story fourteen hundred years in the make. a story of succession and the leadership. as josie that tells the story of dispute and division of the heart. the caliph episode to. you stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera.

i don't think he's medically unfit to be president because morally unfit to be president the fired f.b.i. director says there's evidence donald trump obstructed justice. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up at the u.s. warns of new sanctions against russia for backing the syrian government's. utang by one of china's biggest social media networks reversing a decision to delete all gay all online content. and accused of sedition and rebellion leaders and activists who backed a controversial referendum to split from spain appear before the highest court. former f.b.i. director james comey is accused donald trump of being morally unfit to be u.s. president and he says there may be some evidence that trump obstructed justice comi

made the comments in an exclusive interview with a.b.c.'s george stephanopoulos earlier trump unleashed a twitter tirade against komi saying the man he sacked should be jailed every elizondo reports in washington d.c. . in a remarkable rebuke former f.b.i. director james comey is saying u.s. president donald trump is not fit to be commander in chief he is donald trump unfit to be president. yes but not in the way i often hear people talk about it i don't buy the stuff about him being mentally incompetent to early stages of dementia strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who's tracking conversations and those what's going on i don't think he's medically unfit to be president i think is morally unfit to be president of the exclusive interview with a.b.c. news george stephanopoulos was part of the rollout of coleman's new book titled a higher loyalty truth lies and leadership in the interview komi says trump lies as

obstructed justice and like it seem to an insecure mob boss and he also says russia might have compromising information on the president do you think the russians have something on donald trump i think it's possible i don't know i mean these are more words i never thought i'd utter about a president but it's possible and he accused the president of wrongdoing of a possible crime yeah structure of justice hours before the komi interview aired the president unloaded on twitter calling komi a slimeball slippery and not smart in one tweet trump insists komi committed numerous crime some self and needs to go to jail tweeting and part how come he gave up classified information jail why did he lie to congress jail in another message trumped tweets komi will go down as the worst f.b.i. director in history by far trump adding with an exclamation mark for good measure you know more of him is the me komi was fired by trump in may saying it was for his

handling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation but trump later said in an interview it was because of the russian vest a geisha and the firing prompted a series of events that led to the justice department to appoint robert mueller as special counsel oversee. in the russian investigators that has expanded to look into whether trump obstructed justice by firing komi home he says trump privately asked him for a loyalty pledge trump denies this this isn't the first book to rattle the white house in january fire and fury sold more than a million copies in four days written by journalist michael wolff the book revealed salacious details that painted a picture of a white house in chaos khomeini's book however poses even more of a threat to the white house given it was written by the former director of the highest law enforcement agency in america and based partly off notes that he took after private meetings with the president the book is scheduled to be released on

tuesday and certain to set off a firestorm in washington and beyond and particularly with an administration that seems to go from one crisis to another. al-jazeera washington bill schneider is a political analyst and visiting professor of communications at the university of california los angeles he says trump should be worried about comments allegations. the charge coming from the former director of the f.b.i. even if he was fired by donald trump that's a very serious matter he's a he appears to be talking about the fact that. trump fired him because he was looking into the relationship between the trump campaign and russia komi isn't specifying exactly there are several pieces of evidence of obstructing obstruction of justice that we know the special counsel who was appointed after. comey was fired there's several pieces of evidence that could suggest obstruction of justice

that's just one of the things that's being looked into personal attorneys affairs other things could lead to other scandals there already have possibly court cases against this president some space has been very loyal to him what they like about him is what he's doing right now they like the fact that he's defiant faced with the opposition with criticism he's defiant he basically is bullying he's insulting he uses childish nicknames against people and his base loves that because they haven't ever seen that in american leader before on the other hand a lot of americans critically better educated americans really find that very offensive says they'll target companies involved in syria's alleged chemical weapons program this comes after saturday's airstrikes on syrian military sites said to be storing it chemical weapons the strikes are in response to a suspected gas attack on the world's chemical weapons watchdog is meeting in the hague as its inspectors investigate the incident. so you will think that russian

sanctions will be coming down secretary mineta will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we send a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it in our president donald trump says he still wants american forces in syria to return home as soon as possible that despite france's president mandela now grown claiming he can then trying to keep it long term u.s. presence in the country alan fischer has more from washington d.c. . well we know there have been a number of calls between the elysee palace and the white house over the last week not least to judge their reaction to what the saw was a syrian chemical attack against its own people and to draw up plans for the strike that we saw on friday night into saturday morning certainly present mccrone will

consider himself one of the world leaders closest to donald trump but don't position on syria has been clear just over two weeks ago at a campaign event in ohio he insisted he wanted to get out of syria very soon indeed but as far as the president of france is concerned he has no doubts about the american commitment to the efforts in syria. and of course you don't ten days ago president truman was saying the u.s. should withdraw from syria we convinced him that it was necessary to stay i think that on a diplomatic level beyond what happened to those three strikes which are one element for me the most important thing we convinced him that we needed to stay for the long and went to them. where there is no doubt that the president of france left those phone calls with donald trump very clear on donald trump's commitment although obviously given the statements now coming out of the white house saying there is no change in their policy nothing has altered his fathers their ideas and

city has concerned president micro may have left those conversations with a different impression of what donald trump was actually seeing syria featured high on the agenda at the arab league summit and saudi arabia but the twenty two member body didn't discuss those airstrikes saudi arabia bahrain and qatar previously issued statements in support of the action while egypt iraq and lebanon expressed concern the saudi monarch push for a unified stance against iran which he blamed for instability in meddling in the region. china's biggest and most popular social media network is reversing its decision to ban gay content on live so in a way that china's equivalent of twitter received a huge backlash when it blocked videos and comments related to homosexuality company said it was trying to comply with the country's cybersecurity laws are china correspondent atrium brown isn't beijing so why this why this you turn why this change adrian. well rachele the internet here in

china has become a real battleground for the l.g.b. tea community and this battle really has been going on for more than a year but things really came to a head on friday when sino weibo which is china's equivalent of twitter announced it was going to ban and delete all gay themed content online including videos and other forms of animation it said that it was doing this in order to create what it called a clear and better online environment well that led to a huge backlash online in the form of hashtags and letters a hash tag for instance i am gay got more than three hundred million views before it was suddenly deleted on saturday now we have a strange reversal on monday signed away both put out a statement saying it had reversed the decision but what it didn't say rachele was

whether it was reversing its decision as a result of a directive from the government because ultimately the internet in china is controlled by the government now in the context of all this we have to understand that president xi jinping. is on a moral crusade at the moment he's carrying out a number of crusades but you know morality is one of them and he wants to clean up the internet and that means that the l g b t community has been very much in his crosshairs for the past couple of years but now we've had this reversal and what's also interesting is actually some elements of state controlled media appeared to criticize this decision the people's daily which is the sort of paper of record here in china said you know it was wrong to call homosexuality a disease and it was wrong to you know quite people in the l g b t community and their content with pornography. and how unusual is it for the chinese government to

get this type of pushback anyway well i think you have to say that in today's china you know it's a very brave person who's preferred to express any form of dissent online or otherwise so it is unusual and it shows a real significant pushback by the l g b t community now you know the the alternative the l g b t community here in china has made some advances jur in the past few years the non heterosexual community has made some gains but china is still a long way behind its neighbors for instance you know taiwan the island republic which china claims as part of its territory recently passed a law that allow you know gay people to marry i think you know china is years if not decades away from that happening here all right major ian brown live for us and

asia thank you adrian. still ahead on al jazeera al firefighters in australia are battling to control fire burning near sydney and the dismantling of what was meant to be a huge hospital howard became part of argentina's slum problem. hello and welcome to international weather forecasts now as you look at europe's weather we've still got some rain across central or some particular summer is quite heavy he centers are looking fine temps going to very nice for a full meanwhile out across the west the deep area of low pressure developing and that'll be swinging into wards the u.k. but the important thing is that ahead of it will start to pull up air from the south and the warm air is going to spread across many western and central parts of europe over the next few days so as we head on into tuesday terms of twenty three

madrid twenty one degrees expected in paris the rain across more central and southeastern era still there but time it should gradually be easing in intensity but more unsettled from poland across into western russia so as we head down into north africa weather conditions here terry not looking too bad the winds from a westerly direction or northwest the so temperatures nothing special there for tripoli benghazi current too but that thirty five degrees and as we head into tuesday rising slightly ass one for the south forty degrees similar for cars two in sudan now into central parts of africa we got some showers across east africa through and also for west africa cameroon is looking to see some showers and also suspect showers to fact lagos in nigeria also with ice here of thirty one. it.

is. you're watching al jazeera let's pick up the top stories for you right now former f.b.i. director james coleman has accused donald trump of being morally unfit to be u.s. president and he says there may be evidence that trump obstructed justice spoke in

an exclusive interview with a.b.c.'s george stephanopoulos in the first since trump fired him last year the u.s. will impose more sanctions on russia for continuing to support syria's government about follow saturday's airstrikes on syrian military sites said to be storing chemical weapons in reaction to a suspected gas attack on too much and china's most popular social media site is reversing a decision to ban gay content online. received backlash when it walked videos and comics related to homosexuality the company said it was trying to comply with cybersecurity laws. from dependence leaders in spain's catalonia region are about to appear before a supreme court judge for their role in last year's secession referendum spain wants to charge them with sedition and rebellion on sunday thousands of people protested in barcelona calling for the release of what they call political prisoners but the central government and madrid says they broke the law by organizing an illegal referendum in october sunday goes outside the supreme court

in madrid so sonia house is expected to play out today. well we've already seen this morning is the former head of the castle and regional police force. just a loose top battle already attending. a hearing in the national courts. really all that's been confirmed is that he will be facing charges of sedition. and criminal organization related to the illegal referendum in october we're expecting now this. leaders from the most prominent leaders of the. cultural associations who are fundamental in organizing that illegal referendum. sancerre and get us to be appearing at the national court today and tomorrow and what will be happening really is underlining what is already has

already been put out there which is that they will be most likely facing charges of rebellion that is a sentence which carries a lot more weight that they could face up to thirty years in prison for that as opposed to charges of sedition which carries a lesser sentence of a maximum ten years in prison but this is really this is really underlining exactly what gets to the heart of the problem the spanish government says that it goes against the constitution and what they try to do now what is now what is the next step of course is to try and gauge exactly what role they had in that and whether indeed it was rebellion or shell so what is the reaction from the public been to this they've been very engaged throughout this entire process. yes in catalonia that certainly is the case and as we saw on sunday there was a large demonstration the local for the police. forces said that at least

three hundred fifty fifteen thousand people turned out onto the onto the streets there to attend a demonstration calling for the release of them they're calling them political prisoners which is distinct from what the spanish government is calling them but you also interestingly enough have the trade unions who joined in on this march as well saying that really it is quite unfair what's has happened to them is that they should not have faced any preacher any pretrial jail time for this that really that this in effect is making them political prisoners but the judged. and so on this so far from the opposing side has been well the fact of the matter is that they had been imprisoned. in case they would have organized any alter. and criminal activities related to the independence a session it's movement but in so far as the rest of the country is concerned really there is little in the way of of too much sympathy exe and with that

particular movement because technically speaking the law was broken into the spanish constitution when this took place but that didn't stop people from attending those marches on sunday in droves for show. really six months since catalonia has been governed under direct rule from madrid and there was little in the way of a political resolution to the crisis was yet there are no side is prepared to climb down from their position the spanish government maintains its line the illegal referendum last october was an act of rebellion and it's taking all measures it says unnecessary to contain it measures that protesters here say have gone too far or you can be against the ban guns or you can be trying to ban guns but. it's impossible to think that's a normal thing and i don't want to. bantry our political reason those in our politicians cannot do their job because they're not allowed to move. so we are

taking charge of the situation i think is the thinking behind the decision to jail catalan leaders would be that it would quell some of the fervor here and it could have been more of a mistaken one because that has only served to really galvanize people here pro independent us but also beyond that as well you say that their fundamental democratic rights are being threatened meanwhile be arrested castle and politicians await trial on charges of rebellion a crime that carries a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison according to the lawyer representing the leaders there's little hope that spain's justice system. would deliver a just verdict but the poem died at the moment to the spanish authorities fools beneath the standards of a full democracy you do know people all over peaceful expression of better view. the castle parliament has called for legal charges to be brought against a spanish supreme court judge for refusing to release one of the leaders jordy

sanchez he was nominated to become the next president now catalan politicians have only until the end of may to nominate another leader before new regional elections a cold if it comes to that may shift the crisis but not necessarily in favor of those who put so much faith in the session is movement. in the sun to go reporting there are hundreds of firefighters are battling a brush fire threatening parts of australia's largest city sydney police say it's miraculous nobody's been injured and no houses have been damaged two and a half thousand hectares of land around sydney have been destroyed since saturday and are thomas has more from sydney. this fire truck is one of many that fought fires as the positions on the age of what's called the fire ground and the other end of the hogs as far as putting out spot fires in case the wind picks up again and takes that fire back towards people's homes now the main paltz of this fire though big was in an unpopulated area down there this is

a giant bowl of forest all bush as it's called they not many people live inside that but along the edge of the rippling sea but there are plenty of people who have had many fires here before i was talking to one man who's lived here thirty years and he's now in full life because he was almost relaxed about this one and it does get scary and stressful but in a few days it's i ever get back to normal you know forest fires bushfires is unknown here unusual in australia but what is unusual is how late in the season this one has taken hold april the middle of all some should be cool by now here it's not mid thirty's when the wind picks up that's when the danger reignites montenegro's ruling party has declared the leader. is winner of sunday's presidential election results show him winning fifty four percent of the vote which is enough to avoid a runoff his main opponent milan in motion it's one thirty three percent it is a major victory for chicana vent shewn to try and russia when montenegro joining

nato last year and as well as president nicolas maduro as attack south american leaders as well of u.s. imperialism was barred from attending the summit of the americas and crew that ended on saturday he's almost certain to when next month's presidential election with which many regional leaders have called a sham the main opposition is boycotting the vote but majority says it will be a success for democracy in many of them a little bit is going on in venezuela venezuelans are in charge there are elections on may twenty fifth it will be results and what matters is that the institutions and the people of venezuela recognize them nothing more will leave the rest to me i'll take charge i will. teach a lesson to the whims of the imperialists. the monthly salaries for tens of thousands of gaza based employees of the palestinian authority are now week overdue workers' union says it's a deliberate move to increase pressure on hamas which controls gaza reports. for a week now they've been living on less than a promise the palestinian authority says the delay in paying its gaza employees

salaries is a technical issue soon to be resolved but these men know that their colleagues in the occupied west bank and retirees here in gaza all had their paychecks days ago the head of their union says the p.a. isn't even taking his phone calls. we're talking about thirty thousand families this isn't a small number they paid employees in the west bank but they didn't pay us in gaza this makes the employees here really afraid. you soso rukh is waiting for his monthly pay a stipend of two hundred ninety dollars awarded after he was shot and injured during a protest three years ago nearly half of it goes on rent for the tiny home he shares with his wife and two daughters their landlord is threatening a fiction. because. we are prisoners families of martyrs the injured they shouldn't put us in between the two sides they shouldn't connect the reconciliation problems with our salaries because that will destroy one hundred percent of the. the

palestinian president and fatah head mahmoud abbas has been threatening further measures designed to increase the pressure on rival faction hamas which controls gaza a reconciliation deal signed in october has been teetering on collapse since almost before the ink a dried the p.a. insists on assuming full governmental control of gaza including over the weapons of hamas his military wing something hamas rejects completely hamas demands continued payment of its tens of thousands of workers even after p.a. staff who've been out of their jobs for more than a decade of hamas' rule resumed their roles. relations who worsened still by the bombing last month of the palestinian prime minister's convoy during a visit to gaza the p.a. leadership based in ramallah in the occupied west bank had already cut its gazan employees wages by thirty percent in an effort to squeeze hamas by restricting the inflow of cash from which it takes a cut the p.a. employees union says that if the salaries don't turn up in the banks by wednesday

they will launch wider scale protests but they're aware that their power is limited if as they suspect this is no technical issue then their wages depend on the political decision being made in ramallah are a force that al-jazeera. former u.s. first lady barbara bush is refusing further medical treatment for her ailing health the office of her husband former president george bush sr said the nineteen year old will spend time on what it calls comfort care of her family it's unclear what health problems she has that she's been treated for heart and thyroid conditions in the past she is ninety two years old. and urban redevelopment and argentina's capital is angering people who are being forced to move the project as part of a government plan to enter great hundreds of thousands of people living in slums into the rest of the city as they'll get access to basic services for the first time about reports i'm going to. it's known as the white an

abandoned building in when a site is that for decades was home to hundreds of people that had nowhere else to live. but these days heavy equipment is working nonstop to bring it down i'm going to be done today. we started to think in twenty eleven when the national government gave the city the building what we should do with it there were too many things happening here we decided to demolish it and start from scratch to transform the area. it was meant to be the largest hospital in latin america during the governmental. but when he was overthrown in one nine hundred fifty five the project was abandoned and since then it has been a symbol of neglect. or hoping to build a park schools and are currently building the new ministry of social development here the idea of this project is to increase the presence of the state in an area that has been historically abandoned around ninety families used to live in this

building in this conditions with no water electricity or access to basic services there were also one hundred forty families who lived outside the city has been offering all those occupying the area cash incentives to buy a house somewhere else. and they feel it was difficult to ask people to leave people didn't trust in our goodwill to help them leave this place slowly we started showing them that we want to help them improve their lives some families want to other places some of them are better off but there are ten families who do not want to leave. school works as a driver here says he's not ready to move. when you don't want to go because this is where we work from people know they can find us here i don't trust the government's intentions they leave and they don't finish what they started over seven hundred thousand people live in slums in suburban one aside the current administration says it's working to improve the living conditions of everyone in

the city but you know. what happens in the city happens all over the country across latin america and in areas like education and health facilities force people the president is working on a play. slums around the country build roads and. this is part of the biggest development project when a site is has seen in decades but it is reducing poverty in the country what will guarantee that those who left the white won't end up living in another once again. will. take out the headlines on al-jazeera former f.b.i. director. morley unfit to be u.s. president and he says there may be evidence that obstructed justice. in an

exclusive interview with a.b.c.'s george stephanopoulos the first fired in last year. is donald trump unfit to be president. yes but not in the way i often hear people talk about it i don't buy the stuff about him being mentally incompetent to early stages of dementia strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who's tracking conversations and knows what's going on i don't think he's medically unfit to be president i think is morally unfit to be president. on russia for continuing to support syria's government. strikes on syrian military sites said to be storing chemical weapons and reaction to a suspected gas attack on touma china's most popular social media site is reversing a decision to ban gay content online. backlash when it blocked videos and comics related to homosexuality company said it was trying to comply with cybersecurity laws. pro independence leaders in spain's catalonia region are about to appear

before supreme court judge for their role in last year's secession referendum spain wants to charge them with sedition and rebellion on sunday thousands of people protested in barcelona calling for the release of what they call political prisoners hundreds. hundreds of firefighters are battling a bushfire threatening parts of australia's largest city sydney are investigating whether the fire was deliberately set two and a half thousand hectares of bush land around sydney had been destroyed since saturday unusually hot weather has made it difficult to fight that fire. and as well as president nicolas maduro has attacked south american leaders as website the us imperialism which i was barred from attending the summit of the americas and peru that ended on saturday he's almost certain to win next month's presidential election which many regional leaders have called the former u.s. first lady barbara bush is refusing further medical treatment for ailing health

office of her husband so the ninety two year old will spend time in what it calls comfort care with their family. there are the headlines news continues keep it here on al-jazeera inside story is next fifty three member states. one night comic figurehead as leaders of the commonwealth to send in london for its biennial meeting just how much does the commonwealth meant to in today's world where does it go to the queen elizabeth the commonwealth heads of government meeting on al-jazeera. in arabs solve their problems their leaders meet for yet another so.