in the global conversation at this time on al jazeera. training starts lightly but the pace picks up quickly as these grannies work out a long life time of frustration. at eighty five years old in tommy's sword what trains as hard as anyone and. i feel so good i feel fresh i punch this side and decide like this and like that i really love this i don't like things like soccer because i will bring these ladies are tough and i take their training very seriously. will be through a. concern continues for lebanon's prime minister saudi arabia and kuwait tell their citizens

to leave the country immediately. calibur i've already watching al jazeera live from london also coming up. leaked e-mails from the u.a.e. ambassador to the u.s. allegedly show a plan to destroy cass's economy. the syrian army says it's now in control of one of the last remaining pockets of territory under eisel control. and scientists in the netherlands move towards a major breakthrough in the quest to end starvation in drought stricken countries. waiters joined saudi arabia and bahrain in ordering its citizens to leave lebanon it comes amid heightened tensions with the lebanese group has a law and its iran and there are questions over the whereabouts of prime minister

saad hariri aris political parties demanding he return to beirut five days after he not stay in riyadh that he was stepping down or aries office says he's still in the saudi capital and denies he's being held there against his will in now that used to . the return of prime minister saad hariri head of the future movement is necessary in order to restore the internal and external balance of lebanon with full respect to lebanon's legitimacy in accordance to the constitution and to the thai if accord and with respect to the arab and international legitimacy we confirm our support for prime minister hariri and for all the decisions he makes under any circumstances. as arizona hold us and this updates from beirut. the political party of saddle how do you say that it is necessary that the the prime minister immediately returns to lebanon saying that this is of course necessary to restore

stability in the country the political party in that statement stopping short of actually saying that they believe that the prime minister is detained that he is being held against his will in fact we called how do these office to ask them whether or not they believed this was the case and the response we got was we have no information so the political party saying he must return immediately there is throughout the day we have what we understand even the president of the speaker of parliament they're concerned they are worried about the well being of saddle how d.d. and they've been in contact with foreign dignitaries to try to help them understand you know the fate of the he made a sudden announcement that he was resigning on saturday from riyadh and ever since he's made no other statement we've seen him yes in abu dhabi holding talks with the rulers there and the day before we saw him sitting with with the saudi king but we haven't heard from the prime minister himself so

a lot of concern about the fate of saddam how did he at the same time saudi arabia calling on its citizens to immediately leave lebanon on statements like this undoubtedly is just going to cause even more tension saudi arabia making it very clear that it intends to step up action against lebanon or against those who who support hezbollah in lebanon the saudi state minister for gulf affairs actually tweeting and saying that expect escalatory measures but they're not saying what measures they're going to take against lebanon it has to be made clear that the saudi the resignation of saddam had it it was a saudi move against hezbollah and saudi officials have made it very clear to lebanese officials either you curb hezbollah's influence and you are on our side or you will be considered an enemy so very uncertain times in lebanon. or france's president says he will discuss hillary with the saudi crown prince during a last minute visit to riyadh speaking in dubai was asked about his contacts with hillary and whether the lebanese prime minister might be heading for france back to

inform him duty says that then we've had some informal contact which doesn't give me anything so fishley regarding this today all accounts are as we did not receive any such request. or saudi arabia has been giving details of its continuing crackdown on alleged corruption the saudi attorney general said two hundred eighty people had been called in for questioning seven of whom had been released many of being held in a five star hotel in trading business executives officials princes and other members of the royal family the anti corruption of the lead by crown prince mohammed bin solomon says it will confiscate assets of those being held or than seventeen hundred personal bank accounts have been frozen at the request of the central bank and now banks in the u.a.e. have been also information on accounts being held by nineteen saudi citizens the attorney general said investigations suggested at least one hundred billion dollars had been lost to corruption over three decades. the whistleblower the great global

leaks has released what appears to be a plan by the united arab emirates to destroy cassis economy and eventually steal the twenty twenty two well cup the plan was found in the email account of the u.a.e. ambassador to the united states he says alice tyga play for leaks handed over the files to the online news outlets the intercept franklin is the washington d.c. bureau chief of fantasy that. the plan is a fairly simple one in the end it's to take all of the existing bonds that u.a. e. and affiliated parties already own and put them in a kind of offshore confidential vehicle and then go about purchasing additional qatari debt. and then by credit default swaps against that debt so that when the debt goes down in value the credit default swaps rise it's like buying an insurance they would then take these these bonds according to the plan and swap them back and

forth among parties who from the outside look like they're independent but are actually the same people as like me and you trading a bond back and forth and that creates an illusion of volatility and with people aware that there is this political crisis going on then the plan as they see this enhanced volatility and traders start to panic and say oh my god something must be going on here we need to sell our own our own good card debt which drives the price down further that that dries you know that increases the price of the c.d.'s which then puts pressure on the currency because sorry currency which requires cutter then to bring in dollars to prop up its currency and all of this creates a sense of crisis which then the u.a.e. would use to say well that the countries in crisis you know it ought to at least be sharing the world cup with the rest of the g.c.c.

countries. the syrian army says it's now in control of the eastern city of al book after i saw fighters withdrawing the border city was one of the last remaining pockets of territory in syria held by the armed groups. has more now from on the turkish syrian border. these are syrian in iraq the fighters from iran backed shia militias celebrating the defeat devices in. the city was the last stronghold on the syrian side of the self declared islamic state the syrian military claimed victory but with the acknowledgement of help from its partners the depleted army of president bashar al assad has only been able to make gains with military assistance from russia and iran that. units from syrian forces in cooperation with allies liberated the city of al become in the suburb of dare is the last stronghold

in the eastern region this strategic achievement is also a starting point for the elimination of the remaining terrorist organizations in all the different names throughout the country. i see videos and statements earlier denied the advances and reported fierce fighting but the stronghold its propaganda used to new fighters with is gone. reports from the contested there are problems suggest a few pockets of isis fighters remain on either side of the iraqi syrian border the fighting has destroyed many i said head cities and the real challenge will be to rehabilitate people we still do not have access to the city as u.n. . the main reason is that the place is peppered with unexploded. bombs explosives. the fight against isis in the urban centers may be over but the conflict in syria still continuing these are syrian democratic forces or as the f.

backed by u.s. soldiers and support they're also making gains in that there is or province on the eastern side of the euphrates river the defeat of i salute remove the common enemy in serious complex war president bashar al assad's government has promised that it will take back all territory that it once lost and that puts its iran and russia back fighters in militias on a confrontational par with u.s. and saudi backed fighters from a job with other syria. human rights watch is urging world leaders to confront me and over the treatment of history hinge a minority upcoming summit there miles de facto leader aung san suu kyi is in vietnam for this week's apec summit not a formal member of the great but was invited by vietnam's president a government faces international pressure over violence in rakhine states which has forced more than six hundred thousand for him to flee to bangladesh. the speaker of catalonia is sacked parliament and five other form of catalan politicians have

appeared before spain supreme court they face charges of rebellion and sedition for their role in last month's independence referendum the court will decide whether to remand them in custody while the investigation continues or release them eight former members of the catalan government and two pro independence leaders are already in custody awaiting trial on sedition charges joho has been following events from barcelona. well the supreme court in madrid in hearing the case against the speaker of the cattle and parliament the building behind me there and five employees on charges of rebellion sedition and embezzlement the misuse of public funds may just decide either in theory anyway to throw out those charges and let them go or possibly to judge that they are no longer a flight risk no longer an ongoing threat to society and therefore let them out on bail on conditional release pending trial or it may decide to do what has happened to a ministers in the deposed government here and lock them up pending trial

a process we understand from the minister's case that could take anything up to four years the most likely outcome well that is in the realm of speculation now but the legalities here are pretty complex the ministers because they were sacked were treated effectively as ordinary citizens they appeared before a lower court the national court and in fact before a particularly conservative judge the m.p.'s are still elected officials they have certain privileges which is why they're appearing in front of the supreme court the thinking is now that possibly the supreme court may decide to let them out on conditional release on bail and that then the ministers may lobby to have their case heard in front of the supreme court with potentially the same result and that all of this represents a potential path way for spain out of a crisis which is increasingly difficult for them on the international stage a member of the european union see more and more why. idli now holding political

prisoners all right still has on the program. the saudi led coalition that cutting off yemen could bring. to starvation. zimbabwe renamed some of our international airport after the president as tensions grow in mugabe's. how it's looking rather cool across a good part of europe over the next couple of days particularly western areas and that's because we have this line of cloud which is in the process sinking further south. well the more the way of cloud rain and some lower temperatures like that every cloud that we have to the western side of the mediterranean winds coming right. well in parts of here twelve to thirty degrees celsius there for london in

paris any seven degrees and that northerly actually feeding down across the towards that western side of the mediterranean and into the far north of africa irrationally there but a wet weather still in place into central parts into a good part of italy further east it is generally try but again no great shakes all the time. for athens in the cloud and the rain will make its way a little further research as we go on through sas day we'll see temperatures getting up to around ten celsius in kiev not bad sixty degrees there for moscow meanwhile in london we're still holding on to around twelve degrees by sas the afternoon that area cloud of rain that sings this way down across a good part of france the low countries. for madrid should be largely dry by this tape in northern parts of africa still in the charts of seeing some wet weather for northern areas of algeria and.

everything i do is being analyzed it's being weighed and it's being measured the island was close by. and it's not just i phones that i lost my phones i mean most not phones out of the state at the moment we are in a state of the universe that serves where i would start and it's something that was backed i would rather take the risks of democracy for the risks of dictatorship digital dissidents at this time on al-jazeera. welcome back and a reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera saudi arabia and kuwait of ordered their citizens to leave lebanon as part of an escalating crisis that began with the

shock resignation of the lebanese prime minister saad hariri his political party is demanding that he returned to beirut from riyadh. leaks e-mails from the u.a.e. ambassador to the u.s. appear to show a plan by the united arab emirates to destroy katter's economy and eventually steal the two twenty twenty two world cup whistleblower group global leaks handed over the files the online news outlets the intercept. and the syrian army says it's retaken the eastern city of alba kemal after i saw fighters withdrew there was the armed groups last urban stronghold in the region. now the un and more than twenty eight agencies a warning that the saudi led coalition's tightening of the blockade on yemen could bring millions of people closer to starvation they're calling for the opening of all air and sea ports closed after saturday's attempted missile attack on riyadh organizations including oxfam save the children and islamic relief say that more

than two thirds of yemen's twenty eight million people are reliant on imported supplies or the twenty million people need humanitarian assistance including seven million who are facing a famine like conditions food supplies are expected to run out in six weeks and vaccine in fact scenes in just a month on the international committee of the red cross says it can't bring in crowing tablets to prevent cholera the number infected by the outbreak in yemen is expected to reach one million by the end of the year where humanitarian groups say mass starvation is possibly just weeks away. basically ninety percent of a young man's food is in. there with the breakdown on the food pipeline like. it's not going to take many weeks before we can much more people will face the rationing we're struggling to move around it takes from one town to another we have to almost go through one hundred checkpoints we're asking for the airport blockade

to be opened to allow lifesaving medicine and food to get into the country this is a manmade disaster and there is no humanitarian solution to this we're asking for all parties to come together to find a solution desperately which is desperately needed for the people of yemen. so and seaport sits abandoned while the crisis gets worst and i'm growing yemen i'm a junkie reports. at sanaa international airport an ominous silence terminals are as empty of people as runways are devoid of planes clear signs that the crisis in yemen is only growing more dire not only sunnah international airport was completely brought to a halt by the warring coalition stateside that included preventing the un end of planes humanitarian aid the red cross and doctors without borders is a bit of luck but airport officials aren't just angry with the parties to the

conflict a compass to fight at and m m m a to head to the united nations could have taken a brave and clear decisions to condemn the aggression the un could have compelled the belligerent states to allow at least humanitarian aid to arrive and to allow access to the injured casualties and humanitarian cases for its part the u.n. has warned that in yemen which is in the grips of a cholera epidemic that has seen more than nine hundred thousand suspected cases since april is also facing the world's worst famine crisis. one that could kill millions of people unless the saudi led military coalition ends its blockade and allows aid to flow into the country saudi arabia imposed a land and sea blockade in yemen after a ballistic missile was fired on saturday towards its capital riyadh since then it has only become more difficult for citizens to get their hands on vital commodities with prices of petrol and cooking oil rising drastically in the port city of her

data humanitarian access was already difficult for aid agencies now it's only got worse than this about it and so far as closing down the ports and borders these are war crimes in the first degree at the u.n. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in sanaa officials are extremely can. cerned of what will happen if they can't continue to bring food into the country you know that yemen is the largest food insecurity crisis all over the world every month we feed seven million people these are people who depend completely on relief for their survival and we import these commodities the food to help these people which is why the longer yemen's air and seaports sit empty the longer the suffering will continue. and. u.s. president donald trump says he's found common ground with china's leader over the crisis on the korean peninsula heap praise on xi jinping during a visit to beijing where the two signed a multi-billion dollar trade deals adrian brown in beijing has more on the lavish

ceremony chris hall for the u.s. president. china's leaders know how to put on a good show and to make important visitors feel honored. the finally chewed welcoming ceremony was far more lavish than the one given president trump's predecessor president xi jinping has rolled out a very long red carpet for trump who ensured his tie was color coordinated. the two leaders talked for several hours later before the cameras trump they are surprised his host by saying the u.s. trade deficit with china wasn't all china's fully theirs and i have great respect for you for the things you're representing china but it's too bad the past administrations allowed it to get so far out of kilter they held a news conference without taking questions where trump again pressure she over

north korea all responsible nations must join together to stop arming and financing and even trading with. their murderous north korean regime their statements offered more plaudits than substance trump said she was a special man and that is people were proud of him president she reiterated his call for diplomacy and not threats to resolve the crisis on the korean peninsula he said it was natural for the united states and china to disagree but they owed it to the world to work more closely. but i told president trump that the asia pacific is big enough and both the u.s. and china by its side should increase communication and cooperation in regards to if a city issues they agreed to cooperate over combating drugs namely the chinese made chemicals blamed on the us opiates epidemic. many of the outcomes on thursday were

prearranged two hundred fifty billion dollars worth of trade deals were announced but their real substance still needs to be assessed those agreements though mean trump can show his supporters that he's making progress in reducing the trade deficit with china of leave of clearly one president from to leave here. and they appear to have given him just enough to ensure that happens in return china's state controlled media so that it's time for the united states to preach china as an equal trump spin tweeting about his successes here which means he's been breaking chinese law because twitter is banned but on this occasion his hosts probably don't mind adrian brown al jazeera beijing. the international criminal court in the hague has approved a request to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by the government of burundi and its supporters the government's accuse of launching a widespread and systematic attack against those who oppose the ruling party

between twenty fifteen and october this year the i.c.c. says enough evidence was presented to warrant an investigation including allegations of murder torture and rape and rest began in april twenty fifteen when president here in currencies announced he would seek a third term in office harare international airport has been renamed after zimbabwe's president robert mugabe it comes as tension grows within his ruling zanu p.f. party this week mugabe fired his longtime ally the former vice president and mrs were misled to south africa critics accuse the garvey of trying to purge his rivals and tracing the country like his own personal property and i'm a tartar has more from harare. president robert mugabe supporters say they're honoring a great man who helped end white minority rule and gave land to blacks in bobbins that's why they've renamed harare's international airport to robert gabriel mugabe international airport but opposition leaders say this is an insult to zimbabweans

this is a complete start to capture a for important national traditions that mugabe from italy you realize that already the. plans to cut the polluters wife. to be the vice president not only of the party but also of the of the states on monday the ninety three year old leader. one of his two deputies war veterans who fought to liberate minority rule. is his own personal property on the streets of harare people had this reaction to news of the port name change does not take in this country making it made me not including it was easy to place the move this. guy does not use the influence there is. this gun. zimbabwe is the. country it is and why god is doing anything what he want.

also worried about the ailing economy zimbabwe's government is broke is a shortage of food prices keep rising and the country is one of the highest unemployment rate in the world some people say renaming and upgrading the airport at a cost of one hundred fifty three million dollars shouldn't be. the cash government recently announced plans to build a one billion dollar university named off to makati economists say the country can't afford it. a u.s. citizen facing twenty years in prison in zimbabwe has been granted a high court judge found an absence of a fox. well though donovan has been in jail since saturday facing charges of subversion and insulting the president on twitter authorities say he called president mcgarvey a selfish and sick man in a tweet posted last month is the first arrest since president mugabe appointed a cyber security minister a move which has been criticised by activists for targeting social media. the us a

kevin spacey is to be arrays from an upcoming hollywood film after accusations of sexual misconduct were made against him spacey played the late u.s. oil billionaire john borghetti in the ridley scott film the money of the world it's due out next month but his scenes will now be shot again with christopher plummer replacing him spacey faces a growing number of sexual harassment allegations in the u.s. and britain and netflix says it will no longer be involved in its popular series house of cards. scientists in the netherlands say they're close to a breakthrough that would allow crops to be grown in deserts some say the development could completely alter life on the african continent and even end hunger out there is lawrence lee went to see what we can learn from the tomatoes. in this southern corner of the netherlands a grain of ember day looks like the last place you'd expect to see a revolution in food but in these vaastu greenhouses things are happening that

could change lives hard for a world away usually it takes huge amounts of water to grow tomatoes but here they reduce it's a virtually nothing and they even grow the fruit in insulation material rather than soil we use only rainwater. recycled water and you can do this with any vegetable. you can. it can be a solution to to bring free food into other places in the world where there's a problem that. the tiny netherlands is already the world's largest exporter of tomatoes this though has not location not for western supermarkets but for the world's hungry what they're onto here is regarded as really exciting because if you can grow vegetables with no soil and with almost no water then you can grow them anywhere you can grow them in the deserts or where there's been drought and so there's a growing realisation that this technology could be used to fight famine the combination

of population growth and climate change are making a terrible situation in parts of the world even worse and desert if occasion that i grew cultural land is turning many into climate refugees. at this leading university to finding yet more radical solutions like extracting the bacteria from plants which can cope in the deserts and putting them into crops incredibly the scientists believe the deserts of the world are a huge agricultural opportunity i think they're two years away from planting crops in the sand that this cabbage tomato and i thought potato we are working on this well sort of brought if we come to barley. it's a very close relative of wheat that we have we're talking about major crops wolf. that you can grow under such harsh conditions also in that area the message here to western politicians is that climate change is an integra parts of the refugee

crisis and offering solutions has benefits everywhere if we don't solve the problems over there then people will migrate to other places and they will look for food in europe and we know that again and migration is a great problem so in my opinion we need to improve the situation in africa. and. improve their livelihoods of people in africa there's often a feeling that trying to help the world's hungry is pointless and the problems will never end but here there is proof that even climate change can be beaten by science for the politicians of the rich countries it is becoming possible to effect incredible change if they really want to lawrence leigh al-jazeera in the netherlands. a quick reminder you can find out much more about many of the stories that we are covering by going to our website the address is there a dot co. dot com.

and reminder the top stories on al-jazeera kuwait has joined saudi arabia bahrain and the u.a.e. and ordering its citizens to leave lebanon is part of an escalating crisis that began with a shock resignation of lebanese prime minister saad hariri a reraise office says he's still in the saudi capital and denies he's being held there against his well various political parties now demanding he return to beirut five days after he announced he was stepping down while in riyadh. the return of prime minister saad hariri head of the future movement is necessary in order to restore the internal and external balance of lebannon respect to liberties legitimacy in accordance to the constitution and to the thai if accord and with respect to the arab and international legitimacy we confirm our support for prime minister saad hariri and all the decisions he makes under any circumstances saudi arabia is saudi arabia's attorney general says two hundred

eight people have been questioned as part of what officials according an anti corruption crackdown he says the investigation has uncovered around one hundred billion dollars worth of fraud well family members officials and prominent businessmen are among those being held in a luxury hotel in the capital riyadh critics say crown prince mohammed bin salman is leading the crackdown to try to consolidate his power. the whistleblower group of global leaks has released what appears to be a plan by the united arab emirates to destroy counters economy and eventually steal the twenty twenty two world cup the plan was found in the email account of the u.a.e. ambassador to the u.s. use of taber globalise handed over the files to the online news outlets except. the syrian army says it's now in control of the. isis forces withdrew the border city was one of the last remaining pockets of territory in syria held by the armed groups. and the speaker of catalonia has sacked parliament and five other for mike castle and politicians have appeared before spain's supreme court to face charges

of rebellion and sedition for their role in last month's independence referendum the court will decide whether to remand the big custody while the investigation continues. but that is headlines here on al-jazeera i'm back with an update for you in about twenty five minutes time until then it's the stream to stay with us. and i mean ok in your industry today how is u.s. president dog first year since he was elected.