i top kicks off in moscow and it's two nil to russia against saudi arabia in the opening day. at the football world cup off the gears of politics and criticism finally the festival of football has begun. i'm going to hold this is our live from london good to have you with us also coming up. coalition forces pound positions in hard data as they try to seize the port which lifeline. i. mean the debate augustine's lower house approves

a bill to legalize abortion. and as the aquarius rescue ship struggles through rough seas only its way just plain europe's migration crisis threatens germany's coalition. and we kick off with the world cup the eyes of the sporting world will be on russia for the next month with the football world cup now underway thirty two teams will battle it out for the biggest prize in international football it all started with an opening ceremony in the russian capital moscow with robbie williams headlining in front of the russian president vladimir putin western leaders have stayed away from the ceremony. the opening match between host russia and saudi arabia actually

features the two lowest ranking sides in the tournament this was the reaction when russia's euro goes in ski school the first goal of the two thousand and eighteen world cup. let's speak to our sports correspondent lee wellings who's in moscow for us leigh. may get to play robbie williams has played the world cup finally on the way what you make of it all. is what to do what a dream start this is fall for russia if i can hold on to this new suspect i will because saudi arabia look at strangely when i do have the weakest of the thirty two teams russia is meant to play the way kids but that would be so many nerves around this match for a russian saying that hasn't won six i'll tell you but it's a lot of pressure on them there's always a partial and a hard station but i want this world cup to succeed on the pitch as well as off the pitch and it always really helps when the hog same is doing well the group looks set up for them to do well i think they are most likely to finish second in the group and the second if they are problems with most of his fitness to watch the

score walk to twelve minutes so it doesn't scare you whatsoever laid out what you could see in the stadium and could see around russia best song to play i had i but the potential now to go i want to get that bottle where. you you've covered lots of these sorts of events world cups olympics and other such things is this one do you think slightly more controversial than most is it going to be accessed using. yes i think this has been an extremely controversial build up over many years partly because of the why it was awarded with along with cuts on twenty twentieth's so of course it was a corrupt fate for executive committee so the decisions that might come into close scrutiny and so it's never lost a shot out of control to see this tournament but secondly with russia is politics as well playing into this. it has so many critics but actually now the football has

started and you see the russian people how much it maims tell you how pleased they are to finally have the tournament here why did they find such a coming in from from other countries are enjoying it but other place are cracking down on any potential how to get isn't so it's most likely to be free of that there's always the possibility of course but it could be a claim to what might be a sanitized coleman i think people start enjoying the football i world cups invariably turn out to be same as a success because people remember the football not the politics in the end the weddings covering it all for us in moscow thankfully. off the pitch prominent british gay rights activist peter tatchell has been arrested and then released after taking part in what russian police described as an illegal protest in moscow a leading russian opposition figure says russian prisons appear to have had a face lift as they prepared to accommodate foreign football fans arrested during the tournament and next in around it has just spent thirty days behind bars for

holding an unsanctioned protest. a saudi led coalition fighting to oust to the rebels in yemen has captured a town south of the strategic port of her data after intense fighting. it's the second day of the coalition's campaign to take hard data saudi arabia and the u.a.e. accuse the shia who three rebels of using the port to smuggle weapons from iran they've launched several airstrikes against rebel positions in the city. are data lies on yemen's red sea coast and these the port through which seventy percent of the country's food supply enters international aid groups appealed to the saudi led coalition not to attack the city fearing it will exacerbate yemen's humanitarian crisis but the u.a.e.

insists aid will be delivered a soon as the city is captured. we have this image plant did it in when we liberate the advent and then is more population populated then then the data. a bit of think went very well and there even i want to ship it just and there it see with ink so we have a fright we have very we're very will organize and we are ready to do. every as is the nz. headed the u.n. security council is currently holding urgent talks on yemen mike hanna joins us live from the u.n. in new york mike a closed door meeting i understand with talks going on with both sides to try and deescalate this situation. indeed yes this is a second close consultation on yemen held in the course of this week it's once

again being called by the united kingdom whose ambassador did have something to say on her way into the meeting karen pierce saying that there can be no military solution to this ongoing problem she says knol that the offensive appears to be underway it's necessary to hear from the hooty side saying as well that this is of course a sanctioned operation in a way the operation in yemen but there will be division within the security council as there was earlier this week it's expected way to choose a security council member and part of that coalition in yemen is not willing to see any statement come out that points fingers or apportion blame for any of these particular actions at the beginning of this week there was a planned statement released after the security council meeting calling on a political solution to be forged now we do know that the meeting will be brief by the special envoy martin griffiths who's been trying to get

a truce in place to allow humanitarian supplies to go through that critical port they'll be briefed by him and also by the humanitarian affairs support officer but the discussions likely to be intense not show what we're actually going to hear from the proceedings that happen behind those closed doors or mark will leave it there you'll keep us up to date i'm sure with what you do manage to glean from it mark hunter in new york thank you. argentina's congress has voted in favor of legalizing abortion in the country's first ever vote on the issue the tie so much have been sealed. the tide vote on hundred twenty nine yes to one hundred twenty five no followed almost twenty four hours of debate the bill must pass in the senate before it becomes law thousands of pro and anti abortion protesters are demonstrating in buenos aires abortion is only allowed in

cases of rape or if the mother's life is in danger illegal abortions a common purpose of both has the latest from outside parliament in buenos aires. the debate in congress last the for about twenty three hours was in and it was heated but it ended up approving in the lower house the legalizing abortion in argentina you can see right behind me people continue to celebrate right in front of congress they're saying that it is time for change in this country where our own half a million planned this time abortions are carried out everywhere thousands and women are hospitalized because of complications in those procedures and most of those women i poor women because they do not have access to health care is you nor i would allow him to carry out abortions in public he does up to fourteen weeks of pregnancy but now the flow is going to be passed on to the senate and that's a much tougher battle the women here are saying that they will continue to be on

the sauce for the slaughter the approves police and prosecutors in chile raided offices and seized documents of the roman catholic church as part of an investigation into a growing sex abuse and cover up scandal the raids on wednesday were in two cities in the capital santiago and there on congo where fourteen priests are accused of having sexual relations with minors they happened i was before two vatican envoys met chilean prosecutors to coordinate their response to the scandal which. last month led to more than thirty of today's active bishops offering to resign now. nicaragua is holding a nationwide strike as protesters ramp up their campaign to force president daniel ortega and his wife who is the vice president out of office it follows two months of violence which was originally sparked by plans to reform pensions the move was abolished by the government to help pacify protesters but demonstrators then turned on the president. then launched

a crackdown on mass protests which human rights activists say has left more than one hundred fifty people dead. india has rejected a united nations report which accuses it of using excessive force in disputed kashmir to kill and wound civilians since two thousand and sixteen kashmir is divided between india and pakistan but both countries claim it in full the un human rights chief is calling for a major international investigation into alleged abuses carried out by both sides because you're gay can be reports now. in indian administrate kashmir soldiers a combing the area for separatist fighters who they say shot and killed their colleague last week. it's the latest military operation in a dispute that's lasted more than seventy years and twice ended in war. during the last two years the un has investigated allegations of human rights abuses in kashmir and found fault on both sides. of the un human rights chief

ziad rad how hussein says india has used excessive force in response to anti india protests and accuses pakistan of misusing its anti terror legislation to quash dissent now he's calling for an investigation into allegations mass graves have been found in the kashmir valley this report is the first issued by the un on the human rights situation in. pakistan administered kashmir details rights violations and abuses on both sides of the line of control and it highlights a situation of chronic impunity for violations committed by security forces. pakistan says it welcomes the un's proposal for an international inquiry into human rights abuses fatah spokesman for the indian ministry of external affairs said in a statement india rejects the report it is fallacious tendentious and motivated

would question the intent in bringing out such a report. the un human rights chief says he met with representatives of both governments when there was an increase in violence in july twenty sixth that was triggered by the death of rebel leader. neither government agreed to the un's request for unconditional access to kashmir so the un began remote monitoring of the region that ended a few months ago. and the final report makes one come to reading for both india and pakistan. victoria day to be out there. still to come in this half hour of news for people smugglers are sentenced to twenty five years in prison for letting seventy five seventy one men women and children suffocate inside a truck in australia. and don't trump secretary of state insists sanctions were no people to go to north korea has completely denuclearized as he meets america's

asian allies. holloway have further flooding concerns into the southeast of china was seems a very yappy right into guangdong province phone from last week's tropical storm and you save some more very very wet and windy weather piling in here over the last twenty four hours or so and there will be further spells of rain as we go on through the next twenty four hours you see the flooding conditions for some really nasty sass out this as said there is for the rain to come large hail as well mixed in here with the foundry downpours area cloud responsible for it we have the potential for another tropical system developing in the south china seas and then just on the other side of taiwan to the east of taiwan we have another tropical

storms will make his wife further north was the two well they do kind of join up you can see this line a very heavy rain in across the region further heavy downpours here then and you can start to see a circulation developing as well now the puzzle the philippines will see some very heavy rain hopefully as we go into saturday dust had a little drive into the southeastern corner of china y.b. rain continuing into the funnel thing east of india me and moscow seeing some big down pause as the situation across northeastern india and the rains are set to continue in the coming days. plastic is everywhere and it's choking our planet very toxic and very big bang meaning if i alone but breakthroughs are being made showing that it is possible to change our relationship with these nine eight substance this is running out on.

me now you can come on let me be i don't move on plastic waste earthrise on al-jazeera how do you. think. it's a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the two thousand and eighteen russia world cup has kicked off in moscow with the most the host country leading the opening match against saudi arabia thirty two teams will battle it out for the biggest prize in international football. the saudi led coalition fighting to oust two three rebels in yemen has captured a town south of the strategic port of the day there after intense fighting on the

second day of its of the offensive. and argentina's congress has voted in favor of legalizing abortion in the country's first ever vote on the divisive issue . the new york attorney general is suing president dong trump three of his children and their charitable foundation for allegedly violating state charity law the two point eight billion dollars lawsuit alleges the trump foundation engaged in extensive and unlawful coordination with trump's twenty sixteen presidential campaign as well as self dealing for trump's personal benefit trump went out went on. so it had to dismiss the case as politically motivated because the european union member countries have unanimously back to plan to impose import duties on u.s. products the move will target goods worth three point three billion dollars and is in response to u.s. tariffs on the e.u. steel and and many of the measures are expected to come into effect by late june or

early july the e.u. has also launched a complex complaint against the u.s. at the world trade organization. a court in hungary has sentenced for men to twenty five years each in prison for human trafficking the group and afghan on three vulgar areas were found responsible for the deaths of seventy one iraqi syrian and afghan refugees in two thousand and fifteen their decomposing bodies were found inside a truck near a motorway in austria they'd left from hungary the day before it's thought the victims died of suffocation suffocation in the first three hours of the journey now a ship which rescued six hundred twenty nine refugees off libya at the weekend but was turned away by italy is now expected to arrive in spain on sunday morning that's after bad weather and rough seas forced it to take a detour the aquarius skirted along the east coast of sardinia to seek shelter from

the storm aid workers on board say the long journey is proving a big challenge for the exhausted passengers. last night we had another downturn really hard moments when the where we're starting to become really bad with a lot of wind and big waves. people were seasick of them and seen a lot where they were scared because of the know the wind in the motion of the ship so we decided to bring everybody inside. well the plight of that rescue ship sparked a diplomatic route between italy and france but tensions now appear to be easing after a late night phone call between their two leaders french president emmanuel macron criticized italy for refusing permission for the aquarius to dock sparking accusations of hypocrisy from italian premier and reset the continent mccrone says he didn't mean to cause offense at the meeting between the two leaders planned for this friday is set to go ahead. the issue of immigration is causing

a major street in germany between angela merkel's christian democrats and their bomb varian sister prodded the christian socialist union the c.s.u. wants to refuse entry to people who've already made asylum claims elsewhere in europe because of the chancellor merkel rejects. dominic cain is in berlin following it all for us joins us live how serious is this dominick for this coalition so hard fought over to form during months of haggling. well that depends on which side of the equation you fall really join if you're from the bavarian christian social union then you think that this is very important indeed the leader of the of their members of parliament this this afternoon said that he felt that this was the most important issue facing germany right now which explains why the minister from that party horse the hope of the interior minister says that the thing that needs to be done most of all is to return to the regulations that

prevailed before angle americal open the borders to migrants to people claiming refugee status in the summer of twenty fifteen the double in three regulations the point to make is that that's his position but angle americal disagrees with that as do the social democrats the other key element of this grand coalition that governs germany but also to make here is that this this issue rose from being issue that we were aware of that people have been reporting about in the german media into a storm over the course of the last few hours with members of the c.s.u. saying well this was a defining moment a decisive moment for the party for the government and with anger machall seeking to suggest that a compromise could be reached then the c.s.u. said no it couldn't be reached and then finally some sense seems to have prevailed people had effectively seemed to been seen to be marching to the to the edge of a precipice and looked over the side and thought well actually let's stand back

from that for the moment but the thing to say is that the issues still remains very very tense between these parties i mean in the end of this coalition were to break . dominick would the writing be on the wall for chancellor merkel does it. well that again that the point here is that who else could be chosen if you look at you remember the election results from september was effectively gave something to everyone and didn't give the entire victory to any single party so if you remove the christian social union that's that's very unlikely because historically these two parties angela merkel's party the c.d.u. in the serious you are very close allies but were you to remove the c.s.u. bloc well then merkel and her social democrat allies as they are right now would not have a majority but the other thing to say though is that the other parties who perhaps favor angle americal side on the immigration question the green party well certainly they would then it's it is being suggested in the media here they would

support on a case by case basis on a vote by vote basis angela merkel's continuing government as it were so the point here is as i say it's almost like they've they've gone to the edge of the precipice today over the course of the last few hours and then seeing that on the other side of it no party really would win in any in a fall of government and if if there was a new election the point to make is that everybody every main party seems to be afraid of the far right party the alternative for germany party which as we know is very much tough on immigration wanting to toughen the laws as much as possible so that's what's behind all this this this this storm as i say has developed over the course of the last few hours john mccain in berlin thank you britain is marking the first anniversary of a tower block fire that killed seventy two people the remains of grenfell tower were lit up in green overnight along with the prime minister's residence and other london landmarks a moment of silence was also being held across the country lasting seventy two

seconds the disaster which happened in one of london's richest borrowers highlighted the levels of social inequality within britain. greece's opposition party has filed a no confidence motion against prime minister alex ists of prost bloc a name deal struck with macedonia suppressed reached an agreement with macedonians prime minister and choose day to rename the x. you the slab state the republic of north macedonia the decision was meant to end a twenty seven year dispute but it's triggered instead strong criticism in both countries and macedonia's president is refusing to sign the deal. no confidence motion is currently being debated in parliament that's get more now from john psaropoulos who's in athens john who is likely to prevail in this vote. well if you were going to ask me to bet i'd say the government will survive this vote of no confidence handily i don't think the coalition for the independent

greeks are in any mood to bring down the government and lose power i don't think government m.p.'s are willing to do it particularly as we're just days away from greece's final review at the euro group which is to take place on thursday in which it will hopefully be given the green light to graduate from its fiscal oversight under the european union and from its dependence on borrowed money from other eurozone members greece will in theory by august to be free to borrow from the markets i think that that is one point that will be made the other point is that the disagreements with the outline of the deal that's been made public so for. both legal and emotional and the legal points can be the main problem for the opposition is that you're recognizing a macedonian language and a macedonian nationality albeit with asterix asterisks you're saying that the language is slavic and you're saying that the macedonian nationals are actually

from north macedonia not from greek macedonia but that is a big emotional leap for the greeks who've always been used to the word macedonia referring to their own. northern region and they've always referred to the country to the north as scorpio and which is the name of the capital and the people as scorpions and their language as copy and so for the rest of the world it's it's perhaps difficult to understand but for the greeks it's a big admission that we're now going to be sharing the identity of macedonia with these peoples who are not greek. the the question of law also has a reason that you cannot as somebody has pointed out a human rights lawyer has pointed out you cannot in an international treaty allow or disallow the use of an identity or an ethnicity that is a question of conscience not of law you can arguably settle the name of the country

in law but you cannot sell the name of the ethnicity and so that is the legal answer to the emotional objection that is emerging in parliament today. ok john psaropoulos in athens thanks for that. the air quality in the indian capital new delhi has plunged to unhealthy levels putting residents at risk it's mainly due to dust storms blowing in from western india people have been complaining about breathing problems with many saying delhi has become unlivable the state government has responded by banning all construction and deploying the fire brigade to sprinkle water across the city. a u.n. draft document has warned the local warming could exceed the limits set in the paris agreement as early as twenty forty. the agency says governments can still keep levels below the one point five degrees celsius agreed ceiling with rapid and far reaching changes in the world economy nearly two hundred countries agreed to keep temperature well below two degrees in two thousand and fifteen but that pledge

has been weakened by the us which pulled out last year as donald trump continues to promote fossil fuels. the u.s. secretary of state says sanctions against north korea will not be lifted until it has completely denuclearized mike gave the reassurance while on a diplomatic tour to brief america's asian allies on the singapore summit between mr trump and kim jong un is comments on denuclearization appear to contradict the north's view that the process would be phased and reciprocal. we have made very clear that the sanctions and the economic relief that north korea will receive will only happen after the fall denuclearization the complete denuclearization of north korea should have been issued as of now we are facing two choices the first choice is cooperation and mutual benefits or the other choice is confrontation a mutual loss china chooses the first we hope the u.s. side can also make the same wise choice of course we have also made preparations to

respond to the second option. north korean state media has released a forty two minute video compilation of kim jong un's trip to singapore for the summit with donald trump in it kim is shown doing a spot of sightseeing in singapore before meeting the u.s. president he received a rapturous welcome on his return to pyongyang always been seen greeted it being greeted by large crowds of north koreans cheering and waving flowers and flags. tens of thousands of pregnant girls and teenage mothers across africa are often denied band and discouraged from going to school that's according to a report from human rights watch the group is calling on governments across the continent to urgently impose policies that allow students to stay in school while they're pregnant and return after giving birth a campaign titled leave no girl behind is being launched a health improve young mothers access to education and forget the website al

jazeera dot com it's all there. and time for a quick look again at our top stories the two thousand and eighteen football world cup was kicked off in moscow with host country russia leading the opening match against saudi arabia thirty two teams will battle it out for the biggest prize in international football it all began with an opening ceremony in the russian capital with robbie williams headlining in front of the president vladimir putin western leaders though have stayed away from the ceremony of the pitch prominent british gay rights activist peter tatchell has been released the police arrested him for taking part in what they described as an illegal protest in moscow meanwhile russia's leading opposition figure alexy now valmy says russian prisons appear to

have a facelift as they prepared to accommodate foreign football fans arrested during the tournament and around it has just spent thirty days behind bars so he should know for holding an unsanctioned protest. the saudi led coalition fighting who three rebels in yemen has captured a town south of a strategic port it's the second day of the coalition's campaign to seize the city of our data saudi arabia and the u.a.e. accuse the rebels of using the port to smuggle weapons from iran most of yemen's humanitarian aid and food shipments passed through our data. we have this image plant did it in when we looked at it hadn't and then is more population populated then then the data. everything went very well and even i will ship it just see with ink so we have

a fright we have very well but he will organize and we are ready to to send over every assistance for a good argentina's congress has voted in favor of legalizing abortion in the country's first ever vote on the issue. the tight vote of one hundred twenty nine yes to one hundred twenty five no followed almost twenty four hours of debate the bill must pass in the senate before it becomes law in argentina or only allows abortions in cases of rape or if the mother's life is in danger. to stay with us earthrise is next.

cheap and fast tile plastic is used for everything furniture tools storage containers clothing even tea bags and glitter on birthday cards it's hard to imagine modern life without it. so much has been created that scientists are calculate the total amount ever made at eight point three billion tons. and most of these items they used for only short periods of time or even just once before be.