all the direct contacts what is happening in victoria is very different which is why we have to take this necessary states we would have taken the stand on this we absolutely had to and latin america now accounts for about whole foods all the coronavirus related deaths cases that have tripled in just a month with brazil and mexico the worst affected nations well lets cross to elizabeth person on whos in indias capital new delhi where she says despite the surge in virus cases some tourist sites all reopening. Monuments opened in the country for the 1st time in more than 3 months but looking at the pictures of people they arent flocking to the sites which have opened yet and judging people who want to go out who do go out to do non essential things were not actually expecting big numbers having said that the government is restricting the number of people who can go to these tourist sites to maintain social distancing and of course the reason why people arent going out other than other than to work and things like that because the number of cases continue to rise yet and the single highest day why is the were seeing those almost every other day and. India is the 3rd worst affected country now and the states are trying to deal with that situation by increasing testing the government has said that its now tested more than 10000000 people its testing about 300000 people across the country every day the worst hit states like maharashtra and delhi are increasing their facilities and we also had delhis chief minister he just held a News Conference and despite delhi reaching the 100000 mark of cases he was very positive because he said that only 5000 or a 3rd of the Regions Hospital beds are being used that most people are actually recovering at home he did plead with those who recovered to donate their plasma which is being used to treat current patients right now. To japan where nearly 40 people are feared to turn to a ring triggered floods mudslides roads and bridges on the island. Have been washed away leaving many isolated communities authorities have ordered 200000 residents to leave their homes it is expected to last until tuesday afternoon. From the capital tokyo and friday just tell us more about this is extreme weather as we take the very serious toll of the rescue services be able to keep up. Aid workers personally from japans Civil Defense forces are doing their best to try to help as much people as they can as the rain continues to fall very heavily on the area now then the through the Japans Meteorological Agency how they should. Live in 5 alerts for the area which is the highest level and it hasnt issued such a level for this area for dozens of years now so the situation is very tense there and. The government is sending 40000 Defense Forces there to help in theyve equation and elegant helping people also another warning because he is that. Heavy rainfall is not the concentrated now on the picture of chemical but its now extending to 3 new but if pictures which azza got and i got seche and. Which ive known for a moment or so basically the whole line on the future now is on that heavy rain and this again is extending until the consul cunto area so we can treat it even in japan and study in tokyo so. Some people are saying that this is the worst that maybe could it could be the worst Natural Disaster since the japan case that i give its last october so lots of p. R. Here and they look a little authorities are working by that would try to help the elderly people a lot of stranded often many of the small villages who were cut off because of the flooding of many diverse so were following the situation but. With the continuing with the continuing off to the heavy fall of rain maybe were going to witness even another jumble in the numbers of the dead people are missing within the coming few hours yet the pitches show the real scale the sheer scale of the problems and they all the concerns about flood defenses because i had had the government commitment to had come under fire for opposing a dam which was planned to help prevent floods. Were going to is very famous for its stable nature if i could say betty has faced several quakes in the last few years but other than that especially. With the way that its what cost that kind of speech equate to stability yes so this is why many people are sort of raised on theyre being taken by surprise by this and usually before that he hasnt been used to such circumstances and this is why maybe the whole learn what emergency in the area will have to be but he scheduled and its kind of the structured again absolutely right fight able to reporting that 30 s a minute that reporting from talking still ahead here on aljazeera and we look at how swedens urban farming operation is growing from strength to strength. 41 drivers joined together to protest against racism although not all of them took the name. Yesterday it snowed in norway admittedly but east july so that is a big change the weather type and its because this would have cloud the area of low pressure doesnt look very summery and thats pushing colder air into Northern Europe against what has become nice and warm fairly recently that will not law and obvious certain number of showers or even thunderstorms and following a breezy cloudy affair was passing showers so you end up with this line occasionally dark blue on it in slovenia northeast italy and maybe the Baltic States that could be sundry ahead of course its still pushing the warm air back into russia start back all behind but we are talking teens not middle twentys so its not like good color wise you can see where the real woman is and it extends back into spain and portugal the Southern Spain and portugal everywhere else bury where it should be warsaw for example 924 here with under storms coming into thursday as it gets a little bit warmer but not a lot of an old africa one of were just talking about a breeze along the north coast and then the big showers further south asylum beyond bamako does get showers have come that far on the walls on both monday and wednesday. Short films of hope. And inspiration. A series of short stories that highlight the human triumph against the odds. Aljazeera selects. Oh. I got you watching out there from out of our top stories this hour and irans Atomic Energy organization has acknowledged that last weeks fire at a major Nuclear Facility core significant damage this could slow production of advanced centrifuges she used to enrich uranium to india has overtaken russia to become the 3rd worst hit country in the world in the coronavirus pandemic reporting to 25000 new cases every day with nearly 700000 infections now confirmed nationwide. Nearly 40 people feared dead in japan after a trench will rain triggered floods and landslides mudslides the authorities have ordered 200000 residents to evacuate their homes heavy rains expected to last until choose day afternoon now 3 high profile hong kong activists who appeared in court charged with organizing an authorized protest last year the trip included to the prodemocracy leader joshua wall who denied the charges his Political Party disbanded last week after trying to impose a controversial National Security law on hong kong he said that activists would be prime targets of that always bans any activity beijing considers subversive outside court he said protesters should not give up. With the race of our president safety with the fresh life sentence that we might be worried and also been conquered by beijing but we also encourage the. Global community to let alone voice being heard in the world once we still have and the possibility we still have to laugh so well to know that now is the time to stem a phone call and now is the time for home homeless keep our momentum well lets go to sarah clarke live in hong kong and sarah tell us more about what happened in court. When the 3 arrived they spoke to the media before this hearing which is now finished but they said they sounded defiant and they were calling for hong kong is to still continue their fight for democratic reform now the charges that he had on the Eastern Court in hong kong there related to an incidental what was deemed an Illegal Assembly outside the Police Headquarters in hong kong on june last year now this particular assembly it was late in the evening and the charges that theyve been taken on these 3 are inciting organizing and participating in this Illegal Assembly i should say Agnes Charles pleaded guilty to 2 of the charges but joshua long and ivan lamb have pleaded not guilty to all of those charges its been adjourned for now but these are the 1st charges to be heard and watched a judge warned and i just have appeared and been sentenced to jail terms before but this is the 1st charges relating to last cheese antigovernment or the anti extradition protests which paralyzed hong kong last year and the reason why theres such interest in this is because its the 1st appearance of josh long and that this child in the wake or in light of last weeks introduction of the National Security law and of course as you mentioned a job sure wong is a high has a very high profile not just in hong kong but internationally and as a result the interest is huge and joshua long said that these 3 they do face an uphill battle and they are warry and worried about their future and they could face extradition in the future under these newly introduced National Security rules so thats very much looming large in all of this is it will those laws affect this case do you think a potentially the sentence. Well the charges were laid before the introduction of the National Security laws which was on july 1st so it shouldnt really for effect this particular hearing all the sentence that these 3 my guess as a result of these charges but as a result of the high profile nature of joshua long you might recall he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize back in 27. 00 tane he was also on the front cover of Time Magazine is also well known for being quite active in persuading the u. S. To pass the hong kong human rights and democracy act so hes always been a political targets not only of beijing but certa