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this is al jazeera. watching the news hour live from the headquarters in doha and coming up in the next sixty minutes allies of the u.k. lined up to expel dozens of russian diplomats over a nerve agent attack in seoul spring now russia is vowing to respond egypt's presidential election it's not who will win but what kind of mandate president sisi will have saudi arabia threatens to retaliate against iran after accusing it of being behind missile attacks from yemen. and the oldest gun makers in the u.s. has filed for bankruptcy and blames the growing anti gun movement as one of the

reasons. alone more than twenty countries have now joined britain in expelling dozens of russian diplomats over the poisoning of the former spy's surrogate script ball and his daughter in the u.k. well it's thought to be the largest collective expulsion of russian intelligence officers in history in the u.s. the russian consulate in seattle washington has been closed and sixty russians right across the country have been ordered to leave including twelve diplomats attached to the u.n. in new york more than fifty are being expelled by other countries most of them in europe almost all the countries say the russians there expelling are actually spies in ukraine which is embroiled in its own conflict with moscow is expelling thirteen russians moscow says it will respond in kind she had her town see reports from

washington. the trumpet ministration had said it would expel russian diplomats if its allies also did so in a coordinated action and on monday that coordination was revealed countries across western and eastern europe and canada joined the u.s. in the expulsions the british prime minister expressed her gratitude international solidarity following what the u.k. alleges was a russian nerve agent attack on a former russian double agent and his daughter in an english town this is the largest collective expulsion of russian intelligence officers in history. i have found great solidarity from our friends and partners in the e.u. north america and nato and beyond over the past three weeks as we have confronted the aftermath of the soulsby incident the russian ambassador to the u.s. expressed his concern the deal would she would never say union leaders that they meet again what the united states of america is doing today they are destroying what little remained of us russian ties i would add that all the responsibility for

ruining russian american relations is on the united states of america. sloma however a different tone was struck on twitter the russian embassy asking the public for suggestions on which u.s. consulate to now close in russia u.s. officials said there expulsions weren't just about standing with the u.k. but about curtailing russia's covert operations against u.s. national security they presented all of those being expelled from the russian embassy the seattle consulate and the u.n. as part of a pool of some one hundred agents moscow currently has in the country administration officials has said that with these expulsions some forty russian spies would remain in the u.s. but that russia is covert operations would be severely curtailed in all three statements from the white house the state department and the u.s. is u.n. mission there was unequivocal agreement with the u.k. that russia was behind the chemical weapon attack something that donald trump or sounded less convinced of in his statement so far she every time see washington.

for a challenge as following the russian reaction in moscow well in the west it's called tit for tat in russian governmental circles it's called the principle of reciprocity and that's what we're likely to see in the coming days with russia essentially responding to all of these diplomatic expulsions with its own set of diplomatic expulsions of the countries that have chosen to act against moscow the russian foreign ministry is putting together a list of options basically and they will supply this list to vladimir putin and the presidents will make his decision about what happens next now this i think is taken russia by surprise i don't think that it anticipated that the united kingdom what with its difficulties with the united states at the moment because of the trumpet ministration and of course its difficulties with the new over brics in negotiations i don't think moscow thought that london will would be able to

assemble such a broad coalition of allies essentially but i also think that actually potentially russia feels that it's got off relatively lightly so far until western countries go off to the oligarchy assets that the russian elites hold in financial centers like london and new york measures like that would actually punish the russian government will structures until the west actually does that and it might do still then i think russia will be breathing a sigh of relief. this second day of voting will get underway in egypt's presidential elections in a matter of hours where i've been for the his c.c. is all but guaranteed to win he's urged to have their say hoping a large turnout will give him a strong mandate to repair the economy and crush armed groups has some how about our reports. a crucial moment for the band seeking reelection president.

wants a comfortable when and the huge turnout among the nearly sixty million eligible voters his supporters see him as the only man capable of leading egypt at a time when the nation faces many challenges and i'm an impish. i couldn't sleep from all the joy just to come here and say yes to my motherland egypt i came here to say yes to stability and yes to development i came here to say yes to all military and. i will vote for sisi for the sake of the coming phase and i have a bachelor's degree in business administration and i feel like i have not given what i deserve and i feel that this coming phase of a great things but the election has been widely seen as a false potential rivals to c.c. have either been jailed or dropped out of the race after

a campaign of intimidation the only candidate allowed to run is a staunch supporter of president sisi. whose leader of the centrist party told the media he doesn't want to challenge the authority of c.c. for critics no more than a candidate whose role is to give the impression of a legitimate election i don't think there's any question that it's a sham i'm not aware of any serious difference of opinion among you know political scientists or human rights groups or analysts i think the point of the election is to demonstrate cc's power and his popularity this is why the government is pushing so hard for a high turnout if there's a low turnout it will be bad optics for the regime. president c.c. will likely secure a second term by the general turned politician faces mounting discontent over the

economy and armed groups operating in the sinai peninsula the vote will last for two war days a strong turnout could indicate a growing trust in cc's leadership has about al-jazeera. the fighters in northern end have warned al fire more missiles into saudi arabia unless the saudis stop bombing the country on sunday the whole of the several rockets across the border targeting airports in riyadh the incident is threatening to intensify yemen's war how to hawkster has the latest. this is how yemen's who think rebel cerebration the third round of the conflict with the saudi led coalition a series of missiles were launched into neighboring saudi arabia on sunday night. and the gyptian construction worker died one attack in the capital riyadh and several other people wounded. the saudi coalition was quick to react and claimed they had successfully managed to intercept several missiles. the kingdom says it

has been targeted by some ninety police stick missiles launched by the who sees and pointed the finger of blame at iran. and to the work of iran must stop supporting the terrorist groups and organizations iran becomes like an appendix in the world's body it should rectify that situation other was the world will rectify it. but analysts warn this proxy war between both sides looks no closer to ending the quotes for those who have operatives on the ground in yemen have helped the who are these and the yemeni armed forces to basically augment the capability of the missiles in order to make them more capable and say you know if you don't negotiate with us we will continue with more sophisticated weaponry more missiles being fired and there will be more dead on the side of saudi arabia which is something that can sustain. hundreds of thousands gathered in the capital sana'a monday to mark the third anniversary the saudi led coalition launched to fight for his fees in support

of yemen's government. after three years of persistence the hopes of yemenis have been achieved there is a national yemeni army that is strong and protects its land and its resources and. fens the owner of the people and there is a government that meets the demands of the yemeni people and strives to maintain their abilities and provides them with the means to live that enables them to hold strong in the coming years. or not the conflict has led to what the u.n. calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis at least ten thousand people have been killed in yemen and maybe twenty two million people in need of humanitarian aid to survive. eight million yemenis are on the brink of starvation with over a million suffering from color the countries say face the diptheria outbreak with the conflict showing no sign of ending any time soon human suffering looks set to continue. there there are reports that north korea's leader kim jong

un is in china and japanese and south korean media say a convoy with heavy security was seen in beijing on monday there's also speculation about an armored train seen near the border of north korean leaders have used first trips to china in the past and your brown joining us from beijing what do we know about the supposed visit any official word. daryn so far the chinese government has not commented on this a spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs said on tuesday morning that they weren't aware of this situation but as you rightly point out it's japanese media who've been taking the lead they say that a heavily armored train crossed the friendship bridge in dandong which is on the north korean chinese border on sunday and apparently hotels in the vicinity have not been taking bookings for the past few days that train that apparently arrived at beijing railway station on monday this railway station is the oldest railway

station in beijing and that on monday afternoon a motorcade a large motorcade was seen passing along chang and avenue the main thoroughfare here in beijing heading towards the diode thai guest house this is where normally v.i.p.'s are put on tuesday morning there was a large media presence outside the east gate of the dietary guesthouse and they are being prevented from getting close to this particular guest house so it seems quite obviously a high profile a high ranking official from north korea is here but we don't know for sure whether it's kim jong il now if it is kim jong un daryn it raises the interesting question what has made him come here is china threatening to enforce more sanctions or is china offering him something but either way if it is him it does prove the china does have some sort of sway over north korea and of course let's not forget you

know she jingping doesn't want president from to get all the limelight if he does meet kim jong un in a few weeks time and i think there's every possibility that china is trying to persuade the north koreans that if there is to be a meeting it's to happen here and also i think that she jinping wants to avoid the you know the loss of face of president trump being the first world leader to meet kim jong un because remember you know these countries north korea and china on. supposed to be close allies but you know during the past few years those relations have been strained because of the north's missile testing program ok we'll leave it there for now thank you adrian for that update i know you'll keep us right across developments from beijing well plenty more ahead on the al-jazeera news hour including investigators blame safety violations for trapping shoppers in a russian shopping mall fire that killed more than sixty people and years of war take its toll on the environment in iraq leaving farmers and fisherman to suffer

plus cricket australia as investigators arrive in south africa after a ball tampering scandal as major sponsors threaten to end their relationship with the national team. but first me and maher is showing off its military strength with a parade in the capital armed forces day now in its seventy third year on earth resistance to japanese occupation during world war two this year celebrations come at a controversial time though the army massacring muslims forcing huge numbers to flee to neighboring bangladesh and meanwhile in myanmar as northern kitchen state members of a rebel army say they face similar violence for years as the battle for control of the resource rich area has displaced more than one hundred thousand people. reports

. new recruits adjoining and struggle here there's no sign of nationwide peace that government says it seeks instead the red independent is preparing for the next attack from the me and. on the houses shoot people and rape women these are the three tactics they use all the time. the tactics the world has become aware of in the western state of rakhine where hundreds of thousands of rigging year have fled to bangladesh because of attacks by security forces the united nations and others have called it ethnic cleansing the kitchin say they have faced similar violence for years it's estimated around one hundred thousand are in camps along the border with china because of fighting between the kitchen independence army and the myanmar army which some still call burma referring to me and miles form a name a cease fire which had lasted for seventeen years broke down in two thousand and

eleven and the battle for control of the resource rich area restarted. and so did the attacks on civilians which kitchen soldiers say are continuing. my mother or my sister was killed by burma's army my house was burnt down and very sad and feel helpless so i made the decision to join the army to fight back myanmar's military generals rarely speak publicly while the government consistently denies that soldiers carry out abuses when the party of me and my state councillor aung san suu kyi won the election in two thousand and fifteen she said peace in the ethnic minority areas was her priority but negotiations with the rebel groups have stalled the kitchen independence army doesn't agree with the process and has instead joined several other groups to form a so-called northern alliance the alliance has sought help from china which is worried about fighting and refugees spilling over the border. the chinese

government is helping a group negotiate with the boonies they coordinate meetings and help us develop methods to use in negotiations. in ma has civilian rule but in rebel held areas of kitchin state they know it's the generals who still hold the power for now the kitchen have little trust in the peace process so will continue holding their positions in the mountains of northern me and wayne hay al jazeera let's move to frederick roski he's the director of asian the pacific program of the international commission of jurists joining us now live from bangkok thanks very much for speaking to us on al-jazeera and you've looked at the role of the military in me and more as power structure as a whole can you just talk us through where that stands today. sure well it's important to understand in the context of myanmar that the military is a very powerful institution the total independence of the military and its

operational independence is in a sense baked into the cake of the two thousand and eight constitution that the military going to help to author that constitution gives the military operational independence from the civilian government it frees it for the most part from civilian oversight in addition it gives it an executive role. control of three important ministries defense border affairs and home affairs these are functions that would normally be part of a civilian government on top of that saying is going to give us a very limited government does not have any any sort of power or control over the military it has very limited control over the military although that's not to say it doesn't have any responsibility or it could take some measures to. to preempt or hold the military accountable for human rights violations and speaking of

accountability what you've also said that it took pride in being an architect the military that is it took pride in being an architect in the democratic process and now it is undermining it in the country how so. well the military was very much responsible for the process that was set off by the two thousand and constitutional process and was at various times appeared to be committed to a transition to democracy and now we are looking at a situation where it has been accused of very serious human rights violations in rakhine state in shanika chin states and general a locked in stew stepped back from playing a dominant role in governance in myanmar the truth is that a successful democratic transition in myanmar must grapple with this central problem which is the ubiquitous and control of the military over many many aspects

of government if you think back just a couple of years ago to the pre two thousand and fifteen election period the question of constitutional change to reduce the military's role in government was very central to the. party platform and we've we've come a long way from that and when you look at the military today marking armed forces day now when it's seventy five seventy thirty or excuse me in the context of what's happening in in me in mar in not only rakhine state but kitchen state as well what is your reaction well i don't think there's much to celebrate at the moment again just a few years ago myanmar was one of the most exciting inspiring and hopeful democratic transitions in the world and now we're looking at. serious human rights violations and violations of international law that has you know brought you know very

significant condemnation from from around the world so a lot of the momentum and particularly the international support for that process has has wavered as a result all right so we'll leave it there frederick we thank you for joining us on al-jazeera. investigators say smoke alarms were turned off at a russell shopping mall where a fire has killed sixty four people exits were also illegally blocked in the building in the city of kemah four people have been detained reports firefighters had battled the blaze for hours by monday morning with most of the fire put out drone footage revealed the horrifying extent of the damage combustible walls and ceilings entirely collapsed where once they'd been cinemas and a children's play area they'd been full on sunday with families on a day out rushes investigative committee at work in the remains of the shopping

mall in the siberian city of command over says a security guard had switched off the alarm system some fire exits were blocked and cinemas packed with children watching cartoons were said to be locked to stop those without tickets from sneaking in. or one person plunging from an upper window was the only hope. the emergency services in come out over have confirmed dozens of deaths with some bodies yet to be recovered. in the us leave the most difficult areas for us all the to collapse in the malls because they've almost entirely fallen through to the third floor now bit by bit we continue to remove the construction. witnesses describe children becoming separated from adults as the mall filled with choking black smoke survivors were visibly distraught. this boy eleven years old jumped from a fourth floor window doctors say he's responding well to treatment but his parents

and little sister didn't make it out. of course i'm shocked by what's happened nothing like this has ever happened before in camero of our it's the first time and i feel so sorry for the people the children who were there this is terrible i'm speechless investigators say it's premature to discuss the cause but they have identified serious violations in the construction and use of the mall converted from what was once a factory for people including the mall's owners have been detained. activists say iraq's wants a grassy unfruitful. it's facing an environmental and economic catastrophe the region has seen a major collapse in its fishing and farming industries due to drought but as imran khan reports a lack of rain is not the only reason for the area's demise. they call this the graveyard of palm trees it used to be

a lush forest supplying the entire country with dates. iraq self open into that was also home to a busy fishing industry there's no shortage to just a few points and. i think most of the fishermen quit their profession some of them are working as laborers others in the ministry palatino others working in other professions but not as a fisherman anymore as you can see all these boats are deserted fisherman are constantly getting threats from iran's maritime navy and fisherman can't go deep into the air even see anymore. farmers have almost disappeared from the area so they've been out about which because of the wars people if they farm lands and palm trees but when people wanted to return they did not get any support from the government whatsoever the situation will worsen there's no water no rain years of conflict has destroyed much of this area the follow peninsula has witnessed war it

was the scene of many battles in the one nine hundred eighty s. between iraq and iran and in ninety nine he wanted was heavily bombed by coalition forces during the first gulf war and it was also the site of the very first battle during the u.s. led invasion and occupation in two thousand and three the crisis has been made worse because of the dumping of toxic chemicals by the oil and gas industry the effects can be reversed if something is done soon according to environmentalists but time is running out. of a full is facing a major environmental catastrophe this is due to the negligence of authorities who fail to implement rules to protect the environment which are needed and which in turn led to the certification in general across the southern parts of iraq. implementation of environmental regulations could change things here but so far the local government hasn't taken any measures almost everyone al-jazeera spoke to in zero four is concerned that it's not just a farming and fishing industry this dying the skills that go with it are also

disappearing as the young job's in the cities and towns of southern iraq without a generation of new farmers fishermen investment and regulations is in danger of turning into a region without life imran khan al-jazeera baghdad the girl at the center of a historic civil rights case that helped force an end to racially segregated schools in the united states has died linda brown was nine years old in one nine hundred fifty four when her father tried to enroll his children in an all white elementary school near his home in the u.s. state of kansas but was refused at the time racially separate schools were legal in the now famous brown versus board of education case the supreme court ruled blocking the child's entrance on racial grounds was inherently equal when the brown was seventy six years old. still ahead on the al-jazeera news hour we'll tell you what a top fundraiser for president trump cost to do with the united arab emirates and

in sports football's biggest teams gear up for the world cup. by the springtime flowers of a mountain lead. you to the fire smoke on the wind and stay. head over there rain is pulling itself together now over parts of china we're already seeing that rain over parts of the sichuan province and that's gradually making its way towards the south they say for queasy i think we'll see increasing amounts of cloud and increasing amounts of rain there during the day on wednesday that's also going to be affecting us in the northern parts of vietnam as well meanwhile a bit further towards the south you can see a little circulation to the east of the philippines this area of cloud here is a developing storm that's working its way towards the north and strengthening and it does say fortunately though looks like it should stay away from land say for the philippines lots of clouds maybe the old light shower but nothing like it would

have been had this storm edged its way towards us instead that we want to weather over parts of borneo there and down through java some of the showers in java look pretty lively and those are also stretching up through parts of somalia as well as we head towards the west though there's just a handful of showers here most of them are for parts of sri lanka some of them here a very heavy but there's only a few of them about for the northeast looking largely fine and dry and pretty hot now not put the thirty nine degrees already even in new delhi who are up at around thirty eight meanwhile out towards the west and here in doha it's also getting warm now temperatures up thirty five on choose day. the weather sponsored by cats on race. on counting the cost facebook and the big data economy the business model at the heart of the world's largest social network coming under scrutiny bus america's guns inside the biggest unregulated weapons

market in the developed world counting the cost. april on al-jazeera. from the stories beyond the headlines phone lines examines the u.s. his role in the world's fifty years since the death of martin luther king we examine the impact of his assassination and the state of race relations in the u.s. today the award winning show earthrise returns for another season with stories about solutions to some of the greatest manmade environmental problems as the first meeting since the bridge that vote is set to take place in the u.k. we examine how relevant the commonwealth is today between corporate and public interests up to the last drop unveils the longstanding rule for water in europe a probe on al-jazeera.

hello again the top stories on the al-jazeera news hour more than twenty countries including the u.s. have joined britain expelling dozens of russian diplomats it's a coordinated response to the poisoning of a former double agent in the u.k. . the fighters in northern yemen have warned of fire more missiles into saudi arabia unless it stops bombing the country on sunday they sent several rockets across the border targeting airports in riyadh one person was killed and several others injured there's been a low turnout on the opening day of egypt's three day presidential election where our president had been for the whole sisi is widely expected to win his second term he's running virtually unchallenged with potential candidates either locked up or forced out of the race well let's look more closely now at the contenders locked

out of this race maria hollande has more on much just two names on the ballot paper the two men vying for egypt's presidency now in a country of more than fifty five million eligible voters you might think there'd be a few more candidates well it's not for lack of trying over the last few months every other potential challenger for the presidency has either been detained disqualified or forced to abandon their campaigns completely so who's in and who's out first step sami and now we're talking top brass egyptian military here a retired lieutenant general a former army chief of staff a lot of the i'm a warlock with the announced his candidacy in a recorded video he also happened to mention he had information on government corruption he was arrested soon after the army accusing him of not getting proper commission to run and forging documents. another candidate another wrist this time

abdomen name for two a leading opposition figure who ran in the twenty twelve race he was accused of ties to the outlawed muslim brotherhood. fics campaign was short lived a former prime minister with links to the military he was deported from the united arab emirates where he'd been living in exile he was then detained in egypt he subsequently pulled out of the race opposition leader and human rights lawyer early didn't stay in the campaign for long either he said he came up against frequent obstacles when he withdrew he said his supporters had been harassed and arrested another to enter the race and pull out was mohammed and while sadat the nephew of egypt's assess a nation president anwar sadat he also cited a climate of fear for his withdrawal and then this will console serving members of the military to run for the presidency consoler says he tried to resign three years

but had been rejected each time when he did put his hand up to run he was given six years in prison for what officials called actions that undermined the military system the only man to stand against president sisi is moosa was stuff a moose and openly pro sisi politician who until the day before he reduced had to run was part of the campaign to get sisi reelected his name on the ballot paper means sisi at least has some competition international rights groups have called this election a fosse as it stands the outcome looks likely to favor the incumbent president. for more on this this week to dahlia femi she's an associate professor of political science alone at long island university joining us live from new york thanks for speaking to us on al-jazeera so as you heard marianne as reported just one candidate running not much of an opposition really is it now just all about the number of people that come out. well that's what the president says

he's hoping for he's hoping for a higher turnout than he had in the last election last election you saw about twenty two million people which is less than half of those register to vote or eligible to vote actually come out and so what he's looking for is a sense of legitimacy to this process and the reason why he needs legitimacy is that we don't have the international lection monitors that we have had in the past even in egypt even under president mubarak and so he's looking for this sense of legitimacy and the reason why is that. he's seeing a little bit of political pressure now you know what we have to remember that since the coup that remove the last democratically elected president two thousand and thirteen egypt has seen sixty thousand political prisoners president sisi has had to build sixteen new prisons there have been eight hundred thirty cases reported of torture two hundred forty disappeared persons we've seen that fifteen thousand

people civilians have been tried in military courts one hundred fifty of them children we've seen the closure of n.g.o.s the closure of blocking a four hundred thirty four independent websites and so with this closure of political space and the seeming lack of window trappings even of this semblance of bush should be a democratic process he's looking for a sense of legitimacy and the only place he has that now is that he gets some kind of minimal turnout will it be and you see them given their own sort and those are able to get that apology is what would it be easier will it be easier ofter the three days are over to get an accurate picture of what the numbers really look like a comprehensive picture really of what turnout has been. we won't because there is not the international action monitors that have been called for and have been denied in this process even under president mubarak we have seen in international action monitors kind of certify elections now the interesting thing is that for the

united states we see that there has been some kind of pressure for example just on friday senator menendez and senator rubio put out a joint statement a resolution calling for these elections to be freer and fair and the reason why is that there still is the withholding of three hundred million dollars of u.s. aid that is tied to this kind of. that the democrats the democratic process has to a human rights conditions have to improve and so president is looking for a sense of legitimacy and it's not clear that we're going to get that because we don't have any international action monitors to certify this process and his challenges going forward just so very roughly for the country will they be well the challenges are primarily economic we have two thirds of the population is under the age of twenty nine in some areas unemployment is high seventy percent there isn't any real infrastructure change inflation is at thirty five percent and

so when you have a mass population that is young that is not having its political social and economic aspirations met the president is going to have to do something drastic to improve these conditions and what's probably going to happen he's going to clamp down even further and what i expect is that there will be some kind of push to have him be able to certify a constitutional referendum that he can run for a third term is the only way he can hold on to power thank you for speaking to us from new york. a top fundraiser for the us president donald trump allegedly her saved millions of dollars from a united arab emirates political advisor last april and according to an investigation by the associated press george nader got the money just weeks before he began handing out a series of large donations to u.s. politicians considering legislation targeting qatar political hay and explains. george nader is not well known in washington and not often photographed but he is

closely linked to the leadership of the united arab emirates and now the associated press is reporting he is also linked to a top trump fundraiser businessman elliott brody according to the a.p. nader wired two point five million dollars to brody who sponsored a form where congressman ed royce spoke and called for cutter to be labeled a terrorist supporting state later brody donated the max contribution five thousand four hundred dollars to royce in total the a.p. says brody gave six hundred thousand dollars in campaign contributions since he began lobbying against cutter at the time he didn't have any business dealings with the u.a.e. but in january he apparently signed a contract with the u.a.e. for more than two hundred million dollars there is no evidence he used the money from nader or the u.a.e. to make those campaign contributions but legal scholar bruce fein says he could still be in legal jeopardy even if you're not paid if you're operating on behalf.

of a foreign country you need register even if it's volunteered services that you're trying to do something and it's obvious they're talking to the crown prince those highest levels and so there jeopardy is there whether he can prove a financial connection or not a search of the database the tracks for lobbyists does not indicate brody has registered for his part birdie told the he has long advocated tough position against cutter he reportedly filed a lawsuit on monday accusing cutter of hacking into his e-mail and leaking them to reporters charges cutter has denied his e-mails were given to the new york times and it appears to show a pattern of brody telling foreign leaders about his access to trump and then pushing them to sign deals with his defense company nader is reportedly cooperating with special counsel robert mueller and after these stories it seems likely miller might want to talk to brody as well. washington. meanwhile the u.s. saudi arabia and the united arab emirates have agreed to hold regular meetings to

discuss security concerns in the middle east it's seen as an indication of closer ties between the three countries the white house says it's part of an effort to counter iranian influence in the region talk about this. is a political expert from the truman national security project joining us from washington thanks for speaking to us so would you say this is significant this announcement of these regular trilateral meetings what are we to read into them. i think this is definitely a significant announcement and the rhetoric and tone of the press release i think is going to increase tensions between the united states and iran as we can see continue to see a struggle for power throughout the middle east and regional domination between saudi arabia and iran so are you surprised by this at all i mean we we've seen particularly warm relations between the united states saudi arabia the united arab emirates under the trump of ministration and they all seem to have or fall of the

same tone and rhetoric when it comes to iran yes and i think that it's particularly interesting the timing of the announcement considering this news that's come out regarding george notter and brody as you were talking about in your previous segment rather than the united states pursuing diplomatic solutions to ameliorating the tensions between iran and saudi arabia which are pressing throughout the entire region we see that in yemen with the conflict with the rebels and we see that in lebanon with the hezbollah backed groups vs the or the saudi arabian backed groups and rather than the united states pursuing diplomatic solutions we're seeing continued hostile rhetoric towards iran as we saw in the nuclear posture review that was released last month by the trump administration and as we know the trumpet ministration is extremely critical of the iran deal and

continues to back further away from that so what does this then mean for. my home pay zero when he's confirmed as secretary of state if he's confirmed john bolton coming on as national security advisor the both men have taken a harder line on iran about the trajectory going forwards. yes at the certain at this point in time i don't see anybody in the administration who is really an advocate for stronger diplomatic relations with the country everybody thus far is extremely critical as you know the trumpet ministration president trump himself has been very reticent to sign. the it's recertify cation of the deal every six months and does not want the sanctions or rather once the same chance to continue against iran and so i think we will continue to see a lot of pressure and

a hostile attitude towards it. towards iran particularly encouraged by john bolton who we know to be an incredible war hawk all right some of the same thank you very much. one of the all this gun manufacturers in the u.s. has filed for bankruptcy shortly after millions of americans took to the streets calling for tougher gun laws remington outdoor company says gun sales have slumped since donald trump became president and the current political climate made it impossible to find new investors diane easterbrook reports. after millions marched across the u.s. for tougher gun laws new york based remington outdoor company filed for chapter eleven bankruptcy protection remington is one of america's oldest gun manufacturers it built its first rifle in eight hundred sixteen and both on its website of building america but the two hundred year old gun company which makes weapons for

hunting military and law enforcement says it's burdened by more than six hundred million dollars of the debt the eighty or so on your second amendment freedoms has come to a crashing and remington blames some of its money trouble on the election of donald trump anticipating hillary clinton would win the white house and push for tougher gun laws remington and other gun makers ramped up production expecting gun enthusiasts would stock up on firearms but that didn't happen with trump in the white house the day after trunk was elected the stocks of these gun manufacturers actually took a big hit in the days following his election it has since come off pretty strongly is the revenues and john this is well there doesn't seem to be the political risk the political sphere that regulation will be coming down but calls for tougher gun laws have been escalating since the mass school shooting last month in parklane

florida gun control supporters are calling on congress to ban the sale of assault rifles and raise the minimum firearm purchase age but congress. to put morsi in our school to help students. since the parklane shooting some retailers have limited gun sales and some banks have put restrictions on business customers that sell firearms remington says that climate made it impossible to find lenders that would finance its turnaround so it was forced to file for bankruptcy protection remington is the second american gun manufacturer to file for bankruptcy in the past few years dion estabrook al-jazeera still ahead on the al-jazeera hour sloane stephens stuns her spaniard opponent in miami about stories coming up in sports.

well again pakistan's government is taking steps to avoid a devastating environmental crisis two hundred million people there may run out of water within the next decades so leaders are being urged to build more reservoirs and improve an extensive network of irrigation canals built more than one hundred years ago come on hydro has more from. where farmers say their livelihoods are at risk. it's another big. strike made on the outskirts of shell

grain is laid out in the shandra drive devoted to shameful cleaning and polishing write. downs of major foreign exchange. but all that may change because of water shortage gauge the production of cash crops such as right then we are in danger the rice reloader who goes to a farm all fears for their future let me out of our young man up on the gulf water is very crucial to both technical and domestic use but that each passing day it's almost a facing border shortages which is affecting the agricultural sector. and the gold which are to compute steps by building dams and reservoirs for its story it's a welcome to the water crisis in the country experts in the government's water resources research council a warning political leadership to act no other country would run out of water wouldn't they near a major target is the pollution grown because the water is the same the public the

population increases requirement of the domestics that better than us just like the the. i think i'm just like is going to win haas so we have to manage these problems tend to size the communities because normal individual one cannot solve this problem the goal near done view of the private sector the communities each have to realize this situation underground water sources are often unfit to drink because dave's been forging by excessive use of chemical fertilizer on farmland and unfair and dumping of toxic waste industry pakistan is a country that has a growing population. increasing industrialization and that has felt we did increasing need for food so therefore create a stress on the agricultural sector pakistan government leaders are due to announce border policy sometime this year or doctors should be defended it may be too late

too late august on it already feeling the effects of climate change what did experts in the country warn that if steps are not taken at the right dime a country called faith huge shortage of water by great deed twenty five and that of course will not only affect the concrete agricultural produce where did the backbone of the economy but also have direct consequences for millions of people across this country millions of chinese are already feeling the effects of water shortage because of what critics say. planning in on. the warning. and steps needed to a word stuff. off the shelf court focused on. top of the sports news here is to. thank you very much australia's major cricket sponsors say they're assessing their relationship with the national team as the fallout from the

country's ball tampering scandal continues cricket australia's investigators have arrived in south africa to look into the circumstances also the incident that has shocked the country and cricket fans around the world mel him is in sydney with the latest there's no precedent in australian cricket for this sort of investigation so it's unclear what form it will take but there are no doubt many questions that need to be answered including what if any involvement the coach had in this they're also calls for further sanctions on the leadership team and we've been getting some mixed responses from people outside the sydney cricket ground on what sanctions should be should be replaced. you can do this in an international. stand down stay standard. but then again they retain cheats. just got caught not only. by things he should've has more on this trillion sports commission said the players involved should have immediately

been sent home and that there needs to be an overhaul of the culture within the sport we think that one of the good things that's come out of this situation is that the public has set a very strong message to the leadership of the sport about where they brought along and what they consider to be totally inappropriate standards of behavior and triathletes those were in the green and gold actually conduct themselves with the utmost integrity as the cricket australia investigation plays out here in the wake there are doubts about how much you can salvage the reputation of one of the most popular and idolized sports in the country the sports rule makers have also commented on the ball tampering incident m.c.c. laws manager phrases stevens says more needs to be done to tackle bad behavior on the pitch. it certainly is m.c.c. we are going to look at it very closely our committee will will certainly be debating this in the coming months i.c.c.

through their cricket committee they'll no doubt look at it and it may be that this is this is a moment where people say in the pubs enough is enough we we need to set the right example for the kids i think that's the most important thing that these people are role models and we got to get the kids who are going to be playing the game it's thirty years time go to get them you know being seeing the right examples i think it is really important fifa president jonny in a fun tino is promising a fair and transparent bid process for the twenty twenty six world cup so both governing body received a bit big from the two candidates on monday which they'll be looking through over the coming months before they choose the winning host in moscow in june a joint bid from the usa canada and mexico would be the first world cup held over three countries within that huge geographical area twenty three hopefuls will be whittled down to sixteen host cities and with a population of five hundred million across those three countries the bid is

promising fifa ticket revenues of more than two billion dollars by contrast morocco's bid that is came to highlight that it would be a compact tournament with each of the twelve host cities within five hundred fifty kilometers of the country's main international gateway of casablanca another major selling point morocco is pushing is its track record on security and a very a locum circulation in terms of how much it can make in ticket sales it's less than half of that put forward by its competitors but when you consider the tickets would have to be price level have to be at an affordable level for local fans and that explains the difference. well as teams prepare for the twenty eighteen world cup one team who will be absent in russia the netherlands sent out a warning to the world that they're not spent force just yet the dutch hammered european champions portugal three nil in neutral geneva memphis to pyrite and babel

and virgil van dyke all netted for the netherlands meanwhile to taiwan champions uruguay have received a timely boost by winning the china cup they faced wales in the final on monday. striker edinson cavani with the only goal of the game for the year ago in their meats hosts russia saudi arabia and egypt in world cup group a in june while champions germany will be in action on tuesday they take on five time champions brazil in a high profile friendly in berlin the germans have performed well since winning the wild card with victory at last year's confederations cup in russia brazil a much improved since the five met in the world cup semifinals four years ago when germany ran rampant seven one but the hosts a cautioning against similar expectations on this occasion commonly with the more brazil have changed during the last two three years reinvented themselves in

a from their old strength back we are really happy to play opponents like that right now because we can learn stuff that will be cool during the tournament. there will be another battle between former champions when england face it sadly in london england won the world cup in one thousand nine hundred sixty six and will be in group g. in russia where they meet belgium panama and to near zero four times world champions italy failed to qualify for this year's event. i'm not sure they're in as much of a status people would say. there were no the world cup because they would spring this group really ok they didn't quite get the playoff game right but they've got some good players and they were proud footballing nation. they won't come to wembley and roll over us with. tennis now and spain's finance over death has made it through to the fourth round at the miami open the day roger federer is conqueror

the nothing kokkinakis of australia three fics fix for seven six was the final score then next up for a go will be popular. spaniard both some made it through off to coming out on top of his third round clash against on seeded american steve johnson six four six four was the final score. in the women's draw american sloane stephens has made it to the quarterfinals of the tournament steven planes that got opinion what is that in straight sets six three fit for two at the. ball for now more later that's it for the news hour thanks for watching martinez will be with you in just a moment she'll have much more news coming our way all the day's top stories on al-jazeera. travel often. by trying to. put forests provide light.

box of oil. valleys and skies. eventually. sky. as far away places that's. going to get this cattle i always. paint the scene for us where on line what is american sign in yemen that peace is always possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people that there are choosing between buying medication eating base is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who is an activist has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera we headed to

jerusalem bureau covered israeli palestinian affairs we cover the story with a lot of intimate knowledge we covered it with that we don't dip in and out of this story we have a presence here all the time apart from being a cameraman it's also very important to be a journalist to know the story very well before going into the fields covering the united nations and global diplomacy for al-jazeera english is pretty incredible this is where talks happen and what happens here matters. a key figure of the early twentieth century arab literary scene. and a feminist writer. had to have had time. so why did her story and in such tragedy. al-jazeera won't expose the life and why of maisie adda at this time on al-jazeera.