afraid that the walls are closing in a number of people have already been charged approach including transformer campaign manager paul matter for michael flynn trump's former national security advisor pled guilty of december to lying to the f.b.i. scholars are divided on whether a president can pardon himself but if donald trump is charged and later self pardons his actions would almost certainly be challenged in court kimberly hellcat al jazeera at the white house well for more on this let's cross live to mike hanna in washington d.c. mike so yet another twist of the miller investigation with now saying he has the absolute right to pardon himself so why is he saying this now. well daryn this has its origins in a memo that his legal team sent to the mill investigation back in january in the stock human to his lawyers claimed sweeping powers for the president said that he had the right to override a federal agency or investigation and added the claim that he had the right if

necessary to pardon himself now trump has returned to this in a series of tweets he's been tweeting consistently criticized in the miller investigation and certainly making very clear that he believes as he put it it is a witch hunt but there are very strong arguments that he does not have that right and these arguments are not only coming from democrats in congress and the senate they're also coming from republicans the head of the senate intelligence judiciary committee chuck grassley said that if his lawyers said that the president could pardon himself he'd fire those lawyers but what its allies and to meet this is not necessary the merits of this particular case it is what some see as an attack on the constitution in particular the principle in the constitution that provides for a separation of powers between executive judiciary and legislative so that is the issue that ultimately lies down to this and that will form the basis of any legal

challenge should president trump at any time decide to pardon himself mike so what's been then the broader political impact of all of this business you say even senior republicans have come out and said look no president can pardon themselves. well it has provoked a massive storm in a way for those reasons that are blind that some see it critics of president trump see it as a direct attack on the constitution now the case of richard nixon that was mentioned in that package that you just saw coming three days before he resigned now in that the justice department issued its internal memo and it said that the basic principle here is that no one person can be a judge over himself now that is a legal principle that is not in the constitution but is in shrine and in the country's legal system so you are looking here at the depth of reaction to the

claim that a president can pardon self goes far beyond as i said the merits of the particular case of the mill investigation his critics contend that it shows a contempt not only for body such as well as investigative team set up by his attorney general or his deputy attorney general but also for what underpins everything that happens along these lines and that is the u.s. constitution mike thank you plenty more ahead here on the news hour including outrage over israel's plans to use money that was meant to go to palestinians to pay for farmland damaged during weeks of protests. and binyamin netanyahu calls on germany to take a tougher approach towards iran's nuclear program. and in sport could a concussion injury explain this goalkeeper's poor performance in the european champions league more suited.

now as the one year anniversary of the blockade of qatar prochoice is there are efforts in the u.s. to win support for doha president donald trump initially back to the blockading countries of saudi arabia the u.a.e. egypt and bahrain before calling on all sides to resolve the dispute particle haim looks at the role not being has played. the nation of qatar on fortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism it was a shock in washington and across the globe a u.s. president publicly going after cutter a close ally that houses the biggest u.s. base in the middle east siding with the blockading countries. at the time many believe the saudis fawning treatment of him in riyadh played a part but we now know thanks to e-mails leaked to the associated press that the push to get the president to side with saudi arabia and the united arab emirates began months before the emails are from brodie

a big time republican fundraiser according to the a.p. he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one email bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by qatar and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist

trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put in ads in the president's favor cable channels placing op eds in prominent papers lobbying lawmakers stand with the united states to defeat terrorism and. there are a lot of guys who make an awful lot of money and mr former lobbyist even billet thinks they're likely waste. millions of dollars because you never really see any evidence of it later on you know you don't see decisions made at a later time that indicate that. there was a positive outcome according to the new york times the saudis and u.a.e. offered to help the drone campaign before the election it's unclear if anything was done on his behalf with their money but it's an allegation special counsel robert muller is likely looking at the man at the center of many of these questions george nader is cooperating with the investigation. al-jazeera washington well let's talk

to about some i'll go sane she's a political expert at the truman national security project she joins us live from washington d.c. bless him it's now been a year since the blockade against council came into effect what's your overall assessment of the siege how is it succeeded the see it has definitely not succeeded when it was first implemented by the saudi led countries approximately one year ago there was less of thirteen demands many of which were practically impossible to meet and some of them were extremely and reasonable like for example getting rid of al jazeera and the countries have not been successful in enforcing air coercing qatar to meet these demands and at the same time we have seen the resilience of the qatari government and the resilience of the qatari people in figuring out ways to still be a successful and prominent country in spite of the blockade so how is washington

viewing all of this now i mean president trump has now backtracked from his original stand supporting the siege and his secretary of state much pompei a reason he said he wants this concluded so what will leverage do you think the americans have over the blockade in countries. i think that it's an extremely important for the trumpet ministration to pressure the saudis they're going to have to do so privately to essentially lift the blockade i think that that is a very large ask and so what will happen most likely is that there will be a series of restrictions lifted i think a reasonable expectation or a request from the united states to the saudis would be to lift the air blockade against qatar which has proven to be particularly cumbersome both for business and tourists tourists travel and so that that would be important but we know that the saudi arabian government and the government had

a very strong influential position with the trumpet ministration early on and were able to capitalize on the lack of proper staffing at the state department a lot of the prominent experts and middle east were not put put in their positions yet when the blockade was first announced last year and so it's been very important that the qatari s. hire their lobbyist and their make their communications efforts in the united states to educate predominantly the trumpet ministration on the the importance of the u.s. qatar relationship and i think the u.s. qatar strategic dialogue was a very important positive step in improving the understanding of the trumpet administration just a final thought from you do you see this blockade against cuts on ending anytime soon and there's so much instability in ready in the middle east so what will it take to end this. i think it's going to have to take incredible pressure by the united states definitely the m.r.

adi's in the saudis are not going to agree to lifting the blockade if it appears publicly that it was a failure and so there will have to be some kind of token gesture that the qataris will have to make so that they so that both parties can claim a win to their respective public constituencies but again this would all have to happen behind closed doors and the pressure would really have to come on strong from the trump administration so it's a question about you know whether or not there is a cohesive position on this within the trump administration we know that there are few people who understand that this tension between the g.c.c. is not in u.s. interests but we want that to be a collective viewpoint within the administration so that there is a comprehensive action taken by some i decided state thank you for talking to the engineer unknown extensive coverage of the gulf crisis continues on tuesday his

come on santa maria to tell you what's ahead. it's been quite the year here in qatar ever since the fifth of june twenty seventh teen when all of a sudden the border with shot in the country put on the blockade so we've got a special broadcast for you on tuesday as we look back on this quite extraordinary year not just how it happened and why it happened but how cut there has reacted the new lines of trade that changed travel routes even for it cals being flown in to create a new dairy industry not to mention all the while us here at al-jazeera continuing to do our jobs while the four blockading countries called for the network to be closed down so join us later on tuesday will be nine pm here in doha will be live out in about at the qatar a cultural village from how an international airport in doha and from kuwait city has mediation efforts continue plus in studio guests and experts and will be live streaming on facebook twitter and periscope so you can watch wherever you are and send us your thoughts and questions gulf crisis one year on al-jazeera news special

eighteen hundred hours g.m.t. on tuesday we'll see you in. israel says it's going to take money from taxes it collects for palestinians to compensate israelis for fire damage to their land it says palestinians protesting in gaza carried out asked not tax damaging forests and farms israel says the demonstrators caused a fire as by attaching incentive devices to kites hundred twenty one palestinians have been killed by israeli soldiers since protests at the border began in late march but of smith has more from western lucilla. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu wants to make the deductions for damage he says has been caused to agricultural fields and nature reserves and forests by the burning kites that have been floated over from gaza into israeli territory the palestinian authority says to do this would be robbery and

a cowardly aggression israel collects some taxes and revenues on behalf of the palestinian authority and sends them over to the p.a. every month and previously israel has threatened to withhold taxes for actions taken by the p.a. that israel doesn't approve of there's no indication yet of how much israel is threatening to withhold but the tax off already has previously estimated the damage just to agricultural land has come in at about one half million dollars and it suggests that if you add nature is. fields in other areas to that that could increase the cost for. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called on germany to adopt a stricter approach towards iran which he says must be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon he's been meeting chancellor angela merkel in berlin let me are warned against allowing iran to expand its influence in the middle east calling the nation as a threat to the world when iran's supreme leader says his country has no intention

of curbing its ballistic missile program and will respond harshly if a tucked. gave the latest warning on monday he said iran's missile program is crucial for the country's defense in the terrible attack ten times more if provoked by western nations. it's almost a year since the iraqi city of mosul was taken back from i saw but amid the ruins of iraq's second largest city hundreds of bodies are still being pulled from the rubble they were found during a renewed search along the banks of the river tigris reports from baghdad. it's been eleven months since iraqi prime minister hydrilla body declared victory over eisel in mosul much of what was iraq's second biggest city lies in ruins the fighting was described as the most intense urban combat since world war two. the search for bodies goes on civil defense search and rescue teams are concentrating

on areas close to the banks of the river tigris it was here that the iraqi government forces supported by international coalition airstrikes flushed out and killed most of the last remaining leisel fighters in the city i saw bodies that were covered around seven hundred these bodies were all i saw all that used to hide in these houses are obstacles and clearing these bodies out of the unexploded munitions hidden bombs explosive vests and rigged houses with i.e.d. as we are trying our best to overcome these obstacles. to the remains of eisel fighters are being found close to dead civilians who were only able to escape which estimated around ten thousand civilians were killed in of a province in the battle against isis most of them in west of mosul. we have been pulling up bodies for eight days already from near the river tigris perhaps within this quarter alone we have found two hundred bodies on the first day

four hundred on the second day and around one hundred on the. we have difficulty getting heavy machinery aside all city because of the. more than two million iraqis remain displaced across the country including approximately . seven hundred thousand for mosul the rebuilding of the city has yet to start families like these facing many more months if not years living in camps the delay is primarily because of questions about who will foot the bill at the donor's conference in kuwait in february iraq allies for help with the eighty eight billion dollars cost of rebuilding this country including mosul but only thirty billion dollars was pledged the iraqi government faces having to cover the majority of rebuilding costs itself for now almost a year since the battle against leisel in mosul was one the search for and recovery

of the dead continues at al-jazeera baghdad. lots more still to come here not just here including a tough job ahead for italy's new government we visit the deeply divided seaside resort of austria but poverty and organized crime continue to plague the city plus . where we're actually physically being targeted by a president when fighting for power we look at what's been called the pink wave of candidates for the u.s. midterm elections. and in sports the grand slam return of serena williams comes to the front and sun is here with that story more on that statement it's. probably the weather slushy dry course the good parts of north america but we're still got some areas of cloud and right around eastern parts of canada chiefly down towards the southeast of kona as well florida to be into southern parts of florida

some wet weather in store here links back through the gulf of mexico some where the cloud just spilling out so far new mexico heading towards texas and as we go on through the course of shoes day louisiana seeing some of that wet weather as well but you can see not too bad taste to see people will improve we have seen some flooding here recently in further north up to as pennsylvania new york up into new england that had a wet weather as is the case the eastern parts of canada further west generally fine and dry the some heat around denver two celsius high of thirty four that for dallas on shoes day for most of us we go on into wednesday northeast uncoated that's brightened up doesn't it too bad some showers there southern parts of florida yet again just around the deep south west of weather will spell outs of the canadian prairies over towards the upper midwest as we go on through the next couple of days expect to see some lively she was long spells of rain here well disposed of right so still a possibility around the western side of the caravan further east is generally fine

and plenty of sunshine might see more heavy rain right and more than pounds keep that. welcome back a quick recap of the top stories here on the news hour at least sixty two people have been killed and hundreds more injured during a volcanic eruption in guatemala residents fled their homes after lava and ash covered surrounding villages temper shelters have been set up for about three thousand residents the government says around two million people have been affected by the explosions. jordan's king abdullah has won that his country is at

a crossroads as protests have opposed tax hikes continue thousands of demonstrators return to the streets of the capital late on monday the protests forced upon minister to quit. and u.s. president donald trump says he has the right to pardon himself from possible charges related to an inquiry into alleged russian meddling in the twenty six thousand election the president insists he's done nothing wrong and sort of pointing special counsel robert muller to head the probe was unconstitutional. feed to museum foreign ministry as some of the italian ambassador to explain comments made by italy's new interior minister on sunday matteo salvia he said the region would no longer be what he called europe's refugee camp and that tunisia sends over convicts the far right leader made the statements in part silo one of the main arrival points for refugees migrants making illegal crossing from north africa. well aside from the divisive issue of immigration italy's new coalition government is also facing major social problems many impoverished areas are seeing

a rise in organized crime one such community is the seaside town of ostia from osama diego reports. the sun and the mediterranean sea provide a welcome distraction from italy's recent political dramas this is also a popular resorts on the roman coast. and this is also. the one. we are marginalized and that. was we're living in a bellow in this i'm dying of hunger and living in a carriage it is a deeply divided place where people feel politics has failed them in its place organized crime has filled the gap through drug trafficking and extortion. the local five star movement to took control of the council last year has promised to crack down on the gangs and rebuild the area so the problems are very real it's

a marginalized place there are drugs there's crime that people here have been forgotten and it's a neighborhood such as this one here where people feel they have really been abandoned let down by governments over the years and while a new set of politicians is promising change there's very little faith that will actually happened. without political support those living here have had to take it upon themselves to make it more habitable including creating spaces for children to play with and once was nothing the local councils responsibility assumed by those who weren't supposed to serve. everything that's been done here has been done and it's not because we do not want to work little rituals but there's always been a wall between the citizens and the operatives. and the problems here have also been acknowledged by the head of the roman catholic church during a visit on sunday the first in fifty years by

a pontiff pope francis condemned the organizations that have turned austria into a power center of mass violence to. hear about jesus once the walls of indifference and silence to be breached and bars of oppression and arrogance torn asunder and call skloot for justice civility and legality. it is a stand simply a new era in italian politics everyone here knows there is much work to be done and to take an immense effort politically and otherwise to wrest ostia away from the stranglehold of the local mafia gangs who wield enormous power sunny diag al-jazeera last year. the president of catalonia says he will meet spain's new prime minister kim tourist said he's exchanged messages with sanchez on the region's future following last year's unilateral declaration of independence which was declared illegal no date has yet been set for discussions david schaper reports

from madrid. the new socialist prime minister headdress sanchez started his first day in office by welcoming the ukrainian president petro poroshenko to madrid it was a long standing gauge went on the former prime minister mariano rajoy diplomatic diary close aides for both leaders must have had a long night shoring up new briefing notes after i lost the vote of no confidence. but the real focus of the day was on a prison compound deep in the countryside outside madrid the newly elected president of the regional government in catalonia kim was paying a call on five of his former colleagues behind bars awaiting trial on charges of rebellion and sedition. but the main question was is there knowledge chance of a new dialogue between madrid and barcelona and i think. we have exchanged messages and agreed to meet as soon as possible it's important for me to emphasize that we

are going through an exceptional situation in this country we want to know what type of prime minister we're going to find the one who condemned the independence referendum or a new manner that statement from the catalonian president now leaves the diplomatic ball very much in the court of pedro sanchez but he's got a lot on his plate already he's got to form a new government but both men realize if they're going to take this opportunity they've got to take it soon. a right wing rally over the weekend in the spanish capital condemned the no confidence vote. as a constitutional coup they are calling for a new election with the new prime minister having only eighty four socialist votes in the three hundred fifty seat parliament that new election could come soon. to al-jazeera madrid. north korea's leader kim jong il now has reportedly replaced

three of his leading military officers ahead of a meeting with u.s. president donald trump according to south korean media kim has sent to the defense minister the army's chief of staff and the head of his political bureau they've been replaced with younger men who support his policies and the white house has unveiled the shuttle of the historic meeting between donald trump and kim jong il next tuesday the leaders will meet at exactly nine am singapore time scott had a report on preparations for the summit one of the smallest countries in the world is about to host a summit that could very well be the biggest diplomatic event in decades. u.s. president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong un are due to meet at last and potentially diffuse one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints versing. because of the dramatic back and forth mystery over the location and the personalities involved the summit is in gauging people who previously had scant interest in geopolitics. singapore has a history of hosting top level high security events including two critical taiwan

chinese meetings and the annual shangri-la security and defense summit the whole security apparatus is very robust there's a lot of surveillance around the island as significant control of dissent as control of the media such that any events that may be deemed unhappy unhelpful can be quite tightly controlled and put down trump meets kim is a big story in japan to cotter's network has had teams in singapore since it was first named as the summit venue a great deal of the time playing cat and mouse with the north korean delegation to do could we have covered news in singapore a lot before this time the security stricter and more difficult for us to work the police presence is heavy news underlying the interest and excitement for the summit singapore newspaper the straits times conducted a readers' poll asking singapore where they felt the summit would take place most thought it would be at one of the large hotels here that can be locked down for security singapore will reportedly pay some of the expenses of the north korean

delegation people here are proud to host the summit but maybe not to pay for some of it we had mutual we just make to be peaceful to thank you that i'm posing to eat but i don't think we have to be free to be doing is singapore is good for us because. being a small of the country but we are able to host such a big event. is good for us the government says so much preparations are moving forward smoothly but with it intricate maze of protocol to. navigate from the proper amount of doors or meeting rooms to making the delegations from one of the richest nations in the world appear equal to one of the poorest singapore certainly has a tough eight days ahead a task they say that was happily taken on sky harbor al-jazeera singapore at least seven people have been killed in a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capital kabul it happened as thousands of

religious scholars were leaving the gathering of the city's polytechnic university earlier the taliban to accept the government's peace offer. from the capital. the bomb went off as hundreds thousands of islamic scholars and clerics were finishing their meeting in what we call the jirga tent the loya jirga tent here really a a conference hall in kabul as they were exit a after a meeting where they condemned of the ongoing war as an islamic and condemn suicide bombers a bomber went off at the gate the entrance to that gathering where more than two thousand five hundred religious leaders had gotten together to try and persuade the taliban to come to the peace table to accept what the president calls an unconditional offer for peace talks now and just as we heard news of that bombing another bombing in town a smaller bomb went off. truckload of watermelon that injured three civilians it seems that over and over again we hear these stories we are reporting these stories

that either the taliban or i saw are setting off bombs or attacks here in the afghan capital and around the country really a sign of how difficult it is for the afghan government to maintain security at the taleban a growing influence around the country despite fifteen thousand u.s. and nato troops as well as a large force of afghan security forces fighting very hard and losing men all over the country has been a brutal fighting season and the attacks continue here in the afghan capital. the former philippine president benigno aquino has appeared in court accused of ordering a vaccination campaign before the drug was fully tested eight hundred thousand children ever see the vaccine against the dengue virus as more from the. former president been ignored keno appeared before a court here at the department of justice together with several members all his

former cabinet they submitted their counter affidavits they're accused all the technical mob or station of government funds criminal negligence and drafts there's been no tchiowa until now that has started and even members of the prosecution did not appear today but this vaccine scandal is something that has been dragging on for many months in fact government keno together with several members of his cabinet already appeared before a long dragged out long rational hearing led by the allies all of the current president he says that they are ready to file and to answer all the allegations but he also wonders whether this is all part of an attempt to discredit his government as you know several members and appointees of president big government the removed or have been put behind bars the protests in nicaragua new u.s. sanctions against venezuela have dominated talks at the organization of american states on your meeting u.s.

secretary of state mike pompei oh has renewed a call to suspend venezuela from the group to send what he called a powerful message to president nicolas maduro fishes more. with the exploding volcano in guatemala the deadly protests in the can i go to an ongoing crisis in venezuela the organization of american states annual assembly couldn't have been more timely than a thirty five nations at the gathering in washington it's only a few are dominating discussions after weeks of protests to nicaragua where more than one hundred people have died calling for the president resignation countries here expressed growing concern but he could argue his foreign minister claims it's more in a battle with criminal gangs nicaragua has come to this general assembly to express its commitment to peace security and stability of our nation which is currently undergoing an attack by criminal groups america's new secretary of state mike pompeo was addressing the oas for the first time revisiting what he sees is an old

problem is demanding greater sanctions against venezuela and as president nicolas maduro a call on fellow member state to apply additional pressure on the media regime including sanctions and further diplomatic isolation until such time as a undertakes the actions necessary to return genuine democracy and provide people desperately needed access to international humanitarian aid. we call on the oas they should still do this today as the small round of applause died the venezuelan delegation insisted the u.s. was breaching the rules of the organization it was calling to action you do not have the moral authority of any kind of trying to undermine our government and we see that in the articles articles nineteen to twenty of this charter you are violating the charter the un charter and what are you seeking cause to suspend venezuela from the or yes or virtually redundant venezuela itself has said it's going to leave the organization.