nation as quickly as you can. it's when he come off air on things to pin realized he witnessed history in the making. made on al-jazeera venezuela will hold a snap election as president maduro aims to retain control what lies ahead for a country that has been waiting for light at the end of a long tunnel the people in power the top u.s. general in afghanistan about his plans for defeating by the taliban and an isis insurgency. struggling with security issues and economic uncertainty iraq is finally set to hold elections as an unseen global battle rages for resources beneath our oceans we all skip the seabed is the territory still to be claimed. commemorating seventy years from now al-jazeera examines what has changed in the past seven decades on both sides of this conflict may go on al-jazeera.

china says it hopes the u.s. will be sincere out of crucial talks to avoid a looming trade war. well i'm down in jordan this is al jazeera lawyer from joe also coming up a startling revelation the former mayor of new york now represents donald trump says the president repaid his attorney the hush money given to an adult film star. spain warns of the president with investigations against despite the bus group saying it will despise him. and fears for the safety of ranger refugees a cycling season approaches in bangladesh.

china's state media says it will stand up to us bullying if necessary ahead of trade talks with a high level american delegation on thursday the us treasury secretary steve minutia is meeting china's vice premier during his two day trip try to hammer out a deal to avoid a trade war between the world's two biggest economies beijing and washington and threaten to impose large tariffs in recent months. probably thought you made given the volume of the two economies and the complexity of their relations it is unrealistic to expect to solve all the problems through one single consultation but we believe as long as the u.s. delegations is sincere about maintaining the overall stability of china u.s. economic and trade relations and takes an attitude of mutual respect equal constitution and mutual benefits the consultation will be constructive adrian brown has more from beijing. well there are many areas of friction i guess the two key ones would be the deficit at the moment china exports far more to the united states than the other way around and the united states wants to redress that balance china

of though also is accused by the united states of really carrying out very unfair trading practices what the united states really gets upset about is this china has a plan known as made in china twenty twenty five and this is president xi jinping ambition to basically overhaul the economy and to pour billions of dollars into technologies of the future things like artificial intelligence and robotics but the problem is these are state funded companies that will be competing against u.s. companies in the global market in china and the united states believes the basically china is out for world domination in this area and says you know it's unfair on the trade issue on the deficit issue the united states wants china to to cut the deficit by about one hundred billion dollars will state media here say there's very little likelihood of china going along with that chinese media was

saying that they want the united states to show sincerity during these negotiations and they say that china will not bow to any measures that seek to contain china and that's the overriding message china will not allow itself to be contained if the u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross who is also part of this high level delegation now in beijing also spoke before leaving washington and he said that basically the deficit was had inspired what he said were evil chinese trade practices well those are the sort of comments you're hearing outside of the negotiating room imagine what you're going to hear inside that negotiating room now that those talks are underway or trump expressed optimism over his treasury secretary's visit to china in a tweet he said are great financial team is in china trying to negotiate a level playing field on trade i look forward to being with president xi in the not too distant future we will always have a good great relationship. the united states says it remains gravely concerned

about north korea's human rights record despite warming diplomatic relations the comments from the state department head of a planned meeting between donald trump and north korea's leader kim jong un american student author would be a was released from north korean custody last year he was arrested in good health one of the tour of pyongyang but let go fourteen months later in a vegetative state he died soon after well the chinese and north korean foreign ministers have held talks in pyongyang one you congratulated north korea for its successful historic summit with south korea last week its visit comes as north korean leader kim jong un prepares to meet the u.s. president wang said china fully supports pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization as well as its bid to concentrate on economic development kathy novak has more from seoul. china is continuing its apparent push to be included in the ongoing diplomacy involving north korea the foreign ministry in beijing quoted the

country's top diplomat wang ye as saying that china is willing to strengthen communication with north korea and continue to play a positive role in seeking a political solution to the korean peninsula issue one his visit to pyongyang is really first for a chinese foreign minister in more than a decade china had been somewhat sidelined from talks on north korea as the first summit between leaders of the two koreas was held on friday and as the united states plans for a meeting between president donald trump and the north korean leader kim jong un says china hopes that substantial progress can be made at those talks one with visit to pyongyang appears to be a nother sign that the previously strained relations between north korea and its traditional ally china appear to be improving in march kim jong un met chinese president xi jinping in beijing on his first trip overseas as leader and she is expected to make

a reciprocal visit to pyongyang potentially in the coming months and in the declaration that was signed at the into korean summit on friday there was a reference to pursuing a three way meeting between the two koreas and the united states or a four way meeting between those countries and china to discuss a more permanent peace agreement that would replace the armistice that was signed when fighting ended in the korean war in one thousand nine hundred three china was originally a signatory to that armistice and would likely want to be involved in any talks on moving on from that armistice one of the lawyers representing donald trump an investigation into his campaign team suspected collusion with russia is retiring ty cobb's departure comes as speculation grows about whether the us president will talk to investigators special counsel robert muller has reportedly threatened to subpoena trump if he doesn't cooperate. i'm out of trump's personal legal team has contradicted him about hush money paid to form a porn star rudy giuliani told fox news that trump reimbursed his personal lawyer

michael cohen for a one hundred thirty thousand dollars payment to stormy daniels she says she had an affair with trump in two thousand and six the us president has previously denied he knew anything about the payment. that was money that was paid by by his lawyer the way i would do out of his law firm funds or whatever funds doesn't matter the president reimbursed over a period of several million said i distinctly remember that he did it on his own he did without asking look i don't know i haven't investigated that no reason to dispute that no or that is true of recollection or i like michael or you like michael a long time i feel very bad he's been victimized like this the president feels even worse the fact is just trust me they're going to come up with no violations their abilities not as a political analyst and visiting professor at the university of california los angeles he says the revelation of could mean there was

a criminal violation while it could be very significant because what he's essentially doing is saying the president knew about the payment of hashmi the president has denied that at the very least the president may be caught in a lie but it also could be an illegal campaign contribution if the president was reimbursing michael cohen for the payment of us money. even though the president can contribute as much as he wants to his own campaign he has to report it and he did not report this to the federal elections commission that would be a criminal violation giuliani is arguing is that the lawyer was told just fix things do whatever you have to do to fix problems the lawyer knew what the payment was all about and the lawyer asked for money but apparently what giuliani is arguing is trump had no idea what the money was being used for didn't know anything about hush money didn't know that it was going to a pornstar didn't know that it was reimbursing how and that he just let the money be paid because giuliani said trump trusted his attorney and the attorney trusted

trump well you know that's a lot to believe in god thing is trumps maintaining his popularity means his base is supporting him it's not high popularity it's only about forty percent but they're sticking with him through thick and thin and he believes whatever stories he and his supporters tell. but there's a lot of stuff that's being investigated some of it may be criminal and if congress if in the election in november the house of representatives has a democratic majority which is not very difficult for them to achieve if they have a democratic majority they're going to impeach trump within a couple of weeks because there are many grounds here that would justify impeachment in india at least seventy people have died after a powerful dust storms hit move in states of russia to protest the storm left a trail of destruction of collapsed houses fallen trees and dead livestock dust storms are common in india during the summer months but this kind of destruction is

unusual officials said the death toll could rise. the u.n. says two hundred thousand range refugees need to be moved to safety cycle and season gets underway in bangladesh many are living in flimsy shelters which on a match for the expected heavy rains floods landslides and storm force winds charles felt from reports from cots as bizarre what's become the world's largest refugee camp. life the salima cultural and her family has been precarious enough since escaping the military crackdown against the regime jane myanmar eight months ago their makeshift shelter is perched on a hilltop in the queue to pile on refugee camp in bangladesh but the daily struggle to survive is expected to become even harder in the weeks and months ahead for salema and hundreds of thousands of refute g.'s like her because cycling season is starting that. we are afraid of the wind sometimes it takes the top poland and there might be landslides but we don't have anywhere else to go. there's

a sense of urgency around the camp. the weather could change dramatically at any time thousands of tons of bamboo is being distributed to refute g. so they can make their shelters stronger aid agencies are training them how to best secure what are often nothing more than tarpaulin and corrugated iron shacks not up to me. we were afraid of the wind and thunder during cyclons their teaching us about landslides and what we need to do. heavy machinery has been brought into the camps to build roads it's vital emergency services have access to anywhere in the camp in order to rescue victims of potential landslides or floods as quickly as possible men gather bricks to harden the road surface otherwise they will quickly turned to mud when heavy rain arrives. you can see how vulnerable and exposed these flimsy shelters are on these hillsides now over the next four months we're

expecting a cycling and a monsoon season where winds can often reach up to one hundred kilometers an hour and they're going to be lashing rain which means places like these are potentially highly vulnerable to landslides aid agencies here say around two hundred thousand people need to be moved to safer ground the bangladesh government has allocated a large area specifically to house refugees who need to be moved shelters schools and health centers a juice to be built here aid agencies say there are twenty five thousand people living in areas most vulnerable to landslides who need to be relocated immediately they want to say for a flatter ground that's what we're doing we're moving and working as fast as we can with having machines with people so that these families can live somewhere where they are access to public health services and they're safe or not that comfortable and that that not at risk from any further disaster. in the late afternoon the

weather suddenly changes for the worse the wind kicks up dust clouds across the camp refugees run for cover all rushed to try and secure the tarpaulins there's a ripped from roofs. hundreds of thousands of men women and children face the greatest challenge yet since fleeing for their lives from the tree crackdown. that al-jazeera could to prolong refute camp bunker dish time for a short break here not a zero when we come back the first prisoner release from the plant on a bay detention center during the trumpet ministration plus. as part of our solemn . return of thousands of the ancient iraqi artifacts smuggled into the u.s. more and stay with us. from dusky sunsets over the sprawling savannah. to sunrise atop an asian metropolis. and still

a big contrast course one half of europe against the other of temperatures this here is nice and warm the cloud coming elsewhere makes a big difference but it's not just the temps differences going to be obvious it's this low down the mediterranean been spinning around for a day or so now and it's not going away for the next two or three first so temperatures up into the high twenty's in the low thirty's in parts of poland better received in maybe the baltics a certain this is part of eastern europe then you drop ten degrees easily the further west you go it's about where it should been at these temperatures in the teens with cloud and rain is typical of spring so it's the high temperature surprise not the ones and in normal there for most part it's not particularly wet but there is rain circle around circulating around it's chilly and that circulation is i'll be around for another couple of days so i predict higher breaks of flooding in slovenia maybe the balkans and certainly windy and unpleasant weather in that part of the western med is already happened in sicily it's happened in algeria and more especially tunisia strength the wind has been particularly noticeable and you

see the circulation there as i say it's not going away it might move for example you got a picture on thursday of this northwesterly wind but probably in the sunshine but. the day beyond and it's their longest sunny but still windy. there with sponsored by. packet for us what were you hearing what were you seeing whether on line horrendous things humans all just. about that or if you join us on the sacked a lot of the major countries in the commonwealth have far bigger fish to fry and chips to eat base is a dialogue. about some of this excess if perhaps everyone has a voice what happens when the robots themselves are making to. join the conversation.

welcome back a quick reminder of the top stories here on the al-jazeera says it hopes the u.s. will be sincere during trade talks beginning on thursday level u.s. delegation has arrived in beijing for talks they'll try to hammer out a deal to avoid a trade war between the world's two biggest economies. member of donald trump's legal team has contradicted the president about hush money paid to a former porn star of an alleged two thousand and six affair rudy giuliani says trump reimbursed his personal lawyer michael cohen for a one hundred thirty thousand dollars payment to stormy daniels the president has previously denied any knowledge of the payment. in india at least seventy people have died after storms hit the northern states are brought just on into pradesh the storm left a trail of destruction of collapsed houses fallen trees and dead livestock. well

spain is warning it will go ahead with investigations against members of despite the basque separatist groups and mounting its disbanding at a statement comes seven years after declared a cease fire following a decades long war for a separate nation. i wish we were never face these terrorists again and never will we bend on our knees to them they should understand very clearly that they would have to pay for what they did and there's no impunity for after this announcement they will be pursued wherever they may be other well more than eight hundred people were killed during the violent struggle for an independent state in southern france and northern spain but in barbara ports now from san sebastian in the end it came in the rather mundane form of a letter dated the sixteenth of april to various basque organizations a long awaited announcement that the group that waged a violent campaign for independence for five decades was disbanded for good in the what it called its historical cycle. its fifty years since its first victim

a secret police chief here in the coastal city of. the announcement that this comes as no surprise to anyone here but many people do hope it marks the beginning of a new era the name of the police chief was carlos diaz his daughter says people like her are still waiting for a real apology in. the way that. in principle it's good news that they're not killing more people of course it's great news that there are no more victims but there's absolutely nothing to thank for. it's a formed in the late one nine hundred fifty s. in response to the crackdown on bus culture by spain's dictator francisco franco in one thousand nine hundred seventy three they killed his heir apparent prime minister luis carrero blanco public attitudes hardened and opinion even inside split when the group killed twenty one people in a barcelona supermarket in one thousand nine hundred seven and a series of arrests of eta leaders in both spain and france weaken the group

significantly. last month which had observed a ceasefire since twenty eleven did apologize to what it called innocent victims of its bombings and assassinations but that wasn't extended to the families of people in the security services or politicians who were among the more than eight hundred killed by it or over the years for some people in spain's basque region the latest announcement is a missed opportunity and even the latter in terms of society i don't think we're going to notice much change and at a personal level i don't believe in is because there are many missing did people there are many assessing nations that have not been clarified there are many victims that have not received compensation. for their part campaigners for the rights of at a prison is currently in jail across spain and in france hoping they'll soon be able to serve their sentences near their families in the basque region so this is not closure but it has reenergized the debate on where the basque independence movement goes from here. al-jazeera armenia's opposition leader has called off

nationwide protests after the ruling party agreed to support him becoming the interim prime minister they called passion yana told a rally in the capital but a deal with his political opponents was ploesti parliament will vote again next week for a new prime minister robin forrester walker reports now from a year ago. when armenians heard the news that the government had backed down with back their people's candidate his bell that revolution took a step closer to reality here's our courage how do i say there was no need to believe in any politician or political power believe in yourselves and only then will you always when i told her she had called for another massive show of support a message to the ruling republican party that they were out of touch with the media and reality. the opposition movement had forced the resignation of the country's

long term leader said it sucks yan last week but his republican party refused to step aside its rejection of passion yan's candidacy for the prime minister on tuesday only seemed to make the movement stronger. a general strike on wednesday paralyzed the country students surround the ministries and cheered with the governance culture minister resigned was. with police absent the roads railways and even the airport cut off nicole passion clayton's that the only power the republicans now had with the. seats in parliament they will try to enter. away or soldiers will join up the governing party's intention to now back in

a second round of voting will also fulfill his movements objective to overthrow power but respect the institutions that has inspired the armenians of every persuasion. this is not only a fight for nicole to become a prime minister but also the fight for people's victory as a businessman usually stay out of the politics we do our work when you when really you know there is a change you really are. you really feel that it's going to look a huge potential. passion you called velvet revolution and he called it the revolution. it's always been peaceful it's always been people driven. they have reason to celebrate because the people's candidate. people's private robyn first it was. hearing about the head of libya's electoral commission says the main voter database was not damaged often eisler talk on wednesday aimed at

disrupting elections sixteen people were killed when several gunmen including a suicide bomber stormed the building in the capital tripoli the commission has been registering voters ahead of elections expected before the end of the year oh i don't know. that. i would like to show you that the main database of the commission is preserved and maintained and was not tampered with because of the fact that we expect such a breach of our work it was part of our plans to maintain a backup database that we can put an operation within hours the commission is still strong and is still able to perform any electoral process required from us this will only increase our determination after this terrorist attack to proceed with the preparation for the next. talk process with all our strength the u.s. has announced the first release of a prisoner from the guantanamo bay detention center on of the trumpet administration the surprise move has seen ahmed al dabi transferred to saudi arabia to serve out the rest of his sentence jabatan c. has more. this is the first prisoner to leave guantanamo bay since donald trump

took office at its height the facility held seven hundred eighty detainees now forty remain amid muhammad ahmed darby has been in u.s. custody since two thousand and two he says he was tortured at the tory's u.s. facility in bob graham afghanistan before arriving at guantanamo he admitted to aiding a suicide attack on a french oil tanker near yemen in two thousand and two but under the terms of a plea deal he reached he was supposed to have been released into saudi custody by february the twentieth of this year that did not happen which raises questions as to whether donald trump would refuse to reduce kuantan in most population having vowed repeatedly to repopulate the detention camp. to ensure that in the fight against isis and al qaeda we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists wherever we chase them down wherever we find.

and in many cases then it will now be. found you can also announced on wednesday certain guidelines to the white house for future president transfers to guantanamo however the defense secretary james mattis and others said not to be keen to use what even george w. bush had eventually to concede was a propaganda tool against the u.s. others say the reason to close the facility down is it simply unlawful to keep prisoners in indefinite detention without a fair trial the nine eleven people for example have been in our custody percent sixteen years and they're still wrangling at the pretrial stage. darby has nine more years to serve his thirteen year sentence in saudi arabia in a statement relayed through his lawyer he said quote my words will not do justice to what i have lived through in those years and the men i leave behind in prison no one should remain in guantanamo without a trial there is no justice in that share time see al-jazeera dozens of migrants

from honduras guatemala and el salvador have spent a third night outside the u.s. port of entry on the mexican border waiting to apply for asylum in the u.s. only a handful of people in the so-called migrant caravan have been let across to begin the process donald trump had promised that his administration would try to turn the families away mexican officials have asked the migrants to leave the border crossing area citing health concerns but they promised to stay. meanwhile the u.s. increasing the number of illegal stop at its border with mexico attorney general jeff sessions says thirty five extra attorneys and eighteen judges will help deal with asylum claims. people are not going to caravan or otherwise stampede our border we need legality and integrity in the system people should wait their turn. to apply lawfully before they enter our country resetting a massive worldwide. illegally make your claim to enter america in the lawful

way and wait your turn egypt's military court has renewed the detention of the journalist ismail al iskhandar ali for another thirty days he spent almost nine hundred days in jail without trial al-jazeera journalist to sane seen here has also had his prison time extended he's been detained without charge for almost a year and a half. now ancient artifacts have been handed back to iraq after they were smuggled into the united states it's believed they were destined for a christian museum link to the hobby lobby retail chain alan fischer has more from washington. a piece of history to be returned home at a special ceremony at the residence of iraq's ambassador in washington u.s. officials returned the ancient objects to the rightful owners december see how important is it to have these items you turned to five zero zero it's part of our psalm you know. this is you know really important to us you have to understand that

in iraq memories are long and so we really have a sense of kinship to to the to these artifacts so you know imagine these things coming back home some of the valuable artifacts are more than five thousand years old and they include examples of the first writing system internet religious texts and cool ones with texts from the rulers of what was then mesopotamia they were among the five thousand objects bought by the chain store hobby lobby from dealers in the united arab emirates and israel in two thousand and ten experts warn the company the items might be stolen but it went ahead with the parts as it's been fined more than three million dollars for breaking the law and had almost four thousand artifacts that were stolen removed when the criminal organizations still is merchandise and sell on the black market if funds or other criminal activity and we have numerous cases from terrorism activity so first of all we're taking the money out the hands of criminal organization terrorist second wall returning

artifacts the people while it's thought the final destination for the artifacts would be the recently opened museum of the bible in washington or below because owners have a big stake in the project it admitted previously it should have taken more care and asked more questions about the park use hobby lobby went ahead and bought the artifacts for approximately one point six million dollars additionally they allowed the dealers who were supplying them to decide how they should be shipped to the united states. unable to prove prove their legitimate ownership of the pieces those dealers smuggled the artifacts into the united states. isn't new to control or see . its conservative christian owners successfully sued the obama administration over the right to deny employees insurance coverage for contraceptives but this is a victory for the iraqis who plan to put many of the returned relics in the national museum in baghdad alan fischer al-jazeera washington. all that is of

course on our website there what is on your screen the address al-jazeera dot com sounds as era. our time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera china says it hopes the u.s. will be sincere during trade talks beginning on thursday a high level u.s. delegation has arrived in china for negotiations the u.s. treasury secretary steven mission is meeting with china's vice premier during his two day visit and they'll try to hammer out a deal to avoid a full blown trade war between the world's two biggest economies. the united states says it remains gravely concerned about north korea's human rights record despite warming diplomatic relations the comments from the state department come head of a planned meeting between donald trump and north korea's leader kim jong il. in india at least seventy people have died after

a powerful dust storms hit the northern states of raw just and into pradesh the storm left a trail of destruction of collapsed houses fallen trees and dead livestock dust storms are common in india during the summer months but the scale of destruction is unusual officials say the death toll could rise. ok member of donald trump's legal team has contradicted him about hush money paid to. rudy giuliani told fox news that trump reimbursed his personal lawyer michael cohen for a one hundred thirty thousand dollars payment to stormy daniels. she alleges she had an affair with trump in two thousand and six u.s. president has previously denied anything about the payment that was money that was paid by by the way i would do out of his four firm funds or whatever funds doesn't matter the president reimbursed over a period of several didn't. think we remember that he did it on his own he did

without i don't know i haven't investigated that no reason to dispute that no or that is true of recollection or i like michael. i feel very bad he's been victimized like this the president feels even worse the fact is just trust me they're going to come up with no violations they're. the first release of a prisoner from the guantanamo bay detention center on the trumpet ministration that. will be transferred to saudi arabia forty prisoners remain at the city. the headlines that he's continued on al jazeera. very important information for many people around the world. i'm still here. and. in the forefront.