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and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc worldews". katty: i am katty kay in washington and this is bbc world news america. biden says china and russia are trying to split the nato alliance. all eyes turned to the meeting with vladimir putin. boris johnson delays the plans lockdown easing in england by four weeks because of the delta variant. israel's new prime minister has promised to unite a country frayed by years of political division.

welcome to world news america and the u.k. on pbs and around the globe. the nato summit, president biden said china and russia are trying to drive a wedge in the transatlantic alle. he added while he is not seeking conflict with russia, nato would respond if moscow continued its harmful activities. as for china, the president laid out the group concerns during a press conference. >> we talked about the long-term systemic challenges. we agree to do more to enhance the resilience of our critical of the structure, including telecommunications, supply chains and energy networks. katty: the u.s. president also saw to underline american support for nato, tracking a dierent tone from donald trump. dear i our -- here's our north

american editor. reporter: there is a new sheriff in town. he is resetting the relationship after the hostility of his predecessor. look at the body language. the double take. there was the hybrid fist and elbow pump. even a hello with turkh president. joe biden likes nato and nato seems to like him. >> i want to make clear. nato is critically important for u.s. interests in of itself. i want all of europe to know that the united states is there. reporter: donald trump the other hand, question the whole idea of collective security, thought america was paying far too much. those arguments are in the

rearview mirror, as the transatlantic defense organization puts its focus on a resurgent china and its increasingly militaristic stance. >>e all recognize that china's military capabilities, and growing influence matters, and we have to respond to that together. reporter: joe biden sees this trip as a battle of ideas. a competition of values. while all nato members are happy to sign up to compete against china, they are very worried it could lead to confrontation. than there is russia, their relations are at a low ebb. there seems to be a greater willingness to confront vladimir putin. but also, the state and nonstate actors responsible for election interference in ransomware attack's, like the one that

crippled the colonial pipeline. bided will meet his russian counterpart on wednesday in geneva. it's not going to be a meeting of minds. bbc news, brussels. katty: joining me now is a retired admiral who superb -- served as supreme allied commander to nato. thank you so much for joining us. this is a western alliance by and large. what is the threat to those nations from china? >> i would say first, it is china's extravagant claims of territorial ownership of the south china sea. this is a vast body of water, half the size of the continent of the united states. china claims it essentially in its entirety. where the west to acquiesce to this preposterous claim, over

time it would undermine the entire system of sovereign, orderly ownership of appropriate amounts of oceans. secondly, we see china bullying many of its neighbors. vietnam, the philippines, india. china is pushing the international system. third and finally, china is aligning itself with russia. and other significant authoritarian power. you see the two drawing closer and closer together in ways that we are not part of the cold war. taken together, that ought to concern us in our european allies. katty: it's interesting that three years ago china did not even feature in the nato communique, here it is as a strategic challenge. some of the conventional wisdom

around china that it was focused economically on expanding its reach with its belt and road initiative. the idea that china is a military threat might come as news to some people. >> i suppose that is correct. for those of us who have been watching this movie decades, we watched china build a fleet of warships. that u.s. warships are more capable, they are larger, the u.s. has more experience. clearly, china is expanding its military. 10% year on year growth in's defense budgets. back to the china and russia, we see these two fleets operating all over the world. not just in the north pacific where you would perhaps expect it. we see russian and chinese warships operating together in

the eastern mediterranean. in the north atlantic. in the baltic sea. katty: meanwhile, the need to focus. on russia. . this meeting with vladimir putin. what tools does america have left in its toolbox that it is not using yet against russia? >> i would say we have a considerable in the world of cyber. this could include offensive cyber operations against russia cyber criminal actors that are operating from russian soil. it could mean cracking open information about vladimir putin's inner circle. and can be going after offshore bank accounts. it could include using the international financial system to push russia further and further out from being able to use that. there is a basket of cyber and

economic sanctions which have been in large part quite effective, at least in pairing the russian economy. over time, those will be the two principal tools in the toolbox. katty: thank you very much for joining thegram. india is still reeling from a devastating wave of this pandemic that was fueled by the more infectious delta variant. data is emerging that shs just how starkly the oicial death toll differs from the actual number of people who died. our india correspondent has this report. reporter: from the start of the pandemic, the underreporting of deaths in this country from doctors and other frontline workers have seen evidence.

the reports that have appeared over the past few days gives us a sense that have acute the scale could be. she is looked at two big states and look at excess deaths. when we say excess, the overall deaths that took place in the region over a. where the second wave was at its worst, minus the number of deaths that took place in the same region in a pre-pandemic year over the same period. these excess deaths she has found the state where it is 34 times the reported covid death toll in that region. and, in the state she found that was 42 times the reported official death toll in that state. of course, it is important to

point out that not all deaths in these regions would have been caused by the coronavirus, there could be other reasons as well. what we can say with certainty is there is more and more evidence that the scale of underreporting in india has been massive and we will never know how many people died of the virus in this country. katty: that has been detected in dozens of countri. today it was cited for delaying the reopening in england. boris johnson warned tt the spread of this version of the disease and rising hospitalizations means it is too early to relax covid restrictions us plan. we have more. reporter: it is the rise of the delta variant that has encouraged ministers to hit the pause button.

delta is around 60% more infectious from the one that cause havoc over the winter. on the current trajectory, we could see january levels of action by the end of july and there is uncertainty about what impact that might have on hospital admissions. >> i think we are in the grip of the early stages of a third wave. the delta variant has a significant transmission advantage over the previous alpha variant. reporter: the hope is the increase in cases will start to fade because so many people have been vaccinated. most people getting infected with delta have not been humanized and they are tending to be younger and recovering quicker. and there is more good news on vaccines. analysis confirms they offer high level of protection against severe illness with the delta

variant. one does is good, but two is better. the race continues against the vaccine and the virus. joining me for more is a doctor. thank you for joining us. you hear a lot about the delta variant in the you pay, i am not hearing very much about it and then united states. should we be worried about it? >> it's definitely here. it looks like it is about 10% of the sequencing we are doing. it doubles every couple of weeks. we are going to probably see i as the predominant strain of covid by the midsummer. the reason why that matters, it is more infectious. the chances of spreading it are higher if you have the delta version. for us in the u.s., everyone is

focused on vaccines, it has to be redoubled because of this new strength. katty: it feels like people are normal. nobody is wearing masks. is there a chance that this delta variant could derail america's putting covid in its rearview mirror? >> it's the same in new york. everything is up to full capacity. the challenge is this. if individuals who have not been vaccinated are hanging out with individuals who have been vaccinated and acting as though they have no risk, the delta string is going to be a problem. if you have not been vaccinated, the variant looks like you could actually have up to a 60% higher chance of infecting you and when you get sick the severity of illness looks like it may be more severe.

get vaccinated as soon as possible. katty: i am thinking of the states, particularly in the south you have a bunch of states where the rate is not even at 50%. i am assuming whether the variant does not know if you are in a state where people have been vaccinated or not vaccinated. i would looking at the potential for a spike in cases and not just cases, hospitalizations? >> that is something we should get our minds around. we were talking about what we would see in the fall. we may see that earlier. strength is more texas and many people are not get vaccinated. some uptick.

the other thing to keep in mind as it seems as though the strn is causing more severe illness in children. as they are having the conversation about vaccines. the intensity and need for vaccination is going up even more because the delta string is targeting kids. katty: thank you very much for that word of warning. this pandemic is not over. thank you for joining us. for month after the military coup in myanmar, the countries ousted leader has officially been put on trial. her supporters say the court case is a sham. she has been charged with owning unlicensed walkie-talkies. or lawyers describe the charges as disturbed -- absurd. the aim of the trial is to bar

her from running in future elections. novavax says it's covid vaccine is more than 90% effective, including against coronavirus variance. they said it's jab demonstrated 100% protection against moderate to severe disease. the third trial in the u.s. and mexico. there watching bbc world news america. still to come on tonight's program. groups of ethiopians are looking for refuge in saudi arabia. we have a special rort explaining why. a u.s. special forces veteran faces up to three years in prison after admitting to helping someone evade authorities in japan back in 2019.

reporter: this is a daring escape. smuggled out of the country, someone who was awaiting trial. you have these ex special forces involved, they have been drawn in and face charges themselves. you have michael and his son peter, both of whom will have pled guilty. they are amongst three individuals who helped smuggle him out of japan. all of those we understand were involved in this daring international caper. it seems the net has been closing in. you can't get away with this kind of international escapade. katty: every year, tens of

thousands of ethiopians embark on a perilous journey to saudi arabia. they are looking for jobs or trying to escape conflict. the trek is not easy. bbc spoke with one man who attempted the journey. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: he wanted to escape the hardship of ethiopia. with no plan and little money, he set off on the road to saudi arabia. like many illegal migrants, he followed a 2000 kilometer ancient slave trade group. entering djibouti, they walked through the desert before crossing the red sea. and travel onwards to saudi arabia. with few opportunities, many

young ethiopians are blurred to make the journey. >>6 [speaking foreign language] reporter: it is a torturous journey through temperatures of up to 50 degrees. suffering hunger and dehydration. many migrants don't make it. from the djibouti to yemen, it's an eight hour journey across the red sea. every year, hundreds drowned. he says that ethnic tensions are never far from the surface. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: that is not all. the migrants are targeted for kidnapping. he was held and tortured for a ransom.

>> [speaking foreign language] reporter: he manag to reach the saudi border, buturing an encounter with security forces, he took a bullet in the leg. he says he was not aware of the dangers involved in making the illegal journey. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: after six months in yemen, he was deported. he has been back in ethiopia for a year now. his life forever changed. he now spends most of his time begging in the local town. broken by the journey to saudi arabia. he has a message forthers planning to do the same. >> [speaking foreign language]

reporter: however desperate for a better life, few heed his advice. >> [speaking foreign language] katty: miserable story of migration. on his first full day in office, israel's new prime minister made it clear he will do all he can to bring down this brand-new government. the meeting barely lasted 30 minutes. there are questions whether the coalition will be able to do very much. it seems all they can agree on is that it was time to replace netanyahu. here is our correspondent

looking back at the competing personalities in this coalition. reporter: israel always has coalition governments, but it's never had one as wide-ranging as this. headed by a right wing religious jew d a secular centrist. with an arab israeli islamist party joining in a historic first. winning just --you expected him to become prime minister. the former special sources soldier is benjamin netanyahu's chief of staff. later joining him in government as defense minister. he is a staunch nationalist, committed to israeli settlements and opposed to the creation of a palestinian state. for the sake of unity, now he

says is the time to compromise. before he became a politician, used to interview israel's leaders. he was a well known tv news anchor. until he turned to politics a decade ago, at a time where social and economic struggles were bringing out middle-class israelis for mastery protest. after a turn as finance minister, he spent years in opposition. that was a change last month when the president gave him the mandate to form a new government after the longtime p.m. was unable to do so. his party had the second most votes behind mr. netanyahu. traditional palestinian dancing is how the united arab list celebrated its seats on election night. it is socially concerned in its outlook headed by a dentist. unlike other arab leaders.

the new government will face a formidable opposition leader looking to exploit their divisions. with the thinnest possible majority, it will stick to topics it can agree on like helping the post-covid recovery. that won't be easy after last month's mob violence as tensions continue to simmer in jerusalem. bbc news, jerusalem. katty: that is going to be a very interesting coalition. before we go, people have been putting their faith in animals to predict the future. an elephant in germany is picking the flag for world cup matches. yesterday she disappointed german flags as she pulled out a french flag, meaning france is set to win their match.

perhaps the elephant know something we don't. kickoff is tomorrow evening. we will have to see what the elephant picks next. narrator: funding for this presentation of this program provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provide, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪ narrator: you're watching pbs. ♪ da-da-da-duh-da-da-da♪ ♪ da-da-da-da-da-da ♪♪

♪ jimmy: think. i am judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight -- biden abroad -- the president works to rebuild alliances at the critical nato summit. then -- the climate fight -- the g-7 meeting ends with overtures toward reducing climate change across the planet but few concrete plans to combat the crisis. and -- political stakes -- our politics monday team looks at the biden trip overseas and whether it could help his domestic agenda, plus the tough assignments on vice president harris' plate. plus, leaving afghanistan -- a helicopter pilot finally enters the u.s. after a protracted visa