in the global conversation. this time. i really felt liberated as a journalist well. that's what is. facing realities your president said that there would be a complete audit a hundred percent audit that audit hasn't happened getting to the heart of the matter so are you saying then that the future of the g.c.c. will be in doubt. here the story. on talk to al-jazeera at this time. this is al jazeera. i lie on three times and this is the news out live from london coming up in the next sixty minutes defiance in the face of widespread opposition iraq's kurds

following through with that controversial referendum triggering fury from neighbors . north korea's foreign minister says donald trump's latest statement was a declaration of war and that all options on the on the table. i know it's devastating for me with. a country in ruins we report from dominico where hurricane maria has left a trail of destruction. with the latest sports news including the war of words between u.s. president donald trump and american professional athletes continues to be another door to door of live in this world. that story and more later in the program.

votes are being counted in a controversial kurdish referendum on secession in northern iraq with local media reporting a turnout of seventy eight percent a comfortable yes result is expected but the outcome won't be binding meanwhile iraq's central government and turkey has not a joint military maneuvers on the border in retaliation to the vote meat has the latest from a bill. it's a day. they had hoped to see in their lifetime some eager to be the first to cast their ballots suzanne was so excited about the referendum she had a restless night. is the first time she's been able to vote. i am so happy i wanted to be one of the first ones here i only slept for three hours this is a historic day for us it's not the first time it has voted but he too was in early he does his blue finger was pride. i have voted in presidential and

parliamentary elections before but this is the most important one because it's about independence i hope and you could have. everyone. syrians you know everyone who wants to live in freedom. similar scenes were being repeated around the kurdish region people streaming into polling stations however they could areas where kurdish president. has a strong foothold so happy today. the vote also went to cook despite fears it could further alienate. nearly half of the city's population who feel they have been marginalized by the kurds so this is the ballot paper the question. areas outside of the regions administration. to become an independent state the vote. which means. everything on the ballot is written in three

other languages arabic assyrian and turkish the regional government sending a message that the future kurdistan state will be inclusive. but william benjamin is not convinced he's an assyrian christian and has voted no. we don't see the same interest in us in other political events before this referendum it's just a way to lure the minorities we respect their promises but until now they've not respected all rights and every race in the history of this land excluding all part of it the kurdish president has said that it's time to end a failed partnership with baghdad a message that resonates among kurds who hope that this is the day that they write what they consider to be a historical wrong but by taking over the disputed territories but is only now faces those who feel history is repeating itself this time against known kurds.

and we can join huldah life for us and bill in northern iraq news the iraqi parliament pushed to send troops into the border if indeed this referendum went ahead is now actually happening what more can you tell us about those maneuvers going on. at the moment we have. a bunch of statements and motions coming out of central to the central government but we haven't seen any movement on the ground yet let me just take the. last night first it was announced at the federal government will take over the border. crossings of the kurdish region including the two airports there peanuts eliminate and the three border crossings with iran and another with. aid has it happened earlier today parliament voted asking prime minister to

deploy iraqi forces to the so-called disputed territories that are currently under the control of kurdish forces since since in two thousand and fourteen basically ever since the iraqi army evacuated those areas in the wake of the advance i still haven't seen any movement on the ground there to those disputed territories took part in the referendum today and then later to the latest statement that came out of baghdad is that the chief of staff of the defense ministry has announced joint turkish military maneuvers along the border so that would be one of the northern border in. iraq so certainly you can feel that there's a lot of pressure surrounding the kurdish region if you put it to a brigade over. iran's move closing the airspace and also the threats coming out of

turkey. that said people here are celebrating i by the looks of it celebrations are going to go through to the night now joining me is star muzaffar he is an english language teacher stars thank you for joining me are you sad you voted yes in this referendum what does it mean julia thank you very much thanks for having me yesterday i voted yes for the independence of the kurdistan region this today was a very historic moment in the history of focus people in the kurdistan region it has been a very long awaited dream for both here does believe in the kurdistan region ok dan said we also discussed that tomorrow when the party is over this is their reality coming through and that reality includes an angry neighbors coming back where they think within the borders of iraq still from coming from the central government or from iran and turkey are you worried about that i am not worried actually. because

. a few hours past decade we have been living in quarries already. we have had more. we have hardware stores to asians on the run only being wary we have been massacred gas poison have been used against kurds in and in the whole of john and paul campaigns have been used our our villages have been just destroyed by some iraqi rumors in the past this is why we are we cannot be scared only by worries and we do not care about worries but what we hold no worries will happen in the region ok you know open no wars will happen in the region let's look a bit also about the kurdish reality you know to everybody that is supporting the timing of the referendum and also it was happening in the disputed territories and minorities are very worried some of them are does that nobody on. their opinion

about this referendum and they felt obliged to do it you were telling me the disputed territories where i could certainly write. ok if they were if they were concerned about holding them all about or all of our their territories they were given a fair and free chance to have their choice peacefully today they had the chance to say no to that even on a friend if they don't even if they are concerned about the ground of. everyone was given the chance to say yes or no this is why that was that was the best way given to them to have their choice today thank you very much i mean this is an opinion that you will hear over and over again when talking to iraq's kurds they've been saying all along well you know we're just expressing our opinion this is a non-binding referendum but there's no two ways to look at it at some point they

will be a declaration of independence where did comes after negotiations with baghdad friendly negotiation that may be to an outcome or whether there would be frustration that reaches such a level that because we've unilaterally declare independence at some point many thanks coloring as the very latest from that party atmosphere and bell well let's cross to beyond sami abdul rahman in the. united states in the washington she joins us live she's a member of the kurdistan regional government representative to the u.s. or so much for joining us on al-jazeera and first on that question of this being non-binding why was it worth risking what looks to be an escalating situation now with iraq with the neighbors surrounding kurdish town. well the result is certainly binding on the kurdish leadership the kurdish leadership now has the mandate to negotiate with baghdad on an amicable separation

on a new relationship between b. and baghdad so while it may not be binding on all of iraq it is absolutely binding on the kurdish leadership to follow the will of the people i just want to play the comments made by the turkish president much of their own just today about the situation comments that are quite antagonistic let's have a list. our armed forces are on the borders with iraq to do whatever it takes iran is well will do whatever it takes our air force stands ready we will never allow anyone or anything to go from turkey to iraq this week we will adopt so many other measures will close the borders nothing will go across the border. if the situation does get more threatening our what's the message you're getting from the united states and any other partners that people

will help your situation that will help protect you. well we certainly hope it doesn't reach a point where we need protection all that we have done is we have exercised our democratic right in shrines in the u.n. charter recognized all over the world as a democratic right of people for self-determination that's all that we've done why is it that all of these countries are reacting in this way some countries have become independent through unilateral declarations we are not doing that we are having a referendum which took place today and i have to say i'm emotionally so excited about today i'm so proud of the people of kurdistan for the way we've conducted the referendum our neighbors and baghdad need to realize that we have done this step by step we're taking this very seriously we want to engage in dialogue we don't want to destabilize iraq or kurdistan or any of the neighbors and we have in fact been

a factor for peace and stability throughout our recent history since one thousand nine hundred one we aim to continue along that path but certainly our aim is to have an independently rossley kurdistan in the near future but we want to achieve that through dialogue through peaceful negotiation and through good neighborly conduct there is not invested politically and i'm thinking of the un and indeed the us administration have not horribly question to be questioned your right to self-determination but more about the timing the stability the ongoing fight with ice is that possibly a worthwhile argument. well the when we asked our friends if now is not a good time when do you suggest is a good time there wasn't an answer president barzani and other leaders in kurdistan did speak to the united states to the u.k. to france to the un and said if you want us to postpone this referendum as you are

proposing give us an alternative that is as good as a referendum or even better we will perspire on it that offer that guarantee never came so of course we had to go ahead with it but really i want to go back and give you a little bit of background as to why we are where we are today in two thousand and three when iraq was liberated from the dictator of iraq saddam hussein we decided that we would join the fallen tree union of iraq that we would do our best to make iraq work to make it a federal democratic secular country and we believe that that was possible when we all voted in a referendum on the constitution of iraq unfortunately that constitution has been violated fifty five articles out of one hundred forty four have been violated the second chamber which was supposed to represent all of the regions and the provinces of iraq has never been created the peshmerga who are part of iraq's defense

mechanism defense system have never been trained equipped or paid for out of iraq's budget there are many other examples that i can give you and we have reached the point where we believe we need to find a new relationship with iraq and that relationship should be based on the outcome of this referendum but again we want to live in peace and we want to have dialogue absolutely and we are very grateful for hearing off a spectacle on this what looks like a historic vote. abdel rahman thank you very much for joining us. pyongyang's top diplomat said president donald trump's tweet that leader kim jong un won't be around for much longer how it was a declaration of war and north korea now has every right to take countermeasures he clued in shooting down u.s. bombers outside of its airspace. last weekend trying to claim that our leadership wouldn't be around much longer and he declared war on our country. the

fact that this comes from the united states president is clearly a declaration of war. since the united states declared war on our country we have every right to make counts measures including the right to shoot down united states strategic bombers even when they're not yet inside north korean space. let's go to our diplomatic editor james bays at the u.n. headquarters in new york jane we seem to really have universal course to dampen down the rhetoric but it just got ratcheted up yet another notch today. yes the north korean foreign minister spoke on saturday to the un general assembly but even stronger comments from him now in part because after he spoke on saturday president trant responded on twitter the north koreans now believe that that tweet in their view was a declaration of war the other thing that happened on saturday just before the north korean foreign minister spoke was there was a show of force by u.s.

aircraft by jets and bombers along the eastern coast of north korea going further beyond the de-militarized zone the any time this century but staying in international waters the north koreans are now saying if that happens again they will shoot those aircraft down so it is certainly the rhetoric is getting even stronger than it has been in the past diplomats i've spoke to out so there really needs to be a stop to the stick for tat war of words there hoping that perhaps now the north koreans have left they're no longer here in new york to give instant media reaction that it will come things down but certainly we've seen many statements from pyongyang and we've seen a u.s. president keen to respond very quickly on twitter and most diplomats are spoken to here privately will tell you they don't think any of this is a tall helpful many thanks jamie stan faith there at the u.n. . as much more to come here on the news hour forced to scavenge from

baen's for food in what was once america's richest capital city we had deep into the hollands of catalonia. ahead of the controversial independence referendum. for. the sport. platform to try to divide us and n.b.a. star lebron james sends a message to u.s. president donald trump and a testing time in american. medical services on puerto rico are in critical condition in the wake of hurricane maria with officials warning the situation may get worse before it gets better the strongest storm to hit the caribbean island in decades has caused wide ranging power outages with many hospitals now running off generators has killed at least

thirty three people in the caribbean. these high definition satellite images of before and after the storm showed the extent of the damage in dominica and is massive barely a cherry is less standing and eighty percent of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed completely let's speak to gabriel and he's now in santa lucia you've just come back from. watching from here it's very difficult to get a sense of the scale of this destruction gave can you can you put it into words. devastation quite frankly that i don't think i've ever seen in any other natural disasters that i've covered before i say it's very comparable to after the earthquake in haiti in two thousand and ten that's how bad the destruction is it's very hard to get to the island of dominique or right now. airports remain closed

still cut off from any phone lines or an internet connection that's why it's been hard to get firsthand information out of there we rented a boat took at nearly three hours in rough seas to finally get to. and i don't think anyone could be prepared for what they were going to witness once they got on land this is what we saw take a look. approaching domenica from the shoreline the first signs of a battered country on shore at the port the picture is clear. on the crews frantically unload water some of the first aid to reach the island all week but as we'll find out later it's not nearly enough a group of dominique ensue live abroad have reached the island to rescue family members bring in supplies and they get a first glimpse of a home landed ruins i love this country i you know it's devastating for me was.

the hour. he at least knows his family is alive but not everyone is so lucky they started going through. a lot so i lost my meet my niece my brothers and not any good to go going to. i haven't seen my daughter. through all. the others again with both airports shut down people crowd the gates at the port to try to get on one of the few ships evacuating people out and this is why in this neighborhood near the capital everything is gone schools homes roads it's all badly damaged some beyond repair the people of this island nation of seventy one thousand are desperate some still will get anything. that the bill went to a kid and it took. eight operations are still in the early phases

but it's clear domenico will need the world's help to rebuild not for days not months but for years but that can wait water to hand. here they're thirsty and in this neighborhood bottled water finally arrives given the nature of the destruction it's almost like the country of domenico no longer exists and in some ways it doesn't once a small but vibrant island nation buzzing with our culture music and life all of that is now gone the entire country has been reduced to a debris field the heart of any country is not its buildings or roads and it dominique their will is being tested in ways no people should ever have to endure but will is all they have left. a guy that's pretty desperate situation you

reported on what do they need most desperately and you get a sense that time is on its way to them. yeah the country is in need of absolutely everything of course food water that's number one but beyond that they need things like building supplies everything as small as nails hammers the hospital need medical equipment they need things like everything you can imagine diapers everything is what they need because so much was just simply washed away from hurricane maria is a small island nation of a city one thousand people small the infrastructure wasn't very great begin with what was that it was completely wiped out now who's coming to the aid several countries the united states england to name two there are others as well there's also neighboring island nations such as where i am at st lucia they're also trying to launch eight operations there i can tell you that there is stomach aid getting in but it's just very difficult why because unlike the earthquake in haiti in two

thousand and ten there you were able to caravan in through the dominican republic the dominican republic and haiti share the same island here there is no there is not possible it's just an island that's completely isolated with no airports no major port per se it is just so difficult to get aid in there and that's why the desperation a week later is so so strong still many elizondo there reporting on the desperate situation. the venezuelan economic and political crisis is having a severe effect on the nation's house a survey by three of the nation's top universities found the average fan as well and has lost nine kilograms in the past year many families and they're forced to scavenge for food in what was once south america's richest country in latin america editor lucien human reports from the capital caracas. there are rarely any leftovers after lunch is served at this soup kitchen run by the catholic

church in us. bring my children here to ensure that they get at least one good meal a day but the kitchen runs on donations only enough to serve one hundred children so every day giuditta assia is forced to turn many people away. every day more children are crisis is such that as they say shame has been forgotten people would rather beg for a plate of food for their children than watch them go hungry. she says many of the children were given a special formula to help them recover from severe malnutrition but the parents who are not entitled to a meal are not so lucky. sometimes my wife and i do without food so at least the children commute twice a day. as well as prolonged and acute economic crisis characterized by food shortages and hyper inflation has seen infant mortality rise to almost thirty five

percent and maternal mortality sixty five percent in just the last year a name is rampant the oil rich country is now leading latin america in what is called acute malnutrition the type described by experts as a rapid decline in nutrition that puts a child's life at risk. never in my twenty two years of humanitarian work have i seen an emergency expanded on so many fronts as this one and so generated by the state was such a bad prognosis because there is no sign that the government wants to rectify and recognize that it has to address a humanitarian crisis. the catholic church and all position leaders have called for the government to open a humanitarian corridor but constituent assembly president dench's realty is tells al-jazeera she flatly rejects such a notion. because under international humanitarian law by

definition a humanitarian crisis can even facilitate and justify foreign interventions of international coalitions. whatever the definition the venezuelan state seems unable to halt a crisis that is driving thousands of families across neighboring borders. and while at home a lucky few still receive help the number of deaths from malnutrition grows. you see in human al just us. stay with us on the news hour still ahead. better week one germany's chancellor angela merkel begins the complicated task of building a coalition government. as the waters of hurricane harvey felt find a new deadly threat is a measuring for homeowners. and in sports the u.s. open champion same stevens that shocked the world i don't. think.

we've got some rain in the forecast for the middle east over the next couple days and when i say middle east really it's the north of the region just spinning out of the black sea towards the caspian sea a little china of clout there and as you can see in armenia not you know i millimeters of rain in twenty four hours in the choice of one of two showers longer spells of rain as we go on through the next twenty four hours or so for much of tuesday that's fine and driving say the west the weather spilling out to the far north of turkey and it just straddles the region as we go on through where to stay so armenia and georgia azerbaijan could see some wet weather twenty celsius the top temperatures. so. warm dry and sunny that was spread out across the area so thirty eight celsius in kuwait city and that's the sort of temperature we can expect here over the next couple of days marty thirty eight is one hundred in found high still plenty warm enough that warm

sunshine the hazy sunshine will continue across the arabian peninsula as we go on through the next few days barely a cloud in the sky but a cloud in the sky too for a good part of southern africa but south africa seeing some rather lively weather of them by this band of cloud it's making its way through thick enough it's producing heavy rain around the eastern cape durban ninety degrees celsius cape town with a high of forty. russian filmmaker andre christoph explores how putin's russia impacts the very values of the nation the russians are famous for their cultural legacy but can traditional and conservative be the source of stagnation and authoritarian rule. by the police . the sexuality the significance of it. is that he's like a fake you who controls the cobra in such

a putin's russia at this time on al-jazeera when the news breaks more than a million people have already lost power here and that number will grow as conditions worsen and the story builds fast and sometimes fatal. jockeys are risking their lives when people need to be heard in my dream about gambling in numbers i don't feel comfortable with don't think i'll gamble until i die al-jazeera has teams on the ground to bring you more award winning documentaries and live news on air and online. welcome back a reminder of the top stories al-jazeera voted in large numbers and i controversial

referendum on the session. referendum has faced strong opposition from the central government in baghdad as well as international criticism north korea's foreign minister says u.s. president donald shanks recent comments on its nuclear program were a declaration of war against prong and. their extent of the devastation caused on hurricane maria is becoming clear as many as eighty percent of the buildings have been destroyed on the caribbean island of many. german chancellor german chancellor angela merkel has won a fourth term in office but she faces a very different political landscape center right christian democratic union party has won just under thirty three percent of the vote giving them two hundred thirty eight seats their main rival and coalition partner of the center left social democrats led by martin schultz got just over twenty percent of the vote or one

hundred forty eight seats but the biggest change to germany's political scene is this the far right and anti islam alternative for germany or a.f.p. who won thirteen percent of the vote translates into ninety five seats the three other main parties won between nine and eleven percent of the vote but could find themselves in power as fart of a coalition or honestly reports from berlin the most important politician in europe the most important female politician anywhere the flag bearer for liberal democracy in uncertain world four wins in a row for angela merkel even if her party's vote share shrunk on the far right emerged once again it was a problem she was quick to acknowledge you know when you. we want those a.f.d. voters who moved to come back to us through good political work we want to solve the problems people are facing these might be shoes of integration and illegal immigration but there are also questions around services in rural areas or

questions of public transport or opportunities for farmers as recent opinion polls have predicted the far right immigrants alternative for germany which wants to close most and stop immigration took thirteen percent meaning more than eighty seats in parliament yet the disorganized by monday morning the woman who led them to this position said she was so angry with the direction of the party that she would not be joining their bloc. you might suggest such an anarchic party as we've seen in the last two weeks can be successful as an opposition party can't offer a realistic expectations of taking over the government i have decided that i would not be part of the f.t. in the bundestag the morning papers tell both these stories the tabloids in shock at the symbolism of the far right getting into the german parliament again the more sober media arguing it was still merkel's night despite some losses a sample of opinion in central billion on monday morning reflected both these views . we are democrats and we have to accept it and i'm confident they'll find

a solution and i also think that on the next vote the f.t. won't be a strong anymore and said i am our thread sorry a poor germany to a bad set against recent european elections in austria the netherlands and france in which it was fair the far right might actually gain power and given the anglo-american herself as i did to take a million refugees into germany it is quite striking that she's actually still in power at all her job now is to try to dismantle the f.t.'s influence in the german parliament and their core argument that immigration is a threat to germany's way of life once the headline writers are finished with the f.t. story expect more focus on merkel's bigger concerns how to deal with the u.s. presidents on issues such as climate change iran and north korea as well as stabilizing the european union to think about merkel though is that she knows how to win lawrence lee al-jazeera belin. well for more on this we're joined now by packin barracks and

a lead research analyst on western europe and the economist intelligence unit thanks very much for coming in and say well gee is there one of the talking points has to be from this result of the rise of this far right party of the a.f.p. and how do you think that is now going to influence the debate within germany within the bundestag well i think the kind of rhetoric that we've seen over the past couple weeks and months and years really already this really strong hard right rhetoric coming from the they'll continue along the same line once or in parliament they'll be very fractious be different groups within the a.v. but the main message will be what we've seen over the past couple months which is an anti islam message that they are becoming it was so funny so how does america really reassure the lecture if you like that she can take power that it's not going to be influenced too far by the far right wing but still pull back some of the supporters that voted for well that's largely her challenge now at the moment over

the past couple years you pull the party to the left side the social democrats the s.p.d. she's been very successful in that of course and she'll now probably want to move the party slightly to the right follow the example of her very insistent party which has always been stronger on these kind of issues and really follow that lead a bit more and try to work on integration and showing that there can be successful do you think this split between east and west that factored into this result specially that the influence of the alternative and actually coming through in so many numbers absolutely so if you look at the folk vote shares for the a.s.d. compared east and west germany then it's really just a map of former east and west germany so you see. the a v. getting twenty thirty percent almost in some of the eastern states while the western states you don't really get above sort of twelve and why didn't i why would east germany vote for the more than west germany what's the thinking process that.

i think they've tapped into not just the frustrations over the past two years around the refugee crisis but that it has really sort of found the sun a reflection in deeper frustrations about how they've been reunified for twenty more than twenty five years and yet still the east as in quite caught up with the west so there's a lot of frustration about that and a lot of voters would say yes all these refugees are now getting getting a house and getting a job and meanwhile my life hasn't improved over the past twenty years interestingly president i money on micron and from this has commented saying that a radical overhaul of the eurozone if his is still going to go ahead how do you think this will factor into america's choice of coalition partner or indeed how will that affect whether or not he can still push forward with. its legs of a small influence but not much germany was never going to be likely to agree to sweeping reforms where suddenly we put in place mechanisms to fund german taxpayer

money to the southern member states even if it was for investment. really america's only coalition option at the moment is with the pay which is a pro-business party which is also very much against these kind of measures will of course give a little bit but it's never going to be a sweeping as he might suggest with those kind of statements great thank you very much for coming in todd as a giving us your thoughts back in texas. now it's been one month since hurricane harvey hit southern texas bringing with it nearly one hundred thirty centimeters of rain to the city of houston well most of the water has receded it's left destruction and the potential for disease in its wake than easterbrook is in houston for us now so how is the cleanup actually going in the wake of hurricane harvey diane. well the cleanup is coming along but as you can see behind me this is very typical of what you see in neighborhoods all over the city people have emptied the contents of their home that were flooded much of this stuff was touched by

floodwaters and it's gotten moldy you have to get these items out of your home within twenty to forty eight hours because of the threat of mold now in other areas people haven't been able to do that yet and so mold is growing and it's putting their health in jeopardy. help has finally arrived at tony green's home for weeks after hurricane harvey. volunteers rip out dry wall and discard belongings ruined by floodwaters this mo mold is everywhere crawling up walls creeping inside causes. is this typical of what you see announce this is especially if they hide you know for food. and water and then several weeks coast harvey it could also be threatening green's health but after a cleaner so we get a call so i've been taking care of you that was to have the coffin lid be extended

exposure to mold without protection from face masks and gloves can trigger a number of illnesses from allergies to respiratory disease to skin irritation in hot humid texas flooding from harvey made houston the perfect breeding ground for mold since the hurricane harris county which includes houston has seen a slight increase in respiratory ailments and stories all over houston residents of piles of flood damaged contents of their home waiting to have it picked up and you can smell the mold on everything from sonet sure to clothing to mattresses and even though they think they've gotten rid of all the mold it could still be lingering inside their houses. mold can hide in appliances and spread to ventilation systems . are you dr shah well that's why harris county is public health director dr shaw and his staff are going door to door urging residents to use caution around it anything that's touched that floodwater that you just treat that

with extra care and caution. we're saying when in doubt throw it out if there are things that you can't clean you can't this in fact if you can assure that that is going to be safe then go ahead and throw it out so we're going to ask you to do is spit into that you researchers from baylor college of. medicine are also monitoring the public's exposure to mold so this one's going to go just inside the nose they're collecting nasal and saliva samples from volunteers at community events to test for mold toxicity were able to do some pretty amazing right now and since they will know exactly which types of individuals have been exposed to it could be months before the test results are compiled and they were knows the extent of mold exposure in houston and as for tony green he's decided not to take any chances with his coffee. i am worried it would be about seven to go to the back of your cheek and that could prevent a minor irritation from becoming

a medical emergency. and i and anybody that's being flooded will recognize a smell that you're describing there but the damp around the streets as well how much of a nightmare is that proving to be oh it's a real nightmare and this is just an example of what we're seeing we're seeing this all over the community and one of the things you really have to be careful of is i mean look here i'm going to point out you've got exposed nails here just a few minutes ago we saw some people scavenging picking up metal so this is a real danger just a little ways down the block there is a refrigerator that we've been told is still full of food so that's a health hazard in some cases we're seeing standing water which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the other thing that the health department is really worried about is the psychological impact that this is having just imagine seeing everything that you own sitting outside of your house on the street and it's a realization it's a reminder of just how much you've lost. bringing us the very latest from the

devastation of hurricane homey. united nations says the exodus of a hinge a muslim is from bangladesh is currently the most urgent refugee emergency in the world new german footage shows the extent of the right humanitarian crisis after hundreds of thousands fled their homeland in manama sprawling refugee camps have been built in southern bangladesh which are now home to more than four hundred thirty thousand range of muslims many refugees are living in squalid conditions in makeshift plastic tents french investigators have opened a full scale inquiry into allegations that one of the world's largest banks house was complicit in the nine hundred ninety four rwandan genocide be and pay paragraphs is accused of authorizing the transfer of one point three million dollars that was used to purchase weapons used in the genocide in which more than eight hundred thousand people were massacred the transfer allegedly came

a month after a united nations arms embargo on rwanda. says the inquiry does not come as a surprise to them. japan's prime minister has called this not general election next month opinion polls show strong support for shinzo our conservative l.d.p. party and its strong stance against the threat from north korea has threatened to sink japan into the sea and has fired two missiles over the northern island of hokkaido in the past month. there's a week to go until residents of catalonia held a controversial independence referendum which the spanish government has dismissed as a lingo but to many residents living in the heartland this vote is bigger than politics money it's about taking control of the region's cultural destiny. reports. the shepherds wandering mountain pastures independence is

a way of life. a life shaped less by politics much more by hard working dog and the changing seasons. with. duty the strong will and you have to take the good with the bad always moving forward. is more comfortable speaking the catalan language than spanish his jaw has passed down generations father to son but he's wary about catalonia breaking away from spain he fears spanish government farm subsidies would be cut. the price of animal feed has gone out and meat prices have dropped we need a solution it's a thin line between profit or loss. down the valley loyalties run clear the mediæval bridge in public the lead draped in independence colors deal.

is a former miner he now spends time growing vegetables or hunting mushrooms a most cattle and past time. he says his neighbors are divided and is uncertain whether a majority actually favors independence. but he harbors no doubts one date is deeply etched on his identity. everybody knows that's the date when catalonia lost its independence to french troops we want to recover that but it will be very difficult. when you step into these stone villages the language is different the culture is different even the food is different you really feel like you've stepped into another country your job. as the yard of the new york has been home to the orioles family for hundreds of years dominic runs a shop stacked with local delicacies she reveals to me the secret ingredient of the cattle and spirit it's quite a leap year. it's something you have on your skin it's something you have in your

heart it's a feeling it's not a material thing it's pride in our flag and our anthem and going across the world and saying i'm catalan with it but i wonder if it gets catalan that deep pride is now driving a dream for some the catalonia can take back control of its destiny. pennell al-jazeera past the yacht of the knock spain. stay with us on the news hour ahead to tell us about they suffer as who had a lucky escape from killer whales back in a moment. welcome

back now time to sport. so you thank you very much donald trump's attack on american sport and it's actually the same to a fourth day the u.s. president issued several tweets on monday reiterating his position that criticizes athletes who neal during the national anthem around two hundred n.f.l. players knelt or sets while the anthem played at fourteen different games on sunday originally had was used as a protest against racial inequalities but on friday trump had called for players who engage in the gesture to be fired the sport of nascar has been praised by the u.s. president several nascar team owners say that over the weekend that they would not tolerate the role of not standing for the national anthem demographic studies have shown that nascar has a predominantly white following but people star le bron james of the cleveland

cavaliers has added he's always to the debate he was not shy to speak out against trump but then to kind of frustrated me and me off a little bit is the fact that he's now he used sport he used the sports platform to try to divide us and sport and sports is so so so amazing what sports can do for everyone no matter the shape or size or race or ethnicity or religion or whatever people find teams people find players people find colors because of sport and they just gravitate towards and it is make them so happy and and it brings people together like none other and. we're not going to let i'm not going to let while i have this platform so that one individual no matter the power no matter the. mpeg they he should have

or she should have. ever used sport as a platform to divide us. joining me now from oregon portland jewel the boy cough is a professor of political science at pacific university also writes on politics and sports will thank you for your time why has this become such a big issue in the u.s. for four days now well for starters president trump sort of clue for the trifecta of sense of no swine he said that athletes really shouldn't express their right to speak out on issues that matter to them second and he basically went after their livelihood saying that you know the owner should be fired and if they speak our ups you know neal during the national anthem and finally as if to add injury to insult there they said something about their mothers the way you phrase things which set a lot of people up you don't talk about athletes mothers and so that is set up

a cavalcade of dissent that started in london rippled across the n.f.l. yesterday really amazing stuff have we forgotten about the issues the players were making by kneeling in the first place. you know i think that's really important that you raise that here because this anthem protests started to challenge the ideas around racism in the united states structural inequalities and we don't want to make sure that the discussions of the discussions of donald trump don't derail us from the issues that athletes are very concerned about are we seeing the biggest rise of politically engaged athletes in the u.s. that this ever been do you think. well this is unprecedented it's historic and you know i think it should be the death knell of the mirror that politics and sports don't mix if we've learned anything over this past amazing weekend of athletes speaking out is that politics and sports do mix whether people like it or not. and jewels are just one last question somebody pointed out earlier to me

that the n.f.l. is predominantly made up of american athletes as well as african americans compared to something like baseball where you see a lot of latin american athletes ice hockey where you see a lot of europeans basketball you might see a lot of europeans and asian and even african athletes as well with that in mind do you think that there's a reason that the n.f.l. was targeted. well i do think that people are right to suggest that trump is dog whistling racism in many cases when he was speaking in alabama as essentially throwing red meat to his followers saying that all these predominantly african-american athletes who've been speaking out should be fired so i think that's definitely part of the equation i was at a soccer match last night the portland timbers professional team going against orlando city many international athletes on the portland timbers and none of them took a knee i was interested to see so i think you're on to something there for sure and

it's definitely something we're going to have to keep an eye on as we move forward let's not forget a lot of this began with the w. n.b.a. the women's professional basketball league in the united states were predominantly african-american but not only african-american athletes have been speaking out there they deserve a lot of the credit for jump starting this entire process jools boycotts we're going to leave it there thank you very much for your time as always thank you to another commissioner of politics and sport now in football officials in qatar are hoping the gulf cup of nations will go ahead in the center of the tournament between the gulf nations is due to be held in doha but remains in doubt due to the blockade of several neighboring countries salma binge of aid it was at the drawl. the names have been drawn and the games are set for the gulf cup that is due to happen in december in qatar but this event organized by the arab gulf countries football federation is not sure whether four out of its eight members will take part but organizers here tell us that they are confident that the event will take

place on time in december and they are hopeful that all of the countries who are part of this is are going to take part but this is not the first amendment we have a lot of tournaments specially in qatar we have a lot of championships water championships and this is just. so when you talk about not participating i'm not submitting this is against was the number talked i was saying the sports can bring all missions together so it's talking to talking about missions about neighbors so it's easy to bring neighbors so i hope sports can bring all the neighbors together of or into the rules of the game if less than five nations take the decision goes back to the executive committee whether this tournament will need to be postponed or canceled altogether but we spoke to the a minute federation and they are positive that this event should happen and it is going to bring back the unity into the gulf council which seems to be at odds with each other. the three countries participating in bahrain so.

they're trying they're doing their best to solve the problems. as you know in quake itself but we. need to be with us because he's one of the major founders of this. the gulf cup of nations goes back to the one nine hundred seventy and organizers here in qatar are hopeful that this tradition will continue despite the blockade upon them and sportsmen here who say that when regular diplomacy formal diplomacy fails they hope that sport diplomacy will prevail. let's go to tennis now and this is u.s. open women's champion sloane stephens suffered a shock first round defeat at the wu han open the american lost in straight sets to wearing chunks of china on monday winning with relative ease six two six two. u.s. open finals medicine keys the one who lost out on the title to stevens also crashed

out in the first round the american losing to her compared to. another state to take three six two seven six. former world number one angele kerber was another top seed to be knocked out the germans opponent caroline garcia of france came from behind to win the match taking her into the second round three six six three six one. a group of surfers who got a huge frightens the competition was interrupted by killer whales this video was shot from the shore in the icy waters off of norway the killer whales also known as orcas circled two of the competitors and you can see one of them paddling in a panic to get away they seldom attack humans in the wild about do have a row of shop teeth capable of biting. and that's all the sport more later. and keep pace while that is it for me and the team for this news hour and lauren will be here with you and i went with much more of the day's news.

i just want to make sure all of our audience is on the same page when they're online and want to produce to us citizens here you know and what puts people of iraq by one in the same or if you join us on sat i was never put a file been looked at differently because i'm dacogen all the people that i'm a watch this is a dialogue tweet us with hostile a.j. stream and one of their pitches might make the next show join the global conversation this time on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. where every. they fought they were americans until they broke the law are now they're deported to cambodia for life. when he speaks to families fighting for their loved ones at this time on al-jazeera. all counting the cost germany's outlook it's europe's largest body fracturing economy but is it in the slow lane when it comes to the digital economy we'll talk to swiss re about ensuring for climate change plus can we stop companies from using our internet data without our knowledge counting the

cost at this time on al-jazeera. counting is underway after kurds voted in large numbers in a controversial referendum in northern iraq.