liberians are preparing for their third election since a civil war and sadness are calling it a crucial test for democracy and investigation into the electronics industry revealing out even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs . china's communist party is holding its annual congress what will it mean for the country and its people. on al-jazeera. the u.n. approves a team to investigate claims of war crimes in yemen but it's hard to make a lot of compromises. hello i'm down jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up on

a collision course with spain catalans occupy schools meant to be polling stations defying the ban on a referendum. a flight to father u.s. health secretary resigns following a scandal over his use of private jets. i can't think of anything more exciting than going out there and becoming a star on the boss of space x. unveils a plan that could take you to any city on earth by a rocket and. the un human rights council is sending a team to investigate alleged war crimes in yemen and examine possible human rights violations by all sides in the conflict the resolution follows intense closed door negotiations and represents the highest level of scrutiny of a largely overlooked war in one of the poorest countries. reports.

the decision has been described as a game changer the un's human rights council will send a delegation to investigate a possible war crimes in yemen more than ten thousand civilians have died since the country's devastating war started in two thousand and fifteen and that number could rise the international community faces several urgent tasks in yemen including the protection safety and security of civilians the u.n. delegation is expected to investigate attacks on schools markets and even hospitals final between harvey rebels and a saudi led coalition which sides with president. condy has torn the country the commission will also investigate attacks carried out by the rebels i think that the point becomes one of does the international community stand by the laws the courts . and all yemeni lives as valuable as any other lives the decision was met with resistance a last minute compromise between western powers and arab countries including saudi

arabia eventually made it possible experts say blocking the investigation could have led to more unwanted attention where you see mounting pressure at the international level for this to go ahead at a p.r. level that the u.s. the u.k. saudi arabia who've been instrumental in the past really blocking this kind of investigation going ahead would struggle to justify their reasons for doing so right now along with the war an estimated twenty million yemenis continue to go hungry and a nationwide cholera epidemic is ravaging the country since april more than two thousand people have died from the illness the red cross believes there could be a million cases of suspected cholera by the end of the year but access to treatment is limited airport is completely sealed off on the three planes roughly are entering the i.c.r.c. plane m.s.f. and un plane and no other plane is coming in. even planes that could do some

humanitarian transfer of patients that want to get treatment abroad or something like that this is not possible so you don't have access to drugs and you're going to go out. to war in yemen is showing no signs of ending but the un's human rights council hopes the investigation will lead to a greater level of accountability on all sides. now dizzier well before the un announced this decision more deaths were reported in yemen's conflict five people were killed in an airstrike by the south and coalition inside a province six others were injured so says told al jazeera the an strike target a vehicle carrying workers heading to water project government airstrikes have hit towns and villages in northern syria killing more than forty five people and wounding dozens more at least twenty five were killed in a wave of strikes and province jets also targeted hama and aleppo provinces where syrian and russian troops are battling opposition fighters on thursday russian and

turkish leaders agreed to push for the creation of a deescalation zone to help end the civil war. thousands of supporters of catalonia as vote for succession from spain upheld a final rally before sunday's referendum but also occupying schools designated as polling stations and makes what about it goes ahead spain's central government has always ruled out a vote on the issue but john hendren was at that rally in boston and. catalans held what began as a concert and ended as a protocol rally the man speaking behind me is carlos we just him on his the man who would be the president of the republic of catalonia he is the man who has been pressing this referendum that's going to happen on sunday this referendum that seeks to separate catalonia from the rest of spain as this is happening the police the national police of spain have ordered the local police there known as them also to shut down all of the schools here that's because there are schools

double as polling places well the local police have been very gentle about doing that and as they have many local students from the universities here have been occupying those schools and their goal in doing that is to keep those schools open until sunday so that people can vote and the man speaking behind me follows me jim on says that no matter how many people actually get to vote on sunday if a majority of them says yes he will declare independence for catalonia on tuesday and you can hear the response of the people here behind. well ahead of catalonia is referendum on sunday people in madrid have held their own mock ballot the organizers say all of spain should have a say in the country's future not just the catalans anybody reports. it's spain's most familiar tune but neither espana has lost some of its meaning since catalonia started its drive for succession and its forthcoming referendum. on

friday madrid held his own referendum purely symbolic but the people here equally important the question people were asked was do you want catalonia to remain part of spain because you want to remember to remind everybody that you know spanish sovereignty it's you know should be decided by all spaniards not just one part of spain which has got to learn here you know these this is your would affect holy spain we want to make sure that everybody knows that you know spain has a voice here you will see when you go but that's you live in i came to vote because what they do in the lone air is an outrage against the constitution against spain and against history those people deserve the worst adjectives even a lot of fun oh yeah if franco was alive we were just shoot them against the wall of franco lives by him we don't want the communists welcome or nice that that's an extreme view but there are still many in spain who think former military leader

francisco franco was a hero and not a villain through the tranquil countryside north of madrid is the valley of the fall and a monument created to remember those killed in the civil war it was built by political prisoners and is where franco is buried if there's anything that symbolizes the divisions in spanish society it's this place is supposed to commemorate the dead on both sides of the civil war but for many it's a monument to the fascist victory and the defeat of the republicans many of whom were catalan. many on spain's left believe that franco's legacy lives on in every aspect of spanish life from the judiciary to politics and they support the catalans right for self-determination we have a lot of alto retiree i know frank and so the national question is being through. in a completely new way we believe that catalonia referendum can be a democratic key and an example for all the nations that are now on the institution

of the spanish state. in madrid vote people overwhelmingly wanted catalonia to stay part of spain but on sunday the question is will it still be a case of the the last spaniard or will it be farewell catalonia tony bertie al jazeera madrid. iraq's autonomous kurdish region is now closed to international flights the iraqi government's denying access to the airspace in response to monday's vote for session baghdad wants the results canceled what abdul hamid reports from. the last passengers to catch a plane before the closure of the airspace to international flights over to kurdish region for arranged. it meant cutting short of a kitchen that was two years in the coming. it was the first time his two year old son born in new york visited the homeland he says he didn't feel safe transiting

through baghdad. kurds. he was going to. the measure was taken by the central government in baghdad after the kurds went ahead with their referendum against. iran was the first to close its airspace to all flights from the kurdish region a few days ago. that's it for. this airport. for a period of three months only special flights will be allowed but with prior approval from authorities in baghdad anyone else wanting to travel from here. will have to transit through one of the domestic airports outside of the kurdish region or they can travel by agreement. is also linked to the rest of iraq by land but some drivers told us they have avoided going south because they felt unwelcome. iraq's government says it's. to preserve its unity

and kurdish authorities replied that they won't have any border controls to baghdad . i mean. people. right now. prime minister said the closure of the airspace was not meant to starve. but people. don't agree he traveled from sweden to take part in the referendum. this decision is wrong. you can contest the referendum but. the future doesn't look good. the kurdish region is. also close their

border crossings and many kurds are now bracing themselves for what their leader described as collective punishment. in the u.s. there's been another high profile departure from the trumpet ministration the health secretary tom price has resigned. his use of private jets taxpayers will have to foot the bill of around four hundred thousand dollars for his trips reports from washington. tom price may have gotten his annual flu jab but he couldn't protect himself from the president's anger donald trump give a broad hint the health and human services secretary is time in charge would soon be over a very fine man but we're going to we're going to make a decision sometime and i know he's resigned even though twenty four hours before he thought he could still save his job we're going to work through this and. i think we still got to the confidence of the president price faced growing criticism

for his use of private flights which sometimes makes government business with his own personal agenda the cost to the taxpayer more than four hundred thousand dollars. he also made trips to europe on military jets which could take the figure to more than a million that's enough to annoy the man who wanted to dream washington swarm so i was disappointed because i didn't like it because medically or otherwise price offered to write a personal check for the cost of a seat on the private jets and he promised to fly only commercial in future it wasn't enough the other senior trump officials are facing questions about their travel and must know be increasingly nervous interior secretary ryan zinke he took a private jet from las vegas to his home in montana at the taxpayer's expense the cost twelve thousand dollars and environmental protection agency bosco uproot flights to various parts of the u.s. costing fifty eight thousand dollars questions are being asked about the treasury secretary steven lucian's travel and requesting a government plane for those european honeymoon i think they're doing it because

the example is that from the top we see donald trump violating ethics norms on a daily basis and so i think other people think we don't really need to worry about the ethics rules and that appearances really don't matter price's resignation is another high profile friday departure from the white house is now lost more than a dozen senior staff in just nine months alan fischer washington. so to come here on al-jazeera including a struggle for survival for the people of puerto rico as they try to rebuild their lives after hurricane maria. and a field of dreams the pioneering scheme allowing syrian refugees in greece to. stay . however big showers that we saw one day or so in the caucasus and moved on the part of a line of potential which showed itself just on the southern shores of the caspian

north and iran has big thunderstorms probably producing flash floods typically sixty seventy millimeters in a couple of hours now they don't in the forecast any more they might be further. in the potential for their own back in the sunshine the twenty five in baghdad if anything is warmed up a little bit forecast was forty so as q eight city up to forty three there so wind direction is coming out of the plane that onshore breeze which it sees of course coming lebanon is like bring it war to light ish as a start and develop in this part of the mediterranean sea you might catch them otherwise it's just pretty skies mostly blue but isn't tiring clouds in the air temperature wise in baghdad would go down a little bit but you saw what might well happen we've been hovering around the high thirty's and die half the last week still the same is true of abu dhabi been hotter in the dome on cloud virtually nothing in the sky there's still a possibility of getting

a shower or two in yemen or the mountains of south for saudi but to be honest there's not much there in the forecast beyond sunshine. for most when we grow old we take life at a slower pace well not for this centenarian. online dating teaching. kicking in door. she's a blogger adored around the globe and she's doing it a. way. life begins at one hundred eyewitness documentary at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back a reminder of the top stories here this hour the u.n. human rights council has agreed to send a team to investigate alleged war crimes in yemen and examine claims of human rights violations by all sides in the conflict thousands of supporters of catalonia as vote for succession from spain have held a final rally before sunday's referendum also occupying schools designated as polling stations to make sure the ballot goes ahead. and the u.s. health secretary tom price has quit after a scandal over his use of private jets and feel that taxpayers will have to foot the bill of around four hundred thousand dollars for his trips. your sect of state rex tillerson is in china for the second time this year as washington looks to step up the pressure on north korea the u.s. wants china to take tough action against pyongyang in response to its missile and nuclear weapons tests on thursday beijing announced that all north korean companies

in china have been ordered to shut down by early twenty's eighteen president trumps first official visit to china is expected to take place in november. the u.s. government has ordered sixty percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassies because of what it describes as specific attacks on u.s. diplomats after embassy employees reported mysterious health problems the u.s. president says some very bad things have happened in cuba but have on us as washington's decision to pull out some staff has been made to quickly. we consider the decision announced today by the u.s. government through the state department is hasty and will affect bilateral relations especially cooperation in the matters of mutual interest between both countries and the diverse exchange that takes place between cuba and the united states. i want to reiterate the willingness of cuba to continue active cooperation between officials from both countries to clarify these acts completely

and for that it is essential to have the participation and involvement of u.s. authorities. firefighters in southern california are battling a fast moving blaze that's threatening dozens of homes around nine hundred people in the path of the fire and corona have been told to leave more than forty thousand wildfires have been registered in the u.s. this year. the u.s. has appointed a senior military commander to oversee relief operations in puerto rico following the devastation caused by hurricane maria aid agencies are still struggling to get help to those in desperate need histories about. in the central mountains of puerto rico and he was one of the worst hit areas by hurricane the eye of the storm passed right through this part of the island. my says she cannot help but cry when she things of everything she's lost. i cry for what

happened we lost but brenda is not alone many here are struggling to recover from the hurricane people tell us that this area used to be filled with green trees but as you can see there's not many left in fact many of the houses in this area were completely blown away by this for example is the only standing water left from this house. that we've covered the efforts are underway all around the island the electricity grid was destroyed so the island is currently dependent on generators. the hurricane was so strong that it destroyed the old posts the new posts nothing survived we are all doing what we can to get the island moving again. at the town's shelter there are more than one hundred people left homeless they have lost everything they own the city's mayor has played a crucial role in organizing relief efforts private donations are paying in but more is still needed. what we desperately need is water to continue providing

people here with what they need we have some food clothes for them and now we need to see how we help them to get their lives back together. was struggling before two consecutive storms hit the island heavily in debt with high levels of poverty local authorities say they need help because we have three four and five mainland of american citizens in need right now so we'll need a lot of felt the federal government to recovery will take years to be in the position we were before the recovery effort will probably take months people like that in that. they're bracing themselves for a long struggle. what. i saw says it carried out a suicide bombing that targeted a mosque in the afghan capital kabul at least five people were killed and twenty nine wounded. as worshippers left the shia mosque after friday prayers in central

kabul. small community a bengali hindus has been caught up in the violence and men miles rakhine state many have fled along with hundreds of thousands of muslims their plight has raised concern among the hindu community and the country's largest city scott hyla reports now from young gone. this week bengali hindus are celebrating their annual durga puja festival. or spring their goddess durga and marking the victory of good over evil. born in yangon eighty six year old who has been coming to this bengali hindu temple since he was a child and remembers more difficult times for his people back in the early one nine hundred sixty s. . male children it was difficult for us to live here back then we only had foreign registration cards so it was very difficult to travel but now it is much better hindus with bengali roots and muslims with bengali roots or revenge i entered the

area over kind in the early nineteenth century. but i'm not really after the first burmese british war accounting was controlled by the british colony spawn across india so people would bengali roots came to reckoning. but the government here does not recognise the ranger as an ethnic group. some bengali hindus were also caught up in the recent violence in work on the mars government says dozens were killed by russian jet fighters their bodies found in mass graves the fighters deny this several hundred hindus escaped to bangladesh along with hundreds of thousands of the hinge of hindus make up only half of one percent of myanmar's population bengali hindus even a smaller slice one of their leaders here in yangon is greatly concerned about the bengali hindus and were kind state and considers them to be part of their community and he's not happy that myanmar's government uses the term bengali extremist when

it talks about the word hinge of fighters. we are hindu bengali and some of all people were killed in iraq i mean we are people of the same race i am worried for the future living in the kind as they are what's between nicko a kind and muslim communities. as they mark the festival of goods to triumph over evil in yangon the government is urging the hindus who have left to return to recommit capital sit way but there's no word on the return of the hundreds of thousands of our hinges scholar al jazeera young gun. a famous indian actor of american descent has died of cancer tom alter appeared in more than three hundred movies including the oscar winning film gandhi he also acted in many t.v. series on the theater he wrote three books and was awarded one of india's highest civilian honor travel to sixty seven i was a the refugees dries up in greece a syrian ex-pat has begun his own initiative to help his countrymen and women he

set up a farm so they can grow their own food and government leaders are thinking of expanding the idea reports from central greece. he goes by the name of castro and wears a cuban style military jacket but his is a silent revolution castro left his native syria in the one nine hundred seventy s. when syrian refugees fled to greece two years ago he helped them become squatters in abandoned buildings in central athens as donations to help the refugees began to dry up he set up a charity called syrian solidarity house it rents land to grow fruit vegetables honey pulses and wheat refugees are being taught how to feed themselves and then mix a bit of this but it's not dignified to expect charity racists accuses of burdening greek society now we can prove the opposite we plant sale and even pay wages to those who come with tractors to plough up the fields contributing to the community

using a former high school as headquarters castro distributes organic produce to one thousand two hundred people in his care and but has some of it for fish and milk and the old schools kitchen tomatoes are turned into paste and cans to eat during the winter syrian solidarity house has further ambitions to establish a dairy farm and produce cheese and yogurt and a seed bank to set up individuals as farmers and beyond producing and consuming its own goods it also plans to trade them and become financially self-sufficient government leaders have visited castro's farm and are thinking of repeating the refugee experiment on a larger scale but the policy risks offending hard pressed greeks trying to survive higher taxes me me a man of the need for me just as the government gives free land to war refugees and only to war refugees and should offer free land to our children to castro's greek neighbors are supportive but austerity has sapped their hope this farmer has

invested almost two million dollars in his land and sees little return. you know i respect the refugees a lot they never bought their. anyone they've never stolen anything i hope they manage to settle down but the truth is we can barely support ourselves they won't survive here the refugees bring a different attitude they're willing to work for food and this land has given them a sense of belonging for the first time since they left home here they're creating their own future jumpstart ople us al-jazeera in central greece the space x. found in a must says he's developing a rocket capable of taking passengers anywhere on earth in less than an hour he's made the announcement that a space conference in australia is confident the craft will be ready for launch in five years it's part of his ambitious plan to colonize mars by the twenty sixty's. has more from the congress in adelaide. industry heavyweights and space lovers

converged on adelaide for this year's international astronautical congress the highlight of the event was without doubt space royalty entrepreneur and billionaire ilan musk he's long made it known he wants to make humans and interplanetary species to make sure we don't go the way of the dinosaurs now he says he'll start a colony on the red planet with the first human flights in twenty twenty four. for the base starting one. than most horse ups and start building up the city then the city bigger. yeah and at that time tom foreman was. making it so really a nice place to be. lockheed martin to has plans to get humans to the red planet it revealed more about its blueprint for a mars base camp that will orbit the moon and act as

a launching pad for human missions to mars it believes it can have it operational in a decade in about five billion years give or take the sun will eventually be going to a red giant it will expand and devour the earth so at least in five billion years we need to have somewhere else now how much do you need to worry about it in twenty seventeen fair question but that eventually you've got to get off the planet if we're going to continue as a as a as a human race at the moment all we have on mars two rovers like this replica of the curiosity and while there are many companies here that believe humans will journey to mars within this generation and possibly even colonize it there are doubts about whether mass should be considered a backup plan to. all missions to mars need the help of one of three nasa deep space command centers this one is new strains capital camera it operates like air traffic control but the space sending commands and receiving signals from

spacecraft and all the vital communications for any human missions to mars will also go through here i think one of things that journey to mars will tell us most especially is that really in reality earth has always got we have to look after this planet first and foremost going off to mars going to have to create a whole range of new technologies to survive in an environment that's trying to kill you every second of the day and there's no shortage of companies working on those technologies to keep humans alive in deep space technologies that if nothing else could perhaps be useful to. humans on earth yeah al-jazeera adelaide. a quick recap of the headlines here on al-jazeera the un human rights council has agreed to send a team to investigate alleged war crimes in yemen the examining claims of human

rights violations by all sides in the conflict yemen's become a battleground in a fight between government forces backed by a saudi led coalition and who the rebels supported by iran in a little fire up by the little motor we had in the complex circumstances that yemen is going through requires from the council and the international community support so the government can fulfill its obligations with regards to human rights the yemeni government has always expressed its determination to cooperate with the u.n. in order to promote and protect human rights. thousands of supporters of catalonia as vote for secession from spain of held a final rally before sunday's referendum there are also occupying schools designated as polling stations to make sure the ballot goes ahead iraq's defense ministry is again warning that it will take control of the borders of its kurdish region it's demanding the yes vote in monday's session referendum be canceled baghdad's also refusing to allow international flights in and out of the area in

the u.s. there's been another high profile departure from the trumpet ministration the health secretary tom price has resigned after a scandal over his use of private jets taxpayers would have to foot the bill around four hundred thousand dollars for his trips. u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is in china for the second time this year as washington looks to step up the pressure on north korea the u.s. wants china to take tougher action against pyongyang in response to its missile and nuclear weapons tests on thursday beijing and else an all north korean companies in china have been ordered to shut down but only twenty eighteen president trumps first official visit to china is expected to take place in november the u.s. government has ordered sixty percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassy said to be because of specific attacks on u.s. diplomats which included the use of sonic weapons the embassy in atlanta is now expected to stop processing visas and issue a new travel warning for u.s.

citizens says the decisions been made too quickly well those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera. that's what it. says. in an age of simplistic narratives the listening post critiques the mainstream response exposing the influences that drive the headlines at this time on al-jazeera. everywhere with less and less. space the us is a big blue planet covered seventy percent in the. case of the reveals the only two and a half percent that is fresh water with any one percent being easily accessible to six point eight billion inhabitants alive and well the united nations report suggests that water consumption has growing twice as fast as population growth.