every. from the shawnees of the red sea storage of clean water is a global problem and the whole management is a major problems but in georgia this team at the moment is changing to the peaks of the himalayas where water conservation looks like. solutions to some of the world's most precious resource and the next episode of rice we look at what is being done to stop what's crisis. at this time zero. iraqi forces say they've seized a crucial military base near her cook as the advance on kurdish peshmerga positions .

i'm fully back to go this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up catalonia is leader fails to clarify if the region has declared independence saying he wants more talks with the spanish government the philippines army announces a major victory in the battle against isolating to fighters in the south and venezuela's president celebrates the outcome of regional elections but the opposition cries foul. thank you for joining as iraqi military says its forces have captured the k. one airbase from kurdish forces just outside the city of kirkuk iraqi army and allied forces advancing on the city and have also taken a gas facility to the south is a disputed area and the kurdish regional government believes it should be part of its territory straight to al jazeera who's in erbil in northern iraq for so.

iraqi army saying they're taking this military base how significant is this. well firstly yes it is a claim being made on state television that this k. one base has been taken by the iraqi military that is being stalled she denied by the kurdish regional government and peshmerga forces and it's important to recognize that but if this is the case then it is a huge a huge strategic importance for the iraqi military this space was taken over by the patient taking control of by the patient in two thousand and fourteen when the iraqi military fled and i saw offensive as a similar situation for the entire city of kirkuk that's what happened but we understand from our sources that it was critical for this base to be retaken by iraqi forces before they concentrate on moving towards some of the oil facilities

in that area as you reported there we understand certainly at least one oil company headquarters has been retaken that's in an area that we were at a couple of days ago close to a place called el water where we saw a huge amounts of peshmerga forces had then been deployed set up some very serious defensive positions which defensive positions which were actually had been in place during the eisel offensive there but we understand now that that area has been taken by iraqi forces meanwhile the city itself inside the city of kirkuk we're speaking to people on the ground there they say the situation is exceptionally tense we saw the governor of cocoa last night calling citizens anybody anybody with a gun to take up arms and defend the city we've seen lots of volunteers heed to that call of seeing pictures of roadblocks being set up tires being burned on

the circumference of the city there and there are also fears. because the city is so ethnically diverse there are fears of factionalism within the city itself there are a number of factors there who are sympathetic or going to argue with this move by the federal government so there are concerns for security within the city itself so i very tense situation and encourage what it is the iraqi government charly saying about their ultimate objective here. well it's been a bit of a rocky road in terms of narrative from the iraqi government the buildup to this offensive i mean it's important to take you back to the parliamentary vote iraqi parliamentary vote in the wake of that controversial referendum on the eventual kurdish secession from iraq that folk basically gave a mandate to prime minister allow body to get forces into these areas and retake control of the oil fields we then saw in the last few days we've seen this

build up of shia militias in iraq before she's getting closer to those patients positions and at the time they're all the government was saying that this was just the standard redeployment of victory over i saw in the areas around. the critical moment however i think was last night when we had this statement coming from the from the government saying that or accusing the k r j of deploying p.k. k. fighters fighters with an organization that the iraqi government indeed the entire international community see as being terrorists now the k r g flatly denied this accusation but it was then that prime minister basically said that this was a declaration of war he is saying however that the people of kirkuk should remain calm and that this offensive is not directed at them and that they should cooperate with the iraqi military but of course that is not in any way laying the fears of

the people of kirkuk as we speak ok charlie thank you very much for that john stratford live for us in northern iraq. in other world news just hours before a deadline from the spanish government catalonia leader has failed to declare if his region plans to secede from spain madrid had given callous but demand until monday to see if he would declare independence after a band to session referendum earlier this month the catalan president has instead sent a letter to the spanish government calling for a meeting with the prime minister mariano rajoy in his letter the nida says my first request is to reverse the repression against the people and government my second request is to set up a meeting as soon as possible so that we can discuss the first agreements my government's priority is to seek a path to dialogue with our most intensity led score straight to me back i was in

his capital barcelona for us so tell us more about carlos put him on a message in this letter to madrid meet. with the deadline appears to have been and gone and it isn't the clarification that perhaps the madrid government had hoped for it is perhaps more a reiteration of mr putin mom's position the declaration of independence made last tuesday that seem to be similar to painlessly withdrawn in a bid to kick start negotiations in the letter sent to the madrid government the council and leadership have made also a series of demands through withdrawal of around twelve thousand national police the end to the prosecution of four prominent castle lands in madrid and also negotiations talks which seem something to be a bit of a nonstarter given the mariano rajoy of said that talks are just not on the table while the helpers unpick what's going on here in catalonia i'm joined by senior political analyst. first of all

a letter that's not going to make the madrid government very happy but what do you think the response will be here in barcelona and the rest of catalonia it seems like the cotton heart is really. or even functioning as if they're really well assessed by a mediation. makes sense because it is like more calm more thoughtful and like it's rest so if you make a speech it has more passion and it can make different reactions in catalonia people are starting to be even more divided inside the ones that are supporting independence out there ones that are supporting to keep things calm and wait and give time for mediation and then there's the other whole weeks part of the population he's saying it's over and we're done with it just go ahead and declare formally independence without any suspension and it does seem a way of. also being able to overcome opposing forces within

the leadership oversee the left want this to be more than just a symbolic declaration of independence they want it. more moderates that would rob to see a more fulfilled processed this is a difficult balance for him isn't it i think both for him was very difficult positions because they are both struggling between the moderate and the more radical sectors from the supports. some on it's even more difficult because if he really goes ahead and takes an action like the caring independents that hoss very negative effects on his relation he's going to be the responsible for that so he very careful in measuring every single step of action. is very very clear in the gauche ations talking to this is such an it is not going to happen is this a way of perhaps moving the goalposts to try and pull mr roy into the possibility of talks although do you think by channels are talks going on behind the scenes

that we just don't know about. just still a bit confused i think even if there's mediation the situation of a president of mine is to say no we're not mediating it should be secret under covered and in silent. the fact that every single action from the catalan government is on such fast way without thinking about it without taking things it makes me doubt if many action has actually been accepted by spain are not so good thank you very much well very much political tennis by the sounds of it we've seen the ball hit towards catalonia it's now being hit back to madrid but we're likely to hear more now from my colleague paul brennan but for me and here in barcelona it's back to you yeah and we're going to take it to paul brennan now in the spanish capital madrid so how is the government going to be reacting to this letter home. well there is little patience from. the spanish prime minister for the letter from the. leader we are going to hear immediately from mr hoyer but his deputy prime

minister is giving a statement in around twenty minutes time and we'll have i can give you an indication that the justice minister has already come out and said that the letter from the man is not valid mainly because it doesn't answer the central question of yes or no as to whether a declaration of independence was actually made back on october the first and as far as the request from tuesday to have these sedition charges dropped against those four people i can tell you that the reason why i'm standing where i am which is outside the national high court in madrid is because those charges have gone ahead the head of the catalan police has arrived here along with three other people on the sedition charges the case against them is ongoing this morning so there's been no capitulation or accommodation made from madrid towards the catalan brennan in measured thank you very much for that. the philippines defense minister says two senior isolates commanders have been killed in fighting in the southern city of

merari is kneel on happy lawn lead abu sayyaf which she sponsor of the city in may his fighters were helped by the multi-group one of its leaders omar mao t. has also been killed government forces have been fighting the armed group for control of merari for several months now and jimmy rollins again has more from ari well the secretary of defense bill seen lorenzana has confirmed the death of is me alone happy alone and all more about what they both are leaders of the mouth a group they pledged allegiance to i still a few years ago and they raised its black flag over several parts of america we said see the siege has been going on for more than four months now since the crisis began more than a thousand people have been killed and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced now the brother of omar about what they are doing the most they were killed a few months ago also in a military led operation seventeen other hostages were also released today and the government admits that even though the conflict the fighting is not officially over

there is still an unidentified number of fighters and hostages right inside the small battle zone now according to the philippine military they're expecting liberation to happen any time soon now the president is expected to show up this week where the philippine flags at the heart of what are we city will be raised for the first time in months. still ahead. anger and sorrow somalis are in mourning after at least two hundred seventy six people were killed in a bombing in mogadishu and zambian family celebrate. years of drought but won't tell you why some a skeptical about their future. nice pink skies by the time my heart. or is the sun sets in the city of angels.

hello and welcome to international weather forecast not the moment all eyes are at towards the west where post tropical cyclone ophelia is barreling into wards the island of arland both north and south will see really extreme winds but the south in particular a red alert right across the country for winds which is going to be gusting up to one hundred fifty kilometers per hour the same time ahead of this system is still a lot of warm air pushed up right across europe central areas way way way above what it should be in terms of temperatures for this time of the year this is more like early september temperatures he said there is still cold mine moscow there with a high of six degrees there's the rain across ireland from ophelia and that heavy on through and to choose say this frontal system associated with it pushes across more southeastern parts of the u.k. but the warm air stays in place across central areas heading into north africa we still want to two showers heading through the gulf assert so tripoli is likely see some showers at times otherwise fine conditions further east with caro enjoying sunshine the highs of thirty degrees for central parts of africa still have quite

a lot of heavy rain affecting cameroon and towards coupon liberal is looking fairly wet at the moment so choose the one that lagos nigeria is one of two showers in ghana also the for the north mali fine with bamako seen highs of thirty seven there with sponsored by cats own bodies. in the house trying to win news coverage consists of a punch line a five second sound bite and an easy solution. bill says challenge the status quo expose double standards and debate the contradictions join me. for a new season of the show the front page from. this time.

you're watching al-jazeera live from doha a reminder of our top stories this hour the iraqi military says its forces have captured b.-k. one air base from kurdish forces in care coq the iraqi army and allied forces are advancing on the city and have also taken a gas facility to the south forces of control the area since twenty forty just hours before a deadline from the spanish government catalonia as leader has failed to declare if he is reaching plans to secede from spain would you want us instead sent a letter to the central government in madrid are calling for more dialogue the central government had given him until eight g.m.t. on monday to say whether or not he's region had seceded from space. and the philippines defense minister says two senior isolates commanders have been killed

in fighting in the southern city of merari the abu sayyaf and now take observe been in control of parts of the city since may. to somalia which has declared three days of national mourning after at least two hundred seventy six people were killed in the worst brummie in the years it happened at a crowded intersection in the capital morgan. it's not still not clear who is responsible catherine so i has our report from nairobi in neighboring kenya. where people in somalia's capital mogadishu are trying to come to terms with one of the worst car bomb attacks ever a truck bomb exploded outside a hotel at an intersection lined with government offices restaurants and shops hours later a second blast struck another business district in the city most of the buildings in those areas have been destroyed still being pulled out of the rubble president mohammed up to live visited the scene and his government has declared three days of

mourning and you know the. target of these terrorist is not government officials but civilians as you see here there are no government buildings only civilians who are going about their daily life we have to come together and fight these monsters until we eradicate them from our country. speaking to al jazeera the united nations deputy special envoy to somalia say despite such attacks the security situation around the country has improved the great efforts have been made by the government to particularly secure the city but also other areas in in the country but nevertheless when one is desperate enough to get through these kind of things do happen and we've seen it yet again into mali and fortunately doctors are doing their best with limited resources to deal with the many people who have been injured dozens are in critical condition several have lost limbs so. what happened yesterday was incredible i have never seen such

a thing before and the death toll is uncountable corpses were burned and no one could recognize them. attacks on soft targets like markets and restaurants have become common in somalia says this in a part is just how large it was and the devastation it has caused right now people are in hospital supplies. my blogs are i did he needed many are wondering how someone is able to drive a view called packed with explosives into the heart of the city katherine saw all dizzy nairobi kenya. and hundreds of somalis of marsh on the streets of mogadishu to voice their anger after the bombing some of them said they had lost faith in the state's ability to protect people. the egyptian army has killed twenty four gunmen who were touched checkpoints in the sinai peninsula seven soldiers were also killed and thirty seven others injured in the gun battle it happened near rafa close to the border with gaza the military

says it's searching for the armed man who escaped a former governor of the many city of aden has announced his intentions to hold a secession referendum. abidi told thousands of supporters in the port city that he supports independence they were marking fifty four years since the october one thousand nine hundred fifty three uprising against the british south yemen was an independent state from one thousand nine hundred sixty seven until one nine hundred ninety when it merged with the north. the israeli army has confirmed at least two rockets were fired from egypt's sinai peninsula towards the eshkol region near gaza on sunday a code red miss our warning was sounded after the rockets were detected by the israeli say the missile exploded over gaza's airspace it's not known if there are any casualties to venezuela now where the electoral board has announced the president's socialist party has won most of the governorships in regional elections nicolas maduro is hailing the result as an emphatic victory but the outcome has

sparked accusations of fraud from the opposition there is a ball has a latest from caracas. shock and does believe at the opposition headquarters in. the results were not what people here expected and that's why the leadership decided to question them and. they know they are not the majority and the country as well as the whole world knows that we don't recognize the results given by delectable council because there were violations during the process because women's could not vote freely. on sunday venezuelans headed to the polls to elect twenty three new governors in the middle of one of the country's worst political and economic crisis but the hardships people here are going through did not deliver and the opposition won in just six states with the government winning the rest. to all writers men and women i'd like to commend and congratulate you we had an

unexpected turnout for a regional election sixty one point fourteen percent. the opposition is crying foul saying some of their candidates were barred from running for office and the electorate council relocated more than two hundred polling stations just hours before the election but at the presidential palace in media flotus president said dick. he won some. one more victory under our belt a victory of democracy the way forward is not to slash and burn it is not violence the way forward is not economic war to make people angry at the prices the way forward is not to cut our truth it is to debate ideas and this is a sovereign right there is no king there's only one sovereign here and that is the people but the opposition insists that fraud is the only explanation for sunday's

results the opposition is also asking for a full vote recount and they're asking their supporters and candidates to begin a series of actions on the streets once again to pressure the government into an audit of the electoral process and audit they hope will prove them right. austria's conservative leaders abbas incurs as claimed victory in the general election just eighty one he'll be the world's youngest leader his people squaddie won more than thirty one percent of the vote but he'll need to form a coalition government the outcome of sunday's election marked a shift to the right in austrian politics. japan is preparing to go to the polls in a week's time after prime minister shinzo abbay called a snap election as campaigning picks up two new parties are trying to take votes away from the ruling coalition florence three reports from tokyo. seto go fujioka i never used to give much thought to politics that is until she had

a child. that i was the kind of person who worked and worked to talk to having a child i began to see society through them politics is connected to our everyday life for example nursery or day care issues food and energy that realisation inspired her to set up a small organization called chorus out which means living in japanese to create a space where people can take time out from their busy schedules to talk about society and politics among other things you don't want to hold on you guys i think it's important to know your position and have reasoning behind it i want to continue to sharpen my views through talking to many people. when prime minister shinzo called a snap election last month many voters questioned the timing given he's not required to go to the polls until december two thousand and eighteen he said he is seeking a stronger mandate to deal with the country's problems ranging from a north korea security threat to a rapidly aging society but he's also likely to be taking advantage of an uptick in

approval ratings and an opposition in disarray several opinion polls suggest the ruling coalition is on track to retain its majority but these same surveys also say many voters still remain undecided. part of the reason for that is the emergence of two new political parties the liberal left party the constitutional democratic party of japan. and the party of hope led by tokyo governor you rico billed as a conservative alternative to the ruling party there are two opposing parties it's easier to decide where there are three it becomes more difficult to determine the deciding factor for your votes. says she's having a hard time deciding which party to cost her ballot for because as a young parent she now has to think about issues like education and reducing the national debt issues that will affect her children's future florence italy al-jazeera tokyo. to the u.s. now in officials in california say they've turned

a corner in the battle against wildfires that have killed at least forty people thousands of firefighters are working with special aircraft to tackle sixteen major fires north of san francisco rob reynolds reports. ten thousand firefighters are now battling what have become the deadliest blazes in california history the fires have burned approximately eight hundred sixty square kilometers in the wine country north of san francisco since october the eighth one hundred thousand people have been forced to evacuate and more than five thousand buildings have been destroyed dozens of people are still unaccounted for this is truly one of the grace if not the greatest tragedy that california has ever faced the devastation is just unbelievable it's a horror that no one could have imagined high winds on saturday fanned the flames the winds intensified and. the fire just grew in size and

quickly those conditions forced some families who had just returned to their own to flee once more and huge sea of police officers from all over the state basically came in with their bill horne's mandatory evacuation leave immediately amidst the devastation one family unexpectedly found life if you can maybe. the weaver family's house was destroyed but their dog izzy somehow survived unharmed after running away as the flames approached it was one of the greatest moments of my life it was elation we came off here on the corner and we can expect to see here we are just. the house my parents and see what we can find and. praying that she might be there she came bounding out. tears and officials say firefighters are making good progress in containing some of the sixteen separate fires burning in the area aircraft have dropped nearly eight million liters of fire

retardant on the flames there is rain in the forecast for later in the week which will greatly help firefighters in their efforts to control in extinguish the worst fires california has ever seen rob reynolds al-jazeera los angeles. africa now and kenya's opposition coalition says it will continue protesting for intellectual change despite a government ban thousands of people came out to hear opposition leader raila odinga speak in mombasa his supporters say they are prepared to continue protests against the electoral commission until it's reformed a rerun of august presidential election is set for october twenty sixth but there is confusion as to whether the vote will happen after or pulled out. after a long drought several countries in southern africa are enjoying bumper harvest zambia is even exporting excess maize but poor farmers remain vulnerable to unpredictable weather patterns. reports. to christmass this

maize is the last of her reserves if the rains come late the season or if there is another drought her family will be in trouble it won't be enough if i can't get a job washing clothes i won't be able to buy food if the maize runs out the united nations estimates that small scale farmers grow about eighty five percent of zambia's food. and her sister say it's been a frustrating few years the drought and a piston invasion earlier this year by the fall army were destroyed some of the maize production costs also high so lovely do so a growing less than we used to grow even cabbages for it because no over reduced because of really. electricity prices are high margaret says she pays on average four hundred dollars a month for power to irrigate of land despite the challenges zambia has had good crops of maize the country's staple food which it sometimes sells to other countries in africa we had a crop of mice. with three point six million tonnes compared to last year where we

had a drought of two point six million tonnes so means that you have. time but weather patterns in southern africa keep changing farmers know at some point they will be another drought despite relative political stability and more than a decade of consistent economic growth that b.s. still has a lot of challenges the world food program says more than sixty percent of the population is poor it's also is to make it forty percent of children under the age of five in zambia have stunted growth because of money tradition the government is body more may storage facilities and also trying to encourage farmers like alice to grow drought resistant crops such as millet sorghum and. alice says she's considering making the change but convincing enough people to do the same could take time.

hello again i'm fully back to bo with the headlines on al-jazeera the iraqi military says its forces have captured the ok one air base from kurdish forces in kurd cook the iraqi army and allied forces are advancing on the city and have also taken a gas facility to the south forces have controlled the area since twenty fourteen chance rochefort has more. today is a claim being made on state television that this ok one base is being taken by the iraqi retreat that is being stalled she denied by the kurdish regional government and pushed mogo forces and it's important to recognize that but if this is the case then it is a huge of huge strategic importance for the iraqi military this base was taken over by the peshmerga taken control of by the peshmerga in two thousand and fourteen when the iraqi military fled and i saw offensive. just hours before

a deadline from the spanish government catalonia leader has failed to declare if his region plans to secede from spain instead he has sent a letter to the central government where he asks for more dialogue madrid had given college which amount until monday to see whether he would proclaim independence after a ban succession referendum earlier this month the catalan leader has also asked the central government to stop court proceedings against some of the people behind catalonia secession plans for men are due to appear in court in madrid this monday they include two senior police officers and two politicians they're facing sedition charges and could be punished with up to fifteen years in jail. the philippines defense minister says two senior i saw links commanders have been killed in fighting in the southern city of merari the abu sayyaf and now to groups have been in control of parts of the city since the main venezuela's election board has announced the president's socialist party has won most of the governorships in regional elections nicolas maduro is hailing the result as and phatic victory but

the outcome a spot on accusations of fraud from venezuela's opposition those are the headlines on al-jazeera coming up next it's up front to stay with us thanks so much. news has another the new available but the message is a simplistic and misinformation is rife the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narrative at this time on al-jazeera with fake news and russian trolls dominating the headlines the founder of wikipedia jimmy wales says the news is broken but he can fix it i'll ask him how .