a step in the back. new zealand extends the lockdown on its biggest city as it tries to work out how coronaviruses made a comeback. and we meet the black americans who say they've left racism in division behind to settle in west africa. an apology from the interior minister and the release of hundreds of protesters from prison isn't coming anger in the los crowds are gathering again in the capital minsk over last weekend's disputed presidential election 7000 people were rounded up during demonstrations over the past few days instead. they told of torture and abuse inside cramped detention centers due to the lack of space detainees who are often forced to lie on top of each other young women say they were forced to undress they were beaten and threatened with rape. the violent police crackdown on mainly peaceful protesters has left deep scars on many belorussians it has also angered many of president alex on the local shankar's former support us the call for him to step down has resonated around. the detained everyone everyone girls guys children who are 151413 years old there was a grandpa who was around 70 with us everyone got to tade even if you just came out of a shop to see what's going on you've got to tame me. i was pushed into a police truck they told me either you go with us for 15 days or we beat your legs and let you go the fact that i'm here now it's clear what i chose. to call for alex on the lookout got to step down resonates around belarus after a violent crackdown this is what the president is facing more people on the streets and growing anger about the thousands detained and excessive violence used all the economists for a state owned newspaper is still looking for a 21 year old son detained with his friend on monday evening roy seems to be up to you know. when. my son is a student at the law department he's not an alcoholic more a drug addict i don't want our boys to be beaten they are the future of our country it's very can the 21st century if they don't stop i will burn myself i am ready to go on a hunger strike. if you think. you've got to. around the country factory workers have started to join the protest at a large state owned lorry factory hundreds announce a strike demanding new elections for most servicemen are throwing away their uniforms out of shame for what government troops have done to their own people serving police officer fled the country after he recorded a statement saying he won't follow what he calls criminal orders to use violence. the longer. european and u.s. ambassadors in minsk laid flowers at the square where one of the protesters was killed we call on the authorities to allow peaceful process protest for and to release all those who have exercised this right while the protests are swelling police have stayed away many belorussians have overcome their fears that not just are not as diverse as we want our country to develop and not to stay at a dead end it. will stay here until our dictator is overthrown and happiness comes to our country more and more belorussians are joining the spontaneous protest after they were beaten and chased off the streets at night and now protesting during the day a new strategy that seems to confuse the authorities why look i shan't i might have been able to silence belorussians for many years this time they're determined to have to stone him for it to return to step class and al jazeera minsk. remembers being called a betrayal to the palestinian cause the u.s. government struck a deal with israel to normalize relations the us president all trump helped broker it as part of the agreement israel will suspend but not scrap plans to annex palestinian territories alan fischer reports from washington. it was perhaps unusual that the president of the united states would announce a treaty between 2 other countries but that's what happened in new york office this is a truly historic moment the president said he brokered talks over the past year that brought what we know in as the abraham a court to be signed by the united arab emirates and israel at the white house in the coming weeks this deal is a significant step towards building a more peaceful secure and prosperous middle east i decided the u.s. ambassador to israel and his son in law a senior advisor jerry kush know his middle east peace plan was released in january of 2. played a key role in this new a court i would like to say to the people of the region muslims jews christians and this does give hope that the problems of the past do not condemn you to a future with conflict there is a lot of hope and a lot of potential and this will benefit you and this will also benefit people here in america as part of the accord israel will suspend but not cancel plans to an exporter of the occupied west bank speaking to al-jazeera mustafa barghouti said if there was a peace deal it should have been with the palestinians this. is nothing but a step in the back of the palestinian. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu had earlier cheered the coronavirus task force meeting of his government but left abruptly telling those present you'll soon find out why but while speaking in jerusalem he will be aware he may leak political support domestically for shelving an existing plants a. little additional interim president trump put the an exaggeration into his peace plan those who criticize me should know i said time and again that an exaggeration only be made in accordance with the united states without that it is worthless and it will damage the settlements so there have been discussions of various levels between the u.a.e. and israel for years it seems now each was preparing the ground for this announcement from the official twitter account of the u.a.e. leader mohammed bin ziad a simple statement during a call with president trump and prime minister netanyahu an agreement was reached to stop further is really an exception of palestinian territories the u.a.e. and israel also agree to cooperation and setting a road map towards establishing a bilateral relationship the idea is that both leaders will visit the white house in coming weeks to sign the deal with donald trump center stage he obviously believes that this will help in the run up to the presidential election in november but rarely are american elections the cited by events abroad particularly during a public health and financial crisis. alan fischer al-jazeera at the white house president term said palestinians will eventually seek peace when more countries make deals with israel i think the palestinians will without saying that this is sara lee i think they very much want to be a part of what we're doing and i see ultimately the palestinians see peace between israel and the palestinians as i see that happening i think as these very big powerful wealthy countries come in and i think the palestinians who are following. new zealand's has extended a lockdown in its largest city as the authorities try to contain a new outbreak of coronavirus restrictions in auckland keeping non-essential workers at home have been extended by 12 days the rest of the country will be on a low alert level for the same period testing and contact tracing being ramped up after 30 cases were detected this week investigators are trying to find out how the virus reemerged after more than 3 months with no locally transmitted infections and keeping with our precautionary approach and new zealand's philosophy of going had and going. today cabinet has agreed to maintain al currency sings for an additional 12 days bringing us to a full 2 weeks in total. michael baker is a professor of public health at the university of otago and a member of the advisory group to the government's covert response team he says investigators are looking into several possible sources for the outbreak. the outbreak occurred in the community which is obviously a red flag if you don't know the source the most likely source of course is people in one of the managed current team facilities and we still have thousands of new zealanders coming back to the country and some of them are infected they haue in these facilities for 14 days quarantine and tested and there's a reasonable chance that the virus escaped from there were some bridges biosecurity and started this outbreak we have to look for alternative sources that may be coming from a seaport or could be coming from a flight crew for example who have somehow avoided the usual cautions i mean this is one of the challenges of elimination as a strategy is with very well in terms of health we've got the lowest code mortality in the o.e.c.d. and the economy has got spent very well now and i think part of the elimination approach is you have to manage our brands and the government is pursuing this outbreak control theory aggressively just as we did we need eliminated the pindi a mic in match which took and 2 months to get rid of the virus so this is part of the elimination approach and we hope to be back on track again in a few weeks. from sir's declared paris and the area around the city of ma say as red zones with a high corona virus infection risk the decree gives the authorities the power to impose new restrictions on the millions of people who live there it follows a sharp increase in the number of new covert 19 cases over the past 2 weeks but it's also prompted the u.k. to require travelers coming in from france to go into quarantine for 14 days people who are in france already holland or on to other places that were announcing the saving who were added to the corn seem less people can stay and finish your holiday but you have to be aware you will have to quarantine after that and that is mandates free. right because we do need to protect the lower rights we've managed to establish in this country and that does apply u.k. whites or for parts of the united kingdom scotland northern ireland wales and england leaving on this together this evening. still to come here on al-jazeera as e.u. foreign ministers prepare to discuss a maritime dispute between greece and turkey will examine what's at stake. and find out why the authorities knew so you have arrested more than 19000 people. across much of indonesia but not a huge amount of rain areas of the philippines of a sea will not use got a chance but not the heavy rain that we've seen of a few days ago but is the town of borneo through central southern areas where the rain is fairly heavy certainly through saturday and again fairly extensive 3 much of sumatra it'll stay across the march as ago and into sunday but also developmental some of the peninsula a couple of days a kale and singapore with those showers and thunderstorms and down into australia now southeast and the southwest that is where the rain is we have this area of low pressure working its way slowly across the south taking the cloud the rain to the north and it is that line of cloud there which are 3 saturday we're bringing the rain ever closer into western australia so it could well be a day of showers in person increasing clouds and then through sunday the rain really pulls in so very unsettled widely scattered showers and then really saturday and sunday is about this system here to work its way slowly southeast as it'll take the rain across that toria and gradually away from new south wales but really impacting much of the tiles mania but it doesn't have a fall as news even so for the next couple of days we could just see want to scattered showers into the south on them but really by sunday most of the skies and temperatures all in the double figures. but. it began as a dream holiday then turned into a public health disaster one o one east investigates how a cruise ship became the source of one of the strain is largest covert 19 outbreaks on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. every. america you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour the government's ability rossa started to release some of the nearly $7000.00 protesters who were detained it's also made a rare apology in an effort to stop days of unrest after a disputed election. the palestinian ambassador to the u.a.e. is being recalled after the amorality government struck a deal with israel to normalize relations a spokesman for the palestinian president says the u.s. brokered agreement amounts to treason. and new zealand has extended its lockdown and its biggest city as it tries to contain the country's 1st coronavirus outbreak for more than 3 months testing and contact tracing or plunder now being ramped up. hospitals in beirut are struggling to cope after the damage from last week's devastating explosion in the port area 3 major hospitals and half of the clinics in beirut a still not functioning leaving the city short of hundreds of beds burned its methods are correspond. joining us live this half hour from decent george's hospital in beirut bernard how are they dealing with this current situation. well this is st george hospital one of the 3 hospitals completely shattered by the explosion there were hundreds of patients here at the time being treated glasses glass was blown out doors were blown out everything was blown out and it's been left in a complete and total wreck the world health organization estimates $25.00 other health facilities and 3 other hospitals or 2 other hospitals i beg your pardon in beirut are not functioning and this was already a health system that is in crisis before the explosion there were they were running out of funding they were laying off staff and there was a plea before the explosion for medicines because the haas because the hospitals in the health facilities couldn't access foreign currency to be able to pay for those medicines here isn't george there are 110 child cancer patients there were about a dozen of them here at the time having chemotherapy when the blast hit one of the parents was killed the children survived but the doctor in charge of that unit has now spent the last more than a week now driving between disparate different hospitals around 11 on to try and find places to accommodate the children in his care it's been very disruptive particularly to their care where a continuity in the timing of chemotherapy is so so extraordinary challenges being faced they are hoping to open the emergency department here in the next couple of days perhaps by monday their priority i'm told is to get the laboratory in the blood bank open and once that's ready and they can provide blood to people who need it they can open the emergency room so that might help. in a couple of days and there's a field hospital emergency field hospital such across the set up across the road with funding from the captures i believe will help take off some of the load from the hospital but never in its history at this hospital being closed all the conflict has been in the lab and on this hospital and others have been there to help but the shockwave of course didn't discriminate and shuttered the hospital like all the other buildings around it ok bernard many things bennett smith reporting live from beirut. the authorities in afghanistan have started releasing 400 taliban prisoners paving the way for long delayed talks with the armed group 80 were freed on thursday the release of the so-called hardcore prisoners was approved last weekend by afghanistan's grand assembly or loya jirga it's seen as the final hurdle to launching full negotiations on orders and then. i was detained here for kidnapping and served almost 8 years of my prison sentence i call on my leaders and the president to embrace permanent cease fire and stop the bloodshed so that we all have peaceful lives the lives of our youth have been miserable due to war and the future looks bleak to them study and make a good life. ethiopian police have arrested more than 1000 people since a popular musician was killed in june sparking days of violence several opposition leaders are among those who've been detained catherine soil reports. i select to says he has spent the janta taffeta has been in cassidy in ethiopia says july and has tested positive for cobbett 19 he's a political activist being held without charge alongside many others rounded up after protests against the killing of a popular musician and activist a childhood death in the capital addis ababa with death his death sparked days of violence in which at least $178.00 people were killed and property destroyed across and there on the our region. we never anticipated the occurrence of a situation we felt we had transitioned to a democratic system exactly a month ago they came and knocked on our door at 4 in the morning we told them we can't open it before sunrise for a while they didn't try to break in but they kept banging on it so it father he was afraid they'd break in and he opened the door. is human rights commission says 9000 people have been detained since june and this includes john muhammad an opposition leader who came back home from exile ostia the government accuses him and others of inciting the violence of the human rights campaign i see they're also worried at how the government is dealing with political dissent. it's a government is. going back to. just that's. detaining people but investigation. protracted. prime minister ahmed came to power. promising to respect human rights and he has been implementing democratic reforms he has won a nobel peace prize for his efforts to achieve peace and resolve a border dispute with neighboring areas traffic sami theo paeans all of us say he has not achieved what he set out to do and the country still deeply divided along ethnic lines government officials accuse protesters of being violent and their leaders of trying to destabilize the country visiting the negatives family say he was just exercising his right and the government should either release him or charge him katherine sawyer. south korea has held a ceremony to remember women and girls who were forced by japan to work in brussels during world war 2 they were known by their captors as comfort women the issue continues to be a point of contention between the 2 countries bryant has more now from cio now in south korea. as countries around the world mark the end of the 2nd world war with the anniversary of the defeat of japan and so south korea with this one ceremony remembers in particular one of the more painful episodes from that conflict it's the plight of the so-called comfort women these are women and girls who were forced from career to go and work in brothels serving the japanese imperial army locations around asia gradually their numbers have dwindled over the years more than 50 former comfort women are now buried at this one national cemetery given their advancing years of course there is a concern that very soon there will be few 1st hand witnesses to what took place 75 years ago so the focus at commemorations like this is very much too for the present and future generations to learn what happened and to pass on their stories to continue to commemorate and remember. the government will conduct research and education in order to set the record straight and make sure that more students and citizens share the pain of the grandmothers and stand in solidarity with them. the issue continues to cast a very long shadow over the often troubled relations between japan and south korea the japanese of course have a very different view of the comfort women narrative they say that the brothels were properly run the women were paid and came of their own volition but the japanese say that in any case all of these issues have gradually been settled over the years by countless agreements and the payment of compensation but many people here in south korea would argue that they are still all of these decades on waiting for that one sincere japanese apology poland has gone into recession for the 1st time since the end of communism the economy. percent in the 2nd quarter after coronavirus lockdowns only 30 years of economic growth but the slump is expected to be less severe than in other e.u. member states bracing for a possible 2nd wave of infections after a surge in cases in the past week. e.u. foreign ministers are expected to hold an emergency summit in the coming few hours to consider sanctions against turkey the meeting comes at the request of greece which says turkey has begun searching for oil and gas in its waters tensions between the 2 countries have been increasing recently as charlie angela reports. beneath these waters in the eastern mediterranean lies a growing source of conflict on monday turkish warships entered territory that both greece and turkey claim as their own escorting a ship carrying out seismic surveys on the sea bed searching for oil and gas on wednesday greece's prime minister issued a stark warning. in response to turkey's deployment of its fleet we have also put. it i'm confident that all greeks have the same absolute trust in the capabilities of our armed forces as i do at the same time though we remain in absolute political and operational readiness we are also mobilizing our diplomacy notifying our friendly nations and alerting our allies and partners we are not alone in this effort. one of those analyze is france who sent in 2 fighter jets and this naval warship to sail alongside greek forces but turkey is plowing ahead with plans to issue gas exploration and drilling licenses in the disputed region within weeks this shows the exclusive economic zone to greece turkey and cyprus as defined by the united nations it accords greece 71 percent of the aegean sea and turkey 8.8 percent but this is how turkey redraws the same map claiming much of greece's waters as its own and this is the area where turkey has started looking for oil within itself to find waters but that infringes on greece's maritime territory according to the e.u. and the un. turkey did postpone exploration last month following a truce brokered by germany but when athens signed a new maritime deal with egypt last week ankara vowed to defend its interests in the region resumed jimson in hock gives him is your greece's attitude in the aegean and the mediterranean is malicious we don't have designs on anyone's rights but we won't let any country take away our rights e.u. foreign ministers are hoping to resolve the standoff through dialogue at the emergency summit greece stated that it is ready to sit on the table and discuss with and all relevant parties in the region as long as all the meat dairy present in the region is withdrawn you cannot share. discussions where you have naval vessels from the job there. although the 2 sides seem on a collision course both say they share a desire for dialogue and diplomacy. out there. the japanese owners of a damaged ship off the coast of the russia say the government has asked them for compensation about a 1000 tons of oil has spilled into waters off the southern coast of the island the vessel run aground on a coral reef late last month the prime minister nearly all of the oil on board has now been pumped out. black americans are being invited to migrates to the countries of west africa gone and senegal are encouraging them to explore and invest. who say they want to leave racism and division behind in the us and i know a certain look in the snow i know what the person is thinking and go back to africa . in the insult african-americans julie said george heard it calling a move to send a card to find an escape from the racial tensions in the divisive politics at home in america people are. always look to the corner. there's like a sense of like i don't know welcoming really warm you know just like everyone looks at you and they're like you look like me. maybe this is home maybe this is where we come in and we make it just like what america was it's the year return an invitation from west african countries like sending american descent to settle in invest in the continent government says hundreds of american families have settled in the country thanks to the. nation may be specific. but i think people need to be divisive and they can find common ground where everybody can celebrate you know. the city's replacing street names in the french colonial figures with african personalities while politicians argue over whose likeness should replace them it seems young people have already made up their minds are legal. to depict religious figures look at this it's called black excellence you can find stokely carmichael. tommy smith even george floyd african-americans have affected the history of the united states but africa is well and so not only can you find them on the streets they're also taught in schools as part of the history curriculum. it's this that prompted 17 year old miriam his family to move from atlanta so that she could attend one of the african-american schools of the city where perhaps really teaches art and representation like learning about columbus and learning about columbus here it was completely different. like you discover in america all these great things and when i came over here my history teacher said this man was and this was new to me i was like oh. in settling in west africa they have found a new home discovered a side of themselves they had not seen before too often overlooked. the car. this is al jazeera these are your top stories the government started to release some of the nearly $7000.00 protesters who've been detained it's also made a rare apology in an effort to stop days of unrest after the disputed election result. the palestinian ambassador to the u.a.e. is being recalled after the government struck a deal with israel to normalize relations a spokesman for the palestinian president says the u.s. brokered agreement amounts to quote treason new zealand has extended a lockdown in its biggest city as it tries to contain the country's 1st coronavirus outbreak for more than 3 months testing and contact tracing an all clear now being ramped up. in keeping with our precautionary approach and you zealand's philosophy of going had and going. today cabinet has agreed to maintain al currency sings for an additional 12 days bringing us to a for 2 weeks in total france has declared paris and the area around the city of mass a red zones with a high coronavirus infection risk the decree gives the authorities the power to impose new restrictions on the millions of people who live there and follows a sharp increase in the number of new covert 19 cases that's prompted the u.k. to require travelers from france to go in to quarantine for 14 days when they get home poland has gone into recession for the 1st time since the end of communism the economy shrank by nearly 9 percent in the 2nd quarter after coronavirus long burns it ends nearly 30 years of economic growth periods hospitals are struggling to cope after the damage from last week's devastating ports explosion 3 major hospitals and half of the lebanese capital's clinics are still not functioning leaving the city short of hundreds of beds the authorities in afghanistan have started releasing 400 taliban prisoners paving the way for long delayed talks with the armed group 80 of them were freed on thursday the release of these so-called hardcore prisoners is seen as the final hurdle to launching full negotiations up next is one of the one east australia's cruise ship nightmare after that in the stars is here with the news hour i'll have more news from 11. a global pandemic mass protests demanding change economic recession and geo political tensions not to mention the small matter of a looming election join me steve clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u.s. politics and society on al-jazeera. the princess sailed into sydney for the 1st time last year the ship was greeted with fireworks and celebrations and so on everybody was to go on a lot. now the ruby princess is famous all the wrong reasons put the money down the 1st gain i never put out the 1st absolutely appalling what i've got. a special commission of inquiry is examining how hundreds of infected passengers were allowed.