as a weapon of torture and interrogation and humiliation it's a war crime on a pretty epic scale and that the u.s. is turning a blind eye to it completely i know from my own reporting that the u.s. government is not being frank even with u.s. lawmakers about what the u.s. role in these prisons are and so we're a long way from having any kind of public accountability on what's going on in south yemen. so again based on that a.p. investigation from last year the house of representatives voted in may to require the defense secretary jim mattis to determine whether u.s. military actually violated law and interrogations of detainees in yemen do you expect anything to come out of that i hope it i hope it will but first i would have to pass the senate and i would have to make it into the final version of defense appropriations law now when i talked to the sponsor of the bill representative roe conn a from california what he told me is the reason that

they've had to write that into law is because the trumpet ministration has been so unwilling to engage. even in a classified setting about what the do you do you roll about what the cia role and about what the intelligence they're getting from these prisons has been no one is being honest about this in the united states everyone is pleading ignorance and so that's why congress is trying to force the administration to come up with some degree of public accountability in this current a.p. report that there is a line i mean a lot of people are named of course for security reasons but there is a line saying that basically the accusation is that the u.s. uses u.a.e. forces to do their dirty work when it comes to torture because the two huge allies when it comes to the war the so-called war on terror what do you make of that. i mean i find it really hard to believe with the a.p. reporting last year that u.s.

officials have gone into these prisons and conducted interrogation i find it impossible to believe that they didn't notice handcuffs on the wall or the equipment you need to electrocute someone it's just implausible so the u.s. is turning a mat either turning a massive blind eye or they're being openly deceptive about the role in these prisons and one thing i would add we just in the united states we just got through a several months long confirmation process for our cia director gina housefull that centered on her role and bush era torture programs and she told members of congress this is in the past tortures in the past we've learned our lessons but it's quite clear that the u.s. is still heavily reliant on torture as long as someone else is willing to do our dirty work. obviously this kind of i mean all sorts of torture it goes without saying but especially sexual torture it can be quite destabilizing and quite traumatizing for prisoners and again in this a.p.

report there's a yemeni commander that can be named saying that effectively this could act as a recruiting tool because you're traumatizing prison prisoners committing the most brutal crimes against them and then many of them could actually end up joining isis and al-qaeda as a means of exacting their revenge. absolutely it's counterproductive it's brutal it's a crime against humanity and it's not just torture that's going on across the south of yemen as you mentioned earlier. the amorality backed militias all across yemen in places like odd in and mccullough are kidnapping activists there killing activists journalists and so while people may claim that this is going towards some kind of counterterrorism rationale it's very clear that the u.s. is turning a blind eye to an m.r.i. oddie program across all of yemen to impose their political will and to do so through through crimes and humiliation and for giving alex one very last quick last

question i mean you're speaking to us from washington we've just been talking about how the u.s. doesn't really want to acknowledge what's happening has it had any coverage at all in the united states this story. i think it gets a little bit of traction now and then but the tragic truth is that people really are not paying attention to yemen anywhere near as much as they should be in the united states and i think that's allowed the gulf states to really drive the policy in the area you see that with the offensive on had data the u.s. has warned against for many years going back to the obama administration and they feel like they have a free hand to do it against state department warnings so it demonstrates that people in the u.s. are not paying attention to what's going on in yemen and policymakers are just giving the gulf states a free hand alex evans from the intercept thank you for your time. and there is much more to come on the al-jazeera news hour including. streets become

battlefields in nicaragua is anti-government protesters take on paramilitary groups and the call for the president to step down is getting louder with ethiopia as the broker south sudan's rival leaders meet face to face for the first time in two years and we look back at the career of one of golf's greats peter tomsen who died at the age of eighty eight. well the u.n. is marking world refugee day and has released some staggering numbers to coincide with it it says that as of may to two thousand and seventeen more than sixty eight million people are displaced worldwide all of them twenty five point four million have fled to to other countries more than half are under eighteen and that is the highest number of child refugees since world war two even more staggering forty

four thousand five hundred people are being the splay see each day which means there's one person being displaced every two seconds while hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants try to reach europe every year spain has become the latest hot spot with more than eleven hundred people arriving there in the first ten days of june alone hell has more now from the port city of a major. right now we're on the decks of the water them out of polynesia and this is one of these characteristic orange rescue vessels being run by spain's marine rescue service now this ship right now is on high alert in case any calls come through telling them that there are some of these rickety fishing vessels bringing refugees and migrants from the shores of northern africa the coast of northern africa from here lies about one hundred sixty kilometers to our south but it's vessels like this that have been instrumental in saving lives on the western mediterranean migration route this year so far because bain has seen

a three fold increase in their armor of refugees and migrants heading here compared to the say the same time last year now is captain miguel part of one of the me guess who's invited is on board and he's been explaining to me a little bit about the work overnight sunday monday he and his eight person crew pulled on today one hundred fifty two migrants this is video he recorded in an earlier rescue in february. in wilmington political simply because it is as you approach them you have to try to calm them down because they try to jump on board and they're very frightened and this is another clip recorded last year. the joy of being rescued just knowing you're going to survive now you're seeing us my use of the first younger person and it's the greatest satisfaction you can have when you

rescue people are you special with those women and children on the climb on board thank you yeah. in just the month of june alone the figures being brought to spain the number of migrants and refugees arriving in spain is double the number arriving to italy and that suggests perhaps a change in migration patterns instead of migrants trying to get across the perilous libya italy route they're now being pushed towards the western mediterranean and that is going to mean a very hot summer miguel parcher and his crew on this vessel got them up all india . that's a situation in spain meanwhile greece hosts around fifty thousand refugees and has been struggling to accommodate them or or insley has the view now from thessaloniki the new rebellious and see migron and the refugee mood that's currently sweeping so many european countries has consequences and this is one of them that's one of the northern greece absolutely stinks here is full of mosquitoes and everybody's got.

the mostly afghans actually here and they're suffering from the consequence of the decision was taken by germany among other countries that afghans aren't worthy of asylum claims are the only to go back. a lot of these people have told us that they're running away from the taliban and you know they live like this because it's actually better than the what what it would be like if they went home again but the conditions here are utterly utterly brutal there's a lot of hate. as thinks he's got this reputation for looking after people is going to go five thousand in proper accommodation but it's already full and so they're living like there's dozens and dozens of people here all the last time i was here actually was a couple winters ago if one is twenty one or about tell a fifteen people there's now seventy or eighty in a lot more in the evening and the problem for greece is that if these countries who are meeting on sunday morning in the european summit next week say we're just going to take anybody we're going to close the borders is greece's responsibility then

there is going to be a massive pile up here all of these people have come across the land border which we revealed several months ago they have rules river crossing they've all done that because the land when you walk across from turkey to to northern greece and that's now the main route here there are thousands of people stuck back up the new balkan routes and they're completely traps they can't move on they got no money and they can stay here because basically they live in like dogs and in the absence of any here in european policy the quota system for share refugees around is dead countries like italy and austria are saying we don't anything to do with it greece seems to be the one who's going to suffer the most consequences and this is the human result of all that. there have been more deaths in nicaragua as armed forces backed by the government trying to regain control of the city of messiah peace talks between the government and the opposition have been put on hold as violence

continues in the central american nation over the past two months one hundred eighty six people have been killed by her pallor has more now from the capital. well. confrontations between anti-government protesters and paramilitary groups have claimed more lives in messiah nicaraguan police and government backed militias fired on demonstrators as scores of people fled to their homes for cover the latest offensive by police comes after representatives of the resistance movement in messiah declared they would no longer allow themselves to be governed by president or. the blood of our brothers who have been cowardly murdered demand that we continue belligerently and unwavering towards the fight until or take it is gone. messiah is where much of the most brutal fighting has been concentrated as police attempted to regain control of the city massed protesters huddled behind barricades to shield themselves from live rounds one demonstrator continued to fire his

homemade mortar at police even after being shot in the arm but i'm not some of us is that and didn't know. i've been shot with a bullet here it's not possible that we're going to give up easily it's ready to fight and using our mortars we will kick them out long live massara. the political crisis in the get out what is now in its second month after protests over pension reform plan were met with violence by the government a growing opposition movement is now calling for the immediate resignation of president or at least one hundred eighty six people have died since the start of the conflict law enforcement authorities maintain that their efforts or to combat a delinquent movement that is part of a conspiracy against the government commerce in messiah once a popular tourist has been halted with all roads leading into the city blocked off there are now reports that food and supplies are running out one of the main conditions for the peace talks to resume is for president or if they got to end the

repression against anti-government demonstrators without a stop to violence against civilians it's hard to imagine a national dialogue that will successfully restore the peace anytime soon but. the united nations is accusing both the syrian government and rebel groups of committing war crimes during the battle for east and earlier this year pro assad forces backed by russia retook the damascus suburb in april after a two month offensive that left almost fifteen hundred people dead in a new report u.n. investigators say they found evidence of systematic government bombardments of civilian areas and a deliberate campaign to starve residents. by blockading humanitarian aid they also accuse rebels of indiscriminate shelling of civilians in damascus. south sudan's rival leaders are holding talks in ethiopia aimed at ending a five year civil war president salva kiir and the rebel leader bashar hadn't met

face to face since a peace deal fell apart in two thousand and sixteen leaving musharraf to go into exile ethiopia is helping to mediate the talks tens of thousands of people have died in the fighting and millions have been displaced catherine soy is following the developments from nairobi in kenya. this is hugely significant considering how the two leaders badly fell back in two thousand and sixteen during that violence in the capital juba react much are fled the country has been under house arrest and in south africa both sides of the queues each other. so there's a lot of bad blood between the two leaders and a lot of mistrust as well to the fact that they have actually come to an ethiopian are actually unique thing in talking that alone brings a sense of renewed hope in south sudan so what will they be talking about going forward we are told that they will be discussing mainly among other things of

polish sharing do we expect any deal to be signed a lot of south sudanese are waiting and it's going to be interesting to see how all this plays out going forward. very low. optimism levels in south sudan right now because its leaders have met before they have signed peace agreements before but those peace agreements and peace deals have been broken so it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the war in south sudan is also complicated father because now we have malta people fighting groups for various. interests but a lot of people i've talked to are saying that the fact that react much are in president salva kiir have actually come to the negotiating table. actually. the to talk that's a little more forward the peace process and even south sudanese who have suffered for certain long time will stay with us on the news hour still to come.

the fighter jets say twenty five targets in gaza israel says it was a response to have massed rocket attacks on the south calls for a doctor to be charged after a report finds hundreds of patients in a u.k. hospital died after being given powerful painkillers and then a legal broadcast of the world cup is causing further uproar all the details with farai in sports. hello and welcome to international weather forecast we'll start in europe where we've got cold air digging down from the north you can see that flow coming from that direction during the course of thursday so london nineteen paris twenty still warm air high on across here in peninsula the still pretty woman across central

areas of europe where there are some big showers too but that cold air will certainly bring about a change in berlin there just eighteen degrees with a chance of showers warsaw also on the chilly side color standing down as far as vienna ahead of that frontal system we saw that warm air there across southeastern parts of europe and also the risk of some storms also looking pretty warm for romans thirty degrees weather conditions on the other side of the mediterranean are by and large are fine tuning thirty benghazi thirty and karo pushing forty degrees and we're going to hit forty degrees more than likely during the course of friday so heading into central parts of africa we have some really big storm system serious problems across nigeria and on every coast in recent days four storm systems coming through the region again pretty wet also chattanooga. some showers malia's like to be launching draw thirty seven in bamako rising to search you know in june friday as we head into southern portions of africa but the conditions here are looking drawn following holidays of twenty four into.

afghanistan has her own studio and you both resources and. why are they so poor the measure. when trying to form a government. the toxin when essentially nowhere the more we would close down the more they push back we knew it was coming into question was do we sit back and wait for do we surprised them with a preemptive strike on the bottom. phonology zero. we know the culture we know the problems that affect this part of the world very very well and that is something that we're trying to take to the rest of the world we have gone to places and reported on a story that it might take an international network for months to be able to do it united nations before and after going on tired old. challenging the voices were

challenging companies who are going to places where nobody else is going. now reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera donald trump has signed an executive order which he says will end the practice of separating my grandparents and their children at the u.s. border but the order will not end the zero tolerance immigration policy former inmates of prisons in yemen run by the u.a.e. are accusing him iraqi guards of systematic sexual abuse to brutalize detainees the u.a.e. has denied the claims and the u.n.

is marking world refugee day sixty eight point five million people have been forcibly displaced by conflict worldwide that's the highest number in recorded history. now turkey is host to more refugees than any other country in the world with polling day four days away they've become an election issue the main opposition party is calling for syrians to go home as soon as conditions allow while the government has advocated giving them turkish citizenship mohammed val has more now from. turkey's border with syria. is a bed and. he has kidney problems so severe as to where the capital of the city. the family also has to care for his six year old daughter emma she lost her sight when she was a baby. after the family fled their home in aleppo and the heavy bombardment by the syrian army. has problems with speech and movement despite years of medical

examinations no one knows what's caused her disability which has been. we were surprised by her illness aside begin to deteriorate rapidly after we left aleppo doctors in turkey also didn't understand why she couldn't speak normally it's strange because. you can easily memorize and repeat whatever we say in front of her but when she talks she's not articulate. stool sons don't go to school he says he's had problems of rolling them but the family needs the money they get. apprentices their wages supplemented what he ends where king in a plastics factory one situation shows some of the complex problems of the devil the lives of about four million people fled the war in syria and became refugees in turkey a majority of them have set up and cities from managed to find out why less than twenty percent still live in camps near the border. life in these camps is not easy

while the refugees get food and other necessities they can't work or move around freely. stay here for a little get there or else there is no risk at risk changing their. management of the camps first meet problems are still in this. range my years on the side. as the turks prepared to vote in a general election the status of syrian refugees has become a campaign topic turkey's leaders are keen to stabilize syria to the point where refugees feel safe enough to go hold for many that's a distant dream but they're more secure than the thousands of people trapped on the syrian side of the border they don't tough refugee status the turkish army provides

them with some protection but they're not allowed to cross into turkey and they are afraid to return home one hundred five are dizzy or. near the turkish syrian border . well turkey's airwaves are dominated by speeches and that is for president richard typepad the han ahead of sunday's election despite this various opposition figures are gaining ground in the race for president at the hands biggest rival is more him in jail of the republican people party huge crowds turned out for a recent rally of his if elected the fifty four year old has vowed to lift the state of emergency which was imposed after the two thousand and sixteen attempted coup there are lakhs in there who formed the good party after splitting from the country's main nationalist party is the only woman in the race known by her supporters as the she was she's been using social media to gain attention she could drive nationalist votes away from out of the one and pro kurdish parties candidate

is running his election campaign from jail on charges that he says are politically motivated seller had seen them if the us was dubbed a kurdish obama by western media in two thousand and fifteen when his party won more than ten percent of the vote allowing it to enter parliament for the first time in history well joining us now in the studio is fighting manager of the turkey project at the international think tank chatham house thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera so we've just learned a little bit about some of the opposition candidates to any of them have a realistic chance against their the one i think the most and the more the most likely scenario is the present era the one will win the presidential elections if not in the first round on the twenty fourth of june then in the subsequent second. of july ok and what are the issues and we just been talking about immigration we saw that report from mohamed vall immigration how big an issue was it in this

campaign and why it's a it's a it's a it's an important issue in light of the deteriorating economic climate in turkey turks were quite open to syrian migration and refugees when the economy was strong but now that the economy. is perceived as we can ng there's a growing anti immigrant sentiments among the turkish electorate and we just heard from the un that turkey is actually the country in the world with the highest number of immigrants the fact that now because of the deteriorating economy a lot of people are turning against the concept of immigration immigrants themselves is that likely to harm anyone because it sort of happened under his watch immigration itself will not probably harm his popularity as much as the economic climate if the economy continues along its current path then that is the going to be the biggest factor that will determine the way the it took a will vote on the twenty fourth of july this is also quite a key election because recently at the hunt gave the post the president more power

so in light of that what would happen if everyone is predicted would win the presidency but then have a parliament that is led by the opposition where does the balance of power lie there and what impact would that have on turkey it is true the some substantial powers were transferred parliament to the presidency but this does not mean that the parliament on their opposition control will be composed completely toothless it will have the authority for example to block any budget proposal at present the one to challenge his laws also challenge any presidential decrease he may impose so parliament is not completely toothless and if if if two different parties control the presidency and the parliament would like to see a lot of political instability confrontation and probably powerlessness is that also a good thing the checks and balances if you will oh do you think because we're sort of going in slightly uncharted territory because of the the moving around of power as you seem to think that rather than checks and balances this would lead to

instability in turkey the political culture of turkey is extremely confrontational combative there's a lack of cooperation between the political parties and therefore having one institution. on the control of one party or another under control of a different set of parties i think is a recipe of incivility turkey is not like france where you where in france you have a car because some of the french of coca habitation where the presence a could be under one party the parliament there another and where they found a modest operandi to cooperate that kind of a drug does not exist in turkey and fortunately what if you made of the election campaign so far i think that the ruling of the present their demands and the ruling party's election campaign has been somewhat lackluster whereas the great surprise has been the. the presidential candidate by. by the republican people sparty his lead a very vigorous campaign former physics teacher who comes from

a conservative anatolian background and who's been quite who one of his first acts was to visit the imprisoned pro kurdish presidential candidates a lot in there were in prison ok it will be interesting to see who wins i'm sure we'll be talking to you about the results in the coming days for the moment for the who are thank you. these really military says its air strikes have hit at least twenty five targets in gaza linked to him that it says they were a response to around forty five rockets fired from gaza towards israeli territory several of the rockets were intercepted but three landed just inside israel tensions have been high since late march when palestinians began protesting at the gaza's really border fence israeli troops have shot that one hundred thirty two palestinians and injured thousands more during several weeks of demonstrations harry force has more now from west jerusalem. israeli army says that more than forty five rockets and mortars were fired from gaza and territory into israel in

the course of the night and in response the israeli military struck twenty five hamas targets within the gaza strip most of them understood to be empty military compounds training areas and the like all the palestinian sources two reports at least two palestinians being injured in those strikes on the israeli side the israeli military is saying that seven of the projectiles were intercepted by the iron dome system at least three fell within gaza and territory but three did fall within populated areas in israel close to the gaza border and in one instance there was damage to buildings and cars but no injuries reported on the israeli side all of this comes in the context of the protests that we've been seeing in the last few months the around one hundred thirty palestinians who've been killed by israeli snipers during that period the ongoing humanitarian crisis within gaza and the biggest military flare up we've seen since twenty fourteen which took place at the

end of last month neither side according to any number of reports wants an escalation to a full blown conflict at this stage and both to understand what have become the rules of the game over many years now but it is always possible that an escalation can take place even if neither side wants it. acing rollers been plowing over thousands of weapons as part of an ongoing security operation in rio de janeiro two thousand two thousand guns were crushed on wednesday and another six thousand will be destroyed in the coming days and weapons were either seized from gangsters handed in voluntarily or obsolete police munitions. antigovernment protesters a force with police in romania after politicians approved a new anti corruption that you thousands of people gathered outside the government offices in bucharest to smaller demonstrations occurring in other cities in the country critics say the new laws will actually make it harder to prosecute cases of corruption the government says the changes are necessary to replace out the bubbles

. more than four hundred fifty patients died at a hospital in the u.k. after being given powerful painkillers a new report has found the report says that there was an institutional practice of administering opu opioids without medical just a vacation which led to the deaths these are now there are now calls for criminal charges to be brought against the doctor who prescribed the drugs the baba reports from portsmouth. they campaign for twenty years to find out how their relatives died in the same hospital after being given drugs they didn't meet now a painstaking report four years in the making says they've been failed consistently by hospital managers by the police and by politicians the inexcusable failure of them all is not only shameful it is scandalous and it is immoral. they have grossly felt that ethical standards by abusing people's human rights are vulnerable

relatives who was stripped of their final words to their loved ones silenced by. catastrophic the report looked at events at this hospital in southern england between one hundred eighty nine and two thousand and how relatives complaints were brushed aside the report says four hundred fifty six people died here as a result of an institutionalized practice shortening patients' lives by administering opioids like diamorphine without medical justification and given missing records a further two hundred may have died for the same reason a doctor called jane barton played a central role in prescribing the drugs she was previously questioned by police but never charged relatives of those who died say there must now be prosecutions the health secretary told parliament on wednesday that would be up to the police and the justice system but i can at least on behalf of the government and the n.h.s. apologize for what happened and what they have been through. had three

establishment listened when junior n.h.s. staff spoke out how this started listening when ordinary families raise concerns instead of treating them as troublemakers many of those deaths would not have happened can willie's father john was just sixty eight when he was sent to the hospital to recover after breaking his hip he wasn't in perfect health but the bottom line is he wasn't going in. he wasn't going to methadone he never came out alone. it was ghostly car because everybody seemed must have been on the opiates and it's not. in the bus or it was like walking to somewhere like you are used the wrong word but the knowledge is right it was already a morgue. the government said it will respond in detail later this year but the relatives of those who died many elderly themselves what lessons to be learned and charges brought as soon as possible the al-jazeera portsmouth. the north korean

leader has wrapped up his two day trip to china kim jong un was in china to brief president paying.