City of portland or detaining black lives matter protesters without any explanation. The United States is struggling to contain a rising wave of the corona virus with cases of infections and deaths soaring more than 77000. 00 infections were reported in the latest daily tally that was on thursday thats another record high resources in many areas a stretch to the limits and hospitals are in danger of being overrun by patients debate is raging over mosques and whether they should be made mandatory u. S. President donald trump has ruled out making them compulsory at a national level. Would you consider what you consider a National Mandate that people need to wear a mask i want people to have a certain freedom and i dont believe in that no and i dont agree with the statement that if everybody were a mask everything disappears a doctor felt she said dont wear a mask or Surgeon General terrific guy said dont worry mask everybody was saying dont worry mask all of a sudden everybodys got to wear a mask and as you know mask has problems too with that being said im a believer in masks i think masks are good but americas top Infectious Disease expert on today found she is urging state officials to do everything they can to convince people to wear masks the White House Coronavirus task forces identified 18 states a socalled red zones where urgent action is needed. I can say as a Public Health official that i would urge the leaders the local political and other leaders in states and cities and towns to be as forceful as possible in getting your citizen tree so wear masks masks are important as part of the physical distance physical distancing is the most important but practically when youre living your life and trying to open up the country you are going to come into contact with people and for that reason we know that masks are really important face coverings are still only a matter of free and a little of a hof of the 50 us states georgias governor is urging the public to wear masks but has banned any efforts to enforce that White House Correspondent kelly how could has more now on why mosques have become such a contentious issue. Well this is a country that is really founded on revolution its also unique system of government its not a federal system but instead its one that has strong states rights so in many ways the United States is like 50 countries all joined together that theyre really the local officials have much more power than say the president of the United States when it comes to certain issues that masks are one of them in the state of georgia is really highlighting the confusion when you have a Global Pandemic and you have such strong state rights as you play 2 there the governor of the u. S. State of georgia brian kept saying that he supports people Wearing Masks but at the same time he doesnt believe that people should be forced to do so in fact his lawsuit says that the mayor of the largest city in his state bought of the fact he has overexerted her authority by mandating that and in the midst of all this we have a federal body saying that he urges dr anthony found people to wear a mask because it just makes common sense what were seeing in the United States in the midst of this confusion by politicians at the local and federal level and the mix messaging is stores taking matters into their own hands for example the latest being 2 very large Home Improvement chains lowes and home depot here in the United States saying look at it may be confusing on the outside but when you come in our store youre going to have to wear a mask if you want to shop here and thats what were seeing in the Business Community all across the United States the World Health Organization says that brazils corona virus infection rates appears to have plateaued and that it should seize the opportunity to drive down transmission in the country remains the epicenter of the pandemic in latin america but has 0 is this in human reports theres growing criticism of government responses across the continent. In the admission to to give out a hospital in money guy doctors fight to keep Critical Care patients alive unlike the city and Rio De Janeiro in much of state Coronavirus Infections continue rising infections in brazil have surpassed the 2000000 mark it took 4 months to reach 1000000 infections and less than one to double that number. And the death toll is now well past 75000 yet according to brazils former Health Minister who was sacked by president table so natural the defendant confinement measures authorities and even ordinary citizens are not taking coronavirus seriously enough as business. People have become uncaring 1300 deaths a day is like 5 jets crashing every day but in peoples minds its like they dont understand that theres a 5 jets packed with people who could be your mother my sister your grandson my great grandson. But the w. H. O. Is beginning to see the Glass Half Full saying that infections are plateau ing and no longer spreading exponentially its an opportunity it says to bring the pandemic under control in latin americas largest country whose president is even infected but downplays the severity of the disease. From the largest to one of the smallest countries panama kovan 1000 is causing havoc. Doctors are protesting against what they say is the governments failure to provide sufficient protection money for more money we need more supplies and personnel we dont have enough for the number of patients. For the north in guatemala the death toll is soaring after the government relaxed initial confinement measures hospital Officials Say theyre on the brink of collapse well its whats killing us is not the virus its the indifference of the state it is the indifference of the Health Authorities and as long as governments ignore calls for more energetic measures to control Transmission Health experts warn that initial signs of a slowdown in contagion will not last to see in human aljazeera. A controversial new anti terror law is being enforced in the philippines allows police to bypass the court system and arrest suspects without a warrant they can be held without charge for up to 24. 00 days critics are concerned a little endangered Civil Liberties and maybe abused as a target opponents of president would regard the dirties government richard aryan is a political scientist and author he says the laws definition of terrorism is very broad. To begin with there are safeguards within this law with regards to abuses of human rights but the problem is the political and institutional environment in the philippines i mean you have reports of thousands of extra judicial killings in the country despite the fact that you have very strict laws theyre supposed to ensure jew process and human rights and the problem with this new law is that even though there are certain legal safeguards its definition of terrorism is extremely broad and if you look at section 4 of the proposed law for instance in the initial draft it says that if Security Forces deem certain exercises of civil and Political Rights as posing risk to Public Safety then that could be defined as terrorism that gives tremendous amount of rain to a quite an authoritarian leaning government this is what the critics are saying to add to tag anyone as terrorists even if that person started being subverting state institutions nominations open to the hong kong for candidates in the upcoming Legislative Council election the voters sent to take place in september prodemocracy groups hoping to get a majority but they could face major challenges getting on to the ballots the government has the power to disqualify people for their political of years its also the 1st election since a new security law was imposed by beijing which critics say restricts freedoms in the territory lets go live now to hong kong i was there as a theory of brown as the forests given all thats going on in hong kong right now is it possible that this election what even happened. Well adrian the picture you see behind me really does sort of belie the mood here in hong kong right now and that mood is one of suffocation suffocation from this new security law and suffocation also from the restrictions arising from covert 19 but blended in with that suffocation is really a tinge of defiance and were seeing flashes of that defiance in hong kong on saturday because nomination. And so open for the elections which are due to be held in 50 days time on sunday september the 6 but there is a complication which really stems from your question because some of those candidates have not yet decided whether to submit their nominations and the reason for that is that the law says you have to pledge allegiance to the government of hong kong into the basic core of hong kong if you want to stand for parliament and the problem there is that many of these young democracy activists like joshua wont like us to show him simply so far have said they cant do that because to do so would be to to sell out but of course they could still be disqualified in other ways because they took part in this unofficial poll last weekend that socalled democratic primary that in china zizou was illegal unlawful and remember 610000 people in hong kong gave their preferences in that poll and it indicated that in fact we are heading for potentially a very big turnout in those elections but china has said as i say the election is illegal and the Hong Kong Government is investigating now whether that poll in fact subverted the new National Security law so todays events adrian it really happening once more under the very watchful eyes of the authorities given the strong showing by Democratic Candidates in last weeks unofficial poll these primaries to select candidates for the election does this mean that more confrontation looms on the horizon there in hong kong. I think possibly it does you know one commentator put it this way on saturday we could have either a Dysfunctional Legislature you know a few weeks from now or a discredited one dysfunctional because if you know the democratic camp do get a majority the socalled. 35. 00 plus in this 70 seat legislature they would then have the ability the power to be able to block public spending to be able to block the annual budget which of course for them put pressure on the chief executive kerry to resign but we could have a discredited legislature if so many of these young popular prodemocracy figures end up being despite. Our desire as adrian brown reporting live from Hong Kong Adrian many thanks indeed. Weather update next here on aljazeera then a ban on a controversial symbol of u. S. Military bases puts the defense secretary on a collision course with the president. Despite the deaths of protesters mediation efforts the campaign to oust mollies president continues. Hello there are warnings of extreme heat in the finals east of the u. S. Now a cold front has apparently gone through there and when you combine the heat with a cold front attentive you some pretty vicious thunderstorms and in the north of new york state that looks like damage from a tornado from just that frontal system thats quite localized on the edge of lake erie and its gone through now but the temperatures are rising again the forecast is in the middle to high thirtys of both saturday and sunday so the air is heat wave territory elsewhere its quite warm but not the same extreme except down in for example phoenix arizona 44 degrees which is on the high and a very should be because the fire risk is still there but there are a few showers in the area south of this and there is a good scattering of shastra cuba the bahamas and his plan euro not many elsewhere in the forecast that is reflected as such even where you get the Higher Ground so that trade winds can be against the land bridge there arent that many showers around the yucatan possibly the wettest place and then costa rica see some pretty big showers build tools in the weekend most of brazil is dry but the bottom half is seeing an increasing cloud a moment is warm but that wont last. 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The World Health Organization says that brazils corona virus infection rate appears to have plateaued and that it should seize the opportunity to drive down transmission was that was the epicenter of the pandemic in latin america 34000 new cases were registered on friday. And nominations opened in hong kong for candidates in the Legislative Council elections to be held in September Itll be the 1st election since a new security law was imposed by beijing which critics say restricts freedoms. The Confederate Flag has been affected lee burned from the u. S. Military sites following months of anti racism protests defense secretary mark asper announced the policy of telling commanders that only flanks which promote unity and respect to all the rawest the Confederate Flag was flown during the civil war by breakaway Southern States supported slavery to continue it seemed by many as a reminder of the enslavement of black americans at a symbol of White Supremacy supremacy Ashley Lawrence sanders is assistant professor of africanamerican history at the university of dayton in ohio she joins us now live via skype from cincinnati good to have you with us this could perhaps see this be seen as a progressive step its hard not to view it through a political prism what do you think the pentagon is doing here and what do you make of the very fact that the word confederate was was never uttered by defense secretary asked by. I mean i think exactly was a political move to try to quell the dissent probably within the military about the fonts and usage of the flying hoops its been a historic descent africanamericans have complained about the use of the Confederate Flag in the military since at least world war 2 and the korean war where who oversees actually among troops. They dont want to upset trump i think mentioning confederate fly directly would have set off some sort of alarm bells when we just had the president earlier this week in last week defending people who were flying the Confederate Flag saying that it was an issue of free speech not mentioning the Confederate Flag directly really sidesteps directly addressing with the Confederate Flag me voids a conversation about the history behind the flag with the confederacy was so what do you think the that the president is going to be saying to his defense secretary. Oh i mean i dont know if hes going to say anything to him directly or are going to hear about it on twitter. But i do imagine that this may get some pushback i notice that you know just reading the orders its already upset several groups including q groups because pentagon officials said that this meant that pride lines would not be allowed black lives matter flags would not be allowed the overarching thing they said was divisive but i think that in appeasing trump they you know theyre not going to peace trump on this i think its going to pick up that Confederate Flags are banned i think hes been using this as a cultural issue like a cultural wedge issue in this you know a culture war that hes trying to pick up on now i dont think that they have actually done either side of this debate. You know sufficient enough service to actually slow any of the controversy around it just by saying divisive flags are gone theres no addressing the history of what the Confederate Flag means Better Seeing means or you know actually confronting what you know trump wants to say which is that it should be allowed i wanted to ask you. As an announcement maybe welcome it is off the roll just one gesture of what more needs to be done about confederacy iconography. Well i think theyre still i mean we heard trump articulate this or still this lingering idea that its heritage and not hate that